Fourth Gear lovers rejoice as the action picks back up with our new Bounceman Luffy continuing to wale on Doflamingo as the two trade blows and flex their Devil Fruit-y muscles. The fighting here manages to stay swift and exciting as it carries us through the first part of the episode. Luffy's Haki-infused face as he headbutt's Doffys stomach got a bit of an uncomfortable laugh from me, as it makes his new transformation even scarier looking than it already was.
The action is packed into roughly the first third of this episode, culminating in Luffy's “Leo Bazooka” attack that sends Doflamingo flying into a crater. The unanimous reaction from all the watchers-on is “I can't believe it! Doflamingo has been defeated!”, but we all know it can't possibly be that easy. I'm a little bummed that we even got that exclamation at all, since traditionally that's been the series' way of informing the audience, without ambiguity, that villain has finally been taken down (since the series opts for beating the villains unconscious over any definitive deaths). However, that's proven not to be the case by the end of the episode, not that it felt like it could be over that quickly anyway.
While we wait for Doflamingo to pull himself back out of the rubble, Luffy bounces around, being admired by the townsfolk of Dressrosa. A little too much time out of this episode is spent watching Luffy bounce in place (his new form doesn't allow him to stand still) while he waits for his adversary to start the fight back up. Gives us just a little too much breathing room to think that maybe, just maybe, Fourth Gear is a tiny bit more stupid than it is cool.
Luffy listens to the townsfolk yammer on, discussing who this mysterious, bouncy muscle man could be. Most of them correctly deduce that this man is the pirate, Monkey D. Luffy, as well as
the gladiator who disguised himself earlier in the series as “Lucy”. However, in the middle of all this, Luffy's power-up runs out of juice and he deflates into a tired shriveled up version of himself. Man, if his power had a limit you'd think Luffy wouldn't let Toei kill so much of his precious time!
Anyway, the biggest shocker of this episode comes with Burgess's eagerness to attack Luffy in this weakened state, shouting that he's off to steal the Gum-Gum Fruit. This is super interesting because it raises so many questions about what the Blackbeard pirates are up to and capable of. When Blackbeard stole Whitebeard's Devil Fruit, it seemed possible that it was a result of his own Dark-Dark powers. If Burgess has the power to steal a fruit from somebody without his captain being present, then what exactly is going on? Do they have some kind of special device? Or is it simply about killing Luffy in hopes of nabbing the resurrected fruit that grows in his wake?
We probably won't be finding out any time soon, as Doflamingo finally decides to stop resting about and re-emerges into the city. Relatively speaking, I feel like we got through the first phase of the Fourth gear fight pretty well. Even though I'm fatigued as hell of Dressrosa, I would have been disappointed if the fight was over that quickly. Giving his Fourth Gear a time limit and then forcing a recharge state seems like a pretty obvious move, but it's the right choice in terms of giving the fight a good ebb and flow. Luffy is now totally vulnerable and it's up to the story to keep him safe just long enough for him to deliver the final blow.
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 ...