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On Friday, February 17, Toei Animation announced that One Piece episode 590, a crossover episode with Dragon Ball Z and Toriko, would finally air stateside in the coming weeks. The debut will come on Adult Swim’s Toonami block, a revival of the original Cartoon Network after-school anime block, which hosted Naruto, Z, and more classic series.
Adult Swim’s Toonami previously aired the One Piece series in October 2022 but went right from episode 589 to 591. This skipped the Dragon Ball Z and Toriko crossover in episode 590. However, it seems enough has changed behind the scenes to cause Toonami to finally air the episode after skipping over it months prior.
One Piece, Dragon Ball Z, and Toriko collaboration set to finally legally air outside of Japan nearly 9 years
The announcement came from a Toei Animation press release on Friday, February 17, where the airing of the One Piece, Dragon Ball Z, and Toriko crossover episode was confirmed. The episode is set to air on Sunday, March 5, 2023, at 1 am Eastern Standard Time (EST) as part of the Toonami block beginning late at night on Saturday, March 4.
As mentioned above, the announcement is noteworthy because Adult Swim’s Toonami skipped the episode’s broadcast in October and jumped to the 591st episode instead. Neither Crunchyroll nor Funimation have streamed the episode, making its release even more momentous.
Intriguingly, however, both anime streaming services have previously offered the 492nd episode of the series, which is a crossover between One Piece and Toriko. This would seemingly imply some behind-the-scenes issues with Akira Toriyama’s media franchise which prevented the episode from being streamed or aired outside of Japan.
In any case, whatever issues originally caused Toonami to skip the broadcast of the episode seem to have cleared up. Now, fans’ biggest concern is whether or not an English dub will be airing for the episode. It is currently unconfirmed whether or not the version of the episode airing on Toonami will be in Japanese with English subtitles or an English dub.
The anime adaptation of author and illustrator Eiichiro Oda’s manga series has a long history with Toonami, first airing on Cartoon Network’s original block in 2005. The series debuted on Adult Swim’s revival block in May 2013, beginning with episode 207, before ending in March 2017 on episode 384. The series then returned in January 2022 with episodes 517-518.
Interestingly enough, the Toriko anime series has never aired on Toonami, making the collaboration episode its first appearance on the block. It is currently unknown if Adult Swim’s Toonami will air the second half of the series’ One Piece and Dragon Ball Z collaboration, which serves as its own 99th episode.
Be sure to keep up with all anime, manga, film, and live-action news as 2023 progresses.
