This is a buoyant, beautiful episode that manages to soar despite initially seeming like a lag between major events. There are many instances in weekly animation production where corners have to be cut for budget, time, or manpower, especially when coming off of or building towards a big episode. But not only are no corners cut in episode 1051, they're downright polished and honed to perfection.
Yamato and Momo take up a good portion of the episode's runtime. There's a big emotional beat here with Yamato teaching Momo that he can fly by simply grabbing the sky itself. The match cut between their faces as they become in tune with one another is a particularly great sequence, and watching Momo learn to dig deep and believe in himself is something special. I loved the recollection Yamato had from when Oden saw Roger and Whitebeard clash, the sketch-on-parchment sequence creating a stunning look.
Yet despite all the effort that went into these moments, still more was given to Cat Viper and Dogstorm. It's kind of wild to talk about One Piece these days, because you end up saying things like:
“So the giant Garfield and Oden analogues faced off against a big licky tongue man and a punk rock wooly mammoth. They used their transformation powers to deliver killer blows that blew up their enemies' lollipops and belt buckles, respectively. Oh and it was also one of the hardest cuts of animation you'll ever see in your life.”
But for One Piece fans, all of that obviously makes sense and completely tracks.
I'm not even sure what to say that your eyes couldn't tell you. Among the dozens (hundreds?) of side stories and sub-plots that One Piece has going on right now, the “Dogstorm and Cat Viper seek vengeance for Pedro” is one that is so far down my interest list I often forget it's still a thing. Yet while watching this episode, I was shouting and cheering as loud as anybody. If you showed this episode to someone out of context they'd probably walk away saying “I have no clue what's going on but the warrior cat and dog were my favorite characters.” And it would be hard to argue with that.
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...
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 ...