Well then, I'm honestly surprised. I didn't expect the Silver Mine arc to end on anything resembling an exciting conclusion, but they didn't do half bad. It's not mind blowing or anything, but considering how benign and underwhelming the last three episodes have been, this finale manages to offer some interesting things to talk about.
Last week, we ended on the confrontation between Desire and Bill. Right off the bat, we get to see Desire impassioned, with an ugly cry face of her own as she attempts to attack her former boss. It's clear that she's no match for Bill, so Luffy jumps in pretty quick to lay waste to our villain. The action isn't all that well animated, with all sorts of visible shortcuts seen whenever somebody gets hit and has to crash into something, but there's an appreciated energy and speed to everything. The story doesn't unfold like flavorless fan fiction, as there's a genuine anger coming from both Luffy and Desire.
Since Bill is nowhere close to Luffy's power range, he gets his butt whooped real good, smashed back down into the mines where we start to get hints of his role in the story beyond generic baddie. Mr. Tanaka, one of the characters from the upcoming One Piece Film Gold, arrives once again to taunt Bill's failures. The implications of this arc are that Bill is some kind of underling to Film Gold's Gild Tesoro, who is ready to let him go at a moment's notice. The relationship I'm inferring here is akin to the relationship that we've seen between Doflamingo and Bellamy.
"How pathetic of you to be defeated by a damn pirate. Is that the extent of your greed?" Mr. Tanaka asks. This arc was always meant to serve as a promotion for the upcoming movie, and it feels like they had a bunch of interesting ideas for this one episode and had to go soft on the other three in order to get us here. After the fantastically written Film Z, I'm at the edge of my seat to find out what the general philosophy and purpose of Film Gold is going to be. This episode sells Gild Tesoro as a man who admires greed and entertainment above all else, and for some mysterious reason he's being called "The Monster of the New World."
Terrified that he might get left behind in Gild Tesoro's grand vision, Bill pulls himself up by his bootstraps and begins to eat as much coal as he can, using his Smelt-Smelt powers to push himself into a transformation of sorts. The new, hulking, mega-Bill returns to the surface to attack with his melting lava beginning to consume the island. A team up between Luffy, Bartolomeo, and Desire is enough to fight back, but eventually it has to return to a one-on-one with Luffy. Bill uses his powers to create another form where he covers himself in silver. The layers of transformations feel very DBZ-like.
Obviously, even in his strongest form, Bill is not strong enough to defeat Luffy. The fight ends quickly, and soon everybody's sailing off onto the sunset, as Desire and friends go their separate ways. I was ready to declare the Silver Mine arc the most painfully average filler arc in the series, but this episode was packed with a bunch of interesting new stuff that elevates the whole to a solid "decent." Again, it's nothing special that I'd recommend manga-only readers seek out, nor is it even close to the best One Piece filler arc, but I was happy that it didn't end up being completely disposable.
Crunchyroll to stream upcoming anime― Aniplex and Crunchyroll announced on Wednesday that the late manga creator Hisaya Nakajo's Hana-Kimi manga is inspiring an anime. In addition, Crunchyroll announced that it will stream the anime when it premieres in North America, Central America, South America, Europe, Africa, Oceania, the Middle East, the CIS, and India. The announcement did not reveal the deb...
James and Lynzee look into Hideaki Anno's latest hint that there might be more Evangelion after the last movie and news on the Lord of the Rings anime film!― Could There Be More Evangelion on the Horizon? James and Lynzee look into Hideaki Anno's latest hint that there might be more Evangelion after the last movie and news on the Lord of the Rings anime film! Plus, we catch up with Kafka and the Ka...
Grant Jones dives into the wild world of giant monsters and how Kaiju No. 8 builds on their legacy.― Kaiju No. 8 is a series that wears its influences on its sleeves. As the first word in its title suggests, it comes from a long line of works in the kaiju genre, using giant monsters and burning skylines as a backdrop to tell stories. While many likely know kaiju in a passing sense, it may help to h...
This steamy manga's appeal is going to depend on how much you can stomach a female protagonist who kicks off the romance by assaulting her former fiance.― This is a tricky one. Before You Discard Me, I Shall Have My Way with You is, to all appearances, a story that opens with a sexual assault. Agnès has been betrothed to Crown Prince Lucilleur since childhood, and she's been in love with him just as...
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...
Director adds that there are no definite plans, but it would be helmed by "someone other than himself"― In a recent interview with The Asahi Shimbun newspaper, director Hideaki Anno acknowledged that "there may be plans" for more in the Evangelion anime franchise, but possibly with "someone other than [himself]" at the helm, who would receive a high degree of freedom. He added that there are no defi...
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 ...
Kenichi Suzumura, Ayako Kawasumi, Hiro Shimono, Nao Toyama, Takumi Yamazaki, Takaya Hashi join cast― The official website for The Magical Girl and The Evil Lieutenant Used to Be Archenemies, the television anime of late creator Cocoa Fujiwara's Katsute Mahō Shōjo to Aku wa Tekitai Shiteita. manga, revealed six new cast members and a third promotional video for the anime on Monday. The video reveals ...
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...