We're back to Onigashima after our holiday rest and clip show, and what a return it is! Lots of action this week with a fair amount of plot progression in the ongoing battles dotting Wano.
It was great seeing Jinbei get plenty of time to shine this week. While Sanji's Chun-Li impersonation is wonderful and all, what we're really here for is the big fish uncle doing his thing. Jinbei squaring off against Gorilla Punch is one of those scenes that's a lot of fun to watch but completely incomprehensible if you're not a One Piece fan. I can easily imagine a conversation going like this:
“In this scene, a big blue fish uses underwater martial arts to defeat a man with a sentient gorilla torso for an arm.”
“Wait, what? Is that what One Piece is about?”
“No, this is a minor side fight between supporting characters in the middle of a samurai revolution on Fist of the North Star island.”
You know, typical stuff.
I also enjoyed the scenes with everyone drinking and partying at the Flower Capital while talking about the Onigashima raid. The fact that the very existence of the raid is a fantasy, that the people are so used to the current state of affairs, they can't even imagine a fight for change… I think it underscores how long the oppression has been going on and how effective it has been. Even though Kaido berates the Akazaya Nine for not being the same caliber of samurai that Oden was, the fact that they are challenging him at all puts them into that legendary status as well.
Then of course there's Kiku losing her arm, which felt just as shocking and abrupt as it had been in the manga. I still haven't gotten over reading it in the manga and now I'm DOUBLY an emotional wreck.
Lastly, there's the new OP! No offense to Dreamin On, which has me randomly shouting MUGEN DAAAAAAI NO CHIZU HIROGEEEE for no reason the past year, but I've been eager to see a new opening for a while. Paint is worth the wait, a slightly more subdued tune but coupled with gorgeous fluid animation. I played it back three times to soak it all in. Thanks again to the Toei team, One Piece fans have been eating well for a while.
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