New Toonami schedules have been posted, indicating the departure of one of the block’s longest running shows. March 1, 2025 will be the end of Dragon Ball Z Kai’s current run on Toonami. Toonami caught up to where Toonami Rewind left off last December, but it turns out they don’t have more episodes coming. This leaves the show at a critical cliffhanger, where Goku has transformed into a Super Saiyan for the first time and is about to square off against Frieza in the series’ most iconic battle. While the moments leading up to Goku’s transformation will be shown on March 1, Dragon Ball Z Kai’s run will be ending seven weeks before the end of the Frieza saga.
Schedules posted a week ago showed Dragon Ball Z Kai reverting to episode one after the airing of episode 47, but now the series has disappeared from the Toonami schedule. The slot formerly occupied by Dragon Ball Z Kai will now be the home of a second episode of One Piece. It isn’t clear how long One Piece will stay doubled up this time, as it has continually alternated between one and two slots since it returned to Toonami in 2022. One Piece is currently in the middle of the years long Dressrosa saga. After the two month long flashback of Trafalgar Law’s childhood wraps up on March 1 at 1:30 AM, One Piece resumes the battle between Luffy and Doflamingo on March 8 for a full hour of action from 1:30-2:30 AM. Toonami has not aired new episodes at 2 AM since the end of Naruto Shippuden, but both episodes of One Piece on the 8th and 15th are scheduled to be premieres. One Piece has been the only premiere on the block since the end of Mashle on February 15. The schedule change doubles the amount of new content until the arrival of Lazarus at midnight on April 5.
The schedules are otherwise the same as last week’s prototype schedules. FLCL Grunge is scheduled to be replaced by FLCL Shoegaze on March 15 at midnight. Common Side Effects is joining the block from episode 1 March 1 at 12:30. Blue Exorcist’s doubling up was quickly abandoned after February 22. Naruto and Sailor Moon remain at 2:30 and 3:00, with Naruto starting to air the Zabuza arc episodes skipped by Toonami Rewind on March 1. Even after the end of Rewind, Naruto episodes continue to upload every Friday night to Adult Swim’s website and on demand service, allowing viewers to watch to the end of season one.
Dragon Ball Daima is notably absent from the new schedule. While many Dragon Ball fans had hoped Kai was a placeholder for the English dub of Daima, there have yet to be any signs of Daima coming to cable. Daima just finished airing in Japan on February 28, and thus far has remained a streaming exclusive in the United States. The dub has already been releasing on Crunchyroll, Netflix, and Hulu.
This schedule may disappoint Dragon Ball fans, but One Piece fans will have a lot to look forward to. Do you like the new schedule, or will you be watching My Hero Academia and Fate/Stay Night on axs’ Saturday night anime block?
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The post Goodbye Goku, Hello Luffy! Toonami Revises March Schedules, Swapping DBZ for One Piece appeared first on Anime Superhero News.
