In other anime news, I also recently watched a chunk of the anime version of Kumo desu ga, nani ka? and it's so... different from the manga? I realize that both of them are adapted from a light novel series, but it's interesting to note that the manga basically focuses on just the main character and her trials as a spider, whereas the anime also shows a bunch of other secondary characters. Also slowly making my way through Re: Zero. I reviewed the series' first season back when it aired a couple of years back, but I kind of... forgot huge chunks of it. So I'm rewatching the first season, hopefully I'll make it to the second one.
Episode 921:
- As I keep emphasizing, the colours and the background music really bring the Wano arc out into being so, so much more beautiful than it already is.
- I genuinely forgot that Komurasaki had these gigantic super-tall platform shoes.
- Actually having the narrator read and recap who Caribou is, and also showing what he did via vignettes, is a clever way to pad out a couple of minutes in this episode. (Also, Caribou! I forgot he existed!)
- Wait, actually, the flashbacks show images from the cover story. I don't know enough about the anime to know if they ever animated the Caribou cover story? I know they skipped on several of them...
- Good god, Orochi, your voice is a lot more threatening than I expected.
- This episode makes it a bit more explicit that Bingo and the others that Komurasaki swindled are horrible people in and of themselves, forcing the poor to pay money to cover the rent and more explicitly ignoring their family. I remembered the manga keeping it ambiguous until a later chapter that these people are assholes.
- It does raise the question, though... Bingoh basically went hard on swindling his clients to pay Komurasaki. Arguably he'd still do it regardless, but still, it does beg the question as to how responsible Komurasaki is to those random people's plights.
Episode 922:
- I'm 99.9% sure Zoro and Tonoyasu in the gambling hall is brand-new filler for the anime. It's very much appreciated, because I really did feel like Tonoyasu showing up and being buddies with Zoro was very random in the manga.
- Actually showing the Minks helping out the resistance beyond (presumably) just one panel in the manga is definitely filler that, I feel, works pretty well to build up the fact that there are more people than just the Straw Hats and Kin'emon doing stuff in the background, and hammers home the whole attempt to recruit Ashura Doji.
- That shot with Zoro doing Mutoryu: Tatsumaki, with him standing as the gambling house collapses in his twister, is so fucking cool.
- It's way more obvious that the random CP0 dude who got shot by Orochi instantly recovers in here.
- Overall, for what's mostly just our characters doing wacky stuff, it's still a pretty fun episode.
Episode 923:
- Oh. Right, Orochi's hair is pink! it's coloured black in the manga, you'd think that they would've shaded it gray. Regardless, it actually suits him very well!
- Oh. Right. It's pronounced Diez Drake. I keep forgetting.
- The Charlotte children actually get to do stuff and blow up like, random island turrets and stuff. It's not much, but as a huge fan of the background Charlotte children, I'm happy to see that some of the lesser-known ones actually get to do something. (Smoothie does something!)
- I don't really have much to say to this episode, it's mostly just Zoro in Ebisu town, Orochi's banquet and the introduction of the Tobiroppo.
Episode 924:
- They get quite a fair bit of mileage out of parodying Jurassic Park and having Page One terrorize random soba shops, too. That's some neat filler.
- That said, though, on the other side of the filler spectrum, they really milked out "Big Mom's ship going through the defense lines" for way longer than they probably should.
- King's transformation into his Pteranodon form with a glowing red lava skull in the background is pretty damn boss. King also gets to dodge a gatling gun barrage and generally does a fair bit more than just swoop in and kick Big Mom's ship.
- I really don't mind them extending the Big Mom ship arriving into Wano territory, but man, they really don't do anything interesting beyond blow up some turrets.
Episode 925:
- So this is one of the big ones -- Page One and Sanji's fight is essentially an off-screen fight in the manga, but they made a whole episode out of it. And... and in the grand scheme of things, it's basically just Sanji beating up on an elite mook. Slight spoilers for the Onigashima raid, but at the moment where I'm at in the manga, Page One hasn't really done a whole ton, so it's not like we manga readers really missed too much. But it's still great filler material for sure, actually expanding and padding out the pacing of this slower part of the story!
- I didn't watch the Whole Cake arc in the anime, but I have been made aware of the glorious Sailor Moon/Super Sentai/Kamen Rider elaborate henshin sequence for Germa 66. I absolutely love how over-the-top they went for Sanji here as well, with all the glowing colours and the close-ups to his abs and whatnot. Of course he makes several Sentai poses in quick succession. I approve.
- One thing that is merely glossed over in the manga, but the anime stretches out gloriously, is Trafalgar Law recognizing Germa 66 costumes and being a fanboy... all the while never breaking stride from his deadpan face and mannerisms. That is easily by far the best part of this episode, and this episode had a Super Sentai fight a giant mohawked dinosaur.
- Also useful is Law actually giving us some background information about the parts of Sanji's suits that allow him flight and invisibility and whatnot. It's not essential, but it does add to both Law's fanboyism and the "let's sell the toys by listing all the cool features!" vibe of a Super Sentai/Kamen Rider parody.
- At one point Law just goes "damn you, Germa!" halfway through his explanations. That's easily the funniest moment of the episode.
- I also love the implication here that Law gets Usopp and Franky to follow him partly because he's fanboying over "yeah, Stealth Black isn't going to lose!"
- The Sanji/Page One fight isn't anything super spectacular! Page One just dinosaur-roars and Sanji just kicks him a bunch while showing off some Raid Suit abilities like solid-shield capes and stuff... but it's something! It's genuinely entertaining and badass, Law's commentary is fun, and it sure is a lot better content than the vague repetitive animation of Big Mom's children shooting at the borders of the screen.
- That is, right until the O-SOBA KIIIIIIICK! Good god, for what's essentially "Sanji plays around and delivers a finishing move that doesn't finish Page One off", that gets such a beautiful and dynamic animation.
- Page One really got his stupid Tobiroppo ass juggled by Sanji while he was invisible, though. Kaidou is super-duper badass, but some of his crew members aren't really all that.
- I am ashamed to be a Kamen Rider fan and a One Piece fan and never realizing that there is a 'rider kick' reference there with Sanji being a kick-based fighter that dons a Kamen Rider armour. I am absolutely ashamed.
Episode 926:
- The Oniwabanshu look so, so much cooler and memorable in colour! I've always sort-of remembered a couple of the designs, but I feel like I'll have an easier time remembering them now. Actually giving them a couple of shots to show 'hey, this is a shuriken child' 'hey, this ninja uses bandage-whips' 'hey, that ninja uses a metal noose' 'hey, this is the lady whose biwa is also a fucking gun' also helps.
- It's a fake-out, but that is a cool shot of 'Robin' being beheaded.
- Chopper and Otama having a mock ninja battle is completely unnecessary but it sure as heck is adorable.
- Also adorable is Brook just hamming it up becoming a ghost fucking around with those catfish-riding ninjas.
- Robin's excuse about how she is 'Ushimitsu Kozo', and the fact that Ushimitsu Kozo is in the capital that night, makes extra sense now that we know who his secret identity is. Granted, Ushimitsu Kozo is a plot point that's kinda-sorta introduced and ignored until the low-key revelation later on, but it's still nice that Oda keeps the continuity pretty tight regardless.
- Chopper is about to straight-up shank Big Mom in her sleep. God damn, Chopper.
- (Also, it's been a while, but still not a fan of the Big Mom amnesia plotline)
Episode 927:
- I still really love how Orochi is a gigantic tool, and how no one in his banquet really respects him, but all the gibberish he's spouting is actually the truth! The 'ghosts' of the Akazaya Nine are actually plotting against him!
- I don't really have much to say in this episode, but the big Orochi/Komurasaki moment is executed pretty damn well. And for a character that's such a tool, that's a pretty neat transformation scene for Orochi.
Episode 928:
- This episode felt like the recap segment was extra-long. I get that they wanted to show off Orochi's transformation, maybe?
- Kyoshiro laughing for so long... I guess he's happy that Komurasaki can 'die'? I think? Or maybe in anticipation that he gets to cut up Orochi? Presumably, if Nami and Shinobu didn't break the ceiling and cause Orochi to drop Komurasaki, he would've actually intervened?
- Ghost-Brook rounding that corner and bursting out of the smoke is something the animation team milk the hell out of, and it's glorious. (This isn't the last Robin/Brook team-up in this arc!)
- Wait, Shinobu uses that katana on her back? I thought she had a crippling fear of sharp objects. Okay, then, she can do more things than just use her Devil Fruit.
- Scenes like Grandpa Hyo getting food coupons, or Kid escaping, or Team Chopper convincing Big Mom to go to Udon... a lot of them are unchanged, but those are scenes that fly so fast in the manga that giving them ample time to breathe in the background of these episodes is certainly a decision I approve of.
Episode 929:
- Kanjurou! I forgot he's sort of in the background during this stage of the arc. I was wondering the other day what Kanjurou was doing between Oden Castle's destruction and the raid. He's the one that asks Robin aaaaaall about the information she's collected! (Which is all of them!) Which is actually yet another part of 'ah-ha!' considering later developments in the arc.
- Brook discovers a random regular Poneglyph in an underground room with dolls. This happens in the manga too! I forgot all about it.
- Law, Franky and Usopp give some really neat exposition that keeps getting interrupted by Sanji's laser-focus obsession with 'is there a women's bath in this city'.
- Another good exposition here is Kiku and the map, showing the full scale of Wano-kuni while also showing snippets of previous episodes overlaid on top of the locations they take place.
- I actually kind of wished we had the foreshadowing with Zoro teaching Momonosuke "sunacchi", because, just like in the manga, it's just apparently something that happened off-screen.
Episode 930:
- We actually get an extended scene of Raizou stealing the key, including bamboozling a particularly dumb crab Gifter. This one was actually pretty funny. The crab Gifter failing because he can only walk sideways is just a background line in the manga, but it's nice to see it actually made into a short scene.
- A scene like Queen's music performance is just a bit of a 'oh, One Piece, you're weird' in the manga. In the anime, though? With actual music and Queen's shoulder-exercise dance and the voice acting? It's elevated into something truly glorious. FUNK!
- ZOOMA-zooma-zooma-zooma ZOOMA-zooma-zooma-zooma!
- Queen does really look like Obelix, doesn't he?
- One of the funniest moments when reading the manga is Babanuki's deadpan report about the problems in the prison and Queen's increasing gweEEEEEH?! reaction to each and every one of them. Voiced, this ends up becoming particularly hilarious. It's even the cliffhanger for this episode!
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I intended for this to go all the way to 940 so I don't have too many of these articles, but you know what? We'll stop here. I guess it's a matter of how long I go.
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