one_piece_review

ONE PIECE NOTES (as of Chapter 1073)

*** SPOILER AHEAD ***

MAJOR ARCS TIER LIST

S TIER
- Water 7 & Enies Lobby
A TIER
- Alabasta
- Arlong Park
- Summit War
B TIER
- Wano
- Zou & Whole Cake Island
- Romance Dawn to Baratie
- Punk Hazard
- Dressrosa
C Tier
- Jaya & Skypeia
- Thriller Bark
D Tier
- Fishman Island

Water 7 is my absolute favorite, and Enies Lobby is a good follow up. Water 7's sense of dread among the crew with each other & the mystery of the government & CP9 is unsettling & fantastically laid out. Alabasta's chase against a real threat is a first for the show and in many ways set the formula for other arcs. Arlong Park is the first time that I felt the show was going to be worth it in the long haul. Some of the later arcs are just too long. It's kind of an empty sentiment but I think it to be true. The earlier sagas were snappy and things happened quick. But in Wano's case for example, there really is a lot happening so it can't be very fast, so it's not like it's bad or anything. Whole Cake Island sometimes drags but Sanji's backstory with Germa Double Six is so frickin cool. Dressrosa feels like Alabasta 2.0. In retrospect Skypeia feels sort of out of place with the whole saga. It almost feels like going to the sky happened too early? Thriller Bark isn't bad, but IMO Moriah kinda sucks and the whole saga doesn't really flow with purpose like the others. Fishman Island is the worst but it's still not BAD, it just kinda drags and the fights are the worst comparatively.



Best main character: Nico Robin. She's the best. Her demeanor and attitude get me every time. Her backstory being slowly unveiled and being extremely integral to the story makes her always relevant. The way she begins to both gain the trust of her allies but also trust them herself is very endearing. From the moment Luffy rescues her, knowing full well that Luffy doesn't look at the world the same way, she supports him and the crew with her heart. In the anime, when they're at the Lode Poneglyph in Zou and she says that her friends will protect her, I popped off. She really has such growth as a character. At Enies Lobby, her shouting that she wants to live & sail with Straw Hats and be rescued is my single favorite moment in the show.

Sidenote: All of the Straw Hats are great, no complaints. Such good character writing

Best side character: Carrot. Carrot has some great reactions and animations in the anime. I don't have that much to say specifically, she's just good

Best quote: "God makes food, and the Devil makes spice"


BEST MOMENTS:
Luffy screaming to Nami "You're one of us" after defeating Arlong
Robin at Enies Lobby, after a long saga of rejecting help, giving in & crying & admitting that she wanted nothing more to travel with Luffy again
Luffy decking the Celestial Dragon in Sabaody after Hachi gets shot
Luffy being smacked by Jinbe and remember the rest of his crew after Marineford events, and wanting to be with them again
Sanji's fight with Luffy and Luffy screaming that he can't become the King of Pirates without Sanji
Reiji telling Sanji that he's not a failure whatsoever while Sanji tells her about how Pudding shot her and took away her memories, and that their mother's spirit lives in him
Zoro stealing the Killer's scythe (while he's bandaged and all messed up) and using it as a sword for 3 sword style Purgatory Onigiri
Sanji being man enough to ask Robin for help when he's tied up by Black Maria, and how Robin shows up, starts glowing pink
and whoops ass. (reminder her ability is broken). The whole scene is A++++



RANDOM NOTES I WROTE WHILE WATCHING:
Zoro all the time (as I wrote the rest of this, I would come back to this top line and nod and be like, yep, still true)

Nami finally giving in to asking Luffy for help at Arlong Park, and Luffy screaming "Of course I'll help you", then when he yells after defeating Arlong that Nami is one of us

Around episode 100 they really start goin big on Nami boob (later edit: they don't stop)
It didnt really sink until fighting Bellamy, but when Luffy is actually pissed & in serious mode, that's when it gets hype. It's really the same trope as Goku getting pissed/serious

This show busts out "the squad" of enemy generals, like showcasing a bunch of the Baroque Works at once, or introducing the 7 Warlords, very good

All of the reflections on god, the people worshipping god, and the implications of tyrannical Eneru's rule are great

Anytime Luffy gives Nami his hat is A+

The insane tenacity they adequately animate for Luffy

Nami and Usopp's cutscene where they are talking about how they aren't as strong as the others and they have to do what they can, where Usopp makes the Klima Takt
weapon for Nami. It's good character dev for both of them in different ways

Zoro facing Number 1 from Baroque Works, and being like "I can't yet cut steel, this sucks", and Number 1's like "well what are you going to do then", and Zoro's like "well once I beat you I'll be able to cut steel"
The whole fight is absolutely based

Crocodile's arc is mostly waiting for the right time to strike him, and it's a little hopeless at times but mostly it's foreseeable that the squad will win. Eneru's arc is much much more bleak and all signs point to Luffy being the only possible counter

Women getting outfit changes (Nami, Robin, Vivi) while men mostly stay the same

There's some new battle music that starts playing in the middle of the Upper Yard first major fight that's good

The fking horn on Pagaya/Conis ship lmfao

The second Groggy Ball episode where Sanji and Zoro begrudgingly team up has got to be one of the best episodes. Multiple special named moves, "Zero Sword Style", then Zoro's fking skull dunk into the goal with the anime-ass screen coloring/artwork, fk yes

When the Luffy Zoro Sanji Chopper stroll up to the Franky house and utterly beat ass

All of Water 7 is a distinct difference in the dramatic aspect of their pirate lives. The underlying plot of CP9 & Robin unfolding is excellent

When Franky first encounters CP9 and grabs Blueno by the head and starts to crush him before Pucci intervenes, it gives you the sense that Franky is actually very strong but can't take on all of CP9. CP9 before this point seems unbeatable. This show does a good job with power levels at times like these

Sanji fighting Ramen Kenpo guy and saying that his fists are sacred to cooking but then he can use them in a kitchen to fight, then takes two knives and starts beating ass is badass

Robin's entire backstory, explaining how no one in the world would help her, from regular townspeople, the world government & even pirates, is some of the best character development I've ever seen. To be honest I would get sometimes annoyed during Water 7/Enies when she constantly works against Straw Hats but she has many reasons to be psychologically illogical. Later Robin screaming at the top of her lungs that she does want to join them on the sea again is a highlight of the entire show

I'm always comparing fighting to DBZ. This show does a much better job with every fight having small reactions between combatants that make the viewer aware of how threatening both fighters perceive each other. For example when Luffy encounters Blueno, Blueno is first smug and emotionless but after Luffy's first attack he immediately appears surprised/distressed, signaling to the viewer that Luffy is stronger/capable of fighting. Compared to DBZ where almost every fight has some ridiculously one-sided fight where the reactions are mostly the same.

Post Enies Lobby surprised me with how they kept the pace very fast of getting back to world events. Within a few episodes they recap old islands with the new bounties, revisit many characters like Whitebeard, Shanks & Smoker, and introduce Teach and the darkness fruit.

It's really interesting how deep into the series they start unveiling Luffy's family, especially Dragon. Being 300+ episodes in and still barely knowing much about the main character's family is very unique

It's nice that they switch up who gets to play the main heroes for awhile. Very early in Thriller Bark, Sanji/Zoro/Luffy (who ordinarily run the show) get captured, giving all the others a chance to shine for awhile. Specifically Franky & Robin together

When afro skeleton Brook reveals that he had been part of the crew that had to desert Laboon the whale, god damn what a moment. When he said "Laboon" chills went down my spine. It was like 300 episodes later. That kind of long term payout is exactly what I was hoping with this kind of grand tale

This show does a good job of feeling like the whole journey is worthwhile in small ways. An example is how Usopp powers up his weapons with the dials he got from Skypeia, but he doesn't do it immediately. Meaning it took him awhile to conceive these ideas. But that improvement wouldn't happen without having gone to Skypeia at all, which at the time felt a little bit like a "not very important to the whole One Piece story" kind of arc. It's important for character development but it sometimes felt like not much else.

Also Usopp's duel with Perona is really good. The way it ends owns. It's also really cool how they made Perona very subtly differently drawn/animated in her human form versus ghost form. You can really tell the difference if you look closely

Kuma showing up to tell Moriah that the government is worried that the Straw Hats will take out another warlord is sick. Moriah's reaction is spot on. And you also get the news about Teach as well. Great scene

Kuma showing up after Moriah's dead, and the whole sequence with Zoro and Sanji willing to die for Luffy, then Zoro absorbing all of Luffy's pain. As always Zoro rules

Thriller Bark is definitely one of the comparatively weaker arcs but it's still good. It's cool because it shakes up the formula of "strong bad guy needs to get beat down after team gets more powerful", and it's full of traps and pitting Straw Hats against themselves.

Being introduced to all the pirates on Sabaody is great, because you really get a sense as to what "normal" pirates are. Then you compare Luffy and the rest to all of those pirates, and the marines/government. Luffy is such a large threat not because of general pirate stuff like harming civilians or looting, it's because he threatens their power. The scene where Zoro walks up to the Celestial Dragon, is instantly ready to beat ass, then ends the scene with Zoro carrying an injured civilian and the other pirates say "why is he bothering helping somebody" while Zoro is somewhat aloof and just being himself. Excellent


Luffy punching the first Celestial Dragon made me scream out loud. fk yes. It's good on so many levels. Hachi's words after being shot are so real and sentimental. But Luffy not being able to resist the urge to deck the sh*t out of him is what makes Luffy such a good character. He simply doesn't care about the government consequences. He just beats ass. In particular the black & white shot of him punching is just A++


The writing direction to have them all utterly defeated at Sabaody is super good. For so long the team has constantly clutched out bad situations and somehow won without anyone being really injured at all. And the mystery of what's going to happen to them is exciting


YAAA RAAA REEE TAAA (ep 523)

Seeing Buggy and Mr 3 (with a nice Miss Goldenweek reference) again is good. And also others like Crocodile in the background still alive, it's really good for making the whole journey feel real. I always wondered if major enemies from Arlong were straight up killed or not, and it seems like the answer is usually no. I was really not expecting Mr 2 to show up, I thought he was dead for sure. The idea of Luffy teaming up with his old enemies is awesome. I also didn't think I'd be excited to see Crocodile again but the way he joins up is good. I feel like most of Baroque Works getting their screen time ~400 episodes later is perfectly placed.

Luffy fighting Magellan with the wax robot armor setup that Mr 3 used against them forever ago is so good

I really didn't think Bon Clay was getting such a reprisal but damn it's all good

Magellan is a really interesting fierce opponent. His role for the prison is perfect. And in many circumstances they all probably would have lost to him.

Blackbeard around this time is good because he's clearly ominous and has big plans, but I liked how the show reflects on the scene in Jaya where he tells Luffy that the pirate age is high and that dreams shouldn't die shows his lighthearted side, immediately juxtaposed by him seeking to initially kill Luffy to get a seat as a Warlord.

This show just continues to handle power levels and especially Luffy getting continually stronger so well. Luffy fighting a random marine subordinate who has CP9 Six Powers training, and he busts out a regular Gum Gum Jet Pistol against a Iron Body user that takes the hit, expecting to survive it, then realizes Luffy's basic attack is too much and loses. Little moments like these are happening everywhere.

And for about 400 episodes or so, up until Sabaody, Luffy was winning pretty much every major battle formulaically, then he goes on a bit of a losing streak. It shows that the Sabaody -> Impel Down -> Marineford parts are clearly such more massive threats than the rest of the story up until this point

Crocodile saving Ace just because he felt like it in that moment is really on brand. I really liked it.

Blackbeard was on my mind the whole time during Marineford. It's very coincidental that Luffy's escape from Impel Down, and the Gates of Justice opening because of hypnotism, was all due to Blackbeard's crew taking a similar path during that time.

Marineford is quite good. The change of pace of Luffy's journey from Sabaody until now, without his crew and gaining completely different allies, is a really good way to break the previous formula. The setting and scale of what happens at Marineford is awesome. However I can't help but feel like the battle itself was kind of a mess, at least the way the anime tells it. There are so many fights that just suddenly/randomly end so fast. Especially the warlords, they seem to just be like, almost doing nothing most of the time. The admirals randomly just stop fighting too. But the results of what happen during the whole fight are awesome.

Blackbeard kinda a b*tch

Whitebeard dying standing up rules. What a cool character. The idea of the strongest man in the world not being the center of the whole story, but having a huge part in it is really good. And Ace dying is very sad. =[ It's very intentionally supposed to feel like a "waste" since it ends bc he literally couldn't handle some trash talk. But that's what makes his relationship with Whitebeard hit home more

Crocodile somehow rules???

The fking way that Buggy's VA squeals his lines out is so god damn funny to me

A random thought of mine was that I've never seen Nami once charting out the seas, which was her whole story arc about her upbringing during Arlong Park and how it was her lifelong goal. Maybe the manga covers this?

The government trying to cover up Impel Down/Marineford by telling the masses that they were victorious, being juxtaposed by the Level 6 Impel Down escapees not being put on a wanted list and being a real threat to the world, extremely good

When I first saw Sabo I had two thoughts. One, this character feels super shoehorned in from when Ace says his parting death line that references him. Two, that Sabo resembles Donflamingo

Episode ~500 after seeing the ASL sign (Ace Sabo Luffy), I realized that the S crossed out in Ace's tattoo is probably Sabo and probably something bad that happens to him, and probably NOT him being illiterate and messing up his tattoo by mispelling his own name. Lmao...

I have a hunch that Sabo does not die after being shot down, and he survived as Donflamingo. You never see Luffy & Ace anywhere around him. And Donflamingo's movements are always kind of weird. It would explain his glasses too. I'm also getting the hunch that this assertion is extremely wrong

Seeing Luffy prepare on the island with Rayleigh and learning about Haki and its past manifestations well before Luffy knew what they were (like Mantra on Skypeia) is really good bc it encapsulates the whole journey

The flashback in Fishman Island for Arlong/Jinbei and them having their version of Roger via Tiger is great. Arlong riling up the other pirates with all the actually bad stuff humans do, while the others are trying to work towards peace, it's all very relateable IRL

Getting this sinking feeling that Koala is extremely dead soon

I'm not sure I love most of the action part of what happens on Fishman Island (everything post flashback), but seeing the crew evolved is pretty awesome. Franky & Chopper are standouts to me but everyone is good. It is really noticeable the "formula" that some of these fights are starting to be like though. I think that's why Marineford is pretty interesting because it really shook it all up.

Chopper & Usopp using the same tech they did against Baroque Works is A+

Fishman Island is really good in what happens storywise but it is probably the lowest point in the show for fights? Hody barely does anything, has borrowed power from drugs, and I don't think he lands one actual hit on Luffy the whole time. They hype up the octopus swords guy a bit but then do not follow through at all when he fights Zoro, who literally just breaks his swords in one hit, then he recovers with some poison attack, and then loses instantly to Zoro doing some cut animation.

I can't help but feel like the intro songs are getting worse? They are kinda cheesy

When Franky is in Chopper's body and he asks Chopper for a Rumble Ball, and Chopper tells him to be very careful and use it in the most dire of situations, then Franky immediately uses it and goes on a rampage - made me laugh out loud for awhile

Smoker and Tashigi changing bodies and Smoker in Tashigi's body preferring a shirtless/open shirt style is awesome

When you find out at the end of Punk Hazard that Buggy is one of the warlords, a literal idiot, I burst out laughing. I never vibed with a guy who's just drifting through life and making sh*t up more than that

Caesar is one of those characters you obviously don't "like" but he's actually a really good villain I think. He's obviously sadistic but the show does a really good job of showing how manipulative someone can be in the right circumstances. And he's really not an idiot at all, he uses multiple people to his advantage. One of the better villains so far

There's a very brief flashback showing Zoro presumably asking/begging for Hawkeye to train him. I wonder if we'll get more details than that (like how he lost his eye). Also wondering what happened to Perona

A highlight of Dressrosa to me is that Doflamingo obviously sets the Mera Mera Fruit to lure Luffy away from the main affairs of the island, but it ends up working completely against him when the imposter Lucy takes over while Carp form Luffy busts in the main entrance and beats ass

Dressrosa has had a lot of good parts so far but I can't help but feel (about halfway through the arc) that the storytelling/narrative is all over the place. It's been like 5 episodes (and I mean One Pace episodes, so probably like 10) in the middle where they say that "Big Mom's ship has arrived" and they give you absolutely no updates on that part of the crew. It's not that it's hard to follow, it just feels like things get interrupted a lot and it's hard to feel the cohesion sometimes. This show does a very formulaic "well we're on a new island, let's split up for some arbitrary reason, then bad things happen to everyone while their on their own, then later we'll meet up and beat them all". And you really feel it here.

I thought we were over the whole "Usopp is a coward then redeems himself" story arc but here we are, exp

Sabo and Koala's first appearance together after he eats the Mera Mera fruit is spectacular. I didn't really ever think Sabo was dead (and if you saw above I thought he maybe turned into Doflamingo but welp that was wrong). I first thought that the masked man (Lucy #2) was Marco. It was around this time I was thinking that we have, basically 600 episodes in, not heard really anything about the Revoltionary army and Dragon. So it seems like a good time for the tie-in

There are a lot of good backstories/flashbacks in this show but Corazon/Law's is pretty powerful and is among the best. It paints the picture of everyone involved really well. I particularly find it interesting how normal Doflamingo's crew look in the past vs. the present. Corazon's power fading as he dies and kid Law starting to audibly cry is very unsettling

The Senor Pink section finale (kinda out of nowhere) was extremely good. Compare that to anything that happened in Fishman Island. 100x better. And Frankly is absolutely based & hits a different note than everyone else.

I like how some enemies randomly change size over the show. Doflamingo has gone from being a normal size human to sometimes being 5x the height of Luffy

Honestly it took a REALLY long time for Zoro to have a good moment again and Plan 5 vs Pica is one of the best. The king is back

In many many ways Dressrosa is Alabasta 2.0 (Update, the show basically comes out and makes this comparison itself. It was kinda cool for a brief period to make that connection myself)

When you finally (after like 50 episodes) see the other squad for the first time on the island they were trapped on, the animation style finally looks SO different. Nami looked like a different character to me at first. I had heard it changes at some point and you can see subtle things before this point but it was extremely stark to me here.

I really liked Zou as an intermediary arc. It sets the stage for the next part really well. You can tell big things are happening soon, and Sanji getting more serious backstory and the squad going to help him is great

Everything about Sanji's backstory is especially good. It made me realize that each main character gets a very fully fleshed out backstory at some point, and it's really only Zoro that haven't had theirs told yet (and I'm sure his will be huge). I suspect there's a bunch more for Luffy too.

I freaking love Carrot

Sanji and Pudding is a really interesting dynamic. It's proof that even if two people are happy around each other and amicable, an arranged marriage is still an arranged marriage and it clearly isn't the same. Rather than having a very trope-y "one bad spouse in the arranged marriage", it's very clearly not that.

^^^ Nevermind I was fking baited and emotionally destroyed. (later edit - this turned out to be pretty good. I like the juxtaposition/flip of how Pudding pretends to be smitten by Sanji and is actually sinister, then later its the opposite where she's sinister (tsundere) to him but actually smitten)

Luffy awakening future seeing ability while fighting Katakuri is exactly like Jotaro fighting Dio and awakening time stop

Jinbe's quiet reaction to Luffy beating Katakuri, where he doesn't say anything and is like "holy sh*t he did it" while the rest of the crew is like "yay!" is really good.

Honestly the whole Fishman Island arc felt pretty pointless until the end of Whole Cake Island where Jinbe's old crew come through for Jinbe and the squad

Big Mom kinda sucks as a character tbh. But her legion of commanders are pretty good

The animation style is really looking different since Wano started

The minute I saw Okiku, I thought she was the girl from Zoro's past. But some part of me thought that the Tashigi actually was that girl. So at the moment I don't really know

Zoro and Luffy being reunited (after not that long) is great. Zoro, who is never excited about anything, is actually excited to see Luffy again and it really hits you hard. They're boys. And they beat ass together for awhile too

It always come back to time travel.

Something is up with Kiku during the flashback where they talk about time travel. She's always darkened and it's not clearly her.

Unless there's a reason later, Kaido not completely murdering Luffy while he had the chance is a pretty weak plot point.

Some of the Wano women looking like old/ancient Japanese drawings is really good (Otsuru). Wano is obviously referencing old Japan but it also feels like a nice mix of historic principles & also random pop culture interpretation of old Japan.

Sanji willing to use Germa technology is very cool. Trafalgar Law knowing all of Sanji's technology because of the comic book that was distributed through North Blue is awesome. I did notice that Sanji fights with his hands while in the Raid Suit which is pretty atypical for Sanji. But maybe it's because he's trying to hide his identity

The Smile fruit background scenes in Wano with Yasu's death is really good storytelling, tying in so many elements of the show's past. In particular it gives a lot of weight to Caesar's and Doflamingo's actions. I had this arc with Caesar where I was kinda neutral on him at first, began to like him as a villain, enjoyed his presence on Whole Cake Island, then realized how fked up the stuff they were doing, when you learn more about Smile fruits in Wano.

Zoro and Sanji saving the day after not seeing each other for like 100 episodes, then immediately fighting with each other, is absolutely based. Also Zoro stealing "Sanji's girl" is the best

At first I wasn't so excited to see Big Mom again, but the way she takes out Queen is really good and shows you just how powerful she is. The early parts of this show did not do the best job of explaining how the gang gets stronger (like when Luffy just busts out Gear power in Enies out of nowhere), but it has done a way better job since Sabaody. And Hyoshiro asking Luffy to protect him while Hyoshiro is chased by Big Mom is excellent

The recap content is getting extremely powerful on time every episode

Usopp and Robin doing ivanChins when they get on the boat after being "scared" by Brook to pass the identity check made me laugh out loud

I always thought X Drake was kinda weird showing up in Wano. When you first see him on Sabaody he kinda has this good guy vibe to him. Then on Wano he just looks like a flunky. Him actually being a Navy agent felt very normal and real

The episode explaining the Warlords being stripped of their title is awesome. Gives a real sense of completeness to the journey so far. It also made me realize that every part of the story has really felt meaningful so far except Skypeia, which almost never has those nice shoutouts or snippets of shots from characters. I don't think I've seen Conis since Skypeia. The gang gets the Dials from there but not really much else. I always wondered if Eneru was going to reappear (cuz almost no one actually ever dies)

It's kinda crazy that it takes 965 episodes to see Roger fight, and still haven't seen Shanks fight. Very interesting

Seeing Skypeia again is really good. Reminds you of a lot of important elements, specifically the poneglyph. And watching Roger take a similar route to Luffy is great (Water 7)

Kid Shanks saying that he'll make it to Raftel on his own, and leaving Roger behind was oddly heartwarming to me

Denjiro -> Kyoshiro -> Ushimitsu Kozo reveal is absolutely sick. Connecting it all back to Hiyori turning into Komurasaki is A+++

Impostor arc is good. I thought it was probably Kiku. But as soon as Kanjuro revealed I was like "yeah this mf is suspicious looking, of course its him". Him hiding his drawing skills is good

JINBEI POGGERS

Jinbei joining very late but being around for a long time feels like when a JRPG or a Fire Emblem gives you a badass character late that has been around most of the game

Who's Who is top tier bad guy name

Zoro and Luffy getting pissed off at the flunkies at Kaido's banquet over red bean soup and basically completing abandoning the gameplan, hell yes

The developments from Orochi getting beheaded (which is badass btw) onwards is really good. You know the whole time that Kaido is not going to play nicely, but he's pretty passive the whole time. Then the power struggle between him and Big Mom starts immediately after they ally.

The Akazaya attack against Kaido is extremely good, the ferocity of their attack critically hitting Kaido all together. It's rare you see straight up actual killing intent from anyone in this show. But you just know the anime trope is going to happen where next episode Kaido is going to be fine. It's kind of a bummer that it's a trope you constantly have to think about. (Later edit: this was kind of true. I think they handled it well)

Episode 1000 is real good. Nice little character recap

Nami in her samurai outfit for all of the raid, I can't believe I have to write this thought down, but it's nice that they toned down her boobs flopping everywhere for once in 800 episodes. There's a difference between some characteristic expression vs. the show going overboard with it. It's been much better here

Maybe I'm way off base but I can't help but feel like Yamato's representation as a male is kind of... tasteless?

Seeing Ace tied into the story is pretty great. And it's quite cool for Big Mom & Kaido to be fascinated with the One Piece, since the overwhelming majority of the show only Luffy really cares about it (notable exception at Sabaody with Captain Kid/Law)

There's a scene where Kaido says to himself that there's only a few people he knows that can fight him, and although I can tell most of them (Roger/Whitebeard/Shanks/Oden), there's this guy in purple that I don't recognize, which is super cool. It also begs the question how powerful Shanks is, because you don't know anything about him really (even this late)

Honestly Chopper feels like he's been sidelined for about 500 episodes, so it's really good to see him get his time to shine when he makes the antidote and whoops Queen's ass in Rumble form

I was getting a little miffed that Zoro/Kid/Law/Killer weren't really doing anything and just hanging on the sideline during the big fight. So when they send Big Mom off the island, I was kinda poppin off. But how tf did Prometheus, a fiery sun, dive into the sea

Episode 1028 is very powerful. Landing critical blow on Kaido with Luffy's training sequence and Hyogokuro, it's all good. This show sometimes used to now really showcase the journey to becoming more powerful, but it's been really getting it right with Luffy. That was some of the most creative animation I've seen in awhile, with the colors and the flowers. Beautiful

Nami and Usopp kinda fleeing/kinda joking is fine, but when Nami goes super pissed mode when Otama gets hit is awesome. Tbh I was pretty sick of Nami for about 700 episodes but she's actually really good in Wano in its entirety.

Robin's fight with Black Maria is truly great. The Fishman Karate backstory is especially good. Robin hadn't really been a focus in fights for a long time, but she finally got some story of trying to be stronger for herself & her friends. Black Maria provokes her in very real ways and Robin stands up to her from a real place of trust in her crew. Also demon form Robin is somethin' else

<started reading the manga at this point>

Killer taking out Hawkins to clear up Kid's ailing is sick

Kinemon losing his upper half again is a good callback

Law & Kid using their powers together to have Law plant a sword in Big Mom so that Kid can magnetize mass to it, sick. Their entire fight against Big Mom is really amazing, want to see it animated. Her dialogue to Roger at the end is super good, talking about how because he proclaimed the Pirate Era, it was up to the Emporer's to deal with all the uprisings

Izo standing up for the Straw Hats when Izo encounters CP0 instead of just walking away is awesome

FINALLY get to learn about Zoro's past and his swords, YEESSS

When CP0 shows up during Luffy fighting Kaido, the one manga frame recalling when Oden was distracted from holding Momo hostage is an excellent callback

GEAR FIFTH whoa. Lookin silly. Want to see it animated. I was WAITING for a really long time for the world to become rubber around him, after what Doflamingo shows off in Dressrosa with "awakening". I was getting worried they were going to gloss over it? Clearly not

Raizo and Jinbe teaming up to douse the castle, sick

The scene depicting the kids getting re-taught history lessons is really full circle too.

The transition out of Wano is especially good, the state-of-affairs "Road to Laugh Tale" recap. Seeing the giant Buggy poster is really something else.

Crocodile and Hawkeye teaming up is sick. I'm somehow a Crocodile fan? Everything Buggy related is the best

When the anime showcases the Reverie, it really feels like a short chapter that didn't really matter much. But after Luffy and everyone learns about Nefertari's death, it starts to seem like it's way more important

FINALLY getting the backstory about the Revolutionaries, and seeing Ohara back in the spotlight is so good. Finally you understand why Dragon is important

There is a LOT	happening on Egghead real quick holy crap

Stussy reveal and why the old lady was following Weevil around makes a whole lotta sense now

END on Manga Chapter 1073. GG



Questions
In Skypeia's flashbacks, Why did Calgara & other Shandians have small wings when they were on the ground, long before any of them were in the sky

Kinemon says they've been training since Oden died, when they all bust out their powerful red/black Haki to defeat Kaido. But Kinemon & Raizo traveled forward in time, and it was only a few days (weeks at most?) since Oden died. When did they train? The rest of them had 20 years but not them.