As astonishing as it sounds, Wano's finale has only just begun. I have been talking about it for over a year now, but the sheer scale of this arc is something to behold. Hundreds of characters, dozens of locations, countless plot threads – it's all coming together and exploding at the same time. Even when things feel like they could not get any more ridiculous, Oda finds a way to add more explosions to the top of the giant skull mountain.
Still, most of this episode's runtime was moving characters from point A to point B. This is typical of the connective tissue episodes for Wano – there are simply too many characters to keep track of without doing check-ins with them and figuring out how they're getting around. Law, Kid, Killer, Zoro, and the rest do a lot of walking and talking to remind us that they are present and on the move. The best bit in all of these scenes has to be Queen talking via transponder snails. His reactions when he is communicating with the various Beast pirates frontline units as they are being taken out one by one are hilarious, as are the tiny snails doing their overacting as troops die.
The pièce de résistance of Episode 997 has to be the full moon sulong gang facing down Kaido. While all these transforming bestial warriors facing off against an army of giants led by a dragon is a breathtaking and amazing setup in and of itself, it also speaks to the scale of what Eiichiro Oda is doing. Wano is, arguably, the post time-skip arc of One Piece. Oda has been laying the groundwork for this for literal years, at least since Kinemon's introduction at Punk Hazard (and clearly well before then in ways large and small). So many arcs, so many backstories, all coming to a head here at Wano. The world of One Piece simply will not be the same once the dust from this fight settles.
Following the upcoming retro programming block Toonami Rewind, Chris and Lucas look back fondly on the afternoons spent watching Naruto and Sailor Moon.― Following the upcoming retro programming block Toonami Rewind, Chris and Lucas look back fondly on the afternoons spent watching Naruto and Sailor Moon. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the participants in this chatlog are not the v...
Staff, most cast return to perform original 2023 musical on October 11-13― The musical based on Hajime Isayama's Attack on Titan manga will have its first international performance at the New York City Center in New York on October 11-13. Attack on Titan: The Musical will be performed in Japanese with English subtitles with a returning cast and staff from the 2023 show. Presale tickets are available...
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With the release of Dead Dead Demon's Dededededestruction, Nick and Steve take a look at it and some other manga that were thought to be "unadaptable"—and see if that was truly the case.― With the release of Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction, Nick and Steve take a look at it and some other manga that were thought to be "unadaptable"—and see if that was truly the case. Disclaimer: The views and...
LiSA performs 'Black Box' opening theme― The official website for NieR:Automata Ver 1.1a, the television anime of Square Enix and Platinum Games' NieR:Automata action role-playing game, started streaming its "promotion file 11" on Tuesday. The video previews the opening theme song "Black Box" by LiSA, and reveals the premiere of the anime's second cours (quarter of year) in July. (The video below re...
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The documentary was full of cool tidbits about the 82-year-old producer and the anime he's worked on—including Ninja Scroll, Pluto, and In This Corner of the World.― Late last month, Japanese television network NHK put out a documentary on anime producer Masao Maruyama as part of their Anime Manga Explosion series. In it, the show delves into the now 82-year-old producer's life, philosophies, and so...
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