Luffy's got a plan and that plan is to sneak into Big Mom's territory all on his own in an attempt to rescue Sanji. "I'll just be quiet," he says, way overestimating himself. It's an audacious call, but none of the crew's options really put them in a place of ease. Pekoms has just told them that if Sanji goes through with this wedding and marries into Big Mom's family, he'll cease to be a member of the Straw Hat crew, and if Sanji refuses the wedding he'll find the head of somebody close to him in a box as a going away present.
It's hard to express how big of a deal Big Mom is in the One Piece world. She's one of the Four Emperors, the leading pirate captains who claim a majority of the territory in the New World. It's common for this kind of Shonen Jump series to constantly be introducing new villains who outshine the previous "strongest", but this series has been spending the past few hundred episodes building up the fact that characters like Big Mom and Kaido are truly at the very top, and Luffy has already picked long distance fights with both of them. It's been a while since Luffy faced off with somebody way stronger than him, which used to be a signature quality of this series, but the Four Emperors are making me think that time is coming up once again.
So Luffy is dead set on putting Law's anti-Kaido plan on hold so that he can risk making Big Mom angry instead, but that's just the way things got to be. He probably won't end up going alone, but we're still left with so many questions. If Luffy ends up fighting an Emperor, can he win? It honestly feels too early for something like that to happen, but there are plenty of other interesting happenings that could propel the story forward over a win-or-lose fight. There's also the possibility that Big Mom ends up being on of the friendlier Emperors like Shanks (though, she is already mad at Luffy), and the villain role could fall to Sanji's family. That's the direction that makes sense to me.
Unprepared and easily distracted, Luffy and company get caught up in a big overnight celebration, with the Minks thanking them for their help. This is a very fun and relaxing scene, and it has the air of the traditional end-of-arc party that we've seen many times, though it seems a little soon after the Dressrosa celebration. Also, they're celebrating the solution to a conflict that happened before Luffy's half of the crew even arrived on Zou, so it's got the vibe of "Yay! We beat Dolfamingo! Let's party! Oh? We helped you guys too and we didn't even know it? Sure! Let's have another party!" If we're about to get serious with a saga of Four Emperors, it might be a while before the next party, so it feels appropriate.
The party and Luffy's eagerness to go get Sanji signals an end of sorts to the Zou arc, though there are a few more hoops that we're destined to jump through before Luffy officially steps off the elephant. It makes sense for us to get a smaller adventure more focused on antics and info-dumps after the monster sized Dressrosa arc, and I'm eager to see the few remaining Zou-based story beats before we head into Big Mom's madness.
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...