It's hard to objectively rate an episode like 1029. It is at once well-executed and cynically transparent, a sort of necessary evil that is far better than it has any right to be but also too awkward to fit into the continuity of the current arc.
There's nothing particularly egregious about the content of the episode itself. It is a flashback episode where we spend time with young Luffy first meeting Shanks and his daughter Uta. Uta is roughly Luffy's age and they spend time running around and playing together, competing with one another, and learning about each other. Uta wanted to be a star, and the framing device at the beginning of the episode shows us that she does indeed become a worldwide talent in the present day. The episode is well-animated, with plenty of engaging visuals that operate on the sort of dreamy-weamy logic of music videos. Young Luffy even fights a monkey at one point and shares fruit with him! It's fun for the whole family.
That said, this is a straight-up half-hour commercial for One Piece: Film Red, and it's impossible to shake the sense of disruption the entire episode brings. That's… fine, I get it, Toei wants to cross-promote and I don't have any qualms about it per se. I'm sure the crew put in a ton of effort into the film and so they'd want to put in that extra bit of impetus for folks to go see the movie. Not to mention, it's a good-looking episode! The team did not phone it in one bit.
But… it's hard not to feel a huge letdown that we're pumping the brakes on Wano (already an incredibly long arc) to do this for a week. That only further underscores the weirdness of Uta as a character. Don't get me wrong, she has a terrific design, a well-realized motivation, and I don't have any issue with “Shanks had a kid we don't know about.”
The problem is that this entire idea of her having been good friends with Luffy during such a pivotal time in his life seems to be both too important and not important enough all at once. In other words, Uta currently feels detached from the narrative—she essentially is one of the first age-appropriate friends Luffy ever had, and the daughter of his mentor, but Uta doesn't add much to Luffy's story or experience or what we know about him (and how could she, with only 30 minutes of screentime as of now? Perhaps the film expands on this) other than to explain her motivation.
The whole experience fell flat for me, despite its merits.
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Kazuki Ura as Shiki Ichinose, the protagonist who inherits the blood of an Oni. Sh...
Nick and Chris recount some of the most frustrating anime cancellations, from the Yuri on Ice movie to the second half of Stars Align.― Nick and Chris recount some of the most frustrating anime cancellations from the second half of Stars Align to the 2007 JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood movie. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the participants in this chatlog are not the views...
Welcome to the rankings for the Spring 2024 season! The perfect place to check out which hidden gems might have flown under your radar.― Let's have a look at what ANN readers consider the best (and worst) of the season,
based on the polls you can find in our Daily Streaming Reviews
and on the Your Score page with the latest simulcasts. Keep in mind that these rankings are based on how people rated ...
The final Spring 2024 Manga Guide update includes not-yet-released series from this month, including Sword Art Online Re:Aincrad,Bungo Stray Dogs: The Official Comic Anthology, A Sign of Affection and more.― Welcome to Anime News Network's Spring 2024 Manga Guide! You may have seen one of our seasonal Anime Preview Guides, where a team of critics writes up each new anime television premiere as it a...
Producer Masakazu Kubo shares the animation team's dedication to realism, including bringing in a pro golfer to produce the anime's sound effects.― 64-year-old Masakazu Kubo has been planning and producing anime for decades. He's had a major hand in everything from Pokémon and Detective Conan to Teasing Master Takagi-san and Dorohedoro. Recently, he sat down with us to talk about Tonbo!, his attemp...