The Dressrosa arc is going to end one of these days, I swear. As it stands, our heroes are on the move, making a beeline to the shore and trying to stave off the marines from capturing them. Luffy did say a long time ago, "That's the way pirates should leave," referring to the pirate-marine-civilian relationship. However, in the middle of their grand exit, it's Luffy who stops and decides he has unfinished business on the island.
He's got something he wants to say to Rebecca, feeling unsatisfied with the way her relationship with her father was being swept under the rug by Kyros' fake rumor from last week. So he stops, waves "see ya later!" to his friends and starts to head in a different direction to the annoyance of his crew. But what can they do about it, right?
Rebecca is such a headache to think about sometimes. It's not that I don't want to like her or anything, but she's so obviously one of the weakest arc-centric characters we've ever seen in this show. Luffy's attempt to bring her and her dad back together is supposed to be a beautiful thing, but if ever there was a character who didn't earn it... Though, honestly these last few episodes have been doing a pretty okay job at bringing us back to a time when the Kyros and Rebecca storyline had promise: when Kyros was a helpless toy soldier and Rebecca was his scared friend who wanted to protect him. That stuff still works really well and I wish Oda had kept on a stronger through-line for them.
Okay, so maybe Rebecca is that bad. She's just a victim of a botched subplot. Luffy plows his way through the dozens (maybe hundreds?) of marines as he's keen to do, and makes his way back to the palace where Rebecca is being suited up for her families public return to the throne. Before Luffy appears, she seems to have given up trying to connect back with Kyros after he wrote her a letter saying not to. Luffy's got a fire in him, though, and he grips the bars of the palace window, trying angrily to turn the tides on this side story.
"Are you really okay with things this way?!" Luffy seems pretty opinionated over people's emotional compasses. Most of this episode is a bit of a padded drag, but this scene manages to be interesting. Rebecca has to wrestle with her conflicted feelings where part of her wants to respect her father's wishes, and another part is being shredded by guilt and anxiety as she has to wonder if she's not good enough for him, with no outlet to express herself. It honestly doesn't make a lot of logical sense how she would come to the conclusion based on any of their interactions, but frankly I was able to plug a bit of myself into this scene so I'll cut it some slack. We all get put in those no-win situations, but we probably don't have a Luffy in our lives.
Luffy gets Rebecca to admit that, no, she is not okay with things being the way they are, and soon Luffy is busting her out of the palace and they are off to Kyros' cabin in big, dramatic fashion. The two are off to finish one last story thread before Dressrosa can wrap up and the Straw Hats can finally set sail for Zou.
Overall this would be a pretty below-average episode with action scenes that are competent but in no way memorable connecting the stronger story beats. The exhaustion felt towards the end of the Doflamingo fight is coming back as the story just keeps refusing to leave Dressrosa, but I suppose we've accepted that feeling along time ago, so why not one more thing.
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...
