Adult Swim to Revive Classic Toonami With New Anime Block

Toonami has long been a major programming block on Cartoon Network for some time, first hitting the cable channel in 1997. While there was a brief period where Toonami was no longer on the air, it would return to once again air anime adaptations on the platform thanks to Adult Swim. Now, Cartoon Network has announced “Toonami Rewind”, a programming block airing later this month which will assemble some of its biggest anime classics on a timeslot that airs far earlier than the normal Adult Swim schedule.

Toonami has long been a programming block that has introduced some of the biggest anime franchises to the Western world. While the Cartoon Network project was responsible for introducing major series like Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, Tenchi Muyo, and Inuyasha, Toonami continues to this day by airing the likes of Attack on Titan, My Hero Academia, Dragon Ball Super, and more. In recent days, Toonami has been trying its hand out in creating original anime series, seeing major success with the likes of Ninja Kamui, Shenmue The Animation, FLCL Shoegaze, and more. In the future, the Adult Swim programming block will air the likes of Lazarus and Junji Ito’s Uzumaki. 

Toonami Rewind’s Schedule

Toonami Rewind will begin airing on May 31st on Cartoon Network this month, presenting three classic anime series over a two hour timeframe. To start, the programming block will air Sailor Moon at 5PM Eastern, Dragon Ball Z Kai at 5:30PM Eastern and 6:00PM Eastern, and Naruto at 6:30PM Eastern. At present, it has yet to be seen if Toonami Rewind will include other classic anime from Cartoon Network’s past. You can check out a new trailer for the programming block below.

In a recently revisited interview, Toonami co-creator Jason DeMarco described why the programming block was initially axed in 2008, before returning to glory on Adult Swim, “Looking back it was probably when we went from being on five days a week to just being on Saturday. There was this five year explosion of home video and ‘Dragon Ball’ and ‘Pokemon’ and ‘Spirited Away’ winning the Oscar. There was a wave. And then it receded because the bottom fell out of the home video market; a bunch of fake ‘Toonamis’ popped up and died; and I think it was a cross between the wider cultural consciousness moving away from anime and our network having different priorities.”