Batman Ninja, Black Clover and More Coming to Toonami's Fall Lineup

Toonami has revealed that the programming block "is shaking things up this fall" and diverging from its usual schedule.

According to a new post on its official Facebook account, on Oct. 9, Toonami will run the final two episodes of Black Clover back-to-back. While most of the normal schedule will remain intact, meaning fans will be able to watch series like My Hero Academia, Dragon Ball Super, Dr. Stone, Food Wars! and Yashahime: Princess Half-Deman as usual, the double-feature will pre-empt Naruto: Shippuden for that week.

Produced by Pierrot (Tokyo Ghoul, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations) and directed by Tatsuya Yoshihara (Chainsaw Man, Long Riders!), Black Clover first premiered on Oct. 3, 2017, and quickly gained immense popularity, becoming the most-watched anime series on Crunchyroll in 2020. The final episode originally aired on March 30, 2021, and a Black Clover film was announced shortly after. It is currently unclear what other anime series (if any) will replace Black Clover in Toonami's lineup going forward.

Toonami will also not follow its regular schedule on Oct. 16. Thanks to a collaboration with DC Fandome, the programming block instead will show a double feature of animated Batman movies. The night will start with an episode of Fena: Pirate Princess at midnight, followed by the first film, Batman Ninja. 

Batman Ninja sees the Dark Knight and his allies teleported backward in time to feudal Japan, where they must stop Joker, Two-Face, Bane and other supervillains from changing the course of history. The film was produced by Warner. Bros. and animated by Kamikaze Douga (Star Wars: Visions, Tales of Luminaria the Fateful Crossroad) and YamatoWorks (Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway's Flash). Junpei Mizusaki (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure) served as director and Takashi Okazaki, the manga creator behind the classic series Afro Samurai, wrote the script. While the film initially premiered on April 24, 2018, Oct. 16 will be the first time it has been seen on Toonami.

The second movie is Batman: Under the Red Hood, which will begin at 2:30 am. The film adapts the iconic A Death in the Family and Under the Hood story arcs in the Batman comics. First released on July 27, 2010, Batman: Under the Red Hood received overwhelming praise from critics and went on to gross over $12 million in home video sales. Judd Winick, who wrote the original Under the Hood comics, penned the screenplay and Brandon Vietti (Young Justice, Batman: The Brave and the Bold) directed the film.

The night will conclude with a Rick and Morty horror short, titled The Great Yokai Battle of Akihabara.

Toonami airs Saturday nights as a part of Adult Swim on Cartoon Network.