Agents of SHIELD S03E06 Review: And Lash Is...

Agents of SHIELD, Season 3, Episode 6: Among Us Hide…

After that distraction with Simmons on another planet last episode, this one brings us back in full force into the Inhumans plot.

I did find that they spent way too much time with Coulson and Price just dicking around avoiding going to the ACTU holding facility until the last quarter of the episode to be a bit grating. Especially the staged robbery at Price's house, Coulson's Sherlock scan and everything. Funny, yes, as always, but we've had a good number of funny Coulson/Price scenes and honestly we don't need that much more. I mean, I get that it humanizes Price a fair bit more so she feels human -- a tactic that Coulson himself actually points out.

Skye (Daisy, Quake, whatever, she's still Skye to me) has recruited Mack and later Hunter in investigating the fact that Lash might be one of the ACTU members. It's good that she's being proactive, I guess, but at the same time, the obvious red herring scene from episode 4 has informed us that neither Banks nor Price are likely to be Lash. It's still good fun seeing them try to investigate on their own, even if the Banks thing ended up being a dead end. Skye also hijacks Fitz's experimental Dwarf drone ("It's awesome. So I stole it.") to go invisible and enter the ACTU facility... and find out that they're doing some crazy Matrix-esque shit with the Inhumans they capture, putting them in suspended animation and doing horrible things to them...

Okay, just the former. Skye, Mack and Hunter also see Price and Coulson calmly discussing things, and they jump to the wrong conclusion -- although thankfully common sense prevails and they didn't just go marching in going all "Coulson is evil and working with the enemy we're overthrowing him" or some bullshit like that, because, well, the ACTU isn't evil. Coulson and Price's conversation really puts things to perspective, because Price views this as the humane solution. Like 'freezing' someone with a terminal disease for a couple of years until they find a cure, something that was triggered by Price's own husband (whose stuff Coulson kind of pointed out in the house scene, which honestly wasn't necessary) dying of cancer. It's a nice speech, a nice sentiment, and basically another side of good. I like it, though I bet Skye would probably contest it with the argument of 'free my people'. Which also isn't wrong, granted, but hey.

Hunter, meanwhile, having found himself suspended, has resorted to just bugging everyone around him, which is actually quite hilarious. He's bugging Fitz and trying to resort to wingmanning for him (even suggesting that Fitz leave Will stranded on that planet and cut off the love triangle entirely!), just going all "I'll drive" when Mack and Skye are discussing tailing Banks, showing up in a ski mask and ICER-ing Banks, punching him in the nose to get a blood sample... Hunter, you may have done questionable things putting Andrew's life in danger for a vendetta, but you have not lost your funny streak. Bless you.

Meanwhile, with Hunter getting kicked off the Ward case, May recruits Bobbi into her mission (much to Hunter's chagrin, though he at least takes it in stride, acknowledging his faults at least). After a moment where May shows her vulnerable side when a not-dead (see?) Andrew was brought in, we get May and Bobbi actually fighting each other. Granted, May's just testing Bobbi with the excuse of 'you caused Andrew to get hurt rawr' to make Bobbi think that the fight's for real, and it's a glorious little scrabble.

May and Bobbi basically assault the Hydra base to get to Von Strucker Jr. and while it's definitely the filler plot compared to the Coulson/Price and Team Skye plot threads, it does tie in pretty nicely, proving that Agents of SHIELD can pull off the 'all plots are intertwined' thing they did before without, y'know, sucking. There's also the fact that, y'know, Hydra assaulted Andrew a couple episodes back, which again ties in pretty neatly with the revelations in this episode. Bobbi does a good show for herself, killing off Kabo, Ward's second-in-command, with her Mockingbird batons. That's a cool fight scene. 

Also awesome is the bit where Bobbi and May talk in Chinese (Bobbi's Chinese is better than Kingpin's, though still leaves something to be desired), with May putting sarcastic remarks as Bobbi tries to defuse things with words. It's the right balance of funny and tense, and doesn't take up too much time.

Werner Von Strucker, meanwhile, tries to shack up with this rich Hydra dude, Gideon Malick... who only the most observant of MCU fans will realize is played by the same actor that played one of the shadowy World Government dudes in The Avengers, and one that was absent during the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Obviously I didn't realize this until it was pointed out to me that Gideon Malick wasn't a newcomer. He might as well be, though, since we didn't need that slight backstory to understand how cool the old Hydra dude is. The little backstory that he's probably a Hydra member that clawed himself to the top of the government is a bonus.

Gideon Malick chooses a side, though, preferring to 'help' Grant Ward -- though he makes it clear that he's only going to help Ward as long as he thinks that Ward is asking the right questions -- and hands Von Strucker Jr. over to his men. May and Bobbi's rescue is a bit too late, as Von Strucker Jr. falls to the same fate that his father did, namely to die and be nothing but wasted potential... but Werner Von Strucker managed, to, with his last breath, inform May that her husband, Andrew Gardner, is in fact Lash, and we see the flashback of the attack happen in full. I'm pleased to have actually thought of it before this episode, and indeed the show does pepper itself with enough clues.

RIP Werner Von Strucker, alas, you too can't be as awesome as you potentially could.

Poor May. It's not just Fitz that cannot get a happy ending. May's one sole source of happiness -- a possible reconciliation with his ex-husband that he very evidently still cares about -- is wrenched away from her when she realizes that Andrew is a murdering monster. The twist is well done, and May's shocked expression definitely sells it. And at the end of the episode, Andrew asking Skye about Lincoln's whereabouts, while still done in the same friendly doctor tone that he had for the past five episodes, is underscored with the same scare chord to show us that, well, good friendly Dr. Andrew is... not very good or friendly after all.

Also, Lash's transformation sequence? That was beautiful. Lash himself might look like just another dude with really good prosthetics and costume, but that transformation was gorgeous.

Also to note is that the episode title, 'Among Us Hide...', isn't just appropriate to describe Lash's situation as hiding within SHIELD, but it's also a homage to the title of the very first comic that introduces the Inhumans.

Next episode seems to be setting up to a confrontation with Andrew Gardner, the man otherwise known as Lash. It's a solid episode, and a fair amount of stuff happens here and there. It's a bit slow on the Coulson front, and since we know the ACTU is an obvious red herring it would've been boring if it wasn't done so well. And this is where all the humour and comedy actually makes the scenes bearable. It's a nice buildup episode, setting up for... well, something big, I'm sure.

Digimon Adventure Tri. M01 Review: Rocking it like 1999

Digimon Adventure Tri., Part One: Reunion

"Taichi! Long time no see... you're all grown up now."

Man, Digimon! I don't talk about it a lot because, well, I haven't really been following Digimon with the save feverish fanaticism that I do Pokemon and have kind of lost contact with Digimon around halfway through the fourth series (Digimon Frontier, a good twelve years ago). The lack of promotion of the franchise outside of Japan, as compared to Pokemon, honestly is a big reason. Because Digimon can go for many years without a real anime or game series, whereas Pokemon makes it a point to have at least a game every two years. Add that to the fact that all the awesome games in Japan aren't localized to English since around 2005... what the hell, Bandai of America?

But I grew up on both the original series of Digimon and Pokemon. Pokemon was more... defined in what creatures will show up, how the cartoon and manga and video games worked, while Digimon was surprisingly far more mature. And while I never really had the patience or the skills to figure out the mechanisms on how exactly to play Digimon World or any of the Tamagotchi-style games as opposed to the more child-friendly Pokemon games... the anime was a different story. Digimon Adventure wasn't the best anime out there back then, but it's a damn good one! It has plot. It has great villains, with Vamdemon, Pinnochimon* and Piedmon being stand-out examples. It had character developments. It had things at stake, and the fact that characters die -- not just villains, but supporting characters as well -- really help to make the series feel epic for a young mind like mine. It brought fond memories. Digimon Adventure - Zero Two was a bit messier than the first series, especially near the end where the tie-ins to a video game that wasn't released outside Japan made some of the backstory confusing. But I liked it nonetheless!

*Back as a kid, I alternated between the English dub and a different dub that uses Japanese names, so forgive me if I alternate randomly between Japanese and English names. I'll try to stick to the original Japanese, though. So, uh, Adult, Perfect and Ultimate as opposed to Champion, Ultimate and Mega.

And then came Digimon Tamers, which was set in an alternate continuity. And while this is great and had great characterization and a whole new twist on the Digimon World, the sudden, jarring change as our old favourite heroes are replaced with all-new suspiciously-similar substitutes... probably didn't sit well with some. And then Digimon Fusion showed up, where humans can turn into Digimon... and right around that time I kind of lost interest in Digimon, through no fault of the show but just, well, it's hard to find any Digimon material, when other stuff like Pokemon, Batman, and all kinds of other anime and comics are far more readily available.

So this year, 2015, they announced Digimon Adventure Tri, a sequel to the original Adventure/Zero Two canon, starring the original eight Chosen Children (Digidestined, whichever term you prefer) done with sweet, sweet new animation. It's definitely welcome to me -- I was a big fan of the first series and having replayed the original PS1 Digimon World, and beating my fifteen-year-old archenemy at last, it is an absolute treat to know that this thing exists. Tri will take place over the course of six full-length movies over this year and the next, and Crunchyroll has subbed it in English and broke up the first movie over the course of four episodes. Needless to say, I watched it immediately as soon as it came out. I'm going to talk and review the first movie in its entirety, though.

The animation is gorgeous, there's no getting past that. There were some moments that I thought the models seemed kinda off, but holy hell. From Kuwagamon glitching in and out as he travels across the city, to all the brilliant fireblasts and electro shockers, to the digivolution sequences, to Birdramon just raining hell down onto that one Kuwagamon, to the battle between Greymon and Kuwagamon that takes them in and out of the digital world and the real world, to Alphamon pwning everyone, to Alphamon pulling out his awesome hyperspace spear, to the short cameos by the Perfect and Ultimate forms -- I fangasmed a little when MetalGreymon showed up -- and finally the battle between Alphamon and Omegamon...

Yeah, the battles are awesome. The soundtrack is awesome (this new remix of Butterfly and Brave Heart are going to be in my iPod's playlist for months) and the simple joy of seeing these old friends of mine on the small screen just puts me in my happy space. 

I will be the first to admit that the movie is far from a masterpiece, though. It's got all sorts of shitty pacing problems, and with Crunchyroll splitting it apart into four episodes the lack of... anything plot-worthy in the first and third episodes really stand out like a sore thumb. There are also some rather grating problems, chief of which is Taichi randomly getting PTSD and flashing back to those two shots of destroyed buildings and a destroyed cell phone. Yes, we get it, Taichi, you're fucking afraid of endangering people and destroying shit, but your inaction not only caused all your buddies to get hurt, it also arguably caused more destruction courtesy of Alphamon. It's good, in a way, that they acknowledged the fact that shit gets destroyed in giant kaiju deathmatches, but they've acknowledged it since all the way from the first season -- the Vamdemon arc in Digimon Adventure and parts of Digimon Zero Two certainly more than explore the same themes, though obviously the kids probably aren't mature enough to really consider that. Yes, having our main hero be guilty about it is a thing, but at the same time it's freaking annoying to flash back to the same three shots like eight or nine times throughout the movie. Also, did Yamato and Taichi have to be at each other's throats and angst for so long? Yamato at least doesn't go bug off on his own this time.

Also to note that Taichi is angsting over the destruction of a pedestrian bridge and a couple of buildings when during the original Adventure series WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon basically used the Fuji TV ball building as an improvised soccer ball. Well.

Also, the big trigger in the argument between Taichi and Yamato is the fact that people are talking shit about the Digimon and not knowing that there are good Digimon and bad Digimon. Really, Taichi? You went through two seasons of monster deathmatches, all the destruction in the Vamdemon and World Tour arcs and you only realize that some people are scared shitless of your giant armoured fire-breathing T-rex now? And honestly how the fuck should some people gossiping get in the way of you stopping an inherently hostile digimon from fucking the town up?

We also get way too much talking. I mean, I get it, these kids are in school and have school problems. These kids are teenagers and have teenage problems. But honestly do we need to spend that much time talking about how Taichi has a soccer game and no one is coming to watch and Yamato has a band and Sora is confused which one she has to go, blah blah blah. I mean, yeah, it worked in the first fifteen minutes or so to give us a modicum of normalcy that's interrupted by the arrival of the Kuwagamon and the return to the good old days, and "Knife of Ramen" actually got me laughing, but still, for so much of it to continue into the third part... I don't want it to just be a brainless action fest because the interactions between the main cast is one of the main highlights of Digimon Adventure, but the sheer focus on Taichi angsting, and honestly the lack of focus on the partner Digimon, is jarring. 

Agumon, of course, gets his big reunion moment with Taichi, and gets most of the non-action screentime. Palmon has her moments of just being a ditz and being all 'Mimi where are you'. Tentomon gets some awesome lines, playing off Koshiro well as always. But I don't think any of the others actually got any significant lines. Gabumon, Biyomon, Tailmon, Patamon... hell, Gomamon didn't even get to evolve or fight! That is one thing that the latter series -- well, Tamers, at least, did right. The Digimon partners in Tamers were actually characters of their own right instead of just extensions of their human partners' personalities, something that is definitely hit-and-miss for the characters of the first two series. And, well, with their relatively reduced non-fighting screentime here hardly any of them got any actual meaningful dialogue.

While the main focus is on Taichi and Yamato and their angsty bromance, we do get a fair amount of screentime between the other Digidestined, though, and that is something the movie does right, instead of making it the Taichi Angst Show. Well, most of the kids except for Joe. Joe's so preoccupied with his exams and while he does show up here and there dealing with all the stress of entering college or whatever, and does show in the big group meeting, he flits out of the plot immediately afterwards, and doesn't participate in any of the big fights. He doesn't have time for his girlfriend (!), though, so I guess he doesn't have time for saving the world?

Sora... gets to be the love interest between Yamato and Taichi, who apparently hasn't given up despite the events of Zero Two. I don't mind. I also don't care. I don't think she really does anything significant beyond being the first to notice Mei's presence most of the time. Birdramon is awesome as fuck with her new model, though.

Koshiro, I think, gets the best treatment among the second tier Digidestined. Not only are his scenes hilarious -- the highlight has to be when he's just rambling on and on explaining about plot relevant things (and I totally would love to listen to them, damn it!) while Taichi and Yamato are arguing. He's just talking on and on and on and no one is listening to him... right until Joe goes "I have a girlfriend" and then he's like whaaaaaaat alongside all the rest. Koshiro's crush on Mimi is also a thing once more in Tri, and far more obvious than before, and it does lead to a couple more hilarious scenes like him choosing clothes (Tentomon has the most hilarious 'who are you and what have you done to Koshiro' scene) and kinda showing off his office. 

I also did like how they made the goggles relevant. Them goggles, they detect digital distortions!

Mimi is still the overexcited genki girl that she is. She transfers from America back to Japan because we need all the team together, at least, and I do appreciate how they took the time to have this play out over the movie while not spending too much time on it.

Takeru exists to bounce dialogue off Yamato and Hikari. And he apparently is a bit of a ladies' man now, possibly in an attempt to play the jealousy game with Hikari. Hikari herself is just cute as always, though like Takeru she's just there to bounce dialogue off Taichi and Takeru. They're both fun, doing the archetypes we're familiar with from Adventure and Zero Two, though it's strange that they don't comment anything on the fact that the rest of the Zero Two cast are MIA.

And, well, we, the viewers, at least, know what happens to them. During the opening we get Taichi lazily taking a bicycle to soccer practice as the opening song plays, and it's juxtaposed with random flashes to silhouettes of Daisuke, Miyako, Iori and Ken being taken out with a blood-red background... and we seem them lying on a strange battlefield (real world? Digital world?) their Digimon is nowhere to be seen. It's implied that Alphamon was the one who defeated them. Why did Alphamon hunt them down? Will they appear later on? Hopefully they do. There's a popular theory that they're going to be mind-controlled in some of the upcoming parts, which would be something, I guess.

I do hope this isn't just a mean-spirited 'fuck you' to the Zero Two cast. Yes, Zero Two is more problematic than the first series, and yes, I'm far more familiar with the original eight kids than the second generation ones, but I still do like them, and while I don't mind them being relegated into the supporting cast I do hope that they will at least become somewhat relevant in one of the future installments as hopefully the first-gen Digidestined goes off and saves them? I do find it odd (though definitely good for storytelling purposes) that the whole 'every child in the world gets a digimon' portion of the ending of Zero Two seem to be eliminated. So I guess we're having most bar the last weirder episodes of Zero Two treated as canon here? Or is there something else going on?

In place of the Zero Two cast, we have a couple of newcomers on the human side. We have the mysterious Hinata lookalike Mochizuki Meiko, who's introduced as this new transfer student in Taichi's class (and she's totally got the hots for Taichi and that's how we're going to solve the love triangle I bet) who we see looking for a cat when the main cast is searching for dimensional holes. Now pretty obviously the cat she's looking for is the cat-esque digimon we see running around throughout the movie, and in the climax when Alphamon shows up, he seems to be hunting plot device kitty-cat. And at the end, Meiko is revealed to have one of the old-style digivice and is partnered with the brand-new digimon Meicoomon (Meikumon?) who conveniently has the same name as her. And also able to make forcefields. And looks honestly out of place compared to the relatively simplistic designs of the first generation partner Digimon. But I'm not complaining. Her introduction rankles me a bit, but they didn't just go all 'oh this new character is super awesome love her!', something that these kind of franchise-driven shows love to do.

Also we get some mysterious government organization (totally not Hypnos) that monitors the Digidestined and able to get them to the crisis hotspot in the airport in no time at all. Most important among them is Taichi, Yamato and Sora's teacher, Mr Nishijima, who barely look older than the students he's teaching. He does deliver a bit of exposition. After the events of the past two series, the government has been monitoring and 'dealing with' any digimon that show up in the real world (hopefully not with a Juggernaut program) but apparently the Kuwagamon trio that showed up are unexpectedly powerful compared to how they normally are, which is why Greymon and company had so much trouble against them. Also, both Nishijima and Koshiro introdump and say about how there has been some odd events happening like how the gate to the digiworld has been closed for two years or something.

But seriously though I'm fangasming inside

Speaking of the steroid Kuwagamon, who apparently seem to have some kind of virus or program enhancing their strength... why doesn't the Digidestined evolve their digimon past the Adult stage? At first I thought it was because they lost the tags that allowed them to go all Perfect way back in the final episode of Adventure, but then Greymon and Garurumon randomly evolve into MetalGreymon and WereGarurumon randomly without any reason. And I know that it's supposed to be a love letter to the first series and as much as I appreciate seeing just the Adult level guys (bar Ikkakumon) it's odd, storytelling wise, why they didn't just pull out their strongest guns. Especially against Alphamon.

I do like how Tailmon's status as an Adult-level is restored. I absolutely hated how she's basically treated on the level of a Child-level during the Zero Two arc. Yes, holy ring and all that, but Tailmon's initial appearance during the Vamdemon arc being able to knock down half of the Digidestined's Adult-level digimon all on her own has always stuck in my mind. And I love how in all her fights here she's treated to be on par, if not one of the biggest hitters, on their team. You go, Tailmon.

Alphamon... doesn't really do much, honestly, other than just fight. He does kinda look like a Gundam, doesn't he? And if you're not that aware of the fact that he's a member of the Royal Knights in the expanded media and profiles and previous appearances (I know who the Royal Knights are, at least, even if I haven't caught up to any of the post-Frontier shows beyond reading quick synoses here and there). But he does pretty easily shrug everything the Adult-levels throw at him, naturally, considering he's one of the more powerful Ultimates out there. And it's not until Omegamon shows up that he stops using Iron Man blasts and pulls out that awesome-looking hyperspace battleaxe. He's all mysterious now, though, and I'm fine with that. I also do like how they're technically fighting one of the most powerful 'good' digimon, something that was explored in both Tamers and Frontier but never in the original two series, where all the villains were evil demonic monsters.

We also have this weird intro about the world's creation and ideas and a digi-egg hatching and something something shadow. Who is this egg hatching into? Is Meicoomon secretly evil so Alphamon wants to hunt it down?

Or is it the other digimon, a dinosaur-esque dude, that keeps flitting in and out of scenes, observing Meicoomon, apparently named Hackmon? Hackmon is a pre-existing digimon instead of one made specially for this series. Granted, Hackmon only debuted in a video game less than a year ago, but yeah. He's being all mysterious and shit and apparently the Child form of another one of the Royal Knights, Jesmon. Not sure how we're going to get all this, but I guess the Royal Knights are hunting Meicoomon down for a reason. Or are Meicoomon and/or Hackmon the ones that infected Kuwagamon? Or is Alphamon just hunting the infected digimon? He was heavily implied to be the mysterious hand that crushed the last Kuwagamon in the airport. But I dunno.

And the Zero Two cast being taken out by Alphamon fits in... uh... somehow?

It's more of a mystery, honestly, and this movie's main focus is on exploring the relationship between the Digidestined and exploring how the world has changed (Fake-Hypnos, powerful Kuwagamon) and just re-establishing the tone of the series. It's cool, even if the ending could really been less abrupt. Also, awesome fight scenes. Even if the Digimon being mostly silent and not calling out their attack names felt... so wrong. I think Togemon called out her needle spray once, but that's about it. Does make the final scene a lot more dramatic, though honestly we couldn't sneak in a Baby Flame or Mega Flame somewhere?

The evolution sequences seem a bit off, but they do look like a pretty awesome update on the original 'data comes down from the sky, digimon evolves' sequence, though the change from a black background to white and the lack of spinning around kind of... well, I'm old-school, yeah? It just feels wrong. Pretty as all hell and the silhouette made up of data is sort of a nice callback to the old Digimon World games, but still. Also appreciate them using the proper digivices for each other characters -- the newer D-3's for Takeru and Hikari.

I do love all the homages to the original Adventure series, that we do get, though. Main cast aside, there are a couple of subtle nods -- subtle, mind you -- to the original series. The first enemy is a Kuwagamon. The fight in the digital world briefly having Kuwagamon crash onto a cliff over a river, and a chunk of said cliff crumbling down, just like the first episode. We've got Agumon and company dressing up with human clothes. The picture taken at the end of Adventure in Taichi and Sora's rooms. Mentions of Gennai (okay, this is probably plot-relevant). Hikari missing out in the initial Kuwagamon battle thanks to going to a birthday party -- why she was absent in the Diaboromon movie.

Overall, though? Big nostalgia trip for me, and if the attempt is to get me interested in Digimon again, well, they sure have it. Now the problem is, if there's any actual new games or comics or whatever that I can buy. Oh well. I'll have to settle for re-downloading Tamers and Frontier, which I really haven't watched to completion. This movie or four-part episode, whatever you want to call it, is pretty good, problems notwithstanding. It's going to need to be able to deliver more than nostalgia to survive, though, because if I wanted nostalgia I would just download the original series and rewatch it. It's kind of an underwhelming movie, but as the first four episodes of, oh, a 24-episode cartoon series, I think it's decent.

Agents of SHIELD S03E05 Review: Simmons' Offworld Holiday

Agents of SHIELD, Season 3, Episode 5: 4,722 Hours

Well, this episode gives the entire focus to nothing but Simmons' trials and tribulations on Planet Hellhole for the past, well, four thousand, seven hundred and twenty-two hours. It ends up being far more sci-fi than most of Agents of SHIELD's spy-slash-superhero plot, and it's honestly a change that I welcome. We've got the entire episode spent on Simmons stranded and trapped on this strange, barren wasteland of a planet as the optimism we associate with the character slowly break down ("WHERE IS THE SUN WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH IT"), trying to find solace with old videos on her phone and as she goes around trying to survive, looking for basic necessities like water and food. All along she discovers the oddities of the planet and the fact that there are others on the barren planet other than her and the tentacle plant-squid monster in the pool. All the while she goes from her upbeat, trying-to-be-positive persona to slowly broken down, as her personal record to 'Fitz' get more and more desperate. It's a great Simmons-centric episode that... we've never really had before. The closest to a Simmons-centric episode was probably that one where she infiltrated the Hydra facility and gets bailed out by Bobbi, but that doesn't really compare to this. Simmons' actress really proved her acting skills and while the "Fitz, oh Fitz" dialogue could've been trimmed down somewhat to, we get a lot of great moments both large and small, from Simmons braving the plant tentacle monster, to short scenes like skipping stones in boredom.

And then, well, she gets captured by a mysterious person! It's a nice little escalation after she figures out how to survive. An actual human instead of an alien, Will, a NASA dude that was sent into the portal in 2002. And while watching Simmons just muck around alone for forty minutes would get stale, the introduction of Will really rubbed me the wrong way. While at first there was this nice charm to Will, this nice mystery of whether he was the one responsible for killing his crewmates (and therefore a danger to Simmons) or if he's telling the truth... and then they had to go throw in the stupid love triangle just to give a gigantic "fuck you" to the Fitz-Simmons shippers.

And it's utterly stupid. I mean, I've nothing against Simmons falling in love with Will. She only began to kiss (and, let's be honest, sleep with) Will after she totally gave up hope on ever coming back to Earth, after they even failed to shoot the bottle into the portal. And a pair of extremely-attractive humans stranded on a planet with no one else, in close proximity almost 24/7, with no hope of coming home, for a relatively long period of time... I don't blame Simmons for falling for Will.

No, the one I blame is the writers, for just shoving in this random character and just making a love triangle -- and it's clear from dialogue in this episode that Will is undoubtedly Simmons' driving force to want to return to that planet. But, again, it really felt out of left field and a gigantic 'fuck you' to the ever-suffering Fitz. And while Arrow and The Flash love their love triangles, what happened in those shows (Oliver/Tommy/Laurel, Oliver/Laurel/Felicity, Oliver/Ray/Felicity, Barry/Eddie/Iris) take place with characters we've known for some time. Randomly introducing Love Interest #2 with no reason other than to be a love competitor? Not good writing. At all.

Going away from Will, the backstory of just what the planet is, and what the mysterious "It" that seemed to be heralded by sandstorms and cause madness (if Will is to be believed, and the dude seem sketchy) and can take the form of dead astronauts is, well, a mystery. And "It" is certainly a pretty awesome sci-fi horror aspect to the story that I thought was handled really well. From Simmons' skepticism to Will, who has figured out how horrifying "It" is and have survived all the while, "It" really adds a sense of threat to the whole situation. And apparently "It" can create gigantic canyons? Add that to the implication from previous episodes that the ancient people might've actually sent sacrifices to the other side of the portal instead of just explorers, and it all adds a surreal, beyond-this-world sense of threat. Which is wonderful.

Some people over in the internets have theorized that Planet Hellhole and "It" are the same thing based on lines of dialogue by Will, how the planet has moods and the planet doesn't want you to leave, and claim that "It" is MCU's version of Ego the Living Planet, a Thor villain who, um, is a living planet. We'll see if this theory holds true.

Also a bit of the tension near the end is kind of broken since we know Simmons will only go through the portal alone at the end of 4700 hours, so their first sojourn to seek the portal after all the calculations felt moot. And around that point it just felt like 'okay, are we going to get anything more than love triangle? No? Boo.'

By the end of the episode Simmons truly apologizes to Fitz, because, well, she's not stupid, she knows the amount of desperation and love Fitz throws her way (and the audience knows too) and she's afraid that by revealing her new beau she will push Fitz away. But Fitz, apparently, just wants his beloved Simmons to be happy and have actually started on trying to figure out a way to open that portal... just because Simmons wanted it. Man, Fitz, you're a cool dude. As much as I hate Will (or rather, the love triangle that he brings to the table), it does show some tender moments for the Fitz-Simmons relationship.

Will is, alas, still alive, and somehow it's sunrise on that planet. Has "It" taken over Will's body? Is he lying about everything? Is Will really "It", and just wants to fuck with Simmons' mind (and, um, body) and force her to come back willingly and possibly bring others with her?

So, overall, I still really enjoyed this episode. Simmons' performance here (or rather, her actress, Elizabeth Henstridge) really sells the episode. It's a truly atmospheric episode, one that felt similar to sci-fi stories set in space, and the sudden change from the spy team atmosphere really worked well. Ultimately, though, the stupid love triangle bullshit really left a sour taste in my mouth.

The Flash S02E07: Gorilla City!

The Flash, Season 2, Episode 7: Gorilla Warfare

Well, the big cliffhanger last episode, that Barry is paralyzed, added with all the promotional trailers of Barry rolling around in Harrison Wells' old wheelchair... end up kind of being just a big tease. Not that I mind, though, spending a crapton of time just for our hero to recover while he mopes around in a wheelchair isn't my idea of a good time. It's a bit of a nice little fake-out, since we remember that, well, Barry has super-healing. And Caitlin shows some MRI images that tell us that Barry's dislocated spine is healing relatively well, even if he has to progress from a cane to slowly treadmilling and whatnot... but by the mid-point of this episode he's more or less fully recovered. But his shaken confidence leads to him (being very painfully) thrown from the treadmill, and it's a mental problem that seemed to be at least subconsciously blocking him from properly utilizing his speed. Or something. Him recovering from emotional trauma is definitely an actual story instead of spending the entire episode with him just being all recovering from his broken back and being all pull-ups with ominous pseudolatin chanting in the background like The Dark Knight Rises.

Also, unlike what I speculated last episode, Barry hasn't lost his speed. The lightning is still with him.

I absolutely love bringing Henry Allen back (is Zoom Earth-2 Henry Allen, maybe?) to be the one to talk things through with Barry, though. And the farewell with him and Joe bonding over being Barry's daddy, and all the lines of dialogue between Barry and Henry, is a far better exit than just randomly having a party and him just scampering off. It's nice, and we did get a lot of nice, heartwarming (if a bit cheesy) moments between father and son. I really can't talk about it much without resorting to paraphrasing and describing each scene and I'd rather not do that. Let's just say that it's a couple of pretty nice scenes going on here. Henry getting a look at how Team Flash does things, and his utter confidence that his son, the Flash, can save the day, is absolutely awesome.

I thought the 'I am reminded that he's not my son' moment is a bit on-the-nose since the show has made it clear abundantly, many many times, that Barry considers Joe as much his father as he does Henry... and that seemed just to be a jab at the hints that Wally West is in the works.

But let's talk about Grodd, shall we? Grodd makes his dramatic return and boy, the show's improved budget does make the CGI gorilla look far more impressive. He doesn't just show up in the sewers anymore and while the show does cheat a little by having some of Grodd's scenes happen at night and in that dark clocktower, it's far more confident in showing us Grodd in full view just being, well, a gigantic scary gorilla and shit. The voicework for Grodd is still spot-on, and while this episode definitely has less of a horror vibe than Grodd's debut episode, it's still a pretty impressive one.

That initial scene of Grodd taking over the scientist, and then him showing up in the flesh and whacking the scientist so hard he leaves a blood splatter on top of a crate should've been cheesy and stupid-looking, but the visuals really make the scene work.

Grodd is shown to be slightly unconventional compared to his original comic-book incarnation, but it's fine. His main plot here seems to just trying to avoid loneliness, kidnapping Caitlin because he wants to make more intelligent gorillas. A nice little feminist-friendly variant of King Kong kidnapping a lady because she's pretty, isn't it? And Grodd's interactions with Earth-2 Harry really does show that in a twisted way, Grodd and Thawne-Wells does have some mockery of a father-son relationship, because Grodd looks utterly pissed when he realized Harry isn't Thawne (it's hard to type Thawne instead of Wells, a testament to how memorable the impostor Harrison Wells was), yet looks so... vulnerable when Harry scolds him for hitting him. Like a big boy being scolded by a parent. Man, who knew apes can be so emotive?

And, while the CG does look kinda off in that short scene in the security cameras when Grodd steps out of the shadows, for the rest of the episode Grodd looks fucking wonderful. Especially in the end.

I am also a big fan of how we went from Harry just giving offhanded references of 'oh yeah we totally also have talking gorillas in Earth-2' to it being an actual plot point. I thought it was mighty convenient that the same thing that Caitlin said to get Harry to stick around -- the multiple portals -- also is the key to getting rid of Grodd in a humane way. And while I don't exactly agree with Caitlin that Grodd is just lonely and therefore it's an excuse to make him happy or whatever (he kills at least two dudes this episode, and he killed a bunch of others before), it's still a nice exit for Grodd.

And, y'know, freaking Gorilla City!

I do like how elements of the comics that are deemed to exotic for 'Earth-1' are all relegated to Earth-2, like Gorilla City. And while it's still more Rise of the Planet of the Apes than the futuristic dome we have in the comics, the backstory that Harry gave us, that there were multiple gorillas granted intelligence by something or other, kind of makes sense. And, well, freaking Gorilla City!

And with Grodd probably harboring a vengeance against Caitlin Snow and the rest now for shooting him into another dimension, well, I say it won't be long until Grodd shows up with a giant ape army on his heels. It'll be great!

Speaking of which, Harry is in tiptop shape this episode, going from sarcastic to showing this fun odd friendship with Caitlin, and his interactions with Cisco as he tries so hard to try and emulate the evil Harrison is acting gold as Tom Cavanagh absolutely nails, well, his current character trying to impersonate his previous character. It's wonderful. Also equally wonderful is the scenes as Harry makes their crazy plan work, with him just bluffing Grodd enough with his acting even when I'm pretty sure that the Thawne-Wells will never use the word 'buddy' while talking to Grodd. Him going all 'you hit... father' while delivering that stern, manipulative speech was absolutely well done.

Finally, after my complaints about Caitlin not doing anything but nonsensical romance plots for the past six episodes, she finally shines! Here we see a softer side to her as she tries to at least acknowledge where Grodd is coming from, seeing his reasons -- while at the same time knowing that Grodd is a dangerous animal (in all sense of the word) and that he needs to be dealt with, participating in the confrontation to bring Grodd down. She gets great moments with Harry as well, appealing to logic and recognizing that they need all the allies they can get to beat Zoom.

We've got a B-plot running with Cisco going on a date with Kendra Saunders, and it's honestly a lot more interesting and funny and plot-relevant than the overlong scenes we had with Patty from two episodes ago... I mean, I know I am not too pleased with how Patty Spivot is handled initially, but I liked Cisco and Kendra a lot more. And, well, the little previews we're getting with Cisco vibe-ing into Kendra's future as Hawkgirl... and the little adorkable moment at the end with the portable movie projector... this is really how these kind of romances should be done. Short and sweet, not overstaying its welcome and shoved down our throats.

Though for her credit, Patty isn't in this episode a bunch, and the short scenes with chicken soup are actually funny. The fact that we seem to be playing the 'oh my god a superhero is keeping his secret identity from his girlfriend' drama once more feels me with nothing but dread, though.

Also, for all the talk about oh-my-god-Jay-Garrick-is-going-to-be-a-major-character, he does jack shit after recreating that old comic book cover, yeah? He's basically a non-entity in this episode and the previous, and it sucks.

But lack of Jay Garrick aside, it's a great episode. Barry and Henry were great, Grodd was excellent, Harry was awesome, and the little hints to future episodes featuring Hawkgirl and Gorilla City are absolutely more than welcome. Next episode is going to be the crossover 'part one at Flash, part two at Arrow' episode, though, and I do hope it fares a bit better than the previous one. Also it kind of means I have to catch up with Arrow, yeah? I've watched the premiere of the fourth season, but really haven't reviewed it or caught up with the rest. Damn.

The Flash S02E06 Review: Zoom Zoom Zoom

The Flash, Season 2, Episode 6: Enter Zoom

Ah, this is more like it. The past few episodes really felt... well, episodic. And as solid as each of those episodes individually felt, none of it really delivered on the buildup of Zoom and Jay Garrick and multiple worlds that the first two episodes promised. This episode more than delivers on the promise of escalation, and it really felt like a mid-season finale episode... except it's episode six. Good job, show.

We're not wasting time since this isn't the first season where Reverse-Flash is just this mysterious mommy-killer that's the endgame, while Barry Allen learns to use his powers. Here Zoom is actively hunting Barry down -- albeit with proxies in the form of kidnapped and forced metahumans -- and after the events of last episode with Harry advocating for more aggression and Barry taking him up on it, this episode focuses on them trying to bait Zoom and bring him down.

Dr. Light being an alternate-universe Linda Park is also utilized well, and it was a pretty fun scene (if it did run for a wee bit too long than I would've preferred) when she's just testing out the Iron Man gloves that Cisco made. Is our Linda Park going to be this universe's version of the heroic Dr. Light? We shall see, though for now as everyone in the show agrees, she's not quite ready yet. Meanwhile, her Earth-2 doppelganger apparently has the ability to refract light, turn invisible and get the drop on Cisco, escaping and joining the many, many escaped villains from the end of season one. 

But while the majority of this episode focuses on two things: using Linda-Light as bait to lure out Zoom, and Cisco trying to 'Vibe' Harry to see what is up, the ending is really the clincher. Zoom shows up, and he is a literal force of nature. I thought that the skull-face mask would look narmy and dumb when it's in full view, but the camera work and the angles that we are shown Zoom from always keeps part of his face in shadow, and Tony Todd's brilliant voice work really nails down Zoom as something far more monstrous than Reverse-Flash.

And there's something quite Knightfall-esque as Zoom assaults our heroes' base, and utterly decimates Barry Allen. Zoom easily no sells the terminal velocity trick that Barry tried, dodges Harry's sniper bullets, catches and throws back the lightning bolt (you can do that?) and extremely suddenly breaks what seems to be Barry's spine. That brutal crunch was really done well because it felt like just another action sequence and not the defining action sequence. And what's pretty damning is Zoom just dragging the Flash's broken body and showing up at the newspaper and police station, gives a figurative "fuck you" to the police by catching all their bullets, before dumping Barry -- who's apparently crippled as of the ending of this episode, because Zoom may or may not have absorbed Barry's speed as well. Now obviously this isn't going to stick for more than a couple of episodes, but it certainly raises the stakes and, well, made Zoom feel like a threat and puts Barry out of commission. Maybe Jay can actually do something?

And we do have some nicer quality character moments for Barry, like the moment when he decides he needs to be truthful with Linda and reveals his identity to her because she trusts him enough to risk his life. There's the conversation with Joe about how Barry acknowledges that part of his hotheadedness in bringing down Zoom comes from the whole Reverse-Flash situation from the first season, and the fact that the one who actually defeated Reverse-Flash was Eddie and not Barry himself, and now Barry doesn't have someone to focus his revenge on or something like that.

Also, Cisco finally discovers that Harry's daughter is alive, if captured and caged up by Zoom. I'm honestly unsure why Harry is so against Cisco Vibe-ing him, since he seemed relieved as hell when that fact was made known to him. I guess he's just a dick. It's heartwrenching, of course, seeing how Harry's daughter confronted him about how he (accidentally or otherwise) created Zoom and the other metahumans, and there's a bit of an argument between the two before Zoom kidnaps her. And all through this despite being a dick we can see just how much Harry loves his daughter...

Who, by the way, is named Jesse. And is nicknamed 'Jesse Quick' by her father. Well, that's another one that I didn't expect to see in this show! For those who are unaware, Jesse Quick is another superhero with speed powers in the DC comics, a contemporary of the third Flash, Wally West, and eventually a member of the Teen Titans. Obviously they replaced her father (retired superhero Johnny Quick) in the comics with Earth-2 Harry Wells, but it's a change for the better.

There's a nice little fun moment as Earth-2 Harry listens to a news report that the vigilante known as the Hood or the Arrow is outed as... Robert Queen, who became a vigilante after Oliver died in the boat accident. Read Flashpoint much, show writers? That was a nice little fandom nod that actually served to highlight the 'similar but different' natures of the two Earths.

And I do like the fact that Harry isn't trying to kill Barry, but his target is Zoom and he wants to bring down the man (person?) directly responsible for kidnapping his daughter instead of rather predictably turning out to be in league with Zoom all along. And I absolutely love the concept of having Harry around, as the idea of someone who basically looks and acts similarly to the complete monster that was last season's main villain is something that's refreshing and new.

Overall, though, definitely one of the strongest episodes in this season so far, easily blowing every single season two episode before this out of the water.

Agents of SHIELD S03E04 Review: The Mystery of Lash's Identity

Agents of SHIELD, Season 3, Episode 4: Devils You Know

A far more focused episode compared to the previous one, mostly by bringing the Lash plot back to the forefront. The threat of Lash (who is finally named in the show), as well as SHIELD and ACTU working together through clenched teeth to try and hunt him down, is illustrated pretty well here. Having Lash make appearances both in the cold open and the climax of this episode is done pretty well, and this episode builds up that there is more to Lash than meets the eye… namely, as Skye herself notes here, Lash seems to be able to transform into a human form. Now it might feel a bit too trite considering we already had shapeshifters like Hulk, Abomination and Mr. Hyde running around in the MCU, but hey, it sort of works.

The biggest contender here, according to Skye and Mack’s little discussion, is someone from the ACTU… and it’s even punctuated rather sinisterly with Rosalind Price showing up right as they are discussing it, which makes me think that, well, it’s an utterly too-obvious red herring so it actually makes me think that Price is not going to be Lash. And most of the main SHIELD cast is honestly out of the question as well, being eliminated one way or another because we saw them doing stuff during times when Lash attacks. If Lash had appeared after Simmons’ return from Planet Hellhole, maaaaybe some crazy alien shit happened to Simmons in that planet, turning her into Lash? But alas, Lash made his first appearance way before Fitz got Simmons back from that planet, so that particular theory is naught but dust.

So, uh, that really leaves someone from Ward’s faction (unlikely) or… Andrew Garner, who had an unexpected surge of screentime in this season, and is pretty intent on working with Inhumans and Skye’s basically turned Andrew into something like a substitute father figure now that Coulson is too busy being a boss, so that leads to her kind of telling Andrew… a fair amount of things. And add that to him being uncharacteristically angry about being left out of the loop that SHIELD is allied with Alisha – whereas before he’s just “hey I’m the therapist, let me do my job”. The fact that we don’t see the face of the corpse in that burning building that you’re supposed to assume is Andrew… yeah. Even if Andrew isn’t Lash (something most viewers probably already know since I’m doing these reviews a fair bit late), at the very least, I highly doubt he died in that explosion caused by Von Strucker Jr. Also, Lash spares Skye’s life even though she’s an Inhuman, and we’ve seen that Andrew at the very least likes Skye a fair bit.

The mystery of Lash’s identity aside, let’s talk about this episode.

We’ve got Skye and Mack not trusting ACTU, of course, which runs throughout the episode. And Price isn’t happy that they aren’t getting the full picture. And Coulson is just like the teacher of a group of third grade kids trying to get everyone to play ball while they are off pouting by themselves. It’s not overdone, thankfully, and Skye at least has a reason to be really angry (“they’re my people!”) whereas ACTU’s just trying to do their job and all things considered, other than being more aggressive than they should be – a fault that lies on that jackass Banks more than anything – the ACTU doesn’t seem to be cutting Inhumans up the way that Hydra had been. Am honestly growing fond of Coulson and Price’s constant quip-filled bickerings. The laser finger joke (and I wouldn’t put it past Coulson to actually have Fitz install one) was pretty funny.

I’m also a big fan of the cold open, with the return of Alisha, the replicating redhead that was one of Jiaying’s lieutenants during the second season’s climax. She’s apparently thrown her lot in with SHIELD, if only to help rescue the other Inhumans before Lash could get them, and Alisha talking to the Inhuman couple who had integrated themselves into human society is a pretty well-done scene, right up until Lash shows up and murders all present. Alisha’s main body survives, of course, but apparently goes into shock. It’s pretty brutal, and the threat of Lash is done pretty scarily.

The bulk of the episode had ACTU and SHIELD go in and arrest someone working with Lash, the hacker Dwight Frye… who has the suckiest Inhuman ability of bursting into rashes whenever an Inhuman is nearby. There are some more conflict points between the ACTU’s more pragmatic “capture/shoot first, ask questions later” compared to Skye’s “Inhumans are a big happy family” logic. And Dwight Frye spins this long story about how Lash doesn’t want to do what he does, about how Lash is a necessity against the Inhuman ‘disease’. Again, it’s a nice parallel to the X-Men series that some of the Inhumans don’t want the powers. And considering someone like Skye gets a pretty freaking awesome power like creating shock waves (even if she had to learn a fair bit to control it) whereas poor Dwight Frye gets the power of sprouting hives whenever he’s around one of his kind… you can’t really blame the poor dude.

And then while the seeming conflict near the end would be Skye and Mack forcing their way to see the ACTU facility for themselves, Lash shows up, completely fucks up the truck, kills off Dwight Frye with his hole-creating ability… before going away. But not before Skye sees him transform into a less monstrous form. It’s a well-done, surprising scene, and Lash’s exchange with Dwight seems to imply that Dwight, well, is relatively unreliable as far as information goes on Lash’s motivations.

Apparently there’s a character named Dwight Frye in the Marvel Comics, who goes by the codename Bazooka and is a member of the Black Powers group, which is, um, a superhero team made up of black people. Yeah. Race inclusion kind of went through weird phases in the comic. But comic!Bazooka had explosive powers and had nothing that resembles the Dwight Frye here, so I’m inclined to believe that the identical name is just coincidence, which is weird considering the level of obscure namedropping that MCU TV shows tend to do.

The Hydra plot, with Hunter going more and more obsessed with his vengeance against Ward, and pulling off an utterly moronic plan of just pretending to deliver guns to Hydra without any real backup plan against being discovered when Ward sees his face… it’s a miracle, honestly that Kabo hasn’t already ran Hunter’s face against a database or something. It comes off in a gunfight between both sides as May backs Hunter up. We get some references to their past encounter – namely Agent 33’s death, a sore spot for Ward – and Ward’s big plan for Werner Von Strucker seems to be to have him come close to Andrew Garner and, uh… it’s an unexpectedly petty plan. Kill the loved one of the one that caused the death of Ward’s loved one. It’s a nice little tense scene that gives May an emotional focus, juxtaposed really well against Ward’s sadism and Hunter’s vengeful obsession. And, well, Ward’s also visibly trying not to fall for the emotional bait when Hunter mentions Agent 33, a well-done scene by itself.

And despite Werner and Ward’s Hydra goons surrounding Andrew, Hunter, y’know, is obsessed with his own vengeance and takes the shot at Ward. Ward, obviously, doesn’t die and manages to get away (they didn’t even manage to kill Kabo!) and Andrew is apparently killed. Again, we don’t see the face of the corpse that got burnt up in the explosion. Werner also runs away with a scared look on his face, and notably the only person who runs out of the building when there were three or four Hydra goons in there. Is Andrew really Lash? Is Andrew secretly, oh, a ninja? Or something else?

I did like the little foreshadowing of Werner’s plan to set the shop Andrew is visiting on fire when Ward is just swinging around the fuel canisters in one of the earlier scenes. How he mocks SHIELD classified levels is also pretty funny.

The Simmons B-plot is far more fun this time around. Now that Simmons had worked through her PTSD (or, well, whatever specific psychological term that is applicable to her) by crying onto Fitz’s shoulder last episode, she’s up to something, most likely building up the portal. And from hiding her work from Fitz and being downright hostile towards Andrew’s therapeutic sessions, well… okay, we know she’s basically rebuilding the portal, but the reason why she wants to go back to Planet Hellhole is the big mystery here, though the end of this episode implies that next episode may reveal, well, a fair amount of revelations regarding her journey on the other side.

Bobbi, I think, is the weakest part of this season, mostly due to how little she’s utilized. For these past four episodes she has very scant scenes, and she’s just used to bounce dialogue off Fitz, and used as Hunter’s motivation. I mean, yes, she’s rehabilitating, but hopefully she gets to do something other than just hover around Fitz or Simmons and sprout dialogue about how bored she is in rehab.

Overall a pretty solid episode, with great Inhuman stuff and unexpectedly great showing from the Hunter/May/Ward side plot. The Lash mystery grows ever thicker and it seems like it’s going to escalate pretty soon. The SHIELD/ACTU clenched-teamwork thing might really need some work, and if it’s just going to be Skye complaining every episode while Coulson and Price exchange sarcastic quips, it’s going to get old real fast. But as for now? It’s pretty good.

One Piece 807: Brook, Flashbacks & Mammoth Jack!

One Piece, Chapter 807: 10 Days Ago...

Fuck dammit, you don't just go hinting at something bad happening to Sanji for several chapters, end last chapter with Nami crying and being cut off mid-sentence, take a week-long break, and then just offhandedly mention that... he disappeared and left a note. It's so anti-climatic. I mean, no one in their right mind would expect Sanji to have died, least of all dying offscreen, but still. He disappeared and left a note. Not even leaving the crew, or being captured, or turned into a frog or some bullshit like that. Fuck you, Nami, and your fake tears.

Ahem.

Anyway, this chapter's still pretty much a buildup, and a good chunk of it is a much-needed flashback to just how the fuck Team Sanji escaped Big Mom's ship, something that I've been wondering about for, oh, the past year or so. We've got the cover story showing, uh... Kuina's father (did he even have a name? Whatever, I never seem to remember civilian names anyway) being exasperated at all the students in his dojo mimicking Zoro's three-sword style and actually taping their left eye shut. That's hilarious! Also, um, did we know how Zoro lost that eye, if it's even blind in the first place? Is it secretly a Sharingan?

We get some more party scenes as the Straw Hats just have fun with the Mink people (there are a couple of dudes that look like Jabra and Lola, but it could just be the art style). Brook shows up in a grand entrance, and as 100% of the fandom notes, the 'dead body' that Wanda said a couple of chapters ago is in reference to Brook. It's probably a pun that doesn't get through the language barrier properly, though, something like 'the corpse(s) of your friends is in the jungle' and 'your friend Mr. Corpse is in the jungle' both working well for the Japanese translation or something I dunno man I don't speak Japanese. Also, the mink people really like to chew on Brook because, uh, dogs and shit.

Did Pandaman already show up yet?

Brook, in between being all Yohohohohoho and shit, seems to be the only one concerned about the happenings there, whispering to Luffy that Momonosuke is cooped up in his room and refuses to come out. He tells the Straw Hats to gather around, telling them that the words Wano and Samurai are both taboo in there, so we're unexpectedly going to get some more tie-in to the never-ending Wano arc, and it's cool how the writer actually got rid of Kin'emon and Kanjurou. Perhaps not in the most elegant way it could've been done, but I didn't expect them getting knocked off the dragon drawing to be plot-relevant.

Luffy and Zoro are all like 'oh, so Sanji left a note, oh, whatever, he's not captured or anything'. Totally a tie-in to the whole wanted poster thing, innit. So why did they have to skirt around it so much? Unless there's an epic revelation somewhere down the line...

Also to note is that Caesar Clown is MIA in the present-day scenes, although he could just be locked up somewhere. Luffy and co. don't ask about him because honestly do you think that Luffy still remembers Caesar Clown exists?

Franky and Usopp then say what I've been saying for weeks: tell us the whole story from the beginning damn it! And we do get it. We see them being pursued by Big Mom's giant singing ship (because yeah why not) way back when we saw them in the Dressrosa arc before they went MIA. On board the ship are Tamago and Pekoms (we know that), a couple of mermen (anyone we know?) and Capone Bege. We know Bege's allied himself with Big Mom, but not specifically that he was on that ship.

We see the B-team panicking for a bit, noting how Franky and Usopp are the ones who usually handled the ship... and then we see them actually being awesome, which is something we haven't seen since the past year or so. We see Brook freezing the cannonballs, Monster Chopper using Caesar Clown's body to trampoline the frozen cannonballs up, and Sanji just Diable Jambe-ing the cannonballs back onto the singing ship. Who, uh, screams. Is the ship sentient or something? Nami uses her Rain Tempo to then cover their escape.

I do like how Monster Chopper's just treated as, well, just another move and how now that it's under control it isn't a big HOLY SHIT WHAT IS THAT panel like how it was back in the CP9 arc.

I'm also a big fan of how Bege, Pekoms and Tamago are freaking out over things that, well, we, the audience take for granted about the Straw Hat Crew. How can that man fly? How can the weather suddenly change and fuck them over? It's cool that despite technically having the upper hand in terms of size and resources there the fact that the Straw Hats can basically use their exotic abilities to surprise and deal a counter attack and escape. Good job, B-team!

The next day after escaping from Big Mom, they reached Zou -- already in a state of disrepair. Apparently, Sanji's team didn't fight off Jack or anything like that (or bring destruction to the town) since Jack's attack happened two weeks ago, as opposed to Sanji's team arriving ten days ago. But Chopper and the rest helping them to recover -- Chopper's medicine, and Nami's optimism or some shit. So it's why the Minks consider the Straw Hat crew their benefactors.

All the storytelling (also, what about the mysterious tanuki girl and Sheephead and all that?) get interrupted because 'the prince has woken up', leading King Chopper and his two new medical assistants, Miyagi the goat and Tristan the squirrel, to run off. Apparently the Mink tribe has two princes that rule, with Inuarashi ruling in the day and Nekomamushi ruling in the night. A dog and a cat, as my limited glossary of Japanese words informs me. A weird system, and maybe Inuarashi waking up after being in a coma is because he was tortured by Jack or something? I dunno, but I bet that's what's going on.

We see Law reuninting with Bepo and his entire crew (not just the four named characters we saw last chapter), and slyly noting how it's almost night. Whoever Neko-prince is, this line of dialogue, and several from previous chapters that reference things being different in the night, seems to imply that Nekomamushi is... well, his rule might be odd.

We then have Wanda's own storytelling about the day of Jack's attack, when all shit went down... and Jack is this gigantic, towering mammoth that looms so scarily over all the Mink people. So, yeah, as the elephant footprints hint, Jack is indeed a mammoth Zoan -- we saw him in human form (partially) after the Dressrosa arc, after all. Though he could be riding on top of the mammoth, conveniently off-screen and revealed next chapter or whatever, but I still think he's, well, a mammoth Zoan. Can't be an elephant, because, well, Funkfreed had that fruit. So he's likely to be an ancient Zoan, whatever hell distinction ancient Zoan gives compared to regular Zoan fruits.

Also, Jack is searching for Raizou of the Wano Kingdom (who may or may not be the monkey) which is definitely why Momonosuke is so afraid of coming out of his room. A neat tie-in between the Zou and Wano arcs, definitely.

Well, this is all interesting and shit, definitely, other than the bit about foreshadowing Sanji's fate for so long and then it being handwaved away. Some neat tying of plotlines -- namely the Wano samurais which has been stalled for close to two years ever since Kin'emon showed up in Punk Hazard and then doing nothing important over the course of two years.