Current state of the fight: both fighters can see the future, both have Devil Fruits that allow them to stretch and contort in unpredictable ways, and both are nursing life-threatening injuries in their abdomens. There's less than an hour left before Luffy's supposed to exit the mirror world and reunite with his friends, so it's time for him to pull out all the stops and finish this stupidly long fight once and for all.
Luffy's new Snakeman form isn't a significant departure from the usual Fourth Gear transformation. It's a bit leaner and meaner, and it emphasizes speed over raw power. His most important trick is his enhanced Gum-Gum Culverin, where he can redirect a punch in mid-air while maintaining its acceleration. If he moves fast and erratically enough, he can circumvent Katakuri's Observation Haki, so now this fight is both a high-speed anarchic brawl and a mind-bending game of 3D chess where the chess pieces happen to be fists. There's at least one corner of my brain that has reservations about the over-stylized nature of One Piece's flashier animators, but that issue is on hold this week because an episode like this is exactly where those guys belong. It looks jaw-dropping from beginning to end. This climactic fight episode is hectic, silly, and absolutely massive in impact and scope.
This is an adaptation of a pretty famous manga chapter that was all zany fight choreography with minimal dialogue. This episode does a good job spreading the action out over the course of twenty minutes without losing steam, but it's not without its crutches. Mainly, the anime is still pushing the Rayleigh flashbacks in order to pad the runtime. I didn't need a filler scene where Rayleigh demonstrates Fourth Gear's speed weakness, but I really dug the cutaway to Rayleigh and Shakky pouring one out for Luffy just as he and Katakuri are delivering their final blows. "Only those who are living in the present can make a new epoch." (But maybe let this show live in the present for a bit instead of flashing back every five minutes.)
The Katakuri fight is an important fixture of Whole Cake Island because it's the arc's last opportunity to portray self-indulgence as heroic and positive. This fight has nothing to do with what's going on in the rest of Totto Land anymore, it's just two dudes beating on each other to feel alive. The violence, the chest-thumping machismo, the aimless self-destruction—for a moment, these things are good, but they do exist in a context that will unfold in the story's final moments. As of this episode, the true outcome of the fight is left up in the air. Surely it'll be Luffy who walks away when all is said and done, but the question of who really beat who is of little consequence. This fight was for them, not us.
In the grand scheme, the Katakuri fight is a mess in execution, but it's the kind of mess where the soul of the work is able to spin that imperfection into strong self-expression. The emotional weight of the experience is incredibly back-heavy, with most of the leadup meandering without enough propulsion to keep things interesting until the spontaneous bouts of extreme enthusiasm happen. But when it's good it's transcendent, and even at its most blunt, it always preserves that One Piece-y sense of humor. How can you not love a 'roided out goth boy screaming about how tough he is while transforming into a donut for no other reason than because he just really loves donuts?
Based on the novel by former Nogizaka46 member Kazumi Takayama, trapezium asks its audience to follow one girl who will use anything, and anyone, to achieve her dream.― Trapezium is a strange movie, to say the least. On the surface, it's a rather simple movie that explores youth, their dreams, and the lengths they'll go to achieve those dreams. It's a coming-of-age story wrapped in the veneer of the...
ZeroReq011 remembers what made Spice and Wolf a story for the ages, from its fully realized world and economics to Holo and Lawrence's romantic chemistry.― Back when Funimation was still its own company and not owned by Sony, long before its in-house streaming service was terminated in favor of Crunchyroll's streaming platform, it owned a TV channel. Legal streaming had yet to dominate the Western a...
Anime will star Hiroshi Kamiya, Kotaro Nishiyama, Kotaro Nishiyama― Distribution company Remow announced on Tuesday that Yura Urushibara's Tougen Anki: Dark Demon of Paradise manga will get a television anime in 2025. The company revealed the trailer, key visual, and main cast for the anime. The anime's cast includes:
Kazuki Ura as Shiki Ichinose, the protagonist who inherits the blood of an Oni. Sh...
Nick and Chris recount some of the most frustrating anime cancellations, from the Yuri on Ice movie to the second half of Stars Align.― Nick and Chris recount some of the most frustrating anime cancellations from the second half of Stars Align to the 2007 JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood movie. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the participants in this chatlog are not the views...
Welcome to the rankings for the Spring 2024 season! The perfect place to check out which hidden gems might have flown under your radar.― Let's have a look at what ANN readers consider the best (and worst) of the season,
based on the polls you can find in our Daily Streaming Reviews
and on the Your Score page with the latest simulcasts. Keep in mind that these rankings are based on how people rated ...
The final Spring 2024 Manga Guide update includes not-yet-released series from this month, including Sword Art Online Re:Aincrad,Bungo Stray Dogs: The Official Comic Anthology, A Sign of Affection and more.― Welcome to Anime News Network's Spring 2024 Manga Guide! You may have seen one of our seasonal Anime Preview Guides, where a team of critics writes up each new anime television premiere as it a...
Producer Masakazu Kubo shares the animation team's dedication to realism, including bringing in a pro golfer to produce the anime's sound effects.― 64-year-old Masakazu Kubo has been planning and producing anime for decades. He's had a major hand in everything from Pokémon and Detective Conan to Teasing Master Takagi-san and Dorohedoro. Recently, he sat down with us to talk about Tonbo!, his attemp...