It’s been a little while since we last covered a One Piece volume, but the latest one landed on my doormat the other day and I am excited to dive into it. Reading the chapters every week has been a ton of fun, but so much has been happening in the last few arcs that it’s hard to keep track of all of it, so with the anime and the physical volumes it’s nice to repeat things and get a reminder of all the things that were going on. I’m also still far from bored with this series and am currently considering either rereading or rewatching it, but when am I not considering that. Anyway, let’s dive into this volume which should be the tailend of the Egghead arc.
We continue our adventure in the land of the future as the five elders in their demonic forms are trying desperately to keep Vegapunk from broadcasting his posthumous message to the world. With the help of York they think they have found the source, but it turns out rather quickly that they were wrong. The Straw Hats on the other hand – now aided by the giants from Elbaf – are trying to get off the island alive. A buster call has been attacking in full force and with Vegapunk’s main body already dead, there isn’t any good reason for them to stay here, they only need to get out with as many people alive and well as possible. This is posing to be a difficult task as the five elders turn out to be very capable fighters. When we were first introduced to these ancient bozos, I never expected them to be a fighting force and although I doubt their brawn is going to be a big problem in the future, they are definitely strong enough to give an emperor a run for his money which kind of makes sense considering they run the world so they need at least something to back up their authority.
Far and by large the most important thing that happens in this volume is Vegapunk’s message to the world, which he manages to get through despite the attempts at interference. What he tells us about is how the world used to be made up of several continents that now lie 200 meters below sea level. This is due to someone using the ancient weapons in a way that caused the water to rise to the level it is at now. The small earthquake and rise in sea level confirmed his theory and he is now predicting that this will happen again in the near future. The motherflame that he developed allows the people in charge to do some pretty nasty stuff – as we saw with Lulusia – that they can still repeat. What we also learn is that during the void century, the precursor to today’s world government was at war with Joyboy’s section (more on what that likely entails in a future volume), and it ended with Joyboy’s defeat. The last thing Vegapunk tries to reveal is what the middle letter of “D” actually means, but the elders manage to stop the broadcast at this point by attacking Emet, the iron giant who was just looking to meet up with Joyboy again. It is clear at this point that Joyboy also possessed the same devil fruit that Luffy has now and it makes me wonder if any other people had the fruit between these two people, but were snuffed out before they could make anything out of it.
With the message over, the five elders now fully focus on taking down Emet and the escaping Straw Hat crew. Atlas sacrifices herself to silence Lilith’s connection so that York thinks there are no remaining Vegapunk satellites left after Atlas blows herself up to propel the Thousand Sunny. On the water below, Luffy and Bonney both transform into a Nika form and pummel Saint Saturn into the afterlife as we get a quick moment between Emet and Luffy, who Emet sees as Joyboy or at least a successor of Joyboy. We end the volume with Vegapunk’s message being over and the crew leaving Elbaf behind.
A few small things of note, before I leave you all again. We learn that professor Clover had the letter “D” in his name and they sacrificed themselves to the knowledge they gained could live on. We learn that Saul survived the ordeal on Ohara and even Vegapunk was mingling heavily in their research after the scholars passed away. We also learn that Gaimon – the man stuck in the chest all the way back in Romance Dawn – got himself a girlfriend and her name is Sarfunkel and the existence of this miniscule subplot is very funny. We also learn that Sword is looking for answers, not all of the Celestial Dragons are very tuned in to their own history and that many people now feel a renewed enthusiasm in trying to find the One Piece. What better vibe to have heading into the upcoming adventure in the land of the giants – assuming nothing goes haywire on the way out of Egghead, as things are still happening at the end of this volume. I hope you enjoyed this little recap and as always, thanks for reading!
The shonen manga genre is one that is very near and dear to my heart. It’s what I was first introduced to when I was younger and it’s a genre that I’ve always enjoyed, despite its flaws. And one of the major flaws of many shonen manga is the pacing of the story and the often underwhelming ending. Bleach peaked during the Soul Society arc and although the TYBW arc in the anime is pretty decent, it’s not giving me the same hyped up feelings as early Bleach did. Naruto felt solid throughout but the great ninja war was an absolute drag. Fairy Tail and Eden’s Zero have their fair share of issues, My Hero Academia and Jujutsu Kaisen both had dreadful endings – fight me – where Black Clover and Hunter x Hunter are never ending at this point. The only shonen manga that I think have a really solid ending (of course I am only including the ones I’ve actually read/seen) are Fullmetal Alchemist, Demon Slayer and the topic of today’s post: Soul Eater.
One of the covers, this one with Death the Kid. Shoutout to my phone’s reflection.
Now keep in mind that today I’ll be talking about the Soul Eater manga in its entirety, which includes spoilers for a lot of the main plot. I’m not going to spoil unnecessary things, but be warned. We will not be talking about the anime much, as the anime original ending makes me sad every time I think about it. I read this story once when I was much younger and I’ve recently reread it in physical form. When I heard about the Perfect Edition of Soul Eater, a hardcover edition that combines some of the manga volumes in omnibuses – omnibi? Bigger volumes, I knew I had to get them. See them in all their glory below (the spine is kind of underwhelming but I love the extra color art and the black covers. I’ll make sure to include plenty of pictures of Ohkubo’s fantastic art.
The manga volumes are filled with pages with fun and colorful art.
But let’s get into Soul Eater itself. Soul Eater is set in a world where there are many different species of people. The main focus is on humans, reapers, werewolves, witches and most importantly weapons. That’s right, the driving force behind this story is that a duo made out of a human Meister and a humanoid weapon team up to create a death scythe. A weapon can turn into a death scythe if they eat the souls of 99 humans and 1 witch. Meisters are only allowed to reap the souls of people who are on Death’s list, and if you go after other humans, you run the risk of turning into a Kishin. A kishin is an evil being whose soul has been corrupted. Of course this system creates an understandable hatred between witches and Death Weapons & Meisters Academy, which we fully explore in this story.
Death’s Weapons & Meisters Academy, located in the middle of the desert.
So who are our main gang of characters? We follow a bunch of characters throughout and they all get a good amount of character development, but we mainly follow three Meisters and their weapons. Our first duo is Maka Albarn and her scythe weapon Soul. Maka is a very serious character and probably who we should consider to be our main character if we were to settle on only one. Soul is a lot less serious and seemingly more laidback, but he has his own demons. His real last name is Evans, but he changed it to Eater when he attended DWMA with Maka. They live together like most Meister and weapon pairs do.
Our second pair of characters consists of the loud Black Star and the quiet Tsubaki. One thing that is important about weapon and meister pairs is that their soul wavelengths match. This means they need to be similar people or balance each other out. Due to Tsubaki being so incredibly accepting of others, she’s the only one who can ever really work together with a soul as bright and selfish as Black Star. He’s an assassin from a clan that was wiped out besides himself and he’s here to prove himself, loudly whenever possible.
Going to tell my kids this was the real Naruto
Lastly there is Death the Kid. Being the son of Lord Death, he doesn’t actually need to attend DWMA and raise his own weapons, but he chooses to do so anyway, because it seems interesting. Kid has a very severe case of OCD and if things aren’t symmetrical he loses it. Being a kind of stuck-up rich kid, the Thompson sisters’ hard edge is the perfect match for him. Growing up on the streets of New York, these two sisters have turned from thieves on the streets to powerful guns in the hands of Death the Kid.
Unfortunately you cannot have a shonen manga without some fanservice.Franken Stein and Marie, what a fun duo of weirdos.
Rounding out this cast are several other meisters including the witch Kim, the strongest man to ever come out of the school; Stein and several other teachers like Sid – who is a zombie – Marie and Spirit – who is Maka’s father and Lord Death’s weapon. But on the other side of things we have the antagonists, and it’s established pretty early on in the story who they are. The main antagonist for the first part of the story is the witch Medusa, who is one of the Gorgon sisters. Her older sister Arachne ends up being an important villain as well during the Arachnophobia arc. Medusa and her child Crona – who has been imbued with the black blood of a Kishin – go on a mission to free said Kishin from his prison below DMWA. The Kishin then flees and becomes the last villain in the story.
His weapons are earth shamans, pot of fire and pot of thunder, and normally they look like cute little guys, but sometimes they look badass like this.
We follow these characters through their daily lives and their struggle with the madness that has been unleashed into the world. The main draw in this story is how madness is something that can affect anyone and it takes a healthy soul and body to withstand the madness. Franken Stein is particularly vulnerable to this madness as his mental health is already shaky. While the villains plot their plots, the meisters train and get stronger, eventually turning Soul into a death scythe, Tsubaki into the cursed sword and Death the Kid becomes the next reaper by connecting all three of the white lines on his hair.
Poor Crona never stood a chance, but at least they managed to get some form of redemption towards the end, albeit a hollow one.
With all of that clear, let’s talk about the final arc, because as much as I love the majority of this story, it is the final arc (or the final few arcs to be more specific) that really make this show shine. After Maka’s ability to perceive souls reaches a new height – which was only done by BJ, the internal investigator, right before he was killed – she figures out where the Kishin is. The Kishin Asura has been hiding out on the moon. Moon’s haunted. Everyone converges on the moon after this, with a good old fashioned rocket and some teleportation magic. It’s a great excuse to finally make up with the witches which goes strenuous, but ends up being successful. Noah – probably the least interesting villain in this story – and the book of Eibon heads to the moon, Crona – having killed their own mother – heads to the moon, and DWMA heads to the moon as well, where everything turns into a final clash.
To the moon!
What should have turned into a sloppy conclusion to a story that feels disjointed at times instead turned into a fantastic arc that makes every loose end fit together. Although Noah, Gopher and the book of Eibon feel like they’re a bit in the way of the rest of the story, they’re not integral enough to feel like a letdown. Kid’s arc gets completed, Black Star writes his name into the history books, Maka and Soul manage to defeat the Kishin and seal him inside of Crona inside of the moon. Marie manages to domesticate Stein and the Kid takes over as the lord of Death. It turns out that when Kid fully matures, the previous Lord of Death passes away. The only question I really have about this story is who the hell is Maka’s mother? Throughout the story, Spirit is going through a divorce which means that Maka’s mother is still alive, but we never see her. As much as Spirit can be a terrible father at times and be completely irresponsible around women, he is at least present for Maka’s life, while her mother is never seen. We also never see Maka ask about her mother or think much about her. It’s definitely food for thought. But seeing a shonen story that stays solid from start to finish is already rare enough, so let’s not dwell on it. Reading the physical volumes of this story has been an absolute joy and if this post hasn’t convinced you to at least read them online, I don’t know what will. Thanks for reading!
The moon in Soul Eater will always be one of the most iconic images in my mind. I’m not a big science fiction guy, but despite that I absolutely love a villain on the moon plot.
It’s been a hot minute, hasn’t it? I checked the date on the previous volume’s post and it was back in April, which is the distant past by now. Of course I’ve been keeping up with the manga’s weekly releases and the anime as well and both have been brilliant, but it was really nice to get a new volume in my hands and get the chance to sit outside in the yard and read the entire thing in one sitting. Reading on your phone just doesn’t hit the same, although I am a big fan of both methods. Primarily, as much as I enjoy having Solo Leveling, Tbate and ToG on my shelves, those types of comics are much better on a phone due to the scrolling nature of the story. But I digress, let’s take some time on this humid summer day to look at the 109th volume of One Piece.
And in volume 109 we round up the Kuma backstory. We learn that Alpha is actually the sister of Kalifa, who we met in the Water 7 arc. This is mentioned in an SBS by Oda, where he explains that despite most Cipher Pol agents being orphans, there are some exceptions although both sisters have been raised completely separately. We see some of Luffy’s events from Kuma’s perspective and we end with a quick montage of Kuma’s life. This part has just happened in the anime a little over a week ago as of posting this, and I highly, highly recommend you check out that episode if you haven’t already, it’s one of those moments where animation and music add so much value to an already incredible scene. But we end this sad backstory with Vegapunk, Stussy and Sentomaru incredibly sad about basically killing Kuma for the sake of his daughter. We also learn that Bonney’s crew are just the rough and tumble fishermen from her hometown who had a crush on her mom and spent all those years raising her alongside Kuma and Conney Dowager. They even made the ship look like pizza just for Bonney.
So it’s no surprise that now that Bonney knows the truth, she aims all of her anger and frustration at the true villain of this arc, St. Saturn. Unfortunately she is nothing compared to one of the highest authorities in the world that has clearly lived for a very long time and has incredible powers and quickly gets thrown to the side. But as they all get ready to kill her, someone shows up. That’s right, this is One Piece, so very few things that die are truly gone, and the husk of Kuma still has some instincts that allow him to protect Bonney. We learn that Saturn already pulled the self-destruct switch, but it only turned off his personality completely instead of actually destroying him, because Vegapunk is not nearly as evil as he seemed at the start of this arc. We now go into a rapid fire of fights and there’s no real time to cover all of it without getting boring, so let me get through the highlights instead and focus on the truly interesting parts.
Luffy gets some food from somewhere – most people think it was Kizaru that secretly snuck him some food but I’m not convinced – and recovers. The pacifistas turn on the marines because Vegapunk found it far too cruel to have the likeness of Kuma turn on Bonney, so he made her the highest authority even above the five elders. Luffy beats the crap out of Kizaru and Saturn, but Saturn seems to be immortal. The fighting continues and Sanji reflects a laser beam since love is stronger than laser beams. She’s 10 years old Sanji, relax. Franky takes some damage, Jinbe tries to find Zoro and Lilith and Brook struggle to move the Sunny along the island, so they just sort of wing it. But disaster strikes as the World Government now has no more need for Vegapunk, and the old apple man is mortally wounded. And we still have four things to talk about that happen in this volume that are of massive importance.
Van Auger and Catarina Devon show up and Catarina copies Saturn with her devil fruit powers. They also reveal that “Teech is special” implying that there’s a good reason they work with him. This is on top of his bloodline, which has been revealed to us in the current day, but not in this volume, so we’ll not talk about it much. Saturn is also aware of this though, which means the government really let the man become a warlord while knowing what he was. They quickly leave again, taking a desperate Caribou with them who is a big fan of Teech and is going to tell him where to find Poseidon/Shirahoshi. This could be bad, and sets up the final fight between the two crews.
It seems like the ship with survivors from Egghead – that Saturn claimed was fully destroyed – managed to get out anyway, with the help of some unexpected visitors. And these unexpected visitors are two decades of real world time in the making. That’s right, the Giant Pirates have reunited and they’re here to pick up Luffy and his crew to make their visit to Elbaph, which we’ve been waiting for since I was a teenager, and I’m now 32. They defeat several of the navy fighters and come to support the crew in their retreat. To counteract this though, Saturn and his cronies decide that it’s time for a big clash, and the other four elders are summoned to Egghead, starting a brawl between the five elders, the giant pirates and the Straw Hat pirates.
There are just too many things happening at Egghead that are bad news for the stability of the world. There is an emperor there, Vegapunk has been researching the void century and has turned traitor – if he was ever truly an ally – the Giant Pirates have reunited and showed up here and the sun god Nika has been revealed here as well. To make things even more dire for the world government, Vegapunk set up a message to be broadcasted to the world upon his death, and we’re now entering a mad dash to either protect that broadcast or shut it down. This could alter the course of history forever. And it will all happen in 10 minutes. And let me tell you, those 10 minutes took months when these chapters were coming out. It was rough, but worth the wait.
We’ll see how all of that plays out in volume 110, which is probably not coming out for another few months, but I’m already excited for it. I’ve been considering rewatching some anime that I love and I will probably start with the recently released top 10 that I wrote for this blog, but after that I want to check out both Naruto and One Piece again. I rewatched Bleach leading up to the TYBW arcs that are still in the process of airing, and I want to rewatch Naruto to then check out Boruto, seeing how popular that manga has been getting on the Jump app. And rewatching One Piece has been something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time, but doing it at the same time as I was slowly rereading the manga felt like overkill. Besides, it won’t take that long, just a mere 10 year journey to get through it all. Thanks for reading!
It is not an easy task to create a proper top 10 anime. As of writing this, my anime list has well over 1250 entries and it is ever growing. To choose my all time favorites was not easy, and I will start off this post by telling you all that this list will likely change over time. As a matter of fact, In the month or so I’ve been working on it, I have changed one of the entries and adjusted the positions of three. But I am pretty happy with how the list turned out. There are some asterisks here and there throughout but I will explain those as we get to them. At the very least this will be a great list of anime and I hope there are at least one or two shows on the list that you can check out for yourself after reading this. So let’s not waste time and start with number ten.
10. That time I got reincarnated as a slime
This show has many great moments, lots of them more emotional than this one, but the pure joy I experienced when Rimuru let this attack go is indescribable. This is my favorite shot of the entire anime for that reason.
I have made no secret of my love for the Isekai genre. The concept of being transported to another world through some means has always drawn me in. I think it comes from a very clear longing in the current day for something different. Now this isn’t a cry for help, I’m medicated these days, but wouldn’t it be great if one day you woke up as a little slime and started building your own kingdom while making lots of friends along the way? Just me? Well Rimuru gets to live that life after being stabbed to death in modern day Japan. He finds himself in a dark cave and quickly gains some pretty impressive powers through what seems to be divine intervention followed by becoming friends with a dragon. As Rimuru makes his way through his new world he turns wild monsters into friends, builds his own city, joins a council of demons and even starts his own kingdom while toppling others. While doing all of this, a lot of the focus of this show is also on the quieter moments that are in between the fighting. For this reason some people have called it slow and boring at times and if that’s not your favorite type of content then I definitely understand that sentiment. But as someone who loves a slower story that pays off everything it sets up this show hits all the right spots. Some parts of the worldbuilding were so quiet and lovely that they made an entire spin-off show for it that is basically just a fantasy slice of life show. I have never been more comfortable laying in my bed watching an anime than while watching that spin-off. I highly recommend this show to anyone who likes the Isekai genre and I am excited to one day start reading the novels as well. If I can ever make it through my backlog.
Destroying your enemies without mercy is important, but festivals are even more important!
9. Ore Monogatari
Sometimes, being Sunakawa is suffering
Oitsukenaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaai, Oitsukenai noni, totsuzen monogatari. When I just think about this show, the first line of its beautiful opening by artist Trustrick – who are as unfamiliar to me besides this song as they probably are to you – immediately jumps into my mind and I can’t help but belt it. It’s honestly hard to believe that this show is a decade old already, it feels like just yesterday when I first fell in love with the romance anime genre through watching this show. That might be a bit unfair, there were other romance anime I enjoyed before watching this one, but this show taught me that shojo romance hits my feelings in a way I didn’t think was possible. It’s since been followed up by incredible shows like Horimiya, Skip & Loafer, Sakurasou and more recently a sign of affection, but as the first in the genre to truly make me cry tears of joy this show will always hold that special place in my heart. Gouda – a high school student, not the city I used to work in or the cheese named after it – is a big man but he’s not particularly popular with the girls. His friend Sunakawa is much more popular but he’s not all that interested in romance. One day, Takeo (Gouda) helps out a schoolmate named Yamato when she’s being harassed on the train. Not long after, the two start dating and we get to experience all of the joy and worry of budding love among two teenagers who have absolutely no idea what they’re doing. It’s a very funny show and the romance between the two characters starts pretty early on, so we don’t spend an entire season waiting for something to happen. Misunderstandings often get resolved pretty quickly and the characters actually communicate pretty well for anime characters. If you like shows like Horimiya and Skip & Loafer – which both could have made this spot as well – then you’ll enjoy this one too.
They’re somehow the most perfect pair
8. Ace of Diamond
The seniors have got to show the rookies who’s boss at least once per sports anime
For the first five spots on this list I also looked at what genre of anime I really enjoy and then which of the shows within that genre have stuck with me the most. For traditional sports anime that has got to be Ace of Diamond. A baseball anime about a team that is a powerhouse within their own region but struggles to make that next step that will bring them to nationals. With enough members to have a full first and second string as well as numerous bench players this allows for many different characters to be introduced. We follow a young Sawamura who has talent but needs a lot of time and work to get polished into being an actually good pitcher as opposed to a predictable pitcher with one good throw that eventually gets figured out. And he is not even the only talented pitcher within his team, as several others are also gunning for this position. In a team this competitive you need to constantly improve or you’ll soon be benched for the guy behind you who is working harder than you. Lucky for us, Sawamura is a hard worker and although it definitely takes some time, we get to see him perform on the stage of his dreams. On his road there we learn about the personalities of his seniors, the other people in his year, the management team and the coach and we even start to root for some of the other teams in the competition as many of the teams you face have their own charm and backstories, and it sometimes even becomes difficult to choose which team to root for. On top of that, the matches in this anime are quite unpredictable at times. Sometimes you think the protagonists have to win for the story to continue and then they lose and we follow someone else for a while as Seirin goes back to the drawing board. The characters are fun, the matches are very tense and the story just flows really well. If you like sports anime and haven’t seen this one yet, do yourself a favor. There are over 100 episodes of it, so you won’t be bored for a little while.
Everyone’s favorite scheming catcher; Miyuki
7. Bakuman
Although I don’t think I’ve seen any of my students draw their classmates yet – at least not in a flattering way – I’ve seen many of them doodle instead of do their work, so this is pretty accurate.
The feeling of wanting to make it big by bringing your stories to life is a relatable feeling to me. Having a family member who also told stories is also a relatable feeling. My grandfather – who I never met unfortunately – wrote a book before I was born. Reading a story about two kids who work really hard to become manga authors is something I can relate to. This story follows two high school boys as they work together to create manga and get them published and turned into anime eventually. We watch their growth as authors, their meetings with the people from Jump and their competition with others from their own age and older. As talented as the two are, they are also trying to write manga at the same time that another boy who is a once in a generation genius is trying to write manga. He is their main competition and I’m pretty sure he’s based on Oda. The manga was written by the same duo of authors that wrote Death Note and a good part of the story is based around their own experiences, so they know what they’re talking about. There are a few other anime that I would consider to be in the same genre about creating some form of art. I almost put one of them – Shirobako – in this spot. Other similar shows you could watch are New Game, Keep your hands off Eizouken and Sakura Quest. But out of all these, I think Bakuman still feels the most well rounded and was the most enjoyable. It’s not always super accurate of course as a lot of the story is heavily romanticized, but if you like learning a little bit about how manga publication works, this is a great show. Definitely give it a watch.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned throughout the years it is that most manga authors are at least a little bit strange. I think Bakuman does a good job of portraying them as such.
6. The Ancient Magus Bride
I promise you that this isn’t that sort of anime, it’s actually pretty wholesome most of the time.
One of the first manga I bought when I first started collecting manga more avidly. I just fell in love with this anime from the first second that I watched it. The gorgeously drawn British countryside, the fascinating mythology that I love to learn more about, fictional or real and the interesting character dynamics. At a surface level, the relationship between Elias and Chise is incredibly messed up, with one being a teenage girl and the other being a borderline eldritch horror that’s already lived for many long years. But the more time we spend with these characters, the more the roles almost start to reverse as we learn Elias isn’t nearly as mature as you would expect and Chise is much less a weak little girl than she seems at first. Not to mention the fact that Elias’ idea of marriage is very different from how we see it and has no creepy undertones at all. Despite me mentioning all of these things, the story follows a complicated relationship between two fundamentally broken people that try to navigate a confusing and magical world filled with danger around every corner. As the story continues, Chise and Elias enroll in a university for sorcerers where they get embroiled in a much larger plot and have to be very careful to get out of this unscathed. If you like fantasy, mythology and a slow but never boring coming of age story, then this show has to be on your radar, it’s one of the very best in the genre. Unfortunately there will likely not be a third season anytime soon, considering there is only one (translated) volume out beyond the end of the season 2 anime since the author took a bit of a break between volumes. Still, the story is continuing and the anime finished most things up quite nicely so it’s far from a bad spot to end the story for now. Treat yourself to some wonder and watch this show.
This anime – and the manga – loves using flowers to make the environment really pop, and they’ve done a great job bringing that to life with all this color.
Intermission with some honorable mentions
It’s been so long since I’ve seen these nerds, what a blast from the past and a reminder how cozy this show was. Well, until shit hit the fan, that is.
There were so many shows that could have made this list but didn’t. I considered the recently popular Solo Leveling, but since it didn’t get to the point of the story that I really love yet I decided against it. When it gets fully animated it might make this list. I considered classics like Fullmetal Alchemist, Steins Gate and Attack on Titan, but none of them give me that urge to rewatch them as much as the others on this list do. And although some of my top picks are definitely the same as the most popular anime of all time, I think there are very few shows that are recommended more often than FMA, so that one really doesn’t need a spot on a list like this.
I think I’ve made it pretty clear by now that I like shows that play with my emotions, and Vinland Saga 2 does just that, and it does an incredible job of it.
Vinland Saga season 2 would make the top 10 with confidence, but I didn’t really enjoy the first season nearly as much, which is why it failed to reach this top. A place further than the universe, Shirobako and Yuru Camp all almost took the spot of Bakuman, but I think the tenure that Bakuman has put it over the edge for me. Yuru Camp will be in my manga top most likely, so look forward to that in the future. Many of you are probably wondering where One Piece is on this list, but I find that the anime has too many flaws for me to put it on this list. I almost put the One Piece Fan Letter OVA on this list instead as a standalone episode, that is beyond brilliant. The incredible seinen action show Mononogatari is probably the show I would put in 11th place, so if there’s none on this list that you haven’t seen yet, give that one a watch instead. But with the honorable mentions out of the way, let’s dive into the 5 best anime I’ve ever watched. Drumroll please.
These two make for such a great duo
5. Ranking of Kings
One episode in and he’s already getting scolded by his stepmom
This is probably the most divisive entry on the list. Putting aside reviews on anime websites – as those are generally the most stuck-up people on the internet finding every little flaw in a show and making them as big as they can – there are quite a few people who find this story boring, think the writing is sloppy and say it’s not a really good anime. Despite all that, I think it was relatively popular in its time and it struck just the right emotional nerves for me to firmly jump into this top list. Ranking of Kings follows Bojji, a young prince who was born deaf. Not only that, he’s far weaker than his brother and seems to be all around not very talented. In a world where the kings of different nations are quite literally ranked and the most powerful ones get to take some very special treasures with them, Bojji seems to be lost. He doesn’t let it bother him all that much though as he’s a very positive little boy, despite getting hurt at times by the people around him. We follow Bojji as he goes on a quest with Kage, his newly made friend who is from a race of persecuted shadow people. The two become quick friends and go on a journey. While this is all happening, the kingdom is in the midst of a conspiracy that involves everyone that Bojji cares about. The protectors of the realm are divided, the king has made a deal with the devil and throughout all of this a monster is approaching fast. Bojji and Kage need to navigate this web of intrigue to save the kingdom and their family. Bojji’s stepmom is one of my favorite characters in all of fiction writing and an incredible example of how to write a strong female character that isn’t physically all that impressive. The opening Hadaka no Yuusha by Vaundy is also an incredible song and combined with the stellar animation and art style this show makes for a fantastic experience that I believe to be very underrated. I will add that the story itself does feel a little bit forced at times, it’s not the perfect story, but I think that all the other aspects of this show more than make up for that, and I would never say the story is bad.
Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the shadiest of them all?
4. Chihayafuru
Studying time.
Had I made this list about two years ago, this show would have been in the number 2 spot. That might give you some hints about the upcoming picks in the top 3, but let’s first talk about an anime that doesn’t get nearly as much attention as the rest of the top 5. Chihayafuru is a strange anime. It tells the story of Chihaya, a high school girl who is obsessed with Karuta. Karuta is a Japanese game of memorization and speed where poetry is read out by someone and it is up to the two players to then tap the correct cards on the ground in front of them. The poem read is the first half and the text on the cards is the second half of this poem, so you need to know these poems to be able to play the game. If you’re not sold on the concept by this description then don’t worry, neither was I when I first heard about it. The sole reason I started to watch this anime in the first place was because I heard the opening song by 99RadioService. They did the openings for all three seasons and the vocalist has a very pleasant voice. Chihaya and her club gather more members, compete in tournaments and meet all sorts of players from across the region. Nestled between all of these games – as some of the show is structured like a sports anime – is a romantic subplot that really tugs at the heartstrings at times. Chihaya is a very likeable character, but she would probably be quite the frustrating person to be around at times. Dense as can be and very little regard for social cues she often makes the people that fall for her suffer due to her lack of understanding. Despite this pretty big flaw in her character, the story never feels very frustrating and I think a lot of the romantic subplot is handled quite well. This one is definitely a comfort anime for me and I’m probably rewatching it after I finish this blogpost.
This show can get quite tense and competitive at times, like a proper sports anime, which makes the downtime feel much more comfortable in exchange.
3. The Apothecary Diaries
This is how it all starts, the awkward servant girl who is much more clever than your average servant gets immediately spotted by the scheming eunuch.
This show caught me completely by surprise. When it first aired I didn’t immediately watch it because it didn’t seem all that interesting to me. Yet I heard the buzz around it soon after so I gave it a shot and I was incredibly surprised. Apothecary Diaries follows Maomao, a young apothecary who is kidnapped and forced to work in the rear palace, a place where the emperor lives. In this part of the palace the only people allowed are the Emperor and his family, women and eunuchs. After quickly catching the eye of Jinshi, an attendant who is a beautiful young man, she is put in his employ. She helps with the medical issues in the palace and soon gets caught up in all sorts of problems. Her love for poisons gets her in trouble more often than not and she ends up working for several of the high ranking concubines throughout her time in the palace. She becomes good friends with two other servants and her relationship with Jinshi gets more complicated as time goes on. Even the eunuch doesn’t seem to be exactly who he says he is. This show gives the viewer just enough information to figure some things out before they’re revealed but also doesn’t assume we need our hand held at every step. Maomao is a fun main character and none of her flaws make her unlikable. The supporting cast complements her well and there isn’t a single boring episode. With season 2 diving much deeper into some of the political upheaval in the region we get a much better insight into the world of Apothecary Diaries and with a third season already announced for 2026 there is no good reason not to watch this one. The fact that the number 2 and 3 spots aired during the exact same season shows what an incredible season it was.
This is the same girl as the one in the previous screenshot, I promise.
2. Frieren: Beyond journey’s end
Because that’s right, the next entry on this list is Frieren, which originally aired alongside Apothecary Diaries in the fall of 2023. This one I was much more interested in from the start since I watched Gigguk’s video that he made on the manga, recommending it. The concept seemed interesting but I never expected to love it as much as I ended up doing. Frieren is an elven mage who has lived for over a millennium and has learned much in those years. Despite that, she’s still considered to be relatively young for an elf and the way she ages differently from those around her makes her a bad fit for joining up with communities. Still, she ends up joining Himmel the hero on his journey to the northern continent to deal with the demon king and end the war between humans and demons. The 10 year long adventure ends with success and Himmel and his party are crowned heroes of the realm. They split up after a job well done and agree to come visit now and then.
This moment from episode one was so powerful that I immediately knew I was in for a treat and it never disappointed for even a second after this.
50 years have passed since Himmel the hero defeated the demon king and Frieren suddenly remembers that he has something of hers and that they wanted to see a meteor shower that comes once every 50 years, so she decides to visit. To her surprise, both Himmel and Heiter – the humans in their party – are incredibly old and not long after their trek to see the meteors he passes away from old age, Heiter dying not many years later. Standing emotionless at Himmel’s funeral, the words from the onlookers that she’s not even crying hit her harder than she thought. It was merely a 10 year journey right? Not even one-one hundredth of her life. Despite it being only a short journey, she only now starts to realize how much she enjoyed that short journey and she wants to learn more about humans and about her friends that are now partially gone. She takes on an apprentice in Fern, who was adopted by Heiter, the corrupt priest of the party and they are joined by Stark, who was the apprentice of Eisen, the warrior of their original party. This trio travels north to find heaven, the place where spirits rest.
I had to include the scene that became a meme format, this girl is beyond dense sometimes.
I’ve talked a lot about the core of the story, but on top of these emotional and reflective moments, the series also contains quite a bit of action that is done incredibly well. This series is incredibly rounded and with great animation, voice talent and incredible opening songs by both Yorushika and Yoasobi – which are some of my favorite Japanese artists – the music is also fully sorted. There are few anime that make me feel the way that Frieren makes me feel and manages to tug on my heartstrings as much with both sadness and happiness. But if there is one anime that can compete, it would be the next and final entry on this list.
What makes a good anime feel complete is when the supporting cast feels not only interesting but also like they’re real people with their own story. Frieren nails that feeling as I want to know more about the lives of everyone in this screenshot.
1. March comes in like a lion
The quiet focus of a professional match, beautifully scored with calming piano music that picks up in intensity as the games do the same. Also look at my boy Nikaidou 😀 I love this kid.
The only entry on this list that has held its position for many years and to me stands head and shoulders above the rest. March comes in like a lion follows a young Kiriyama Rei. At 17 years old he is a talented and up and coming shogi player. Shogi is more or less a more complicated take on chess and I will immediately put you at ease that you do not need to understand the game to enjoy this anime at all. I still don’t fully understand most of it, but as long as you understand the basic goals of the game you’re fine. Kiriyama never really asked for these chances in life, but after his parents died and he was adopted by a friend of his father it felt like being good at shogi was his only path to belonging, so he fervently chased after it. Now he’s 17, skipping school and depressed in his own apartment. He doesn’t get along with his family in a healthy way, he pushes his only friend away due to not having the skills to get along with him and he feels most at home at the shogi hall just because he feels like he belongs. Kiriyama lives a lonely life.
Although Sangatsu has many incredible characters, these three are the heart and soul of the show.
Or that’s how it seems to him, and this is also why this portrayal of mental health struggles hits so incredibly hard. Many of us feel lonelier than we truly are. His stepdad cares for him in his own weird way. His friend Nikaidou cares for him greatly and pushes through his own illness to make sure his friend is okay and gets checked up on. The people at the shogi hall all feel responsible for him and make sure they keep an eye on him. But it takes until he meets the Kawamoto sisters randomly that he truly starts learning what his place in the world is. Kawamoto Akari is a hostess at the club where Kiriyama is taken one day by his seniors at the shogi hall. Fully drunk and passed out by the time the club closes down, Akari decides to bring him back to their cozy house where she lives with her two younger sisters and her grandfather. They get Kiriyama back on his feet and after realizing how lonely he is they start inviting him over. Despite not being his family, he starts feeling more and more at ease around them before the dark thoughts return. Still, they make sure to keep pulling him out of the dark place he’s in and it works. He becomes more and more at ease with who he is and we see Kiriyama’s journey from the darkest depths of his depression to a much better place. He gets all the help he needs from those around him and although it’s hard to see this when you are in this dark place, it is often true that there are people who care about us, even when we can’t see it. We’re social creatures after all.
All you need to know about this guy is that he’s a predator and we violently hate him
There are so many incredible characters in this story that just thinking about them puts a smile on my face. From his teacher who is a fan of shogi and makes sure that Kiriyama doesn’t fail school despite being a truant for most of it to the members of the science club that take him in as one of theirs and brighten his day. From his seniors at the shogi hall to his opponents who invite him to their club. And finally and most importantly the Kawamoto family is always there for him with Hina going through her own problems at school while the toddler Momo is a joy for sore eyes. The slightly weird art style that is often part of Studio Shaft products really fits this show well and the opening themes are all incredible. They have Orion by the powerhouse of Jpop that is Kenshi Yonezu as well as Bump of Chicken’s Answer. The later season has two songs by Yuki, out of which Sayonara bystander is probably my favorite. I will only give a warning that this is probably not a good show to watch when you’re in a dark place. The show gets much lighter as it goes on, but I think diving into the portrayal of depression could make your own mental health problems worse, so be aware of that.
Doofus 1 and Doofus 2
And now time for some closing thoughts. I’ve been thinking about making a list like this for a while and it was quite fun although it took a lot more time and effort than I expected. It wasn’t hard to find ten anime I loved, but narrowing it down to exactly ten and then figuring out their order was definitely a challenge. I’m happy with the result and although I’m sure that when you ask me in a year or so this list will look different, I’m happy uploading this post. There are many more anime that I really loved and didn’t mention in this post, so please do not crucify me that your favorite anime didn’t make this list. Feel free to recommend it to me in the comments below and I’ll let you know if I’ve watched it or not. And let me know what your own favorite anime are. For now, I recognize this was a long post, but hopefully you got some ideas on what to watch next. Thanks for reading!
I see a lot of clickbait articles and essays on different aspects of One Piece lore whenever I accidentally swipe to the right on my phone and most of the posts about it are terrible. Let alone the AI additions lately where half the information is just plain wrong. The other day I saw someone claim that Oda had planned for Germa to happen all the way back during the Baratie arc which makes very little sense if even Oda originally only planned the story to be about a hundred chapters, but I’m already losing track of what I was going to say. One thing I always like is a good list. It’s a good way to show your opinion and immediately get people’s attention because they likely have a different opinion on the same subject. So I reckon it’s about time that I start making some more of that sort of content myself. At least when I write them I have control over the quality of the post. So with that in mind, let’s have a look at my top 5 islands in the world of One Piece. I am picking these islands purely based on the ecosystem, culture and design of the island, I am not taking into account the story arcs that take place on these islands.
*slaps island* This bad boy can fit so many pirates.
Let’s start with an island that just feels really well thought out, although we haven’t seen a ton of it. And that of course is the island known as pirate island; Hachinosu. Hachinosu is named due to the amount of pirates that will come swarming out whenever something happens, akin to a beehive. In the dub it’s called Fullalead, which makes sense as well although I think they should have stuck with the beehive theme. Central on this island is a large skull-shaped rock that has been carved into a fortress. This is where the current king of the island – Blackbeard – seems to reside. Having the ability on his crew to fully take over the island like a giant mech, and filling the streets with pirates, it’s a very fun and powerful stronghold. It used to be ruled by a former Rocks’ pirates member before Blackbeard took over, and it’s had some pretty famous prisoners like Koby, Moria and now even Garp. With the Blackbeard pirates residing there, I wonder if we get to see Luffy and the crew visit this island before the end of the story, or if the saving of Garp will be left to the navy. Perhaps this causes friction within the navy as part goes to fight Luffy and another part goes to fight Blackbeard. Either way, I just love the concept of a beehive-like island that is filled with loot hungry pirates.
I’m going to tell my grandkids that this was A song of ice and fire
One of my least favorite arcs in the story takes place on one of the more interesting islands in the world. I’m talking of course about Punk Hazard. Once a research facility belonging to Vegapunk and Caesar Clown, it now sits abandoned after a clash between Akainu and Kuzan took place, turning one half of the island into an icy glacier and the other half into a boiling blaze of fiery pain. Hidden within this island that is now considered a wasteland was the research lab of Caesar Clown, who was the first in a long chain that set off the fall of Kaido and Big Mom. But as much as the story itself is interesting, it’s the island’s layout that I like the most. With the very specific heat and cold sides, it allows for different sets of ecosystems to live right next to each other and it’s also a great reminder of how powerful these two (former) admirals were when they clashed.
What you don’t see are the four tiny turtles bound to Zunesha’s feet that serve like roller blades.
What if island, but also elephant? I am not the biggest fan of Terry Pratchett’s books yet, but I’ve read the colour of magic and I see the potential. But what drew me to the story in the first place was the unique way the world works. A world on a disc on elephants on a turtle, just moving slowly through space. We don’t have something quite as extravagant as that, but we do have Zunisha, the giant elephant that is home to Zou and the mink tribe that lives in it. With an ancient city on her back as well as a giant tree in the form of a whale where one of the road poneglyphs is being held. It also has a kingdom with two different rulers, one for the day and one for the night. Both of them spent time on Whitebeard’s ship alongside Oden and are vassals of the Kozuki clan. One thing that’s interesting to consider is that Zuneshia isn’t just an exception but is part of a species. There might be more of these giant elephants walking around somewhere or at the very least their bones might still exist in strange places.
I’m not watching the Live Action, but I am curious what Laboon, Little Garden and more will look like.
We’ve gone through three islands so far and all of them were in the New World, but there were some pretty fun islands in the first half of the Grand Line as well. The last two entries on this list are from before we fought in a giant war and when times were simpler. So simple in fact, that we were just learning about how crazy different the islands were and we stumbled right into the home of two forgotten legends. The two former and then again captains of the Giant Pirates: Dorry and Brogy. Although I didn’t care a ton for this arc in my first watch of the series, it grew on me and the island itself also became more interesting. This island is a jungle where dinosaurs never went extinct, so some of them still roam the island. It is also home to two giant sea beast skeletons which were the result of the Giant Pirates being in the region. The aforementioned Dorry and Brogy each killed a giant fish and then fought for a century about who got the bigger of the two ones. Thus a giant jungle with a volcano that goes off regularly as well as two massive skeletons turned into a strange and scary island for adventurers. Luckily for our adventurers, they were pretty quickly able to win the love of both giants, settle their differences and that’s why we get to see them again in the year 2025.
Aesthetically definitely one of the most beautiful islands.
And finally, let’s take a stop at a more civilized place. Docks with some of the most talented workers in the world fill the place as others race through the city on their bulls to get to where they need to be. We’re on the water baby and there’s 7 waters. I think? I don’t actually know where the name comes from, but I’m sure we can figure it out together. Oh, I figured it out while looking up information, there used to be seven docks with seven shipbuilding companies before Iceburg united them all. And this island is incredibly interesting. It’s the first island where we truly start encountering some of the stranger, more dire weather phenomena in the story. A lot of the later part of One Piece highly focuses on the water rising, islands sinking, and the world basically getting more and more dangerous and flooded. Mariejois is on a giant mountain for a reason after all. But Water 7 has been slowly sinking for a long time, with the Aqua Laguna storm being a yearly problem that has the entire place boarded up. We even see a present day version of the place later during the story where the shores where Franky House once stood are now fully under water. With Galley-La being the only shipbuilder company left on the island due to monopolizing the business – not very left-wing of you, Oda – I’m sure they’ll end up inventing a way to keep the city afloat – literally. I love cities built in and around water, I’ve always been a big fan of that idea. Having one where water is such a big part of daily life in a story like this and it also being an island that we spend enough time on to really appreciate the place was a gift to me, which is why it was also one of my favorite arcs.
There are so many interesting islands in this world and even other interesting structures like the giant bridge that the world government has been building with slave labor and the red line itself. I bet someone could write an incredible geography book about this world and it would sell like hotcakes. But these are some of my favorite islands, please let me know if there are islands that should be on here that I missed and as always, thanks for reading!
This post contains spoilers up until the most recent chapters!!!
Hinokizu is a figure in the world of One Piece that we know very little about. They’re supposedly the person holding onto the last road poneglyph. We also know that many of the other crews knew about this person’s existence while the Straw Hats – even Robin – did not. They’re described as a man with a burn scar, and if this is their epithet then it’s likely in an obvious place. Their black ship sails the seas and anyone that gets close is swallowed up in a vortex. We get most of what we know about this figure through the thoughts of the Blackbeard pirates. They mention that the vortexes could be related to a devil fruit, although I don’t believe such a fruit has been mentioned at this point. Shiryu also remarks that he thinks it’s a government man, but has no basis for this claim. If there wasn’t some interest to this claim, I don’t think Oda would include it, unless it was a red herring, but why throw out a red herring for a character we literally know nothing about? All we truly know about this figure is that they stole the road poneglyph from Fishman Island and are now roaming the seas. So who could this person be? Let’s look at the options amongst characters that we already know.
Before we get to proper guesses, let’s eliminate some options I’ve seen floating around. I’ve heard people claim that Oden was sent ahead in time by Toki to protect the One Piece, but that sounds far-fetched and doesn’t make much narrative sense. I’ve heard theories about former Whitebeard members being Hinokizu, but that doesn’t add up when it comes to the timeline. The poneglyph was stolen well before the timeskip, and Whitebeard’s crew only disbanded at the start of the timeskip. I’ve also seen people claim theories about either Saul or Loki being the man with the burn scar, but those have more or less been debunked with what we saw during Elbaf so far. Clou D. Clover is another name mentioned, but again, I don’t think it makes much narrative sense. I would really like the idea that Nico Olvia somehow survived the fires at Ohara and then roamed the seas. I don’t think this is true. With Saul already being a survivor of this story but not mentioning or knowing about Olvia’s survival it would just feel like fanservice. Kuzan would have been a fun option had he not already been accounted for. Fought a magma enemy, former navy, very powerful, but he doesn’t match the description. So what guesses do I have?
Three pretty open guesses I have are that Hinokizu is a former member of one of three big crews from the story of One Piece. I originally thought he might be Scopper Gaban, but we know that to be untrue. There is still room for another Roger pirate to yet live and want to keep the treasure out of the wrong hands. I’m also thinking it could be a former Rocks Pirates member. We know that many of them went on to achieve great things, including people like Whitebeard, Kaido and Big Mom. The third crew I’m thinking of is Shiki’s crew. He was a big figure among the Rocks pirates but we’ve only ever seen him in a movie which – although canon to an extent – doesn’t show up in the manga. All three of these are pretty loose guesses and admittedly I don’t find any of them super likely, but I wanted to throw them out there regardless.
Another possibility I’ve seen mentioned around that I quite like is it being Dragon. As far as I’m aware, he doesn’t have a burn scar anywhere particularly visible, but he does match the “navy man” description in a sense that he was once in the navy. He also has been shown to use weather manipulation abilities so a devil fruit that can cause whirlpools isn’t out of the realm of possibilities. But Dragon has been at the head of the revolutionaries for a long time. It wouldn’t make much sense for him to roam around on a black ship just sinking random pirates in the New World. He does have reason to keep the One Piece from falling into the wrong hands, but I don’t think he’ll be too invested. I also don’t think this would be a good way for him and Luffy to meet. I’d like them to meet in a different way, where they’re both involved in the final war, come across each other and just kind of don’t care too much about the whole thing before going their own way.
So what is the conclusion to it all? Well, the short answer is that I have no idea. I’ve thrown around a few wild guesses, but in all honesty I think the most likely explanation is that it is a character we have yet to meet. I’ve been thinking back to earlier arcs in the story but I also can’t think of characters from those that fit the position particularly well. So we’ll just have to wait until Oda reveals it to us. But let me know if you have any other theories that fit really well. Or is there someone I mentioned that you think is Hinokizu? Let me know down below and as always, thanks for reading!
I’ve never really played Volleyball, but when I first watched this show I really, really considered signing up for it since it was just such an appealing story.
I have been gaining weight. I was relatively light about two years ago, but ever since I started taking my anti-anxiety medication I’ve been slowly gaining weight. That would happen sometimes in the past as well, but a good bout of anxiety or panic would usually burn up those reserves pretty quickly. That may not have been particularly healthy, and I definitely wouldn’t want to go back to those days, but it was one of the side effects I didn’t mind nearly as much as the others. Now that my mental health has improved a decent amount, it might be time to start worrying about my physical health on top of it. So I’ve dug up the ringfit, started eating an apple a day and am keeping my snacking habits a little bit more under control although that last one has seen very limited success. What better time to talk about some of my favorite sports anime out there than now? There are many great sports anime out there and although some of them are very similar in how they tick, there are also some very different shows. Today I’d like to highlight four of these shows that are different enough from each other to be interesting to different people. I was originally planning to do five shows, but although I could shoehorn a show in that’s too similar to some of the others, I decided to keep it at four. I am saving the fifth entry for its own post. But out of those four, let’s start with the most classic one.
Kuroko no Basket
I could have put Hajime no Ippo here, I could have put Haikyuu here, I could have put Ao Ashi here and there are likely a dozen other shows that are similar enough to fit this spot, but when it comes to your classic shonen sports there is nothing that can beat Kuroko no Basket. I’m not biased because I grew up playing basketball, how dare you suggest that. Kuroko no Basket follows Kagami as well as the titular Kuroko as they join Seirin high school’s basketball team. Kuroko, once belonging to a legendary middle school team dubbed the generation of miracles, but being the mostly forgotten glue that kept the rest of the team together through his interesting abilities and Kagami being a relative unknown that’s bursting with potential, the duo start integrating into their new team. The generation of miracles have all split up and are now each part of their own team, leading their schools into powerhouse territory. The story follows Seirin as they climb the ranks and take on the other generation of miracle teams one at a time, while also developing the other teams really well. This is something that many of the better shonen teams do, they spend enough time on the other teams so that they feel important. I’ll highlight this particular thing more in another show we’ll cover shortly.
I don’t remember where it was first pointed out to me, but recognizing that the characters in this show and the characters in Haikyuu are the same age is hilarious, as the characters here are drawn much more muscular and tall.
Kuroko no Basket is relatively unique in how its players’ abilities are represented. Their abilities are all based around actual basketball skills. Think of things like tricky dribbling, shooting three pointers, ankle breakers, really good blockers and more. All of these abilities are tuned to the extreme, turning them into what are basically super powers. The trick for every match is dealing with the opposing team’s super power in some way. The cast is fun, the animation is fine and the hype of the sports matches – including recurring characters in the stands providing commentary – are all done well enough that this is probably the show I’m most likely to recommend to you when you’re just dipping your toes into the genre. This or Haikyuu, kind of depends if you prefer volleyball or basketball. But if you’ve already watched those and are looking for something that feels a little bit more competitive, then have a look at the next entry on this list.
Looking back at it, this looks fine, but I remember at the time being blown away by the animation and direction of these shots. It’s still solid, but we’ve come a long way since *checks release date* 2015??? How has it been a decade?
Ace of Diamond
This series has all the building blocks of your standard shonen sports story. Aiming for nationals, rival teams, senpais who are graduating soon, new members and of course sports matches. But despite all of these similarities to the more formulaic shonen sports shows, I still want to put this in its own separate categories. And I want to do this for two reasons. The first reason is one that on its own wouldn’t really make me want to separate it, but is interesting. Seido high school – the team that this manga mostly centers around – loses a lot. Most of these shows have the teams losing here and there, or pulling out some last second victories, but since the end goal of these stories is usually to have the teams win their important matches, preferably before the senpais retire, the match results end up being pretty predictable. There’s some curveballs (yes we’re doing baseball puns) here and there where teams lose matches you would expect them to win, but Seido loses at crucial moments all the time, and then we spend some time sulking about it before continuing on. It’s honestly great since I rewatched the show years later and didn’t remember some of the results of matches, making it exciting to rewatch.
Thank you audience for explaining everything to us. These reporters are also returning characters, something that many sports anime do.
The second thing that Ace of Diamond does incredibly well is highlighting the other teams in the competition. Because Seido loses and drops out of the competition several times, it gives us the ability to spend much more time in the world it plays in. This results in the characters spectating rival matches and taking the viewer along into the strategies and hopes of other teams. This goes so far that sometimes I forget which team is the main team and end up rooting for another team. The interpersonal connections we see established here make the world feel much more alive, with coaches and managers from other teams having established places and playstyles. One of the coaches was even a former coach of the current coach of Seido, to just give an example. Where Kuroko no Basket feels borderline fantastic, Haikyuu feels idealized but Ace of Diamond feels down to earth and realistic. With almost a hundred volumes total – much of which I haven’t read yet – this story also gives you quite a lot of time to spend with these characters, which I would say is also a pro. If you’ve moved on from the main shounen sports anime, definitely check out this show. I have personally not seen Major yet, but if you really like baseball, I’ve been told that it is a great entry into the genre too.
Frustration and regret are a big theme in this show and although it can feel oppressive at times, it does a good job at staying grounded.
Run with the wind
Both of the entries we’ve talked about so far are very much still within the realm of shounen sports anime. Despite a somewhat different approach for each of these, they are still about a high school team working together to go to nationals. Run with the wind is nothing like that. For starters, this isn’t based on a manga, but instead based on a novel. Not a light novel, not a web novel, but a proper novel. What’s the difference? I don’t know, marketing?
That’s at the core of the story, they’re all trying to find some answers to what life is really all about.
In Run with the wind, the sports part of the story is very much just there as a tool to push the narrative forward. The story follows a group of young men living in a dormitory together while they go to school or try to find a job. They each have their own paths to getting here, and our main character – Kakeru – ends up staying there as well, after being caught shoplifting. One of the members there convinces everyone staying at this dormitory to join him in training for the Hakone Ekiden. The Hakone Ekiden is a race which is held yearly in Japan and sees 20 university teams compete over the span of two days. The relay race is the biggest out of several that are being held in Japan and takes place in the first days of January. Haiji really wants to complete this race with his friends but he needs to convince them to participate. Running a relay race for a good friend doesn’t seem like it takes too much convincing, but not only are these people not very interested in running, the preliminary races that you need to complete within a certain time are pretty brutal for people who haven’t trained for them at all. But like I said, the sport itself isn’t that big of a focal point for this anime.
The finish line
What is really at the core of this story is the personal struggles that each of these characters go through. Quitting smoking, setting yourself apart from your twin, dealing with being a shut-in and not making many friends or even being unable to find a job. Each of these characters is unique but feels very grounded. Their struggles and their wants are both very real and well explored. All of them need to overcome something in their personal life and through the discipline, friendship and physical energy they all get from running they end up getting to a place in their life where they’re more content with who they are and where they are at in life. It’s a wonderful study of people and I would highly recommend anyone who has the time to do so to check it out. It’s a one and done, no sequels, no cliffhangers, just a nice self-contained story. And the music is great too.
Chihayafuru
There were several shows I wanted to put in this slot that all scratch that “sports-esque” itch. I considered talking about smile down the runway but it feels a bit niche and I don’t know enough about fashion to properly review it. I also wanted to put my all time favorite anime March comes in like a lion in this spot, but I think that’s a show I really want to dive in at some point and dissect every detail of as opposed to three or four paragraphs. So only one show was left in this weird subgenre that I really love and that is of course Chihayafuru.
The titular Chihaya, flustered by some mean tactics from her friend, which she probably deserved.
If you’re unfamiliar with this show then first of all, lucky you. You get to experience it completely fresh and there are even three seasons of it. When I first watched it there were only two and let me tell you, the announcement that a third season was being made came out of absolutely nowhere. Now, Chihayafuru is not a sports anime in the classic sense. Karuta – the game that we focus on in this series – is a card game during which poetry is read out and it is up to the players to tap the corresponding card with the second half of the poem. It’s a combination of memorization and reflexes and it’s a genuine competition in Japan. The story follows the titular Chihaya who was introduced to this game by her two childhood friends and although one of them later moved away, she ropes her other friend into starting a Karuta club at her school. They recruit more members so that they’re able to actually compete and then start playing the game against serious opponents.
Look at how adorable they are.
Although I am putting this in the sports genre, I would probably call it a romance and drama anime first. Karuta is a large part of the story which means the aesthetics involved also play a big role. When I first got into this show I recommended it to a friend of mine but she said she didn’t really like how much fanservice it had. This confused me at first because there were no fanservice moments in it at all. What my friend was talking about was how Chihaya as a character is written to be an extremely likable character and the way she acts and moves definitely invokes an innocence that can be very attractive to people. I don’t disagree with her sentiment about this, but I do think this holds less true in later seasons when she becomes a much more rounded character. Chihayafuru’s cast of interesting characters does a lot of good work in making the show very enjoyable and the tension from the actual competition is high enough to keep that competitive sports element alive as well. Like I said at the start of this chapter, definitely give this show a watch if you haven’t yet, but then again do that for each of the shows I’ve talked about here.
But of course, drama is always lucking.
In conclusion
In conclusion? What is this, an essay for a university assignment? Well, it just felt weird to put this paragraph still under the previous heading, so that’s why the distinction is here. The sports genre is one that has always been near and dear to my heart. Some of the best shows I’ve ever seen are part of this genre and some of my comfort shows are as well. I can watch Haikyuu episodes any day and be happy about it, same with Kuroko, Chihayafuru and many others. It’s not so much about the sport itself – although sometimes it is – but putting people in a competitive setting allows us to really explore the motivations and wants of these people. It’s also what makes other shounen and seinen shows tick in a lot of cases. Sure, it’s fun to watch Luffy beat the crap out of dictator #4, but the real joy of the show is in watching the underlying story about the people who suffer under a cruel government and are about ready to stand up to their oppressors. The relationships between Naruto and Sasuke are much more interesting than Naruto beating up some guy. It’s also why Bleach kind of falls flat for me a lot of the time. It’s much more about just having cool characters and cool fights than an actual look into the human condition. And if that is your thing, more power to you, there’s tons of things to like about those sorts of shows. I still have a soft spot for both Fairy Tail and Black Clover and those shows are about as deep as a puddle. There’s no need for a show to be deep to be good, but some shows that do trust the viewer a little bit more can make for a great watch. But that’s me and my thoughts, are there any shows I really should have put on here that are different enough from these entries to warrant that fifth spot? Perhaps I’ll revisit this post in the future to add to it. But for now, thanks for reading!
Don’t worry my beloved, I will talk about you soon enough. And yes, this may not look like a sports anime, but I promise you I can make it fit.
As someone who fell completely and utterly in love with anime not long before I got my autism diagnosis, I think it’s fair to say that watching anime causes autism. Pack up the research folks, it’s not vaccines that cause autism, but it’s the consumption of anime as a medium that causes autism. We’ve cracked the code and it’s all part of Japan’s masterplan to take over the world. Or maybe there’s a different reason why so many neurodivergent people seem to take an interest in the sort of storytelling that comes out of anime and manga. Perhaps there’s more to it than meets the eye. It’s a topic of discussion that I’ve had my eyes on for quite a while and what better way to finish autism awareness month than by combining two things I love talking about: Anime and autism.
Trying to find actual research on this topic was difficult. I found several bloggers who had tinkered with the concept in much a similar way that I’m doing right now, but the only thing I found that could be considered research was a research on the link between autism and visual stimming by Rose et al(2024), which I will link to at the end of this blog. This paper spends time addressing the different ways that the ASD community is looked at, both as non-contributing as well as culture defining. It then puts a lens to stimming, which is a concept I only recently learned about. To explain stimming in my own words, it’s the act of stimulating your senses. It’s kind of what fidget toys were meant to do, but lately it seems to have taken on a more broader meaning. With animation as a form of stimming, this article goes into the connection between the two. It’s an interesting way to look at things and I quite liked reading through it – barring the wall of sources which is inevitable but still annoying to read through in actual research – and see what the authors think. They speak of not falling in line with the trend of masking and making people on the spectrum appear more neurotypical and I’m a big proponent for that. But the link that I’ve seen between autism and anime is a little bit different from theirs, and it’s something I want to go into today.
Some of the first anime I watched were shonen action shows. For those who are normally only here for my autism-related posts and know very little about anime, let me explain. Shonen is quite simply the Japanese word for “young man”. That basically makes shonen manga and anime their version of young adult novels. Stories that are easy to pick up by teenagers but can regularly still be enjoyed by an older audience. Think of your Hunger Games, Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, but they’d be comics and cartoons instead. Popular shows in this genre that made it to the west include Dragonball, Pokémon, Digimon and with a recent Netflix adaptation; One Piece. All these stories are light in their subject matter for the most part, although One Piece can be enjoyed on multiple levels, but we’ll get to that later. This of course isn’t the only genre of anime there is, but it is the way a lot of young men first encounter the genre. And I still like quite a few shows in this genre to this day and watch them regularly with the aforementioned One Piece being an all time favorite of mine. A lot of the appeal of these shows – especially to those who are neurodivergent – are the directness of the story and the characters. Sometimes when I was younger and I would watch a dramatic scene in a live action movie I couldn’t really get invested all that much. With anime it was different. Let’s actually go back to One Piece for that for a little bit.
One Piece tells the story of a young man becoming a pirate, sailing the world, amassing allies and enemies and fixing injustice along the way. As time goes on it gets out of hand and they basically become freedom fighters dealing with a corrupt world government, but we’ll not get into that today. I want to focus on one of my favorite arcs in the story here that happens early on. Nami – the crew’s navigator and the inspiration for my cat’s name – has been working for a pirate crew to pay back a debt her town has to him. After betraying the main cast and then in turn being betrayed by Arlong – this pirate captain – and losing all the money she’d spent a decade of hard work on, she breaks down and cries, asking Luffy and his friends to help her. Luffy agrees and beats the crap out of this Arlong figure. This scene had me crying my eyes out so badly I couldn’t even see the screen anymore. To this day I cannot watch this scene without crying and for years I wondered why anime would get such a primal emotional reaction from me. After my autism diagnosis I think it clicked for me. The way emotions are portrayed in cartoons, drawings and comics are often exaggerated. Big watery eyes, tears rolling down a character’s face and almost forming a puddle at their feet, twisted facial expressions, over the top laughter, very visible and clear anger. They literally and figuratively paint you a picture of what the characters are feeling at that moment. It’s not that they’re more accurate than the emotions that human actors portray, but a lot of people who are neurodivergent struggle with human emotions and facial expressions. When they’re drawn and made more exaggerated, they’re much easier to understand and you don’t need to piece things together, losing out on the moment. For me personally, the key to neurodivergent people being drawn to anime lies in this exact thing. It is much easier to relate thus it the emotions hit much better.
Another factor of anime being so successful in calling up emotions – at least for me in particular – is the sound and music design. Either Japanese musicians are built differently or they’re doing something that relates more with me personally, but when that soundtrack hits at just the right moment you know damn well that I’m bawling my eyes out on command. If you combine the stimming of colors and sounds with the very direct storytelling and the often over the top emotions, you get a very pleasant thing to hyperfixate on. And because anime is a medium, not a genre, there are many different types of shows to choose from. I think the big reason why I believe the stimming part of anime to be less relevant than the emotions on display is because I strongly feel that manga – the comics that anime are often based upon – has the same effect. I still vividly remember sitting in the bus on my way home from an internship and struggling not to cry at the manga I was reading because I knew that some of the students I taught were also on that bus and I didn’t want to look weird. It’s truly a magical way of storytelling that really resonates with me in ways I never expected when my friend told me to watch this strange cartoon in which girls had cat ears. Don’t ask.
But that is my thoughts on this subject in a quick summary. None of this is based on proper research and all of it is based on my own experiences, so it’s likely very different for other people. There’s a good reason we refer to autism as a spectrum in modern times and there are many people on the spectrum who have no interest in anime and manga whatsoever, but would much rather watch live action movies. As deep as we could get into this topic, at the end of the day stories and art are meant to entertain us. They’re meant to convey meaning, emotions and values from one person to another. (important note, I said person, not AI). And for me, anime does that best of all. If you find this subject interesting and would like to chat about it, I would love to have a conversation in the comments down below. There are some other subjects that are related to this I wanted to talk about, but it felt like the post would get too long, so let me know if you want to read those in the future. I’ll at the very least talk about how March comes in like a lion gives us a masterclass on displaying mental health and anxiety in such a clear way that anyone could feel the emotions themselves. Also as mentioned before, I’ll put the source I used below. Thanks for reading!
Rose, M. C., Galbraith, P. W., & Thomas-Parr, G. (2024). Stim culture: Outlining anime’s appeal to the autistic community. International Journal of Cultural Studies. https://doi.org/10.1177/13678779241293159
Although the story of One Piece mostly revolves around the battle between pirates, navy soldiers, more pirates and a corrupt government that seems to be basically demons incarnate, there is also an entire underground underworld within the world of One Piece. Brokers, shipping, slave trade and lots of smuggling are all handled within this shady world. One figure is known for being very effective at smuggling. That is one of the underworld emperors, a man by the name of Umit who runs the Umit Shipping company.
We see Umit very sparsely throughout the story of One Piece. He is present at the wedding of Charlotte Pudding and Vinsmoke Sanji as one of the guests, and although he falls down with the cake, I have a suspicion he will still be around. He’s also been shown to help Vegapunk with the creation of Egghead back in the day, which means that at least some of the work he does involves the navy to an extent. Vegapunk is also friends with some highly wanted people, so that doesn’t have to be true, but it’s an interesting tidbit.
Why am I bringing Umit up? Well, he is specifically introduced as one of the underworld emperors when we first meet him during Whole Cake Island, and to run a shipping company like that, you need to have a way to get from one part of the world to another part of the world with relative ease. Although we learn later in the story that a lot of the more powerful people tend to come and go as they please, the world of One Piece is still made out of different stretches of ocean that are split up by large strips of land. You can’t just smuggle stuff across the world without running into some barriers here and there. So Umit probably has some special routes that he takes.
And if we think of someone taking special routes, the first person that comes to mind for many of us is our favorite red haired pirate Shanks. You see, one of the things that has long baffled people about Shanks is his ability to be at so many different places within such a short time. He appears in front of Kaido one day, then is at Marineford the next day to stop the war. He is at Wano to stare menacingly at Ryokugyu and is at Elbaf within a day or two. He visits East Blue regularly and seems to know where to find Mihawk if he needs to. To make a long story short, I think both Umit and Shanks know something that many people don’t, and I think the Roger Pirates knew the same thing.
Back in Fishman Island, we learned that there are underwater currents that take you from one place to another but can get you stuck there if you’re not careful. A very fun theory – and of course, I’m not the one who came up with this theory – is that the Roger pirates, the Red Haired pirates and the Umit Shipping company all know about these underwater currents and are very capable at traversing them, essentially using a form of fast travel throughout the world of One Piece. This would explain a lot about how some of these people get from one place to another so efficiently – Rayleigh swimming from Sabaody to Goa Kingdom makes more sense if he knows the right currents – without being spotted by anyone. It would also explain why the Roger pirates and Shanks’ crew don’t have devil fruits and it would add an extra layer to why Buggy is so upset about not being able to swim. Of course there seems to be quite a lot of strangeness down at the bottom of the ocean that we have yet to explore, think of what we saw at the end of Wano with the original country being much deeper down, and suddenly we have a very good reason to be able to traverse the bottom of the ocean. With One Piece reaching its final saga, I don’t think these deep sea currents will play a major role in the story, but perhaps we get a few crumbs of lore in the upcoming arcs to learn a little bit more about them. There’s a lot to this world that is not yet discovered and I can’t wait to learn more about it all. Thanks for reading.
With our journey of traveling through the world of One Piece from back in volume 1 all the way up to volume 108 coming to a close, it’s time for us to move on to the next chapter of this story. Instead of talking about a volume every week, we’ll look at recent chapters, interesting storylines, fun characters and all sorts of interesting things from the world of One Piece. I’ve always had a blast diving deep into the lore of this story and I think finding the interesting tidbits that we might have missed in our journey through the story so far will be a lot of fun. I have a couple of subjects already lined up and although I initially wanted to take a break from this series, I think I’ll save that break for later as there’s more than enough to talk about.
Just today you can enjoy a new blogpost about the deep sea current theory, but future topics include things like:
Did the supernovas meet the hype
Weird powers that didn’t quite make a return
What is truly going on on the moon
And many, many more. Tune in each week – perhaps with a break now and then – to read about something related to the world of One Piece. Spoilers will be marked at the start of each post in the form of an indication for up to what part of the story they actually contain spoilers and when a new One Piece volume gets published in English we’ll of course take a look at that like we’ve done with all the previous ones. For now, look forward to what the future brings and as always, thanks for reading.
Opal Kaharis 