One Piece is leaving Toonami/Adult Swim.

[SuperFan2024]

Toonami has just announced in Toonami Pre-Flight that One Piece will be leaving the network after March 18th.

Toonami has also planned a music video for a final send-off for the series.

Thoughts?

 

[DecaTilde]

Oh, no! Does this mean we won't get to see Luffy and the Strawhat crew anymore?

 

[CNFan1995]

Toonami has just announced in Toonami Pre-Flight that One Piece will be leaving after tomorrow night.

Toonami has also planned a music video for a final send-off tomorrow night.

Thoughts?

Actually One Piece is leaving next week which is March 18th but so sad to see it go. And One Piece will be replaced by Tokyo Ghoul, which will begin airing on March 25th.

And by the way here's the Farewell music video

 

[Light Lucario]

It's nice that they have a music video planned for a final send-off next week. It's still rather surprising and sudden, but at least they're not going to treat this like a regular case of getting a new show. I'll give Tokyo Ghoul a shot given that I have heard good things about it, but I wasn't expecting Toonami to get it this way.

 

[DecaTilde]

Well, at least Luffy and the crew will still be viewed on many anime sites, like FUNi's video page, afterwards.

 

[jaylop97]

The show had a good second run on Toonami much better than its first run. With that said if it ever does have a third run lets hope it is as good as the second one and not as bad as the first .

 

[O-chan]

Being a One Piece fan I'm feeling a lot of things right now. I can't deny that if Toonami feels that is the long-runner to go because...reasons, than there's all there is to it. In terms of drawing new fans I feel like this will become another excuse not to invest into the show. That being said they did air what I feel was the best portion of the anime and they're thankfully stopping right before we were heading into a long game changing series of arcs that it would of been harder to pull out of the show.

I do think a factor that led to the show getting removed, in addition to the low ratings, was the fact that Toonami is overloaded with long running series. A few months ago I looked and studied Toonami's rotation and they usually switch out a few series throughout the year. They already came up for a workaround with the Kai Final Chapters and Super problem but that still left Jojo, Hunter X Hunter, Gundam and Naruto on the block. I originally theorized that once Jojo ended Part 2 that slot would have a new show (which is still a strong possibility since we haven't heard any progress on the Part 3 dub except that they are working on it). Gundam still has three other Gundam shows to replace Unicorn's slot including IBO Season 2 (very likely), Thunderbolt and Origins.

I'm not going to lie and say that despite being a Naruto fan I honestly wished it was pulled from the block over One Piece. I understand that Naruto has more of a mainstream push in terms of popularity but with the manga ended, the anime covering most of that material and Toonami being even farther behind I feel like it's popularity has run it's course. Still this is just a bitter pill to swallow and I just hope it doesn't affect the current foothold on the presence One Piece worked so hard to establish in the West.

 

[Light Lucario]

The amount of long running series on the block definitely could have been a factor for this decision. It's been on the block for a few years, but there are even more long running series now that lock up slots for years than when they first got One Piece. The situation with DBZ Kai and Super isn't too bad given that they're airing both and at least the two parts of Jojo feel distinct enough from each other, but Hunter x Hunter will be on the lineup for another couple of years and if they plan on getting more Gundam, then that's another slot locked up. That could have made the block feel more stale to some fans and lose interest in some of these shows, especially when One Piece is at the end of the block.

I can see why they'd like to get long running shows given that they're usually pretty popular and they don't have to worry about getting new shows to replace them for awhile, but it's a bit of a double edge sword in some cases.

 

[veemonjosh]

Gundam still has three other Gundam shows to replace Unicorn's slot including IBO Season 2 (very likely), Thunderbolt and Origins.

Thunderbolt would be weird since, besides being so short, it has a weird runtime (18 minutes an episode), and The Origin is an OVA series that hasn't ended yet (and might not end until after 2019 if they extend it even further to tie in with the 40th anniversary). Only option besides IBO season 2 is going backwards to 00, or airing a retro series like Wing.

 

[Nobodyman]

This is pretty much me right now


Seriously though, while this is disappointing, it's not too surprising. One Piece hung on for quite a while in that graveyard slot, but, unfortunately, you just can't fight low ratings.

It's funny though, back before they had announced Samurai Jack's time slot, I theorized that maybe One Piece would be cancelled to make room for it. And then when it was announced that SJ would air at 11:00 I thought One Piece was safe. C'est la vie.

And it's a shame that One Piece has to be cancelled now since we were on the brink of a very eventful arc.

Anyway, I'll give Tokyo Ghoul a shot, even though it doesn't seem like the type of show I'd generally be interested in.

 

[Rod G]

Well, at least Luffy and the crew will still be viewed on many anime sites, like FUNi's video page, afterwards.

Thing is Funi video page is too expensive for many people.

 

[Daikun]

Thing is Funi video page is too expensive for many people.

Six dollars is too expensive?

 

[JShaggy]

Thing is Funi video page is too expensive for many people.

Better to pay a few bucks a month for a subcription rather than watch via an illegal streaming website. At least that way, you avoid having to deal with annoying ads and pop-ups.

 

[Mikurotoro92]

WHAT?!

Looks like Turner is getting rid of long-running shows

Even Boomerang removed The Flintstones, which I honestly thought would NEVER happen!

The difference is One Piece is still going

It's good to have variety but OP was a staple of Toonami for SO long that the block just won't feel the same without it!

Hope you enjoy a loss in ratings Adult Swim!

 

[Hypeathon]

While it is a bummer, I'm hardly surprised. One Piece is the one show that fans will shout that it's a godsend until they lose their voices while always struggling to build an audience on television. I've seen many fans even go as far to think up reasons why it doesn't do so well as has little to do with the show itself. And of course when you add the big three concept into the discussion, said-fans argue Naruto and Bleach don't deserve to do better in ratings despite few people saying that when they first aired.

There's always this large disconnect among One Piece fans, thinking how successful the show should've been on television vs how successful the show actually was doing and why that might've been the case. I honestly find the disconnect kinda annoying but have kept relatively quite about it until now since most people didn't care to listen to possible reasons. Nobodyman actually made some noteworthy points in his post on the Toonami News & Discussion thread a while back which I totally agree with. I've also heard how the ever growing quantity of episodes and the art style were big turn offs for the show and those factors possibly contributed to the ratings on the block. But I think a couple of other reasons apply that don't get mentioned.

First off, I don't think starting at episode 1 helped. I've argued this back when Adult Swim was still deciding what episode to start airing One Piece and I honestly still feel this way. In the end, they chose episode 207 because that's when the show is presented in high definition and widescreen format. Yeah, that made the block seem a bit more presentable. But I can't help but feel it only hindered things in the long run. A lot happened between the time One Piece last aired on Cartoon Network and started airing on Adult Swim. Legal streaming became prominent. Weekday afternoon and Saturday morning blocks either died or were dying. And there were even less homes for anime on TV overall. I wouldn't be surprised if much of whatever audience One Piece had on Cartoon Network eventually moved on and didn't bother catching up with the show. To air One Piece again in five years on late Saturday night, skipping a few dozen episodes from when it last aired on CN and expecting the same sizable audience and then some to come back excited for the show again, it just didn't seem quite right to me.

This might've even affected how people who've seen little of or only heard about One Piece felt about the story when watching it on Adult Swim. I actually tried to get two of friends who have seen at most bits-and-pieces of the show to watch it with me week-to-week since the Luffy vs Usopp argument. When the show was going to be bumped back to 2:30am, I asked them how they felt about the show having seen as much as they have. One of them mentioned how despite being invested in Luffy, Robin and Franky's characters, he didn't feel as much out of everyone else. He also mentioned how Water 7 and Enies Lobby had little to do with pirates despite One Piece's setting being in the age-of-piracy. He even used what little he saw of Skypiea as an example of how he felt disconnected with the show. Those points felt thought-provoking. Say what you will about East Blue, but those episodes in their purest form (meaning no recap clips) are how you get invested in each of the Strawhats and their goals and backstories while also presenting the pirate-setting very well. Eiichiro Oda has a very loose idea of how to present pirates but Luffy starting up his own crew against different established pirate crews was a pirate-like as you can get. The Foxy crew aside, there was little pirate angle to hook people in during Water 7 and Enies Lobby for those that wanted it, as great as those arcs are.

Also, I don't think how hardcore fans recommended One Piece were being all that helpful to newcomers. Fans have definitely argued the anime should've aired at a much later point mostly because it'll be behind the anime currently airing in Japan and what-not. Personally, I think there's a line to cross as to how much hardcore fans of any work of entertainment can decide how newcomers should approach viewing something. Sometimes, they just don't know what's best for new viewers. One Piece on Adult Swim is probably one of those instances. Fans advise new viewers to just skip to when the show "gets good" without any proper set-up to get into the overall feel of the story, even though much of these same fans also say the dubs isn't great or to just read the manga instead because the anime is not paced well. Look, I get it. The anime goes snails pace to this day, but I don't think the mixed messages were helping with anything, especially if you want it to air on TV.

 

[Peter Paltridge]

How was this show supposed to get decent ratings at the time slots they put it in? I need my ultra-goofy show, dang it! Toonami is too serious otherwise (well, normally I'd say that, but Dragon Ball Super is filling the "crazy" role pretty well now).

I know petitions don't work, but I really wish they did in this case. Toonami won't feel the same without One Piece.

 

[Hypeathon]

How was this show supposed to get decent ratings at the time slots they put it in?

It started at 1am, not as many people watched that compared to Gurren Lagann or Inuyasha The Final Act, the latter of the two eventually took its 1am time slot, it got bumped back all the way to 2:30am and then stayed there since.

 

[SuperFan2024]

Since Funimation's close to releasing the dubbed episodes of One Piece after the time-skip, then maybe one day the series can return on Toonami, starting with episode 517 (which is the episode after the time-skip). I think it makes much more sense than when they started at episode 207 in 2013.

I get that they started at episode 207 because it was the first episode in HD, but it definitely wasn't a good episode to start at for new viewers. Episode 517 is makes much more sense to start at, because it reintroduces the main characters, and ongoing plot, (though not in the best way, it still explains things for new viewers).

Episode 517 is almost like a completely new series because of the time-skip, so it would be a much better place to start at just in case if Toonami would like to re-air the series.

 

[TnAdct1]

And it's a shame that One Piece has to be cancelled now since we were on the brink of a very eventful arc.

Quite honestly, it's probably for the best that One Piece left Toonami before said arc, as I have a feeling that this arc would have a real chore for those viewers prefer the other members of the Strawhats over Luffy.

 

[kid rabbit]

I know I'm going to get some hate on this
but one piece is overrated it moves at a snails pace
and a little too weird in it's visauls