The battle at the prison continues. The goons finally come to grips with the powerful figures they are facing, legends from Wano's past, and the poison bullets start flying. Prisoners begin falling ill, prompting Luffy and the others to join the fray and put an end to this. The members of the Akazaya Nine of course do massive damage with each attack, sending guards flying in all directions.
Eustass finds himself staring at the keys to freedom. When Raizo sees this he tells him to use them and break out. Kid's eyes glow red as Killer's laughter echoes.
More and more prisoners fall to the poison rounds. More horrifying, they soon rise like zombies and surround the others - infecting them in the process. Luffy and the gang are surrounded, facing down innocent but infected prisoners. The prisoners for their part know that they would rather not fight the heroes but against Kaido, the animal pirates, and Queen's bullets - what else can they do?
Then: Luffy reaches out and infects himself with the poison!
Running forward with his arms spread wide, Luffy then pushes the crowd back. He grips them in a giant bear hug and tells them of all the strong samurai he knows, reflecting on them in a flashback. Luffy tells the prisoners that they have had their spirits shattered all over measly dumplings.
“You're given enough to keep from dying and you call that living?!” he roars before throwing them all to the ground. More than that he thinks about Tama and what all she has been through. Luffy tells them to make a decision: stand with us or with Kaido. This makes them waver.
On the sidelines, Babanuki realizes that they are not pressing in any longer. He decides to throw a bomb into the crowd and turn the tide - one full of 200 plague rounds. As he goes to fire from his trunk, Kawamatsu notices it. He tells Luffy who leaps into action by tying o ff the end of the elephant's trunk.
The bomb kersplodes.
Babanuki goes bye bye.
Luffy points at the remaining guards and tells the prisoners to take care of them. The prisoners make their choice and revolt, making it game over for the guards.
The big emotional high point is Luffy and the poison rounds. Straw Hat is always willing to save others and free them from tyranny/slavery. In this instance he willingly infects himself to share in their burden so that they no longer feel that they have to oppose him, taking on their burden to enable them to fight back. Even still, ultimately it is their choice to join his cause. Luffy takes away the roadblocks to their agency yet demands nothing from them in return, allowing them to choose their freedom for themselves.
That's why we love that sunshine lad.
Visually this episode had plenty to chew on too. While there were a handful of reused sequences with the guards firing the pistols, the highlights more than outweighed this. Each oft he Akazaya Nine getting a cool flashy attack was a treat - Kiku's particularly. The glowing red eye effects on her mask and the splotchy purple filter over the slideshow-style sequence of her sword strikes was phenomenal.
The explosive ending was fun too. I really thought it was an interesting choice to have Babanuki go into a sketchy, almost formless state of gray/black sketchiness as he exploded. It felt like the art itself was breaking down, making it that much more violent that it might otherwise feel. Also Luffy got to do the “cool guys don't look at explosions” walk away bit, what's not to love?
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...
