The 5AM Anime Rerun Club Discussion

[SpecialColorfull]

Well if Midnight Toonami and Toonami Rewing can get discussed this unique sideventure can too... But please close if its not allowed and I promise I wont try posting this again.

I am making this so we can discuss the reruns as they are to leave clearer documentation of what airs each day and the ratings milestones the block has reached. I KNOW there is an especific thread for Adult Swim and Toonami but I want to make sure this thread documents and keeps tabs on this info.

• Highest for Sailor Moon: 134,000 viewers for 5AM on March ? and 120,000 viewers for 5:30AM on March ?.

 

[J'onn J'onzz]

Well if Midnight Toonami and Toonami Rewing can get discussed this unique sideventure can too... But please close if its not allowed and I promise I wont try posting this again.

I am making this so we can discuss the reruns as they are to leave clearer documentation of what airs each day and the ratings milestones the block has reached. I KNOW there is an especific thread for Adult Swim and Toonami but I want to make sure this thread documents and keeps tabs on this info.

• Highest for Sailor Moon: 134,000 viewers for 5AM on March ? and 120,000 viewers for 5:50AM on March ?.

5:50 is very specific. Are the spoiler tv ratings that minute, to ten minute blocks, or is it a way to say for 5:30? Like how Toonami used to say 5.5 for times during the TOM2 cards? For that matter, can we go back and see old spoiler tv ratings data from Toonami Rewind and Fate and My hero Academia Anime.com Hour on AXS?

I was asking about the graveyard slot airings of Beyblade X over on the Anime forum for Disney XD. Only 1000, in slots like 3:30 AM. Toonami’s ratings with adults for anime dwarfs competition aimed at kids. There’s a reason CN/AS stopped aiming teen anime at 6-11 and 9-14 in late night slots on CN after the city era.

 

[SpecialColorfull]

I meant 5:30 but messed up lol. Correcting it now.

 

[ramblin]

Highest for Sailor Moon: 134,000 viewers for 5AM on March ? and 120,000 viewers for 5:30AM on March ?.

HUH? Was not expecting Sailor Moon to reach such high numbers. How many times has it surpassed 100k??

 

[SpecialColorfull]

I am glad the first post was from a mod and their first reaction was not closing the thread. Good Sign. Also wow I forgot that by now Adult Swim must be steamrolling everyone else ratings wise in this timeslot.

 

[Daikun]

Also wow I forgot that by now Adult Swim must be steamrolling everyone else ratings wise in this timeslot.

Well, when all other networks literally have nothing to air in their late-night slots (they're usually on autopilot), Adult Swim would naturally have a leg up since they're willing to play around in these oft-ignored hours.

 

[J'onn J'onzz]

I am glad the first post was from a mod and their first reaction was not closing the thread. Good Sign. Also wow I forgot that by now Adult Swim must be steamrolling everyone else ratings wise in this timeslot.

I’m not a mod, just a reporter. Don’t worry though, this is a good thread idea. Daikun is a mod and posted too so the thread is fine. He has a good point about lack of solid competition for AS in late night.

SpecialColorful, If you’re not in the US, you might not know that many of our cable channels air four or five hours of Paid Programming from 2-6 or 7 AM. For those of us out west with satellite, that means most Disney owned channels like FX and Freeform go dark as early as 11 pm, and air many hours of commercials for Vacuum Cleaners and Silver Coins. AS has big competition from shows like Friends and Big Bang Theory on Nick at Night, but clearly has enough of its own cult following to hold its own. If anime can fill the void of losing King of the Hill and Futurama, I like the idea. I am a bit worried this will be a flash in the pan like Rewind, but maybe early morning is the sweet spot that 5 PM wasn’t. Especially since anime is five nights a week (Home Movies and Superman air at 5 AM during the weekend) they can breeze through shows 10x faster than on Rewind!

I recall Shippuden aired for a while at 5 AM, but not nearly as long as the 10-11 years it spent on Toonami. InuYasha held down 5 AM for a long time too, in the late 2000s-early 2010s. Plus the 2000s history of Lupin III, Cartoon Planet, Lupin III, Case Closed, Voltron, Big O, Astro Boy, and Gigantor in this slot shows that retro anime do best at a twilight slot like this. Even CN’s Friday night anime rejects in 2005-2006 ended up at 5 AM: Gundam Seed, Yu Yu Hakusho, and .hack//Legend of the Twilight Bracelet all aired in the venerable graveyard slot, and shows like Transformers Cybertron, DICE, Idaten Jump, and Rave Master aired in 6 AM slots just after 5.

I am looking forward to this run of DBZ Kai Cell Saga. I haven’t seen that arc since AS last aired it during 2020 during COVID lockdowns. I think this sort of throwback being picked up for 5 AM specifically is more exciting than just burning off something they’ve bought for Toonami one more time. Could we see other throwback shows appear? Early One Piece episodes? Naruto?

 

[Yojimbo]

I kept forgetting to tune in / wasn't home / asleep / forgot to DVR the previous Sailor Moon runs so this past run on the late slot, I finally saw the end of Sailor Moon S1 for the first time ever. I had only seen a few episodes over the decades and well, took me long enough, heh heh. I didn't realize it was such a dark ending with them winning but dying and being resurrected with no memories. I'm interested in Toonami picking up more but I'm not going to hold my breath and I'll probably end up seeking out the rest elsewhere. Like J'onn, I'm looking forward to re-watching the end of the Frieza Saga and seeing the Android and Cell episodes again. But pretty cool Sailor Moon got those numbers.

 

[Space Cadet]

I kept forgetting to tune in / wasn't home / asleep / forgot to DVR the previous Sailor Moon runs so this past run on the late slot, I finally saw the end of Sailor Moon S1 for the first time ever. I had only seen a few episodes over the decades and well, took me long enough, heh heh. I didn't realize it was such a dark ending with them winning but dying and being resurrected with no memories. I'm interested in Toonami picking up more but I'm not going to hold my breath and I'll probably end up seeking out the rest elsewhere. Like J'onn, I'm looking forward to re-watching the end of the Frieza Saga and seeing the Android and Cell episodes again. But pretty cool Sailor Moon got those numbers.

Even in the DiC version, which had edits, you could still see how dark the season one ending and did imply they also died as well.

 

[SpecialColorfull]

I cant wait to see the ratings for the finale. With two episodes per weekday, the show has the ability to actually grow hype.

 

[Conttactt]

I wonder what the long term plan for this time is. At two episode a day, 5 days a week, it will absolutely melt through the Cell saga in just a months time. Do they get more then? Loop it a few times? They could, in theory, blow through the entirety of Kai in 2026 if they wanted to. But surely that has to be price prohibitive, right?

 

[SpecialColorfull]

I wonder what the long term plan for this time is. At two episode a day, 5 days a week, it will absolutely melt through the Cell saga in just a months time. Do they get more then? Loop it a few times? They could, in theory, blow through the entirety of Kai in 2026 if they wanted to. But surely that has to be price prohibitive, right?

I think airing it many times is fine by them but they buy shows in packs. So far it hasnt been a real problem OR an advantage since they air shows mostly once a week, but now that they are doing this, it is a perfect time to actually buy more. And apparently since its NOT Toonami it might not be affected by its low budget.

 

[Yojimbo]

What may come after DBZ Kai. I mean, we had Sailor Moon. Now Kai. What else was on Toonami Rewind... so I'd bet on Naruto. Is Naruto airing at all right now?

 

[SpecialColorfull]

I wonder what the long term plan for this time is. At two episode a day, 5 days a week, it will absolutely melt through the Cell saga in just a months time. Do they get more then? Loop it a few times? They could, in theory, blow through the entirety of Kai in 2026 if they wanted to. But surely that has to be price prohibitive, right?

I think it might be another Toei anime, so far it has been anime from Toei.

 

[J'onn J'onzz]

What may come after DBZ Kai. I mean, we had Sailor Moon. Now Kai. What else was on Toonami Rewind... so I'd bet on Naruto. Is Naruto airing at all right now?

They haven’t aired Naruto since the end of last year. Even though they could’ve aired 48-57 instead of Rick and Morty the Anime 1-10 at 3:30 to fill time before Rooster Fighter. The fact that they got DBZ Kai additional episodes rather than airing Naruto at 5 seems to indicate Naruto wasn’t doing so hot at 3:00 AM behind those Lazarus subbed reruns in 2025.

 

[SpecialColorfull]

I am starting to think this Toei 5AM club happened because Toei offered AS a more expensive anime in exchange for having more airtime for their OLDER anime. Or maybe Toei simply always plays nice.

 

[RandomMe]

Since when did they have animes at 5am?

 

[Conttactt]

Since when did they have animes at 5am?

Since they lost KotH and Futurama which was their go to transition titles into CN time.

Personally I wouldn’t get too attached to the idea of this time ever expanding outside of DBZ. It’s already highly unusual for them to spend money on 5am, and as I already theorized, is only being done here because they intend to dump more Kai reruns on Toonami.

 

[J'onn J'onzz]

Since when did they have animes at 5am?

Since 2005, off and on. The latest round began when KotH and Futurama expired at the end of last year. So far DBZ Kai, Daima, Sailor Moon have aired. All Toei properties as SpecialColorful mentioned. But no One Piece yet. Probably because Toonami / AS doesn’t have the rights to the first 206 4:3 episodes, which they never aired uncut on Toonami.

 

[Yojimbo]

I must have forgot to DVR it but did the airings skip over the last episode(s) of Goku vs. Frieza? I checked and it was Goku refusing to be teleported then the next ones my DVR was Bulma inviting everyone to Capsule. So I missed the one where Frieza bisects himself and Namek blows up.