Toonami is celebrating its 25th birthday by announcing two new seasons of FLCL.
As reported by Variety, the long-running programming block marked the 25th anniversary of its premiere by announcing a new continuation for one of its most popular shows - director Kazuya Tsurumaki's beloved sci-fi coming-of-age anime, FLCL. Toonami announced that two new seasons of the series are now in production. Like the show's second and third seasons, they are named after two sub-genres of rock music: the fourth season will be entitled FLCL: Grunge, while the fifth will be called FLCL: Shoegaze. Grunge is being directed Hitoshi Takekiyo and animated at MontBlanc Pictures, while Shoegaze will be directed by Yutaka Uemura and produced by Production I.G., who animated the second and third seasons of the show. Details about the new seasons' story weren't revealed, but Adult Swim revealed a teaser trailer that shows off Grunge's new art style.
Toonami also announced Housing Complex C, a new horror anime from director Yuji Nara and animation studio Akatsuki. The new series tells the story of Kimi, a young girl whose family moves into a low-cost housing complex in the seaside town of Kurosaki. Horrific incidents begin to occur in and around the complex, leading its residents to believe that they are being stalked by an ancient evil.
Both the FLCL continuation and Housing Complex C are being produced by Jason DeMarco, the co-creator of the Toonami block. "What better time to announce two new seasons of FLCL and Housing Complex C than on our 25th anniversary," said DeMarco, who now works as the senior vice president of action and anime for WarnerMedia. "Adult Swim’s ongoing commitment to support Toonami with new original series is something anime fans can celebrate every day."
RELATED: One Piece Anime Returns to Toonami
Toonami originally debuted in 1997. The programming block took over Cartoon Network's afternoon program and aired English dubbed cuts of Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, and Mobile Suit Gundam Wing. The block is credited with helping to popularize anime with a wider, mainstream audience in the late 1990s and early 'oos. Toonami was relaunched in 2012 as a subset of the late-night Adult Swim network. Its lineup was recently refreshed with the additional of several new shows, including Made in Abyss, as well as the return of on-going favorites, such as One Piece and Attack on Titan: The Final Season - Part 2. In addition to airing anime produced by other companies, Adult Swim has begun financing its own original anime series, including Fena: Pirate Princess and Shenmue: The Animation, which were co-produced by anime streamer Crunchyroll.
Source: Variety, YouTube
