Equipped with a samurai's katana and facing down a powerful rival, Luffy knows exactly what to do: Punch! Yeah, the weapon in his hand is mostly just for show, but he still clings onto it tightly, even with Zoro begging him to let him see it for just a moment. They're just little kids bickering on the playground and making up their own rules as they go.
After a rockin' first few months in the Wano arc, the anime has momentarily simmered down and returned to its old ways. This episode is the battle against Basil Hawkins and his henchmen, and it is shockingly slow and uneventful. Every major story beat is cushioned between long pauses, and too much time is spent watching characters standing around while we wait for something to happen. Wano's been really good at using its slow trod to effectively flesh the story out and improve the source material, but now we're back to DBZ land. This Hawkins fight is not a substantial one in the grand scheme of the arc, so it would have been nice if the whole thing could have been packaged in a tidy little one-off episode, but the samurai gods have not willed it so.
Hawkins' Straw-Straw powers are among the more complicated and multi-faceted Devil Fruit abilities we've seen in quite some time. He's a magician, and his attacks range from tarot card readings to voodoo possession. On the card-reading front, he can tell fortunes as well as draw various power-ups at random. So far his premonitions haven't seemed all that useful, since he has to keep standing still and moving cards around just so he can print out a random percentage that isn't really useful to anybody. It's more of a storytelling device so we can have a character periodically telling Luffy "You're chances of survival is one percent," or whatever. He's also just as capable of pulling a card that hurts him (like one that possesses his subordinates to fight each other) as he is pulling one that helps. We're trying to have a fist fight and this guy's over here playing Yu-Gi-Oh! The voodoo angle is much more interesting, as Hawkins can store the souls of his subordinates inside of straw dolls, and then his body serves as a puppet that can transplant attacks that hit him onto somebody else. He has multiple lives, like a cat.
The climax of this episode sees Hawkins pulling out his "Straw Man," a giant voodoo ghost monster that's easily the coolest thing in the episode once the painfully long summoning sequence is over. Visually, it looks really cool, but it's the sound design that really blows the doors right off. It has a ghostly cackle that sounds like the Friday the 13th theme sped up for true nightmare fuel. It's too bad we didn't get to see more of it before the cliffhanger, because it's pretty rad.
Of the Wano episodes, this is easily the weakest one yet. This is the point where the magic spell that made the most out of the slow pace is starting to wane, and this week's installment is disappointingly ordinary on just about every front. It doesn't help that Hawkins isn't an especially compelling obstacle for our heroes—they just kind of run away from him in the end—but that's the sort of thing that would have mattered less in a tighter episode. Clearly, the anime has its work cut out for it in terms of staying behind the manga, but ideally the pacing should feel like a product of curation, not necessity.
I can't recommend the series, nor think that any hypothetical viewer would enjoy it, but it is the kind of trash TV that's rewarding to dissect.― Have you ever wondered what Baki would be like if it had a conservative bent instead of queer undertones? Well, look no further because the answer is Kengan Ashura! While Kengan is trying to convey the same spectacle and white-knuckle action of the long-ru...
Film also available to rent, purchase digitally on several major outlets in N. America― The official X/Twitter account for TOHO's Godzilla franchise announced on Saturday that Takashi Yamazaki's Godzilla Minus One film is streaming worldwide on Netflix. The film is available worldwide, but is currently not available in Japan. Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color, the black-and-white version of the film, w...
One Piece: Heroines novel also licensed― Viz Media revealed its new licenses and new print releases planned for spring 2025 on Friday. Kazuyoshi Seto's Minecraft: The Manga: Announcement: Add this book to your enchantment room! Join Nico on his chance to escape the blocky confines of his home and prove how strong he's become when zombies attack! Minecraft: The Manga, by Kazuyoshi Seto, releases Spri...
Series starring Miku Martineau, Ayo Solanke, more starts production in Toronto― The Hollywood Reporter entertainment news site reported on Thursday that showrunner Simon Barry (Warrior Nun creator) and Boat Rocker Media are producing a live-action series for Netflix titled BET that "is based in part" on writer Homura Kawamoto and artist Tōru Naomura's Kakegurui - Compulsive Gambler manga. The show h...
Jean-Karlo attempts to condense two big video game showcases into a coherent column, from the revamped Silent Hill 2 to the grazing pastures of Story of Seasons.― Welcome back, folks. This is related to a big story for this week, but this past weekend, I listened to Utada Hikaru's re-recording of "Simple And Clean". It's very emotional. Utada Hikaru is a good twenty-plus years older than when she or...
In the Eisner-nominated work, Maki Fujiwara chronicles her daily life with her husband, lionized mangaka Yoshiharu Tsuge. Though deceptively simple at first glance, a foundation of abuse is slowly revealed.― At first blush, Maki Fujiwara's My Picture Diary does what it says on the tin. It tells the story of her daily life as a housewife and mother, spending time with her daily activities, noting the...
Now streaming on Netflix, Tomotaka Shibayama's first feature animation mixes the magical with reality to share a simple but important message.―
Director Tomotaka Shibayama's latest film, My Oni Girl, is an action-adventure drama with elements of a buddy comedy and a relatable coming-of-age story. The film, produced by Studio Colorido, was released in theaters in Japan and on Netflix on May 24, foll...
Miyano, Nukumi play original characters for August 2 film― The official website for My Hero Academia the Movie: You're Next (My Hero Academia: You're Next), the fourth anime film in the My Hero Academia franchise, announced on Friday that the film has cast Mamoru Miyano and Meru Nukumi as original characters. Mamori Miyano as Giulio Gandini, a butler who serves the Scervino family Meru Nukumi as Ann...
Kaiju No. 8 takes the top spot this week while Tonari no Yōkai-san pushes to #3 in the cmulative! Check out 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 are based on how people rated in...
Mospeada is a work very much of its time, riffing on ideas and tropes that were all the rage when it was made, and doesn't do anything exceptional with them.― It can be easy for even longtime fans to forget that alongside Macross, there were two other 80's sci-fi anime that got Frankenstein-ed into what we'd eventually call Robotech. While this isn't the first time one of those series has made it to...
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...
Yeah, yeah, Kaiju No. 8 has all the great action scenes, but Yatagarasu is chewing up the scenery as the royal ladies absolutely lose their minds!?― Why Aren't You Watching This Anime Yet? Yeah, yeah, Kaiju No. 8 has all the great action scenes, but Yatagarasu is chewing up the scenery as the royal ladies absolutely lose their minds!? The ANN After Show streams live on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitte...
Here we have a from-the-ground-up remake, but does this beloved classic still hold up in a modern sense, or is that praise just nostalgia talking?― It's nice when Nintendo surprises us with a remaster or re-release of one of their more difficult-to-obtain games. The original Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door for the Nintendo GameCube is a classic for many. However, since the game was never re-rele...
Miles Atherton crunched Netflix's latest numbers for some surprising anime discoveries, from the popularity of My Happy Marriage to the One Piece juggernaut.― Since the advent of streaming, it's been notoriously difficult to gauge how popular a specific anime is with international audiences, both for publishers looking to make informed decisions for a market that generates most of its revenue outsi...