One Piece is in a position that demands high expectations right now. After the incredible episode finale last week, the promise to transition off of Zou and towards Big Mom, as well as the remaining surprises left to wrap the Zou arc up and bid it ado for now, I've got high hopes that the show will keep delivering on that something special that One Piece has always had.
This episode is tapping into the same feeling as the big party episode that we got a few weeks ago, basking in the general pleasantness of the One Piece world. Dogstorm and Cat Viper agree to get along at Momonosuke's request, and Zunesha sprays some water into the sky, creating a beautiful, sparkly rainbow to commemorate the occasion. The episode also uses a few classic tracks from the series' ever growing OST, reminding me how much I miss the constant presence of the old music. The new stuff is good, (especially that 'Bond Between the Samurai and the Minks' theme used at the end of last episode), but I'm hellbent on seeing the show continue to tap into those old feelings again.
Plot-wise we get a few bombs dropped regarding our samurai friends. The biggest by far being that Kin'nemon and Momonosuke are not actually father and son. Kin'nemon was simply guarding Momonosuke, who it turns out is actually the son of a deceased samurai lord named Oden. The idea here is that Momonosuke is a far bigger deal than we were led to believe previously, and that the story of our samurai allies (which started in Punk Hazard, over 150 episodes ago) is only just beginning, promising to tie us directly into a forthcoming Wano Country arc with its own history and connections to Kaido of the Four Emperors. Dogstorm and Cat Viper also think of Momonosuke as their leader, just to hammer home how much power he's supposed to have as an heir.
I have a tough time with this father/son twist because it, more than a lot of surprises in this series, feels like it was partially pulled out of thin air. I can't go back to those Punk Hazard episodes and believe that Oda already had this twist in mind, and it feels a little contrived as an attempt to unfold the importance of these samurai characters. That said, it did succeed in all other respects, as the samurai now feel like a much bigger deal, and I'm super invested in learning the story about Oden, his relationship to Wano as a country, and his eventual demise.
Aside from the billion berry bounty man, Jack, being revealed to be alive and on his way back to Zou, so much of this arc has been wrapped up. All of the characters that we're hanging out with are getting along, and we get to enjoy Zou as a great fantasy one last time before the story gets ready to reveal the thing we're truly here for (speaking as a person who's familiar with the manga). This sense of peace is earned and entirely welcome, though maybe not the most efficient thing for story progression since we already had a peace and fun episode a few weeks ago. It's a calm before a storm, however, and that's definitely something I can get behind.
Japanese studio to handle production slated for broadcast, streaming globally― Kadokawa and Singaporean game developer and publisher Garena announced on Monday that they are co-producing an anime adaptation of Garena's Garena Free Fire battle royale shooting game, with a Japanese studio handling the animation. Kadokawa's Kadokawa Qingyu subsidiary is the production manager. The anime is planned to b...
Healer Nanna's powers have one very unique caveat: she has to have sex with the person to heal them. See why Rebecca Silverman calls it "a cute story, decently racy, and generally good, fluffy fun."― One of the fun things about Seven Seas' Steamship line of racy manga aimed at a female audience is finding which romance tropes are prevalent in any given release. While every genre has its tropes and s...
What's the perfect recipe for waifu supremacy? Lucas and Nick look at fan-favorites from Yu Yu Hakusho to Spice & Wolf.― What's the perfect recipe for waifu supremacy? Lucas and Nick look at fan-favorites from Yu Yu Hakusho to Spice & Wolf. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the participants in this chatlog are not the views of Anime News Network.Spoiler Warning for discussion of the s...
Train to the End of the World and Voice Actor Radio are getting a lot of love these last few weeks! Discover which other series stand out in our weekly user rankings!― Let's have a look at what ANN readers consider the best (and worst) of the season,
based on the polls you can find in our Daily Streaming Reviews
and on the Your Score page with the latest simulcasts. Keep in mind that these rankings...
Crystal Kay previously sang themes for 2004's Fullmetal Alchemist and Nodame Cantabile― Recently, Anime News Network was able to sit down with singer-songwriter Crystal Kay and talk about not only her involvement with anime over the years but also what it was like to grow up in Japan as the child of a Korean-Japanese mother and an African-American father. Anime fans likely know of Crystal Kay throug...
The plot is excellent in the romance camp. Everything that happens is to get Eui-joon and Gunwoo together, and it works pretty well.― You can read The Dangerous Convenience Store in English two ways. The first is to read it on the manhwa site/app Manta, which has all seventy-five chapters and four bonus stories available. The second is to read Seven Seas' print (or ebook) edition, which, as of this ...
Some older mysteries inch closer to resolution as the true nature of the Abyss slowly comes into view, and long-posed questions start to be answered.― Sometimes, being a fan of Akihito Tsukushi's acclaimed Made in Abyss series means acclimating to suffering. Like many Western devotees, I was introduced to this bizarre, squishy, disturbing world via the 2017 first season of Kinema Citrus' fantastic a...
60th, final episode of previous anime streamed on YouTube on Friday― The official Twitter account for the anime of Penguin Box's Odekake Kozame (Little Shark's Outings) manga announced on Friday that the manga will get a new anime series. Update: The staff revealed a visual for the new series in a press release on Saturday. The previous anime series debuted on YouTube last August, and its 60th and f...
As Slam Dunk reached its final stretch, I can see why this series is considered the sports classic that it is today.― This is the largest batch of Slam Dunk episodes that I've reviewed thus far. Originally, I wanted to review the show in more even seasons, but given its overall pacing and release, it wasn't easy to find a moment where it felt right to stop and start again. However, as we approached ...