Every time I think I'm about to fall out of love with Wano, another episode pulls me right back in. This week's episode nails scene after scene, cut after cut, in an absolute tour de force of weekly television. The entire Toei team – as well as director Ryōsuke Tanaka – deserve their kudos here.
In short, Episode 1033 is a visual feast. It's clear that the visual issues of last week's episode were due to corners being cut to save time/energy/etc for this episode because wow it is jaw-dropping. Wano is a very long arc, so I end up going through cycles and worry that I end up saying the same things over and over again. But I think it's a testament to the sheer number of high-quality episodes that I have to repeat once again that this is film-quality animation produced as weekly television. It keeps setting high water marks and exceeding them time after time.
Which segment was your favorite will probably vary, but there's no doubt we all have a lot to choose from this week. The big standouts are the Kaido and Luffy battle, Eustass breaking away from the goons, and Big Mom taking out Ulti. What I like about this is the visual range displayed in these different sections. The Kaido and Kid sections both use lighter line work along with these push-ins that reveal constantly rolling muscle and skin detail in a way that aims at realism then blows out through the other side with a gaping, exaggerated exit wound. On the other end, Big Mom's fight adheres closer to the standard look of the show, just with a higher-than-average visual fidelity and bright popping colors and lighting effects – essentially a sterling episode of action television, in keeping with the tone of the scene. The shots of Ulti getting, well, shot are particularly excellent, with black and white hit frames that veer into the surreal and existential.
Even the character bits all land this episode. The battle between Kaido and Luffy genuinely feels like two titans battling it out on the roof of the world. Sanji and Zoro are back to their usual comedic bickering and it really is the best mode of them to be in. Law gets to show off his medical pedigree, Kid glares at a grenade mid-flight, and Zeus cries sad pathetic puddles. Episode 1033 is one of the best episodes of one of the longest-running series of all time – and that's a feather in anybody's cap.
Japanese studio to handle production slated for broadcast, streaming globally― Kadokawa and Singaporean game developer and publisher Garena announced on Monday that they are co-producing an anime adaptation of Garena's Garena Free Fire battle royale shooting game, with a Japanese studio handling the animation. Kadokawa's Kadokawa Qingyu subsidiary is the production manager. The anime is planned to b...
Healer Nanna's powers have one very unique caveat: she has to have sex with the person to heal them. See why Rebecca Silverman calls it "a cute story, decently racy, and generally good, fluffy fun."― One of the fun things about Seven Seas' Steamship line of racy manga aimed at a female audience is finding which romance tropes are prevalent in any given release. While every genre has its tropes and s...
What's the perfect recipe for waifu supremacy? Lucas and Nick look at fan-favorites from Yu Yu Hakusho to Spice & Wolf.― What's the perfect recipe for waifu supremacy? Lucas and Nick look at fan-favorites from Yu Yu Hakusho to Spice & Wolf. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the participants in this chatlog are not the views of Anime News Network.Spoiler Warning for discussion of the s...
Train to the End of the World and Voice Actor Radio are getting a lot of love these last few weeks! Discover which other series stand out in our weekly user rankings!― 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...
Crystal Kay previously sang themes for 2004's Fullmetal Alchemist and Nodame Cantabile― Recently, Anime News Network was able to sit down with singer-songwriter Crystal Kay and talk about not only her involvement with anime over the years but also what it was like to grow up in Japan as the child of a Korean-Japanese mother and an African-American father. Anime fans likely know of Crystal Kay throug...
The plot is excellent in the romance camp. Everything that happens is to get Eui-joon and Gunwoo together, and it works pretty well.― You can read The Dangerous Convenience Store in English two ways. The first is to read it on the manhwa site/app Manta, which has all seventy-five chapters and four bonus stories available. The second is to read Seven Seas' print (or ebook) edition, which, as of this ...
Some older mysteries inch closer to resolution as the true nature of the Abyss slowly comes into view, and long-posed questions start to be answered.― Sometimes, being a fan of Akihito Tsukushi's acclaimed Made in Abyss series means acclimating to suffering. Like many Western devotees, I was introduced to this bizarre, squishy, disturbing world via the 2017 first season of Kinema Citrus' fantastic a...
60th, final episode of previous anime streamed on YouTube on Friday― The official Twitter account for the anime of Penguin Box's Odekake Kozame (Little Shark's Outings) manga announced on Friday that the manga will get a new anime series. Update: The staff revealed a visual for the new series in a press release on Saturday. The previous anime series debuted on YouTube last August, and its 60th and f...
As Slam Dunk reached its final stretch, I can see why this series is considered the sports classic that it is today.― This is the largest batch of Slam Dunk episodes that I've reviewed thus far. Originally, I wanted to review the show in more even seasons, but given its overall pacing and release, it wasn't easy to find a moment where it felt right to stop and start again. However, as we approached ...