“There’s nothing wrong with me, so why do I feel this way? Everything that happened that day with Rize, it doesn’t feel real, it’s almost like some strange dream. But one thing’s for sure. Ever since then, I haven’t felt like the same person. I’m different somehow.”
– Ken Kaneki, Tokyo Ghoul (Ep. 01)
The Toonami Trending Rundown for March 25-26, 2017. After several years of waiting and demand from fans, the hit anime series Tokyo Ghoul makes its way to the better cartoon show.
Among some of the highlights of the night, we meet our Tokyo Ghoul protagonist, Ken Kaneki as when he goes out on a date, he finds out that his date, Rize, is actually a Ghoul, who proceeds to eat him. While he manages to survive, after going through reconstructive surgery and getting healed, he finds out that he has turned into a Ghoul as well. Meanwhile in Samurai Jack, Jack stitches up his wounds from the events of last episode with the help of an injured wolf, and as the Daughters of Aku caught up to him, he ordered them to stand down or face their destiny. They refused, and were ultimately killed by Jack. And we end off Naruto’s Six Tails Unleashed arc as Utakata saves Hotaru from the jutsu unleashed by Shiranami, however he would soon fall to and be captured by Pain and the Akatsuki, being the jinchūriki to the Six Tails.
Tokyo Ghoul’s run would start off with a bang as on Twitter, Toonami and every show would successfully trended both US and Worldwide once again during their respective East Coast airings. Hunter x Hunter would also trend in the US during its respective West Coast airing as well as Tokyo Ghoul and Samurai Jack sometime after their respective West Coast airings. On Tumblr, Tokyo Ghoul would also start off strong there with a trend of that show in addition to both Samurai Jack and Dragon Ball Super as well.
And finally, Samurai Jack, for the third week in a row, would make it to Nielsen Social’s top 5 most talked about shows on Twitter and Facebook, rounding out at the #3 spot. This would be the 18th time a Toonami show has made it onto this list since we started recording this feat.
This week, Toonami showcased some throwback bumpers going back to the Moltar days, including a review of Metal Gear Solid for the PS1 as well as a Clyde battling another robot.
In addition, being the broadcast home for Ghost in the Shell, Paramount and DreamWorks partnered up with Toonami to showcase a preview for the all new Ghost In The Shell live action film, which you can check it out by clicking here. While there’s a lot of anticipation regarding this film, and we’ve heard some good things regarding it from GITS’ original creators, there’s also been a lot of controversy as well, such as the controversial decision to cast an A-list Caucasian actor in Scarlet Johansson to play Motoko instead of looking for an Asian actor, with the film set in Japan and all, among other things. (Personally my stance on this is rather neutral, while I believe Scarlet is doing a good job from what i’ve seen as of this writing and do plan on seeing the film for myself, I do understand the concern over the lack of Asian stars and other minorities getting A-list opportunities in Hollywood.)
Of course in regarding this film’s prospects as a whole, it is hard to say if this could be the beginning of something big for Ghost in the Shell and possibly anime as a whole, or if Hollywood’s poor track record with anime, cartoon, and video game adaptations will prove too much of a hole to dig out of, but all I can say is if you want to check it out and see for yourself, it will be in theaters starting this Friday.
Tune in next week as Naruto Shippuden begins the Pain’s Assault arc, among other great moments. Until next week, enjoy Anime Boston if you are going, and we’ll see you again next week for another round of the better cartoon show. Later.
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 [#3]
- #SamuraiJack (Also during the West Coast airing) [#1]
- #DragonBallSuper (Also during the primetime presentation) [#1]
- #SandWhaleAndMe [#1]
- #DBZKai [#1]
- #JoJosBizarreAdventure [#1]
- #TokyoGhoul (Also during the West Coast airing) [#1]
- #HunterXHunter (Also during the West Coast airing) [#1]
- #GundamUnicorn [#1]
- #Shippuden [#1]
- #GhostInTheShell [#1]
Worldwide Trends:
- #SamuraiJack [#9]
- #DragonBallSuper [#10]
- #SandWhaleAndMe [#10]
- #DBZKai [#10]
- #JoJosBizarreAdventure [#10]
- #TokyoGhoul [#10]
- #HunterXHunter [#10]
- #GundamUnicorn [#10]
- #Shippuden [#10]
- #GhostInTheShell [#10]
Tweet Counts:
- Toonami [10.6k tweets]
- #Toonami [6,355 tweets]
- #SamuraiJack [12.6k tweets]
- #DragonBallSuper [4,664 tweets]
- #DBZKai [1,772 tweets]
- #JoJosBizarreAdventure [2,118 tweets]
- #TokyoGhoul [4,663 tweets]
- #HunterXHunter [2,666 tweets]
Tumblr Trends:
- #samurai jack
- #dragon ball super
- #tokyo ghoul
Notes and Other Statistics:
- #SamuraiJack @WhoTrendedIT reported that @Chris_Stuckmann, @PrestigeIsKey, and @tarastrong started the trend in the US.
- #DBZKai: @WhoTrendedIT reported that @FUNimation started the trend in the US.
- #HunterXHunter: @WhoTrendedIT reported that @VizMedia and @ErikaHarlacher started the trend in the US.
Special thanks to @JMB_70056, @mmorse1017, @myanimewaifu, and others I forgot to mention for spotting some of the trends on this list.
Only Toonami on [adult swim] on Cartoon Network.