We're back to Onigashima after our holiday rest and clip show, and what a return it is! Lots of action this week with a fair amount of plot progression in the ongoing battles dotting Wano.
It was great seeing Jinbei get plenty of time to shine this week. While Sanji's Chun-Li impersonation is wonderful and all, what we're really here for is the big fish uncle doing his thing. Jinbei squaring off against Gorilla Punch is one of those scenes that's a lot of fun to watch but completely incomprehensible if you're not a One Piece fan. I can easily imagine a conversation going like this:
“In this scene, a big blue fish uses underwater martial arts to defeat a man with a sentient gorilla torso for an arm.”
“Wait, what? Is that what One Piece is about?”
“No, this is a minor side fight between supporting characters in the middle of a samurai revolution on Fist of the North Star island.”
You know, typical stuff.
I also enjoyed the scenes with everyone drinking and partying at the Flower Capital while talking about the Onigashima raid. The fact that the very existence of the raid is a fantasy, that the people are so used to the current state of affairs, they can't even imagine a fight for change… I think it underscores how long the oppression has been going on and how effective it has been. Even though Kaido berates the Akazaya Nine for not being the same caliber of samurai that Oden was, the fact that they are challenging him at all puts them into that legendary status as well.
Then of course there's Kiku losing her arm, which felt just as shocking and abrupt as it had been in the manga. I still haven't gotten over reading it in the manga and now I'm DOUBLY an emotional wreck.
Lastly, there's the new OP! No offense to Dreamin On, which has me randomly shouting MUGEN DAAAAAAI NO CHIZU HIROGEEEE for no reason the past year, but I've been eager to see a new opening for a while. Paint is worth the wait, a slightly more subdued tune but coupled with gorgeous fluid animation. I played it back three times to soak it all in. Thanks again to the Toei team, One Piece fans have been eating well for a while.
Manga about novelist, niece also has live-action film opening on June 7― Pony Canyon announced on Friday that Tomoko Yamashita's Ikoku Nikki (Diary of a Strange Land) manga is inspiring a television anime adaptation. The company also revealed a teaser promotional video, a teaser visual, and the show's main staff. Miyuki Oshiro (episode director for Durarara!!×2 Ketsu, Natsume Yūjin-Chō Go, To Your E...
Kaijin Fugeki manga launches on May 29― Manga creator Oh! great announced on Tuesday that he will launch a new manga titled Kaijin Fugeki in Kodansha's Weekly Shonen Magazine on May 29. A Twitter account for the manga also debuted on the same day. Oh! great launched a manga adaptation of NisiOisin's Bakemonogatari novels (pictured at right) in Weekly Shonen Magazine in March 2018, and ended it in Ma...
This week, it's hot monster mommies and less hot AI-generated light novels.― I Support Falin's Crimes We've long joked on the podcast about the quality of light novel writing, but the news is out that the developers of the RyokoAI project have scraped Shosetsuka ni Narou...are fully machine-generated LNs in our future? Plus: Things get gorier in Kaiju No. 8, the world of yatagarasu politics unfolds...
Each story is like a dark portal into a realm of human sexuality that society usually sweeps under the rug, but I can't look away.― Nude Model delivers on the promise of its lurid title. This manga, consisting of three equally intense short stories, is charged with eroticism and danger, with epiphanies lurking around every corner. Created by Tsubasa Yamaguchi, Nude Model is nothing like her most wel...
Find out about the young star who set the internet aflame and walked away with two medals. Plus: Thousand-Year Door updates, a new HunterxHunter game, and Miku!― Welcome back, folks! As is my wont, I'd like to plug my El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron HD Remaster that went up earlier this week... but I've also got the disappointing news that Megaton Musashi W: Wired finally released in the US la...
Daisuke 'Dice' Tsutsumi shares what it was like to leave Pixar and how his studio will never shy away from honesty in their work, even when honesty isn't pretty.― Director Daisuke "Dice" Tsutsumi contributed to films like Toy Story 3 and Monsters University while simultaneously crafting what became his Academy Award-nominated animated short film, The Dam Keeper. His latest short film, Bottle George,...
Chris and Nick put on their headphones and dust off their vinyl records for a look at this season's guitar-strumming, mic-swinging girl groups.― Chris and Nick put on their headphones and dust off their vinyl records for a look at this season's guitar-strumming, mic-swinging girl groups. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the participants in this chatlog are not the views of Anime News...
I cannot imagine how Square Enix could top themselves after this.― Final Fantasy VII Rebirth initially launched on the last day of February, and if you look at the date of this review's publication, you will immediately be able to discern one thing about this second entry of the FF7 Remake series: It is gargantuan. The first game got plenty of praise (and plenty of flak) for taking the relatively sh...
The Manga Guide library expands with six more series, including Trinity Seven -Revision-, Watch Dogs Tokyo, Fed Up With Being the Spoiled Queen's Genius Butler,, and more!― Welcome to Anime News Network's Spring 2024 Manga Guide! You may have seen one of our seasonal Anime Preview Guides, where a team of critics writes up each new anime television premiere as it airs at the beginning of a season. N...