Once again we're entering the wonderful world of One Piece flashbacks. Luffy's half of the Straw Hat crew arrived on Zou in the aftermath of a lot of unseen drama, so everything is presented as vague and mysterious as possible while the characters in the know slowly fill us in, story by story. In the last episode we got the explanation as to how Sanji's group outran the Big Mom pirates, and now this week we start to learn what went down in the recently destroyed Mink city of Kurau.
The ones responsible for the destruction are the Beast pirates, the crew led by Kaido of the Four Emperors. The man leading this specific faction of the crew is a mammoth man named Jack, who's referred to as one of Kaido's top henchmen. We saw a tiny glimmer of Jack's human form during the end of Dressrosa when he and his crew went to rescue Doflamingo from the navy's hold, but the newspaper claims that he has since died at sea. In this flashback, Jack remains in his mammoth form throughout. There could be some poetry in a mammoth being the villain of an arc taking place on the back of a giant elephant, but maybe that's thinking too much about it.
Jack is looking for the ninja, Raizo, who we remember is the friend that Kin'nemon and Kanjuro were hoping to reunite with on Zou. The Mink's swear up and down that they know nothing about a ninja, and this episode mainly exists to demonstrate the Mink's fighting power as Jack and his men are unimpressed by their lack of information. The ordinary citizens have no trouble fending off the lower rungs of Kaido's crew and we're told that Minks are born as natural fighters. Even the babies are strong. One of the most entertaining scenes in this episode is one where a mother and her child fight side by side, beating up pirates in a decently directed and staged fight sequence. The implication of this story, however is that things take a turn for the worse as the stronger individuals of the pirate crew start to take center stage.
Having read the manga, I'm noticing how weird this arc is regarding the mysteries that it's laying out for us. A few episodes ago we were being asked to wonder if the Minks would be enemies of the Straw Hats, only to unveil that they're extremely friendly. Before this reveal, there was Wanda's line "You'll find the corpse of your friend there!" and then, of course, the twist is that she was talking about Brook the skeleton, who is otherwise safe and sound. This is a pretty funny set-up and payoff, but it highlights the thing that's starting to bug me: how vague and mysterious the characters are being about everything, when they actually have no reason to be other than to trick the audience. There's another, much more dramatic twist to come in a few weeks and currently I'm seeing all the ways that the show is milking the setup and realizing how inelegant it is.
After three stellar episodes introducing the Zou arc, we've fallen back into completely competent and average production quality. That's to be expected, so I'm not too let down, but it still doesn't leave me a lot to write home about. Seeing the Minks in their daily life, and then later seeing them kick ass together, was pretty entertaining, though it's all starting to feel like a low budget Disney show with all these anthropomorphic animals in the spotlight.
T・P BON embodies the spirit of classic sci-fi adventure like almost no other recent anime.― I adore classic sci-fi, especially when it involves time travel and grand adventure. T・P BON embodies the spirit of classic sci-fi adventure like almost no other recent anime. Based on a 1978-1986 manga by Doraemon co-creator Fujiko F. Fujio, this ultra-shiny modern adaptation from studio BONES and director M...
Manga launched in 2009, inspired TV anime in 2014― Manga creator Mizuho Kusanagi confirmed on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday that her Yona of the Dawn (Akatsuki no Yona) manga is in its final arc. Kusanagi referenced the final arc alongside the news that the manga won an award in the Long Seller Comics Division for the Rakuten Kobo e-Book Award 2024. Kusanagi — the creator of Mugen Spiral, Game X ...
Art resurfaces when he was announced as judge for Shonen Jump's Sports Manga Award― Being talented in one aspect of your life doesn't stop you from being talented in other aspects. For instance, former seven-time Mr. Olympia Arnold Schwarzenegger went on to have a prolific acting career. But what about Shōhei Ohtani, the biggest name in sports today? Well, it turns out he's not just one of the great...
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...
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...
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...