“Something he’s done between now and the last tournament has given the guy powers way beyond what’s natural to him. Think about it, no one thought Spopovich had a chance, but somehow he’s flying and firing energy blasts? [So what’s going on?] I have no idea. All I can tell you for sure that he shouldn’t have these powers.”

–          Goku, Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapters (Ep. 13)

“I’m not done with you yet, buddy. This is Videl you’re dealing with. Daughter of the man who beat Cell and saved the world. You don’t scare me.”

–          Videl

The Toonami Trending Rundown for April 1-2, 2017. While jokes and fake news are all the rage on this day, it would be an interesting night to say the least. As part of Adult Swim’s April Fools festivities, Rick and Morty fans got a surprise treat in the unscheduled premiere of Season 3, which was originally set to premiere along with the rest of the season later this summer. Unfortunately, due to such festivities, both Samurai Jack and Dragon Ball Super had to take the week off to make way. While Adult Swim regularly does April Fools events during the night of March 31st as the clock strikes midnight (as we all know back in 2012 with Toonami’s surprise revival), it’s pretty rare to see Adult Swim do an April Fools event on the night of April 1st as well. A bit disappointing for the latter two shows, but hey, that’s April Fools for you.

Despite these surprise predicaments in addition to the buzz of the Final Four dominating the social media scene, the rest of the block went on as usual. Among the highlights, Videl battles against Spopovich, and despite looking like she had the advantage, Spopovich has somehow gained powers that has made him much stronger than what Videl could possibly handle. Meanwhile, JoJo defeats Wamuu in his duel, while Kars uses a substitution trick to defeat Lisa Lisa and take the stone, much to JoJo’s dismay. And we start off Naruto’s Pain’s assault arc as Fukasaku makes it back to the village and informs Naruto and co. that Jiraiya has fallen to the hands of Pain.

In regards to the social media buzz, Toonami and every show would successfully trended in US on Twitter during their respective East Coast airings, in addition to both Tokyo Ghoul and Hunter x Hunter trending during or after their respective East Coast airings. JoJo’s and Shippuden would also see trends later on in the night in addition to a trend of #adultswim during Gundam Unicorn. Hunter x Hunter would also trend on tumblr as well.

If you’ve been keeping up with the latest simulcasts from Japan, you might already know that after a 4 year wait, the new season of Attack on Titan is now underway. While normally, we’d have to wait a while for the dub to be ready for a Toonami broadcast, Funimation has been producing plenty of broadcast dubs as of late, and with a franchise as big as AOT, there was no doubt that Funimation would attempt to do one for season 2 as well. During a commercial for the Rick and Morty airing, it was announced that Toonami will indeed be airing the broadcast dub of Season 2. Welcoming news indeed, and in regards to social media buzz, #AttackOnTitanSeason2 would trend on Twitter while Attack On Titan would also trend on tumblr, partly because of the Toonami announcement, and partly because of the buzz of Attack on Titan’s return overall.

While the original premiere date was set for April 29th, Toonami and Funimation decided on Monday to kick off the new season a week earlier, with a new premiere date set for April 22 at 12:30am Eastern. To make way, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, which is 3 episodes away from completing Battle Tendency at this point, will have a doubleheader on April 15th for its final two episodes. Tokyo Ghoul will have the night off then to make way.

And in regards to JoJos, as reported by our colleague CJ Maffris at the JoJo’s panel at Anime Boston and earlier implied by a tweet by Richard Epcar, it was announced that production for the dub on the next season, Stardust Crusaders is currently underway. Unfortunately, as the dub does not look to be ready in time for an immediate release, JoJo’s will be taking a break from Toonami festivities after the 15th. We presently don’t have an ETA on when Season 2 will be ready for broadcast, but with a good showing for Season 1, no doubt JoJo’s will be a favorite to potentially make a return at some point. We’ll keep you posted.

Another show to potentially look out for in the near future is Blue Exorcist, as the series has just completed its run of the Kyoto Saga in Japan over a week ago, and dubbing of the season is underway by the folks at Aniplex, with a dub premiere set for release at Sakura Con during the weekend of April 14. We’ll see what happens ahead.

Long time viewers of Cartoon Network do know that Adult Swim has had a knack for surprises, especially in regards to April Fools. Indeed, Toonami itself was revived by way of an April Fools joke, and it’s hard to believe that that happened 5 years ago to the day. It should be interesting what Toonami has in store for April Fools next year, as the block will air on the night of March 31st. In the meantime, we’ll be back to the regular schedule next week, which will include both Samurai Jack and Dragon Ball Super continuing at their regularly scheduled times. And of course the countdown to Attack on Titan’s return is just 3 weeks away.

Until next week, congratulations to North Carolina on winning the National Championship and stay gold.

Legend: The shows listed are ordered based on their appearance on the schedule. Show trends are listed in bold. The number next to the listed trend represents the highest it trended on the list (not counting the promoted trend), judging only by the images placed in the rundown. For the Twitter tweet counts, the listed number of tweets are also sorely based on the highest number shown based on the images on the rundown.

United States Trends:

  • Toonami/#Toonami [#5]
  • #AttackOnTitanSeason2 (During DBZ Kai and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure) [#5]
  • #adultswim (During Gundam Unicorn) [#7]
  • #DBZKai [#7]
  • #SandWhaleAndMe [#8]
  • #JoJosBizarreAdventure [#4]
  • #TokyoGhoul (Also after the West Coast airing) [#5]
  • #HunterXHunter (Also during the West Coast airing) [#5]
  • #GundamUnicorn [#6]
  • #Shippuden [#7]
  • #GhostInTheShell [#6]

Tweet Counts:

  • Toonami [8,958 tweets]
  • #Toonami [4,871 tweets]
  • #DBZKai [1,553 tweets]
  • #JoJosBizarreAdventure [2,373 tweets]
  • #TokyoGhoul [2,730 tweets]
  • #HunterXHunter [1,917 tweets]

Tumblr Trends:

  • #attack on titan
  • #hunter x hunter

Notes and Other Statistics:

Special thanks to @JMB_70056, @myanimewaifu, and others I forgot to mention for spotting some of the trends on this list.

Wubba lubba dub dub! Only Toonami on [adult swim] on Cartoon Network.