#yes I know this is a shonen and it was needed for the straw hat grand fleet

[deadite-central]

First thing out of the way, because I’m gonna yapp a LOT about Dressrosa, is that the pacing in the manga helps digesting everything that happens here so much better, and I genuinely believe that after getting through the horrendously paced Dressrosa in the anime, you should pick the manga up even for just this arc, the anime did it a disservice

The arc starts of with an apparent choice being made by Doflamingo, he forfeits his warlord status he doesn’t actually but the straw hats and Law don’t know that. With that, we’re heading to the island to hand Caesar back, with the crew not knowing that all of this is actually a trap

It takes the crew about five seconds after making it to Dressrosa before half of them decide to head into the city. Cause again, screw the plan. In there, not only are we met with the weirdness of the country, from living toys to stories of fairies, but they also meet a blind man who’s shockingly strong. Who, soon enough, we’ll learn is an admiral. And I will say I love Fujitora’s character, as well as his introduction

Sanji has also went off somewhere, and what do you know he found a woman. Seriously tho I adore Viola, she seems to start off as a manipulator that works for the Donquixote Family, but thanks to Sanji’s kindness, she goes against her orders and we learn that she despises the Donquixote Pirates. Viola’s character is developed throughout the entire arc, but for now we have a picture of a hurt woman forced to work with the people who destroyed her country for the sake of it. Her relationship with Sanji is also incredibly sweet, and it makes me a bit sad that he leaves off pretty soon with half the Straw Hats

On a much lighter note! The comedy is still top tier. It doesn’t really matter who we’re currently watching, because every single group and person here has peak comedic moments, that also manage to pull the plot forward

And the plot of this arc is great from the very first moment it starts picking up pace. The reveal that Doflamingo is a former celestial dragon has been set up by Vergo already, so when it happens both the reader and Law can have some time of realisation. Doflamingo also continues to be more and more terrifying in his potrayal

The biggest hit to the pacing in Dressrosa, at least to me, that the anime somehow made even worse, are the Colosseum parts, as there’s about five characters that are actually interesting here and we’re getting introduced to so many of them. I don’t know how Oda could have handled this plot point better, but it’s what made me dread reading Dressrosa. One of the interesting characters here is Bellamy, who changed a lot from the last time we’ve seen him. He’s no longer the stuck up dream hating guy he was before, and now he actually has an arc of turmoil between his loyalty to Doflamingo, whom he idolises, and his new formed friendship with Luffy

Another incredibly interesting character to me is Rebecca, which right out of the way, I despise her design. I’ve hated it ever since I saw it and it pisses me off more the more I see it. Rebecca herself is a great character, right now we don’t know much about her, but she’s a sweetheart forced to fight for her life in the colosseum as a gladiator. And the more we learn about her, the more tragic her story becomes

[opbackgrounds]

I would love it if you did a post on Brook and why he is awesome

Okay, so first things, like Robin, my love for Brook is in no way objective. I love music, and as a kid I took lessons for violin, piano, viola, and cello. I know how to sing an alto line and will listen to just about anything once, just to know what it sounds like. There are few things that give me more joy than learning about new artists or interments. I’m going to get into this more once we hit the Skypiea arc, but One Piece has a surprising musicality for a medium that doesn’t convey sound. Yes, the anime exists, but Oda has gone out of his way to make music an important part of a story that’s originally nothing but paper and ink, and I think that’s something that’s worth talking about.

More than that, I’ve been a nurse for almost ten years now, and I’ve worked that entire time in long term care. My entire career is based around taking care of old people, and in some ways Brook reminds me of some of the residents I’ve had, many of whom have passed on. 

Most shonen series are focused on characters who are kids. It makes sense—they’re the same age as the target audience, and therefore easy to relate to. Heck, the first six crew members are teenagers when they’re introduced, and I’m sure that was intentional on Oda’s part. 

But since then, each new Straw Hat Pirate has been an adult, with adult circumstances and problems. Brook, in particular, deals with trauma that is almost always unique to his stage of life. 

There is a specific type of grief that comes with aging that’s hard to describe unless you deal with it every day. It’s quieter, less noticeable to the point other people tend to forget about it unless you bring it up. Which in turn tends to exacerbate everyone around you, because why should you still be sad that your siblings died 15 years ago, or your last surviving friend just got diagnosed with cancer, or you’re not able to do the things you once enjoyed because of your arthritis? You’re old. That’s what happens to old people. 

(As an aside, I think we as a culture could stand to be nicer to the elderly, but that’s a topic for another day.)

Brook is an old man. He has literally died and come back to life and has outlived everyone he knew from Before. The tragedy of his story isn’t a punch in the gut like it is for a lot of One Piece flashbacks, but the slowly dawning horror when you realize that he was alone for fifty years. 

Fifty. Years. 

I wrote on my main once about how Brook’s backstory and induction into the crew is written differently than the other Straw Hats (https://creative-type.tumblr.com/post/166349846101/tragedy-without-melodrama). His flashback comes at the very end of Thriller Bark, after the climax of the story. Imagine getting Robin’s backstory after “I wanna live” or Nami’s after the walk to Arlong Park. It just doesn’t work. 

That’s because Brook’s flashback is about closure. The audience already knows his connection to Laboon. We already know how he came to be a skeleton. We already know why his ‘fro is so important to him. We know all there is to know, so Oda lets the Rumbar Pirates have their swan song with grace and dignity, allowing Brook to move seamlessly into his second chance at life. 

There are three Straw Hats that deal with the theme of loneliness in some way: Chopper, Robin, and Brook. Chopper was rejected, Robin persecuted, and Brook was physically isolated. There’s no doubting that sailing alone on a broken ship with nothing but the bones of his dead friends for company took its toll (I for one don’t think Brook’s completely sane) but despite struggling with his burden of loneliness the longest, Brook doesn’t have the angst Robin and Chopper suffered through during their main arcs. He has somehow remained unflinchingly, relentlessly positive and optimistic, despite having every reason not to be. He says it best during his introduction—He’s just glad to be alive.

And again, maybe it’s because I deal with the elderly almost every day, but that means something to me. Getting old isn’t for the faint of heart, and while Brook doesn’t have the same ailments that tend to plague most older people, he’s never going to be mistaken as a regular person. He’s a living, breathing (without lungs!) skeleton. He clings to the only bit of him that remains unchanged from his first life because he’s terrified of what might happen if he relinquishes that last bit of normalcy, but he doesn’t obsess about what he’s lost. Instead he tries new things, makes new friends, goes out on a new adventure. Brook isn’t content to just be alive, he wants to truly live. 

It’s this mindset that helps us understand his role in the crew. There is nothing about Brook that is necessary. He’s a swordsmen whose skills pale to Zoro’s. The Straw Hats made it 400 chapters without him, and they could have gone 400 more if they had to. His dream in no way affects the main plot. But the Straw Hat Pirates without Brook is like life without music. Sure, you can get by, but he makes the good times better and the difficult times a little bit easier to bear, both with his music and by simple virtue of who he is as a person. 

I want to be Brook when I’m 90 years old. Heck, I’d consider it a win if I could be half as positive as he is. I’m so thankful Oda decided to include him in his story, because I think kids need to be exposed to characters who aren’t aren’t their age. 

There’s so much more I could cover here, but this is getting pretty long so I’ll end by saying I think Brook’s powers are cool as hell and I laugh at his stupid puns more often than I should. To see his progression from Thriller Bark to the confidence he displayed during Whole Cake Island was a delight, and I hope he gets more time to shine in Wano. I mean what good is getting old if you don’t use your privilege to sass Emperors?

And, no, his panty jokes to bother me. Like I said, my love for Brook is irrational, and I think he’s hilarious. I bet he’s got a collection of them hidden away somewhere from fan girls, and you know what? Good for him. 

[dixxymouri]

Dixxy vs One Piece Chapter 902: End Roll

IT’S TIME.

First, some ground rules. Where possible I’m going to use the official ViZ translation for chapters. That means we’ll probably get to revisit this whole affair on Monday when the chapter officially drops. Stephen Paul has been THE most trusted source for One Piece translations going back to well before he was officially working with ViZ so where comparison is available, that’s the translation I’m going with. Also, like, if he really needs to I believe he actually does have a contact at Japanese Shonen Jump if there’s something he doesn’t know how to translate in emergency situations. So in regards to dialog in 902 I’m going to take everything with a grain of salt until the official release. 

So I’m going to focus largely on THAT subject and ignore most of the rest of it for now. If y’all are good and get me lots of likes and reblogs maybe I’ll do a deeper dive into the rest of the chapter but yeah let’s talk about SanPu.

So, if you’re part of shipping culture in the online One Piece fandom and you just got back from being under a rock or on the moon for the last two months or so, here’s a quick visual representation of what the whole Luffy Nami Sanji Pudding ship war discourse looks like right now:

To recap the last few chapters, Pudding made some sort of last request of Sanji that we, the readers, didn’t get to see until 902 leaked online early this morning or late last night or whatever time it was in your particular time zone. In short? This:

Yup. A SanPu kiss happened. 

So on the one hand there’s probably some concerned Sanji x Nami shippers out there and there are definitely some Luffy x Nami shippers who are acting like total fucking assholes.

“Hurray! People who have never done any wrong to me or my loved ones are potentially really upset and unable to enjoy something that brought them a lot of happiness! This is a great day for me!”

(I mean, look, I get that schadenfreude is a thing for a reason but this isn’t it. If this is you, fuck off, you’re not some champion of your OTP, you’re a fucking asshole). 

So let’s break this down.

Is SaNa sunk/SanPu canon?

Short answer? No and no...maybe. 

While it’s very clear that Pudding still has feelings for Sanji, I don’t think Sanji returns them. Okay, yes, he’s gone all heart-eyes for her but, well, this is Sanji we’re talking about, of course he did that when a pretty girl kissed him, it’d be like asking Luffy to not stuff his face at a Meat Buffet that’s just not where his character is right now. But let’s take a look at him from a few chapters ago in 896:

Sanji’s pretty ready to part ways with her here. And once Pudding snips out the memory of said kiss:

He’s confused as to why Pudding ran away but he’s not chasing after her and there’s really nothing in the chapter showing him upset over not being with her right now. The only one who’s upset is Pudding.

This can be read a couple of ways - it leaves the door open for SanPu later if she comes back into the fold (more on that in a bit), or this was a bittersweet ending for their story. This, by the way, is one of the things I REALLY want to see the ViZ translation for, because the “song” going through the chapter seems to have multiple interpretations floating around with varying degrees of finality to this situation, which leaves things in even more flux.

Here’s the thing: SanPu hasn’t become canon (which means that, no, SaNa didn’t sink). That doesn’t mean it won’t later on, but at the moment it just isn’t. Sanji doesn’t have feelings for Pudding and doesn’t remember the kiss, nor was his reaction particularly strong. Pudding is distraught right now, sure, but we really don’t know what’s next for her. Is she going to try and leave the island and follow in Lola’s footsteps? Is Big Mom going to try and use her for another wedding plot? Is she going to get on a bus, go to the big city, and try to make it in show business? I don’t know and neither do you. 

“Sanji and Pudding kissed that means they’re married now!”

No it doesn’t.

“But they kissed! They’re man and wife now!”

...no, no they really aren’t. 

A wedding ceremony and a marriage are technically two different things. A wedding is a ceremony, whereas a marriage is a legal contract. Marriage doesn’t actually take place until both parties sign a contract and it’s officiated by someone with the legal authority to do so, usually a religious leader like a priest, a rabbi, or an imam, or a non-religious affiliated justice of the peace.

But that’s the real world and probably not something Oda put thought into for the manga. All right, I’ll give you that, but it still doesn’t matter. Let’s say that in the One Piece world all that matters is the ceremony.

Well, the ceremony was never actually finished and the kiss took place long after the wedding party disbanded. I’m not even sure the priest is still alive. Whether you like it or not or whether you think it helps your ship or not, the alley was not a wedding and no marriage has taken place. 

That being said this feels like something that might come up in an SBS but I’m guessing Oda is going to say “no”. 

Conflicting Ships - Luffy x Nami vs Sanji x Nami vs Sanji

This is one I think we all have feet of clay in regards to, but if your ship relies on the instability of another ship that’s not really a sign you have a lot of confidence in your ship and you can’t enjoy it unless it has at least a CHANCE of becoming canon. This is why I’m skeptical of Sanji x Pudding fans - I really do think a lot of them (not all of them, mind you) are just Luffy x Nami fans eager to get their biggest threat out of the picture without killing him. I’m sure there are plenty of Luffy x Hancock “fans” who want them same thing, except they’re actually Sanji x Nami or Zoro x Nami fans. Guys, that’s probably not a healthy attitude to have when it comes to shipping.

“So you’re trying to say that your reasons for not liking Sanji x Pudding have nothing to do with Sanji x Nami?” What part of “I think we all have feet of clay” did you not understand? Yeah, it’s one of the reasons I’m not big on Sanji x Pudding - I find it difficult to ship characters together if one or more characters in the pairing have a canon partner. I don’t know that I NEED Sanji x Nami to be canon but I’d be pretty sad if a conflicting pairing actually happened, with varying degrees of being okay or angry depending on the execution and characters involved. I mean I’d even be mad if Sanji and Nami happened and it was done really, really badly. 

This is why I think the best case scenario for all parties involved is One Piece ending without any of the big ships becoming canon, probably excluding Usopp x Kaya (which, while it’s KIND OF a forgone conclusion isn’t very heavily shipped) and possibly excluding Robin and Franky (who seem to have moved onto Dorky Middle Aged Married Couple Who Like to Embarrass Their Kids while no one was looking). Why? Because unless one of the pertinent parties is dead, that leaves everyone free to draw whatever conclusion they want.

Like, do you have any idea how much happier the Bleach and Naruto fandoms would be if Kubo and Kishimoto didn’t canonize any pairings? A LOT. Yeah some fans would be salty they didn’t get confirmation, sure, but they’d be free to think whatever they wanted happened after end of series. 

Imagine if One Piece ends with something like Luffy, now the Pirate King, is on the ship with the other Straw Hats (now all having achieved their dreams) and he’s sitting on his special seat and he points to the horizon and he’s like “okay guys let’s go that way and have another adventure!” and everyone else is like “YEAH!” and then they coup de burst into the sunset and the words “The End” appear on that very last page. Luffy and Nami fans are free to think that their king and queen got together. Sanji and Nami fans are free to think the cook will continue to dote on his angel. Sanji and Pudding fans are free to think that Sanji returned to Pudding to marry her for real this time. Etc, etc.

Unfinished Business

That’s another thing about this chapter and this arc as a whole - I can’t think of another arc that has THIS many obvious dangling plot threads that really feel like they should have been answered before the arc ended. Like, yes, there are other arcs that have dangling plot threads but many of those really feel like things that were blatantly meant to come up in future arcs, like the threads from Fishman Island. But for THIS arc? 

- What’s the deal with the Three Eye Tribe and will Pudding’s third eye have its true awakening? - What’s the backstory behind Germa 66 and that story Judge was talking about? - Speaking of Judge, what’s the deal with his eyebrows? - Speaking of Judge AGAIN, what went down between him and Vegapunk? - Why did that one homie recognize Pedro? - Is anything going to happen to all those people/creatures in the prison library? - Why doesn’t Lola realize Big Mom wants her dead? - Why didn’t Pudding ever get an Oda box? Yeah, that NEVER happened but we got them for like, Smoothie’s underlings and those decutuplets. The fuck, Oda? - What went down between Snack and Urogue and how did he escape? - Did Chiffon and Bege get away? - What the fuck happened to Casear Clown? - What’s going to happen when Big Mom finds out about the Tamatebako box?

...and probably more I’m not thinking of. Thing is, that’s a LOT of dangling plot threads for one arc, a lot of which feel like they could or should have been addressed here. Thing is, they probably will be addressed because you may have noticed there’s one big plot thread I didn’t list above:

- Big Mom and Elbaf

I’ve been on this particular bus for a while but it occurs to me a lot of my fellow fans didn’t think that was going to happen or at least didn’t want it to happen. But when you look at everyone that happened between Big Mom and Elbaf and how much of it we’ve seen ON PANEL, it would be REALLY WEIRD for her to not make an appearance on Elbaf. Let’s do another list:

- Murdered one of the two elder giant heroes - ATE Mother Carmel and a bunch of innocent orphans - Hey look a bunch of the giant kids from Big Mom’s flashback are part of Harudin’s crew now I bet that’s important - Whatever the hell happened between Lola and Loki

The only other option I can think of if a return to Fishman Island since, well, we kind of need to go back there at some point (Luffy’s gotta destroy it somehow, remember?) and thanks to the Sun Pirates and Praline I wouldn’t be surprised if she decides to take out some of her anger there. Plus everything with Big Mom actually STARTED back in Fishman Island. That’s the first time Luffy crossed her, it’s where we met some of her people (including Pudding...kind of), and yeah that would probably a believable scenario for the island to be destroyed, I guess.

Oda is Still Drawing Sanji Showing Affection for Nami

Okay, granted, we haven’t seen a Sanji “love cook” moment with Nami since he got back on the ship, but there still is stuff Oda’s drawn very recently that would be REALLY WEIRD if the intention was to make SanPu canon.

If 902 is the start of canon Sanji x Pudding, then this is a REALLY weird thing for Oda to draw, even if it’s not canon. Like, REALLY weird. 

Oda DIDN’T Draw Pudding’s Interior Thoughts When Nami Was Around

So we saw a bunch of Pudding’s thoughts during key scenes during the arc, including some between her and Sanji,

But something that was kind of weirdly absent? Anything involving Nami. Such as the bridal carry, which we saw Pudding react to, and when Sanji returned to the Sunny the first time and freaked out when Nami hugged him.

If Pudding has feelings for Sanji, she should have reacted to these incidents but we don’t know how she reacted to them. That feels intentionally left out. Now, granted, it’s probably Pudding (correctly) assuming that Sanji has feelings for Nami, but I think this was intentionally left alone. 

Why?

Because having Pudding point these things out would strongly hint at Sanji x Nami as end game, which Oda doesn’t want to do at this stage of the game for one of two reasons. Either that isn’t his intention or it’s way to early to show his hand. Both are valid reasons to not do that, by the way.

Are we sure Oda even likes Pudding all that much?

Here’s an SBS question and answer from volume 87.

I’m not sure Oda would say something like that about a character he plans to pair up with one of his main characters. Again, weird choice if that’s the case.

Okay I’m sure I’ll get some responses to this and I’d love to clarify/discuss in the responses and reblogs. But for the moment...

Conclusion

Blech these are never easy to write.

The short answer to this whole thing is that I don’t think Sanji x Nami fans have reason to throw in the towel, nor do I think Sanji x Pudding fans (and by extension Luffy x Nami fans) really have anything to “celebrate”. Right now it feels like an ending, but since a lot of the Big Mom stuff is unresolved the door on Pudding isn’t closed...but I’m not really sure what would be on the other side.

[recentanimenews]

Bookshelf Briefs 11/28/17

It’s a cornucopia of briefs!

Ace of the Diamond, Vol. 6 | By Yuji Terjima | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – Training camp continues, and the coach has arranged for some practice games right afterwards, the better to gauge how well the first years play when exhausted. For Furuya, the answer is initially “not well,” but he never loses his determination, and once he swallows his pride and asks Miyuki for advice, finally internalizes the truth that, at Seido, he’s got teammates who are going to back him up, even if the batter does manage to get a hit. Eijun’s fun and everything, but Furuya is not your typical shounen protagonist, and I’m pleased that he’s getting his share of attention. I also liked that the boys hang out some with varsity teammates we’ve barely glimpsed, and we learn how awesome the captain is. I am already relishing the thought of future marathon rereads of this series. It’s a keeper for sure. – Michelle Smith

Cells at Work!, Vol. 5 | By Akane Shimizu | Kodansha Comics – Once again, Red Blood Cell is absent from this volume except a brief cameo. This allows us to focus our attention on the ‘normal cell’ from prior volumes, who still has a tendency to do dumb things on impulse. Fortunately, the cute adorable bacteria he’s harboring in his room are the GOOD kind of bacteria. Unfortunately, his attempt to get them to where they can do good is thwarted by a host of crises from which White Blood Cell and company must rescue him, most notably the return of Cancer Cell, who brings back the ethical ambiguity to the series as he asks essentially “are the needs of the many less important than the needs of the one?” The one being the body. This was a lot of fun. – Sean Gaffney

Delicious in Dungeon, Vol. 3 | By Ryoko Kui| Yen Press – The cast expands a bit in this third volume. We see one of our team’s old comrades, who left them due to actually wanting to get paid, and the complicated relationship she has with them, particularly Marcille, and it’s made clear she’s not a bad guy—everyone has their own needs and drives. As for Marcille, we also get a flashback to her school days, which shows how she met Laios’ sister (still being digested by a dragon, if you recall), which is rather cute. And of course more ridiculously gross yet amusing monster recipes. And plenty of humor, as it turns out tentacles can be peeled sort of like bananas. Still good, though I’d like to get the sister rescued or declare her dead. – Sean Gaffney

The Full-Time Wife Escapist, Vol. 6 | By Tsunami Umino | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – It was inevitable that Mikuri and Hiramasa would discover that they are in love with each other, but I am still kind of surprised that it actually happened. It’s lovely to see him grinning like a doofus at the office after an evening of fooling around, but I appreciate that the transition into a real marriage isn’t exactly going to be smooth. Mikuri is worried, for example, that she’ll be expected to do the same amount of work for free, while Hiramasa worries about his waning sex drive. Somehow I doubt we’ll ever see the latter issue addressed Everyone’s Getting Married! I also really enjoyed the scenes where Mikuri’s aunt and Kazami get to know each other better—I wholeheartedly approve of them hooking up! – Michelle Smith

Haikyu!!, Vol. 17 | By Haruichi Furudate | Viz Media – And so our heroes pull it off, and get to advance, while Aoba Johsai has to suffer an ignominious defeat. This is done in the best possible shonen way, with lots of noble tears and resolve to get even stronger. The cliches don’t FEEL like cliches—the author is adept at making this feel fresh even when you know where every plot beat is going to be. And so it’s on to the finals, and I suspect this game may drag on a while, as it’s a best 3-sets-of-5 game. Their opponent is Shiratorizawa, who I’m sure we’ll find out more about as we move on, but who clearly have one player who’s REALLY good, and the volume ends with our heroes down by quite a bit. I think they’ll come back, though. Just a hunch. – Sean Gaffney

Hana & Hina After School, Vol. 3 | By Milk Morinaga | Seven Seas – This turns out to be the final volume, and honestly you get the sense it was cut a bit short—the last half feels rushed. Of course, considering all we were getting before that was a slow-burning pile of angst, it might be best that it got the push. Morinaga Milk has always been better at fluffy than angsty, so it comes as something of a relief when our two heroines finally get over the whole “is it just me? Did she mean it when she said she’s not that way?” drama and get together (in all respects—as with previous MM titles, there’s a brief, not-that-explicit sex scene here). In the end, this was a cute read, but I’ve seen better yuri from this author. – Sean Gaffney

Horimiya, Vol. 9 | By Hero and Daisuke Hagiwara | Yen Press – Horimiya has always tried to be at least slightly more realistic than a lot of romance manga, and thus watching Yuki’s ongoing angst regarding her lies and deceit and how it’s impacting other people is particularly painful. I’m not really all that sure I want her to win here, even though the alternative will also suck. On the bright side, Hori and Morimiya are doing better than ever, and as Hori is forced to think about her future—something which she seemed to have given not a single thought to—but she realizes here that no matter what she does, she wants to be with Miyamura. This leads to a sort of adorable reverse proposal, which fits the general characterization. Still good, but I hope it’s wrapping up soon. – Sean Gaffney

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, Vol. 5 | By Hirohiko Araki | Viz Media And so, finally, JoJo’s has run up against my ability to get 500+ words out of each volume. Yes, this is the first volume to get a Brief rather than a full review, and I put the blame entirely on the rambling Road To Cairo plot that Araki has chosen to use this time around. Individual moments are as striking as ever—I felt the killer baby was more interesting as a killer within dreams than in the real world, and the surprise non-death of a character feels a bit cheap. But JoJo’s still has its bizarre visuals and grotesque violence, and as long as it keeps that up it should stay interesting, even if Jotaru continues to be the dullest Jo we’ve had to date. – Sean Gaffney

Kiss & White Lily for My Dearest Girl, Vol. 4 | By Canno | Yen Press – Most sports manga fail to show the heroes moving on to a professional career, with a few exceptions like Captain Tsubasa. In reality, a lot of sports careers end just the way we see Mizuki’s end here—she comes close to the Nationals, but doesn’t make it, and realizes that this is it, she has to stop doing track and decide on an actual career. There’s also her relationship with Moe, which may actually be hindering her for a spell—it’s gotten to the point where she forgets running was fun—but eventually proves stronger than both thought, and we get a proposal (of sorts) and a kiss. This is a bit stronger than Hana & Hina, even if it’s just as fluffy, and I’m pleased to see it continue. – Sean Gaffney

Log Horizon: The West Wind Brigade, Vol. 7 | By Koyuki and Mamare Touno | Yen Press – The comedy is kept to a minimum here, as we get the more dramatic parts of the third and fourth novel, intermixed with how it’s affecting the West Wind Brigade. Kawara’s on the cover, and we get a bit more insight into her character—basically, she’s an instinctual fighter but a bit of an idiot who got into the game because she wanted to be a shonen hero, and the West Wind Brigade was the only one that would take her in. It does also show off her strengths as well, though. That said, easily the most interesting part is the ending, where we get a surprise appearance by a seemingly insane Nureha, who’s met by a battle-crazy Soujiro. I want to see how this battle turns out. – Sean Gaffney

My Hero Academia, Vol. 10 | By Kohei Horikoshi | Viz Media – I appreciate that Horikoshi is willing to let Bakugo be a completely unlikable jerk, driven by rage and jealousy and every single negative emotion, and yet still show that he realizes the difference between good and evil—that he’s decided that he wants to be a HERO rather than a villain, even if that means going against what comes more naturally. It’s a terrific scene that really made me like him. On the flip side, the disguises used to infiltrate Evil HQ are hilarious, particularly Deku and Momo. The humor is needed, as this is something of a grim arc, especially with the arrival of a Bigger Bad towards the end. This volume shows off everything that has made this the hot new Jump title. – Sean Gaffney

Nisekoi: False Love, Vol. 24 | By Naoshi Komi | Viz Media – Even though it’s obvious Onodera’s going to lose, give credit to the author for not making it easy. She and Raku have really developed a close relationship, and even if it’s not romantic I hope they can stay friends. More to the point, the fact that Onodera is willing to help Raku track down Chitoge by FLYING TO AMERICA with him (because Chitoge has, like many tsundere heroines in denial, literally run halfway across the Earth to escape her love issues) shows off her truly ridiculous kindness. There’s the last popularity poll in this book, and Chitoge and Onodera are separated by barely 100 votes. That’s impressive for a harem title. In any case, it wraps up next time, so keep reading. – Sean Gaffney

One Piece, Vol. 84 | By Eiichiro Oda | VIZ Media – It’s been a while since we had a volume that focused on further sad backstory for one of the Straw Hat crew, but that’s what we get here, with many hard-to-read scenes about Sanji’s abuse at the hands of his family, intercut with a silly fight in which Luffy defeats a bunch of cracker soldiers by eating them. Because Big Mom is threatening to kill Chef Zeff if he doesn’t comply, Sanji is forced to both insult and attack Luffy in an attempt to get him to abort the rescue, but of course this doesn’t work. In addition to this riveting drama, there’s also the question of whether Pudding (Sanji’s seemingly sympathetic bride-to-be) can actually be trusted, more information about the ponegliffs (yay!), and a glimpse at the unintended consequences of toppling Doflamingo. Plus, Brook actually gets something important to do! This series is still excellent. – Michelle Smith

By: Michelle Smith

[kingofthewhatpod]

Fanfic Friday #3

Oh god, oh dear, oh no. This was supposed to come out last Friday, and yet it was delayed for a week without any news. I mean, I did technically tweet it last Friday but maybe anyone who follows me can forgive me because this week you get both? And.... er... I’ll try to do better? Maybe I’ll do another post on my real thoughts about Fanfic Friday, but if you’re reading this, and you just want to get to the good stuff, let me delay no more!

I return to Fanfic Friday’s roots (after only a single week off, ha) of seeing how I would teak a non-canon arc. Heck, maybe I'll have constructive creativity for a canon arc one day. But not this day. Because I was originally sending these out as tweets, my thoughts in places are brief. Adventure in the Ocean's Naval was fine. It was palatable. But I don't want a slightly overcooked hamburger and some fries. I want steak with garlic mashed potatoes.

Things I liked:

The mystery of the island, however short lived

The guardian monsters

Captain Joke didn't have friends like Luffy, and that was his downfall

Things that could be improved:

Usopp/Nami didn't do much of anything

Magic not explained

who cares about Joke?

As before, I'll keep the premise. Mysterious island, land of adventure? check. But this time, there's no octopus, no immediate fight. Luffy and Zoro andd the ship still fall down below because hijinks. (maybe Zoro is napping and doesn't keep a careful eye on Luffy, who gets bored and starts messing around on the ship, or he sees a cool bug. And him running around somehow dislodges the anchor long enough that they fall). So they all end up down below, and they meet a rather shady old man (think Jafar disguised as the beggar) who tells them about this wicked cool treasure of the gods. It's on the other side of the island if they're brave enough to get it. It is said to grant any wish.

Usopp and Nami are probably freaked out, Sanji would very calmly be like "who would fall for that?" but Luffy has decided to go check it out, and Zoro is just like "he's the captain." So they end up going, some more willingly than others Now, you'll notice this call to adventure is some kind of bad guy (you know what? Make it a poorly disguised oni. Everyone notices except Luffy), instead of some kid. Firstly, I'm usually not a fan of the kid characters- even if they're related to the deeper themes. But also, maybe there *is* a village down here, and they meet a crying Hamu who is like "don't try to go get the treasure! Even Captain Joke, the hero pirate of the village couldn't do it!" But why would that deter Luffy? Answer: it wouldn't.

Luffy could be all "Yeah, but I bet he wasn't as strong as I am. I'm going to be King of the Pirates." (King of the What Now?) Maybe Hamu comes with to watch this idiot in action, maybe he just stays behind. The crew will come back through for the ship anyways and they can tell him about their adventure. Now, they get halfway across a suspiciously empty field, when all of a sudden these stone walls come up from the ground, creating a labyrinth and separating the crew. Luffy might try to rocket up but there's some magical barrier. Also you can't go back the way you came, inwards!

Now, Luffy will basically get lost and increasingly frustrated. I cannot stress how funny this mental image is, as he yells and rampages but to no avail. I don't think the Straw Hats can hear each other. As I mentioned in episode 25 of the podcast, it'd be interesting if the Straw Hats faced off against the former Joke pirates. You get just enough characterization through dialogue and actions that you feel like you actually know this character. Also, I want to touch on the nature of the Joke pirates. Joke was betrayed, just like in the original. But instead of faceless shapes, there are 4 you can clearly see. Also the hint of *something* off-camera giving off a dark red light.

Spoilers: But because Joke's commanders were evil-hearted, they became tainted, causing their forms to morph and become... well, weird and monstrous. We can imply the other no-name members of the Joke pirates were killed in the labyrinth or by these commanders

Anyways. Zombie commander guys facing Luffy's crew one on one. Zoro first. He faces a man clad in weird armor (because One Piece), who constantly bangs on his breastplate, simply saying "Strong! Strong!" He's very bulky and has tusks. Maybe make him look walrus-ish. Anyways, he's very strong, and he hits hard. Zoro can't pierce his armor, and there's no obvious weakpoints. This guy's deal is that he just wants to be strong, as a dark reflection of Zoro's own ambition. He wants it so bad he'd sell out his captain to make a deal with a monster. Eventually Zoro wins, I think by using the butt of his sword to BANG right on the dude's helmet, and then breaking the monster commander's weapon, maybe burying him beneath the rubble created by slashing the walls  surrounding them. And of course Zoro gets a badass line. "What good is strength if you won't use it for your captain?" Because he is a GOOD, LOYAL BOY. Or maybe a comment on his enemy's internal weakness. "If you're too weak to stand and you get knocked down, stand up again even stronger"

Sanji's opponent: A rockstar with a wicked cool guitar and cool shades and a flashy jacket. Yes, I said a rockstar. This is One Piece which has all sorts of crazy character designs. Does it make sense that he has an electric guitar? Do I care? The ideological reason they're suited for each other is because this guy (maybe he's like a creature of the lagoon. Yeah that's it. He's more frog-ish) likes ladies but he's vain about it and only cares about himself (betrayed Joke because being a priate wasn't cool anymore). Anyways he fires actual music note shaped projectiles by strumming his guitar, and Sanji can't really get close at first. That is, until... maybe Froggy says he'll hunt down Nami? Yeah, and then Sanji kicks tthrough these weird music notes, runs forward and kicks him in the face! 

"Coolness can't be forced," Sanji remarks, adjusting his tie. "And no woman would ever want to kiss you." (Also, side note, I'm not a huge fan of the shonen trope of suddenly becoming stronger when someone is threatened. But I couldn't think of a way for Sanji to win otherwise. I need to get better at this. That’s what having a weekly schedule is meant to help with!)

Usopp's opponent: A squid looking guy who hides behind cover and always runs from battle. He betrayed his captain because he was afraid of what would happen if they continued their journey. Usopp tries to snipe him when he comes up from behind cover but Squid boy is very fast. Usopp wins by purposefully acting all angry and firing a bunch of his explosion stars, secretly taking out the cover further down the battle field until the next time squiddy tries to run he gets blasted in the back. "How can a man run from danger for his whole life?" He asks with a smirk. Bonus points if his knees are still shaking while he says it

Nami: She faces a fairy. Yes, a lady who got all shrunk by the monster's power. Maybe a flying sea horse-ish type design, to keep it aquatic. She, like Nami, is money obsessed, and didn't want to share her treasure with Joke. She's another agile one and shoots giant bubbles. Can Nami polevault with that pole of hers? Yeah, let's say she can. So she leaps over one of the bubbles and maybe throws a coin past the lady, causing her lady to quickly look away- unable to resist the allure of gold- just in time for a nice solid smack of the pole. "Try thinking about others once in a while" is Nami's line before she continues through the maze.

Now, it seems the maze is magic in nature (no duh), and the Straw Hats (minus their captain) have come out of the maze. And before them is the treasure. But before they can approach, the red light from earlier. oh no! It's the old man from earlier! (who could have guessed???????) He gets huge and reveals his true form, growing in size, saying he'll never give up his treasure. But before the battle can start, you hear it. CRACK! WHUMP! CRACK! Cracks are appearing on some part of the maze wall behind them. It explodes and in comes an enraged Luffy! Angry that he was lost for so long. Bonus points, Sanji kicks a piece of rubble that was going to hit him, Zoro cuts a piece that was flying at him, and the eternal butt monkey Usopp gets hit in the head.

Luffy: Who's this? Zoro: Dunno Sanji: That's the old guy from earlier. Luffy: Whaaaat?? Grandpa wasn't a good person?? Nami: Honestly, captain... Usopp: *recovered from the rubble* Hey, Luffy, what was that, you jerk!!!

Now, the point is that this monster likes to sow chaos. Just like in the original special, Joke was betrayed because he had crappy friends. And The Straw Hats seem incredibly disorganized. So the monster king grins. "How would you like to join me and I'll grant you your wish?" Zoro, Nami, Sanji, Usopp, each of them get all quiet and start walking over to accept the deal. Luffy is watching them, a look of mild confusion on his face. They stand right in front of the thing and the monster grins. "Good," he says. All four of them at once give him a solid whack, kick, shot, and slide. "As if!!!"  They cry in union. Luffy grins and punches the big creature in the gosh darn mouth. Well, probably the nose but I like to say "punch in the mouth"

He's not defeated *that* easily, and maybe if I spent more time rewriting and drafting this I could come up with an exciting narrative. The point is that the monster is too strong for even Luffy on their own, but they fight as a team.

You might think Luffy tends to prefer to fight alone, and maybe he does for a while. But the monster *could* wish himself stronger, and it could look like Luffy is about to lose when his crew mates save him, allowing him to prepare for an even stronger punch that will finish it. And of course the wish granting gem breaks. Of COURSE Luffy sends the monster flying and he smashes into the thing and it gets launched with him over the horizon or something. Of course everyone's mad but Luffy shrugs it off, since it's more about the journey than the destination So... yeah, that's basically it. Luffy comes back to the village, Hamu is like "How did you do it?" and Luffy just grins and is like "with help from my crew." And it's a sweet moment. Hopefully you liked it! I feel like this was the longest one yet.

Happy Friday everyone!

[recentanimenews]

Decade in Review: The Most Watched Anime of the Decade by Country

  We are mere hours before the end of 2019, which means we’re also just about to close out the 2010s. With the end of the decade within our grasp, we on the Editorial team thought it would be fun to look at some of the viewing habits and trends of our lovely Crunchyroll users over the past 10 years.

  In this article, we’re taking our viewership-by-country map and showing which anime was watched the most during the last decade in EVERY. SINGLE. COUNTRY. Let’s see which anime each country loved the most over the past decade. Throw on your hiking boots and take my hand as we go on an anime world tour together!

  North & Central America

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  Naruto, Naruto, Naruto. The Seventh Hokage can stand tall knowing that he is beloved not only by the US and Mexico, but a whole host of others like Puerto Rico, Panama, and about 10 more. There’s a phrase we use a lot around the office–“Crunchyroll is the house that Naruto built”–and that’s honestly really true! Shippuden was not without competition, of course. Luffy literally became a pirate of the Caribbean, with One Piece showing up in the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Barbados. Neighboring island nations saw the Straw Hats’ shonen colleagues with Black Clover in a few countries including Anguilla, and BORUTO laying claim to Haiti and St. Vincent & the Grenadines. Taking a jump up North, our friends in Canada were quite the holdouts, being the only country that watched Attack on Titan the most. The scouts couldn’t oust Naruto from the throne, despite valiant efforts. Growing into a kind, responsible, loving person, achieving his dream of becoming Hokage, and now taking over the majority of North America–Naruto Uzumaki is a truly unstoppable force.

  Overall Most Popular in North America: Naruto Shippuden

  South America

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  While it may appear that we have another Shippuden-heavy region, that’s mostly thanks to the sheer geographic area of Brazil. In reality, we only have three countries where Naruto took the crown (and NONE where Boruto won!). The real MVP here is Mr. Shonen himself, Goku. Starting at Venezuela and Colombia, Dragon Ball Super makes an unbroken victory down the western coast of South America, through Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and numerous others along the way. Getting a new sequel to the Dragon Ball franchise was a truly historic event for anime. For many of us, Goku and his friends were the first characters to welcome us to the world of anime. Dragon Ball Super felt like coming home for many of us, and the fact that it was really, really good makes that return all the sweeter.

  Overall Most Popular in South America: Dragon Ball Super

  Europe

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Oh wow! Contrary to the Americas, Europe has no obvious winner, and many of the anime are well represented by multiple countries! Again, Shippuden makes a very respectable showing with Spain, Switzerland, Slovenia, and, interestingly, more ‘S’ countries. My Hero Academia gave our orange boy a run for his money with comparable representation. Users in the Vatican favored Academia, which makes me hopeful that at least a few priests and nuns are keeping up with Class 1-A. But despite Deku’s best efforts, Asta’s unending determinism can be seen through more countries favoring Black Clover over any other anime. Despite its relatively recent beginning in the Fall of 2017, Black Clover’s tale of unending perseverance and growth has become a mainstay in the shonen heavy hitter lineup. Asta and his friends have been embraced by the anime community, and, luckily for us, the series isn’t going away any time soon.

  Russia, a titanic country that spans two continents watched Black Clover more than any other Crunchyroll anime. We should keep in mind here that Crunchyroll was only recently rolled out in Russia, so there is a recency bias. This advantages Black Clover over other long running series that were airing in the earlier part of the decade–namely Shippuden.

  It must be noted that the tastemakers of Poland and Belarus are the first countries on our tour to have watched JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure the most in the past decade. Truly, two neighboring countries comprised of anime fans of the most refined tastes.

Overall Most Popular in Europe: Black Clover

  The Middle East

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  Contrary to their European neighbors, our users in Middle Eastern countries had a very clear cut preference. As with North America, Naruto Shippuden was the series of choice for Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, and a bit more than ten others. Our boy is coming in clutch again. Black Clover made a showing in Iran and Iraq, and BORUTO ended up being Yemen’s favorite of the decade. Interestingly, the anime that show up in multiple countries always occur in contiguous countries. I guess Naruto and Black Clover fans truly do stick together!

  Overall Most Popular in the Middle East: Naruto Shippuden

  Africa

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And we have another clear-cut winner! Our users in African countries had a pretty clear cut preference for Black Clover, being represented by a tens of countries including Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Coming in second is our stalwart Shippuden, showing up in Egypt, Nigeria, Sudan, and a few others. South Africa refused to conform and favored My Hero Academia above other anime.

  Overall Most Popular in Africa: Black Clover

Asia

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  Welcome……… to the world of Shippuden. If you thought North America and the Middle East had a lot of Naruto, Asia has both beat. In one unbroken, continental swath, Shippuden stretches from Kazakhstan in the northwest, east through India, Nepal, and China, and then down Southeast Asia through Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, and countless others. The global influence of our favorite ninja really can’t be overstated, and that holds true for the region closest to the series’ country of origin–which, itself is rather interesting, but we’ll get to that.

  There are, of course, some holdouts. The contiguous trio of Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan favored Black Clover (the former two), and BORUTO (the latter). Now we need to talk about the elephant in the room. Japan, the country that invented and is majorly the origin point of most anime, watched RWBY, an American-made series, more than anything else. While a big part of this is the fact that most anime viewing in Japan doesn’t happen on Crunchyroll, the viewership of RWBY in Japan is actually quite impressive. Anime is becoming a truly global industry and fandom, and the fact that the country that invented anime has embraced a foreign animated series is a pretty beautiful indication of this.

  Overall Most Popular in Asia: Naruto Shippuden

Oceania

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  Oceania is comprised of an extremely diverse set of island nations, and that diversity showed up in our results in some very cool ways! We’ll start with the largest member of the region, Australia, and neighboring New Zealand. The Aussies and Kiwis both favored My Hero Academia and were actually the only Oceanic countries to do so besides the US Minor Outlying Islands. Shippuden and BORUTO made appearances, of course, with the former showing up in Papua New Guinea and Guam, among others, and the latter hitting the quartet of Fiji, Niue, Palao, and Samoa.

  Heavy hitters aside, Oceania had some fascinating one offs. Micronesia’s favorite anime was long-running shonen series Fairy Tail, Nauru favored the lawyer video game adaptation Ace Attorney–the only non-action oriented title on this map–, and Norfolk Island favored Bladedance of the Elementalers–the only series with an episode count in the teens.

  Overall Most Popular in Oceania: Naruto Shippuden

Antarctica

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  We’ll end our journey with one of the largest, most sparsely populated regions on earth. Antarctica.

  Yes, against all odds, we did have some video views recorded from users in the land of ice and snow. Regrettably, the most watched show here was not A Place Further Than the Universe. The winner, however, was fan favorite shonen series Hunter x Hunter! Truly, one of the best anime arcs of all time has to be Chimera ANTarctica. THANK YOU, AND GOODNIGHT.

  Oh, and for good measure, here's the final score:

  Most popular anime WORLDWIDE: Naruto Shippuden

  ---

  Cayla Coats is the Editor-in-Chief of Crunchyroll News. She tweets @ceicocat

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[recentanimenews]

The Top 10 One Piece Anime Moments From 2018

One Piece has been going for about two decades, and I sometimes doubt that I will live to see the end of it. So, it might seem silly to take a little year out of its grand timeline and talk about the best parts of it. But the day that I stop celebrating One Piece is the day that joy dies, and that's why I feel that it's necessary to look back into 2018 and pick out the best bits. And yes, I know that 2018 isn't truly over yet, but unless One Piece decides to include an anime-only scene in the next episode where Sogeking has a sudden one-on-one duel with Kizaru, I think this list is pretty set in sea stone. 

  So with that said, here are the top 10 greatest moments from the One Piece anime in 2018! Many of them are great for different reasons--some are touching, some are weird, some are action-packed, and some are about Luffy cutting off a villain's windpipe. Actually, that's #10. Let's check it out!

  10. Luffy Chokes Out Charlotte Cadenza

    Not a lot of focus is put on this sequence, but in Luffy's effort to find Sanji's location, he chokes Charlotte Cadenza to unconsciousness . This stuck out to me because it shows that Luffy is so desperate to find his cook pal that he's breaking out the sleeper hold. It makes me hope that we'll eventually see Luffy get so frustrated that he locks in a triangle choke on Blackbeard, or a double wrist lock on Akainu.

  9. Pudding's Third Eye Is Beautiful

  Charlotte Pudding is one of Big Mom's many manipulated children, someone who has lived her whole life being told that she is ugly and is currently being used in one of the Four Emperors' schemes. No matter how important she is now, Big Mom will always see her as a pawn. Then, on their "wedding day," Sanji tells her that her third eye is beautiful, and in a life that's devoted to serving her unstable warlord mother, Pudding finds a brief moment of comfort.

  8. Charlotte Linlin's Feast Of Friends

    I wondered how they were going to do this scene, because it would be weird if I had to eventually tell people "man, remember when Big Mom graphically ate a dozen helpless children?" But what the anime ended up with--while not quite scary--was weird in its own right. It was so calm that it was a little bit unsettling.

  7. Nami's Lightning Bolt

  If there is one Straw Hat that does not get enough credit for how cool they are, it's Nami. I've mentioned this before, but Nami is frequently the Straw Hat's MVP. However, because she's rarely altering the landscape with earth-shattering punches, everyone ignores her contributions. No, her lightning bolt didn't incinerate Big Mom, but it did buy the Sanji Retrieval Team some time to get away. Here's hoping that she gets more big moments in Wano.

  6. Luffy Clashes With Katakuri

    The fight that everyone compares this to is Luffy vs Lucci--while I'm gonna need to mull over that question for about five more years before I have an answer as to which one is definitively better, I'm gonna go ahead and deem Luffy vs Katakuri to be particularly rad. I honestly think that the anime is pacing it out a little better than the manga did. That may sound blasphemous to One Piece manga purists, but who cares? They can go make their own lists.

  5. Pedro's Sacrifice

    First of all, you're my boy, Pedro. Your duel with Baron Tamago in 2017 is one of the best One Piece anime fights in years. Second, this hit me just as hard as I hoped it would: I got goosebumps when Pedro's image dissipated. Let's all pour one out for Pedro right now. Coffee, liquor, water, it doesn't matter. Your boss asks you to clean it up? Tell THEM to clean it up. That nerd will never understand.

  4. Sanji Wants To Return/Luffy Decides To Crash The Wedding

  Sanji revealing that he wants to be back with the Straw Hat crew was nice, but the icing on top of the nakama cake was Luffy's nonchalant "We're just gonna crash the wedding" reveal. There is regular chill and then there is Luffy chill, and that's a level of chill that I hope we can all reach one day.

3. GERMA 66 ASSEMBLE

    Every once in a while, I'll hit a manga panel (Subscribe to Weekly Shonen Jump! It's $26 for an ENTIRE YEAR and it's incredible) that makes me excited for what it's gonna look like in the anime. And Germa 66's big Power Rangers reveal was one of those panels. Luckily, the anime didn't disappoint. All of the awesome makes you momentarily forget that the commanders of Germa 66 are 80% terrible and that only Reiju should leave One Piece alive.

  2. Katakuri's Donut Bliss

    Yeah, I'd be slightly unhappy if Eiichiro Oda decided to end Luffy's quest to become Pirate King and instead shifted the One Piece story to focus on Katakuri's love of donuts, but the key word here is "slightly."

  1. Carrot's Sulong Transformation

    If there is one kind of scene that One Piece does amazingly well, it's the "A Character Just Gained A Power Boost And Is Now Gonna Straight-Up Eat An Enemy's Heart" scene. And when Carrot transformed into her Sulong form and began tearing ship wheels off and demolishing the Big Mom pirates, it gave me that classic feeling that I got when Luffy first activated Gear 2 against Blueno years ago. Oh, One Piece. You're too good to me.

  And those are the top 10 One Piece anime moments of 2018. I hope you've all had a decent year, and let's ring in 2019 the right way: By rewatching One Piece from the beginning. Don't act like you don't have the time to. 

----------------

Daniel Dockery has a Twitter that he uses for official One Piece business and/or dumb opinions. 

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[recentanimenews]

How Whole Cake Island Completely Changes One Piece

One Piece recently turned twenty-one-years-old. That means that, if I ever met the physical manifestation of One Piece in a bar, I could legally buy it a drink and not get arrested. “A round for me and my best friend,” I’d say to the bartender, motioning toward the pile of manga that I’ve arranged in a crude human shape on the seat beside me.

However, common pop culture logic says that if something lasts a long time, whether it’s a book series or a TV show, it absolutely has to become bad at a certain point. And with that logic, we should be saying “Oh, One Piece. That hasn’t been good in, oh my, 16 years.” But One Piece has yet to succumb to age. In fact, the Whole Cake Island arc, which is where the anime currently sits, might be the best arc in the entire series. How? Well, because it’s redefined One Piece in more ways than one.

In a series that has always been known for its boundless enthusiasm, Whole Cake Island feels as fresh as early One Piece, and that’s because…

It Subverted Typical One Piece Arc Structure

When Whole Cake Island began, it seemed like it was going to be a lot like the Enies Lobby arc. They both have stuff in common – they begin in the wake of Luffy and Luffy’s punches freeing a kingdom from an evil warlord (as he did in the Alabasta and Dressrosa arcs), events are set in motion after a crew mate abandons the Straw Hat Crew (Robin in Enies Lobby, Sanji in Whole Cake), and they deal with the crew facing near insurmountable odds (In Enies Lobby, the crew declares war on the World Government, and Whole Cake Island is owned by Big Mom, one of the Emperors of the Sea.)

But there are definitely worse things than One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda doing an Enies Lobby Remix Arc, seeing as Enies Lobby is one of the best anime arcs of all time, and the reason why we should have fiction in the first place. But then Luffy punched Big Mom, and Big Mom reacted like someone had thrown a ping pong ball at her. It was then that it became clear that maybe this wasn’t going to end in Luffy triumphantly walloping someone while orchestral music blared and people around the world fist pumped in approval.

  Because while Enies Lobby is about a rescue and a victory, Whole Cake Island is about a rescue and survival. They saved Robin and got the definitive win in Enies Lobby, but when gathering Sanji, they’re just gonna have to settle for the moral victory. It’s like those moments in an open world RPG when you decide to do a quest that is way above your level and you get decapitated before you can say “Wait, LET ME APPLY MY POTIONS.” The Straw Hat Crew was equipped to fight in Enies Lobby, but Whole Cake Island only should’ve been tackled after they had done a few more hours of level grinding.

So I totally understand why the Straw Hats spend so much time running away in Whole Cake. I’ve been knee deep in an RPG dungeon, desperately hoping that my stamina holds up so that I can get far enough away from the monster to heal myself. I get you, Luffy.

The “Boss” Of The Arc Is Unexpected

At this point, Big Mom is basically Godzilla. No one is equipped to stand up to her, meaning that the climactic fight is going to be between Luffy and someone else. And that someone is Charlotte Katakuri, Big Mom’s powerful son and owner of the raddest boots in all of anime.

  I won’t lie, when I first saw Katakuri, I told myself “Eh, I guess Sanji will duel this guy. HE’S NOT CAPTAIN LUFFY MATERIAL.” Oh, how foolish I was. I envisioned Luffy getting that inspirational HAWK ELEPHANT KONG GUN BAZOOKA against Big Mom, while Sanji talked about food and then kicked Katakuri out of his boots with an attack that was named after said food. That’s what I thought, which, in retrospect, is a very “Come on, Daniel. Do you even One Piece?” idea.

But then we learned that Big Mom couldn’t be stopped and that Katakuri was waiting on the Straw Hat’s ship, so it was gonna have to be Luffy versus Katakuri. And that is so much more exciting than Luffy fighting against Big Mom. It sets up Big Mom as an even bigger threat in the One Piece universe (Will anyone ever be able to take her down?) and it also better establishes the overwhelming strength and danger of the foes in the New World, where the action currently takes place.

Luffy is going to have an exhausting fight with Katakuri, who is technically the bigger villain’s sidekick. That’s like if Michael Keaton’s Batman couldn’t beat up the Penguin, so he instead spent hours trying to wrestle one of the clowns.  It’s wonderful is what I’m trying to say, and I applaud Eiichiro Oda for having the patience to not give us that Big Mom defeat satisfaction yet, and instead throw the world into even more chaos by leaving her as an obstacle not yet conquered.

By Being Apart, It Makes The Crew Stronger

I’m like you – I get a lot of joy out of seeing the entire Straw Hat crew all together. And little did I know that when Sanji, Nami, Chopper and Brook all left Dressrosa, that they’d be Luffy’s team in Whole Cake Island. And when Luffy made his team, Sanji wasn’t even on his side at the time. So he chose Nami, Chopper, Brook and the newcomers Pedro and Carrot. Not exactly the Straw Hat A Team. I don’t want to say that they’re the JV part of the crew, and that dudes like Zoro play for the Varsity league, but to be fair, Brook and Nami have had way less moments so far where they’re cutting apart villains that are the size of mountains.

  But with Zoro there, you know what Zoro would do – probably grumble and then slash things. With crew mates like Nami and Chopper, things get way more tactical. For example, recently, Nami began feeding small thunderclouds to Big Mom’s flying cloud Zeus, who ended up shocking Big Mom with a giant thunderbolt. I wouldn’t have even considered that as an option, which means that I’d last about four seconds in the One Piece universe.

  Or when the crew has to rescue Brook who, after having an awesome yet one sided fight with Big Mom, is now trapped in her clutches. Yes, a lot of it is played for comedy, but in a story that’s increasingly about powerful people doing powerful things to one another, you absolutely need moments like that. One of Eiichiro Oda’s strengths is that, no matter how “weak” he makes someone, all of the Straw Hat crew members matter. It isn’t just Luffy And His Amazing, Underwhelming Friends. Whole Cake Island gets you invested in these characters again, despite the fact that they rarely get to throw the knockout punch.

It Makes You Scared For The Characters For The First Time

It’s hard to get scared for the members of the Straw Hat crew. We know that Luffy is probably not gonna kick the bucket before the end, mainly because Zoro would look pretty dumb in a straw hat. That is, it was hard to get scared for them before the Whole Cake Island arc where, for the first time in years, I actually entered into conversations about which crew member was mostly likely to die.

For those that don’t read the manga and only watch the anime, 1) I’m not going to spoil anything, and 2) I respect your decisions. Because in both, there is the palpable sense of dread, the sense that something might go wrong at any time. That’s a hard atmosphere to capture in a shonen series, where many battles take the form of “You beat me, but now I will beat YOU.” I’ve never been so scared of losing one of my Straw Hat pals.

21 years in, and I’m finally starting to worry about the crew. So I guess that’s the biggest reason to keep up with One Piece if you may have dropped out of it – Whole Cake Island forces you to not look at these characters as typical protagonists, but as people that might get stomped to death by Big Mom.

Whole Cake Island makes you care, and that is why the Whole Cake Island arc is wonderful.

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Daniel Dockery is an editor for Cracked.com and a writer for Syfy. He has an absolutely adorable Twitter.

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com