One Piece Anime: Wano Arc, Episodes 941-955

Yet another batch of my commentary of the One Piece anime! Not really much to say here, on with the commentary. 

I have been a bit more glib about manga spoilers, but I feel like it's going to be a bit hard. So SPOILER WARNING for the manga -- I'll try not to be too specific, but I'll be dropping some spoilers to things that are revealed around the time of the raid's beginning. 

Episode 941:

• 
  I still find how clever it is how the manga ties together Smile (which we know that Kaidou's people are having) with how the people of Ebisu Town are constantly smiling and laughing. It's in our face all the while, and I really didn't catch it until this revelation in the manga's equivalent of this episode.
• Kanjurou mourns and cries about what a blunder it is for him not noticing Yasuie's real identity, and that he should commit seppuku. Innocuous enough, but like so many of Kanjurou's lines in this segment of the Wano Arc, his true motivations add such a neat layer to this line. 
• God damn, that shot of Luffy being absolutely pissed off when he delivers the line "no one deserves to be laughed at as they die."
• Random Pandaman cameo among the Gifters in Shinobu's explanation! 
• MOTHER FUCKER THAT TOAD OIL SCENE IS SO SAD. That's the most heartbreaking of everything that's been going on -- Yasu's death is sad enough as it is, the SMILE backstory is horrifying, but Toko crying as she dabs on the toad oil that the audience knows is just Usopp's bogus medicine on Yasu's corpse... my god that tugs at the heart strings so much. 
• Yeah, if there was any doubt that the anime improves on the manga so much, this definitely hit me with much less emotional impact in the manga. I don't think I was indifferent, but I was definitely like 'oh, they made a character I don't care about into an impactful death'. With the anime buildup and execution, Yasu's death is  pretty much the highlight of this act of Wano. 
• So, yeah. I knew it was coming, but Zoro and Sanji jumping in to block Orochi's bullet from hitting Toko is extra cathartic because of all this buildup.

Episode 942:

• This episode's mostly the Zoro/Sanji team-up hype, but, again, all the buildup does give this a huge sense of catharsis. 
• Zoro straight-up was going to kill Orochi with that Phoenix Pound Cannon, if Kyoshiro hadn't jumped in. This single act (which happened in the manga, but I forgot about) has made Kyoshiro a lot more impressive in my eyes. Also, in hindsight, it also saved the Onigashima raid plan, since without Orochi, there wouldn't be a party in Onigashima. 
• Yeah, that shot of Franky's grinning face with one of his eyes glowing like the goddamn Terminator is still badass. 
• Okay, that shot with Zoro backlit with Nami's lightning is even more badass than Franky. 
• There's a series of the Straw Hats doing their attacks in front of painting-style vignettes. That's pretty neat. 
• Speaking of clever twists, we get the Kamazo/Killer reveal. So this is why Killer got sent to the prison -- it's as punishment for failing Orochi's assassination mission!

Episode 943:

• Zoro vs. Kyoshiro! Sanji vs. Drake! These fights get extended, with a particularly cool shot from a distance as Zoro and Sanji both does attacks that slam down to the ground. There's also black lightning when Zoro clashes with Kyoshiro, which I think symbolizes clashing Haki in the anime?
• "JIGOKU BIWA!" -proceeds to machinegun Zoro- bless you, Benten. 
• The Oniwabanshu actually get to do stuff! The weird Kortopi-looking guy shoots arrows out of his hat. Fuujin can shoot out Rasengans! Daikoku is basically the most vocal of the Oniwabanshu throughout Yasu's execution. 
• Law gets a pretty badass samurai entrance! 
• Drake didn't get as dominated as Page One was, but yeah, Sanji totally knocked him down with that Diable Jambe barrage.  
• Okay, the Sanji/Zoro/Hiyori bit near the end of the episode is far, far more hilarious than it has any right to be. "But I have the higher bounty!"
• Oh. Right. Big Mom. -sigh-

Episode 944:

• A lot of the slower, more oddly-paced parts of Wano have effectively been redeemed in my eyes as some of the best One Piece moments ever. But rampaging, amnesiac Big Mom is still easily the black mark of this arc. 
• I really do have a newfound appreciation for the Kin'emon/Ashura fight. In the manga it's this interesting distraction that happens in the background, but we eventually just brush it aside after a bit of a scuffle to get the Scabbards on the same page. It's a dick move on Kin'emon's part, and he admits it! But here, knowing that Kin'emon actually deliberately set Ashura's bandits into fighting with Holdem's faction, and later owning it up to Ashura... it also kind of shows that Kin'emon is actually at least a half-decent tactician, while showing the destruction of Atamayama shows the destructive extent of his plan.
• Okay, I did like that change of colours when Queen transforms into a Brachiosaur. 

Episode 945:

• I do appreciate that while Luffy's pretty blasé and hotheaded in terms of fighting Queen, he's actually genuinely treating Big Mom as a serious threat. Now if only the story would actually do so consistently... 
• A brachiosaurus that jumps into the air to rocket down like a cannon upon his foes is a ridiculous enough image in the manga. But animated? Bless you, One Piece, for making your dinosaurs so fucking weird. 
• Poor, poor Queen. I almost feel sorry for the guy!
• Caribou and Raizou are actually shown taking out the guards and the communications unit that would've alerted Kaidou. Neat! I have a huge appreciation whenever these shorter moments are actually shown instead of just told offhandedly after the sequence is over. 
• While I'm not a huge fan of Big Mom's oshiruko rampage, that's some hilarious usage of music when it trails off as Big Mom opens the empty pot. 
• "Oh yeah! I'm disguised as a samurai now! She doesn't recognize me!" Funniest line in this entire manga. 

Episode 946:

• Okay, Luffy ripping off the bomb collars get an unexpectedly badass animation. 
• The transition between the badass delivery of "COME! YONKO!" and Big Mom slapping Luffy and Hyo so hard they faceplant into a wall is always hilarious to me. 
• They also really play up 'Hyo dies (??!)' segment with sad music and a cutaway to the advertisement eyecatcher which doesn't have music. This joke kind of fell flat for me, but I appreciate the effort. 
• Hyogoro's four Yakuza boss buddies actually make minor appearances as Luffy and Big Mom run around the prison. This is the natural sort of filler to slot in this segment of the story, though, isn't it?
• That shot of Queen mid-Brachio-Bomber with a red glint is way cooler than it has any right to be. So is the black-and-white shot of Big Mom and Queen clashing. 
  
  

Episode 947:

• Thank god the amnesia plot's over. Still don't like it. 
• Raizou and Caribou fucking up the communications network really helped to give Luffy an excuse to beat the shit out of everyone, huh?
  
• It's just a short sequence, ultimately, but I really did appreciate the prisoners being so broken that they're unable to even envision that things might get better after the revolution. 
• I don't remember if Babanuki's explanation about why they kept him alive for so long is in the manga (Orochi wanted him to be executed in a very specific way) but I appreciate the explanation regardless. 

Episode 948:

• We actually get an extended fight! Raizou vs. Solitaire! It helps to give a bit more oomph to Raizou delivering Kawamatsu's swords, but we also get to see Raizou's ninja arts that we very rarely see up until the raid. He gets to to some Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!
• I 100% forgot Kawamatsu introduces himself as a sumo-fighter and does some sumo stuff before he pulls out his sword. 
• Holy shit, the anime made Kawamatsu's relatively simple Kappa-style slash look so god damn cool just by adding some exploding cubes and a whole lot of spinning. 
• Another scene that's very cool both in the manga and anime are the members of the Akazaya Nine (and Hyogoro) showing off their true identity to raise the morale of the Udon prisoners. 
• Okay, Kiku's mask and her delivery about 'you need to keep your mouths shut' is badass.
• We get an extra and utterly inconsequential scene of Zoro and Hiyori being followed by a ninja. It's also extremely gorgeous with great music and colours for no real reason. I can't get mad at filler if it's so goddamned pretty.
• Chopper gets to do a bit more stuff, like punching people in the face and doing a combo attack with Luffy. 

Episode 949:

• Kiku gets a bunch of extra named attacks in the anime!
• The essence of the scene is the same, but Kid and Killer breaking out, and Kid's frustration about the whole situation and being considered "Luffy's friend" is given more time to sink in than the one off-handed panel that the manga gave us. 
• It's a typical 'stand up and fight, you fuckers' speech, but I did really like the delivery of Luffy's voice actor in this one. I also didn't remember Luffy pointing at Babanuki and Solitaire and going "you guys, take care of the rest". That's badass. 

Episode 950:

• Luffy asking Kid to join his fight isn't shown in the manga, but is alluded to in a later chapter, I think? Well, regardless, the whole Kid-in-prison stuff actually felt like a bit of an arc. I like it a  lot better than its manga counterpart.
• Ashura Doji showing Kin'emon and Inuarashi the giant graveyard filled with the dead samurai who couldn't wait is always a sobering moment for me. In these sort of Shonen manga things always tend to go according to what's convenient for the hero, but I did like that this sequence acknowledges that there are a lot of sacrifices in the way -- even if the sacrifices are of faceless samurai. 
• Some really great 'bloodless carnage' as Ashura Doji looks at the souls and lives rising into the blood-red sky as his comrades die. The Wano arc has been great at showing a lot of death without making it graphpic. 
• Yeah, Luffy's tough-love mentoring and goading of Momonosuke to get him to have more self-confidence did start from this part of the arc, huh. They also play up the massive distrust towards pirates and why Momonosuke is needed a lot better in the anime. 

Episode 951:

• The first half of the episode is almost entirely filler! Zoro and Hiyori running away from Orochi ninjas! Kind of a sensible filler and a follow-up to the whole Zoro-vs-Kamazou thing, but, again, other than some sick animation and showing off Zoro as a badass, this episode is kind of just filler. What absolutely pretty filler, though. 
• Out of the ninjas, the ones that is named character is the Whiscash-riding Fuujin. The giant catfishes can move through ground! He has glowing swords and can apparently use wind-style ninjutsu -- that's what I'm assuming are ninja skills are until proven otherwise. Obviously, Zoro one-shots Fujin, but at least he's a named guy.
• We also get actual blood in this episode! Lots of blood! Haven't seen blood in a while! 
• The pretty Zoro-vs-ninjas stuff is nice, but then we get a bunch of recap flashbacks to the Tonoyasu/Toko stuff. Which... I get it, it's not that much, but it's pretty noticeable.
• I like those Wano-style wanted posters a lot. 
• I also really like Bepo. He doesn't get a lot to do, but I love every time he shows up. 

Episode 952:

• So did Kanjurou actually bury Yasuie's body? 
• Another pretty long replaying of Yasuie's death and his mocking of Orochi in this episode. It's a great scene, I get that, but I feel like showing the entirety of it over and over again does kind of make it lose part of its impact. 
• Brook pretending to be a ghost attached to Usopp and Robin while they make the EEEEH face is still one of the funniest scenes in Wano. 
• Zoro vs Gyukimaru is actually animated! That thrust causing shockwaves through the air that felled Gyukimaru is yet another in a long list of badass Wano Zoro scenes. 
• Kawamatsu gets to be a badass with that sword toss! I do like that Zoro immediately recognizes him as a fishman, while "Gyukimaru", I guess, didn't have his Wanyudo devil fruit when he hung out with Kawamatsu in the past. 

Episode 953:

• Kaidou vs. Big Mom! It's a mostly offscreen fight in the manga, and here we just get an Ikoku against Raimei Hakkei, and then they do a bunch of clashes in the air, but it's still pretty damn badass, you know? 
• That series of shots of Kaidou and Big Mom undulating while roaring as they ready their weapons, leading to the splitting of the heavens, is pretty badass. The animation team also went ham with the black-and-white Conqueror's Haki lightning. 
• What is that UEEENHH sound Queen makes when he gets called out?
• The four named yakuza bosses in the prison are kind of the perfect characters to flesh out without having to worry that it'll impact the story, huh? It also allows them to actually feel like they're doing something in the background to help out. 
• I like that during Kin'emon and Raizou talking to each other, we get a little bit from Inuarashi going "wait, Kawamatsu is there?!"
• Seeing Hiyori explain it twenty years or so later, it's heartwarming -- she left Kawamatsu to prevent him from dying of starvation because he gave all the food to Hiyori; but god damn how long did Kawamatsu have to deal with the pain of losing Oden's daughter, losing the one mission he's left to do? The next episode even makes it clear that Kawamatsu very nearly committed seppuku. Thank goodness that didn't happen, but still...
• Hell yea Kawamatsu and Zoro team-up. 

Episode 954:

• The Kawamatsu/Onimaru flashback have always felt like a distraction when I read this weekly, but whether watching it in the anime or during my reread of the Wano arc, it now feels like a pretty important world-building bit. I don't really have a whole ton to say other than 'awww' throughout this whole episode. 
• I don't remember if the Bingo/Bungo/Bongo trio is actually involved in the manga's version of the events, but even if they are, their role is definitely extended more to give an antagonist to Kawamatsu's story. 
• We get a brief animation of Oden in silhouette cutting Kaidou here. They really basically have revealed what Oden looks like at this point to the anime watchers, yeah?

Episode 955:

• God damn that shot of Ryuma is pretty, tho.
• I don't know if it's just them giving the scenes time to sink in or if they reworked the dialogue, but I felt like Law's subplot felt a bit less awkwardly-paced than how it went in the manga. It's also a bit more explicit that Law beat Hawkins in a battle here as well. 
• The anime makes the identity of Law's ally a lot more obvious. It's a short frame, but you can clearly see the distinctive hair. 
• That's a neat static-y effect when Hawkins recalls how Apoo's a traitor. 
• Notice that everyone says "I get it" when discussing the change in the Habu Port code but only Kin'emon explains it. That's actually a pretty clever bit of foreshadowing for a future plot point. 
• Right, Apoo is a fast-talking rapper! It comes off so much more clearly in the anime! 
• I love how utterly irreverent Kaidou and Big Mom are as they announce their alliance. I bet the audience's reaction was more or less the same as Queen's. I know mine was, back when I read this scene in the manga. 

Next up we'll do around 10-15 episodes again!