Don't believe the lies.
Title: ''Cry of the Soul - Brook and Pedro's Blitz Strategy''
Chapters Covered: (almost all of the) rest of 848-849 (?)
Episode Director: Satoshi Ito (***1/2)
Animation Director: Yusuke Isochi (***1/2)
Time: 7:30PM EST
Watch It: www.crunchyroll.com/one-piece
One Piece Episode 815 Preview
The Brook scene was great.
Since he is austrian… Brooktzkrieg
This episode was a mixed bag for me. The first part with Brook and Pedro was SO AMAZING. Amazing pace, amazing action, actual good comedy, and what an amazing SOUL KINGU reveal. And then….. then..... well, nothing really happens. We get some Sanji filler, then we (finally) get to the Chopper/Carrot couldron scene and they flippin' cut it short! Completely ruined the pace for me. Speaking of cutting things short, what the hell was up with that ending? They had a chance to end it perfectly, just like the manga, but instead they give us some more shitty filler of Sanji picking flowers instead of covering the last page. I'm really really torn on this episode.
Props to Studio GUTS for some amazing sequences, and Isouchi was at the top of his game, some shots even looked better than Ichikawa's corrections.
Actually, Sanji picking flowers was canon. It probably worked better in the manga, but I thought it was filler as well cause it was just SO unneeded. Same for his other scene before. And to cut it there to push Pudding's goodbye to next episode and not even finish the chapter that we already started last episode was lame. They ruin the pacing of the arc by stretching out every damn detail like they'll show Big Mom next week going to the treasure room and open the door.
Toei is blowing up this arc more than Nami's boobs, but whatelse is new.
Brook's scene was absolutely incredible. I also liked how they better explained how he got around Smoothie and into the room. I mean, it IS Smoothie lol, but the whole scene flowed a lot smoother thanks to that explanation.
As for the other scenes, they were pretty well directed and functioned as they should have…but yeah, the animators missed the intent there. While I love them to death for actually fully telling Chopper and Carrot's story and not just picking up here after a dozen episodes like the manga did, they missed the whole counterattack being so quick and strategic. Chopper and Carrot are just standing around doing whatever they want instead of quickly executing a plan to perfection and that makes things pretty boring. Their counterattack in the manga was a mixed bag but at least it happened all at once like it should have. And as for the Pudding scene...yeah. What happens afterward in that scene makes it one of the arc's best scenes (though with the help of a little context later) and it's another thing that can't be split between two episodes. Sanji picking flowers would actually have been an amazing contrast (once we get the full context later) if Pudding's scene had actually panned out to its stinger, but it just ended up...being there.
Toei has done an amazing job with this arc while still keeping their normal pacing, so there's no need to overreact when they don't handle two scenes the way Oda intended...it's unfortunate, but luckily has proven to be the exception rather than the norm so far.
If I were to venture a guess, I'd say they're saving the scene for next week because they want the mystery of what Pudding whispered to be more fresh in our minds before it's revealed. In other words, we're probably getting that scene next week.
! Considering they'd only have to cover 14-15 pages if we look away from the Brook/Pedro vs Tamago stuff, and the fact that one of the strongest storyboarders is doing the next episode, I'd say it's very likely.
