Well then, I'm honestly surprised. I didn't expect the Silver Mine arc to end on anything resembling an exciting conclusion, but they didn't do half bad. It's not mind blowing or anything, but considering how benign and underwhelming the last three episodes have been, this finale manages to offer some interesting things to talk about.
Last week, we ended on the confrontation between Desire and Bill. Right off the bat, we get to see Desire impassioned, with an ugly cry face of her own as she attempts to attack her former boss. It's clear that she's no match for Bill, so Luffy jumps in pretty quick to lay waste to our villain. The action isn't all that well animated, with all sorts of visible shortcuts seen whenever somebody gets hit and has to crash into something, but there's an appreciated energy and speed to everything. The story doesn't unfold like flavorless fan fiction, as there's a genuine anger coming from both Luffy and Desire.
Since Bill is nowhere close to Luffy's power range, he gets his butt whooped real good, smashed back down into the mines where we start to get hints of his role in the story beyond generic baddie. Mr. Tanaka, one of the characters from the upcoming One Piece Film Gold, arrives once again to taunt Bill's failures. The implications of this arc are that Bill is some kind of underling to Film Gold's Gild Tesoro, who is ready to let him go at a moment's notice. The relationship I'm inferring here is akin to the relationship that we've seen between Doflamingo and Bellamy.
"How pathetic of you to be defeated by a damn pirate. Is that the extent of your greed?" Mr. Tanaka asks. This arc was always meant to serve as a promotion for the upcoming movie, and it feels like they had a bunch of interesting ideas for this one episode and had to go soft on the other three in order to get us here. After the fantastically written Film Z, I'm at the edge of my seat to find out what the general philosophy and purpose of Film Gold is going to be. This episode sells Gild Tesoro as a man who admires greed and entertainment above all else, and for some mysterious reason he's being called "The Monster of the New World."
Terrified that he might get left behind in Gild Tesoro's grand vision, Bill pulls himself up by his bootstraps and begins to eat as much coal as he can, using his Smelt-Smelt powers to push himself into a transformation of sorts. The new, hulking, mega-Bill returns to the surface to attack with his melting lava beginning to consume the island. A team up between Luffy, Bartolomeo, and Desire is enough to fight back, but eventually it has to return to a one-on-one with Luffy. Bill uses his powers to create another form where he covers himself in silver. The layers of transformations feel very DBZ-like.
Obviously, even in his strongest form, Bill is not strong enough to defeat Luffy. The fight ends quickly, and soon everybody's sailing off onto the sunset, as Desire and friends go their separate ways. I was ready to declare the Silver Mine arc the most painfully average filler arc in the series, but this episode was packed with a bunch of interesting new stuff that elevates the whole to a solid "decent." Again, it's nothing special that I'd recommend manga-only readers seek out, nor is it even close to the best One Piece filler arc, but I was happy that it didn't end up being completely disposable.
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...