Throughout this month, we will be testing new features (like search) so you may experience some hiccups from time to time. We'll try to not be too disruptive...
According to One Piece, the undisputed authority on the subject, fighting at sea was the least common thing pirates did.
Title: "The Worst Generation Strikes! Battle On the Stormy Sea"
Chapters Covered: 975
Episode Director: Kohei Kureta (****)
Animation Director: Shuuichi Ito (***1/2)
Time: 8:30PM EST
Watch It: www.crunchyroll.com/one-piece
Luffy, Law and Kid - Episode 978 https://bittube.tv/post/beb0dbdf-b22d-4a38-8d8b-eb548c4788db
One Piece Episode 979 Preview
Came home from work, saw twitter hyping the best animated sequence in the entire series and since I have no self-control I pulled up sakugabooru and spoiled myself to see if it was justified.
Uh.
What the fuck?
I mean,
holy shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit
~Stargazer~, ~Distance~ original stories.
3DS Friend Code: 2234-8294-8917
Did Oda allow all those Flying SMILES? I thought the power of flight was TABOO to him!
Came home from work, saw twitter hyping the best animated sequence in the entire series and since I have no self-control I pulled up sakugabooru and spoiled myself to see if it was justified.
Uh.
What the fuck?
I mean,
holy shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit
Lol I went watching unaware it would be an "all-star" episode and had the same reaction.
Did Oda allow all those Flying SMILES? I thought the power of flight was TABOO to him!
Pell was drunk when he said that nonsense.
The animation was really good throughout the episode, but then that Luffy/Law/Kid scene happened and my jaw hit the floor. Holy good lord, that might be the best animated sequence the series has ever had, which is saying something considering how much fantastic animation we've been getting this arc alone.
Great episode. I like that they expanded on a lot of stuff in this episode. The animation during Luffy, Law, and Kidd's attack on Kaido's crew was amazing as well Kyoshiro's attack at the end of the episode.
Really amazing sequence. I like the Zoro fight with Killer better, though.
Get ready for that to be the last sakuga scene we see in a while. Because the usual Toei movies will take a lot of the good animators away from the series.
Cute butterfly lady.
FOLY HUCK! That really was fucking awesome. I dont even remember that moment being so epic in the manga.
They over animated everything as usual. I mean if there is hype moment every eps, the REAL hype moments will not surprise us anymore. Not to mention the budget and manpower.
"No more shall man have wings to bear him to paradise. Henceforth, he shall walk.." - Venat
God while I agree with the sentiment that Sakuga overdose isnt good, I think all the "Over animated" scenes deserved being so.
I figured from the preview that we'd get a good sequence or two to ring in the return of the Luffy/Law/Kid fighting trio and the start of Wano's next phase, but yeah, I was certainly not expecting this episode or even just That One Sequence to be so incredibly stacked. Not stacked with just the usual Toei superstars like Masami Mori, Tomita, etc., but with outside help from folks who've only shown up since the arc began like Takeshi Maenami and Shu Shugita and this time we even got Black Clover's ace Isuta Meister popping up to handle Law's part of that bit. And it's not just that that sequence was well-animated it was extremely ambitious to boot with the camera constantly moving and stuff in the background flying everywhere, etc. Sugita's part of Luffy whipping and falling all around the ship before punching out that Gifter genuinely made my jaw drop.
Outside of the animation highlights Kureta's storyboard worked overtime to elevate exposition that in lesser hands would've been a big snoozefest. The exposition/action/exposition starts and stops were a bit awkward by the middle of the episode but the animators did their best to pour some industrial-grade sealant over the cracks.
I can't wait for them to get out of this rainstorm and away from this garbage sound mixing. I could barely hear the instrumental "Over the Top" during the big action piece 'cause of that damnable rain.
I think the episode would be alot better if OVER THE TOP was playing slightly louder or was swapped with another OST altogether.
The whole sequence of Luffy Law and Kid would have been abit better (I wanted to use significantly but the animation was really good) if the sound direction was on the top too.
I’m okay with them going all out for this moment. We have so few sea battles in this pirate anime, good to make the one we have look good. Also, keeps otherwise boring interesting. I remember thinking this fight was a waste of time in the manga. Not here.
They over animated everything as usual. I mean if there is hype moment every eps, the REAL hype moments will not surprise us anymore. Not to mention the budget and manpower.
Where were you last week? There was no sakuga. People just love to complain. If you keep this up you will never be satisfied period.
Loved the episode, though glad to see I wasn't the only one who didn't like the sound mixing. It worked last episode and most of this one leading up the big moment by making you feel like you were "on set" in the storm with the characters, but once the big ship destruction started and Over the Top started to play, they should've toned the rain sounds down and turned the instrumental up to really get you into the moment more.
Other than that, I just loved that Over the Top is being used like this at all. Once the raid got started, one of my wishlist things was for either Over the Top, or We Go to play once the 3 Supernova crews showed up, and it actually happened so I'm satisfied.
Hey! If I am mistaken just say so! Dont use rude terms like talking out of my ass. I can learn and grow. Sorry if I was spreading misinformation. I love you Skippy.
This animation definitely has a lot of drip.
Yeah the episode was great especially the 3 captains sanking the ennemy's ship. And I like it when anime add some scene that Oda didn't have time to develop in the manga (like when the strawrat crew see the sunny being bombed).
But ! Are we going to see only Luffy and Zoro eyecatch during all Wano ? Like other strawrate are meaningless and only these too count ?
3DS FC : 0559-6804-1461
Awesome but wtf Laws ability is so broken or what has Law meant with the raining stuff
Yeah the episode was great especially the 3 captains sanking the ennemy's ship. And I like it when anime add some scene that Oda didn't have time to develop in the manga (like when the strawrat crew see the sunny being bombed).
But ! Are we going to see only Luffy and Zoro eyecatch during all Wano ? Like other strawrate are meaningless and only these too count ?
I suppose it helps make up for how this episode just adapts 9 pages. People tend to criticize stuff like that, but perhaps there would be less criticism as long as there are enough animation highlights and extension of fights that were short in the manga.
Dear lord, the segment of the Worst Generation attacking the Beast Pirates was just absolutely insane animation. Anyone not watching the One Piece anime now is seriously missing out, they've seriously overhauled it. The only thing that's an issue is the pacing, but it's been that way since at least 2006. And that filler with the crew banter was wholesome.
Croc or Enel would never.
Wanna see the "ancient civilization destroyed" thing done really well? FFXIV did a great take on it. The bar's high for One Piece to beat.
Toei is on a roll. Just thinking about what they can pump out with the incoming Onigashima fights… oh man.
Awesome but wtf Laws ability is so broken or what has Law meant with the raining stuff
Law's talking about switching himself with raindrops, hence the brag about being unbeatable when raining.
They over animated everything as usual. I mean if there is hype moment every eps, the REAL hype moments will not surprise us anymore. Not to mention the budget and manpower.
"The budget and manpower" certainly has not been an issue thus far in the two years this arc has been going on for. One Piece is Toei's biggest flagship and after all these years they are finally treating it as such.
Also I would argue going super extra with this sequence was very much justified. Entire anime series have had the time to start and end just in the time it's been since we last saw Luffy in action. Treating his return and team-up with two other super powerful and super popular characters with all the splendor that they could muster makes all the sense in the world to me.
I also loved how insanely ambitious that sequence is with camera going wild and a zillion elements per scene! I think the last time an OP animation made me feel that was the Strong World movie…
Man, we keep praising the animation but the storyboarding was movie quality, too. Also loved some of the other cuts with the SHs and Kyoshiro.
I too was browsing Twitter, except I was away from home and not at a computer, and saw Twitter exploding over the episode. I didn't have a chance to watch it until this morning. For the third week in a row, I actually watched Skippy's review before I saw the actual episode. lol
Well, that was amazing. I don't know how the aniwan community's outpouring of support reaches Toei's eyes as far as the amazing sakuga we're getting, but I hope Toei also understands and appreciates that the staff changes made for Wano are producing results that are really energizing the community.
How have One Piece's ratings in Japan been since Wano began? Or is there perhaps another metric that Toei might be looking at as far as eyes on each episode? Streaming stats? Hashtags on social media?
Someone who's more plugged in to the discord scene could probably answer in more exact detail than I can, but I've noticed a definite uptick in social media engagement from the One Piece team since the Wano arc began. Staff members like Tu, Ishizuka, Nakashima, Kureta, even Yokoyama and the production manager Tetsuji Akahori, have been tweeting about their work. The show's official twitter account has started posting the raw genga for big scenes throughout Wano (in fact they advertised Shu Sugita's appearance on this episode by posting his part from the opening prior to the episode's airing) which is a turnaround from a few years ago when Toei apparently forbade its staff from doing so due to Dragon Ball Super-related bashing. It certainly feels to me like the staff are being empowered in ways that they might not have been before. Toei's other output has been pretty solid lately as well so it definitely feels like the studio is trying to modernize itself even if, being such an old and conservative company, there've been a few unfortunate asterisks and "two steps forward, one step back" moments along the way.
And last but certainly not least, I recall Skippy writing either here or on twitter about a year ago that the morale of One Piece's staff was at an all-time high and I can't imagine that that sentiment's changed since as the proof is in the pudding.
Heck, animation was top pick!
On a side note it makes me laugh so hard the way Denjiro's scene came out differently from the manga, where the ship cutting happens almost nonchalantly. In the anime it looks like "Hey, Worst Generation were trying to destroy the ship all together and they ended looking like all three of them were needed while Denjiro is a beast who solo'd it." Denjiro seriously grown on me as chara.
"The budget and manpower" certainly has not been an issue thus far in the two years this arc has been going on for. One Piece is Toei's biggest flagship and after all these years they are finally treating it as such.
Also I would argue going super extra with this sequence was very much justified. Entire anime series have had the time to start and end just in the time it's been since we last saw Luffy in action. Treating his return and team-up with two other super powerful and super popular characters with all the splendor that they could muster makes all the sense in the world to me.
Yeah like, there were actually many reasons to go so hard on this moment.
In no order:
A moment like this has been building up since Sabaody. Ever since the three of them stood together, we've been waiting for them to "wreak havoc in the New World." Most of us couldn't comprehend back then that that would mean going against 2 Yonkou at once.
This is the first action sequence of the start of the raid on Onigashima, a huge moment for the series in general.
Like you said, we've had a HUGE flashback and also downtime in action since Luffy, the main character, and the Straw Hats were on screen. This episode is returning us to the real main focus of the show in a big way. There were also fun action moments from a lot of Straw Hats.
Croc or Enel would never.
Wanna see the "ancient civilization destroyed" thing done really well? FFXIV did a great take on it. The bar's high for One Piece to beat.
Yeah like, there were actually many reasons to go so hard on this moment.
In no order:
A moment like this has been building up since Sabaody. Ever since the three of them stood together, we've been waiting for them to "wreak havoc in the New World." Most of us couldn't comprehend back then that that would mean going against 2 Yonkou at once.
This is the first action sequence of the start of the raid on Onigashima, a huge moment for the series in general.
Like you said, we've had a HUGE flashback and also downtime in action since Luffy, the main character, and the Straw Hats were on screen. This episode is returning us to the real main focus of the show in a big way. There were also fun action moments from a lot of Straw Hats.
I mean “real main focus” implies that the focus on Oden was fake focus. I don’t think Oden was ever meant to fake anything. Sure Luffy is the leading main character, but that doesn’t mean other characters can’t take the spotlight every now and then, even if Oden is meant to help enhance Luffy’s story at the end of the day.
Yeah like, there were actually many reasons to go so hard on this moment.
In no order:
A moment like this has been building up since Sabaody. Ever since the three of them stood together, we've been waiting for them to "wreak havoc in the New World." Most of us couldn't comprehend back then that that would mean going against 2 Yonkou at once.
This is the first action sequence of the start of the raid on Onigashima, a huge moment for the series in general.
Like you said, we've had a HUGE flashback and also downtime in action since Luffy, the main character, and the Straw Hats were on screen. This episode is returning us to the real main focus of the show in a big way. There were also fun action moments from a lot of Straw Hats.
Can agree with you on all of these points, this was much deserved.
Where were you last week? There was no sakuga. People just love to complain. If you keep this up you will never be satisfied period.
OP anime spams sakuga every 4 episodes or so. Not even seasonal anime with unlimited budget does that. And too much sakuga for the sake of sakuga is not a sign of a good anime. OP anime pace is still all over the place, maybe even worse than the manga.
"No more shall man have wings to bear him to paradise. Henceforth, he shall walk.." - Venat
OP anime spams sakuga every 4 episodes or so. Not even seasonal anime with unlimited budget does that. And too much sakuga for the sake of sakuga is not a sign of a good anime. OP anime pace is still all over the place, maybe even worse than the manga.
I'm sure someone who actually likes One Piece can make this argument better but…this is nonsense. It's an animated series having good animation is not a negative, it's a positive. It's like saying "the dialogue is too good!" or "the sound direction is too good!" The animation is good because the staff want to express their feelings how they want to express their feelings and are actually able to find the time and resources to do so.
I don't want to be a bitch here but holy shit, this is nonsense.
I mean “real main focus” implies that the focus on Oden was fake focus. I don’t think Oden was ever meant to fake anything. Sure Luffy is the leading main character, but that doesn’t mean other characters can’t take the spotlight every now and then, even if Oden is meant to help enhance Luffy’s story at the end of the day.
Oden's a focus for the arc, but he doesn't carry precedence over the Straw Hats. The Straw Hats and their allies are who will succeed at what he couldn't do. Him and the Scabbards are important, they're what attempt to get you emotionally invested in the arc and setup a lot, but yeah they're not the main characters and Worst Gen. Real main focus for the show, as I said, not the arc.
Croc or Enel would never.
Wanna see the "ancient civilization destroyed" thing done really well? FFXIV did a great take on it. The bar's high for One Piece to beat.
Oden's a focus for the arc, but he doesn't carry precedence over the Straw Hats. The Straw Hats and their allies are who will succeed at what he couldn't do. Him and the Scabbards are important, they're what attempt to get you emotionally invested in the arc and setup a lot, but yeah they're not the main characters and Worst Gen. Real main focus for the show, as I said, not the arc.
I didn’t say Oden had to be a main character though, and I’m glad One Oiece can give focus like that as much as it did to characters like Oden even though he’s not one.
