Last week began the fight between Luffy and the forces of Big Mom's army, and this week ends it. Even if he were in better shape, it's hard to imagine Luffy was ever much of a match for an Emperor's crew. I'm still not especially hot on the idea of splitting this fight into several episodes, since it works best as a quick decisive blow, but this half of the battle demonstrates a lot of the enemy crew's cool tricks. The flashiest of these is Charlotte Montd'or's book-themed Devil Fruit, where he transports Luffy into a hallucinogenic dream world while the rest of the crew pummels him.
Luffy's determination to stay put as he waits for Sanji to return continues to be the central anchor of this part of the story, because it makes for a definitive loss when he can't hold his grip and passes out to be taken away with Nami, who also puts up a good fight in this episode. While I'm still getting impatient with the anime's current pacing, I found the consequences for our heroes effective. This is a real defeat.
It's appropriate that we're getting more acquainted with Big Mom's lesser-known children at this point, which might be a benefit of the drawn-out pacing. The likes of Montd'or or Galette are not the hot shots of this family (a casual viewer might even forget their names), but the fact that they all have their own unique powers and relationships is important to giving this family dimension. We're about to spend a lot of time with these faces in the crowd, and I'd put them a step above your usual cronies.
The other important piece of this episode comes from a conversation between Sanji and Big Mom herself, where Sanji agrees to cooperate with the wedding and asks that Big Mom let his friends leave the island safely in return. We've seen this situation before—like when Spandam made a similar promise to Robin, and we all know how well villains keep their promises in this series—but it's cool seeing Big Mom be reasonable and accept the deal. She's very upfront about how Luffy's crimes against her family would be unforgivable in any other situation, and she hovers over Sanji looking more like Yubaba from Spirited Away than ever. This is still the point in the story where we're supposed to wonder who the bigger villain is between Big Mom and Judge, and so far Big Mom seems to at least have a nice side of some variety.
We're getting whiffs of the world-building that Whole Cake Island offers, especially as Luffy and Nami get taken prisoner, but so far it's only whiffs. This is another situation where I found the content at hand to be pretty strong, but it sure doesn't give you a lot to talk about as it tiptoes its way through the middle portion of this arc. There are loads of ideas being presented as the lower rungs of Big Mom's army strut their stuff, but at the end of the day it's still a couple pages of manga material being drawn out. The Straw Hats' defeat is at the very least believable, which isn't always the case during mid-arc low points.
Manga's final chapter scheduled for June 26― This year's 25th issue of Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine announced on Wednesday that Hiro Mashima's Edens Zero manga will end five chapters. The magazine's 30th issue will publish the manga's final chapter on June 26. The manga entered its final arc in December 2022. Mashima (Fairy Tail, Rave Master) launched the manga in Weekly Shōnen Magazine in June...
Narrative dissonance aside, the heart of My Oni Girl still shines through its jumbled ending: that folks should speak their minds even when it hurts.― Upon first glance, My Oni Girl has all the hallmarks of a Studio Ghibli-inspired romp. You've got a globe-trodding adventure with odd-couple protagonists, a myriad of wonderfully drawn vistas, titular mouthwatering glamour shots of Japanese delicacies...
Ahead of the Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction TV anime premiere, Rebecca Silverman looks at its creator's stark, and sometimes depressing, manga work.― Inio Asano may be one of the creators whose works don't allow for middle-ground opinions. There's something in the reactions to his work that smacks of “love it or hate it,” with readers either fully embracing his dark, psychological style of s...
Furuya acknowledged threatening to hurt fan in argument, causing her to have abortion― On his X (formerly Twitter) account on Wednesday, voice actor Tōru Furuya acknowledged a recent report by the Weekly Bunshun magazine regarding an affair he had with a fan. Weekly Bunshun interviewed him for the article. Furuya admitted that he had been in a relationship with a female fan for four and a half years...
Manga about half human, half chimpanzee boy launched in 2020― TOHO Animation announced on Wednesday that Shun Umezawa's The Darwin Incident (Darwin Jihen manga will get a television anime adaptation. A new official Twitter account opened and unveiled a teaser visual: Original creator Umezawa shared an illustration to commemorate the announcement: TOHO Animation had teased on its X (formerly Twitter)...
The book feels like a deliberate combo of SAO, Log Horizon, and Suppose a Kid From the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town, and that works better than you might expect.― If this story feels familiar, that's on purpose. In their afterword, author Nagawasabi64 says that they've noticed that the "trapped in a VRMMORPG" genre made popular by SAO has fallen out of favor, which made them want to ...
There's no question that Go! Go! Loser Ranger! is a dark deconstruction of Super Sentai/Power Rangers in anime form—but is that all it is? Chris and Lucas dive in to find out.― There's no question that Go! Go! Loser Ranger! is a dark deconstruction of Super Sentai/Power Rangers in anime form—but is that all it is? Chris and Lucas dive in to find out. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by ...
Umezu voiced Diamante in One Piece, Ian Vashti in Gundam 00 2nd Season― Voice talent company 81 Produce announced on Tuesday that voice actor Hideyuki Umezu died on May 17 due to interstitial pneumonia. He was 68. A funeral ceremony was held by relatives. Umezu was born on July 24, 1955 in Aichi Prefecture. Umezu voiced the characters of Diamante in One Piece, Ian Vashti in Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Sec...
This is a good series to check out if you like more bite with your vampire romances.― Going into Bloody Sweet, I expected to find a fluffy rom-com about a girl and the vampire she accidentally gets attached to. Instead, I found a story about a bullied high school girl whose bullies are smart enough to evade all of the checks and balances the school has put in place. When Naerim accidentally awakens ...
In our brand-new column, Lynzee Loveridge comes clean about her backlog, starting with one of the most popular anime ever. Use this space here for critical finger-wagging and exclamations of disbelief.― I have a secret. A no-good, embarrassing, shame-inducing secret. I'm the executive editor at Anime News Network but there are, in fact, anime I have not watched. Not just forgettable mid-tier season...
Chiu shares how she brought the SEA simulcast service to the forefront after founding it at 17 years old.― Over the past six years, many streaming and simulcast services have catered to otaku in Asia, offering simulcasts of seasonal anime and theatrical anime screenings. One such service is Ani-One Asia, a Hong Kong-based Medialink Group brand that offers a competitive lineup of simulcasts every se...
The benefit of being committed to such a simple setup is that the story knows exactly what it needs to do to invoke the maximum emotional response for this type of story.― I Want You To Make Me Beautiful is a simple story that does everything it sets out to do. At its heart, it's a straightforward story about moving on from the pain of a bad breakup and reinventing yourself into something better. Th...