“I know all too well this may be my one and only chance to take [Frieza] down. It’s also the only chance I’ll ever have to see what he’s really made of.”

– Goku, Dragon Ball Z Kai (Ep. 49)

The Toonami Trending Rundown for December 19-20, 2015. We wrap up Intruder 2 with a bang and enjoy the holidays with a DBZ marathon as both #Intruder2 and #DBZKai both successfully trended in the US.

In addition during the Intruder 2 finale, both TOM 5 and SARA trended as TOM lands on the planet Shogo 162, finds an abandoned base to set up shop in the interim, and uploads the Absolution’s AI into the base, bringing back SARA in the process. And as DBZ Kai aired, Frieza also trended as he has his epic battle against Goku.

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Intruder 2 Trending Retrospective

Ever since Toonami was revived in 2012, there were calls for the return of “Total Immersion Events” to continue on the story and lore between TOM and SARA. Initially it wasn’t possible due to a lack of budget to do so, but as Toonami has regrown over the years, the return of such events became more and more possible, eventually culminating to the long awaited question of “What exactly happened to the Intruder?” finally being told.

7 weeks of TOM fending off the famous Intruder blob from years past and blowing to smithereens, and Intruder 2′s run is now in the books. The fact that this even happened at all is a testament to how far Toonami has come since it’s revival and it’s pretty safe to say the reactions to the events of Intruder 2 have been very positive.

In terms of social media buzz, the designated hashtag #Intruder2 has successfully trended during all 7 weeks of the event, in addition during 3 other occasions beforehand when the event was being promoted. The TIE also produced 5 different character and in-show content related trends, the Absolution, Red Alert, SARA in 2 different occasions, TOM 1, as well as TOM 5.

As we enter into a new era of Toonami with the return of Samurai Champloo and Samurai Jack on the horizon as well as a variety of other shows yet to be announced in the new year ahead, on behalf of the Toonami Faithful, I want to personally thank Steve, Sonny, Dana, Jason, Gill, and everyone that worked on Intruder 2 and Toonami overall for this great experience and we do look forward to what this great programming block has for us next.

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And Finally…

Tune in next week as Toonami encores episodes 320-326 of One Piece to end of the year. Until next week, we wish you a Merry Christmas and May the Force be with You.

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Legend: The shows listed are ordered based on their appearance on the schedule. Show trends are listed in bold. The number next to the listed trend represents the highest it trended on the list (not counting the promoted trend), judging only by the images placed in the rundown. For the Twitter tweet counts, the listed number of tweets are also sorely based on the highest number shown based on the images on the rundown.

United States Trends:

Toonami [#6]

#Intruder2 [#2]

SARA (From Intruder 2) [#3]

TOM 5 ( From Intruder 2) [#4]

#DBZKai (Also during the West Coast airing) [#8]

Frieza (From DBZ Kai) [#21]

Special thanks to @JMB_70056 @MisterADRaveN and others I forgot to mention for spotting some of the trends on this list.

Edit 12/20 @ 11:10 A.M. PST: Modified trending rundown images to correspond with the new Toonami fonts. For those wondering, the new logo is based off the Krona One font. Thanks to @jpreckless2444 for this.

Legendary Treasure Awaits You. Only Toonami on [adult swim] on Cartoon Network.