“Fifty years have passed but I do not age. Time has lost its effect on me, yet his suffering continues. Aku’s grasp chokes the past, present, and future. Hope is lost…”
– Jack, Samurai Jack (Season 5, Ep. 01)
The Toonami Trending Rundown for March 11-12, 2017. Hope Springs Eternal for Jack’s quest to defeat Aku as after 12 years, 5 months and 14 days of waiting, Jack has indeed returned with the long awaited premiere of Samurai Jack season 5. And this one was a night to remember as we rejoin Jack 50 years since we last saw him, as he has lost his sword and has all but given up hope of defeating Aku and returning to the past, while Trunks defeats Goten for the championship and gets a sparring opportunity with Mr. Satan (which didn’t go so well for the latter), and Caesar loses his battle with Wamuu, but manages to get his antidote and send it to JoJo before being crushed to death, among other moments.
Despite the buzz of the Kids Choice Awards dominating the trends, Toonami managed to do pretty well regardless to welcome back Jack as every show successfully trended in the US during their respective East Coast airings, and every show save for Shippuden trended worldwide briefly. And for a season that has been anticipated for almost 13 years, saying that #SamuraiJack trended would be an understatement, as the show would reach #1 in both the US and Worldwide trends, and stayed trending in some capacity through the West Coast airing. In addition, the hashtag #JackIsBack also trended briefly in the US, and #SamuraiJack also trended on Tumblr and even Yahoo.
Finally, Samurai Jack would make it to Nielsen Social’s top 5 list of the most talked about shows on Twitter and Facebook on the day, making it to the number 2 slot. This is also the 16th time a Toonami show has made it onto this list since we started recording this feat. Overall it’s a great start for Samurai Jack’s return and here’s to it all continuing as we savor what looks to be 10 great weeks for this show and Toonami as a whole.
If you missed the premiere on Saturday or you just want to see it again, Adult Swim will be re-airing that week’s episode of Samurai Jack on Wednesdays at 10pm and 2:30am Eastern starting this week.
Sad news for One Piece fans, as due to flagging ratings and costs among other factors, Toonami will be pulling the plug on the show’s presence on the block following the end of the Spa Island arc next Saturday, March 18th. As a tribute to the show’s presence and contribution to the growth of the block for these past 4 years, Toonami created a music video focused on the show, which you can see below. As a fan, the cancellation is disappointing but understandable, and I’ll give my thoughts on next week’s rundown, which will include this show’s trending retrospective. On the bright side, Toonami will be showcasing Tokyo Ghoul beginning on March 25 at 1am Eastern, a hit show and manga among anime fans and one that has been well requested for quite some time, but for some reason, just couldn’t get onto the better cartoon show until now. Much like what we saw with JoJo’s and Gundam, sometimes good things indeed come to those who wait and while it feels bittersweet now, Tokyo Ghoul fans will have plenty to cheer about as the show will be getting its long awaited turn in two weeks.
Good news, Sword Art Online fans. Following the successful premiere of Ordinal Scale, it was announced that a English dub of the film is indeed in the works, set for another release in select theaters on Saturday April 22nd, with a premiere during Anime Boston on the weekend of March 31st. So for those who couldn’t make it to the premiere of the subbed version, or if you just want to watch it again, you got yourself another chance this time around with the dub. If you are interested, click here for more information.
Despite this unfortunate bump in the road with One Piece, Toonami’s future looks bright as the block begins its 20th anniversary celebrations beginning next week, with a throwback look in the packaging, in addition to the release of the first part of the miniseries Sand Whale and Me at midnight. In a year that’s had plenty of surprises, something tells me there’s a lot more yet to come this year, and hopefully in better terms. We’ll see what happens. Until next week, have a good March Madness and stay gold as always.
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 [#2]
- #SamuraiJack/Samurai Jack (Also during the West Coast airing) [#1]
- #JackIsBack [#3]
- #DragonBallSuper (Also during the primetime presentation) [#5]
- #DBZKai [#3]
- #JoJosBizarreAdventure [#3]
- #GundamUnicorn [#3]
- #HunterXHunter [#3]
- #Shippuden [#3]
- #OnePiece [#2]
- #GhostInTheShell [#2]
Worldwide Trends:
- #SamuraiJack [#1]
- #DragonBallSuper [#7]
- #DBZKai [#9]
- #JoJosBizarreAdventure [#8]
- #GundamUnicorn [#8]
- #HunterXHunter [#8]
- #OnePiece [#6]
- #GhostInTheShell [#7]
Tweet Counts:
- Toonami [13.2k tweets]
- #SamuraiJack [36.9k tweets]
- Samurai Jack [37.2k tweets]
- #DragonBallSuper [4,873 tweets]
- #DBZKai [2,217 tweets]
- #JoJosBizarreAdventure [2,795 tweets]
- #HunterXHunter [1,718 tweets]
- #OnePiece [4,443 tweets]
Tumblr Trends:
- #samurai jack
Yahoo Trends:
- Samurai Jack [#1]
Notes and Other Statistics:
- #SamuraiJack @WhoTrendedIT reported that @KhleoThomas and @adultswim started the trend in the US.
- #DragonBallSuper @WhoTrendedIT reported that @FUNimation and @BandiNamcoUS started the trend in the US.
Special thanks to @DatDamnPR, @JMB_70056, @myanimewaifu, and others I forgot to mention for spotting some of the trends on this list.
Got to get back, back to the past. Only Toonami on [adult swim] on Cartoon Network.