TOM 3.5 (HD Model)

The fifth incarnation of TOM was revealed on May 23, 2012 to the public via an Adult Swim commercial. Well many thought that this was TOM V3, this is, in fact, a new TOM as his suit is a bit different, possibly due to Toonami having a low budget at that time. He is also the very first incarnation to speak profanity. His back story has yet to be revealed as he has only been onscreen during commercial breaks for short periods of time. He returned with an array of all new content including speeches, game reviews, bumpers, promos, and more. TOM 3.5's intro is relatively short, but TOM eventually gave new messages during the intro almost every week. The Absolution is also very similar to the original, but is not completely upgraded due to Toonami having a tight budget. It did however introduce the Media Chamber for video game reviews, and a movie promo duing the Oblivion preview. In the "toonami verse" TOM 3.5 is just an upgraded version on the TOM 3 model.

In terms of graphics, the era is essentailly identical to the second TOM 3 era (due to little money to work with), with the same "Dope new look" that was used from 2004-2007. However, a few differences exist in the Adult Swim version. Firstly, the intros are shortened, with hashtags used at the beginning of the show's name to promote ratings and interest for the show on Twitter. Secondly, the "coming up next" bump of Clyde 53 signals reaching the Absolution from the planet below has been replaced with the same screenshots of TOM 3.5 telling the viewers that the previous show is over and the next show will begin shortly. Thirdly, the "Now/Next/Later" bump no longer features the times at which the shows air. Additionally, there are no more bumps for any times which would feature shows after Toonami ends for the night, in this case Cartoon Network shows. Instead, the bumps that indicate the end of the commercial  break in the last hour of the block are TOM simply introducing the audience back to the show. Lastly, the main color of dark red was replaced with a blue variant on January 6, 2013 and used until the TOM 5 rebrand. The one exception was March 17, 2013, in which it switched to green for Toonami's 16th birthday. Despite popular belief, Jason DeMarco confirmed the green Variant had nothing to do with St. Patrick's Day, a holiday that falls on the same day as Toonami's anniversary.

TOM 3.5 also had a conversation with TOM 4.0 in this era. Both TOMs stated that they should tell a story someday, about presumably TOM 4.0's origins, and TOM 4.0 stated that running Toonami was all up to TOM 3.5 now. This conversation proved that TOM 3.0 and 4.0 are different individuals. On March 10, 2013 it was announced at MomoCon that Tom 3.5 would be upgraded to Tom 5 along with the absolution. His final appearance as host of Toonami came on April 20, 2013.