We get lots of good character bits with Yamato, Shinobu, and Momonosuke in the early portion of the episode. A few comedy beats also gave me a nice chuckle.
But this episode is well and truly the Akazaya Nine show, and WOW what a spectacle it is. I find myself once again running off a laundry list of gorgeous cuts and artful framing. Our first hint of the great stuff to come is Black Maria playing the shamisen. While she plays, we get snapshots of each of the Akazaya Nine through a series of close-ups where their faces are overlaid midnight blue, then a single moon-shaped light frames one eye. Black Maria's intense playing eventually makes one of the shamisen strings snap, and with it, the tension ratchets up.
The battle between Kaido and the Akazaya Nine is the stuff of legend. Each of the team members gets a gratuitous action shot launching powerful and over-the-top attacks at Kaido. Even Kaido's repeated mega-blasts get lavishly done up by the Toei team with colorful screen-rocking explosions that look like a crayola factory got hit with a missile. And the heart, the pathos in it all – it's just so good. Kinemon running and weeping, only to turn into cherry blossoms, then those blossoms are tossed on the wind until they become his sword, which he then reforms and takes in his grasp.
It's *chef's kiss* beautiful stuff, a testament to the power of moving pictures.
I think what this episode really hammered home for me is what at first felt like heresy: I think the anime is the best way to experience Wano. I've been a manga-first guy from the get-go, but this arc is simply so well done so consistently, with such high highs to boot, it's unreal. Never stop reading the manga – I know I won't – but if you're not watching Wano, you're truly missing out.
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 ...