The battle of the serious and the silly continues with One Piece 1074, with the same high-quality results that Toei has been turning in, week after week.
I assume at some point, I will have to write a review that has more to discuss other than “Omg, One Piece is good”, but the Toei team certainly is not making it easy. Luffy and Kaido's fight on the roof of Onigashima puts on full displays of the creativity and vibrancy that they have made commonplace in the Wano arc. Watching these two god-like combatants move rubberbands (ha!) between blink-and-you'll-miss-it high-speed fluidity and full-stop body blows whose gravitas shakes the bones of the earth. It's quite spectacular. Again, I find myself asking if I should be able to watch this for free and not, I don't know, paying the full price for a movie ticket. The craft and care taken to render this fight is just outrageously good.
Even beyond the technical acumen of the team, their creativity has to be commended as well. A large portion of the fighting in 1074 revolves around Luffy manipulating lightning. I love how there were times it is rendered thick and branching like the roots of a great tree, while at other times, Luffy is pulling it taut and pinging between these great strands of light at high speed. It is a visual and conceptual spectacle, a delight for the senses, and a uniquely engaging high-fantasy combat. I know the arc has taken a long time, and this fight in particular is longer than some entire anime series, but I find myself wishing it could just keep going and not have to end.
What's also interesting to note is the new opening and ending sequence pairing. They are quite lovely as they exhibit a very soft style with light linework, reminiscent of things like the Baron Omatsuri film. I find it odd that we have new… well… anything this late into the arc, especially given how Wano-centric all the imagery is. I feel like the prior opening - PAINT - had a rather long run, and at this point, I just assumed it would last until the end of the arc. I wonder how many episodes we can expect for this one, given how close Wano's finale is (or at least appears to be).
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