One Piece Anime: Wano Arc, Episodes 1016-1020

These episodes I actually watched weekly or bi-weekly as they are released. It's so weird to be following anime as-they-come-out like this!

Anyway...

ROOF PIECE

Episode 1016:

• I somehow missed, entirely, that the whole point of the Ryuo explanation in 1015 is to showcase that Red Roc utilizes Ryuo to damage Kaido. 
• Okay, yeah, after the gloriousness that is episode 1015, it is admittedly just a bit disappointing to go back to an episode that utilizes 'copy a whole scene from an earlier episode' to flashback to show Luffy's initial defeat in Kuri and Zoro-vs-Kamazo. At least those are some of the prettiest scenes in early Wano. 
• Ah yes, that shot of Luffy backlit by Kaido's personal 'Top Five' is pretty damn badass.
• Oh yes, that Conqueror's Haki clash is beautiful. Probably not quite as pretty as the one between Bullet and Luffy in Stampede, but it's still pretty badass. 
• ...was that Future Sight? Was that how Future Sight is depicted in the anime before? That sure isn't how it is in the manga! Holy shit, that looks so cool, with Luffy's face overlaid in red over Kaido bashing him and causing him to split apart into sakura petals with his Raimei Hakke; then cutting over to the real thing with a glowing purple line with a perfectly black backdrop while Luffy flips over it... damn. 
• "Kitsunebi-ryu: HOMURA SAKI!" Holy shit, Prometheus just got sliced in half. It looks even more badass now that he's actually glowing like a fireball! 
• Oh man, the jump from the intensity of "Luffy, there are two YONKO we are fighting!" to Sanji quite literally dicking around in Black Maria's chambers is... even more jarringly hilarious. 
• The animation team had a bit too much fun animating Black Maria's boobs, huh.
• I'm pretty sure that whole sequence with Sanji going "that's naughty!" with Black Maria's threads and her subordinates is original to the anime. Okay, sure. I don't really care for this part of the filler. 
• Black Maria seemingly dropping hints of a (maybe) backstory about men who abandon their women to chase their dreams, or men who use violence to dominate women... that's not in the manga, right?
• I absolutely love Law in this scene. How he was absolutely so furious at Luffy... for giving him orders as if he was a subordinate. "I was going to move them downstairs anyway!" I love that after all the arguments in the fandom about Law possibly betraying Luffy (after the Dressrosa arc, there is a zero percent chance of that) and this is the thing that actually gets ol' Trafalgar worked up. 
• Law going all grr-grr-face with Luffy and Kid will never stop being amusing. Zoro and Killer looking at their two captains acting like children and acting as if they are parents watching their children fight will also never not be amusing.
• Luffy, Law and Kid tanking Big Mom's Heavenly Bon-Bon attack is delivered to us perfectly with the screen being cut between the three of them and they're pushing the 'panel walls' to squeeze each other... then we get the 3x3 shot as we get them making the Robin HA face... Perfectly adapted. 
• "Zanshu Claw!" "Santoryu: Rengoku Oni Giri!" Zoro and Killer as two straight glowing lines cutting Kaido horizontally before we get... before we get whatever the hell that is, I can't describe it, that is also pretty fucking clean for what's ultimately just one attack amidst so many in Roof Piece! There's that red screen thing and then the counterclockwise white screen then the cut and zoom-in to Kaido's neck and the slice-cutting effect and also not to mention the black-and-white transition from Killer's helmet to Zoro's eye... my god that's beautiful. 
• "Gear Fourth!" "Punk Rotten!" "Room!" Damn, that simultaneous... well, it's not quite a simultaneous transformation, but whatever it is, it's cool. Kid's giant metal golem thing is very cool. 

Episode 1017:

• Okay, despite the triple transformation last episode, we get a more extended version of everyone activating their powers? The only reason is because it's MOTHERFUCKING COOL, and holy shit, it is. We've seen Luffy going Boundman a couple of times in this arc, but I must admit Kid gathering that magnetic metal storm is fucking cool. The animation team saw a chance of them doing a whole sequence with Kid's Punk Rotten robot and they tookn it. 
• This episode is just pretty in general, all right?
• Holy shit, that -WORORORORORO INTENSIFIES- face on Kaido! 
• HOLY FUCK THAT GIANT KILLING INTENT AURA THING
• Okay, not to say that hearing Luffy yell KOOOOONG GUNNNN isn't cool, but why didn't he go with another Red Roc? Or another move that infuses Ryu'o?
• Holy shit, they made Kid so god damn cool in the anime. 
• "I followed your half-assed attack with a stronger one of my own." the absolute sass from Law!
• Casual Rocks, Whitebeard, Roger, Garp and Oden cameos!
• Holy shit, that KAIFU and the gigantic tornado he makes and the speed of the green wind slices...
• Jeez, that casual backhand-slash by Zoro to knock one of Kaido's Kaifu's away...
• Okay, that Kong Rifle followed by that Slam Gibson on dragon Kaido... man, I didn't wake up today thinking that I was going to see someone suplex a goddamn dragon.
• Law's line about a dragon's anatomy is always so cool. 
• Wait, so Kaifu, Kong Rifle, Slam Gibson and Scythe Sonic all got their kanji shown on screen, but Law's Gamma Knife didn't?
• Holy shit, though, that shot when Killer's whirring Punisher blades became super gigantic was so damn cool. 
• Big Mom's Indra lightning is purple! Just casually zapping Killer out of the sky! 
• ITTORYU: HIRYU KAEN! It just literally bit off the horn of Onigashima! 
• There's a very cool shot of Prometheus appearing right in front of Kid before zapping straight through his face. Another very cool shot of Luffy Boundman-bouncing as lightning and storms rage all behind him. 
• Holy fuck, that Tenjin!
• Holy fuck, that Boro Breath! 
• Holy FUCK, that Kong Gatling!

Episode 1018:

• Watching these episodes semi-weekly, I think this is the first recap that I didn't skip since we get some of the highlights from the very excellent 1017. 
• A bit more noticeable in this episode than the others that Kaido is CGI... but it's smooth and honestly pretty well-done CGI that resembles some of the cell-shaded anime games. It's noticeable but not distracting, I guess? I feel like showing the sheer scale of Kaido's big-ass dragon form really does help to drive home just how titanic and a walking (well, floating) force of nature he really is. And the sheer impact caused by Luffy bashing his face to the ground, causing his body to coil around. 
• Okay, that is a long ass Kong Gatling. It continues to this episode and while it's ultimately just one in the many, many barrages of attack that Kaido tanks, it's still pretty damn impressive of the animation team to animate that so well.
• Man, they really do make Luffy decompressing from Gear Four look painful, huh? I wonder how much more painful-looking disengaging Gear Fifth would be like. 
• Counter shock!
• Yeah, Kid running around with that giant, colourful crazy half-robot-body is a lot cooler both animated, coloured, and given more than a couple of panels to be focused on. 
• TATSU MAKI! Okay, shit, seeing CGI Kaido coil into the air and just dwarf Kid's giant robot is pretty damn cool. I'm not sure about the physics of tornadoes springing out of the gaps between Kaido's coils, but shit, it looks cool! 
• Holy fuck Zoro just went Super Saiyan. And then the spirit of Enma just coils up into a giant dragon aura that's like, a Zanpakuto Spirit and Stand crossed together. The animation studios really does love Roronoa Zoro, huh? That is a lot of beautiful effort that went into last episode's Hiryu Kaen and this episode's Kokujo Ou Tatsumaki. 
• Holy shit that slash from Zoro looked like it fucking hurt. They coloured Kaido's exposed sinews very well. 
• That badass 'hmph-teleport' pose that Law does as he just dodges the wind-scythes with absolute swagger.
• We finally get to see the CP-0 in their apparently-indestructible observation room. Taking the place of the narrator, though, one of the biwa players actually narrates the numbers in song, which is a clever twist to do! 

Episode 1019:

• ...and just like that, we move away from Roof Piece for a while. I don't think my heart can take it if we get any more hype. 
  
• And... it's the Tama and kibi dango operation. It's cool. I like Tama. It's more interesting than the damned ice oni. But... we just came from the high-octane Roof Piece and I'm sorry, little girl, but your episode just isn't anywhere close to being as interesting. 
• We basically have Speed coming and talking to the other minor characters like Mouseman and Briscola and trying to sell that these dango are actually a Queen invention. Again, the script and the animation and voice acting are all very cool and all, but it's just not that interesting, I'm afraid. 
• I think every single named Gifter shows up in this episode as Speed, Daifugo and Gazelleman shove the dango in their mouth?
• There's, uh... yeah, that 'glistening skin' bit as we pan down Speed's cleavage... the animators aren't quite as thirsty as they were during the Dressrosa arc, but it did got me to roll my eyes just a bit. 
• Okay, but those Gifters that Gazelleman shoved the dango into... are kinda lazy designs, yeah? They're just random guys with animal-themed hoodies?
• I still can't get used to Hamlet's surprisingly deep voice.
• Something that I feel is going to lead to some anime padding fights (which I appreciate!) is actually showing Daikoku (of the Oniwabanshu) and Hotei (the leader of the Mimawarigumi) offering to back Apoo up. 
• Okay, that centaur-crocodile Gifter that Drake beat is kinda cool. But the guy with a fox... who's just a glove on his hand...
• Okay, holy shit, the animation suddenly went up a notch when Franky is fighting Sasaki. Franky-vs-Sasaki is honestly kind of the weakest Tobiroppo fight in the manga, but this? Seeing a pompadour robot throwing around a triceratops wearing a hat? Hell yea. 
• Also, Usopp and Nami's absolutely hilarious shit-eating expression as they reveal that, yeah, the Gifter army chasing them are actually under Tama's control... 
• One of the Gifters in that group literally has an entire rooster growing out of his head. To reiterate -- his human face is on the rooster's crotch area. 
• I do really like the Gifters that are part of Sasaki's armoured division. That crab lady, the four-armed beetle guy, Sasaki's palanquin rhino guy... Kinda wished they had names.
• Yeah, Franky's V-for-Victory Slash is given some hilarious over-the-top Power Rangers glowing animation. And that blue light ends up being a backlight for Tama. I just love the sheer ridiculousness of Tama being so important in this part of the arc. 

Episode 1020:

• Yeah, they do extend the Sanji with Black Maria's clique much longer than the manga. The music's really nice, though I'm not sure if seeing Sanji get roller'd around adds too much to the scene. 
• Caimanlady has got a reverse centaur combination with her caiman -- the face of the caiman faces backwards like a tail! 
• MARCO VS KING! It's a bit more roughly animated compared to something like last episode's Franky vs Sasaki, but I really do appreciate us seeing more of this. Really makes Marco feel like he's contributing in a huge role to the fight! There's a very cool bit where Marco creates a spiral of blue and yellow flame to block King's... fire machineguns? What is that?
• Perospero vs Carrot and Wanda got super extended! 
• That bit where Perospero uses the candy to choke Wanda and Carrot and have it wiggle down their throats... that's probably someone's fetish.
• There's a part of the fight where Carrot realizes that she can use Electro's heat to cause Perospero's candy to destabilize.
• CANDY MAIDEN is ridiculous but I love it. 
• We also get a bit more foreshadowing to when the moon gets 'turned off', so to speak. 
• The anime really doesn't make it a secret that it's Hiyori with the Scabbards, huh?
  
• Hyogoro's transformation to Prime Hyogoro gets a bit more focus here. I guess he might be using something similar to Kumadori's Life Return technique? Him going all Hulk is never really explained particularly well in-story. 
• The anime having Black Maria's clique comment about how noble Sanji is and thinking that he's just going to spite Black Maria before he dies -- while Sanji is having flashbacks to Robin throughout the story -- before we get Sanji yelling "HELP ME ROBIN-CHAN!" is actually pretty well-done. Again, my opinion on this scene has improved vastly after seeing Sanji and Robin's character arc here as a whole. This is moreso Sanji realizing that he's part of a crew (after trying his best to remove himself from it in Whole Cake Island), that he belongs there... and thus works as part of a team. In a way, the Sanji of the past, I think, would have been completely frozen when faced with this conundrum, since he wouldn't have put Robin in a dangerous situation -- the same way he was very reluctant to let Nami fight Kalifa. Twisting that last sentence a bit, Sanji wouldn't have trusted Robin to fight in his stead. And this, as embarrassing as it would've been for someone else (and maybe even most of us, the audience), Sanji doesn't really care what other people think. All he cares is what his friends like Robin thinks, and Robin sees it as Sanji relying on her -- a similar problem that Robin herself has been through as a character. Could've it been told and executed better? Some extra monologues? Sure. But I do really like this moment a lot more than I did before. 
• That gigantic Gigantesco Mano bitch-slap is very satisfying.