Anime Expo is now in the books, and there have been plenty of announcements and other things to look forward to for both the better cartoon show and the anime industry overall in the future. Of course, Toonami had their very first panel in AX, and it came with much fanfare. According to Jason DeMarco, the line for the Toonami panel stretched outside the con and the video for One Punch Man quickly reached the million mark in less than 2 days. Some of the announcements have gotten the Toonami and anime communities talking, so much so that “One Punch Man” for instance, trended in the US. With this as well as recent developments regarding some of the block’s past and possibly future programming, Toonami’s future is looking bright.

If you missed it, you’ll see the panel in it’s entirety during Toonami Preflight next week. In the meantime, listed below are some of the announcements and highlights of Toonami and its related programming during the 4 day event.

The Toonami Panel:

  • Intruder III: Fresh from the success of Intruder II, Toonami will be showcasing its next Total Immersion Event, Intruder III, to air sometime around November. Tom and SARA’s struggles in destroying the blobbed creature may not be over just yet.
  • Samurai Jack: Toonami released a Behind the Scenes look at Samurai Jack’s production featuring Gennedy as well as some of the production crew. You can check out that video below.
  • Production IG: Toonami will run a 5 part micro series in 2017 directed by Mamoru Oshii and produced by Production IG.

Day 1:

  • Dragon Ball Super: While the anime series still remains in licensing limbo, Viz Media had just announced that they will be licensing the manga series. Viz plans to publish the series in print on Shonen Jump beginning in spring 2017.
  • Gundam: Right Stuf in cooperation with Sunrise will be bringing in more Gundam series to US shores, including the Gundam Build Fighters series, to be released next month with Build Fighters Try to be released in September. Other Gundam classics will be making their return to US shores including Char’s Counterattack in September 2016, Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket in Late 2016, and both Gundam F91 and Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory coming in 2017.
  • FMA Brotherhood: As expected, Aniplex now has the rights to the series and will begin streaming the series on Crunchyroll in a date to be announced.
  • Crunchyroll: Not Toonami related at this point, but it has been announced that Crunchyroll themselves will be joining the dubbing and distribution business and release some titles on home video themselves. What this means for Toonami is yet to be determined.

Day 2:

  • Sword Art Online: During the SAO panel, Aniplex showcased a new trailer of Ordinal Scale, which you can see below. The film is planned for release in spring 2017.

 

Day 3:

  • Attack on Titan: While it wasn’t announced at Anime Expo per say, it was announced during the Shingeki Matsuri event that season 2 is set to premiere in Japan in spring 2017. No word from Funimation in regards to US distribution as of yet.

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  • Cannon Busters: A Kickstarter we’ve been watching for awhile lead by LeSean Thomas who previously worked on Black Dynamite, the long awaited pilot is set to be released to backers this Friday July 8.
  • FLCL: During the FLCL panel, it was announced that The Pillows will once again be doing the music for the sequel series. In addition, Toonami will re-air season 1 of FLCL in the run-up to the airing of Seasons 2 and 3 for those that are new to the series or those that just want to re-watch beforehand.

Special thanks to @myanimewaifu, @Sketch1984, and others I forgot to mention for their assistance in helping us get these news.

What are your thoughts on the announcements from Anime Expo? Let us know in the comments section below.