Our website is up and running again, so we will have This Week From Toonami posted on the day it is supposed to be this time around. And what a week for Toonami fans as we now have a premiere date and time for Housing Complex C! Plus, two huge anime films are taking over the box office in both the U.S. in Japan, proving the point of how popular anime has become over the years. So check out everything we want to share on this newest installment of our weekly piece!
A new Toonami original’s premiere date was announced this week! Housing Complex C will be joining the block starting Oct. 1 at midnight. It will be a four-episode series leading off the block to begin this year’s spooky season. However, the addition of Housing Complex C won’t match up to when Primal’s second season ends on the block, leaving some to wonder what Adult Swim will do when that issue arises. Could there be a double up on the horizon for Lupin the Third or Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon? Or dare we say, a new series shows up? We will know in time, but it’s great to learn that another original is close to being ready to air on the best place for action cartoons!
One of the most popular Toonami series made headlines this week, with One-Punch Man officially announcing its third season! While the second season received a bit more criticism due to the show moving from one studio to another and directed by someone new, One-Punch Man garnered enough revenue and interest to have another season made. Despite how some may feel, this news is exciting to hear, and hopefully, Toonami fans will be able to enjoy this newest season on the block when the time comes! But that wasn’t all the news for everyone’s favorite overpowered hero. Yūsuke Murata announced on Twitter that he would go on hiatus for a month before returning with a new arc for One-Punch Man. More importantly, the staff will inform fans of the return date as soon as it is decided to hopefully give enough rest for Murata to come back stronger than before.
A new prologue was announced this week if you’ve been following along with the coverage for the latest Gundam series (Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury). Bandai Namco Filmworks announced that Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury Prologue, the prequel anime for the upcoming series, will debut on the Gundam.info YouTube channel outside of Japan on Sep. 1. Interestingly enough, from an Anime News Network’s article, streaming services in Japan will air this prequel but three days after everyone else has seen it. While we aren’t holding our breaths that this will find its way to Toonami, it is exciting that fans are getting closer to seeing the latest anime from the storied franchise!
Despite how award shows treat animation, don’t let that fool you at how popular the genre is. Two new films from two of the world’s biggest anime franchises are raking in a ton of money over the weekend. Dragon Ball Super SUPER HERO premiered here in the U.S., earning a total of $10.7 million on its opening day. The buzz on social media has been fierce from fans and industry folks alike, all loving what they’ve seen so far. You might even see a film review on our website sometime soon! But that wasn’t the only film making waves as One Piece Film Red holds the top spot at the Japanese box office for its second week in a row! According to Anime News Network, the movie has earned over $48 million at the box office, sold the most tickets, and earned the most money than any other One Piece film. It will be a while before it finds its way to the U.S., but hearing how well it has performed and how much fans love it has created more excitement for the Straw Hat pirates, and we cannot wait for it to be available.
Bandai Namco Entertainment streamed a new trailer for their upcoming video game JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R. Players got a sneak peek at the battles, abilities, and modes that will come with the title. You get to see all kinds of characters and skills in the five-minute trailer, and if it’s enough to convince you to grab it, you’ll have to wait till Sep. 1 for its release.
It’s the gift that keeps on giving. Epic Game’s most significant hit, Fortnite, has once again given anime fans a massive boost in morale by adding Dragon Ball characters to their game. Now you can go to Tilted Towers as Goku or get that sweet victory royale screen with Vegeta showing his dancing prowess. There are all kinds of goodies for everyone, which include skins, emotes, icons, you name it. Players have a ton to look forward to with this newest collaboration. It’s led to many hilarious videos on Twitter, and we’ve enjoyed seeing players use the Kamehameha wave to knock players out. Feel free to send us your highlights if you have any on our social media pages!
So many things have changed for anime fans. Before, it wasn’t considered popular, and many hid their fandom publicly for fear of being labeled weird. Now that stigma feels silly and something that couldn’t be any further from where we are today, and that is more apparent after a couple of celebrities took to social media to express their love for it. Hip-hop artist Megan Thee Stallion posted pictures on her Twitter account of her in Tokyo in the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure exhibit, where she was posing like a stand user and “living her best life” while attending. Plus, NBA player Zion Williamson (who recently received artwork depicting him in the world of Naruto from the creator) mentioned to GQ that around 80 percent of NBA players like anime but wouldn’t admit it. Williamson hasn’t been shy about his fandom and perhaps is making it so that others can be more open about their likes in the future. Both are fantastic examples of how the stigma for liking this medium is shrinking daily.
This week, Jason DeMarco retweeted a video about the “Toonami Iceberg” going through the history of the block in a nearly 40-minute video produced by Spanish Demi-God. And when we mean everything, we mean every detail about the block you can think of when looking back at Toonami’s history. It’s always a pleasure getting the chance to showcase and promote a project done by fans about the block, as things like this help keep the legacy of Toonami alive and well. After all, that’s how we got our start. We tip our hat to Spanish Demi-God for their work with this project.
A new Toonami Faithful Podcast was published this week, with many of our mainstay members joining for a discussion about the future of Toonami originals such as FLCL: Grunge, FLCL: Shoegaze, and Housing Complex C. In it, Andrew “Sketch” Hingson is joined by Paul Pescrillo, Darrell Maddox, Bryan “Laser Kid” Johnson, and Toonami Squad writer Sam “SZUniverse” Clutters! Considering how surprising the announcement was for these series, it’s a fun talking point about our panelist’s thoughts on what will be coming to Toonami down the line. The conversation inevitably works its way to talking about the recent rumblings from Warner Bros. Discovery and Sony’s power play of owning all the anime. And while things are looking grim, dire, bleak (however you want to put it), it’s best to take any commentary about this as pure speculation and shouldn’t be viewed as absolute fact. It isn’t great, especially for animation fans, but it’s important to voice your opinion about these recent changes or cancel their subscriptions to make companies listen. It’s a nearly two-hour-long episode, so we hope you can check it out when you have the time.
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CJ Maffris is the Editor-in-Chief at Toonamifaithful.com. He also produced and directed the Toonami documentary, What Toonami Means To Me. Feel free to follow CJ on Twitter @SeaJayMaffris