The Luffy vs. Cracker fight has not benefited from the anime's less-than-one-chapter-per-episode pacing, but I really admire the experience it's trying to take the audience through, constantly shifting between the foreground and background while we watch both combatants get exhausted by each other's near-infinite tricks. Luffy's victory is a satisfying one—it took multiple rounds of Fourth Gear and most of an in-world day for him to finally come out on top of his 800 million bounty foe. Luffy barely defeating a Doflamingo-level opponent is just a stepping stone to facing the challenges of this arc, although knowing Luffy, he'll keep pushing forward despite the overwhelming odds.
It took a lengthy ten episodes to get here, which is far from ideal, but I love how it started in the middle of the night and bled into the next day, allowing us to emerge back into the world with fresh optimism. The method of defeat is also novel, as Luffy combines his big chubby body after eating hundreds of Cracker's biscuit soldiers with Fourth Gear in order to create the massive "Tank Man", which looks equal parts intimidating and stupid. But laugh all you will, because Luffy is sick of this fight and ends it by blowing Cracker across the island in a satisfying, aggressive victory.
Between the end of the fight, the exposition we get about Big Mom's powers, and the setup with the Vinsmokes heading off to meet the Charlotte family, this episode feels uncharacteristically packed. More than that, the general tone is the most distinctly One Piece out of all the Whole Cake Island episodes yet. From the animation to the music, it looks and sounds great, but that's not to say it's overexerting itself. This is the kind of episode that would be average in a better produced show, but it stands out as a breath of fresh air for One Piece, as it revels in its comfortable low-rent Disney tone. There's a very specific feeling that I look for in Toei's One Piece, a feeling they seem largely disinterested in these days, but an episode like this is so back-to-basics that I can't help but imagine the shift is purposeful.
The episode ends with Sanji sternly joining his family as they board the carriage leading them to Big Mom. The atmosphere is tense as we get the contrast between the lavish celebration of Germa soldiers waving them off, and Sanji's bitter expression as he readies himself for his wedding. He doesn't want to be a prince, he wants to be a pirate, darn it! The marketing for the show has been promoting the upcoming Luffy vs. Sanji fight up and down, and the build-up to it in this scene is fantastic.
It's almost indescribable how good it feels to see a One Piece episode that simply feels "right". Independent of the animation or pacing, there's a soul to this production that shines through every now and then, and I'm a total sucker for it. The Whole Cake Island arc is on its last stretch in the manga right now, and this chance to re-evaluate it through the anime after gathering my thoughts puts me right back where I want to be with this show. One Piece is good, you guys.
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,...
Mimori intends to continue voice roles, singing career― Voice actress and singer Suzuko Mimori announced on her Twitter account on Thursday that she is moving to the United States this summer. She acknowledges that the move will mean that her voice work will not necessarily stay the same as before, but that she will strive to continue performing her roles to the best off her ability. She also added ...
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...
Anime's first season premiered in 2018― The official website for Kakuriyo -Bed & Breakfast for Spirits-, the television anime of writer Midori Yūma and illustrator Laruha's Kakuriyo Yadomeshi (Afterlife Inn Cooking) light novel series, announced that the series will have a second season in fall 2025, and revealed a teaser visual on Wednesday. The novels' 2023 manga adaptation artist Tsugaru Toba als...
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...
With a new Nintendo Switch port available, even more gamers can experience Enoch's transcendental adventure across the world. How does it fare on Nintendo's portable device?― El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron was a curious game when it released in 2011. The world wasn't quite ready for it then, but time (and a PC port) helped people accept it. With a new Nintendo Switch port available, even more...
Manhwa is starting to find its footing in American comic book sphere, but it's not just another version of "manga." Find out what makes Korean comics unique.― The door to English-translated manga opened in the 1980s, and despite some fits and starts, essentially never looked back. Manhwa, or Korean comics, have had a much more troubled journey to popular visibility in English. Around 2006, manhwa be...
The new anime series is far more forthright about the idol and seiyū industry, from maintaining relevance on social media to subsisting on substandard wages.― The new anime series is far more forthright about the idol and seiyū industry, from maintaining relevance on social media to subsisting on substandard wages. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the participants in this chatlog are...
Ultimately, my biggest problem with Shaman King Flowers is that it mostly just feels like a set-up to a much larger story that has yet to actually happen.― [Warning, this review will contain major spoilers for the ending of Shaman King (2021)] If there's one thing that can be counted on with battle shonen properties, it's that any of them that go on long enough will inevitably get some sequel series...