Oden leaps into the boiling oil in front of all of Wano. Shogun Orochi denies his request from before, laughing him off as he boils. Odens' retainers shout in anguish and run to leap in with their lord. Oden refuses to let them sacrifice themselves in this manner, and before they can jump in he lifts up the deck high over his head. Bearing them aloft he struggles against the heat to keep them from falling in. Kaido is impressed by Oden's strength and agrees to his terms.
As those in the crowd begin mocking Oden, Shinobu can no longer hold back. She recounts the story of how Oden agreed to make a fool of himself in the hopes of saving Wano. We see that fateful encounter from the day Oden challenged Orochi and Kaido five years prior, how Orochi explained his own tragic back story as a victim, and how Orochi uses hostages to make Oden relent. Back in the present, everyone is shocked by these revelations even as Oden attempts to hold his retainers above the boiling oil.
And thus we reach the great climactic scene of Oden's flashback.
Oden's flashback is an interesting one given the rest of the series. I certainly enjoy it, and I think it has a lot of rich world-building - especially with regards to Roger and other legendary figures. We see the world as it was through Oden's experiences and that alone makes it a landmark moment in One Piece as a whole. That being said, I don't know if it hits me in the same way emotionally as some of the prior flashback sequences have in the series. It is strong but not emotionally impactful to me quite in the same manner as those prior greats.
But the image of Oden holding his retainers is incredibly powerful. I would argue that the image of Oden holding up the platform in the boiling oil is perhaps one of the definitive single images in One Piece thus far. Every visual and thematic cue for Oden comes together - from his name to his platform-like hair - in this single act of self-sacrifice. It may not be a tearjerker but it is an amazing visual that stands out even in a crowded field. The only real downside to this episode is that the flashback sequences rehash a lot of material that we the viewers already know from prior episodes, save the bits with the crying hostages.
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 ...