Toonami Taking Down ‘One Piece,’ Putting Up ‘Tokyo Ghoul’

After four years of being on air, Adult Swim's Toonami is taking "One Piece" down and will air "Tokyo Ghoul" in its stead. The network also announced that the decision will take effect on Mar. 25.

Toonami announced their decision cut Monkey D. Luffy and the Straw Hat crew's adventures on their official Facebook page. A video in tribute to "One Piece" accompanied the message that the network is replacing it with a younger anime, "Tokyo Ghoul." The anime based on Eiichiro Oda's manga will stop broadcasting on Mar. 25. At the same time, the ghoulish series based on Ishida Sui's creation will begin, according to Anime News Network.

Although it is a sad news, it is understandable why such a decision came about. Toonami has been showing "One Piece" since May 2013. They first aired episode 207 to much fanfare and garnered 995,000 viewers that night. Since that time, however, viewership steadily went down. The network even pushed back the 18-year-old anime for half an hour on Oct. 1, 2016. Instead of its original timeslot, it is currently being aired on Sundays from 12 midnight to 3 am. By airing "Tokyo Ghoul" instead, the network looks to regain the viewers they have lost, Comic Book shared.

Before putting "One Piece" on the block, though, Toonami did try to amp their ratings with other titles. Comic Book wrote that the network also included similar shonen anime series like "Dragon Ball Super" and "Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn RE: 0096" to their program line-up. However, it seemed that Luffy's long quest for Gol D. Roger's treasure and the Straw Hat Pirates' protracted adventures do not appeal much to the audience any more. And that is why they are hoping to make their ratings go up again for the same programming block with the help of "Tokyo Ghoul."