“I got this, I can do this. This world can’t beat me. I will survive.”
– Kirito, Sword Art Online (Episode 01)
“Sword Art Online is not a mainstream show.”
– Jose Argumedo, numerous times on the Toonami Faithful Podcast, on his discontent of the possibility (at the time) of SAO airing on Toonami.
“We aren’t worried about that scene turning away viewers, at all.”
– The Toonami Tumblr, when asked about a “certain scene” you will be seeing sometime down the 2nd half of SAO potentially turning away viewers.
Well, I guess the day that Jose (and every SAO hater for that matter) has feared has finally been realized. Here’s the Toonami Trending Rundown for July 27-28, 2013.
Sword Art Online logs on into the block (and like the SAO players themselves, won’t be logging out for the foreseeable future…uhh…too soon?) as we got ourselves our first perfect night since January 19-20 2013 as Toonami and every show reached the US trends list. Heck, we were even close to a worldwide perfect night, as every show but Bebop and InuYasha sniffed the worldwide trending list. In terms of character trends, I spotted a image of Ichigo trending worldwide as he and Aizen kicked off the arc’s grand battle. I can’t say exactly say when it trended or who it came from, but I’ll just put it out there to see if anyone can confirm it. There is also reports that Black Star trending in the US as he failed to stop the kishen resurrection, however the only form of proof that i have seen that it did was via an i-Pad app.
That all being said, it wasn’t easy, as we were up against a variety of events, including Jesus Soto Karas’s knockout of Andre Berto, not to mention Demetrious Johnson’s knockout of John Moraga a bit earlier, as well as the first night of FOX’s ADHD block (though I’m not sure if anything from that block trended, as some areas had preemption issues due to said events.). To make matters worse, we had to deal with a very glitch-ridden trending list and other various technical issues, meaning that all the trends you see up in the list were either delayed or weren’t exactly seen by everyone (and as you can see from the list, this rundown couldn’t have been pulled off without some assistance). But none the less, both Cartoon Network and the Toonami Faithful pulled off this night on their ends without a hitch, and fans were treated to a night to remember. Though it does bring the question: Did Twitter break because Foxy put his Slow-Slow beam on the trending list? Who knows.
Interesting note regarding SAO: Despite that Kayaba Akihiko sounds like he was voiced by Crispin Freeman, Freeman himself has said otherwise, as despite that the show was dubbed in Los Angeles, SAO was dubbed using non-union actors, and Crispin by contract is restricted to union-only work. After some research, the voice for Kayaba is actually Marc Diraison, known for voicing Zoro in the 4kids version of One Piece and Guts in Berserk. So that dispels all the rumors regarding Crispin and SAO.
Do you think Jose and his fellow critics are right that SAO has no business being on Toonami? Toonami after all is meant to be the biggest mainstream gateway drug to anime and mature action cartoons in the west (and with the state of today’s industry, one could say it’s needed more than ever), and getting titles that are accused of what some call “Otaku Pandering” would not fit that M.O. Or do you think it deserves a shot at mainstream success just like every other Toonami show has gotten and want to see if it can it take it’s golden opportunity to be an even bigger phenemon and in turn help Toonami start another golden age? If you’re thinking the latter or even undecided on the matter, all I can say is keep watching and we’ll find out.
Yes, i know Jose’s willing to give SAO a second chance. I was just using his quote to showcase the show’s divisiveness, not to spite anyone.
And yes, as of this post, the trending rundown is now apart of ToonamiFaithful.com. I will talk more about that next week.
Legend: 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.
US Trends:
- Toonami/#Toonami (During Bleach, Naruto, One Piece, Soul Eater, Sword Art Online, IGPX, Eureka 7, Big O, FMA Brotherhood, and InuYasha.) [#3]
- #Bleach [#4]
- #Naruto [#5]
- #OnePiece [#5]
- #SoulEater [#5]
- Black Star (From Soul Eater. Phone App only.) [#7]
- #SwordArtOnline [#5]
- #IGPX [#5]
- #Eureka7 [#5]
- #BigO [#5]
- #FMABrotherhood [#5]
- #CowboyBebop [#5]
- #InuYasha [#5]
Worldwide Trends:
- Toonami/#Toonami (During Naruto, One Piece, Soul Eater, Sword Art Online, and IGPX) [#5]
- #Bleach [#5]
- Ichigo (From Bleach) [#9]
- #Naruto [#5]
- #OnePiece [#5]
- #SoulEater [#5]
- #SwordArtOnline [#5]
- #IGPX [#5]
- #Eureka7 [#5]
- #BigO [#5]
- #FMABrotherhood [#5]
Special thanks to @JacquelineMay3, @YonkouProdHD, @DatDamnPR, @DakotaMexCon, @TheNextHokage, @M40A3Beast, and other folks i forgot to mention for their assistance on some of the trends on this list.
Additive, isn’t it? Only Toonami on [adult swim] on Cartoon Network.