The Toei team delivers once again. This could have been a relatively stale setup episode, but instead we are treated to a deft bit of framing for the coming fight. The road to Onigashima has been long, and it's important to contextualize why the battle is important through events past and present. Kaido, Orochi, and the Beast Pirates have their evil laid out for all to see as both a reminder to the audience and to the Straw Hats themselves.
If there were a theme for the episode, I would say that it is excess. Food, drink, sex, dance – everything is overflowing on Onigashima, heedless of consequences. This is a victory celebration where anything goes and where the closer you are to power, the greater the hedonism. Even though we see a lot of mirth and excitement during the party it is not a happy episode, and we as viewers are meant to be repulsed by what we see. It is all too much, too fast, and too loud. The goons on the floor go so far as to remind Zoro and Luffy, our first two Straw Hats, that they know this food/drink/merriment comes at the expense of the little people of Wano. It brings them joy, and makes their refreshments taste all the sweeter.
This is to ensure that the audience knows how to feel in the coming stages. No matter how off the walls the ensuing battle will be, these people deserve the justice that Luffy and co are bringing. This is a fight for the freedom of Wano from cruel overlords who know precisely the harm they are causing.
Visually, the episode reinforces this theme of excess brilliantly. The screen is often popping with a kaleidoscope of rainbow colors, or shown with the colors reversed. It gives everything a distorted feel, and even in moments with “normal” coloring the screen is often blurry at the edge. Furthermore, there's a lot of fanservice in this episode of the Bouncing Bazonga™ variety, and hey, if there were any episode to include it in it would be this one. Surprisingly, because everyone ends up wearing these outrageous Beast Pirates costumes, the episode, on the whole, comes off a bit more balanced and natural-feeling in that regard than some other episodes have been.
Also we get the SUPERRRR wholesome content involving Franky. Him getting to deploy all the vehicles, ride bromance style with Brook, and put Chopper and Usopp into their little tank together is heartwarming, as was the bit with Robin and Jinbei calmly walking towards the battle as the mature ones. Bless.
Crunchyroll to stream upcoming anime― Aniplex and Crunchyroll announced on Wednesday that the late manga creator Hisaya Nakajo's Hana-Kimi manga is inspiring an anime. In addition, Crunchyroll announced that it will stream the anime when it premieres in North America, Central America, South America, Europe, Africa, Oceania, the Middle East, the CIS, and India. The announcement did not reveal the deb...
James and Lynzee look into Hideaki Anno's latest hint that there might be more Evangelion after the last movie and news on the Lord of the Rings anime film!― Could There Be More Evangelion on the Horizon? James and Lynzee look into Hideaki Anno's latest hint that there might be more Evangelion after the last movie and news on the Lord of the Rings anime film! Plus, we catch up with Kafka and the Ka...
Grant Jones dives into the wild world of giant monsters and how Kaiju No. 8 builds on their legacy.― Kaiju No. 8 is a series that wears its influences on its sleeves. As the first word in its title suggests, it comes from a long line of works in the kaiju genre, using giant monsters and burning skylines as a backdrop to tell stories. While many likely know kaiju in a passing sense, it may help to h...
This steamy manga's appeal is going to depend on how much you can stomach a female protagonist who kicks off the romance by assaulting her former fiance.― This is a tricky one. Before You Discard Me, I Shall Have My Way with You is, to all appearances, a story that opens with a sexual assault. Agnès has been betrothed to Crown Prince Lucilleur since childhood, and she's been in love with him just as...
Japanese studio to handle production slated for broadcast, streaming globally― Kadokawa and Singaporean game developer and publisher Garena announced on Monday that they are co-producing an anime adaptation of Garena's Garena Free Fire battle royale shooting game, with a Japanese studio handling the animation. Kadokawa's Kadokawa Qingyu subsidiary is the production manager. The anime is planned to b...
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Director adds that there are no definite plans, but it would be helmed by "someone other than himself"― In a recent interview with The Asahi Shimbun newspaper, director Hideaki Anno acknowledged that "there may be plans" for more in the Evangelion anime franchise, but possibly with "someone other than [himself]" at the helm, who would receive a high degree of freedom. He added that there are no defi...
What's the perfect recipe for waifu supremacy? Lucas and Nick look at fan-favorites from Yu Yu Hakusho to Spice & Wolf.― What's the perfect recipe for waifu supremacy? Lucas and Nick look at fan-favorites from Yu Yu Hakusho to Spice & Wolf. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the participants in this chatlog are not the views of Anime News Network.Spoiler Warning for discussion of the s...
Train to the End of the World and Voice Actor Radio are getting a lot of love these last few weeks! Discover which other series stand out in our weekly user rankings!― Let's have a look at what ANN readers consider the best (and worst) of the season,
based on the polls you can find in our Daily Streaming Reviews
and on the Your Score page with the latest simulcasts. Keep in mind that these rankings...
Crystal Kay previously sang themes for 2004's Fullmetal Alchemist and Nodame Cantabile― Recently, Anime News Network was able to sit down with singer-songwriter Crystal Kay and talk about not only her involvement with anime over the years but also what it was like to grow up in Japan as the child of a Korean-Japanese mother and an African-American father. Anime fans likely know of Crystal Kay throug...
The plot is excellent in the romance camp. Everything that happens is to get Eui-joon and Gunwoo together, and it works pretty well.― You can read The Dangerous Convenience Store in English two ways. The first is to read it on the manhwa site/app Manta, which has all seventy-five chapters and four bonus stories available. The second is to read Seven Seas' print (or ebook) edition, which, as of this ...
Kenichi Suzumura, Ayako Kawasumi, Hiro Shimono, Nao Toyama, Takumi Yamazaki, Takaya Hashi join cast― The official website for The Magical Girl and The Evil Lieutenant Used to Be Archenemies, the television anime of late creator Cocoa Fujiwara's Katsute Mahō Shōjo to Aku wa Tekitai Shiteita. manga, revealed six new cast members and a third promotional video for the anime on Monday. The video reveals ...
Some older mysteries inch closer to resolution as the true nature of the Abyss slowly comes into view, and long-posed questions start to be answered.― Sometimes, being a fan of Akihito Tsukushi's acclaimed Made in Abyss series means acclimating to suffering. Like many Western devotees, I was introduced to this bizarre, squishy, disturbing world via the 2017 first season of Kinema Citrus' fantastic a...