I talk about Hiro Mashima’s work a lot. Yet I’m also one of the people who is quick to call out problems with his work. It’s often aimless, repeats a lot, uses too much fanservice that doesn’t get anywhere and it’s far too clean when it comes to the stakes it tends to have. Despite all of this, I have a ton of respect for the author. In an industry where the average manga author is overworked due to the inhuman schedule, Mashima doubles and triples up on the normal workload while still exploring other outlets for his creativity. I finished volume 26 of Eden’s Zero today. It was really good. I highly recommend you read the series. The anime adaptation felt a bit slow to me, but as a story I believe Eden’s Zero to be much better than its predecessors.
As much as these are extremely similar characters, I do think Shiki and Rebecca are an upgrade over Natsu and Lucy. It’s less like a copy and more like a newer generation.
So what do I mean when I say his workload is extreme? He’s currently writing Eden’s Zero, providing storyboards for Fairy Tail: 100 year quest and writing a monthly manga called Dead Rock which I am unfamiliar with as of yet. In the afterword of Eden’s Zero he also talks about working on a video game and the script for an anime project. You can also sense his love for video games a lot in this latest volume of Eden’s Zero. His characters play video games and they talk about video games, even likening some recent events in the story to video game mechanics.
So why am I talking about Mashima again? I don’t really know. I have a fascination with his work. I think my problem is with the inconsistency. When Fairy Tail, Rave Master or Eden’s Zero are at their best, they’re the absolute kings of “dumb shonen fun.” That’s not meant in a negative way by any means, it just refers to the lack of stakes, consistent power levels and clearly defined power systems. It doesn’t hold a candle to the complexity of the Jujutsu world, the creativity of the Devil Fruits or the incredible originality of the Nen system from Hunter x Hunter. But Hiro Mashima’s work never fails to make me smile. His characters are fun, the power of friendship that fills his works comes from a place of love for his craft and the fights are often great. He is also very good at including unbalanced fights every so often where we can watch the main cast go to town. These are great moments to show off growth. And because rarely anyone ever dies in Mashima’s work it’s easy to get attached to characters because you don’t risk getting hurt by their death. That’s a far cry from a lot of the more modern, edgier shonen that have been popping up lately. Those are great too, but in a different way. Instead we have a more sanitized story that just feels nice to read.
And I do want to acknowledge that I believe Eden’s Zero to be much better than his previous works. For starters, it feels like Mashima had an actual plan when he started this series. How much of it was planned I don’t know, but it feels like the story threads were laid out from the very beginning and he only followed them to where the story is now. Especially with Fairy Tail it felt a lot like he ran out of content about seven volumes in and then wrote another 60 just by throwing stuff at the wall. That’s why a lot of the later story feels so hit or miss to me, it doesn’t feel like a natural progression of what came before, it feels much more like separate arcs with a few planned moments and some flavorless stuffing to fill up the rest. Again, I’m not trying to be mean, it’s still a good series and a very impressive run, I just wonder how much better it could have been. I think Eden’s Zero gives us a peek at those possibilities. It’s not over yet, and I know that historically shonen manga have struggled to stick the landing but with how clear of a path this one has been following up until now, I think Mashima can do it. I for one am going to stick with this series until the very end and I’m incredibly excited for the upcoming few volumes. If you’re looking for a good fun shonen, I think Eden’s Zero is better than manga like My Hero Academia and Black Clover, and it has great character designs too. They’re so good, Mashima keeps using them over and over again. (I’m sorry, I understand why, but it’s still jarring at times). Thanks for reading, if you have any burning opinions about Mashima’s work that clash with mine or just haven’t been mentioned in this post, please feel free to leave them down below, comments are always appreciated!
I live in a small town. But when I say that it’s a small town, that’s not giving away a whole lot. The town I live in has around 12.000 people living in it. Depending on your perspective that can be a lot or very little. For comparison, Amsterdam has around 800.000 people living in it. So from that perspective I think our town is pretty small. I did once do an internship in the eastern part of the country. This is much more rural than where I live and I think if I were to ask someone on the train there if 12.000 people was a lot for a town, they’d probably say yes. Some of the villages we went through might not even have had a thousand people living there. In a world that’s quickly modernizing and has ever growing metropolises, how do you keep a small town from disappearing? This isn’t a problem in my country, but it’s been a problem in Japan for a while now. The 2017 anime Sakura Quest tackles this concept and it does so wonderfully. This review will contain some spoilers for the story, but as it’s a slice of life anime, none of that matters all too much. Still, if you want to go in blind, skip this review and go straight to watching the show.
This is why you pay attention during English class, if this is the best you can do when talking to a foreigner, you’re going to have a bad time.
When I first watched an episode of Sakura Quest, I recognized that this was an anime I would like, but it was also during a time where I wasn’t in the mood for slower anime. At this point it’s almost seven years ago and back then my interests still leaned a lot more towards shonen anime. So I put it on hold for a little while. That little while ended up turning into years until I finally found the time to sit down and watched the remaining 16 or so episodes earlier this month. What I watched was an extremely pleasant, thought provoking window into the Japanese countryside, seen through the lens of both old people and young people.
It’s little Yoshino! She’s adorable and apparently she’s been here before.
Yoshino Koharu takes a job as the Queen of Chupacabra kingdom. This is a made up kingdom for tourism that’s in the small town of Manoyama. For a year, she’s part of a government of ministers that try to revitalize the small town and bring back some of the culture it lost as time went on and the town shrunk. The story follows Yoshino alongside four other young women who all have their own reasons for working in Manoyama. Some grew up there and wanted to see it shine, others came to escape the big city or to come back home after the big city didn’t turn out to be what they wanted. These five women are now tasked with creating events, promoting them online, convincing the board of merchants and working hard for a year to make sure the town stays relevant.
No context need for this one I reckon.
The first half of the show is a little bit slow as we take our time to get to know some of the characters. As the show picks up steam, we start to see more and more about what makes Manoyama interesting. Sure, it’s a small town like any other, but they have their own festivals, their own history and many of the older people living there still remember a time before things started getting quiet. We run into problems with a filming crew that doesn’t quite make the footage they wanted, the head of the merchants board and the chief of the cultural board are old friends who don’t like each other at all right now, there’s a professor of anthropology who’s studied the town for decades. My favorite little bit of information is that the people who live a bit further out from Manoyama all hang certain lanterns outside their house at night. If one of the houses is missing a lantern, that signals that something has gone wrong. It’s a very practical system in a place where technology feels alien and out of place. As we progress through the story we see more and more of these interesting cultural touchstones. The local police officer, book seller and bus driver once hid a dragon toy in the local playground. The daughter of the local restaurant wants to move to Tokyo, the bus line isn’t profitable, the old school is going to be bulldozed if they don’t find a use for it.
Tradition is what keeps us special. Just don’t consider it to be more important than progress.
All of this culminates in a festival where the entire town comes together after differences have been settled. Everyone celebrates the uniqueness that their village has and with the future secured thanks to the help of some kind outsiders things look like they’re going to be okay. Speaking of outsiders, a man named Sandal moved to the city and seems to be an all around oddball throughout the story. He’s an artist and a bit of a poet at times but he comes to be fully accepted by the Manoyama residents and ends up just as much a part of their village as anyone else. Also, his voice actor has one of the most pleasant voices I’ve ever heard. After everything is solved, we move on from the project. The year of being a queen is over and Yoshino and the others need to decide what they want to do next. I won’t spoil what she decides but I think the decision she ends up making was better than anything I could have predicted. Although it took me almost 7 years to finally finish this show, I think it’s a very good slice of anime that should get more recognition than it does. If you like shows like Yuru Camp, Non Non Biyori and Barakamon, this one will be perfect to watch next. Thanks for reading!
Paint those sights you want to remember for a long time.
A few weeks before Christmas I got very sick with covid. I had to spend the week and a half leading up to Christmas mostly cooped up in my room. Once the worst symptoms had gone away, I needed something to take my mind off of how bad I was feeling so I decided to read some manga. I first reread most of Jujutsu Kaisen before finally giving Chainsaw Man a shot. It was better than I expected, I’m kind of looking forward to the continuation of the anime now. After finishing those two I wasn’t quite sure what to read. Suddenly I got the urge to re-read The Promised Neverland. I remember really liking the manga even though a lot of people seemed to dislike the ending. After reading the entire manga I got a much worse idea. What if I finally sat down and watched the second half of season 2. I dropped it after five episodes because it skipped one of my favorite arcs in the manga but I figured if I were to review the series I should finish it. So now that I’ve read the manga again and watched the entire anime, let’s talk about both. As you might have guessed by now, this post will include major spoilers for the Promised Neverland manga and anime, so beware of that.
This is the moment where things really kick off, when Emma finds a seemingly abandoned village in the middle of a forest, instead of a clue to their escape.
First, let’s take a moment to talk about everything the manga did right in my opinion, to kind of get an idea for what I was expecting when the anime announced its second season. After escaping from Grace Field, the children managed to find a hideout that William Minerva prepared for them. There they found another escapee who is much older than them. It turns out he’s lived there for a while already and has slowly gone crazy. After that, Emma convinces him to bring her and Ray to Goldy Pond, where the next clue leads them. Goldy Pond was completely skipped in the anime, which is a shame. Goldy Pond is the name of a secret hunting ground where several noble demons hunt children for sport. Emma is whisked away to this place where she teams up with some of the surviving children there to fight back against the demons. We also learn that the crazy guy, whose name is Yugo, was part of a big group of escapees who found Goldy Pond and were subsequently all slaughtered.
The terrifying villain known as Archduke Lewis.
Unbeknownst to Yugo, his good friend Lucas was still alive at Goldy Pond. After an intense battle between humans and demons, which culminates in the humans defeating Lewis, a very powerful demon, Lucas and Yugo team up and everyone goes back to the shelter to regroup. During their time at the shelter, Peter Ratri sends a squad of soldiers to kill the escapees, which turns into a bloodbath during which a few of the young children as well as Yugo and Lucas unfortunately die. The gang then goes on a journey to reforge the promise with a demon deity so that humans and demons can live freely.
After encountering this deity once and figuring out many clues to their current predicament, the children encounter Jin and Hayato. They are other escapees and they’re working directly for William Minerva. This can’t be, since Minerva is supposed to be dead, but the children go with them anyway, after retrieving some medicine from a nearby plant. When they get to the village, they find out that their friend Norman is still alive, and he’s grown considerably. We finally learn what happened to Adam, who is a strong child that was with the Goldy Pond group. The reason he kept saying Norman’s number is because they were both at the Lambda research facility, where Peter Ratri is trying to create the ultimate cattle. Norman and the other Lambda escapees want to kill all the demons but Emma and Ray want to save the demons as well, recognizing that there isn’t really a racial divide, there’s a socio-economic divide that’s being sold as a racial divide. Or I’m looking into things too much, don’t mind me. Either way, Emma’s plan is to use Musica’s blood to help the demons become immune to the degeneration that happens when they stop eating humans and then reforging the promise with their deity so all children are allowed to be free.
Aishe and the demon that raised her. They’re a happy family, despite their difference.
To make sure it’s clear that demons come in all shapes and sizes we meet Aishe. She doesn’t speak human language but is loyal to Norman. She, as well as some others, are sent by Norman to kill Musica instead of helping the kids. As they kids travel, they learn that Aishe isn’t actually loyal to Norman, but instead is angry that they killed the demon that cared for her. Her demon was kind and raised her well, and she harbors anger about his death. With some trickery and help, they manage to overwhelm the attackers and reunite with Musica and Sonju. At this point we get to the end of the story and if you’ve read it, I won’t summarize all of it since we’ll be here all day. But to make a long story short, the demons are saved while the nobility is slaughtered with the help of an exiled clan. The populace is given the special blood that Musica has and Sonju turned out to be the brother of the former queen, who is killed by our heroes. They find a strange ally in Lewis, who managed to survive the fight at Goldy Pond due to having a second core, and the promise is reforged, leading to the children and their (farm) mothers being allowed to leave to the human world. Isabella and Peter Ratri die in the process and the system is overturned completely, separating the demon and the human world for good.
This reunion feels completely undeserved and meaningless. Norman hasn’t changed at all, and his later desperation to be violent feels much more out of character.
This brings me to the unfortunate reality that is the second season of The Promised Neverland Anime. In the anime we skip all of Goldy Pond as well as meeting those escapee children and Yugo and Lucas. Instead we go from the escape almost immediately to reuniting with Norman. Norman’s gone through the same process as in the manga, except on a much smaller scale. He’s just a guy with a few escapees here, not the leader of a massive group of refugees. Jin, Hayato and Aishe are completely absent from the story and instead of trying to kill Musica, Norman straight up lies to his friends purely to get vengeance. A lot of Norman’s goals are the same as in the manga, but without any of the buildup you get when reading the much longer story. The nobles are completely forgotten except for a small mention towards the end, making it seem like there was no real power structure in the demon world, but it was just Peter Ratri farming kids for clout. The promise is forgone as well, making the entire system hinge on pure trust on equal sides, which would never work when you look at the nature of some of the demons. A lot of the anime’s ending ends up not being very sensible. It wants to conclude the story in the same way as in the manga, but we go from narrowly escaping one woman and a farm to torching half the demon army in the span of three episodes. Emma’s naive character is also turned up to 11 and although she’s not a particularly realistic character to begin with, the manga makes sure to properly build her up, making her consistent within the logic set for her character. In the anime she just kind of doesn’t want to kill all demons. The farms mainly get liberated offscreen in what is a throwaway after credits scene and we’re left feeling hollow about what we just watched.
Because the season lacks any clear direction and plan, they kept in the fact that Emma had to make a sacrifice for their freedom, but instead of the already shaky one they had in the manga, she just kind of goes offscreen and fixes the entire problem with the demons. It feels unrewarding and kind of lame.
I know many manga readers had umbridge with the ending of the story and I can’t say I absolutely loved every choice the author made. I do commend the author for making a very interesting story that stayed consistent throughout and although it took some suspense of disbelief, I quite liked how everything got resolved nicely, but not without strife. In the anime there are no stakes. Everyone survived, no one got hurt, they defeated the entire demon world in a few days without any sacrifices. How big of a threat were these guys really? The storytelling in the anime doesn’t respect the viewers intelligence and that’s a real shame. This could have been a great anime, running for an extra two or three cours and properly developing its characters. It had a lot to say about society, consumption and reaching across the aisle to those who seem like strangers. Instead it abandons all of that for a terribly rushed season of anime with no stakes, no logic and quite frankly nothing really going for it. I would recommend the manga for anyone who watched the anime and felt disappointed. Even with the spoilers in this review, I still think it’s worth reading it to see for yourself. But that’s me and my opinion. Of course anyone creating an anime is trying to write the best story they can, and sometimes you don’t reach your goals. I wouldn’t want anyone to feel bad about it, but I do want to put into words what I didn’t like about it. Thanks for reading.
How was I not going to talk about this today? With the start of a brand new year and a brand new arc in the One Piece anime, Toei Animation delivered some amazing theme songs. Especially the new opening song is out of this world. Because it goes so heavily into the upcoming arc and shows a lot of interesting moments from it, this post will contain spoilers for the One Piece manga. If you’re not up to date on the manga, do not read this post. Before we dive into the opening, let’s talk about the ending first.
This shot from the ending is gorgeously drawn, the colors are really popping.
The 20th ending theme for One Piece is ‘Dear Sunrise’ by Otsuki Maki. It’s a pleasant song that reminds me of some of the early ending themes. It gives off similar vibes to the very first opening even in how calming it is. We get a nice collection of recaps of how each of the Straw Hats ended up joining the crew before cutting to the ship sailing off into the endless ocean. The art is pretty and the animation is fluid. Compared to the opening there’s not all that much here when it comes to visuals but the first shot of Luffy standing and staring out at the ocean while the crew slowly pops into frame one by one is a nice callback to the first ending. But this ending, pleasant as it is, does not compare to the absolute insanity that is the opening. The 25th opening may have been called ‘The Peak’ but opening 26 shows us that there are still higher heights to get to.
Right before this shot we get a view of the Merry, before it transforms into the Sunny. What an amazing transition.
Where do I even begin? I think I’m just going to go through the opening entirely and talk about each cool moment it shows off. Spoilers ahead of course. We start off relatively simple. We see the ship from above the clouds before zooming in at Luffy laying on the deck. If you pay close attention you can see that this is from the manga chapter where Luffy talks about his dream, except animated and drawn in an incredible style. We then move on to the first shot of the crew in their Egghead outfits as they’re wal;king in front of the words One Piece that show off the buildings on egghead. The cool boots steal the show here and Jinbe is looking so fly.
Would you look at them, so stylish.
We then get a few shots which include the ship being carried by a giant robot, a shot of all the different Punk’s as well as Lucci, Kaku and Stussy hiding in the background of the shot behind their masks. This is such a well done shot that the first few times I watched the opening I didn’t even realize what was there, I just saw the masks. We switch to Zoro and Luffy goofing off as a monitor behind them reveals many of the characters we see this arc at a rapid pace. Besides the punks we see Kizaru, the members of Sword and Garp, Buggy and his new company. We see the Heart Pirates drowning in their submarine followed by a quick rotating shot of the Sword members that will go in to save Coby later this arc. Speaking of Coby, we see him running away with the ball and chain in his hands. We flash cut to Sentomaru and then to Kizaru which turns into a beautiful shot of Kuma ripping free from the mechanical bindings that bind him to the world government, a final act of defiance against the people that took so much from him and never held up their end of the bargain. This opening is very well done guys, I mean it.
Kuma is the absolute goat of One Piece, No doubt about it.This is what I mean, they have winter outfits for Punk Hazard and their Dressrosa/Zou outfits when they move forward.
Amongst showing baby Sentomaru and one of the Punks we get our first shot of Bonney, trying to keep her head above the water. We then move to my favorite part of the entire opening. The crew is walking along different backgrounds, showing off the outfits they were wearing in those specific arcs. As they transition from one background to the other, their outfits change with them. Such a gorgeous sequence I’ve watched it on repeat numerous times. We then see a gorgeous clash between Luffy and Rob Lucci with gears flying through the screen, obviously referring to Luffy’s different powers. This makes me wonder if the side effects of using the gears that shorten his life are still a thing now that he’s awakened as Nika? Who knows.
Having just read the latest chapter, this shot is extra sad to watch.
We move on to the different clashes that will take place in the near future. First we see Kid versus Shanks, then Law versus Blackbeard. Kuzan and Garp clash in the aftermath of Coby’s jailbreak. Zoro fights the Mihawk pacifista and Luffy, of course, fights with Rob Lucci once more.
A shot of Morgan and Wapol is followed by a sad shot, presumably referring to King Cobra’s death. We move to the throne room with the swords of the twenty kings and Imu in the background, sitting menacingly on the throne. Sabo, Kid, Law and Coby all stumble through the frame, each going through their own serious battles. We very quickly transition into Vivi moving through the hole in the wall, signaling her escape from CP0 and then move onto Bonney stepping into Kuma’s memories to finish off the rapid sequence. We then get a shot of Egghead from overhead on a map and then the route along the grand line shows up. We see the crew one last time before we end the opening.
The infamous warlord of the sea and his crew.
This opening is animated by the now legendary Megumi Ishitani. Anything she touches turns into pure art. And everyone else who worked on this did a stellar job too. I haven’t been this excited for the anime part of One Piece since the first Wano opening was released, showing an incredible uptick in quality. One Piece fans are eating good in 2024. Thank you so much for reading this, I have listened to the opening song way too much already!
I didn’t watch as many anime this year as I did in previous years. I ended up watching only a little over 50 new shows in 2023. That’s not a lot at all, but this was a year of high quality so there was no need to watch a lot of shows. Having said that, there’s definitely shows that I missed so if I don’t mention your favorite show in this list, please let me know in the comments down below. I might just not talk about it but I also might not have watched it. With that out of the way, here are the 2023 anime that are most memorable to me, in no particular order.
Vinland Saga Season 2
This show has so many memorable moments that it was hard to pick one, but Einar speaking his mind was a good choice.
I’ve made no secret of the fact that I didn’t enjoy Vinland Saga all that much when it first came out. As a matter of fact, I ended up dropping it during the first half. I heard from manga readers that the second season would slow down a bit and change the pace and that definitely piqued my curiosity. So I finished the first season and to my surprise I enjoyed the second half of season 1 more than the first half. Then when season 2 came around, I watched it every week and I was fully invested. The slower, more human storytelling of this season was a stark contrast to the violence of season 1. The focus was much more on the quiet moments, on healing and on becoming the person you should be. We follow Thorfinn on his journey of self discovery and by the end of the season he is a much wiser person. If the story itself didn’t do enough convincing, then the opening and ending themes would definitely do the trick. LMYK’s song Without Love haunts my dreams in how beautiful it is and Anonymouz’ River is also a very good track. If you haven’t seen Vinland Saga yet, or you stopped after the first season I do think this is a great one to check out, it definitely switches things up but in my opinion it does so in a good way. And at its core it’s just vikings beating the crap out of each other, so at least there’s that.
Attack on Titan
The end of one of the most influential anime of the last ten years.
It’s been a hell of a journey, hasn’t it? From the very first time the titans breached the walls and turned our lives upside down until now, when the story has finally come to a conclusion. If you haven’t heard of this anime by now I honestly don’t know what to tell you. There is a lot to love here. From the music to the intrigue to the action to the world shattering events coming into a thrilling conclusion in this final season. Although I do think the show was hurt by some of the weird release schedules it had, I still found myself really enjoying this show. The ending sort of confused me, but I didn’t hate it either. I’ll miss these characters and there’s a good chance I’ll watch this show again in the future, just to get everything refreshed in my memory. If you love action and intrigue, this is one of the most memorable anime of the last decade so don’t miss out on it if you somehow have.
Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2
When he looks at you like that, you know it’s Gojover
The second season of one of Shonen Jump’s most popular manga has concluded and with it my favorite part of the story has also come to an end. Jujutsu Kaisen is a darker take on the shonen genre where the story is much less linear and things seem to happen more at a whim compared to other big shonen shows. THe animation is great and the action is solid. There’s a lot to love about this show but it’s also polarizing as the author often makes decisions that I don’t like. Obviously that’s an objective thing, others might really like the direction the story takes. Right after finishing the anime I did go back and reread the manga to refresh my memory on what happens after Shibuya finishes. What’s more interesting to look at when it comes to Jujutsu Kaisen is the production. Several of the people working on this season have come out and called out the inhumane working conditions at MAPPA and in the industry in general. Although I hope something changes in the near future, these problems have been around for ages and I have very little hope that good changes will come. I for one would rather wait longer between seasons to allow the people who create these wonderful series some more dignity, but that’s not how you make more profit. Support artists and the people that work hard, and don’t be harsh on them when the quality is low.
Zom100: Bucket List of the Dead
I want to dancing, dancing, rolling, rolling
Speaking of production issues and poor working conditions, let’s talk about Zom100 next. I was considering writing a separate review on this series, but after writing it I figured I could just include it in this post, so I’m doing that instead. Zom100 follows Akira as he’s stuck in a dead-end job. He’s miserable and finds no joy in life until one day he wakes up and realizes there’s a zombie apocalypse. Instead of despair, Akira feels immense freedom. He doesn’t have to go back to work now. The rest of the story follows Akira as well as several people he encounters on the way, as they try to make the most of life after this disaster. Akira has a bucket list of things he wants to do and a lot of them are very silly. This show is very silly at its core. There’s some heartfelt moments but personally I think they can be a little bit shallow or rigid at times. I much prefer the more comedic moments which is why the final three episodes felt a little bit like a letdown compared to what came before. It did have a very hard to watch depiction of abuse and fear of someone that was pretty well done. This is studio Bug Films’ first anime ever and unfortunately they couldn’t finish most of the episodes on time. This led to a few delays and eventually the final three episodes were delayed for a few months. Luckily the final product was of decent quality, but I hope they get a better schedule for their next project, so they can work on it with less stress.
Otaku Elf
The elf deity and her shrine maiden
I’ve already talked about this show on my blog before so I’ll make sure to keep this short. Otaku Elf tells the story of an elf that’s being revered as a god. The people know she’s an ancient elf, but they still uphold the traditions nonetheless. The core of the story focuses on Elda’s relationship with the young shrine maiden and how both of them care for each other but also need to keep each other in check. If Elda is left to her own devices she’ll never do her duties as a god, and will just play video games all day. This show has a lot of heart and I really like the dynamic between the different characters. I also find Elda to be very beautifully drawn when the show wants her to look beautiful. She does have that ephemeral quality that you’d expect from a deity. That or I just have a thing for elves. Don’t judge me. If you like slice of life shows with some fantastical elements to them, I highly recommend this one. If you need more convincing, give the opening song a listen. It’s probably my favorite song to come out of anime this past year, and that’s in a year where both Yoasobi and Yorushika have been prevalent in the anime scene, so that’s saying a lot.
Skip & Loafer
I love the unexpected bond that these two have. Both awkward in their own way, but Nao is great at being support here.
Sometimes you come across a show that feels like it was made for you personally. Skip and Loafer was made for me. Slice of life and romance have been my favorite genres for many years now and the combination of the two is just pure bliss to me on days I’m tired. Mitsumi moved from the countryside to the big city to become an important politician and really do something meaningful with her life. Here in the big city, she realizes life moves at a very different pace. Luckily for her, she quickly meets some great friends that help her get settled and before we know it she’s right at home in Tokyo. She also quickly becomes friends with Shima, who reminds her of her family dog in how kind he is and how fluffy his hair is. When she accidentally reveals this to Shima he doesn’t get angry at all, instead he thinks it’s really funny. What makes this story so unique is that the drama that does happen is never drawn out. The children communicate when they need to, but not so much that it’s not believable. Mitsumi and her classmates run into problems and then talk it out. Sometimes this requires an adult to push them in the right direction, but you never feel like things drag on just for the sake of keeping some drama going. A lot of this show feels peaceful and I found myself fully immersed from start to finish. I liked this show so much that I bought the manga, which I will admit I have yet to read, but you can’t blame me, my backlog is crazy. If you like Slice of Life shows, this one should be at the top of your list. This isn’t a best of 2023 list, but this show is definitely in my top 3.
Mononogatari
One thing every good action show needs is having the heroes show up at just the right moment. I think they nailed it.
This one is for the people who like a show that is a little bit slower in its buildup but gets going after the characters are fully set up. Mononogatari follows Kunato Hyoma as he moves into a household of Tsukumogami. This is set up by his grandfather so he can get over his intense hatred for them. A Tsukumogami killed his brother and sister in front of him and Hyoma never fully got over that. At the Nagatsuki household, where Nagatsuki Botan lives alongside her Bridal Trousseau, a group of Tsukumogami, he slowly learns to understand the differences between the different Tsukumogami and his hatred for them slowly wanes. Of course, there’s more going on as Botan is the vessel for an ancient Tsukumogami god and many of the people around her want that power for their own. It’s up to Hyoma to make sure she stays protected. This story has a really nice pacing to it in which things are progressing slowly, but constantly. We got two seasons in a year for this, which was a good decision because otherwise it would have felt a bit bare. The second season really complemented the first one and built upon what it had already set up. If you like a good action show with some more depth than your average shonen, this one should be near the top of your list.
The Ancient Magus Bride
He’s gotten much wiser than he thinks he has. Although he still has a lot to learn.
One of my favorite manga of all time finally got its second season. Divided into two cours, this season covered most of the manga, all the way up until volume 19. This is coincidentally also everything that has been translated to English, so I ended up reading volume 19 the day before I watched the final episodes, to make sure I read the manga first. Chise is a Sleigh Beggy, a human with almost infinite magic power that’s slowly eating away at her. She has a miserable youth which results in her selling herself into slavery. An ancient magus named Elias Ainsworth buys her for a very high amount and asks her to be his bride. Although the alarm bells should start ringing here, a lot of it also comes from the fact that Elias does not understand human culture all that well. What he really wants is a companion that he can teach magic to while his companion teaches him how humans work. That’s the strange teacher-student relationship the two of them end up having. Season 2 covers the college arc, which sees Chise and Elias at the sorcerer college where they meet a ton of new people and get involved in a dangerous mystery where a magic book gets stolen and people start getting their magic drained. The Ancient Magus Bride season 2 is also a contender for anime of the year, if you haven’t seen it at all yet, I highly, highly recommend both seasons. Some of the best fantasy anime I’ve ever watched.
Honorable Mentions
Who doesn’t like a smug elf?
I would be remiss not to bring up a few other shows. Most of these were popular in their own right, but I didn’t think they were as good as the other shows listed here. Hell’s Paradise and Heavenly Delusion each stand out in a season with many good shows. Hell’s Paradise is a fun shonen that reminds me of early Attack on Titan at times with its suspense and how high the stakes are. Heavenly Delusion is a mystery that really explores human emotion. It does have some difficult to watch scenes which include sexual assault, so keep that in mind if you’re uncomfortable with that. Bungo Stray Dogs had another season this year, which really amped up the stakes once again. I really enjoyed it, and recapped it every single week when it was airing, but it definitely requires some suspense of disbelief. A lot of it is people outsmarting each other repeatedly, and if that’s not your thing, then maybe skip this one. I really enjoyed it though. Lastly, I want to mention a show that hasn’t finished airing yet. It’ll likely be my anime of the year for 2024 once it’s completely finished airing, but I can’t really count it yet as it’s not done. I’m talking about Frieren of course. Frieren follows… well… Frieren. She’s an elf that’s lived a very long time by human standards but not all that long for elves. She traveled with the hero’s party to the end of the world to defeat the demon lord and they saved the world. That was more than 50 years ago. The rest of the hero’s party is now old and dies shortly after the show starts. It’s now up to Frieren to reconcile the fact that she didn’t spend more time with her friends, even though their time together was “a mere 10 year journey.” Accompanied by Heiter’s adopted daughter and Eisen’s apprentice, she travels the same route once more, running into adventure on the way. It’s gorgeous, it’s emotional, it’s funny, it’s through provoking and it’s well on its way to becoming my favorite anime of all time. I even bought the manga right after I watched the first episode. That’s all it took to convince me.
And I think that covers everything. I know that The Apothecary Diaries is supposed to be really good as well, but the reason it’s not on here is because I haven’t watched it yet. It’s one of the few shows I still want to watch at some point though. I hope you got some ideas on what to watch from this list and if there’s a show you’ve watched that isn’t on here, please let me know and I might check it out if I haven’t yet. Thanks for reading and Happy New Year!
One Piece Volume 41 is the single best manga volume ever written and it’s not even remotely close. This entire Water Seven Saga has been a blast from the very start, but this volume has one of my absolute favorite moments in the entire series as well as the backstory of my favorite character whose backstory I also really like. So there’s so much to love here. The cover story continues the former Baroque Works members in their attempts to escape the law. Not my favorite cover story, but not everything can be a hit I suppose. Let’s dive into the volume itself though.
Just leave the rest to us.
The first part of this volume continues the journey towards the top of the tower. Luffy gets there first after defeating Blueno. The rest of the crew has to battle their way through it. Zoro just makes a path through the floors to help himself – and inadvertently Chopper and Nami – to an easy route. Sanji breaks through as well and Usopp gets some help from the giants who owe a lot to him now. Usopp is very quickly becoming that brave warrior of the sea that he always wanted to be. On the other side of the gap are Franky and Robin. Franky is moved by the Straw Hats attempt to save their friend and helps out by pretending to blow up. Instead of blowing up, he propels himself and Robin out of the building, almost falling to their doom. Robin and Luffy are now face to face. This is where we get one of One Piece’s most famous moments. All of the Straw Hats are gathered on one side having a standoff with the members of CP9 on the other side. But Robin is still not convinced. She’s being held back by the fact that she’s not just a regular pirate, but she’s so highly wanted that the government can send a Buster Call after her at any moment, sealing the fate of her new friends in the Straw Hat crew as well.
Nico Robin’s backstory is a tearjerker, like all of Oda’s character backstories. I’m personally not super fond of either Sanji’s and Zoro’s backstories. I think they’re the least good. At the top I would probably put (and this is half the cast so it’s cheating) Robin, Brooke, Franky and Nami. But even out of those four, Robin is probably my favorite. We start off her story with her reading a book on the outskirts of town in Ohara. She’s been abandoned by her mother and since she already got hold of a devil fruit at a young age – I don’t believe we ever learn how she got it – she’s being bullied for it. She does have a happy place though, when her family is mistreating her, in the local library of Ohara. This is a research facility where some of the most brilliant archeologists in the world study history. When she first wandered in there as a young child they treated her kindly and they have treated her well ever since. She now requests to join them in their research of the void century, which the leadership disapproves of. Of course, Robin doesn’t fully understand why they don’t want her to join at her young age, but this is to protect her from the government. While sad about being left out, Robin encounters a shipwrecked Jaguar D. Saul. We already met Saul in the bonus comic for this box set when he was working with Kuzan and Garp. It turns out he deserted from the navy after talking with Robin’s mother, Nico Olvia. The two become fast friends.
In the meantime, the escaped Nico Olvia makes her way back to Ohara to warn all of the researchers at the library that they are in danger. The government, under the leadership of Spandine, is approaching to deal with them. Not only that, Spandine has been given the authority to call in a Buster Call, a dangerous fleet attack that will destroy everything on an island. Both Akainu and Kuzan are present for this attack and for Kuzan this probably became – as the zoomers call it – a canon event. Watching Akainu brutally blow up an escape ship with civilians really boiled his blood. While all this chaos is going on, we get a quick meeting between Robin and Olvia, before Robin is hauled off by Saul to escape. She’s not let onto the escape ship because the kids are scared of her and this ended up saving her life inadvertently. Eventually Kuzan catches up with and deals with Jaguar D. Saul. The researchers are all killed after throwing their books into a nearby lake, hopefully saving some of them from the brutal fires the marines set at the library. Robin is allowed to escape by Kuzan. This is his way of repenting for the brutal actions that his people took. Not quite good enough buddy, but you know that too, right? Ever since that moment, Robin has been doing everything she could to survive, hunting down the poneglyphs while looking for that group of friends that Saul promised her is out there.
Which brings us back to the present day, where the Straw Hats and CP9 are still facing off. Robin refuses to join them since she’s still desperately trying to distance herself from them, in the hopes her friends can make it out alive. I don’t need to watch the anime to hear the dialogue being said here in my head. Luffy says quietly that he fully understands Robin’s enemy.
Sogeking, shoot down that flag.
Usopp might be a coward throughout this manga, but there isn’t a moment of hesitation here. Luffy asks him to shoot down the flag for his friend and Usopp shoots down the flag. There’s nothing else important in that moment. Usopp is the one pulling the trigger on the declaration of war against the entire world. And of course all of this results in Robin finally giving in to the one thing she’s been wanting to say all this time. I want to live. Of course you do, and I couldn’t think of a better team to help you achieve this than the one right in front of you. The anger in Zoro’s face alone is enough to take down half the base, let alone his actual skill. But there is some trouble in taking down the drawbridge so the Straw Hats need a plan B to get into the Justice Tower. Luckily Kokoro and Chimney weren’t down and out yet, and the Rocketman has one more ride to take. The entire gang – minutes Robin but including Franky – makes their way across. It is also great to see how happy Franky is that his people didn’t abandon him. He was a bit sad about that concept although very understanding. Ride or die. Next volume the fights are going to kick off properly. This was a lot of setup for the arc, and this isn’t the last time that will happen. Things are ramping up and the entire Ohara background story is vital to the core story of One Piece, so it makes sense that Oda took his time developing it properly. I can’t wait to see what happens next. Thanks for reading!
I’ve been consuming and creating stories for over 20 years now. Don’t make fun of my age, I’m sensitive. Either way, there’s one thing that has been consistent throughout the good stories I’ve consumed. The best stories have good character writing. It’s very simple. Your worldbuilding can be amazing, your action scenes can be cool, your music and animation quality can be the best in the business but nothing will top a fascinating character. A likable character that you just want to root for. Someone who is well written and has their flaws but that’s okay because they’re perfect and they can do nothing wrong. So needless to say, Skip and Loafer is in the mix for anime of the year for me.
Look at this dreamy boy.
So what’s this story about? Iwakura Mitsumi moves from a small town in the countryside to the bustling city of Tokyo. There she moves in with her aunt Nao and starts her life at a prestigious Tokyo High School. Her goal in life is to become an important politician and make a big impact on the world. Obviously to do so, you need to start off well on the first day of school. Mitsumi is very smart and driven but she’s not particularly in tune with the city. So on her very first day she arrives late. In a panic, she encounters Sousuke Shima who is also late for his entrance ceremony at the same school but is much less bothered by it all. He helps her find her way towards school and the two become fast friends from that point onwards. After throwing up on the homeroom teacher and messing up a few more times, Mitsumi slowly starts getting used to life in Tokyo as she makes more and more friends due to her likable personality.
I’m getting emotional just clicking through the episodes, but mabye that’s just the lack of sleep.
The first season of this show – and I’m saying first season because I want to live in a world where there are more seasons coming – focuses mostly on our main duo but also takes the time to develop some of the important side cast. We learn about Mika and her insecurities and how she slowly comes to terms with who she is and that she wants to change part of who she is. We spend some time with Kanechika who is living his best life being an actor and being extremely outgoing. We also spend some time with Mitsumi’s aunt, Nao, who is a trans woman. This is handled very well – and I’m saying this as a cisgender man with zero authority on the subject – in my opinion. It’s not a point of contention, that’s just who she is. I really liked her character and how endlessly supportive she is of Mitsumi’s antics but also the unexpected advice she ends up giving to Mika when she needs it most.
not so dreamy now.
Last but not least, I think part of what makes this show so good is the vibes. The animation and artstyle are great and it seems like they took a lot of inspiration from the source material since it feels like a very faithful adaptation. The character designs are great and the music makes you really relaxed while watching it. The entire package just works and delivers a great show. After watching the anime I got into the manga, and from what I’ve read so far – which isn’t a lot, I’ve been busy – it’s also very solid. Check out either of them if you love a good slow burn romance without too much annoying drama. I’m keeping this short since I have a bunch of tests to grade and some sleep to catch up. Thanks for reading.
When the original season of Horimiya aired, I wasn’t convinced. I enjoyed the show a lot, but it is rated incredibly high and hailed as an absolutely amazing manga in the romance genre. To me it felt much more like a solid romance anime that had a good beginning, middle and end. So why is it rated so highly? That’s what I was trying to figure out when Horimiya Piece started airing. Horimiya Piece is to Horimiya what Treasure Chest of courage is to Ranking of Kings. It fills in all of the blanks in the story and explains why the original season felt fast. So let’s talk about it now that it’s all over.
High school in a nutshell.
Horimiya is a romance story about two young teenagers, Hori-san and Miyamura-kun. They both seem like very different people and each of them have a secret. Miyamura secretly has tattoos and piercings which is not allowed at all in their high school. On the other hand, Hori’s secret is that she… does chores around the house? I never understood why this was being mentioned as a secret or something to hide, but let’s just run with it.
okay Sengoku you’re not wrong, but I feel like you have some ulterior motives here buddy.
The story follows these two as they slowly become friends and then start dating. We also learn about all the people around them, their friends and family and their relationships. Both Hori and Miyamura are very likable characters. They don’t get stuck in silly misunderstandings for episodes at a time, things get resolved. I do kind of dislike that Miyamura changes out his more unique hairstyle for a generic one as the story goes on. It was kind of part of his charm that he looked a little bit different. #notliketheotherboys I suppose.
Me when someone tells me it’s Monday
In Horimiya Piece we go back in time and cover stories that didn’t get told during the first season. 13 episodes covered 17 volumes of manga, after all. Looking at it this way, I’m sure there’s more content left even after two seasons. But for the season there was more than enough content. We see the kids spend time outside of school, we learn more about the student council and we get a lot more windows into everyone’s interpersonal relationships. It’s got a very relaxed and comfy feel to it throughout the entire season and I found myself enjoying the episodes more and more as the season went on to the point that I finally decided to get the manga. Well, my mom gave me the first volume for my birthday this weekend (thanks mom) so now I have to buy the rest as well, right?
Cloverworks did a great job with this one!
There’s not a lot more to say about Horimiya. Even without the added season it’s already a good romance show and with these extra episodes to fill in the gaps it becomes much better. I would have liked a longer season (maybe like 39 episodes) that covers the entire thing at a slower pace to make it run better and I will report back here once I’ve read the manga to see if the thoughts I have about the pacing are true. For now, if you haven’t seen Horimiya yet, treat yourself right and give it a watch. If you like romance and slice of life you will not be disappointed. Thanks for reading!
If you’re still here then congratulations, you’re caught up on the entire story of Bungo Stray Dogs. Well, maybe not the entire story, since there are many novels and spin-offs, but the manga’s main story is done. Better yet, as far as I’m aware some of the things that happened in today’s episode have yet to be published in the manga. It’s been one hell of a ride and as much as I’ve enjoyed watching these episodes weekly, I think this will be my last time doing anime recaps for a little while. I want to focus more on different content, more in depth looks at certain moments in anime. I say that now, but first I need the energy to not forget to upload.
Heavy Stuff.
Anyway, let’s have a look at how this season resolves itself. Let’s start with Aya and Bram. I saw some people joke that Aya should just jump off the building with the table, but that’s too much bravery to expect from a ten year old. With absolutely no regard for her own safety she jumps off and pulls the sword loose from Bram, freeing all the vampires from Fukichi’s control. What an absolute badass. We resolve her story later in the episode, when she regains consciousness and Bram calls himself her knight. I wonder if we will get to see more of these two in the future. No one knows.
Aya with the winning move out of nowhere
Let’s quickly move to the other side of the world where some of the questions I still have are answered. Fyodor makes his way outside to where Nikolai is and gets in the helicopter. There he gets stabbed in the stomach by one of the vampires under Bram’s control. We get the explanation as to how things have really gone down. Fyodor communicated with the outside through some of the zombies provided by Bram and Fukichi. Dazai admits that the big difference between him and Fyodor is that Fyodor only plans for the people and things he can control but Dazai also plans for the fact that his friends will figure things out on their end. Case and point, Chuuya was never taken over by Bram, he was pretending all along. Not only that, but because he trusted that the vampire control could be undone, he didn’t act too quickly in the prison and let Ranpo help him out from the other side of the world. Fyodor then goes out in a fiery crash. This does answer the question about how someone like Chuuya got controlled so easily. That was always something that felt strange and the answer was that he was simply pretending. That makes a lot more sense.
Do we actually know who Fyodor is talking about here? Maybe I’m just forgetful, but I don’t remember if this is a former opponent of him that we as viewers know, or a future antagonist perhaps.
What still doesn’t quite make sense to me is that Fyodor’s plans to communicate with the outside world were that simple. We also don’t get to see his entire body, so I think he got out somehow. Someone on reddit theorized that the memory dump he did into Sigma is his ability to take over someone’s body or something like that. I hope not, I quite liked Sigma and really want him to somehow make it out of this mess. Our little existential crisis terrorist. Either way, Chuuya, Nikolai and Dazai make their way out of the prison. So much for the most guarded prison in the world, when three freaks can break out of it no problem. I suppose that just shows how dangerous these ability users really are.
I really missed this goober. Shiki from Eden’s Zero better step up his game because Chuuya is still my favorite gravity ability user.
With the vampires no longer under Fukichi’s control, Akutagawa returns to his senses and saves Aya from certain death. Now all that’s left to resolve is Fukichi himself.
Let’s for a moment forget how incredibly dangerous the man truly is and appreciate the heartfelt moment.
Speaking of Fukichi, he’s about to destroy the world, so the gang better hurry up with taking him out. It turns out Fukuzawa had a plan all along. There was a moment of weakness in Fukichi’s plans. When he stabs Fukuzawa, his sword is in his enemy, so he loses hold of it. With the sword taken from him, he cannot use his powerful time abilities. There’s one problem with this though, this means he never got the sword back at all, since he could have otherwise just turn back time. This is why I’m not a big fan of time traveling in fiction, a lot of the time it either doesn’t make sense or it’s too complicated for me to fully grasp all the rules. It’s just not really my thing. Either way, Fukichi loses control of the sword and his One Order, which Fukuzawa promptly uses to call off all of the attacks. The world is saved.
That’s going to be tough to recover from
But why would Fukichi do all this? Of course it’s for a good reason. It’s a little bit contrived, but that’s how these stories go. Fukichi got a message from 36 years in the future that the world would be destroyed in a massive war. His goal was to unify the world before we ever got to that point. To do so, we needed the destruction of the state. If there’s no state then there can be no state backed violence. To make a long story short, Fukichi was ACAB all along. Kind of. He wanted Fukuzawa to be completely in control of the armies of the world because Fukuzawa is the one person he unwaveringly trusts with that kind of power. We end the season with Teruko killing Fukichi when Fukuzawa wavers. The world is saved and Fukichi only had to sacrifice 500 lives to save 200 million lives. Not a bad trade-off, even though it’s still a bitter pill to swallow. Fukuzawa loses his childhood friend and is understandably heartbroken. But we end the season with everyone safe.
I think this nails the problem with a lot of idealistic worldviews. You can’t tolerate the intolerant and you cannot count on everyone to have integrity.
Well, that’s what it seemed like, at least. We get a quick taste of what is going on two hours later and things are not looking good. Someone very powerful is fighting against Atsushi and Akutagawa and we have no idea what is going on. Things are looking very dire though, but when have things looked good in Bungou Stray Dogs lately? Either way, this is a teaser for things to come and I personally cannot wait to see more. What happened to Fyodor? What will Fukuzawa do with the One Order? Will Sigma live? Who is this strange attacker and are they somehow related to Fyodor? Are there still things written into the page that we don’t know about? What is Dazai’s deal really? There’s so much more story to get through and I’m a bit sad that we’ll have to wait a long time, but on the bright side there is still more story being made, so all we need is patience. But that’s been me and my opinion, if you made it all the way to the end of this series drop a like or a comment to make my day. And as always, thanks for reading!
Kowalski, Analysis. Who in the hell is this guy. Is this the deer villain from God of Highschool? He looks like a cultist but he doesn’t look familiar in any way. I’m scared.
I forgot to upload this yesterday, in my defense, I was tired.
With the recent release of the One Piece live action series as well as both the anime and manga being at amazing moments in the story, One Piece is riding a wave of popularity right now that is hard to understate. I watched the first episode of the live action and I was very quickly aware that this show wasn’t made for me. I enjoyed what I saw to a degree, but I found myself getting annoyed at little things. Things like Luffy’s hat already having a string attached to keep it safe as opposed to Nami crafting him one after the Buggy arc. Or Zoro being down on attack names while he is the king of cool attack names. That second one was probably an active choice, but I think it doesn’t work. I don’t know, maybe I’m just being difficult. I did really like the casting, that was superb. Anyway, we’re not here to talk about the live action, we’re here to talk about Volume 37. Let’s dive back into the most amazing arc this series has to offer and continue where we left off last week.
Rob Lucci, Kalifa, Kaku and Blueno reveal to the reader and to Paulie who they truly are. We got some information about their abilities. Iron body and finger pistol are two of them, shave is another. They allow the users to harden their body, use their fingers as a stabbing weapon and move really fast. They’re part of a government training regiment that only top fighters get to partake in. Paulie gets bodied by Lucci and is pretty useless, but he’s a rambunctious shipwright, not a government assassin. Nico Robin reveals her true colors and once again makes clear to the crew that she is leaving. We also get the news in the question corner after this chapter that Oda got married. He created a manga with Nami in it and then married a woman who did a Nami cosplay. I’m sure there’s more to it than that, but it is a funny bit of knowledge.
The clash continues and the CP9 agents keep showing off their cool powers. Lucci talks about their job as government agents and shows off his devil fruit. Even though we as viewers only see a shadowy figure at first. They’re just on a different level from normal civilians and both Luffy and Zoro get beaten pretty easily. Nico Robin leaves and the building is about to go up in flames. I’ll obviously talk a bit more about government corruption and three letter organizations a bit more when this arc has completed but it is pretty fun to reread these arcs and see how overt it is. Every member gets taken out and Chopper gets buried under the rubble. The remaining workers arrest an unconscious Nami while Luffy and Zoro are seemingly thrown into the ocean. The page of CP9 watching over the burning building from a distance goes pretty hard, not going to lie. Too bad all cops are bastards.
After setting the mansion on fire and watching the world burn, the CP9 members go to find Franky. Franky is currently in one of his warehouses with Usopp. Watching how Usopp has to fully accept the fact that the Going Merry is no longer seaworthy is hard to read. I know how much he cares and having seen the legendary Klabauterman in action makes it that much harder. This ship means a lot to everyone on the crew, but it means so much more to Usopp. It was a gift from Kaya, he was the one responsible for keeping it afloat and he also relates to the fear of being abandoned. You can’t really blame him for being stubborn but luckily Franky’s brash nature does make him admit out loud what he already knew inside. Just in time for trouble to come knocking on the door. As much as I hate to see CP9 here, it does mean we finally get some Iceberg and Franky backstory and it’s a great backstory. Oda is a master at these, but Franky’s is very good even compared to a lot of the other backstories. I’ve always really enjoyed it.
Franky and Iceberg both used to work under Tom, the famous shipwright who built Roger’s ship Oro Jackson. After the execution of Roger, the government decided that Tom had to die as well for the crime of providing Roger with his ship. Tom managed to convince the judge to let him build the Puffing Tom sea train instead. He gets a ten year window to do this. It’s another sign of the world government flexing their power without any consistency and just doing whatever they want. After successfully pulling it off, it looks like he’s all but safe until Spandam arrives and frames his company for a violent crime. Spandam is working directly for the five elders as a member of CP5 and has promised them to retrieve the Pluton blueprints for them to use the weapon for the government. He successfully throws Tom under the bus, but the latter refuses to give over the blueprints. Instead he takes the fall for the crime to save his two apprentices. But not before he gives Spandam a good old punch to the face. Franky is having none of this and takes a bat to Spandam’s face as well. He later – seemingly – dies by trying to stop the sea train that Tom is on. This explains why Yokozuna was trying to stop the sea train at the start of the arc. They’re mad that Tom’s invention is being used by the government while they killed Tom.
This volume is great. It slows down a bit in action compared to the two previous ones but this backstory makes us understand a lot more about what is going on in Water 7 and what is at stake. Next volume we’ll go back to the present and see where the straw hat crew ended up. As always I hope you enjoyed this little recap and thanks for reading!
Opal Kaharis 