One Piece Anime: Wano Arc, Episodes 996-1000

Yet another shorter batch of episodes. We reach the big 1000 in this one!

I had to rewatch 995 just to see the utterly badass SUNNACCHI moment as the samurai charge in to stab Kaido.

Episode 996:

• The scene of Hyo and the other samurai that have unique models taking off their Kin'emon-brand disguises is, admittedly, a pretty natural padding. 
• Ulti uses a golden mace! I don't think I ever knew that she used a melee weapon. 
• Big Mom is approximately 30% more badass due to her pretty sinister old woman voice acting. 
• Ulti vs. Yamato is actually extended by a fair bit, and there's even some thematic banter! Ulti gets angry at Yamato for not cherishing her family, while Yamato goes 'then you should've been nice to Page One!'
• Nami and Carrot taking out the Homies is actually pretty badass. I mean, it really doesn't mean much in the long run, but it is an appreciated scene for sure. We also get Nami talking about her plans to steal a 'treasure that [she]'s obtained', which leads to her stealing Zeus. 
• Big Mom clashing against Luffy's Elephant Gun is something that I don't think got too much of a spotlight in the manga either. 
• You know, I know that Izo doesn't have a katana, but it is kinda hilarious that any time we get a shot of all the Scabbards plunging their swords into Kaido we get a shot of Izo going *bang* *bang*.

Episode 997:

• They drag out the 'sunacchi' moment as expected, but you know what? After experiencing the Oden flashback in the anime, I feel like this is a moment well earned by the Red Scabbards. 
• I've always found Oden's "pirates will betray you", followed by Kin'emon's rebuttal, to be especially badass. 
• After all of the face-faults he's been making, I love that it's Queen who's finding out about the massive amount of rebels on Team Luffy's side. 
• I don't know why Killer is so embarrassed of his laughs, hearing someone going FAFAFAFAFA as they come to kill me with motorized blender scythes would be terrifying. 
• It's more or less things that we have seen them do before, but this is the kind of filler that makes the raid on Onigashima feel so much more expansive -- showing characters like Kid, Killer, Law, Perospero, Marco and the rest all do something. Seeing named attacks like Amputation and Candy Maiden also makes the five-year-old within me giggle in joy. 
• We actually get to see Jack react to Kaido rising up to the rooftop and going off, which is nice. The arrival of the Mink army is also a bit more elaborate.
• There's a gifter whose entire torso and abdomen is an entire gorilla head. I just love these random background gifters. 
• In something that IIRC was glossed over in the manga, Raizou gets to go "I'm the warrior they said wasn't there, Jack!" Raizou is safe is one of my favourite moments in One Piece in retrospect, and I'm happy it got recognized here. Jack swearing revenge for his defeat in Zou is also a neat scene. 
• I don't really care about BB or Concelot or any of the lesser Minks, but I definitely appreciate the fact that all of the named ones get at least a transformation sequence into Sulong. The five main lieutenants of Neko and Inu totally get to beat the shit out of Nangi and Jack. 
• I like the scenes in this episode, but between the flashback to Oden cutting Kaido and the Zou arc, we do get a fair amount of flashback scenes in this episode. 

Episode 998:

• Put some respect on Shinobu's name. She's nobody's favourite character, but dang, that was a pretty badass rescue attempt she pulled off. It failed, but the anime has given me a huge amount of respect for this character for sure. Poor woman got grabbed by King and tossed straight into a building! 
• The anime also makes it explicit that Shinobu uses ninja hand signs to activate her ripe-ripe jutsu -- and that she uses that to rot away the chains. It does add a bit of a bit of a continuity problem here, though, since Shinobu takes forever to rot a single chain link when she was able to create that hole enough for 20 people to hide in back in Oden castle almost instantaneously.
• Did Ulti always have that giant golden spear-mace-thing?
• Queen yells a lot of words in English in this episode. "FURAINGU??" "What's thatto?" To be fair, though, seeing a beat-up kid randomly float through the air after breaking chains, I would be doing the same thing. 
• GOD the Tokusatsu style music that accompanies Sanji's Germa 66 raid suit entrance adds so much more to this sequence. 
• King vs Sanji, as expected, looks so much cooler in animated format due to the copious amounts of shockwaves animated by the anime team, as well as actually showing the two of them flying around before King 'skewers' Sanji. Also, obviously, we get another over-the-top OOOO SOBAAA KICK from Sanji. 
• Big Mom's Ikoku totally just vaporized a bunch of guys in the way of the beam. Also, the anime makes it clear that that was the attack that freed Sasaki from being tied to a tree -- I didn't realize it! 
• Franky ramming a goddamn motorcycle into Big Mom's face while Brook slices a giant sentient cloud is still one of my favourite moments in all of One Piece. Franky and Brook actually sing a pre-asskicking song in this one as he rides his rhinoceros chopper bike to ram the giant woman in the face. God, I love the absurdity of this pirate manga.

Episode 999:

• "He ran over Big Mom with his bike!"
• We actually get to see Usopp and Chopper in the Brachio-tank being tossed around by the giants and the two of them having some antics praising Wapolmetal and stuff. It is a neat little bit of appropriate filler. I think that's my best comment on the Wano arc as a whole -- the filler scenes actually make sense.
• Ulti and Yamato get extended a lot. I've been complaining in the present-day era of the manga that Yamato doesn't get a proper fight other than holding off Kaido, but this definitely makes up for it. I really like Ulti and her very dramatic voice actor, which is a bonus. Some really great animation in the clashes between the two of them. This one does end in a more decisive 'Yamato  knocks Ulti down' shot, too. 
• "Breasts? Horns?" Yeah, I appreciate that they extended the 'Yamato claims to be Kozuki Oden' scene to be comedic. 
• One of the best Franky moments also takes place here. "Yonko? So we have to run? Oi, Nami, do you want to make our captain the King of the Pirates?" One of the best moments from the Straw Hats, topped recently by a great Nami follow-up, which is her standing up to Kaido. 
• The anime team gave Franky a wonderful shot as he puts on his goggles, too. 
• Big Mom is just casually holding up one of her Homies to take the brunt of the Franky Radical Beam. Sure, Franky shoots one of the Numbers instead, but that shot is hilarious! 
• The absolute disrespect on Big Mom. Ran over by a motorcycle, had her homie stolen, karate-tossed by Jinbe, and rolled around like a doll by Robin's Delphinium. 

Episode 1000:

• I don't know how deliberately they were setting this up -- there weren't too many displaced moments or fillers that I could tell. 999 did have a couple extended scenes between Ulti/Yamato and the Brachio-tank team but they were definitely looking for a special moment for chapter 1000, huh? Having all the Straw Hats assembled together ready to kick butt in the festival hall is definitely something worthy of an 'episode 1000'.
• That is an amazing idea, too, having all the Straw Hats unleash a move before we cut away to a montage of their highlights during the anime. I haven't been reading/watching One Piece since its inception (I joined early in the Dressrosa arc), and I just did a re-read of the whole manga in 2019 so the montage isn't quite as epic as it should be, but god damn, that was a well done episode 1000. 
• I wasn't sure why the scenery around Luffy went all blood-red when he used Gear Second, but it's meant to show each of the Straw Hats' primary colours. Which is badass. 
• The little chibi baby Straw Hats that cut away to show the flashbacks are also adorable!
• Giving Usopp the 1000 gas bomb star is a neat meta way to celebrate it in-universe as well. 
• Robin gets to clutch-kill some bat Gifter lady. I found that to be cool! Jinbe also gets to beat the shit out of a centaur-crocodile guy. 
• We get a final montage of all the times the Straw Hats are together throughout the series, which is great. 
• We start off with a special opening, a remake of We Are!, the first anime opening. It's glorious. My favourite part is the shot of all the Straw Hats unleashing their attacks while the background shows random shots from all throughout the series. In a clever bit, the scene of Luffy punching out the moray eel Sea King in the original We Are is changed to Luffy punching Kaido's dragon form!
• I still love that we get an extended shot of the Sulong Mink horde fighting against Jack's goons -- something that is 100% offscreen in the manga, but actually feels like a huge deal here. Jack totally beats up the secondary warriors before being speed-blitz by Sulong Inuarashi and Nekomamushi.
• Speaking of which, Jack actually feels a bit less like a scrub. I mean, he still falls to the Minks for now, but we actually see him tank Sulong attack after Sulong attack. 
• I've always been 'well, the Sulong forms aren't as impressive as Carrot's over-the-top transformation', but god damn the change in colours, the Super Saiyan lightning auras, the voice acting and the fur flowing in the wind made Neko and Inu's Sulong forms so fucking badass. 
• We get such an elaborate docking transformation for the Franky Shogun. It feels like something from old-school 80's mecha shows or some shit! I approve!
• "If we tear off their wings, they're just caterpillars." God fucking damn, Nico Robin.