Sometimes when you know specific details about stuff that's supposed to be a surprise for later, it can be hard to tiptoe around. That's been the case for a couple of things that get confirmation here in this episode, most notably the name of Big Mom's Devil Fruit: the Soul-Soul Fruit, a.k.a. a more than fitting power for an Emperor level enemy. I think of it as a beefed up version of Gecko Moria's shadow fruit, where she uses the power to remove pieces of people's personalities and put them into inanimate objects or animals, which she calls her "Homies" (I think it's short for homunculi). The fact that she can put souls into animals and not people is kind of a creepy detail. Do animals not already have souls? Does Chopper have a soul?
It also raises the question as to what Brook's role in this arc is, since his Devil Fruit seems to give him dominion over his own soul, but not others. Whose power beats whose in that rock-paper-scissors match? This revelation comes thanks to the large man in the ground who Luffy keeps running into in the Seducing Woods, shortly before we learn that this whole time he's been a former husband of Big Mom's.
This episode spends the entirety of its time in the Seducing Woods, the most tiresome part of the arc so far, but this is just as that subplot starts to get really interesting. There's a lot of on the ground action with Big Mom's daughter Brulee, a woman with mirror powers who has no problem fending off Carrot, and the episode ends with Big Mom's son Cracker arriving on the scene. Cracker is especially dangerous as one of the "Sweet Three", and we'll get to see exactly how enormous this person's physicality and stature within the family are soon enough.
As far as I can tell, we're pretty much back to one-chapter-per-episode in terms of pacing, which at this point feels like a victory. In manga form where you can breeze through the Seducing Woods easily in one go it's fine, but in the anime the hijinks have to get drawn out so much the story loses a lot of steam easily. The humor with Luffy and the fake Straw Hat animals has been really tight in the last couple of episodes, but maybe not so much so that it makes up for the repetition leading up to now. I did get a great laugh out of Luffy mistaking the real Nami for a fake, though.
One Piece continues to trod through the Whole Cake Island arc, alternating between using its slow pacing elegantly and otherwise. I look forward to seeing some proper drama and action now that Charlotte Cracker has arrived, and I've enjoyed the myriad of plot details we've been getting as of late, but it needs to pick up the slack soon lest this part of the arc be more exhausting than fun. Not enough of the Seducing Woods has been outright bad enough to criticize, but even my iron-clad patience can only handle so much, especially when there are so many bigger picture ideas being teased elsewhere.
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Chris and Nick put on their headphones and dust off their vinyl records for a look at this season's guitar-strumming, mic-swinging girl groups.― Chris and Nick put on their headphones and dust off their vinyl records for a look at this season's guitar-strumming, mic-swinging girl groups. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the participants in this chatlog are not the views of Anime News...
I cannot imagine how Square Enix could top themselves after this.― Final Fantasy VII Rebirth initially launched on the last day of February, and if you look at the date of this review's publication, you will immediately be able to discern one thing about this second entry of the FF7 Remake series: It is gargantuan. The first game got plenty of praise (and plenty of flak) for taking the relatively sh...
Anime's first season premiered in 2018― The official website for Kakuriyo -Bed & Breakfast for Spirits-, the television anime of writer Midori Yūma and illustrator Laruha's Kakuriyo Yadomeshi (Afterlife Inn Cooking) light novel series, announced that the series will have a second season in fall 2025, and revealed a teaser visual on Wednesday. The novels' 2023 manga adaptation artist Tsugaru Toba als...
The Manga Guide library expands with six more series, including Trinity Seven -Revision-, Watch Dogs Tokyo, Fed Up With Being the Spoiled Queen's Genius Butler,, 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 airs at the beginning of a season. N...
With a new Nintendo Switch port available, even more gamers can experience Enoch's transcendental adventure across the world. How does it fare on Nintendo's portable device?― El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron was a curious game when it released in 2011. The world wasn't quite ready for it then, but time (and a PC port) helped people accept it. With a new Nintendo Switch port available, even more...
Manhwa is starting to find its footing in American comic book sphere, but it's not just another version of "manga." Find out what makes Korean comics unique.― The door to English-translated manga opened in the 1980s, and despite some fits and starts, essentially never looked back. Manhwa, or Korean comics, have had a much more troubled journey to popular visibility in English. Around 2006, manhwa be...
The new anime series is far more forthright about the idol and seiyū industry, from maintaining relevance on social media to subsisting on substandard wages.― The new anime series is far more forthright about the idol and seiyū industry, from maintaining relevance on social media to subsisting on substandard wages. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the participants in this chatlog are...
Ultimately, my biggest problem with Shaman King Flowers is that it mostly just feels like a set-up to a much larger story that has yet to actually happen.― [Warning, this review will contain major spoilers for the ending of Shaman King (2021)] If there's one thing that can be counted on with battle shonen properties, it's that any of them that go on long enough will inevitably get some sequel series...