“The prophecy held true. The battle was a hard fought one. You lied, you were holding back weren’t you? I never stood a chance. It wasn’t even a battle. You obliterated me. So much for the words and prophecies. You’re just too strong, Saitama.”
– Boros, One Punch Man (Ep. 12)
The Toonami Trending Rundown for October 8-9, 2016. We end season 1 of One Punch Man with a bang as every show had successfully trended in the US. One Punch Man trended throughout the duration of the East Coast airing and even during the West Coast airing, making sure the season ended on a high note. Naruto also produced a character trend with Jiraya as he finds out that the three children he trained long ago, Yahiko, Konan, and Nagato, had grown up to become members of the Akatsuki.
This week’s feature was a video game review of the puzzle platformer adventure game Inside by Playdead, the same folks who brought you Limbo. It received a score of 9 out of 10.
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Every now and then, there’s an anime series that captures the imagination of millions of people, winning many hearts or at least getting much of the anime community talking, and even making some new fans to anime in general. And not surprisingly, said show becomes a best seller in both sides of the Pacific and (if it’s an action show) eventually becomes a must-see show on the better cartoon show. Sword Art Online did this in 2012 and again in 2014. Attack on Titan also did this in 2013 and plans to do so again later next year. So did Kill la Kill in 2014 as well. And of course, when the anime was originally released in Japan back in October 2015, One Punch Man would indeed capture the anime world by storm, whether it was in Japan, amongst those that watched the sub, and indeed here on Toonami as well.
Back when the dub was announced by Viz during the 4th of July weekend at Anime Expo, there was little doubt that One Punch Man would be a headlining show in the better cartoon show, which premiered 2 weeks later. Time has since flown and after 12 episodes of Saitama and Genos beating down villains without a fuss and going up the hero ranks, the first season is now in the books. And when it comes to social media buzz, OPM fans sure made their voices heard.
During the show’s run, One Punch Man trended in the US during every week of its run, including during the Labor Day weekend marathon. One Punch Man would also trend during the night Jason and Gill announced that the show would be airing on Toonami back in Anime Expo. The show’s buzz also produced 3 different character trends, Genos, Mumen Rider, and Saitama. One Punch Man would also trend on tumblr during 10 weeks of its run, the most occasions a Toonami show has trended there up to this point. Finally, One Punch Man would make Nielsen Social’s top 5 rating for the first 3 weeks, the most times a show was able to do so, so far.
Now the wait begins for season 2, which is presently in the works by the folks at Madhouse, with its premiere date still to be determined. In the meantime, if you’re craving for some more One Punch Man, check out the manga, which at this point is up to 11 volumes and counting, 8 of which have been translated and published by Viz at this point. There is also a 7 part OVA series, however you are going to need to wait for the DVDs to come out for that. And for those that wish to relieve the moments in preparation for season 2, One Punch Man will have an encore run beginning next week at 3am Eastern.
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Especially in a time when it’s been difficult for anime to get mainstream exposure, Toonami and its various programming has done a very good job helping to bring great anime to the masses and serving as a gateway drug to the medium, and One Punch Man’s success may just be another example that things are looking up. And Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure looks to also bring good things to Toonami as the show makes its long awaited debut next week at 12:30am Eastern. Until next week, stay gold as always.
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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 [#6]
- #DBZKai [#10]
- #OnePunchMan (Also during the West Coast airing) [#4]
- #GundamIBO [#6]
- #HunterXHunter [#7]
- #Shippuden [#6]
- Jiraya (From Naruto Shippuden) [#5]
- #OnePiece [#7]
Tweet Counts:
- Toonami [6,971 tweets]
- #Toonami [4,086 tweets]
- #DBZKai [1,620 tweets]
- #OnePunchMan [7,416 tweets]
- #GundamIBO [1,914 tweets]
- #HunterXHunter [2,703 tweets]
Tumblr Trends:
- #toonami
- #one punch man
Special thanks to @JMB_70056, @mmorse1017, @myanimewaifu and others I forgot to mention for spotting some of the trends on this list.
Look Out! Only Toonami on [adult swim] on Cartoon Network.