Thank you so much man!

Even if I don't post here as frequently as I used to, it remains the place where it all began for me as far as animation goes, and for that I'm grateful.

This episode was phenomenal. I haven't enjoyed One Piece this much since the finale of Whole Cake Island.

Once they get past the linear part of Wano the pacing will improve tremendously.

Or so I hope…

The SP will be the 907th episode of the anime. It'll air in the usual timeslot and be 24 minutes long.

I would write my thoughts but I'm fucking speechless.

It would be disingenuous to say anything about this episode without writing a full length essay. Jaw on the floor.

It looks like Koudai Watanabe will participate in next week's climax!

Preview is fucking amazing. Can't wait for next week.

As for 869, Deguchi and Hisada handle much of the first half and it's, err…. not amazing? This episode is generally very limited in movement. Thankfully, Tokoro's direction really steps in once we get to the flashback and it's just... perfect. The angles, the music placement, the comedy. It's all on point, and more than makes up for the limited movement. The art team also did an amazing job conveying the ever-changing atmosphere of Rusukaina. It feels so refreshing- both for the audience, and surely also for the BG artists themselves- to be able to see and draw something other than mirrors and water. You could really feel the passion in those BG shots.

Second half is Isouchi, who I must say is doing great job emulating Sato. The staff list for this episode is huge and I really have no idea who did what. Studio Cosmo helped out (May have only done 2nd KA? Toei doesn't credit 2nd KA seperately, so a lot of these are probably just helping out with clean-up). I'm fairly certain that the Grilled Mochi was done by Kitazaki, and what a fantastic scene it is! You can really feel the force as he's blasted through the rocks, with some really dynamic smoke and Tokoro's beautiful eye for at atmosphere to back it up. There were some tasteful still shots that peaked my interest, since whoever did them seemingly took a lot of inspiration from Noburo Koizumi; They look very similar to the kind of stuff you'd find in Koizumi's work on Episode 808.

Tomita steps in to animate the ending bit, where Luffy transforms into- Oh my god, I can finally say it freely, Snake man! Luffy has a new form, who would've thought?! :ninja: Tomita has been super adventurous during WCI, and this is no different. It's a lovely lead-in to the full-power transformation we're getting next week by Shida.

Overall a good episode. I loved the flashback, but the animation was definitely limited. However, it looks like 870 will MORE than make up for that. I believe I can say with confidence that next week has a serious possibility of being the most well-animated episode of One Piece BY A LANDSLIDE. Hugely looking forward to it, this week cannot go fast enough!

Calling it now:

Since Kaido looks completely unphased by the attack, he'll probably think it's a rock or something and shrug it off, which allows Law to gain control of the situation; thus preventing further conflict while also establishing the difference in power between Luffy and Kaido.

Anyone know what that ビキビキビキ (biki biki biki) means in the last panels?

I hope Oda doesn't just throw us straight into full scale war in the coming chapters, I was really digging the covert theme of Wano up until this point, and this chapter has me worried.

I figure Oda is just trying to display Kaido's power and set him up as the big baddie that we already knew he was.

As for the rest of the chapter…. it was, ok I guess? The pacing was pretty shoddy, and some panels felt incredibly redundant and empty (Ie. "rarr rarr I'm going to kill her now" or "oh noo they started to fight, what a high level duel!"). Overall it was an ok chapter with an absolute bombshell ending. I do worry that Oda is once again falling into the trap of introducing way, way too many characters into an arc. It's been a recurring issue ever since, I'd say, Marineford, that the amount of character introductions becomes so saturated that he's unable to give them all sufficient screen time, and it ends up being a big unsatisfying mess.

I have faith in Oda to do this arc justice considering how long he's been wanting to draw it for, and I really hope my worries are null and void.

So, I guess Inoue is officially back now?

I wonder if he'll keep working with Kimitaka Ito or if he'll do a full episode eventually.

Anyways, some really key animation work from Tu, Matsuda and Kimitaka this week.

Also Inoue :wub: