By the end of One Piece 1076, Kaido is - at last - finally defeated. Thus ends an eye-watering long arc of anime and a new era dawns for the series.
The episode itself is what you expect by and large. We check in around Onigashima, get a flashback or two, then get one last big punch to bring down the curtain on this fight and we fade to black by the end. I'm not sure if there's much here to unpack - Raizo and Jinbei do some water control antics, Usopp saves Kiku and Kinemon, and we get some sunlit reaction shots from onlookers - and that's all she wrote.
Mostly, I want to reflect a bit on the sheer enormity of Wano. I have been writing the weekly reviews for One Piece here at ANN since the summer of 2020. In that time… this is the only arc I've written about. I've spent four years of my life reviewing One Piece week in and week out, and we're now just concluding the ultimate battle. Truthfully, we have some wrap-up episodes and post-battle partying still to conclude, so I've got a few more weeks of Wano coverage left.
The Wano arc is certainly an ambitious effort. This arc of One Piece alone is longer than the entirety of other anime series. Has it been worth it? Has the payoff met the expectation? That's not something I can definitively answer for you, dear reader, and I think answering it even for myself is a conundrum. There have been times when I've just wanted it to end already, while there were other stretches where I simply could not wait for more Wano. I think the fact that this enormous arc has been animated to such consistently high fidelity and helped deliver the emotional beats present in the manga speaks to the success of such a huge risk - it's hard to imagine thinking of this as anything other than a smash hit since I'm going “Uh, yeah I think four years of this was good to great by and large.” Lord knows I don't think I could sustain a similar level of creative quality and output over the same period, just reviewing the episodes has felt tiring at times.
That said, I'm unequivocally delighted that the sun of Joyboy has risen and we're about to move on to new horizons. I think the story of Wano has been told with aplomb and more adventures await.
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...
Kaijin Fugeki manga launches on May 29― Manga creator Oh! great announced on Tuesday that he will launch a new manga titled Kaijin Fugeki in Kodansha's Weekly Shonen Magazine on May 29. A Twitter account for the manga also debuted on the same day. Oh! great launched a manga adaptation of NisiOisin's Bakemonogatari novels (pictured at right) in Weekly Shonen Magazine in March 2018, and ended it in Ma...