Once again, I find myself talking about Wano's strengths and weaknesses in the same breath. After the spectacular 1000th episode, there is simply no follow-up that could compare, so I don't want to be unduly cruel with this entry. But at the same time, episode 1001 shows everything that is right and wrong with Wano in roughly twenty minutes.
It's certainly big and bombastic. There are fights galore, characters aplenty, and plots both simple and complex. Schemes are happening behind closed doors, fates are being sealed, and the destiny of the world is being decided with fist and blade on the battlefield. The ground shakes at the approach of titanic characters whose every action will shape the trajectory of the world as we know it. Some characters are risking everything in life or death battles, while others lay their lives on the line for espionage and subterfuge.
But.. it's a lot, isn't it? Like Wano is, amazingly, still going on, with really no end in sight. Even the battle for Onigashima – the “finale” if we can call it that – has been ongoing for months. Luffy has not even made it to Kaido yet! This episode really only covers the distance from Luffy posing with the gang last episode to punching a giant this episode.
We're gonna be here for a while, folks.
X Drake's subplot really shows how dense Wano is. Remember all that stuff with X Drake and Law? Remember that? It's textured and complex, but it sure is a lot to remember, and it's a wonder how anyone can keep all the vectors straight. It's also hard to muster that much excitement for what's happening with X Drake when it seems like we have so many dangling plot threads going on right now. Forget A-plot and B-plot – we're juggling J-plots at this stage in Wano's run, and even for someone who is pretty well-embedded in all this, it can be a struggle just to remind myself of what is all going on.
On the positive side, it was nice getting a flashback to the Oars fight. It not only provides context for Luffy's growth as a character, it's also one of my favorite fights in the series due to the need for all the Straw Hats to collaborate to bring down a single foe. It really felt like the team was firing on all cylinders in a way that has rarely happened since. Sadly, it inadvertently lessens some of the shine on Wano by making me nostalgic for bygone arcs…
Wano's strengths become apparent again in the Gear Four sequence; even with One Piece's considerable length, few sequences manage to show off just how far we've come quite so magnificently. It's just… astonishing. Just watching Luffy move! The Toei team delivers again and again and again in ways that astound me.
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...
Healer Nanna's powers have one very unique caveat: she has to have sex with the person to heal them. See why Rebecca Silverman calls it "a cute story, decently racy, and generally good, fluffy fun."― One of the fun things about Seven Seas' Steamship line of racy manga aimed at a female audience is finding which romance tropes are prevalent in any given release. While every genre has its tropes and s...
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 ...
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...
60th, final episode of previous anime streamed on YouTube on Friday― The official Twitter account for the anime of Penguin Box's Odekake Kozame (Little Shark's Outings) manga announced on Friday that the manga will get a new anime series. Update: The staff revealed a visual for the new series in a press release on Saturday. The previous anime series debuted on YouTube last August, and its 60th and f...
Recently ended manga follows middle school student living with mysterious bird-looking creature― Shogakukan announced on Friday that Akira Konno's Kujima Utaeba Ie Hororo manga is inspiring an anime. The "bird(?) home comedy" manga's story starts when first-year middle school student Arata Kōda meets a mysterious bird-looking creature named Kujima in autumn. Hungry and craving Japanese food, Kujima ...
As Slam Dunk reached its final stretch, I can see why this series is considered the sports classic that it is today.― This is the largest batch of Slam Dunk episodes that I've reviewed thus far. Originally, I wanted to review the show in more even seasons, but given its overall pacing and release, it wasn't easy to find a moment where it felt right to stop and start again. However, as we approached ...