Occasionally, anime is tasked with asking life's biggest questions, such as "What would you do if you wielded the mighty power of carbonated water?"
This week, the battle with Cidre the bountry hunter barrels towards its natural conclusion, and the Straw Hats are finally steered in the direction of Stampede's plot. Among the plethora of movie tie-in filler we've received over the years, this Cidre storyline doesn't stand out amongst its brethren, serving as easily the most mild experience of the bunch. That's either a good thing or a bad thing depending on whether or not you like the weird WTF-ery that often comes with these specials. Film Z's tie-in filler had vore and gigantification going on at the same time! Cidre and his goons have boring ol' soda.
Spectacle-wise, this episode has a significant leg up from last week. The action is exciting an impactful, even if the story is not. Despite being the suppose "greatest bounty hunter of the generation," Cidre can't do much to stop our rubbery captain, and the conflict escalates to to a pretty standard finisher where Cidre equips himself with a more powerful battle suit that barely look different than his normal one, and Luffy one-shots him after delivering a speech about conviction. There's a surprising amount of pontificating about the differences between pirates and bounty hunters, but nothing insightful ever comes of it.
Generally speaking, these recent One Piece movies have opened the doors for a truck ton of world-building and thematic exploration, even within the confines of filler and extraneous specials. The fun comes from the fact that their main villains are fixtures of the One Piece world and you can imagine they exist somewhere in the manga's canon, even if they're never directly mentioned. Cidre is connected to Stampede's main villain, Douglas Bullet, by virtue of having been defeated by him in the past and developing a grudge towards pirates as a result, but that's hardly the hook that's going to get our butts in theater seats. The more interesting angle is how Buena Festa is connected to both Bullet and Roger. There has got a be a more compelling idea for a filler arc tie-in than a bounty hunter scrub that the show can't even pretend to care about.
As the episode ends, Luffy receives his invitation to the Pirate Festa and the events of the movie are sure to roll out from there. We get a very brief montage of all the big name characters who are scheduled to show up, but there isn't anything novel here that isn't already in Stampede's trailer. It's a little odd how none of the other Straw Hats wound up playing a part in this filler arc outside of beating up grunts on the shoreline, since I'm sure they'll all be fighting for screentime once the movie comes out (not to mention this is the rare instance where the anime gets to have all the Straw Hats in one location again), but otherwise this episode is notably more entertaining than last week's, for whatever that's worth.
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...
With seven full routes and one mini-route with a character from the previous game, if you enjoyed Cupid Paradise, Sweet & Spicy Darling is worth playing.― The first order of business is this: if you haven't played the original Cupid Parasite otome game, there isn't much point in picking up Sweet & Spicy Darling. There is one new route for this sequel, but even that relies on you knowing the backgrou...
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...
When even the author says this story will hurt, you know it will be bad.― When even the author says this story will hurt, you know it will be bad. That's assuming, of course, that you weren't prepared for it going in. The fate of Astrea Familia is well-known to readers and viewers (and players) of the various Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon iterations, and the most recent season of ...
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...
Masaki Watanabe directs anime at TMS Entertainment― Shueisha announced on Monday in its first "Jump Press" video that Yuuto Suzuki's Sakamoto Days manga will get a television anime series in January 2025 starring Tomokazu Sugita as Taro Sakamoto. The video also revealed the main staff. Masaki Watanabe (KADO - The Right Answer, Bartender, several Battle Spirits anime) is directing the anime at TMS En...
This is where the series earns its place in anime history, setting a precedent that other magical girl shows will follow.― It's a moment of magical girl history, right there on the screen: in episode forty-six of Fairy Princess Minky Momo's original 1982-83 television series, Momo is hit by a truck and dies. Even putting aside the question of whether or not this is Truck-kun's first victim, this is ...
Teaser video streamed― Bandai Namco Filmworks announced on Saturday that the Ghost in the Shell franchise is getting a new television anime series in 2026. Science Saru will produce the anime, which is tentatively titled Kōkaku Kidōtai (The Ghost in the Shell). Bandai Namco Filmworks, Kodansha, Science Saru, and Production I.G are on the production committee for the series. Bandai Namco Filmworks al...