"Sword Art Online II" Joins Toonami March 28th

As expected, the second season to the previously on Toonami series, Sword Art Online, will be debuting on the block on March 28th at 1am ET/PT, as announced on Toonami’s Tumblr and Anime News Network. The show will be replacing fellow Aniplex series, Gurren Lagann. Also starting the same day, Naruto: Shippuden and InuYasha: The Final Act will be bumped down a timeslot, the former now at 1:30am ET/PT and the latter at 2am ET/PT.

This broadcast will be the English World Premiere of the series, similar to Space Dandy (although excluding the simul-dub aspect of that show).

In other Toonami news, it is currently unknown what series will replace Deadman Wonderland, which will be ending the same day as Gurren Lagann. However, a possible candidate may be the return of Adult Swim and Toonami staple Cowboy Bebop, since the show’s first HD run was cut short due to the shortening of Toonami’s schedule earlier this month.

“Kill La Kill” Joins Toonami February 7th

Toonami’s first new show of 2015 is certainly a surprise. Studio Trigger’s Kill La Kill will be joining the lineup starting February 7th at 11:30pm ET. The show’s English dub is produced by Aniplex of America. This will be the first time that two Aniplex animes are running simultaneously on Toonami (the other being Gurren Lagann).

This acquisition brings some questions on how the schedule will look, as Toonami has yet to release the new schedule for February 7th. Since 11:30pm ET is the timeslot for Attack on Titan re-runs, one could infer that it will be either pushed down to a later timeslot, or removed entirely from the lineup (the latter is not likely, considering the purpose for another run in the first place was to “get their money’s worth” out of the high-profile show).

This also leads to questioning over what will replace Gurren Lagann. Normally, Toonami replaces Aniplex shows with other Aniplex shows (as seen with Sword Art Online, Blue Exorcist, and Gurren Lagann itself). The 2nd season of Sword Art Online (SAO II) wrapped up its Japanese run on December 20th, 2014, so an English dub will take a while to produce.

With Kill La Kill joining Toonami, the possibilities on what’s to come now are endless…

Toonami at Momocon: "Dragon Ball Z Kai" Coming; "Cowboy Bebop" Returning

Toonami was at Momocon Saturday, and has announced a whole lot. Here’s a few things it has announced thus far:

First off, after much demand from the fans, Toonami will finally be showing Dragon Ball Z Kai. No premiere date has been set yet, although it has been confirmed to start in the fall. While it’s not the original Dragon Ball Z show that aired on the old Toonami, fans should be happy nevertheless by this development. This will be the 3rd time a DBZ related production has been shown on the [adult swim] Toonami (the original Dragon Ball Z was shown as a one-time airing during the April 1st, 2012 stunt and the Dragon Ball Z movie Cooler’s Revenge was shown on Toonami May 24th, 2014).

Second, the cult anime Cowboy Bebop is making its way back to Toonami airwaves. The show was taken off on October 19th, 2013 due to the original Bandai Entertainment license expiring (although the show did return for a one-night stunt marathon on December 28th, 2013 to promote the then upcoming premiere of Space Dandy). The show will at first be broadcasted in SD, but it will eventually be broadcasted using the brand new HD masters.

“InuYasha” Leaves Toonami, “Sym-Bionic Titan” Re-Joins

In a stunning twist, Toonami has announced via Tumblr that the Adult Swim cult favorite InuYasha will be leaving the block, with 40 episodes left unaired in this run. In it’s place, the short-lived Cartoon Network action show Sym-Bionic Titan will be taking its place starting next week (March 8th). Sym-Bionic Titan is no stranger to Toonami, as it originally ran on the block from October 6th, 2012 – July 20th, 2013.

Also, due to Daylight Saving Time, Toonami will be losing an hour. Because of this, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex will not be shown JUST FOR THAT NIGHT (again, March 8th). The two shows will return to their original timeslots the following week.

InuYasha has been running on and off Adult Swim since its premiere on August 31st, 2002. It’ll likely return Toonami someday, but for now, stay gold demon.

Toonami Announces New "TIE" For 2015

Toonami announcements just keep getting better and better! Toonami announced on their Tumblr that the cult favorite TIEs (Total Immersion Event) will be making a return starting in 2015 (date TBD).

The Total Immersion Events first started on September 8th, 2000 with the premiere of “The Intruder,” which was heavily remembered for the death of TOM 1 and the birth of TOM 2. The event featured a plot where a monster-type intruder invaded the Absolution (the ship that TOM and SARA host from). With this new TIE, TOM and SARA will once again face the monster in a sequel to the original TIE, “The Intruder 2.”

Why has this news been released so early? Well, Toonami needs help from us fans. This weekend (Feb. 8th-9th), make sure to post#intruder2 on whatever social media site you use (Twitter, Facebook, etc.).

After this TIE, “Toonami will not be the same…”