One Piece Anime: Wano Arc, Episodes 1046-1050

 Not much to say here. Just talking about another batch of One Piece Wano episodes!

Episode 1046:

• 
  Okay, yeah. I kinda forgot if this was in 1045 or not, but Sanji fighting Queen, and then suddenly King swooping in and then launching a fiery slash that knocks him down is pretty damn cool. 
• Yep, they really do gas up the scene of King cornering the doctor escort team carrying Zoro around, yeah? Very prettily-drawn shots of King's face, as well as the flames spinning around King's fist. 
• Holy shit, Marco and his shield attack was so cool. The red flames slamming onto Marco's distinctive blue-yellow flames is cool!
• We get the Lunarian reveal here, and I've always found it surprisingly realistic that it was just a brief sentence before it gets cut off by actual battle banter. Having Marco flashback to Whitebeard telling the story later on is a very, very nice touch. 
• Marco surrenders, as Zoro stands up and Sanji smokes to get ready for the pose. I think this episode does a bit too much emphasizing that "Marco's reached his limit!", but I suppose it's to really explain why. 
• ZORO JUST CUT A LASER. ZORO JUST CUT A LASER! LASER! A. FUCKING. LASER. I'm sorry. I'm so fucking sorry. I don't care what the story says. Between this and tanking hakai, I don't care if people think cutting diamond is going to be anything impressive after that. Shit!
  
• Also, the animation of Queen firing that laser, the zoom-in on Zoro's face, and the laser halves blowing up? Spectacular. The animation studio really loves Zoro.
• Oh yeah. Zoro getting his swords ready, King unfurling his angel wings and feathers flying everywhere as he sets his arm on fire, Queen firing a laser, and Sanji literally being wreathed in flames as he runs. I would say that the anime team loves Sanji too, and don't get me wrong. That flame-wreath is cool. But then Zoro's green aura turns demonic with thick lines as he goes Rengoku Oni-giri and I'm so sorry, that is so much cooler. 
• Then we get the twin blasts as they turn into Dragon Ball streams of light and blast through Queen and King, and you can just feel the force of the impact. Good work, damn. 
• Yeah, I still think the magic Zou drug is bullshit, and honestly one of the worst parts of Wano. But... but y'know, this moment with Zoro and Sanji staring down Kaidou's commanders? Yeah, that's fucking cool. 
• We get a much extended scene of the two arguing a bit, but it is actually something I appreciate very much. I do enjoy me these two men bickering. 
• I love that generic goon pirates would totally take sniper shots at their opponents. Kawamatsu just straight-up cold-blooded murdered that unfortunate sniper. 
  
• I do like that we do get a bit of a Marco and Izo moment here, considering they were nakama on Whitebeard's crew. 
• Oh, that brief showcase of Jack, King and Queen's calamity epithets in kanji as they pose is pretty cool. 
• Yeah, we never actually got a confirmation that Sanji doesn't have Lunarian DNA snuck into his body, huh? I mean, the easiest explanation is that this all falls under this episode (and the chapter it's based on) and its many foreshadowings about Sanji's upcoming cyborg power-up, but still...
• Damn Sanji really spun around like a goddamn wheel at one point running up Queen's robo-arm.
• Zoro also becomes a wheel! A much more colourful wheel as King is blocking his strike. It's a lot funnier with Zoro than with Sanji. 
• Hyogoro also really hypes up Zoro, huh, getting brief flashbacks to that one Shimotsuki Daimyo, Kozuki Oden, and even Ryuma!
• We actually get to see Shuusui returned to Ryuma's grave. This is one of the grave (heh) moments that I really wished we got at least a single panel's worth of acknowledgement in the manga. 

Episode 1047:

• New surprise additional scene! Franky's Weapons Left malfunctions as he shows off against a bunch of mooks... and then with a haiyaaaaa Bepo, Shachi and Penguin show up to slash the fools. They don't really do anything significant, true, but it's nice that they're doing something!
• Yes, Nami, Usopp totally threw himself off to protect you guys against the crocodile Gifter. 
• But the execution of Usopp using Big Mom's Conqueror's Haki to shock the crocodile Gifter and a bunch of newcomers is dragged out a little bit more here. 
• I don't remember if this specific scene is present in the manga, but I do like that Franky and the Hearts Pirates are doing an extended version of what Kawamatsu and Hyogoro are doing, but for troops outside of the Performance Floor. Explains what he's doing!
• I don't know how Heat makes fire, but he sure gets exhausted from doing so before Jinbe saves him.
• I do also like that we get to see a bit more of Brook and Jinbe communicating with each other, setting up a lot of the 'Onigashima on fire' plotline in the climax. 
• Oh, hey, we actually see Yamato launching attacks this time!
• We get to see Jack's mammoth-centaur mode a lot clearer now. It's a lot cooler from the side for sure!
• Actually, it makes a bit more sense that Jack was so intent that Nekomamushi and Inuarashi are hiding Raizou. Not just the traitorous information from Kanjurou, but also Jack was there during the burning of Oden Castle, albeit as a child. He would know Inu and Neko are part of the Scabbards!
• Ashura Doji's death explosion is implied to be behind the hole in the ceiling that lets the moonlight through. Well, big boy accomplished something with his death now! Also, knowing that he actually dies in the manga, it's nice that he's eulogized, even briefly, as opposed to the manga where his fate is just left ambiguous until the end of the arc. 
• Oh, Nekomamushi's transformation with those eyes? That's clean. 
• They really do a lot of fun with Raizou's ninjutsu in the anime, including here, where he manipulates some ninja scrolls to do a slap-fight with Fukurokuju's earlobes. I really do wish Fukurokuju is allowed to do something more than just earlobes, though. 
• Oh yeah, PINK DRAGON! His hair is golden, which I didn't expect (but should've, since we've seen little dragon-Momo), but that's a pretty cool looking pink dragon. 
• I thought adult Momonosuke would still be voiced by his regular voice actor, or by Oden's voice actor, but I'm pleasantly surprised we got a brand-new voice!

Episode 1048:

• Okay, we get a proper clash between Yamato and Kaido. The previous Yamato/Kaido encounters have been... interesting? Them facing off against each other is extremely well animated, but the actual clash that should've shown them launching breath attacks at each other was kinda underwhelming. Nice to see we're getting some actual combat with Narikabura and Vajra Arrow even if they're not the best animated. It's such a shame that the animation and the quality is so much in bursts. 
• Because, of course, the final one-minute clash between Yamato and Kaido is very much in the style of the original animation of the two of them bashing into each other, with the explosions from Yamato's kanabo and the creepy skull Kaido silhouette, but I really did wish that they kinda committed a bit more. 
• That dual Raimei Hakkei, and then the resulting clash creating that beautiful spiderwebbing of Conqueror's Haki, and the fiery images of kid Yamato and Kaido's back... yeah, that's very very cool. 
  
• And we get the flashback of young Yamato, with the samurai in the cage and whatnot. I've always been... it's an interesting thing to know about Yamato, but it's not the most exciting story, if you know what I mean? It contextualizes some of Yamato's behaviour, but not all of it. It's an all right flashback. It really is kind of... odd that we never really got a proper resolution to the whole 'Yamato is Oden' thing, huh? In either direction -- I could see the resolution of the character being her accepting that she can be Yamato instead of Oden, or to 'properly' become Oden... but we never really get a moment either way. It's just a character quirk, I guess.
• "Samurai do not get hungry" is such a cool callback to the Kin'emon/Momonosuke conversation in Punk Hazard, though. 
• That Conqueror's Haki explosion that knocks out the Beast Pirates goons... pretty cool shot. 
• We actually do get to see an animated show of the three imprisoned Daimyo cutting up Beasts Pirates. It's cool, but out of all the extended scenes in the Wano arc, I can't say I'm particularly super-excited about this one. Puts the daimyo rebellion into a bit more perspective now, though!
• The extension of Yamato befriending the samurai and actually learning to fight and having them be a mentor... yeah, it's nice. 
• The fairytale book style recreation of the Oden journal is amazing. It really does help to illustrate just how much of a pedestal Yamato puts Oden at, while also giving us a retelling of the story that doesn't just reuse some old animation. And being simplified is probably nice for production costs too. 

Episode 1049:

• Yep, cowardly Momo. That sure is a thing. It's not stretched out as much as I thought the anime would do, actually. It's still extended a fair bit, but not as much as I thought it would be. 
• We just get a repeat of the Raimei Hakkei clash from 1048 before we get Kaido bleeding... and Yamato's Mirror Mountain skill is much cooler in the anime for sure. 
• We do get quite a bit more action scenes for the Kaido/Yamato stuff, with Yamato actually spinning around with blue ice and slashing and slamming down onto Kaido with her Himoro-giri.
• Some pretty great animations on Yamato's face as she jumps up to bash Kaido in the face. Great animation of that eyeball as it clicks back into place, too!
• Okay, yeah, Kaido. Getting pissed off that your kid is calling herself after your greatest enemy, and then locking her in a dungeon of samurai to try and teach her a lesson? That's one thing. Flogging and hanging one of your men for feeding her some onigiri? Man, what a lunatic. 
• Oh yeah, we never really got a follow-up on that 'oni blood' thing, huh?
• 
  Big Pink Dragon rampaging through Onigashima looks so cool and so destructive. Also, even moreso than the manga, any idiot who thinks this bright pink dragon is the same thing as the bright blue dragon probably should get their eyes checked. At least Queen knows immediately that it's another dragon. 
• Oh yeah, Yamato summoning the lightning, while Luffy does Gear Fourth as he rides Momonosuke. Both of those are very, very badass shots! I'm just such a sucker for that kind of shading. 
• Holy shit, the impact of the exploding rooftop from Divine Swiftness, and the jagged edges of Luffy's Jet Culverin as it bounces around in the air... and then the beams as they explode and reach Kaido... great stuff!
  
• Anyway, these two episodes sound like I'm a bit down on the episodes. Not at all! They were perfectly pleasant to watch. It's just kind of a shame to know how abruptly Yamato's story and character development changed after this conversation is all. The action and animation parts of these episodes are very good! 
  

Episode 1050:

• Okay, the CGI for the two dragons are surprisingly... not distracting!
• I really do like just how scared Momonosuke is, and how the music and the voice acting really reflects that. It's also a lot more obvious with the similar wording but I do really think that Momonosuke yelling about "I am the man who will become the Shogun of Wano" as an emphasis after declaring his name is him mimicking Luffy's whole "I'm going to be King of the Pirates" thing. 
• Yep, the celebration in the Flower Capital always uses the same animation over and over again, huh. 
• Yeah, O-Toko trying to share his cotton candy to the dead Yasuie is pretty sad. Honestly, Yasuie's death is pretty powerful because of scenes like this afterwards. 
• Okay, we make fun of Perospero all the time, but him instantly impaling Nekomamushi with like two dozen candy arrow-spear things the moment the thunderclouds cover the moon is pretty cool. 
• That's a cool series of Blast Breaths. How many random islands around Wano just got nuked?
• That's a neat repeat of the Elephant Gun that Luffy did when he met Kaido for the first time!
• The flashbacks, this time, I definitely would argue for keeping. It really is a great reminder of Momonosuke about the pain Kaido caused his family, as well as his prior helplessness.
• "You bit a YONKO! Is there anything left in the world that can still scare you?" What a line.