“But it’s not our place to judge [their actions]. We don’t think it’s right to let them die just because we hate them. Both sides risked their lives in battle, and both are prepared to kill if necessary. But when the fight’s over, we’ll those rules cease to apply.“

–          Biscuit Krueger, Hunter x Hunter (Ep. 74)

This week’s Toonami Trending Rundown is a double-feature for the nights of November 18-19 and 25-26, 2017. A big two weeks for the better cartoon show as the second half of Countdown would be showcased while Beerus collects the Super Dragon Balls and summons Super Shenron, Gon fighting off Genthru from killing him for his cards, and Gene has a score to settle with the McDougal Brothers, among other great moments.

For November 18th’s Toonami on Twitter, every show save for Shippuden, Bebop, and GITS would successfully trend in some capacity in the US during the East Coast airing. Meanwhile both Toonami and Dragon Ball Super would also trend on tumblr.

And finally, Dragon Ball Super continues strong as the buzz would help the show once again make it on Nielsen Social’s top 5 most talked about shows on the day, reaching the #4 spot with a combined 34,000 total interactions between users on Twitter and Facebook. This is the 27th time for Super and 41th time a Toonami show overall has made onto Nielsen’s daily list since we started recording this feat.

The following week’s Toonami took place during Thanksgiving weekend, so this year Toonami has opted to take the week off regular scheduling to show episodes 131-140 of DBZ Kai, but not before showcasing the finale of Countdown. In terms of trending, both Toonami and #DBZKai trended in the US and Toonami trending on tumblr, ending a drought of the last two marathon nights of a show not trending.

Of course, for the past two weeks, Toonami showcased both parts 3 and 4 of Countdown, which you can see below. As previously mentioned, this will be the last Total Immersion Event until at least mid-2019 as the Toonami crew wants to have more time to create the next one.

Unlike previous Total Immersion Events in the modern era, the post-Countdown look wont entail any major new changes to the block’s look aside from a battle-scarred TOM and a few new additions to the Vindication. This is because according to Jason DeMarco, the TOM 5 look still remains popular among viewers and the Toonami crew to keep it awhile, though there are plans to have a revamp sometime next year.

https://twitter.com/Clarknova1/status/934640775056551936

We will however see some new changes programming wise going into next week, but before we get to the big news, here are some notable Toonami-related news of note going around within the anime community:

  • Very unfortunate news within the Dragon Ball community as since February, Christopher Ayres, the voice of Frieza has been battling End Stage C.O.P.D., a progressive and incurable condition that affects your ability to breathe well. As the illness has unfortunately kept him away from working in the booth, Daman Mills, the voice of Monaka, has assisted as an understudy for Frieza in the meantime. With the need for a lung transplant and various other medical related procedures, if you wish to assist Chris in his medical bills, his family has set up a YouCaring page which you can help donate to this cause. This afternoon, he posted that is being discharged today, which hopefully is a good sign. On behalf of the Toonami Faithful, we send Chris and his family our thoughts and prayers as he gets through this.
  • Additional sad news for the Dragon Ball community as Hiromi Tsuru, the Japanese voice actor for Dragon Ball’s Bulma and Trigun’s Meryl Stryfe has passed away last Thursday from Aortic dissection at the age of 57. On behalf of all DBZ fans, thanks for the memories and rest in peace.
  • And in some very disappointing news to say the least in regards to a Toonami classic, Nobuhiro Watsuki, the creator of Rurouni Kenshin, has been arrested for possession of child pornography. Because of this, Kenshin, which was previously seeing a revival of the manga, now is on an indefinite hiatus.
  • For those interested in seeing what could be to come, Yen Press has announced during AnimeNYC that they have licensed the Sword Art Online: Alternative Gun Gale Online light novels for translation and publication in US shores. Yen Press has also been in charge with US distribution of the light novels and manga for the mainline SAO series as well as the Progressive series. As previously mentioned, both Alternative GGO and Project Alicization are presently in the works for anime adaptations, with premiere dates to be determined.
  • And for those who have caught up to the recent editions of the Hunter x Hunter manga may know, ailing health has forced series creator Yoshihiro Togashi to bring Hunter x Hunter in and out of hiatus in recent years, with the most recent hiatus going since last August. However, Weekly Shonen Jump has indicated that the series will be continuing on the January 29th, 2018 issue.

If you haven’t heard, some big news for the block last Friday as announced on Toonami’s Facebook. Next week, Toonami will be receiving another expansion beginning next week on December 2 to begin at 10:30pm EST, with both Dragon Ball Super and DBZ Kai moving up the schedule by 30 minutes. In addition, the prime-time presentation of Super at 8:30 will be ending, as the premiere will now be airing 2 hours later. This is all in due part to Toonami bringing in its newest acquisition: the broadcast dub of Black Clover, which will premiere on 11:30pm.

Based on the increasingly popular Shonen Jump manga series by Yūki Tabata, which as of this writing has 13 volumes published, the series has been adapted into an anime by Studio Pierrot and began premiering in Japan on October 3, 2017. The series is expected to be 51 episodes in length, barring any future sequels.

The story’s synopsis is as follows: (source: FUNmation):

“Asta and Yuno are two orphans who want the same thing: to become the Wizard King. Locked in a friendly rivalry, they work hard towards their goal. While Yuno excels at magic, Asta has a problem uncommon in this world: he has no powers! But, on the day they receive their grimoires, they surprise everyone. To reach their goal, they’ll each find their own path to greatness—with or without magic.”

Black Clover is one of the FUNimation licensed animes released this season that is receiving a “Broadcast/Simul-Dub”, dubs that are released immediately or not long after the Japanese broadcast, joining Space Dandy, Dimension W, and Attack on Titan season 2 as one of the few Toonami shows in the modern era that are receiving this special fast-track dub to American shores.

Among our main characters, Dallas Reid will take on the role of Asta, while Yuno will be voiced by Micah Solusod, best known among Toonami fans for previously voicing Soul Eater Evans. The full list for the first few episodes has been published by FUNimation, which you can see here.

Time will tell whether Black Clover will be the next big shonen anime series or not, and what it brings to the better cartoon show, but according to Jason DeMarco on his ask.fm page, future plans for Toonami are in place extending to at least 2021. With many new works and sequels potentially on the horizon, these are exciting times to be a Toonami fan, and as long as it has the ratings support from both anime fans and general viewers, the support of Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, and Turner Broadcasting, and the maintaining of partnerships with Funimation, Viz, Aniplex, Sentai, Production IG, Toei, Sunrise, Discotek, and the anime industry in general, I think this train will keep on going for many more years to come.

Besides Black Clover’s debut and the expansion to 10:30pm EST, tune in next week as TOM and SARA are back on the helm as Hunter x Hunter showcases the finale of the Greed Island arc. So until then, stay golden 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.

November 18-19, 2017 Trends

United States Trends:

  • Toonami/#Toonami [#6]
  • #Countdown [#7]
  • #DragonBallSuper [#5]
  • #DBZKai [#7]
  • #JoJosBizarreAdventure [#6]
  • #GundamIBO [#21]
  • #HunterXHunter [#12]
  • #LupinThe3rd [#13]
  • #OutlawStar [#10]

Tweet Counts:

  • #DBZKai [1,305 tweets]
  • #JoJosBizarreAdventure [2,645 tweets]
  • #GundamIBO [1,074 tweets]
  • #HunterXHunter [1,884 tweets]
  • #LupinThe3rd [1,138 tweets]

Tumblr Trends:

  • #toonami
  • #dragon ball super

Notes and Other Statistics:

November 25-26, 2017 Trends

United States Trends:

  • #Toonami [#4]
  • #DBZKai [#5]

Tumblr Trends:

  • #toonami

Notes and Other Statistics:

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.