We've been introduced to a fair number of characters and subplots since stepping foot in the land of Wano, but we've merely witnessed the tip of the iceberg. One of the common trends I've liked about the anime lately is how it will make minor tweaks to better prepare the audience for what's to come, like how this week's episode directly names Shutenmaru, a man that Kiku appears to have some familiarity with. It's a very small difference from the source material (which simply refers to Shutenmaru's band of thieves as a group) but it's nice to know they're thinking about to keep the absurd amount of information as clear as possible. Shutenmaru now has a chance to exist faintly in the audience's mind before his proper introduction.
There isn't a ton of new material for us to chew in this week aside from the introduction of another side villain—Speed, a horse-woman who's got a fun gag about having 350 degree vision—and a brief demonstration of the farms that produce clean food and water for the shogun. We're taking the absurdity of Wano as a setting to some fun places, with giant sumo wrestlers getting tossed across town and eccentric dancing firefighters appearing to stifle the fires that set the streets ablaze as a result. “How dare you destroy my house with a sumo wrestler” is a phrase that can be uttered so casually in a few countries.
I appreciate that our heroes are finally getting themselves tangled up with Holdem in person after all this time, because he's easily my favorite of the Bakura Town villains. There's a good balance of silliness and theatrics as Holdem looks down on the crowds from the rooftops, performing herculean feats of strength and finally giving Luffy the fight he's been looking for. I was getting tired of having to constantly cut back to the same repetitive scene of Holdem trying to pull dumplings out of Otama's cheeks with pliers, so any change of pace, even a slight one, is welcome. The pins have been set up with the supporting cast constantly urging Luffy to keep a low profile, so obviously we have to start a ruckus in spite of that, and now a bunch of big names like Hawkins and Law are beginning to arrive just in time to see their well-kept plans go up in flames.
Most of what I've been saying for the past few months still holds true. My opinion of this stretch of the story in the manga is already fairly precarious since we're delving into a corridor of the plot that's disproportionately busy for such a small piece of the arc. The series isn't trying to trick us into thinking that this is some crazy unprecedented escalation of events, but it does want to set up a lot of stuff that's going to be important later, and it hopes to be entertaining in the meantime. In the best circumstances, the slow-motion nature of the adaptation is great for unloading some of the denseness of the story, but sequences that only offer mild excitement end up having to repeat themselves too much.
At least we seem to finally be reaching the climax of the Bakura Town arc soon, so hopefully the pay-off is pretty interesting.
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 ...
James and Lynzee discuss the latest episode of Yatagarsu. Plus, GoHands keeps making anime, and we don't know WHY.― Yatagarasu Gets Violent! James and Lynzee discuss the latest episode of Yatagarsu, in which Wakamiya plays his hand to find out the truth behind his older brother's scheming to obtain the throne. Plus, GoHands keeps making anime, and we don't know WHY; Hunter x Hunter manga is on its ...
Making a sequel to Code Geass is a daunting task. But with its fantastic main character and a story that doesn't undercut what came before, Rozé of the Recapture is on the right track.― Making a sequel to Code Geass—especially one set close to the end of the series—is a daunting task. Any story that involves an ongoing war massively undercuts both the finale of the original anime and the sacrifices ...
The Switch sequel console is finally happening! The details are scarce, but you can find out more in this week's column. Also: an interview with El Shaddai's Sawaki Takeyasu, Microsoft layoffs, and more.― Welcome back, folks! What a wild week this has been for the gaming industry. We'll go further into it, but jeez. This past week also saw the disappearance of Capcom's Dark Void and Dark Void Zero. ...
The Code Geass creator discusses his new project with Web3 company Azuki, Enter the Garden, and his hope that this new path could help the medium evolve.― Los Angeles-based Web3 anime-styled brand Azuki and advertising conglomerate Dentsu debuted the first nine-minute episode of their joint anime endeavor, Enter the Garden, on April 30. The episode, which has already racked up a quarter of a million...