We shift focus from the passing of Oden's father to further back in time. For most of the episode we follow the rise of Orochi from simple outcast to a position of power. As a youth, he was chased away and nearly killed as one of the last surviving members of the disgraced Kurozumi family. Two distant relatives found him and through a combination of skill, planning, cunning, and shapeshifting abilities, they managed to help him worm his way into the good graces of the Kozuki family – who he had sworn revenge on. Eventually, this scheme resulted in the conveyance of Oden's father's dying wish that Orochi be made shogun in Oden's absence, which was ultimately a ruse they had put together.
Across the seas, Oden continues to live an exciting and tumultuous life. He continued to travel with the Whitebeard pirates as his children grew older. Whitebeard and Gol D Roger encounter one another again after many years, and Oden rushes quickly to shore, runs across the waves, and barrels through Roger's crew to face the legendary pirate. He is promptly blown away by Roger's powerful strike through a dozen or so trees, and Whitebeard comes soaring out of the air behind Oden's crash and strikes towards Roger. Roger and Whitebeard are so powerful and evenly matched that the entire earth shatters around them, and yet their potent haki makes it such that their blades are not even touching. As they both grin with excitement, the episode cuts to the To Be Continued card.
We're really In It Now™ folks.
All One Piece flashbacks are potent and powerful, but few can elicit the raw excitement that this moment has.
It goes without saying that the Toei team knocks it out of the park once again. Wano is basically a long-running showcase for 'amazing things that can happen within the constraints of weekly television production.' The sequences with Roger and Whitebeard going toe to toe with one another are exactly as momentous as they should be. As the screen shakes, the world trembles under the might of these two men both in-text and meta-textually. Hats off to the Toei crew once again.
I think this is also one of those uniquely powerful One Piece moments. Few serialized works have run for this long and this consistently. When you have legendary figures meeting in a work that spans over 23 years, it truly is a ground-breaking event. There are a lot of interesting ways a creator can endow characters with a sense of great purpose or mythos-defining gravitas, and Oda uses these quite deftly in One Piece. But there is also something to be said for the sheer enormity of One Piece, the raw amount of material and time spent in this setting, that these characters coming into conflict feels like a grand culmination of the work. It truly is a powerful moment.
Orochi's backstory occupies the majority of the run time of course, and I think it is also very engaging. Sometimes detailing a villain's rise to power is less about making them sympathetic and more about establishing their perspective. I don't think the narrative is really trying to make the reader feel bad for Orochi per se – though obviously what happened to him as a giant is horrific and is precisely the kind of thing from which lifelong vendettas are born. Rather, I think the aim here is to establish the depths to which Orochi will go in order to achieve what he wanted. He didn't just oopsie-doopsie fall into this position while Oden was away. In fact, he worked just as hard to complete his takeover as Oden did to travel the world. It's a slow, unsympathetic burn, but it burns bright nonetheless.
If I were to sum up Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable! in a single word, that word would be “cute.”― If I were to sum up Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable! in a single word, that word would be “cute.” Shiki and Fuyuki's interactions are a mixture of playful (and sometimes sexual) teasing and heartfelt feelings as the two come to value each other. They have real chemistry—and that drives the anime stra...
Lucas and Steve catch up on the Hunter × Hunter manga in time for the long-awaited new chapter and gush about why, even with years between releases, Hunter × Hunter is worth it.― Lucas and Steve catch up on the Hunter × Hunter manga in time for the long-awaited new chapter and gush about why, even with years between releases, Hunter × Hunter is worth it. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed...
Series previously inspired 52-episode anime in 1993― This year's 24th issue of Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine revealed on Wednesday that Gosho Aoyama's Yaiba manga will be getting a new anime adaptation. Aoyama is supervising. The series follows the titular Yaiba Kurogane, a young samurai boy inspired by Miyamoto Musashi, the real-life swordsman who pioneered the Hyōhō Niten Ichi-ryū sty...
Based on the novel by former Nogizaka46 member Kazumi Takayama, trapezium asks its audience to follow one girl who will use anything, and anyone, to achieve her dream.― Trapezium is a strange movie, to say the least. On the surface, it's a rather simple movie that explores youth, their dreams, and the lengths they'll go to achieve those dreams. It's a coming-of-age story wrapped in the veneer of the...
ZeroReq011 remembers what made Spice and Wolf a story for the ages, from its fully realized world and economics to Holo and Lawrence's romantic chemistry.― Back when Funimation was still its own company and not owned by Sony, long before its in-house streaming service was terminated in favor of Crunchyroll's streaming platform, it owned a TV channel. Legal streaming had yet to dominate the Western a...
Anime will star Hiroshi Kamiya, Kotaro Nishiyama, Kotaro Nishiyama― Distribution company Remow announced on Tuesday that Yura Urushibara's Tougen Anki: Dark Demon of Paradise manga will get a television anime in 2025. The company revealed the trailer, key visual, and main cast for the anime. The anime's cast includes:
Kazuki Ura as Shiki Ichinose, the protagonist who inherits the blood of an Oni. Sh...
Nick and Chris recount some of the most frustrating anime cancellations, from the Yuri on Ice movie to the second half of Stars Align.― Nick and Chris recount some of the most frustrating anime cancellations from the second half of Stars Align to the 2007 JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood movie. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the participants in this chatlog are not the views...
Welcome to the rankings for the Spring 2024 season! The perfect place to check out which hidden gems might have flown under your radar.― 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 ...
Producer Masakazu Kubo shares the animation team's dedication to realism, including bringing in a pro golfer to produce the anime's sound effects.― 64-year-old Masakazu Kubo has been planning and producing anime for decades. He's had a major hand in everything from Pokémon and Detective Conan to Teasing Master Takagi-san and Dorohedoro. Recently, he sat down with us to talk about Tonbo!, his attemp...