One Piece Anime, Wano Arc: Episodes 1079-1081

As we wrap up the Wano arc, let me quickly blaze through the final denounement episodes just for completion's sake. It's mostly just the after-arc parties and Aramaki.  

Episode 1079:

• Always nice to see the Gorosei. I'm actually surprised we get to see Saturn's mouth! I've always visualized him talking without us ever seeing his mouth, and just his beard that's moving. 
• We actually do get to see CP-0 agent Joseph reporting to the Gorosei, about Zou disappearing into the fog... which is interesting since the manga's equivalent of this is kind of ambiguous about references to Guernica... and I think until now, it's still kept ambiguous whether Guernica survived Kaido's bash or he sent out the photos prior to his death. 
• The biggest change is that we get the identity of the mysterious person who hacked into Joseph's Den Den Mushi. It's Ryokugyu. Okay??? I've always thought that this was someone affiliated with Big Mom or something, but I guess this kind of makes sense?
• The anime adds a bit of an extension to the Hawkins/Drake scene. In addition to making Hawkins sound a bit more morose, we also fix the earlier episode where Hawkins identifies the "1% survival man" as Drake... and Drake confronts Hawkins about it in the anime's extended version of this scene, with Hawkins confirming that the man with a 1% survival rate in this war is Hawkins himself. 
• Yeah, giving Hawkins a bit of a morose sequence where he actually acknowledges that he has no right to suck up back to Kid despite seeing their probable victory is a nice moment for him. He's dead now, right?
  
• Not much to say about the scenes of the Flower Capital flourishing. They are all nice adaptations of the manga's version of the scenes. 
• Something that the manga either didn't show or just glazed over is a nice moment of Kawamatsu and Onimaru meeting each other while they visit Ashura and Izo's grave. Onimaru just kind of disappeared after the second act, and it's nice to have a bit of a resolution. 
• HIYORI DROPKICK!
• There's some hilarity of seeing Luffy's arm zip and bounce around like Gear Fourth Snakeman, or Zoro unleashing motherfucking ASURA to eat meat and drink sake. 
• We spent how long between Enies' Lobby and Wano to get Zoro to show off Asura for the second time... and the third time he does it in the anime is just to eat sake. God bless the One Piece creative team. 
  
• I do enjoy the sheer size difference between Momonosuke (who has Oden's genes) compared to Luffy and Zoro being regular-ass humans. 
• "I came back from hell to kill you. DIE GRACEFULLY!"
• Of course they milk the hot springs scene for all it's worth. Including the in-universe reactions to characters like Yamato going into the male bath. 
• In the manga, the Franky Shogun mech just shows up with no real explanation in Egghead, with the implication that Franky fixed it up offscreen. Here, there's a brief shot of the fixed Franky Shogun.
• Apoo really does just still recover offscreen without any explanation. 
• And the episode ends with Ryokugyu helicoptering around on a plant like a total goober.
  

 

Episode 1080:

• I do like the little line about the Gorosei being pissed and wanting to remove the "D" from Monkey D. Luffy's name, which is consistent with how they treated Gol D. Roger. 
• Yeah, while the anime doesn't confirm it either, the fact that the pictures of Gear 5th Luffy came from Guernica, and Luffy transformed after Guernica interfered in the fight, really is kind of a confirmation that he survived Kaido's kanabo attack, huh?
  
• "I won't let them manipulate information", says Big News Morgans, as he manipulates information. Got to love that stupid-ass bird reporter.
• The Sabo picture in the background of that random country is a lot more evident in the anime with the colours and all. 
• Oh yeah, that's a nice little shot of Kid and Law parting ways for Luffy to jump in and land next to his assembled crew. That looks like it's taken from an anime opening or something. And then we get the bounty posters, which... isn't quite delivered in an epic a manner as I'd like. 
• Obviously they're going to drag out the festival scene... but not as much as I thought they would -- and seeing Luffy, Chopper and Yamato play the games is pretty cute. The post-Ryokugyu scenes dragged on a bit, though.
• I am disappointed we don't actually get a full rock cover of Moon Princess by Brook featuring Hiyori. 
• Robin and Sukiyaki/Tengumaru have a comedic moment, but otherwise the exposition is more or less delivered as it was in the manga. 
• And we get the very surprising but very welcome full on fight between Ryokugyu versus King and Queen in Udon Prison! Starting off with a badass explosion of wind as Ryokugyu arrives, King and Queen reacting in shock, and we get a fight!
  
• Queen transforms into his brachiosaurus mode and launches a blast of laser, and Ryokugyu just effortlessly dodges it. 
• It really brings to question why they don't slap Seastone cuffs on the Zoans, and if they don't why Queen, King and the others don't escape. Mortal wounds or not (which Ryokugyu emphasizes) you'd think it's particularly stupid on the good guys' side.
• Also, where the fuck is Jack? No, seriously. I know the original source chapter only showed Queen and King, so I guess the anime team just wanted to play it safe?
• Babanuki seems to be still allied and friendly enough with King and Queen to jump Ryokugyu with a bunch of goons, before Ryokugyu stabs everyone and turns them into husks. Pretty cool shot of him impaling everyone. 
  
• King and Queen jump into the air and dodge the swarm of wooden branches, which swarm around the pirates like an attack from Naruto's Hashirama. Queen gets impaled from behind and it looks like it hurts. 
• Ryokugyu then delivers a barrage of punches to King with wooded-up fists. I like that this sequence takes place on top of a scaffolding, giving a bit more oomph to the encounter. 
• King then gets stabbed in the chest as we see a shot of flower petals exploding, before King hits the ground.
• And then we get King and Queen being drained as in the manga's version of this scene, but showing that couple of minutes of extra footage showing Aramaki curbstomping the two of them is really nice. 
• Buggy! Blackbeard! Shanks! Luffy! The new Yonko! That shot of Shanks really looks cool, as does the 'cracked glass' shot of all four Yonko. 
• That is a nicely ominous shot of purple-aura vines growing all around the Flower Capital as Ryokugyu gets a bit of an imagine spot, visualizing how he'll wreck everyone's day. 

 

Episode 1081:

• Ah, the Red Force. I think this is the first time I've seen it in colour, actually, though I'm 100% sure it showed up earlier in the anime. 
• Yeah, is it really necessary to repeat the whole Luffy-drags-Kidd-into-the-festivities sequence?
• While it's obvious filler, I actually do like the short scenes showing the more members of the Scabbards like Shinobu, Raizo and Kawamatsu reacting to the festival before realizing that someone snuck into the island, causing all the Scabbards to assemble like the goddamn Avengers. 
  
• The animation is obviously nowhere on par as Roof Piece, and there's noticeably a bit less shading when Raizo and Shinobu double-team Aramaki; and later on when Kawamatsu, Raizo and the two Minks quadruple-team him. The fact that we do get smooth animation for what's basically an offscreen takedown in the source material is appreciated.
• Kawamatsu gets to yell off a couple more named attacks! He is lacking a huge show-off moment among the Scabbards, and it's nice to give him even this little bit.
• Denjiro gets a couple of huge story moments, but not much in terms of combat. He gets to rescue Raizo and then parry some of Aramaki's Groves-of-Wrath forms' tendril attacks. 
  
  
• Yeah, the anime team really like to do the 'dark face, glowing eyes' for Ryokugyu. He gets to do it while attacking Shinobu, and then again when impaling Raizo. 
• The whole 'you have no rights since you're not part of the World Government' schtick that Aramaki spouts takes a darker meaning after the manga reveals to us just what the Celestial Dragons do to countries that are not part of it...
• Yeah, broccoli-face Aramaki still looks goofy. But I do think that no One Piece character is without some sort of goofy charm. 
• To be fair, the idea of a 'survival of the fittest' and 'some of the weaker must be fertilizer to the stronger' does fit the theme of a 'Woods Man'. It's just that it applies to, like, ferns and shit instead of entire countries of human life.
• "Discrimination is a comfort". Damn, though, Aramaki.
• Yamato has one hell of an epic entry. It really is kind of a shame that she didn't get to join the crew...
• Yeah, Limejuice from Shanks' crew cautioning against Kid... really doesn't mean jack-diddly after what we saw happen to Kid post-Wano, huh? 
• The flashback to Shanks and company attacking Who's Who's ship is done with a different set of dimensions and filter, which is definitely a nice touch. 
• I love that out of the junior Red-Haired crew, the one that's terrified of Luffy being some kind of a 'monkey monster'... is a gorilla-looking non-human or Zoan user. 
  
• So did Shanks's crew do something to Bartolomeo? We get a recap of the cover story, and I really do wonder if Shanks took care of Bartolomeo really quickly, leading to some kind of conflict with Luffy down the line.
• 'Sabo murders King Cobra' is finally shown to us here. Also, Kurouma! I forgot he exists. 
• Was "Insurgent Serpent" always there as Dragon's epithet? How the heck did I miss that in the original chapter?
• The episode ends not at an Aramaki or a Momonosuke moment... but with Akainu declaring his dedication at fighting basically the entire world... which then get upstaged with epic music and an epic filter as Shanks talks to Benn Beckman about getting the One Piece. That final scene with Shanks actually sent shivers down my spine, and I'm someone who saw this coming. Great direction and such a great delivery by Shanks's voice actor. 
  

What If S02E07 Review: Asgard's Assassin

What If, Season 2, Episode 7: What If... Hela Found The Ten Rings?

I have always noted that some of my favourite What If episodes are the ones that take very under-utilized characters such as the Grandmaster, Hank Pym, Peggy Carter or Killmonger -- these characters that appear in one movie for a tantalizing tease of what they could do, and are subsequently killed off or forgotten -- and do something interesting in it. Top on the list of characters I want to see explored more in an alternate universe? Well, Hela and Wenwu are definitely very high on that list. Wenwu had a pretty great showing in his own movie, similar to Killmonger. But despite a killer performance from Cate Blanchett (and some amazing costume work), Hela's past, trauma and personality remains tantalizingly oblique. Thor: Ragnarok gives us just enough to get the story behind Odin's firstborn daughter, but honestly not quite enough. 

So going into this episode blind, not even seeing the title, and seeing this as a "Hela goes through the event of the Thor movie" storyline makes this episode's concept particularly tantalizing to me. Would Hela have turned out different, like Thor or post-character-development Loki? Hela's bloodthirstiness has always been implied in her source material to be something born out of a mixture of necessity in Asgard's history and Odin's poor parenting, so to see that the 'what if' in this case is Odin having a change of heart in how he handles Hela is pretty interesting. Instead of sealing her away, Hela is instead stripped of her power and tossed to Midgard to try and learn some humility. 

Except that thanks to some time period shenanigans, Hela gets tossed to Midgard in China, where Wenwu finds both the helmet and the fallen goddess. This is a time period very briefly glimpsed in the prologue of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, where Wenwu, leader of the Ten Rings, goes around as a warlord, conquering and consolidating power.

The script for this is rather fun, though I do feel that there's something kind of off by having all these characters switch from Mandarin for two lines back to English after last episode was almost fully done in Mohawk language... though I suppose having Cate Blanchett back necessitates that most of the episode is done with English.

And... for what it is, the meeting between Hela and Wenwu (not voiced by Tony Leung, but a decent impersonator) is pretty neatly done. There is a very heavy "Star-Lord T'Challa" vibe to this entire episode in that there is a gigantic sense of "why these characters", though, with the only real reason as to why Hela is interacting with Wenwu and the people of Ta Lo being a shrug and a 'why not?' To be fair, Hela and Wenwu's dynamic is kind of fun, with the writers injecting a heavy amount of quasi-romantic tension between Hela and Wenwu. There's a fair amount of fun action scenes as Hela fights Wenwu's goons the usual way, then her despair as Wenwu brings her to where her goddess-of-death helmet landed and she is completely unable to pick it up. Again, the setup is rather questionable, but her anger and despair at being reduced to a mortal is a very nice parallel to her brother in the sacred timeline. 

Hela's fighting prowess impresses Wenwu enough to bring her into his base, and she gets a fancy red dress and gets invited into dinner. Wenwu rephrases his proposal as not a marriage, but an alliance... something that Hela, having been turned into a mortal, doesn't particularly care for since she's realized that exploiting her for her fighting abilities is rather close to what papa Odin did. We then lean into bad fanfiction crack-ship territory as the two lean in for a kiss right after exchanging maybe five or six lines... and then Hela bashes Wenwu's face into the table and runs off. Hela is unable to get the Ten Rings off of their master, however, and escapes Wenwu's base. In her escape, Hela runs into Morris -- the Dijiang that befriended Trevor in the Shang-Chi movie. Able to understand the faceless creature, Hela gets convinced to go to the secret realm of Ta Lo. 

After braving the magical bamboo forest of doom, Hela arrives into the mystical realm of Ta Lo. She is attacked immediately by one of the guardians, who uses the secret arts to manipulate wind and leaves and knock Hela flat. This is not Ying Li (Shang-Chi's mom) or Ying Nan (Shang-Chi's aunt), however, which would at least make sense for this what if, but rather Jiayi, a completely brand-new character not to be confused with these other two characters that have more or less the same role that she fills. I was a bit confused about the random new character, but apparently this episode worked off a very early script treatment for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which I assume influenced a lot of the inconsistencies. 

A lot of what happens after this is kind of a montage as Hela gets stuck in Ta Lo and gets trained in martial arts and inner peace by Jiayi and the other residents of the realm. Again, Cate Blanchett's performance is really fun as she tries her bad to (very badly) bullshit Jiayi and framing her quest as one of protection and redemption. I do really love Hela's delivery about how "who better to be trained in the ways of the light, than the goddess of death herself"... and later on Hela's frustration with the meditation and at one point her very enthusiastic desire for 'fire knives'. 

We get what's frankly a rather basic kung-fu training arc, with Hela getting frustrated with the exercises until Jiayi asks Hela what the point of all the conquering and destruction is. She does get through to Hela, and we get a rather nice little contextual flashback when Hela's dog was taken away by Odin to 'tame' her, and Hela realizes that her dad basically did the same to her with her helmet. This causes Hela to realize (or frame) her desire as more of a freedom to choose her own path, rather than conquest for conquest's sake. It's a very nice little analysis on her character, which fits the broken woman we saw in Thor: Ragnarok rather well. 

While all of this is going on, Ta Lo is apparently secluded enough from the all-seeing eyes of Heimdall, causing him to get worried about what happened. A discussion with Odin causes them to speculate that the Ten Rings are powerful enough of an artifact to kill a goddess...

...which is rather hilarious, since What If S01E03 established that the mortal-ized Thor died to a simple arrow, meaning that Hela could've died from anything that could've killed any squishy human. But I suppose Odin isn't quite in his right mind at this point. 

Anyway, the power-hungry Odin decides to go to Midgard and stop the owner of the Ten Rings once and for all. Hela leaves Ta Lo and makes a beeline towards where Odin has arrived, which is Wenwu's compound. Hela and Wenwu have some flirty dialogue before the two of them start fighting against Asgardian warriors and finally against Odin. What If's second season has really improved in terms of what they can do with animation, and I really did like the fight as Wenwu and Hela face off against the Allfather. 

Odin himself is a character that is also rather under-served by the MCU, particularly his more evil, aggressive past self... so it's nice to see him in his full-on arrogant, comic-book self in this episode. It becomes quite clear that Odin's arrival isn't just entirely driven by his desire to 'avenge' Hela, but the very same excuse to fight and conquer that he banished Hela for. Hela herself also sees a fair amount of control-freak tendencies on Odin's part, refusing to be under his control again. Odin is pretty conquer-y in this conversation, and Hela sees through all of Odin's bullshit and we get another sequence of fighting. Again, some really great action scenes (particularly with Odin's magic spear Gungnir) but eventually Hela manages to use the Ta Lo arts to dispel Odin's attacks, get to wield her fire knives, and even plays around with the Ten Rings for a bit. 

With Odin disarmed, Hela shows him mercy. This act ends up making her worthy for Mjolnir -- I mean, her helmet, and it returns towards her. Odin gets a brief hypocritical rant (this time being angry that Hela's no longer bloodthirsty), but then Hela's helmet arrives and transforms her outfit into a white version of her Asgardian armour. Odin realizes how badly he fucked up and abdicates his throne, and Hela decides to use her brand-new power to undo all the damage Odin did in his campaign of conquest. Wenwu and his organization kind of follow suit under her, and they travel across the universe fighting cosmic threats like Thanos. 

And... I'm really of two minds about this episode. Just like "Star-Lord T'Challa", I really did feel like this episode felt utterly random in tossing a character into a completely unrelated cast. I do really like the writing for Hela -- a take on the character that allows her to tread on a different path, particularly one that treads the path taken by a canon character, Thor? That's amazing. Bringing in a more comic-book accurate jackass Odin, with all the hypocrisy that Hela accuses him of in Thor: Ragnarok (which we never get to see, since Odin dies in the first ten minuets of that movie) is also top-notch. Just like what I said with Yellowjacket!Hank Pym from the first season of What If, I really do like it when characters that get adaptational goodness in the MCU get to have a bit more bite in the land of alternate universes. 

But what really didn't work for me was... the inclusion of the Shang-Chi characters. And this is from one of the biggest fans of Wenwu out there. Wenwu is just... he's just there. He shows up, acts all romantic to Hela (for a non-romance), kind of plants the idea that people want to use Hela for her power and nothing else, and then disappears until he shows back up for the final act where he fights alongside Hela and becomes her partner for no reason other than vague shipping. I really do think that this episode would've worked much better if either the entire Ta Lo sequence was excised completely (and Wenwu becomes the mentor, with maybe some handwaving as to why he's not power-hungry) or if Wenwu himself was excised and Hela just lands immediately in Ta Lo. 

The end result is an episode that has perhaps one of the strongest singular character story in What If season two (perhaps only rivalled with Peggy Carter's tragic life two episodes ago) but one that's bogged down with not quite the right scenario. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• The events in this episode is an alternate take on the prologue segments of Thor: Ragnarok, as well as the prologue segments of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. 
• Hela launches Mjolnir towards Odin, who crushes it with a single hand. This is an ironic reversal of what happened in the Sacred Timeline, where Hela crushes Thor's Mjolnir similarly. 
• The entire sequence of Odin banishing Hela to Earth is taken almost frame-by-frame, dialogue-by-dialogue, to Odin banishing Thor in Thor.
  
• Hela also later spends some time thinking that everything will be fine once she gets to pull her plot device from the ground, acting all arrogant until she realizes she can't pull her helmet until she truly changes, and despairing amidst a backdrop of rain and lightning. 
• Jiayi is a calm protector that greets people that come into Ta Lo, being heavily associated with the wind, and mentors a villain (Hela in this case) in martial arts. This essentially makes her a stand-in for Ying Li, Wenwu's wife. 
• With this episode apparently being produced and filmed before the release of the Shang-Chi movie, this episode might just be working off of an earlier, different name for Ying Li. 
• Interestingly, this episode kind-of confirms that Hela is Thor's half-sister, with her noting that Frigga isn't her biological mother but a goddess that Odin courted after Hela was already an adult. No real revelation as to who Hela's mother is, though it has to be noted that Hela being Odin's daughter is an MCU invention. 
• Hela as a 'Goddess of Life' has been alternate costumes in some mobile Marvel games, such as Marvel Super War. 
• Returning Live-Action Voice Actors: Cate Blanchett (Hela), Idris Elba (Heimdall)
• Notable non-returning voice actors include Feodor Chin and Jeff Bergman, who takes over for Wenwu and Odin respectively. 

Gotta Review 'Em All - Abilities [Generation V]

More abilities! We're ramping down after Generation IV in terms of Ability volume, or at least the amount of abilities given to lots of Pokemon. Generation V's more of an interesting transition period -- where there are a lot of redundant moves that I felt were introduced in this one, as far as abilities go,  they had a bit more restraint. There are a lot less 'signature abilities' introduced this generation, but the ones that were introduced were really memorable!

I think Generation V is the generation that introduces 'Hidden Abilities', further buffing a lot of older Pokemon (notably the older starters) by giving them 'Hidden' abilities. Any Pokemon you find in the wild tend to only have one of the two 'regular' abilities, but the Hidden Grotto and Dream World gimmicks introduced in this generation, as well as certain specific event Pokemon, are able to access particularly useful or powerful hidden abilities. This rounds up almost every Pokemon to retroactively have three abilities, with the exceptions being those like Slaking or Regigigas that are necessarily nerfed by their regular abilities. 

Anyway, not too much to say. On with the commentary!

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• Prankster (Itazura-gokoro/Teasing Heart) One of my favourite abilities in terms of flavour, Prankster gives priority to status moves... which is actually rather devastating despite its seemingly non-damaging nature. Priority is the name of the game, and setting up a bunch of moves that would seriously screw up the enemy's turn. Klefki, Sableye, Whimsicott... they do a lot of annoying things if moves like Will-o-Wisp or Swagger or Tailwind could be unleashed early on in the battle. I really love that the flavour for this move is also that the user is such a gigantic troll and jackass that their 'pranking' or 'teasing' moves become extra-efficient!
• Magic Bounce (Majikku Mira/Magic Miror) An interesting ability -- Magic Bounce (or 'Magic Mirror' in the original Japanese) basically creates a magical mirror that 'bounces' back status moves back at its original user. It's basically a better version of Synchronize -- and in fact, Xatu and Espeon basically can have a strict 'upgrade' from Synchronize to Magic Bounce. It's also an ability that they are gave to no less than three Mega-Evolutions (Banette, Diancie and Absol). Status moves can make or break a battle, and I do find it interesting that outside of mega-evolutions, Magic Bounce is limited to basically just Xatu, Espeon and the Hattena line! 
• Infiltrator (Surinuke/Slip Through) Originally 'naturally' possessed by the Cottonee line, this ability was given as a hidden ability to a lot of older Pokemon. The idea is that Pokemon that can 'infiltrate' or 'slip through' can break through moves like Protect, Mist or Substitute. I do like that most of the Pokemon that can do this are either ghosts or suitably 'tricky' Pokemon like Ninjask, Golbat and Seviper; or 'soft' ones like Jumpluff and Whimsicott. 

• Justified (Seigi no Kokoro/Heart of Justice) Only the four Musketeers learn this ability 'naturally', although a lot of other 'heroic' Pokemon like Gallade and Lucario have this ability as well. The Pokemon with Justified gets an Attack boost if they're hit with a Dark-type move. I love that from Generation VII onwards, the description specifically notes that it's "for justice"! Anyway, pretty understandable ability, a heroic knight gets enraged at underhanded tactics and gets even more powerful to beat down enemies with the power of pure justice.
• Moxie (Jishin Kajo/Overconfident) Moxie is an ability that's particularly memorable for me! It's basically a 'killing spree' style of buff, where the Pokemon gets a massive Attack buff after knocking out a Pokemon, and continues getting buffs as it continues to beat down other Pokemon. Most of the Pokemon that are given this ability are either Dark-types or ones that are brutal-looking enough, like Gyarados or the Pinsir/Heracross duo. Pretty fun, and despite the Japanese name being 'overconfident', I suppose that overconfidence is rewarded because the Pokemon just becomes stronger and stronger with no drawback!
• Moody (Murakke/Sudden Impulse) An Ability that's exclusively a hidden ability, Moody randomly lowers one stat and raises another -- with the raised stat always getting more points. I don't know much about the competitive landscape, but I do know that Moody was one of the abilities that was banned? I guess that's too much RNG for the competitive scene?

• Sheer Force (Chikara Zuku/Sheer Force) This is always a very interesting Ability! Sheer Force is... basically, you reduce moves to just their sheer, undiluted attacking power (in the form of an additional bonus) and nothing else. It's kind of interesting, and honestly you don't really need the random bonus chance to flinch or whatever if you can maximize power and just murder the enemy. Pretty fun, and this was given to a lot of older Pokemon as a hidden ability.  
• Pickpocket (Waruite Guse/Bad Habit) There's a lot of 'stealing' Abilities and Moves, huh? Pickpocket is mostly a hidden ability with the exception of the recent Shroodle, and it's... not the best hidden ability. Pickpocket basically allows your Pokemon to 'pick the pocket' of an enemy that makes contact move, stealing their held item... but having your Pokemon not hold an item is kind of terrible!
• Unnerve (Kinchokan/Tension) Flavour-wise, this is kinda like Intimidate -- but the usage isn't particularly useful. Unnerve causes the opposing party to be so scared that they can't eat their berries, and... berry-related Abilities just aren't that useful. It frankly is bizarre how many older Pokemon got this as their hidden ability as opposed to something more useful. Shame! 
• Harvest (Shukaku/Harvest) Another Berry-related one, Harvest makes the chance of creating a second Berry after one is consumed. Not too much to say, at this point I'm kind of out of things to say about Berry-related Abilities. It is cute that all the Pokemon that have Harvest are all the Grass-types based on trees -- Exeggutor, Tropius, Trevenant and Arboliva!

• Cursed Body (Noroware Bodi/Cursed Body) Kind of an interesting ability. Cursed Body has a chance to basically cast Disable (the 'curse') on any enemy that makes physical contact. Originally only learned by the Frillish line (and a very annoying one at that!) this move remained mostly as a hidden ability otherwise, with only Alolan Marowak and post-nerf Gengar receiving this instead of Levitate as an ability. Not the most powerful ability, but a very annoying one when it does trigger!
• Healer (Iyashi no Kokoro/Healing Heart) An Ability that's shared alongside a lot of different 'healing' Pokemon, particularly Audino and Alomomola. Not the most useful ability, though, because it's a random chance to maybe heal an ally's status conditions -- only really useful in double battles and is randomly triggered as well.
• Friend Guard (Furendo Gado/Friend Guard) A little more interesting in multi-battles, Friend Guard basically reduces damage dealt to allies by 25%. It's not intercepting the damage, so I guess the flavour is like a passive aura buff or something? Interestingly, while the three 'pink babies' learn this as a hidden ability, only Cleffa keeps it as she grows up while Igglybuff and Happiny trade Friend Guard in for other abilities. 
• Defiant (Makenki/Competitive Spirit) Originally only naturally learned by the Pawniard line, this one is given as a hidden ability to some Pokemon like Purugly and Primeape. Love the flavour of this one -- whenever a Pokemon with Defiant gets their stats lowered, they're so angry and defiant that they get an additional stat boost out of it. 

• Weak Armor (Kudakeru Yoroi/Broken Armour) I really like this move's flavour. A lot of Pokemon with 'hard' exterior body parts like rock, steel, shell, coral, or even things like garbage or teapot cups have this ability. It's also something that gets given to a lot of pre-Gen-V Pokemon as a Hidden Ability! The flavour of this one is very fun, representing armour being shed. Physical attacks on Pokemon with Weak Armour lower its defense stat, but increases its speed, representing a Pokemon dropping chunks of its armour and going faster and faster. Pretty cool!
• Heavy Metal (Hebi Metaru/Heavy Metal) and Light Metal (Raito Metaru/Light Metal) A pair of abilities that affect the Pokemon's weight, usually the ones with Steel-type. Not too much to say about this, Heavy Metal doubles the weight and Light Metal halves the weight, which only really matters for the damage calculation done by some moves like Low Kick and Heat Crash. Interesting that Duraludon can get either one of these, though. 
• Multiscale (Maruchisukeiru/Multiscale) The hidden ability of specifically only two Pokemon -- Dragonite and Lugia -- Multiscale will reduce damage received if the HP is full. Okay? I honestly don't quite 'get' the flavour behind this one, and why it doesn't apply to other kinds of draconic Pokemon? The effect is cute, I guess. 

• Telepathy (Terepashi/Telepathy) Telepathy is originally the signature ability of the Elgyem line, and is given as a Hidden Ability to a lot of older Psychic-type Pokemon... and the legendary Sinnoh dragons for some reason! This one is something that kind of shows up a lot in media, where a lot of Pokemon are just shown to be able to communicate with telepathy. It would be something if every single one of the non-Psychic legendary Pokemon that speaks to our heroes gets this ability, but eh. The effect of Telepathy causes a Pokemon to dodge AOE damaging moves casted by its allies, which... is only really useful in double battles, and while it's cute, I don't think it's the best ability out there. Cute, though. 
• Contrary (Ama no Jaku/Devil's Advocate) A weird one, and a very interesting one! Contrary switches the effects of stat increases and decreases. There are a lot of funny stuff you could do with Contrary in addition with moves or Abilities that trade stat changes or whatever (which is why at the time of writing the only Pokemon that 'naturally' learns this is , but one use is like spamming Leaf Storm with Serperior, turning a high-damage move with a drawback into a high-damage move with a Special Attack boost. Very fun, and I also like that a lot of the Pokemon that learns this are tricksy weirdoes like Malamar, Spinda and Lurantis!
• Regenerator (Saiseiryoku/Regeneration) This one gives a brief HP healing when a Pokemon is switched out, which isn't too significant in the grand scheme of things, but I do really like that the Pokemon that have this are either healing Pokemon like Audino and Alomomola, or Pokemon based on creatures that can regenerate their lost limbs like Tangela, Mareanie, Klawf, Amoongus or Corsola. Or Slowpoke, who's shown to be able to regrow lost tails over time. I guess Mienfoo and Meinshao just learn some healing skills in their martial arts training or something?

• Poison Touch (Dokushu/Underhanded Trick) A pun that only makes sense in the original Japanese, 'Dokushu' is a phrase that means an underhanded scheme or treachery, but it literally written with the kanji for 'poison hand/touch'. Hence, the English name. It still given to a bunch of Poison-type Pokemon, but interestingly enough also Seismitoad, which fits with the 'warty toads are poisonous' stereotype. 
• Big Pecks (Hato Mune/Pigeon's Breast) Oh. Get it? 'Big Pecks', as in 'big pecs'? As in the muscle? That's how they decide to translate an ability that was originally 'pigeon's breast'? The pun in Japanese, hatomune, is a phrase that refers to someone with a proud heart. A very fun pun translation! The effect isn't particularly interesting, just protection from defense-lowering moves, but the name pun is appreciated. 
• Rattled (Bibiri/Jitter) This one is hilariously silly, but I like the flavour! Rattled causes the Pokemon to get 'scared' of certain scary types, which are Bug, Dark and Ghost. All the scary types! And if the Pokemon gets hit by one of these types, their Speed gets buffed, because they're preparing to Scooby-Doo it out of there! I love this one. A lot of weaker, unevolved Pokemon have this as a hidden ability before they trade it in for a stronger one as they evolve, but chronic cowards like Sudowoodo and Granbull continue keeping it even as fully-evolved Pokemon!

• Wonder Skin (Mirakuru Sukin/Wonder Skin) Originally the signature ability of Sigilyph before being given as a hidden ability to some Pokemon like Skitty and Venomoth, Wonder Skin reduces the accuracy of status-inflicting moves. It's... honestly kind of just there. 
• Overcoat (Bojin/Dust Proof) Overcoat is interesting. I like that the Japanese name is 'dust proof', but it basically gives immunity from weather moves. Or, well, just Hail and Sandstorm, really. These are all Pokemon with some sort of shell -- Shelgon, Cloyster, Escavalier, Swadloon, Burmy... and even some hilariously fun definitions of 'armour' like Reuniclus! Cell parts apparently count as these dust-proofing overcoats. 
• Analytic (Anaraizu/Analyze) This one is fun in terms of flavour -- if the Pokemon moves last, they have 'analyzed' and '5D-chess'd' the battlefield, allowing them to deal a move with 30% more damage. Realistically, though, if you move last in a battle you probably have bigger things to worry about, but I do like that flavour-wise, this is given to some rather stereotypically smart-looking Pokemon (Beheeyem), 'robots' (Magnezone, Porygon) and those with big eyes like Watchog. 

• Sap Sipper (Soshoku/Herbivorous) A variation of Storm Drain and Lightning Rod, Sap Sipper nullifies Grass-type moves and increases the Attack stat. Originally it was exclusive to Sawsbuck and Bouffalant until it was made available to a bunch of older Pokemon as a Hidden Ability. It's... it's always one that frankly didn't make the most sense to me, either being a 'sap sipper' or 'herbivorous' doesn't really make you immune to every single plant attack out there, right? 
• Sand Force (Suna no Chikara/Sand Power) I guess they're trying to give more Sandstorm-synergy Abilities in Generation V? I guess Sand Veil isn't all that useful. Sand Force is, if you could easily guess, is the most offensive-oriented one of these Sandstorm-related Abilities. Basically Sand Force boosts the Rock, Ground and Steel moves in a Sandstorm. Pretty simple, but effective. Like Prankster, Sand Force is given to two Mega Evolutions -- Mega Steelix and Mega Garchomp. So this definitely is a pretty good ability! 
• Sand Rush (Sunakaki/Sand Paddle) Sand Rush, as its name also implies, just doubles the speed in a Sandstorm. I really don't have much for this, at some point 'X stat increases in weather' abilities kind of blur together. I am confused that Herdier and Stoutland are able to gain this ability -- are giant Saint Bernard dogs able to run quickly in the desert? Eh. Also, the Draco- fossils, Dracovish and Dracozolt, all have Sand Rush as a hidden ability. Is the original stegosaurid source a Ground/Dragon or Rock/Dragon originally? Hm!

Let's get a bunch of signature abilities out of the way first, with a bunch that are owned by Legendaries. Surprisingly, considering the amount of legendaries in Gen V, we don't actually have too many legendary-specific abilities. 

• Victory Star (Shori no Hoshi/Star of Victory) Victini's ability, Victory Star is an interesting way to do the 'good luck for victory' vibe that Victini had. It increases the accuracy of moves used by Victini as well as his allies. Not too overpowered, and not too boring, I guess? It's thematic enough!
• Turboblaze (Tabobureizu/Turboblaze) and Teravolt (Teraboruteji/Teravoltage) these are the abilities of Reshiram and Zekrom respectively, the mascots of the Generation V games, as well as their respective fused forms with Kyurem. The abilities are basically Mold Breaker, but reskinned as the 'blazing/bursting aura' of the legendary Pokemon. Previously, I thought that it's supposed to symbolize when these dragons' tail-engines are activated. 
• Imposter (Kawari Mono/Changer) Imposter, meanwhile, is the new hidden ability and is only available to Ditto. Imposter basically auto-casts Transform at the beginning of all turns, which was, prior to this, Ditto's biggest weakness -- Ditto's crappy stats causes it to be out-sped and knocked out by its opponent basically within the first turn. Of course, it still doesn't make Ditto particularly competitive, but at least you could use it a lot more easily now, giving Ditto a fraction of the power that its anime/manga counterparts show off!

• Illusion (Iryujon/Illusion) This is one of the abilities that, like I said, really makes a Pokemon's gimmick work. Illusion is Zorua and Zoroark's signature ability, which allows them to take the appearance (but not the typing or whatever) of the sixth Pokemon in your party. It's very cool in theory, but not too useful in practice because Zoroark's a fragile Pokemon that will be unable to trick and 'tank' any attack other than Psychic-type moves. So I guess you could disguise one as a Toxicroak or something? But the flavour of Illusion is basically everything relating to a kitsune's tricky shapeshifting ability, and the tie-in media and Zoroark's out-of-battle cutscenes make great use of this one!
• Defeatist (Yowaki/Timid) The only ability able to be obtained by the Archen line, Defeatist causes Archen and Archeops to have their attack stats be halved if their HP is half or less. Archeops doesn't even have a particularly spectacular stat pool, so this is kind of a death sentence for the poor feathered dinosaur. This is kinda meant to show just why the Archen line got extinct, which is nice from a story standpoint, but not so nice for the poor line's competitive viability. 
• Zen Mode (Daruma Modo/Daruma Mode) Not really a showcase of an ability that 'transforms', since Castform, Cherrim and Arceus did that already, but this showcases the gimmick of a 'hidden ability'. Zen Mode is only available to specific Darmanitan that have its hidden ability -- though thankfully the original Gen V games made a bunch of Darmanitan with this unique ability. This changes Darmanitan into its 'Zen Mode' once its HP is halved, turning regular Darmanitan into Fire/Psychic, and Galarian Darmanitan into Ice/Fire. Again, hard to really talk about the 'flavour' of this one without discussing Darmanitan as a whole!

• Mummy (Mira/Mummy) Oh, this one is one of my favourites, and another reason why Cofagrigus is so cool beyond just being a badass sentient ghost-coffin monster. Mummy basically simulates like a 'zombie' or a 'vampire' plague, which I don't think is normally associated with mummies... but mummies are bandaged zombies, right? Bulbapedia notes that there's a specific Japanese expression (the mummy taker becomes the mummy), 
• Toxic Boost (Doku Boso/Poison Rampage) and Flare Boost (Netsu Boso/Burn Rampage) These two do a similar thing -- an attack boost if the Pokemon is Poisoned or Burned respectively. Toxic Boost is the signature ability of Zangoose, which represents how mongooses have a venom immunity to prey on snakes and reflects Zangoose's rivalry with Seviper. Meanwhile, Flare Boost is the signature ability of the Drifloon line, which I guess reflects how its fuel gas is being ignited and causes it to get even more... powerful? It floats up higher and faster before it burns up, I guess?
• Iron Barbs (Tetsu no Toge/Iron Barbs) This one belonged to Ferrothorn, and later just Togedemaru, though I really think this should retroactively given to some older Pokemon too? Surely Aggron would classify for this? This is a rather useful ability, though, dealing physical damage to any Pokemon that attacks the already-defensive Ferrothorn with a physical move. Makes sense, you try to punch an iron durian, and you get hurt!  

One Piece 1108 Review: Flatline

One Piece, Chapter 1108: Attention, World

What an eventful chapter!

We start off by following up on Caribou's meeting with Van Augur and Catarina Devon. Van Augur very sensibly doesn't trust the creepy swamp-man that came out of nowhere, though it is worth noting that Augur actually knows who 'Wet-Haired' Caribou is. Caribou rapid-fire claims that he's got very valuable information for Blackbeard, but he's also smart enough not to tell Augur and Catarina outright. Maybe mentioning something about the Ancient Weapons but not revealing them outright would've guaranteed you a passage there, Caribou my man. 

We get to see a bit more of the Marines fighting against the Pacifistas, some of which start using the Bubble Shields (which I completely forgot about), and I do like how conflicted some of the Vice Admirals are. Going back to how the Vice Admirals were portrayed in Enies' Lobby and Marineford, where everyone is an interchangeable stern-faced, stoic badass who's there to do orders, I do like that the Vice Admirals that show up here are actually portrayed as people. Some of them are being stern professionals, but some are questioning what's going on. 

After Red King last chapter, and Doll being a recurring character over the early Egghead island chapters, we also get names for all of the Vice Admirals that arrived on Egghead, which... I'm a big enough dork to care about, and because this is my review, this means you guys get to see me geek out about Vice Admirals! So here's a listing of all the Vice Admirals name-dropped in this chapter...

• Bluegrass, the old lady with the Ride-Ride Fruit. She's a bit more pragmatic, not wanting to hurt Marine forces by wiping out the Pacifistas (which she mentions she could wipe out by 'cutting loose).
• Hound, the most boring-looking Vice Admiral design-wise, who's a pretty-boy with great lipstick game and fancy glasses. Hound is perhaps the most vocal about going against orders, asking if they could stop the Buster Call with all the chaos going on. 
• Guillotine, the guy with the super-long beard and like a sickle attached to his head, rants about how Vegapunk has betrayed them and there's no way they can stop now. I think he's shown throwing around that crescent-knife on his head before. 
• Doberman is a character we've seen a couple of times before. He was bloodthirsty in Enies' Lobby, and he showed up a fair bit in the background in Marineford. And, rather naturally, he takes the lead here in demanding all Vice Admirals in hunting down and murdering the shit out of Jewelry Bonney. 
• Tosa is the big guy who mentioned Rokushiki in chapter 1090... and appropriately enough, he attempts to use a Shigan technique to murder Bonney. More on him later. 
• Urban is the guy with Oars-looing tusks. Nothing much to note here other than the fact that his name, in fact, doesn't have anything to do with Oars.
• Pomsky is the guy with a gigantic butt-chin and mustache that would make The Tick proud. He's the otter Zoan that briefly showed off his powers in 1094. He's a bit unperturbed with Tosa's line going dead, and is heading to the island next. 

Anyway, Tosa is the first to move in to attack on Doberman's orders, about to use a Haki'd-up 'Ten Barrel Shigan' to attack Bonney and Franky. And... I really would've liked to see the other Straw Hats do something against the Vice Admirals, I really do. Even if Franky doesn't defeat Tosa, I really wished he had done like a Strong Right or a Radical Beam against Tosa. Characters like Franky, Robin, Brook and Chopper so very rarely get a proper, nice showcase of their abilities, and with Franky specifically I really am kind of disappointed at how minimal his involvement is in the Egghead Island arc. 

But instead, I almost like the alternative, where a giant axe just slams and one-shots Tosa onto the ground. 

And here comes Dorry and Brogy! I love the little nod to Oda's own running joke about bounty postesr. Apparently, Dorry and Brogy actually did try to look up other members of the Straw Hats that had joined ever since Little Garden... and all of Franky's posters hasn't shown his current body. Franky's first poster showed his pre-timeskip design; his next poster showed the Franky Shogun; and his current poster for some reason shows the Thousand Sunny. 

Franky asks Dorry and Brogy if they've got a grudge against his captain, but the giants only have gratitude for Luffy. Bonney name-dropping Luffy and Sanji's name causes the giants to get all happy and supportive and shit. And... you know, I just... I just really like Dorry and Brogy. They've got such a cheerful, happy energy that just carries you along, y'know? It feels like such a 'One Piece' thing, too, that all these giants are just walking around with giant smiles on their faces. Dorry and Brogy go on to help Luffy and company, while the other giant goons carry Franky's group to the ship. It's at this point that Franky recognizes Dorry and Brogy as the 'masters' that Usopp keep talking about. 

While all of this is going on, Vice Admirals Urban and Pomsky react to Tosa's line going dead, while Bluegrass uses the Ride-Ride Fruit to subjugate one of the mecha Sea Beasts and head on to press the attack with Doll doing a cool, badass-character standing pose on top of the giraffe-serpent. Doll also very casually drops the fact that her old commanding officer was a giant, which Bluegrass immediately recognizes as Saul. 

Luffy and Sanji argue with Vegapunk, who keeps claiming that he can't be moved, while Saint Jaygarcia Saturn scuttles into view... and good god, they made him look scary. I think he's gone into a full beast-mode form or something, because he's much larger than before and at no point in this chapter do we see his usual humanoid hands or his cane. And -- the chapter also points out -- his eyes. 

Throughout all of Saturn's appearances, his eyes have always been dismissive, arrogant, focused. But here? Especially in the two panels where he looms in the distance over Sanji and Luffy? His eyes are dilated and the lines around his eyes are darkened and monstrous. 

Even more creepy is that Saturn has just... stopped talking. With how chatty he was when talking to Vegapunk, Bonney, and the Blackbeard Pirates before, Saturn's just completely silent now. He doesn't even offer any "..." or "!" reactions. He's just entirely silent as he scuttles in and attacks our heroes. Sanji also mentions that Saturn has "given up all pretense of pretending to look human", mentioning how strange his eyes look, and how his spider legs are coated in poison. It's acidic anime poison, too, and Saturn demonstrates this by literally dissolving a tree by poking it with a spider leg. 

I'm not sure if this is part of Saturn's powers or if it's just stylistic, but the way that Saturn's giant spider legs are shooting and demolishing the ground where Luffy, Sanji and Vegapunk are at looks almost as if they were made of rubber. 

Anyway, as they dodge Saturn's assault, Kizaru (who's MIA for the last 2 pages) just zips in, sucker-kicks Sanji in the chin, and then stabs the shit out of Vegapunk's abdomen with his lightsaber. It's... it's actually a rather terrifying expression on Vegapunk's face. Between Saturn, Vegapunk and Luffy later on, Oda's firing on all cylinders with drawing facial expressions this chapter. It is unfortunate for Sanji, who was kind of set up to fight Kizaru last chapter, but between the Zoro/Lucci nonsense it really did feel like the Egghead arc isn't particularly big on setting up proper fights.

And we get one of the most badass moments that Gear Fifth Luffy has ever gotten, as he goes gigant form and holds back Saturn and Kizaru. He grabs Kizaru like he's King Kong or something, crushing the poor admiral so hard that he's coughing blood, while Saturn's being held in place like someone stopping a large dog. We do get a nice zoom-in on Saturn's eyes right before a panel showing Luffy's lunatic grinning face... but the coolest panel has to be the serious Gear Fifth Luffy, with his face downcast and in shadow with pursed lips. That's badass. One of the biggest complains is that Gear Fifth does make a lot of the tension leak out of these action scenes, but I am willing to give Gear Fifth the benefit of the doubt if Oda can give us moments like this -- and perhaps extend it a bit further -- where Luffy can feel a bit more unsettling with his Gear Fifth expressions. 

Meanwhile, the final page is... is rather interesting. Sanji tells Vegapunk not to 'die on him', and then mentions that he's 'smiling' about something... which, as Oden and Kuma and Roger and Whitebeard and Ace have shown us, smiling upon facing death is a very Will of D. thing to do. 

And I do believe Stella Vegapunk have died this chapter. There might be arguments and I might be proven wrong next week, but we do see a monitor going to a flatline, and what seemed to be a dead man's switch to happen as Vegapunk's recorded message starts being broadcasted, seemingly to the entire world, as he, the Greatest and Most Humble Scientific Genius, is ready to tell everyone about the Truth of the World.

Whatever that truth of the world is, I am very excited to find out what it's all about. The Gorosei's true nature? The Ancient Kingdom? Devil Fruits? The golem? The Void Century? Imu? Whatever it is, it's going to be a combination of Whitebeard's "The One Piece is Real" and I can totally see this as something huge that shook the world as the narrator have promised us.

Honestly, this has been a great chapter. I want Vegapunk to die, because throughout the flashbacks I really do think that he's got a great character arc, going from someone who callously rejects Dragon for not having the funds to hire him, to someone who's openly defying the government for all the shit they've put him, Kuma and Bonney through. I am always of the proponent of having meaningful deaths in these late-series arcs, so I'm definitely waiting excitedly for what Vegapunk's final message would be!

Random Notes:

• How terrible is Caribou's epithet, on a side-note? He could've had such a cool serial-killer name, like "Caribou of the Living Burials" or "Swamp King" Caribou or "Death Tongue" Caribou or "Human Trafficker" Caribou. But no, the most notable thing about him, apparently, is his fucking wet hair. 
• People have pointed out that Caribou's whole 'swamp dimension' thing might actually be based on Blackbeard's Black Vortex attack, in the same way that Bartolomeo homages Luffy. 
• I do really like that we've got Doberman as a consistent character archetype between both Egghead and our previous Buster Call, Enies' Lobby. 
• Between Doberman, Tosa, Hound and Pomsky (a pomeranian/husky hybrid) and Dalmatian (who's not here) there are a bunch of Vice Admirals named after dogs, huh?
• Apparently, Dorry and Brogy are very stealthy, considering neither Tosa nor Franky's group realized that there were even giants running around. 
• Dorry mentions of hearing the name Vegapunk from 'that scholar'. People speculate that this is an Oharan survivor, either Clover or Robin's parents or whoever, but I honestly think the simplest answer is the right one and it's just another reference to Saul -- who I assume would have became a scholar after recovering so many books from Ohara. 
• The giants are a bit familiar with Sky Islands, too, mistaking Franky's comment about them being 'above us' as them being on a Sky Island. It's been so long, but during the Skypiea arc, there was a mention of a 'proper' way to get to the Sky Islands without using the insanity that is the Knock-Up Stream. 
• Is Uta on the cover page because her movie also features a (much more malign) plot to broadcast something all over the world?
• Vegapunk does mention a reason as to why he didn't tell Bonney about the whole command override thing -- he wanted to keep it a secret until Bonney's a bit older, since she'll be a target for the rest of her life. That... that doesn't really mean Vegapunk couldn't have told Bonney like, right after the Marines took control of the Pacifistas!
• There is a theory, apparently, that Kizaru's not actually evil and he's 'cauterizing' Vegapunk's wound... but between the flatline and his willingness to murder Bonney and Kuma together last chapter, I really don't think the 'good Kizaru' theories are going to pan out. Which is a shame. There is admittedly some long-shots about this, but I do rather enjoy all the discussions about where Kizaru's "Unclear Justice" is taking him. 
• No real idea about why Saturn's super-silent. Does Saturn have some sort of an imperfect awakening, like the Awakened Jailer Beasts, or Monster Point Chopper? 
• There is some great Kamen Rider Build energy with how Vegapunk identifies himself both as the 'greatest' but also 'most humble' scientist in the world. 

One Piece Anime, Wano Arc: Episodes 1076-1078

And now we get to the final episode of the Luffy/Kaido fight. I thought about putting 1076 with 1074-1075, and leave the rest of the denouement chapters into one whole pile... but I took a while watching 1076, and that's why. Anyway... it's been a wild ride reviewing the Wano anime. It took me almost two years? Admittedly that's with a lot of hiatuses from my part, but eh, it's a fun enough project and I do feel like the Wano arc in the anime does benefit a lot from both improved animation as well as expansion of certain scenes.

Episode 1076:

• Splitting the original "Luffy beats Kaido" sequence into 1075 and 1076 to give the Hiyori moment actual time to breathe and for the final clash to be extended and played out a bit is, by the way, a great moment. I normally am not a fan of the old-school Dragon Ball Z mentality of 'let's have two people scream at each other for a whole episode while the peanut gallery makes comments', but in this case since we're covering the whole Hiyori subplot in 1075, it does mean that 1076 gives Momonosuke and, more importantly, Kaido, time to breathe. 
• And I still don't think the Kaido flashback in the anime fixes all of the problems I had with Kaido's portrayal in the Wano arc as a whole. But putting almost every single Kaido flashback piece, and highlighting just how much of his life has been embroiled with a 'might makes right' mentality, does make Kaido's character closure a whole lot better than what we got in the manga. 
• We get to see how little Kaido is a gigantic superstar in his home country of Vodka Kingdom, in a location where he's at the center stage -- which was not apparent in the manga, but it's interesting that the way Kaido is showing off his kanabo in front of the citizens of Vodka is framed very similarly to Queen's Performance Hall, indicating that Kaido at least partially built it similarly to how he was raised. 
• And then we get to see Kaido reacting and looking at the citizens being too poor and being abused by their kingdom's soldiers, who are collecting tribute to feed the bigger fish that is the World Government... and Kaido himself basically got sold off like an asset to the World Government. 
• "Don't use me for politics!"
• And this goes straight to present-day Kaido talking about how "you'll be betrayed if you're weak", and how he wants to plunge the world into one of violence. And... I guess Kaido was really hurting over that betrayal as a child in Vodka Kingdom, and presumably during his time in the Rocks Pirates. 
  
• Present-day Kaido also demands to know from Luffy what his goal was, after applauding his spirit and tenacity in gathering all of the pirates and samurai fighting against his forces. And basically this whole 20-minute episode is just this exchange, drawn-out. 
• There is, of course, some token resistance from Kaido unleashing more of his fiery power, and Gear Fifth Luffy struggling around and wibbly-wobblying mid-air.
• This sequence is punctuated with Kaido roaring that "you did great, but you can't change the world"... then cut to Kaido being captured and escaping from Marine vessels as a youth, getting his first bounty and eventually being recruited into the Rocks Pirates. 
• Interestingly, it's Whitebeard that recruited Kaido into the Rocks Pirates, and I really do wonder if some part of Whitebeard is basically trying to 'adopt' Kaido as an early 'son' or 'little brother', the way he would do to his own crew as he got older. 
• The mysterious silhouetted pirate that talks to Kaido is a man, but I must confess I don't recognize his voice. It might be Ochoku? Or just a generic deckhand.
• As with the manga, we only see scattered, out-of-context shots of all the scenes where Kaido works with the Rocks Pirates right before their disbanding.
• Man, young Big Mom really does look like Bonney from afar, especially in shots where the lipstick is a bit more pronounced. 
• 
  And then we cut to Kaido after he has recruited King, and is talking to Kurozumi Higurashi, who expouses the same 'you are so strong, it's natural for the weak to fall to the strong' sentiment that Kaido lives and breathes by now. This cuts immediately to Kaido giving a speech to his own Beasts Pirates, waging war against the government and "those who were merely born as nobles", and how he's convinced that if they can drag them to the battlefield then Kaido and his crew of powerful brutes will thrive. This is Kaido's definition of freedom. 
• And... again, it's not much, it doesn't paint a whole picture of Kaido's full trauma and I don't think the anime can do that until (if) the manga reveals even more of Kaido's backstory, but I do appreciate how we do get to see how the world moulded Kaido into someone so obsessed with strength. 
  
• We then briefly get a scene of Kaido talking to King about Joyboy, right as we cut back and forth to Luffy's Bajrang Gun overpowering Kaido's fire dragon attack, with a pretty cool shot of Luffy's giant fist hovering over a representation of Kaido's human form. 
• Oh, right. CP-0 agent Joseph survives and Geppo's away. Right.
• We then get an extended sequence of Momonosuke and Yamato trying to psych themselves out and... again, the Momo/Yamato lines in 1075-1076 are the best we've gotten from them. It's just that I've heard them so much that I'm sorry, I really do find it hard to care. 
• 
  There's a brief nice shot of Denjiro and Hiyori after killing Orochi, then the water starts flooding in and putting out the fires and saving everyone. All of this takes quite some time and basically covers a nice one-quarter of the episode or so. Not much to say, the episode would flow too quickly without this but it's also a bit too long for my tastes. 
• I do like the brief focus shown on Usopp, bloodied and wounded, but still hanging on to Kin'emon and Kiku like he said he would. Brave fucking Warrior of the Sea, that Usopp. (Fuck Hamlet, I guess.)
• Ultimately, of course, with none of Kaido's flame clouds to rely on, Momonosuke manages to create his own flame clouds and drag it to bind Onigashima. About damn time. 
  
• And then we get the nice shot of everyone seeing a brief glimpse of Luffy clashing with the glowing, burning Kaido from the hole in the ceiling. With an interesting emphasis (which I think isn't in the manga) on Kid and Law, 
• Kaido then yells about how the weak will die, and how he will rule the world starting from Wano... and demands to know what kind of world Luffy can hope to create. 
• Luffy's answer, of course, with a rather appropriate flashback to his initial scene with Tama? To create a world where no one will starve. 
• And finally, Bajrang Gun hits and overwhelms Kaido as Luffy yells about his dream, as Kaido's Rising Dragon Flame Bagua starts to disintegrate upon the impact of Luffy's fist... and then flashes to both scenes from Wano as well as Kaido's flashback. And, one delicious last shot of Oden yelling "Kaidoooo" superimposed on Luffy. 
• And then we get these glorious, glorious traditional Japanese ink-painting shots as the music swells up to show Kaido absolutely being blown away by Luffy's gigantic punch. 

• And... and I've always wanted Gear Fifth's first finisher to be more than just a big punch. Or at least, I wanted it to be a big punch that embodied the cartoony nonsense that Gear Fifth is supposed to be. But the anime does make it a tad bit much more epic thanks to the music and the art style shifts. Actually, the art style shifts really did carry a lot of the Gear Fifth action, huh?
• And then, of course, as the artstyle reverts to normal, we get Gear Fifth Luffy hovering mid-air as glowing balls of light -- the wishes of the people of Wano begging for someone to beat 'that scary dragon' rises up to him. A very messianic image, and we get some really cool shots of Gear Fifth Luffy basking in his victory. 
• And as Momonosuke drags Onigashima to a nice, secluded spot off the side of the Flower Capital, as Luffy laughs, as Kaido falls down The Hole... the whole sequence is laid over with past Kaido talking to King about how Joyboy is the man that will beat Kaido. 
• And ultimately... yeah. I was definitely in the minority in that I'm not the most impressed with Gear Fifth (at least until the Kaminari episode) but this final clash is pretty good stuff!

Episode 1077:

• And since we're out of the action-packed episodes, these next couple of commentaries are going to be much shorter and much less intricate. I just really want to get the Wano arc reviews over with, and truthfully I never found the denouement episodes particularly interesting to watch in the anime (compared to the manga) but I figured I might as well as talk about them. 
• Kaido falls into the lava! I love the brief showcase of the cross-section of the giant Wano geography to show the holes made by the two Yonko before we see Kaido revert to his human form and blorp into the lava. 
• Nekomamushi announces the victory for everyone to hear with the aid of a den-den mushi, and we get yet another cut to Oden on that pot of hot boiling water. 
• In addition to the Wano characters and samurai celebrating, the anime as always adds a couple extra lines for Kid and Law. 
• Also, we learn what took out Apoo and Inbi -- it's the flood from Raizo's attack, which apparently knocked out Inbi and caused him to fall over Apoo. Apoo kinda became irrelevant in the later stages of Wano and all, but it's nice to see what happened to him be resolved. 
• I actually do like the comedic gag of Usopp and Franky rushing in with the injured people they are escorting (Kin'emon, Kiku and Zoro) and Chopper freaking out more and more... and then Brook charges in saying "I've been burnt and turned into a skeleton". And then Robin adds a morbid joke about being burned alive on top of it. That's actually funny. 
• Tenguyama talking to Otoko about the price of Yasuie's sacrifice is all well and good in this episode, but we really didn't need the flashback to them eating the SMILE.
• The anime scene shows Yausie eating the SMILE, which retcons that one SBS or Vivre Card that says that Yasuie's only pretending to laugh out of solidarity with the Ebisu Town people. Knowingly eating the SMILE is much more dramatic and epic anyway, and it's still an act of solidarity. 
• Giant volcanic eruption! We still have no idea what's going on with Kaido and Big Mom, but I do feel like the anime implies that they got shot out of the underwater lava pocket outside of Udon Prison? It's kept entirely ambiguous, though, and I'm not sure why there's lightning dancing all over the smoke from the volcano. 
• Okay, it was pretty badass for Momonosuke to land on the ground and have him, Hiyori and all the Scabbards walk out of the smoke. 

Episode 1078:

• Yeah, a lot of reactions to Kaido's defeat and the arrival of Momonosuke and company. It's done well, the animation's good, the voice acting's good. I just really can't muster much enthusiasm to write too much about it beyond 's'nice'. I did like the shots of all the Scabbards showing up and posing one by one while the audience recognizes them, and of course adult Momonosuke's human form gets a nice speech. 
  
• Ah yes. The crew members actually reacting a bit longer to Yamato, and Yamato announcing that she'll be joining the crew. That... that's not going to be a scene that ages well.
• And we also get Otama's flashback. I think this is fairly expanded compared to the manga. The anime doesn't actually call into attention that Tama is a Kurozumi clan member, though.
• I really started off the Momonosuke saga disliking him. And I still really can't say that he's like a favourite character or whatever... but I really do like the brief moments where he's competent but then you remember he's still like a little child. So after giving a speech, he has to whisper to Kin'emon what else he must say... then he remembers Luffy's words and he gets a burst of confidence and does the "My name is Momonosuke! It means peerless!" 

Reviewing Monsters -- Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, Palace Enemies

Part 2 of my review of the monsters of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. This time, we're covering the 'palace' enemies and the 'bosses' found in the palaces. Again, as mentioned in my previous article for Zelda II, the fan-wikis split the bestiary into 'overworld' and 'palace' enemies, and I've elected to done the same with my reviews of both. The Palace enemies also includes the typical dungeon/palace bosses. 

As mentioned before, Zelda II's combat is all side-scrolling, which is extremely unique even by early Zelda standards. And as what we did before, I'll cover some familiar faces that we have seen in the original Legend of Zelda, as well as enemies that we will see in subsequent entries first, before talking about the more unique one-off enemies that has only ever appeared in this game!

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Iron Knuckle

As with the overworld enemies, we'll go through the ones that show up in other Zelda games... though this is the first appearance of the Iron Knuckle, who'd later go on to become a recurring miniboss in Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. I don't really have much to say here, though, it sure is a knight with a sword and a shield. Pretty interesting artwork with a straight-up sci-fi looking visor on the helmet, though. 

Bubble

Bubbles! Very much adorable, the Bubbles look basically how they do in subsequent 2D games, being a pixelated skull with an aura of red around it. The artwork offers a fun interpretation of why it's called a bubble. In addition to the protective bubble, the 'skull' is made out of smaller, multi-coloured bubbles in the shape of a skull! That's cool!

Giant Bubble

Okay, the artwork team probably didn't have a single consistent artist like Pokemon's Ken Sugimori, and it really kind of shows here where the 'Giant Bubble' doesn't have the same 'bubble' aesthetic as either the skull portion or the fire-bubble portion of the regular Bubble. The artwork for the Giant Bubble is a demonic Baphomet-esque goat skull on fire! It looks metal as hell, but if you didn't show me the names, I wouldn't have guessed that the two artworks are meant to be variations of the same enemy, when the sprites do have the same aesthetic. 

It's a bubble, but bigger, and shaped like a goat skull. Hitting a Giant Bubble splits it into two regular Bubbles, which, again, would make more sense if the giant goat-skull is also made up of tiny bubbles!

Stalfos

And our final 'returning' enemy is good ol' Stalfos, who's one of the handful of monsters in this game not to have official art. This is old Stalfos, though, a skeleton with a sword and shield. Not much to say here, the interesting Stalfoses are the minibosses from the 3D games, or the jumping ones from some of the 2D games. 

Parutamu

Interestingly, though, we do have a stronger Stalfos variant, who isn't called a Stal-something. Instead it's called the Parutamu, and it's got a helmet! The sprite also seems to imply some kind of upper-body armour. I'm not sure what the name is supposed to mean. Anyway, it sure is a skeleton with a helmet!

Aneru

Huh! The first time I saw the sprites for these enemies, I thought the Aneru were the prototype versions of Deku Babas -- being giant Piranha-Plant-looking monsters. But no, the artwork has the Aneru as these gigantic, eyeless giant snakes with a particularly nasty, monstrous mouth. It's more of a proto-Rope, except it doesn't behave like any snake enemy. No, instead, the Aneru are essentially reskinned (re-sprited?) versions of the Octoroks, shooting rocks or fireballs. In fact, some versions of Zelda II actually swap the locations of Anerus and Octoroks around! 

Wosu

I may or may not be talking out of my ass for this one, since, again, I've only read the story synopsis from the fan-wikis, but considering that all of the enemies here are guarding the 'palaces', then all of them are, in some way, connected to the Kingdom of Hyrule? Whether they're loyal to Zelda's evil-but-nameless brother, or if they're just there as a typical video game dungeon 'we exist to challenge whoever enters our temple' thing, it's interesting that the kingdom of Hyrule, as of this timeline, has finally given some of the beast-folk and monsters some jobs. 

Anyway, this is Wosu. He's a wolf man with a sword. Due to some mis-coding from the Iron Knuckle sprite, there's a pixel left over that makes his sword look like it's constantly dripping blood. I really don't have much to say here!

Fokka

Well, Fokka you, you mother Fokka! Okay. Phew. Got that out of my system. Anyway, other than the hilarious name, the Fokka are just yet another one of the many, many half-animal humanoids in this game. I get that it's a sprite game, but it's kind of a shame that the bird-humanoid doesn't... have wings? They couldn't give the Fokka some Fokking Hawkman-style wings? No, instead he's just a feathery guy with a sword and a shield, and a chicken head. The Fokka at least knows how to cover up with some armour, though, unlike some of the other half-naked beast-men. 

Fokkeru

Some of these enemies do receive brief write-ups in ancillary material, but not the Fokka or the Fokkeru. So we really have no idea if they are connected or not. They should be, right? Why else would they be called that? The Fokkeru is a much more bird-like creature, though, looking more like a bird with an upright humanoid body. It flies around and drops napalm bombs at Link. 

I would've dismissed Fokkeru quickly if not for the connection with the Fokka... and the fact that whoever drew the official artwork saw the very imporant need to slap on a pair of human woman titties on the Fokkeru. What? Why!

Ra

A creature that feels very much like a 'dungeon-only' creature, the Ra resembles the background of certain dungeons, which has a bunch of draconic gargoyle-like heads jutting out of the walls. Except some of them are Ra, and they will fly around and shoot beams at you. Not much to say, it's always interesting to see presumably magically enchanted golems or creatures that are created specifically to give adventurers a bad time. There's a lot of these in the other 2D games that I tend to not cover in these reviews. 

Mau

And the Mau is basically the same thing as the Ra, only it's a wolf head instead of a dragon head. I really don't have much to say here. 

Guma

There's a bit of a confusion because there's a common enemy called 'Guma' here, and a boss called 'Gooma'. I don't think they're meant to be the same thing, though, since they haev different sprites and everything. The Guma here is just a huge red cyclops with minotaur-like horns, and wield ball and chain weapons. Not a whole ton to say here.

Doomknocker

The Doomknocker is another humanoid enemy, another fully-armoured knight that wields a spiky club. The club apparently boomerangs back, for some reason. I mean, I guess this is a setting where scorpions have a giant eyeball for a head and shoot fireballs from their tails, and where stone dragon heads fly around and shoot fire on their own accord, but it's the Doomknocker's boomerang mace that bothers me. 

The Japanese name for the Doomknocker calls it a 'Hell Guma', connecting it to the red ogre-guy above, but I really couldn't find a reliable list of all the Japanese names for this game, unlike most of the other Zelda games I've previously reviewed on this blog. Shame!

Myu

Resembling Terrorpins or Spiky Beetles or something, the Myu are just like spiky domes that move around. Are they like, some kind of mutant snails? Some kind of artificial being like a golem or something? That artwork does kind of imply some kind of gastropod-like 'foot' below the spiky dome. Not much to say here, it sure is a spiky dome that gets the point across on what it is and what its function is in a action game. 

Mago

Taking the place of the Wizzrobes from the first game (and the rest of the franchise) are the Mago, who are hooded hag-like witches that can teleport and shoot flames at Link. Witches as enemies are a neat vriation on the hooded magicians, I guess, but there's a reason they brought the Wizzrobe back for basically the rest of the franchise. Their more inhuman vibe are just way more iconic-looking compared to just some lady in a hood!

Wizard

Oh yeah, a design that definitely would not fly nowadays. Zelda II is the last Zelda game to feature some Christian iconography, and both as an item (a cross to make ghosts materialize) and on the top of these hooded sorcerers. What are they meant to be? Some kind of 'fallen priest' or something? Some tie-in game guides note that the Wizards were Wizzrobes banished by the kingdom of Hyrule for cursing Princess Zelda to sleep, but that doesn't explain why they dress up like Crusade rejects. They are basically the same thing as Magos, but you have to reflect their magic spells back at them. 

Boss Bot

We covered Bits and Bots in the previous review, and Bots do appear in palaces, but there is one that's a boss in one of the dungeons called a Boss Bot. it's got very interesting-looking eyes, which look a fair bit more weirder than the standard 'angry eyes' you'd expect from a boss like this. When you defeat the Boss Bot, it splits into five regular Bots. Not much to say, other than this is a nice way to segue into the actual bosses:  

BOSSES:

Horsehead

Called 'Mazura' in the original Japanese version, all of these bosses guard the 'crystals' needed to be put into the statues at the end of each temple, which would unlock the Great Palace and allow Link to claim the Triforce. Horsehead is... a dude with a horse for a head! Some newer material gives additional backstory to Horsehead. Apparently the King of Hyrule created him from a horse. So the King is also some kind of magician?

Anyway, Horsehead wields a club and you have to hit Horsehead on his horse head to del damage, because the rest of him is armoured.  

Helmethead

I would've dismissed Helmethead (or 'Jermafenser') outright as just a bigger Iron Knuckle, but turns out that his boss fight has a hilarious mechanic -- his helmet head (heh) will detach and fly around, shooting fire. Why? Why does he do this? My guess is that the Helmethead is just an enchanted suit of armour, but then the aforementioned new material released in 2017 identifies the Helmethead as the former Royal Guard captain given new life by the King of Hyrule. Does he... Does he have an enchanted suit of armour that has the feature of remote-controlled fire-breathing helmet drones? Is he a ghost possessing the suit of armour? Why am I questioning the logic of a fantasy game so much?

Rebonack
No, this is the boring 'just a knight' boss. Rebonack looks cool, initially, riding on a floating, legless metal horse and wielding a lance. But destroy his toys, and turns out that Rebonack is a boring ol' Iron Knuckle enemy, which Link hsa to defeat as a 'second phase' of the boss fight. Not much to say, he sure is a knight. 

Carock

A sinister-looking cloaked sorcerer person, Carock is basically a souped-up version of the Wizard enemy, just without the creepier cross motifs and just being a pretty standard sinister hooded enemy. Pretty cool in the context of the game after mostly fighting eyeballs, bugs and beastmen, but otherwise I don't have much to say about him. 

Gooma

Another big ogre guy. The official artwork for this one has him be a giant muscular minotaur with shackles and fangs. He sure is a giant muscle dude with a ball and chain. The most interesting thing about this guy is the confusion with the 'Guma' enemy, and the fact that this guy doesn't even show up in the Japanese version, with Jermafenser/Helmethead showing up in the original Japanese version. Okay.

Barba

Ah, finally. A boss that's somewhat more interesting. So far it's all been kind of boring, yeah? Helmethead and Rebonack are kinda cool but they have such heavy miniboss 'vibes' instead of being bosses, you know what I mean? Barba (called Volvagia in some versions, and is the basis of the more iconic Volvagia from Ocarina of Time) is a giant serpentine Chinese Dragon that coils up from lava pits in his fire-themed dungeon, shooting flames at Link. 

Interestingly, Barba has different sprites, with the original Japanese version (left) and the official art being more explicitly based on an Eastern dragon, but the international English version giving him a different sprite with a more European-looking dragon head. It's interesting, but I do appreciate that by the time Barba/Volvagia makes a reappearance in the franchise, it's with a design that blends both aesthetics and looks unique. 

Thunderbird

Oh! Okay! Unlike what the name implies, the 'Thunderbird' isn't just a boring bird that shoots lightning, but some kind of winged... demon-angel statue god thing! I really wasn't sure what I was looking at with that sprite, but it certainly looks so much more impressive than just a bird (like a Fokkeru above or something) shooting lightning bolts. The Thunderbird looks like some kind of a sacred idol of a forgotten deity, except, of course, it flies around and attacks. That official artwork with an utterly psychotic face on a statue as it jumps down from the dark shadows of his boss chamber to attack Link is also far cooler than any other boss in this game by a far, far margin. Also, Thunderbird makes excellent usage of the sprite to really show off a rather disturbing visage that our head fills in the details on its own. The best thing from this game, by and far. 

Interestingly, despite being a Thunderbird, the Thunderbird is weak to thunder magic, and that's the only way to force it to reveal its face. 

Link's Shadow

And here we end with the final boss of this game, which is not Ganon! No, the guardian of the Triforce of Courage is instead a shadowy manifestation of Link himself, which kind of fits with what little lore we have in this game about the whole thing basically just Link proving himself worthy to gain the Triforce of Courage. It is admittedly a bit more trite looking back at almost 40 years of the game's history that an 'evil Link' exists. Obviously, the iconic 3D boss in Ocarina of Time, and several more other Dark or Shadow Links would show up in various games in the franchise. But this is the first one, so he gets some novelty points for that.