After a rather tedious episode last week, Wano swiftly gets back on track with both bombast and story progress. We left off with Basil Hawkins and his straw man pursuing Luffy and Zoro as they dash their way through the dessert, hoping to find a nearby village to get Tama her much-needed first aid. The first half of this episode concludes the Hawkins fight, with Zoro going all out to tear the straw man to shreds in a slickly animated finishing move. The sinister clouds part and Hawkins retreats, leaving our heroes back to square one.
We meet a few new characters this week, starting with Otsuru (not to be confused with the Navy Vice Admiral, also named Tsuru), the Ukiyo-e-faced teahouse owner that Zoro inadvertently saved a few episodes ago. Tsuru leads our protagonists to Okobore Town, where we meet Okiku, the stupendously tall teahouse waitress currently fending off the advances of Urashima, Wano's reigning sumo champion. Urashima is well-regarded and rich, so he can offer Kiku a comfortable living if she'd marry him, but she insists that their social standing is too different, trying to keep her rejection polite. The private farms that the shogun and his associates use are brought up in this conversation, which are the only sources of clean food and water in the country. Kiku seems to know what's up, however, and wants nothing to do with the sumo-champ or the shogun.
The table scraps of plot we receive this week are at least satisfying in execution. One of the greatest attributes about this adaptation continues to be in the opportunities that the anime can add scenes to connect plot points together more organically. In the manga, there's a lot that's skirted off-screen as Luffy arrives in Okobore Town and Urashima gets shooed away. In the anime, we get the whole sequence of events as the Straw Hats arrive with a sick child, giving Kiku a reason to blue-ball Urashima and tend to someone else. Threatened by these tough-looking new men, Urashima walks away, inviting Kiku to a sumo show in the neighboring town and setting up a later scene in the story.
It's the last few minutes of this episode that provide the largest whirlwind of new information. We end up cycling very quickly between our introduction to Kiku, and then our reintroduction to Trafalgar Law and the Heart pirates, and then we wrap the episode up with an anime-original scene showing Kaido ominously sitting on his throne. "He's the strongest creature in the world, but for now he's simply waiting around and biding his time," the narrator pointedly tells us. No, seriously, this character is going to be important eventually! It's a little silly how calorie-free this tease is, and yet it sells the crap out of Kaido's sinister presence. He's truly a mythical, larger-than-life figure, and the atmosphere alone goes a long way in rousing the audience's attention.
We're tiptoeing our way through the early stages of this arc, but there hasn't been a boring scene in Wano outside of last week's episode. There's a lot of important set-up this week, and even the Hawkins material manages to wake up and put on a show. Okobore Town is the first proper village outside of the bustling Flower Capital that we've encountered, so this is where we'll be getting into the nitty gritty of the country's poverty, and its citizens' relationship with the powers that be. For now, the scenario is fairly standard as far as fantasy epics go, but for now I say it's worth trusting the pondering drip feed as this ocean-sized story gradually takes shape.
I can't recommend the series, nor think that any hypothetical viewer would enjoy it, but it is the kind of trash TV that's rewarding to dissect.― Have you ever wondered what Baki would be like if it had a conservative bent instead of queer undertones? Well, look no further because the answer is Kengan Ashura! While Kengan is trying to convey the same spectacle and white-knuckle action of the long-ru...
Film also available to rent, purchase digitally on several major outlets in N. America― The official X/Twitter account for TOHO's Godzilla franchise announced on Saturday that Takashi Yamazaki's Godzilla Minus One film is streaming worldwide on Netflix. The film is available worldwide, but is currently not available in Japan. Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color, the black-and-white version of the film, w...
One Piece: Heroines novel also licensed― Viz Media revealed its new licenses and new print releases planned for spring 2025 on Friday. Kazuyoshi Seto's Minecraft: The Manga: Announcement: Add this book to your enchantment room! Join Nico on his chance to escape the blocky confines of his home and prove how strong he's become when zombies attack! Minecraft: The Manga, by Kazuyoshi Seto, releases Spri...
Series starring Miku Martineau, Ayo Solanke, more starts production in Toronto― The Hollywood Reporter entertainment news site reported on Thursday that showrunner Simon Barry (Warrior Nun creator) and Boat Rocker Media are producing a live-action series for Netflix titled BET that "is based in part" on writer Homura Kawamoto and artist Tōru Naomura's Kakegurui - Compulsive Gambler manga. The show h...
Jean-Karlo attempts to condense two big video game showcases into a coherent column, from the revamped Silent Hill 2 to the grazing pastures of Story of Seasons.― Welcome back, folks. This is related to a big story for this week, but this past weekend, I listened to Utada Hikaru's re-recording of "Simple And Clean". It's very emotional. Utada Hikaru is a good twenty-plus years older than when she or...
In the Eisner-nominated work, Maki Fujiwara chronicles her daily life with her husband, lionized mangaka Yoshiharu Tsuge. Though deceptively simple at first glance, a foundation of abuse is slowly revealed.― At first blush, Maki Fujiwara's My Picture Diary does what it says on the tin. It tells the story of her daily life as a housewife and mother, spending time with her daily activities, noting the...
Now streaming on Netflix, Tomotaka Shibayama's first feature animation mixes the magical with reality to share a simple but important message.―
Director Tomotaka Shibayama's latest film, My Oni Girl, is an action-adventure drama with elements of a buddy comedy and a relatable coming-of-age story. The film, produced by Studio Colorido, was released in theaters in Japan and on Netflix on May 24, foll...
Miyano, Nukumi play original characters for August 2 film― The official website for My Hero Academia the Movie: You're Next (My Hero Academia: You're Next), the fourth anime film in the My Hero Academia franchise, announced on Friday that the film has cast Mamoru Miyano and Meru Nukumi as original characters. Mamori Miyano as Giulio Gandini, a butler who serves the Scervino family Meru Nukumi as Ann...
Kaiju No. 8 takes the top spot this week while Tonari no Yōkai-san pushes to #3 in the cmulative! Check out 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 are based on how people rated in...
Mospeada is a work very much of its time, riffing on ideas and tropes that were all the rage when it was made, and doesn't do anything exceptional with them.― It can be easy for even longtime fans to forget that alongside Macross, there were two other 80's sci-fi anime that got Frankenstein-ed into what we'd eventually call Robotech. While this isn't the first time one of those series has made it to...
Following the upcoming retro programming block Toonami Rewind, Chris and Lucas look back fondly on the afternoons spent watching Naruto and Sailor Moon.― Following the upcoming retro programming block Toonami Rewind, Chris and Lucas look back fondly on the afternoons spent watching Naruto and Sailor Moon. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the participants in this chatlog are not the v...
Yeah, yeah, Kaiju No. 8 has all the great action scenes, but Yatagarasu is chewing up the scenery as the royal ladies absolutely lose their minds!?― Why Aren't You Watching This Anime Yet? Yeah, yeah, Kaiju No. 8 has all the great action scenes, but Yatagarasu is chewing up the scenery as the royal ladies absolutely lose their minds!? The ANN After Show streams live on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitte...
Here we have a from-the-ground-up remake, but does this beloved classic still hold up in a modern sense, or is that praise just nostalgia talking?― It's nice when Nintendo surprises us with a remaster or re-release of one of their more difficult-to-obtain games. The original Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door for the Nintendo GameCube is a classic for many. However, since the game was never re-rele...
Miles Atherton crunched Netflix's latest numbers for some surprising anime discoveries, from the popularity of My Happy Marriage to the One Piece juggernaut.― Since the advent of streaming, it's been notoriously difficult to gauge how popular a specific anime is with international audiences, both for publishers looking to make informed decisions for a market that generates most of its revenue outsi...