As glowing as I was toward last week's episode, I was kind of conceding to its choice to frame Pedro's sacrifice as entirely heroic. I figured that either the anime wasn't interested in committing to the darker atmosphere and opted instead to play things completely straight, or that the murkier flavor was just me reading too much into things. So I'm elated to come back this week and see the show indulging in as much of that darkness as I could have reasonably asked for.
It's noteworthy that these days we have a show like My Hero Academia, which puts so much emphasis on asking its heroes to take care of themselves. It's a notorious struggle against overwork for manga artists and animators, which can so easily cast themes of self-sacrifice and tenacity in shonen manga in a new light. Eiichiro Oda is pretty infamous for an unhealthy commitment to his work. A series like MHA says don't get yourself killed. Think about how much pain you're putting your loved ones through by romanticizing that kind of overwork. Whole Cake Island feels like the most that Oda has ever empathized with that kind of message (appropriately at a time when the manga is taking more frequent breaks for this very reason), but in doing so, he seems to also acknowledge that his characters might be incapable of ever learning that lesson.
"I have to live up to the expectations that made you sacrifice yourself," is what Carrot says to herself in the wake of Pedro's death. The smoke from Pedro's dynamite blocks the daylight. The sound design is straight out of a horror movie. There's a jaguar-shaped hole in our crew now, and sympathy for the dead is just twisting the knife. I love how the Straw Hats are still glancing at the shoreline, expecting Pedro to have survived just as much as the audience, but instead it's that damned Perospero walking the explosion off with only a missing limb. The sickening mixture of emotions is so potent.
For how slow the anime adaptation can be, this is one of those episodes that feels like it's over within five minutes. On top of the Pedro fallout, the problems continue to stack up with Katakuri's counter attack, the Coup de Burst's warm-up time, and Big Mom already chewing on the back of the Thousand Sunny, looking even more like an actual monster. Luffy doesn't miss a beat in securing his role as captain of the ship. When the Sunny finally does blast off, he yanks Katakuri into Brulee's mirror world with him and smashes the mirror so neither of them can escape back to the Sunny. He's leaving the naval battle to his crew, the cake-baking to Sanji, and the fight with the one billion man to himself. The whole situation is so thrilling and badass.
The One Piece anime is firing on all cylinders this week. This is an alarmingly good episode, a cut above what I've gotten used to expecting. It's atmospheric, visually detailed, and rich with a plethora of emotions vying for the audience's attention. I know the show can't stay at this level of quality for long, but I desperately wish it could. Carrot gets a lot of focus this week, to my delight, and we see a version of Luffy that's been absent for a while—the underdog with balls of steel. The crew is willfully throwing themselves into those big one-in-a-million chance scenarios and my blood is on fire with excitement as a result.
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...