One Piece Anime: Wano Arc, Episodes 956-965

Another batch of Wano episodes! The Oden flashback starts!

If I had been looking forward and looking at episode numbers, I'd have cut off the previous batch of episodes at 956 instead of 955. Oh well!

Episode 956:

• I completely missed the hilarious visual gag of Big Mom drinking Oshiruko just like how Kaidou is drinking alcohol. 
• Dropkick!
• I completely forgot that Tenguyama shows up here to hand over Enma and Ame-no-Habakiri to Momonosuke. 
• Momonosuke immediately declining Ame-no-Habakiri does fit in nicely with how Momonosuke's big character arc in the Wano arc is him slowly, very slowly, developing confidence. He had the Udon prison scene as of now, but that's clearly not enough. 
• So Zoro does know that the blade from earlier in the arc is the Nidai Kitetsu. Hmm! 
  
• God damn the anime studio really loves Zoro. Look at how badass his purple demon aura and all the water splashing on him is. 
• I don't think I've seen too much of it other than Master Roshi from Dragon Ball Z, but I do kind of like the twist that Luffy's trainer, Hyogoro, is utterly outclassed by Luffy in terms of strength and power... but Hyogoro knows a lot about Ryu'o and Haki and can instruct Luffy in technique. It is admittedly kind of annoying that for the past dozen episodes, Luffy and Hyo just basically has their training scenes as filler, but that's besides the point. Thankfully, in this episode, it's over. 
• I don't think that extra scene of Zoro fighting with Enma is in the manga! But it definitely is, I feel, kind of important to emphasize that it took a bit of time for Zoro to master the sword. 
• Oh, right, Shinobu's brother (whose name got revealed in the SBS) shows up for a grand total of one scene here, looking at the prisoners in the Flower Capital. 
• So Tama is the one who made the badass kasa hats for the Scabbards! That's cute, and a great little tie-in with the Ace stuff. The Wiki tells me that this scene is original to the anime, so good job, people in charge of the anime!
• The foreshadowing is a bit more obvious here, but this is where Kawamatsu tells the other Scabbards information that Hiyori is alive... and at the end of this episode, Orochi gets that information.

Episode 957:

• 
  Outside-of-Wano scenes! Fujitora! The Reverie! Garp! Big News Morgans! Dragon! Blackbeard! I had a whole paragraph typed in here, but it's basically a great adaptation of the outside-of-Wano scenes chapter, which is always very hype-inducing. Pretty interesting, too, seeing how smooth the Wano team's art is for these non-Wano characters are.
• Morgans beating up the Cipher Pol agent isn't like, super-extended or anything, but it's extra epic and they added some Epic Anime Eye Glows to our favourite Big News albatross. 
• Wait, isn't like, Impel Down a place to torture prisoners? Why the fuck does Doflamingo get newspapers?
• Having Drake contact Coby in the 'let's see the world outside of Wano' episode/chapter was always a very, very cool and thematic little choice of scenes. 
• Seeing the past Shichibukai animated in the new style as the narrator talks about the half-dozen past Shichibukai are obvious filler but it's pretty good filler, isn't it? Just to see the shots of these characters animated by the new studio? That transition with Blackbeard gura-gura shattering the screen or us zooming into Doflamingo's sunglasses are pretty smooth. 
• How badass is Hancock's delivery of "we became the Shichibukai because we were strong!" as we cut away to all the other Shichibukai getting ready for battle? Still one of the highlights of this whole sequence. 
  

Episode 958:

• I love that this episode isn't even 'let's look at the explosive events around the world' like last episode, but just Sengoku sitting in a room talking and delivering some massive lore revelations to a bunch of nameless marines. But it's all huge bounty reveals and storytime about he legendary Rocks D. Xebec, and it's one of the biggest episodes/chapters of One Piece. 
• SENGOKU'S GOAT! SENGOKU'S GOAT! SENGOKU'S GOAT! SENOGKU'S GOOAAAATT! 
• I do find it interesting that both Sengoku and Akainu are basically 'we have no time or resources to put to Wano', considering some still-developing recent revelations in the manga...

Episode 959:

• I've always found it fun that we start off the flashback (kind of) with Oden as part of the Roger crew. And... we kind of really only know four or five members of the Roger crew well, but I'm pretty sure the Vivre Cards revealed the names and personalities of all the other background members. 
• Of course we start off act three with another shamisen sequence. It even segues into the real scenes of the performers doing a performance for the Fire Festival! 
• I don't think anyone back in the day really thought that the Straw Hats and the Scabbards' allies were really dead, but between the art and the music, they really do a good job at highlighting how desperate Kin'emon's group felt at the moment. 
• I do like how Ashura Doji is the most pessimistic of the group, instantly going 'look, even the weather shows we are abandoned by heaven'. Considering his backstory during the timeskip? Yeah, can't really blame him. 
• Luffy, Brook and Chopper do look pretty good in those kabuto samurai armour. 
• Sanji and Zoro dicking around about bounties and casually slicing off another chunk of the cliff is hilarious. 

Episode 960:

• I know I've been commenting on how Oden's completely-dark-and-silhouetted body has been shown in 'lightly shaded' all throughout the various flashbacks, but, uh, in this episode Orochi just vaguely imagines Oden and we get to see his un-silhouetted, un-shadowed full design. Not going to lie, since we're going to get the flashback revelation literally ten minutes later in this episode, it's a bit of a strange choice. 
• Oh, right, Okobore Town got burned alive. I completely forgot about that! Or, rather, I think that back then I handwaved it as 'they wouldn't really do it'. 
• I love that just for the sake of exposition, Oden's own father and one of the Kozuki retainers randomly decides to 'let us recap Oden's life from the beginning'. 
• We actually get to see Oden's feats when he was young -- like diverting the river -- animated in full glory as the retainer talks about them. That's neat!
• I keep forgetting past-Kin'emon was blond.

Episode 961:

• That Togen Shirataki attack that Oden used to slice up the Mountain God was awesomely animated. It's like something straight out of a mecha anime like Evangelion or something, only instead of a laser beam slicing across the screen causing a delayed explosion, this is a goddamn sword slash cutting down a kaiju-pig. 
  
• This flashback is really great at re-contextualizing lesser characters like Ashura Doji and Yasuie. We already know who they are from the present-day scenes, but seeing them in the past, or seeing where characters like Kin'emon and the other retainers started out, really does a lot at setting up the rich backstory of the Wano characters. 
• I love that Yasuie quickly realizes that 'Oden would've stolen the money openly'. 
• How bizarre are Kanjurou and Raizou's backstories? Kanjurou just hung around a graveyard and cut people's hair to make brushes? Raizou got rejected by a kunoichi and is now an outlaw? 
• I like the offhanded foreshadowing about how Kanjurou 'suffered persecution in the past'. 

Episode 962:

• Pretty obviously, the mostly-offscreen fight between Oden and Ashura Doji and his Kuri bandits is an actual scene in this episode. Oden even gets a new anime-exclusive named attack, 'Shimi Daikon'. It's another oden-ingredient pun! 
• Some really beautifully animated armament haki activation on the part of Oden.
• Love the transition from the full-colour shot of Oden and his retainers posing in front of a restored Kuri, and how it goes into a more stylized, period-accurate brush-drawn black-and-white painting in the Wano newspapers. 
• I guess it's because they're cartoon animals, but baby Kawamatsu, baby Inuarashi and baby Nekomamushi are adorable! The most adorable shot is Kawamatsu chomping on the spilled oden after Neko does his cat-tongue thing. 
• Oden just casually beat up the people trying to burn the minks with one of the giant kois he just caught in order to make oden soup.
• I also love the little explanation about how Oden is already aware about the Minks' existence because of the Kozuki/Zou treaty of the past. 
• I really do like the little training montage. Little Kiku teaching Ashura Doji to read; the sequence of everyone doing quick-draw exercises; Denjirou being the tutor of the group...
• Great use of music, using partial black-and-white colouration, and shadows to make the Akazaya Nine actually look fucking badass when they stride into town. 
• I always love that people who pay attention to the background characters of Whitebeard's massive fleet can spot the younger versions of characters like Whitey Bay, Rakuyo or Epoida among Whitebeard's crew here. They don't really do anything, but it's nice consistency. 

Episode 963:

• I love how the Oden flashback is structured -- they show him initially filled with wanderlust and a desire to set sail before taming Kuri and gaining his retainers... but even after maturing, he never quite lost his desire to set sail and see the world. 
• Kin'emon dyed his hair black at some point before this episode. 
• Oden and Whitebeard clash! It's pretty well-animated, and it splits the ocean. I do like the little purple aura that settles over the characters as Whitebeard senses Oden running towards them. Really love the scenes of Whitebeard and Oden running towards each other, too. 
• The clash of the two named attacks, and Whitebeard's subsequent cracking of the air as his eyes glow green... superb. I could just go on and on about how cool the animation of these fights are. 
• I like how one of Whitebeard's reason for rejecting Oden is how 'people with big egos don't get together well on a ship', citing the Rocks crew. A neat way to tie in a newly-revealed fact! 
• Whitebeard and Kin'emon fist-bumping in unison for not letting Oden leave Wano is hilarious. 
• So Marco does have his phoenix fruit at this point in time. I don't think Marco taking Izo on-board the ship was actually shown in the manga. 
  
• Toki does really look like Hiyori, doesn't she? 

Episode 964:

• 
  I love how "he's annoyed!" ends up becoming a running gag only in this flashback arc. 
• Karma! I like Karma. He's an octopus! I also like that the anime make it a point to note that Karma would later join the Whtiebeard pirates, since he sort of disappears from the flashback after this. 
• Whitebeard calls Oden as a 'little brother'. Wonder why he's not considered a 'son'? Is it just his age? 
• The perfect way to extend the episode a bit is to actually extend bit-by-bit to show Oden's bizarre adventure, showing more of the wacky islands of One Piece that the Whitebeard Pirates landed on. For example, Whitebeard actually beat up that one random giant that they meet. 
• I love how Marco, Jozu and Vista are basically going 'd'awww' on the side as Oden and Toki are flirting. 
• I also really like how Oden learns about the greater world outside of Wano through this journey, learning about the organization that governs the world, or the fact that Wano is still a free country. 
• I think it's intentional that "Sukiyaki" and his voice acting is actually kind of stilted -- particularly his coughing -- in the scene where he names Orochi as his successor. 
• The birth of the division commanders! 
• Blackbeard joining the group is actually somewhat extended! 

Episode 965:

• The Orochi episode! They do prolong Orochi being hunted down and persecuted as a child in the opening sequence, and... and if I didn't know what kind of a jackass Orochi becomes as an adult, I might almost feel sorry for him. 
• Grandma Kurozumi is scary. 
• They meet the Roger pirates! I really like how little Shanks is just casually wearing the straw hat. 
• Scopper Gaban! He dual-wields axes!
• Really like the cheeky grin Roger gives Rayleigh and Gaban when he runs past them to fight Oden. 
• Roger's 'Divine Departure' one-shotting Oden into a mountain isn't that impressive, all things considered. The clash between Whitebeard and Roger, on the other hand? With the lightning and thunder and the blades not touching each other? The zoom-in to their eyes? The cube explosions? The brief scenes of black-and-white? Damn!

___________________________

That's ten episodes this time! I think we'll get through the entirety of the Oden flashback in the next batch of episodes.