It's hard to objectively rate an episode like 1029. It is at once well-executed and cynically transparent, a sort of necessary evil that is far better than it has any right to be but also too awkward to fit into the continuity of the current arc.
There's nothing particularly egregious about the content of the episode itself. It is a flashback episode where we spend time with young Luffy first meeting Shanks and his daughter Uta. Uta is roughly Luffy's age and they spend time running around and playing together, competing with one another, and learning about each other. Uta wanted to be a star, and the framing device at the beginning of the episode shows us that she does indeed become a worldwide talent in the present day. The episode is well-animated, with plenty of engaging visuals that operate on the sort of dreamy-weamy logic of music videos. Young Luffy even fights a monkey at one point and shares fruit with him! It's fun for the whole family.
That said, this is a straight-up half-hour commercial for One Piece: Film Red, and it's impossible to shake the sense of disruption the entire episode brings. That's… fine, I get it, Toei wants to cross-promote and I don't have any qualms about it per se. I'm sure the crew put in a ton of effort into the film and so they'd want to put in that extra bit of impetus for folks to go see the movie. Not to mention, it's a good-looking episode! The team did not phone it in one bit.
But… it's hard not to feel a huge letdown that we're pumping the brakes on Wano (already an incredibly long arc) to do this for a week. That only further underscores the weirdness of Uta as a character. Don't get me wrong, she has a terrific design, a well-realized motivation, and I don't have any issue with “Shanks had a kid we don't know about.”
The problem is that this entire idea of her having been good friends with Luffy during such a pivotal time in his life seems to be both too important and not important enough all at once. In other words, Uta currently feels detached from the narrative—she essentially is one of the first age-appropriate friends Luffy ever had, and the daughter of his mentor, but Uta doesn't add much to Luffy's story or experience or what we know about him (and how could she, with only 30 minutes of screentime as of now? Perhaps the film expands on this) other than to explain her motivation.
The whole experience fell flat for me, despite its merits.
Creator Negi Haruba drafts story for new anime, light novel― "The Quintessential Quintuplets 5th Anniversary Event in Yokohama Arena" announced on Sunday that Negi Haruba's The Quintessential Quintuplets (Gotōbun no Hanayome) romantic comedy manga is inspiring a new anime, Gotōbun no Hanayome*. Haruba personally drafted the original story concept and is supervising all aspects of the anime, which re...
Yostar reveals teaser, key visual, official website― The staff for the Arknights mobile game and its tie-in franchise announced on Saturday in a new teaser trailer that the Arknights: Rise from Ember anime is now in production. The staff also launched an official website for the anime and released a key visual. The game is set in a fantasy world called Terra with modern science-fiction motifs. Terra...
Makes Nagi an even more interesting and nuanced character, but the last 10 minutes almost upends the film's otherwise interesting plot.― BLUELOCK THE MOVIE -EPISODE NAGI- is a retelling of the early events of BLUELOCK through the eyes of Nagi and Mikage. However, that's not to say this is a recap or compilation film. Rather, a good 70% of the film is newly animated footage as the story follows their...
Following Poupelle of Chimney Town, Nishino tackles addiction in his new stop-motion anime short film.― In advance of the U.S. premiere of the new stop-motion animated short film Bottle George, Anime News Network sat down with writer Akihiro Nishino and chatted not only about the film and its creation but also its deeper message and how it connects to Nishino's past. While now well-known as a childr...
From Classroom for Heroes to Management of a Novice Alchemist, we have reviews of the newest light novels in our guide!― Welcome to Anime News Network's Spring 2024 Light Novel Guide, the companion to our ongoing manga guide! This season, we have 20 novels with reviews in the guide for you to browse. Every included novel was published in March or April or will be released in May. This guide focuses...
SAND LAND is a curious game that combines an eclectic set of gameplay features into a well-realized package that, despite its flaws, is perfectly solid and more than the sum of its parts.― SAND LAND is a curious game that combines an eclectic set of gameplay features into a well-realized package that, despite its flaws, is perfectly solid and more than the sum of its parts. Going into this one, all ...
Atlus reveals its big new game, Metaphor: ReFantazio, amid the recent exit of Shin Megami Tensei artist Kazuma Kaneko. PLUS: A Golden Axe comedy series and Pokémon Go models get a makeover.― Welcome back, folks! As you probably noticed, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes came out earlier this week. It's a fun time, as you could see in my review of it. It's come to my attention that there are some per...
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes promises to revive the Suikoden series in everything but name, but what's so great about Suikoden that it's worth reviving? Well, read on…― It's 1996, and the PlayStation is just starting to take over the game industry. It has many genres covered: racing, fighting, action, sports, puzzles, train-conducting, deep-sea diving, fire-fighting, and so forth. But what abou...
Some of Shonen Jump's biggest manga hits are approaching their end. Does the magazine have new heavy-hitters lined up to take up the mantle?― Some of Shonen Jump's biggest manga hits are approaching their end. Does the magazine have new heavy-hitters lined up to take up the mantle? Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the participants in this chatlog are not the views of Anime News Netwo...