“[Crona] doesn’t seem to be used to life at the academy yet, and I can see that it’s bothering him. But he’s a good kid, so sweet and quiet. I’m sure he’ll be fine. He’ll adjust to this new life at his own pace. Crona and all the other students are what make teaching at the academy worthwhile.” - Marie Mjolnir, Soul Eater (Episode 31)

“Poor Crona…” - Everyone, pretty much. So much so, that it trended on Twitter

The Toonami Trending Rundown for September 28-29, 2013. It might have looked like a tough night for trending with the premiere with the SNL season premiere and the College Football season in full swing, but things went great for Toonami regardless with every show managed to trend in both the US and Worldwide list.

We also got a record number of character trends from this night, with Tenten (as she got KO’ed by Temari), Afro Luffy (as he gave Foxy an assistance), Foxy (as he captured the Straw Hats for vengeance), Black Star (as he pigged out during the party), Crona (as Medusa returns to her to enslave her), and for the 2nd week in a row, Kirito (as he gained and mastered the art of duel wielding). The trends were also sympathetic towards Crona’s struggles, with “Poor Crona” also hitting the worldwide lists.

Of course, nights like this tend to cause a dilemma on who should be in the header image and the colors I use for the rundown. As a rule of thumb, the character that trends or makes the most impact becomes the image header, as for example last week when Kirito trended when he “touched” Asuna, he got the honor of being the header. But with an epic night like this, it’s hard to pick what tonight’s epic moment was. So after some deliberation and some feedback from you guys, I decided to do a one-off compromise of having Crona on my Tumblr blog and Luffy on ToonamiFaithful.com.

If you haven’t heard the news, big changes are coming to the block in a few weeks. On October 19, Star Wars will have the week off as IGPX’s final two episodes will be doubleheaded from 2:30 to 3:30am Eastern, to go along with the finales of Cowboy Bebop and Big O II. The following week on October 26, FLCL and Ghost In The Shell will return to the block at 2:30 and 4:00am Eastern respectively, while IGPX will rerun at 4:30am, FMA Brotherhood will be bumped up to 3:30am, and Bebop and Big O will both be taking a break. The Toonami crew has hinted that this is a warmup for bigger things that will be announced in November, so stay tuned.

In ratings news, Nielsen plans to begin gauging social media buzz beginning this Monday. I personally don’t know at this point how things are going to go down with this, but we’ll see what happens. With the growing trending efforts we’ve seen, we should be in good shape.

Toonami has shown that there is a glimmer of hope for the western anime industry to return to prominence. But in the words of Moltar, will Toonami once again be a successful experiment, and help usher in another golden age for anime and action cartoons? Or is Toonami a failed experiment, destined for destruction, and become the anime industry’s swan song as it fades into death or complete obscurity? Vote with your eyeballs, your Nielsen boxes and diaries (if you have either), your DVRs, and/or your Tweets, and time will tell us what the final tally will be. Thanks in advance.

Legend: 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.

US Trends:

Toonami/#Toonami (During Bleach, Naruto, One Piece, Soul Eater, Sword Art Online, IGPX, Star Wars TCW, Big O, FMA Brotherhood, Cowboy Bebop, and InuYasha) [#1]



#Bleach [#5]

#Naruto [#5]

Tenten (From Naruto) [#6]

#OnePiece [#5]

#SoulEater [#3]

Black Star (From Soul Eater) [#6]

Crona (From Soul Eater) [#4]

#SwordArtOnline [#2]

Kirito (From Sword Art Online) [#5]

#IGPX [#5]

#StarWarsTCW [#5]

#BigO [#6]

#FMABrotherhood [#3]

#CowboyBebop [#6]

#InuYasha [#5]

Worldwide Trends:

Toonami/#Toonami (During Bleach, Naruto, One Piece, Soul Eater, Sword Art Online, IGPX, Star Wars TCW, Big O, FMA Brotherhood, Cowboy Bebop, and InuYasha) [#4]



#Bleach [#5]

#Naruto [#7]

Tenten (From Naruto) [#5]

#OnePiece [#5]

Afro Luffy (From One Piece) [#7]



Foxy (From One Piece. Phone App only) [#10]

#SoulEater [#8]

Black Star (From Soul Eater) [#3]

Crona (From Soul Eater) [#4]

Poor Crona (During Soul Eater) [#5]

#SwordArtOnline [#5]

Kirito (From Sword Art Online) [#9]

#IGPX [#5]

#StarWarsTCW [#5]

#BigO [#5]

#FMABrotherhood [#5]

#CowboyBebop [#5]

#InuYasha [#4]

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

So Funky. Only Toonami on [adult swim] on Cartoon Network.