It was originally a five-hour Saturday night block (technically Sunday) at midnight EST until March 2000, when it moved to weeknights in an hour-long format until January 2003.

[6][7] It consisted of anime such as Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, Voltron, Robotech, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, The Big O, and Outlaw Star.

These TIEs took place both on-air during Toonami and online at the official site, Toonami.com, and always occurred the week that the block's most popular series, Dragon Ball Z,[11] returned for a new season.

[13] Although Toonami on Kids' WB brought over shows such as Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball Z, and The Powerpuff Girls to broadcast television, it was critically panned by industry observers, who noticed that the action branding of the block - which had added shows such as Generation O!, Scooby-Doo, and The Nightmare Room, a live-action series created by Goosebumps author R. L. Stine - did not translate content-wise.

Sara gets taken offline by a computer virus named Swayzak (whose voice actor is unknown but is speculated to be Khary Payton), and TOM is trapped in hyperspace.

[19] On April 17, 2004, Toonami was moved from weekday afternoons to a Saturday evening slot, where it aired regularly for four hours starting at 7:00 pm EST.

The parent company of Cartoon Network had already done so earlier in the year on a sister channel, Turner Classic Movies and wanted to repeat it again.

Other Cartoon Network action properties, namely Samurai Jack, Teen Titans, and Justice League, aired on Toonami, but were not exclusive to the block until their final seasons.

[28] After airing that week's scheduled episode of Bleach, the Toonami-related programming continued throughout the night, featuring shows such as Dragon Ball Z, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, Tenchi Muyo!, Outlaw Star, The Big O, YuYu Hakusho, Blue Submarine No.

[33] Toonami made its return on May 26, with an initial lineup consisting of current Adult Swim Action programs, along with premieres of Deadman Wonderland and Casshern Sins.

[36] On November 22, Toonami announced they would air uncut episodes of Naruto, and confirmed that Bleach would enter reruns for eight weeks, beginning on December 1.

[39] On April 27, 2013, Toonami premiered its new look, featuring the return of supporting host Sara (now voiced by Adult Swim staff member Dana Swanson.)

[46] On December 31, 2016, Toonami aired its first subtitled anime broadcast with the music video of Porter Robinson and Madeon's Shelter, produced in collaboration with A-1 Pictures and Crunchyroll.

[56] On January 24, it was announced that Toonami would remove Pop Team Epic and Iron-Blooded Orphans from its lineup, cutting the block down to 5 hours.

[57] On May 13, 2019, Adult Swim announced that Toonami would be shifting its whole block thirty minutes earlier, starting at 10:30 PM and ending at 3:30 AM, cutting a half-hour rerun of Family Guy.

[66] On February 6, it was announced that the block would lose another one and a half hours, as Dr. Stone was ending its run, while reruns of The Promised Neverland and Attack on Titan would also cease.

[67] On April 8, it was announced that Toonami would be reduced to a three-hour block, as Sword Art Online: Alicization - War of Underworld was ending its run.

That same day, block runner Jason DeMarco tweeted that Toonami had six original projects in total in the works, including three that were unannounced at the time.

[83][84][85][86] On February 19, 2022, a second round of Cosmo Samurai episodes began premiering to celebrate the block's 25th anniversary, with Sentai Studios producing the English subtitles.

[92] On March 29, 2023, during Adult Swim's initial press release for its expansion to 7:00 PM, it was announced that encore episodes of Unicorn: Warriors Eternal and My Adventures with Superman would run inside the block.

[93] On July 20, 2023, it was announced that a new original series directed by Shinichirō Watanabe and animated by MAPPA, titled Lazarus would premiere on the Toonami block.

[94] On October 28, 2023, it was announced that the Mugen Train Arc of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba would premiere on November 11 alongside cour 2 of Dr. Stone: New World and HD remastered episodes of IGPX by Discotek Media to promote their Blu-Ray release in 2024 on November 5, 18 years to the day the show originally first broadcast on the original Toonami block, as part of its DST bonus hour.

[97][98] On March 16, 2024, Toonami ran a special 4-hour Dragon Ball Z Kai marathon from 2 to 6 AM in honor of the original manga author Akira Toriyama who passed away two weeks prior.

On November 14, 2001, Cartoon Network relaunched Toonami Reactor with all online-exclusive programs such as Star Blazers, Patlabor: The TV Series, Harlock Saga, and Record of Lodoss War, as well as videos from Daft Punk and Toonami-themed games.

[107][108] On April 25, 2006, Cartoon Network and VIZ Media announced plans[109] to launch Toonami Jetstream, a new ad-supported streaming video service featuring Toonami series like Naruto, Samurai Jack, Megas XLR, and IGPX, and the Internet webcast premieres of Hikaru no Go, MÄR, Eyeshield 21, The Prince of Tennis, MegaMan Star Force, Kiba, MegaMan NT Warrior, and Zoids: Genesis, the latter two of which were never streamed.

Each episode features a series highlight, a weekly topic and other featurettes like sneak peeks at promos and spots, as well as announcements, and segments from voiceover talent Steve Blum and Dana Swanson.

Toonami has also done panels from MomoCon, San Diego Comic-Con, Dragon Con and Anime Expo which they've streamed as part of Pre-Flight either live or on tape delay.

[118] All times shown for the slots are Eastern: Effective as of the broadcast night of February 22, 2025: * Indicates first-run episode premiere Throughout its history, Toonami has aired brief reviews of video games during commercial breaks.

Transcripts of the reviews could also be found on Toonami's website, including for games that did not have a corresponding video such as Batman: Dark Tomorrow, Super Smash Bros.

Ultimate, Halo 5: Guardians, The Matrix Online, Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup, Animal Crossing: Wild World, Mega Man Battle Network, Samurai Jack: The Amulet of Time, The Powerpuff Girls: Relish Rampage, Costume Quest 2, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Cartoon Network: Battle Crashers, Spider-Man: Battle for New York, Killer Instinct, Doom Eternal, Shovel Knight, Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Need for Speed: Carbon, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, Injustice: Gods Among Us, Spyro: A Hero's Tail, Splashdown: Rides Gone Wild, Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil, Far Cry 5, Guitar Hero, Gran Turismo 6, Cartoon Network: Block Party, Cartoon Network Racing, Cartoon Network Speedway, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor, Need for Speed: Underground 2, Need for Speed Rivals, Street Fighter V, Ben 10: Protector of Earth, Samurai Jack: The Shadow of Aku, Steven Universe: Save the Light, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge, Codename: Kids Next Door  – Operation: V.I.D.E.O.G.A.M.E., Cartoon Network Universe: FusionFall Heroes, The Lego Ninjago Movie Video Game, Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb, Cuphead, Cookie Run: Kingdom, X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse, Star Wars Trilogy: Apprentice of the Force, Spider-Man 2, Reigns: Game of Thrones, Medal of Honor, Perfect Dark, Front Mission 3, Grandia, and Sonic the Hedgehog.