Episode 1160 of One Piece continues the grand sense of adventure from last week with skill – if not necessarily haste.

After the bombastic final moments from last week’s episode, we reach a cooldown (snarf) period this week. There is no direct fighting in this week’s outing, not in the sense of opponents squaring off against one another at any rate. Nor do we get a lot of tension with regard to pending physical altercations. Instead, this is a half-and-half affair where part of the crew has conversations with giants and the other half ventures forth into Elbaph’s snowy environs.

Robin, Franky, Brook, and Jinbei have a fun conversation with the giants. It’s a bit of exposition, communication, and recap, though I think it’s worth the time spent. It is always welcome to hear the Straw Hats reaffirm their faith in Luffy, their fellow crewmembers, and the Thousand Sunny, too. Hearing the crew sing Luffy’s accolades is pretty common, but the vote of confidence in their peers is a welcome treat. It’s also fun how this half of the crew is more or less in standard new-arc pirate attire – shout out to Franky in the green jacket and gold chain, good look – while the island-bound half of the team is in their island-specific Viking gear. Most critical of all, of course, is that this has multiple moments where Nico Robin is smiling, and therefore, this is my favorite portion of the episode. But also her pointed observations about the X on Luffy’s arm in Joy Boy form are worth keeping an eye on and a fun nugget to follow for the wiki-minded theory-weavers in the audience.

On the island of Elbaph, we get a nice dollop of adventuring fun. The crew mostly has to deal with environmental hazards, particularly the cold. For my money, the most engaging portion of this is the shots of Luffy moving around the environment. There’s something deeply charming about Luffy soaring through the air, oversized horned helm on his head and red fur coat flapping in the wind over the wide white blanket of snow covering the land. Even better is the cartoonish silhouette he leaves once he impacts the snow, rising from it only to be surrounded by giant wolves in a forest. This is classic fantasy overexaggeration and perfect fodder for One Piece. A wolf could never challenge Luffy, but what if the wolf was as big as a house? What if the trees towered into the sky? What if the inhabitants of the next island were bigger than mountains?

Speaking of big inhabitants, Loki comes into frame for us. I loved the slow build-up and zoom out to emphasize his scale. Loki being chained up is one of the most potent moments of the Elbaph arc. It will endure as a lasting, iconic image for the series, and I’m glad to see the Toei team have rendered it with such care.

Rating:

One Piece is currently streaming on
Crunchyroll.

Episode 5 of Akane-banashi focuses on a smaller sub-section of the audience and illuminates important truths about Akane’s rakugo journey.

This is one of the more realistic premises for an episode: can the dreamer’s dream pay the rent? Obviously, we all live in the modern world and we know that it is full of bills, costs, and any other synonym you can think of for money go bye bye. Rakugo is a performing art – a rather old-fashioned one at that – and as such is likely to involve a lot of struggle before any great financial success is arrived at. That is, if any financial success comes at all.

That fact is what makes Akane’s career counselor an interesting character. She is trying to help Akane be prepared for the real world. That usually means some form of steady income to handle, well, everything. Akane is dead set on being a rakugoka, which is, of course, a noble and wonderful goal. Rakugoka don’t exactly make a lot of money. At least not the majority of them, and that means she needs a fallback plan to pay the bills. Or at least that’s how the thinking goes.
What we end up seeing is that this pragmatism is genuine yet slightly pessimistic. She once encouraged another dreamer in her own school journey, who ended up dropping out six months down the line and was featured on the local news. The teacher does not want the same fate to befall Akane, and she is trying to help. But we see how Akane’s passion is well-placed: she is really that good and that dedicated to this craft. Similarly, the art of rakugo is not all that different from any other job where you have to work a crowd and keep their attention, such as teaching, the very same profession she is in now.

This is all very poignant and shows a slightly different angle on the rakugo audience within the show. We have seen how Akane handles an entire crowd, and we have also seen how she tries to impress or influence peers, individuals, etc., that she knows are watching. This time, we have a very intimate view into how Akane’s performance can impact one individual that she isn’t even 100% aware of in the audience.

In doing so, her counselor sees the same passion and talent that we do as the audience. It may not be enough to convince her to give her full support of pursuing rakugo, but it’s enough that she will no longer try to block the path either. This is what Akane is meant to do.

Rating:

Akane-banashi is currently streaming on
YouTube.

The staff for Hokuto no Ken -Fist of the North Star-, the new anime of Tetsuo Hara‘s landmark manga Fist of the North Star (Hokuto no Ken), announced on Wednesday that Takanori Hoshino has joined the anime’s cast as Colonel, the leader of the fanatical militant group GOLAN. The character will appear in the anime’s seventh episode on this weekend.

The manga’s story is set in a post-apocalyptic world. The story centers on a man named Kenshiro, a master and successor to a deadly martial art, as he wanders the nuclear wasteland protecting the weak and innocent from violent thugs. In his travels, he must contend with other master martial artists and figures from his past, including his “brother” Raoh, who has crowned himself the king of the new world.

The anime stars:

Hiroshi Maeda (director of photography for Hellsing Ultimate, Aquarion) is directing the anime at TMS Entertainment, and Kazuma Ogasawara (episode director for Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These – Collision, Oshi no Ko (TV 2) is the assistant director. Kazuhiko Inukai (Girlfriend, Girlfriend) is in charge of the series scripts. Naoki Hisatsune (key animator for Fist of the North Star: Legend of Kenshiro, Fist of the North Star: Legend of Toki) is designing the characters. Kōji (3D director for Medalist) is serving as animation director. Yūki Hayashi (My Hero Academia) is composing the music. NIA Animation and Kishida Studio BACU are collaborating on the production.

Alexandros performs the opening theme song “Hallelujah.” Toshl performs the ending theme song, a remix of Crystal King‘s opening theme song “Ai o Torimodose!!” from the original anime.

The anime premiered with its first two episodes on the Tokyo MX and BS11 channels on April 10 at 25:00 JST (effectively, April 11 at 1:00 a.m.) Amazon Prime Video is streaming the anime worldwide.

The new anime announcement commemorates the series’ 40th anniversary. The staff stated that the CG-based anime will be more true to the original work.

The original manga ran in Shueisha‘s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine from 1983 to 1988. Viz Media began publishing the manga in a new edition digitally and physically in June 2021.

The Fist of the North Star television anime ran for two seasons from 1984 to 1988 and had 152 episodes. The manga has inspired several other television anime, films, and spinoff anime. Hiroshi Kurao launched a new Fist of the North Star spinoff manga titled Hokuto no Ken Seikimatsu Drama Satsuei-hen (Fist of the North Star Apocalypse Drama Filming Arc) on the Comic Zenon manga website in February 2021.

Hiroshi Kurao‘s Elegy for the Henchmen: Fist of the North Star (Hokuto no Ken: Ken’ō-gun Zako-tachi no Banka) spinoff manga got a short anime that premiered on the AT-X and Tokyo MX channels on January 5. The second part of the anime will premiere in July.

Sources: Hokuto no Ken -Fist of the North Star- anime’s website, Comic Natalie