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Friday, April 25, 2025 saw Adult Swim’s Toonami programming block announce its air date for Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War and Blue Exorcist season 2 as Sunday, May 18, 2025. The new full weekly programming block for Toonami with these two new additions was also shared, with the aforementioned date being when this new schedule will begin.
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War serves as a sequel to the original television anime series, which will finish the story by adapting the titular final arc of mangaka Tite Kubo’s original story. Blue Exorcist season 2, also known as Blue Exorcist: Kyoto Saga, will continue the series’ story from its first season, which is currently airing on Toonami weekly as of this article’s writing.
Blue Exorcist season 2, Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War make their Toonami debuts in May 2025
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As mentioned above, Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War (TYBW) and Blue Exorcist season 2 will begin airing on Toonami on Sunday, May 18, 2025. They will air in the 12:30 AM and 1 AM Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) timeslots, respectively. They notably join One Piece and Naruto, which are also airing on the block and considered the remainder of the Big 3 of shonen anime alongside the Bleach franchise. The schedule for the May 18 block in EDT is as follows:
- 12 AM: Lazarus
- 12:30 AM: Bleach: TYBW
- 1 AM: Blue Exorcist: Kyoto Saga
- 1:30 AM: One Piece
- 2 AM: One Piece
- 2:30 AM: Naruto
- 3 AM: Sailor Moon
It is expected that both Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War and Blue Exorcist season 2 will air in an English dubbed version. While this has not been explicitly confirmed, Adult Swim’s revived Toonami block typically opts for the English dubs whenever available. Likewise, with both series having already had English dubbed versions produced for streaming services, this is expected to be the case come Sunday, May 18, 2025.
The Bleach franchise notably has a rich history on Adult Swim, having originally aired on the programming block from September 2006 to November 2014. In that sense, the imminent premiere of the Thousand-Year Blood War on Adult Swim’s revived Toonami block is something of a homecoming for the series. While Blue Exorcist lacks comparable ties to Adult Swim, the block’s choice to continue airing it into the second season bodes well for its future there.
The Toonami block was originally a part of Cartoon Network’s afterschool programming from the late 1990s through the late 2000s. Mangaka Tite Kubo’s Bleach series began serialization in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in August 2001, where it ran for nearly 15 years to the day until August 2016. Kazue Kato’s Blue Exorcist manga series is currently serialized in Shueisha’s monthly Jump Square magazine, having begun in April 2009 and still ongoing.
Related links
- Blue Exorcist season 3 review: A stale sequel that missed the mark
- 5 ways Bleach Thousand-Year Blood War part 3 can fumble and 5 ways it can become generational
- 10 best anime that aired on Toonami
