Another week of Wano, another week of extremes. The raid on Onigashima is as intriguing a set piece as it is, simply put, LONG. There is so much happening across so many levels, with so many characters, for such a long time in terms of real-world publishing/production hours that it is difficult to keep track. If you were to ask me to sum up the entirety of just the raid itself—without all the prior stuff like the battle on the way in, the planning, etc—I'm not sure I could do it without opening a wiki or six. That said, mixed in with all the long-running battles are some incredible highs, and those are hard to overlook.
For example, this episode opens with Marco and Big Mom fighting. There's certainly nothing wrong with it: The animation is solid, we get a great fire beam struggle plus the phoenix wings effect, and the comedic bits with Prometheus are also well-executed. But then again, the fight is between… Marco and Big Mom; in other words, it just feels like one more thing to track in an already sprawling conflict, and it might as well be a hundred miles away from what's actually going on at Onigashima.
And what's actually going on is a lot of wonderful Straw Hat moments. Chopper and Brook discovering that our skeleton friend is immune to the pellets is another classic example of One Piece's humor, but more importantly we see Robin for two seconds we get some truly blessed Usopp and Nami moments. The back and forth between them about lying versus telling the truth is thematically rich, having not only the emotional layer of loyalty to Luffy's ideals but also the sub-text of Usopp's history with telling the truth. There are lots of great action sequences of Ulti headbutting people (including a Mortal Kombat style x-ray bone crunch, poor Usopp…), and a redone flashback sequence as well. The flashback to Arlong Park is powerful, though it does have a pang of sadness to it. Not only has the series come a long way from those beloved early chapters, to my mind this is yet further confirmation that we are entering the end game of One Piece.
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...