Last week, the show left off with the promise of a “rain-ruption.” We learn that Zunesha, the giant elephant that this country sits atop, does its elephant thing and sprays itself with water several times a day. Since Zunesha is huge, this simple act looks like a volcano erupting to the people below, as water violently floods the area without prejudice.
Right off the bat, one of the most grabbing scenes of the episode is actually a filler sequence where Luffy gets washed away from his new Mink friends, and Carrot has to quickly jump through the trees to save him. The animation is super cool, and this time it's unmistakably the work of Naotoshi Shida (the Fourth Gear transformation sequence guy, among other scenes). I couldn't name any other sakuga artists from this show, but I'm going to point him out any chance I get, darn it!
The episode ultimately ends up feeling shockingly varied compared to most installments of the show. There's the aforementioned rescue scene, exposition scenes, comedy scenes, and all that's before the very end when Luffy and company finally reunite with (most of) their remaining crew. It turns out that the Mink tribe are not the human-hating group we were led to believe, and in fact are extraordinarily affectionate across the board. There are Minks of all kinds of animal species, and as far as they're concerned, humans are just monkey Minks with less fur.
The concept of race relations has been very prevalent in One Piece, especially since the time skip. The Minks' carefree attitude toward humans and their expectations of racism has just a twinge of judgement to it, similar to the response that Den from Fishman Island had to the same question. Since Minks and Fishmen/Merfolk are generally born with a random “species”, the need to divide between groups isn't as ingrained in their culture. In the One Piece world, racism is a uniquely human creation.
As it stands, the affection that the Minks give to the crew seems suspiciously furry-friendly. We've already seen Wanda and Carrot licking and nibbling Luffy, and we soon learn that Nami and Chōpper have more than embraced all the “garchuu~”ing that their new friends have given them. This show wants you to think about these humans and animals banging, basically. Still, it's done with such a harmless sense of fun that I'm happy to go along with it.
The episode ends with most of the Straw Hat crew reuniting. Luffy, Zoro, Usopp, Robin, and Franky were together through most of Dressrosa, and now Nami and Chōpper are back with them as well. Their reunion is heartwarming and full of happy thoughts, but once Luffy asks about Sanji, things take a mysteriously dark turn. Clearly something has happened to him, and we'll have to wait and find out.
I'm loving all of these Zou episodes so far, and this one is probably my favorite. Overall, the production just looks so polished, and the variety of content is incredibly satisfying. This is a perfect example of an episode that pads the story out and injects filler in a way that feels both creative and natural. I had to double-check the manga to see how much content was new because it all felt equally “real,” even if some of it is just killing time. I'm loving Zou, loving the new characters we're meeting, and I can't wait to see the mysteries continue to unfold.
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 ...