We arrive at one of the highlight moments of the Raid on Onigashima – Sanji's capture by Black Maria and subsequent cry for help. It stands out as a genuine emotional high point in what is otherwise a long stretch of non-stop battles.
First off, I'll go ahead and get it out of the way: yes I'm biased for Nico Robin content of any kind, so I'm rounding up in that sense.
But I think what's important here is what this moment says about Sanji and Robin in the Straw Hat pirates. Setting aside my own personal hangups on how Sanji's uh… “dashing” character is portrayed, it is easy to see that he has a lot of pride in how he treats women and not fighting them. There's a greater sense that his self-image as this prince charming, dashing knight figure who sweeps in to save the day is very integral to how he sees himself. As such, he also tends to shoulder all of his burdens and share none of his struggles even when he desperately needs the help, such as his entire situation with the Vinsmoke clan.
So that's why Sanji crying out to Robin for help represents a major moment of character growth for him on multiple levels and why I think it works really well.
It also serves as a sort of full-circle moment for Robin. As we are reminded in the flashback, she was once the damsel in the tower who needed saving. And part of the reason why she ended up in that situation was – like Sanji – because she kept her struggles to herself out of a desire to insulate the other Straw Hats from what she was going through. Of course the Straw Hats showed Robin quite definitively that they want to understand her struggles and she realized it too, in one of the series' best moments (if not the best moment). Now she gets a chance to be the savior, riding in to save the day when a fellow Straw Hat is in distress. It's a really wonderful moment that adds that extra emotional and thematic weight to this fight (and something I feel the other battles going on right now lack).
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...