Toonami Announces Delay for JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Dub

Toonami has become a one-stop shop for some of the biggest dubbed anime out there, but the program is about to temporarily part with one popular series. Over the year, the late-night block has faced some delays due to the COVID-19 outbreak, and the pandemic has finally gotten to the Joestar clan. After all, Toonami is having to delay the next week’s episodes of JoJo Bizarre Adventure, and one executive is walking fans through the tough decision.

The word came down from Jason DeMarco over on Twitter as usual. The Adult Swim and Toonami executive wants to inform fans that the next few weeks will feature an altered program. As the production schedule for JoJo was wrecked by the pandemic, Toonami has run out of dubbed episodes to air, but DeMarco assures fans the program will use this hiatus to bring fans new anime favorites.

“I have some unfortunate news regarding this week’s upcoming episode of JoJo Bizarre Adventure Due to COVID related delays, we were just told the dub of this week’s episode, and the next several weeks’ episodes, will be delayed,” DeMarco tweeted.

“With such short notice, the only thing we could really do would be to either rerun older JoJo’s eps, or double up on another show already running (no, we won’t just go to GiTS or Bebop etc… yet). Instead, we chose to mix it up a bit by adding season one of Ballmasterz 9009.”

As for this replacement, some fans may not have heard of this old-school title. DeMarco says this anime was chosen as it gives fans a better look at anime and anime-adjacent projects.

“All I ask is that you check out a couple of episodes. Christy Karacas, the show creator, is a genius animator and a massive otaku. The whole show is an homage to Shonen and other classic anime! Several episodes directly quote or are built around titles like DBZ, JoJo’s, Vampire Hunter D, and more. Plus, it looks absolutely gorgeous. I think most anime fans would find it amusing at the least.”

At this point, there is no word on when JoJo will catch up with its dub, but it could take some time. Many parts of the world are still in lockdown, and as those restrictions ease, industries such as this one are trying to figure out how best to work. But if the Joestar clan has anything to say, they will be the center of attention once more before too long!

Did you expect a delay like this to be handed down…? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!