957: "Big News! An Incident Concerning the Seven Warlords of the Sea"

[God Of Fire]

I would say the improvement began since Zou. The anime had some rough patches like the Seducing Woods, Cracker fight, the Reverie, the Bakura town episodes. But it has been improving and now its quality is like some seasonal anime. But as the anime's quality has improved so much, the rare once in a blue moon episodes with ugly art and animation stick out like a sore thumb. Every time I rewatch WCI and Wano act 1, I skip episodes 842 and 898 as they are so ugly to watch.

[Lord Starfish]

I would say the improvement began since Zou. The anime had some rough patches like the Seducing Woods, Cracker fight, the Reverie, the Bakura town episodes. But it has been improving and now its quality is like some seasonal anime. But as the anime's quality has improved so much, the rare once in a blue moon episodes with ugly art and animation stick out like a sore thumb. Every time I rewatch WCI and Wano act 1, I skip episodes 842 and 898 as they are so ugly to watch.

Even stuff like Bakura Town wasn't really all that bad though. I mean it was agonizingly slow, certainly, but compared to the "bad" stretches of arcs past, it was noticeably better-looking. And... idk I have not seen that much of One Pace but I did see their edit of Luffy VS Urashima and I think they managed to salvage it quite nicely, showing that there was something decent hidden amidst all the rather egregious padding.

[God Of Fire]

Even stuff like Bakura Town wasn't really all that bad though. I mean it was agonizingly slow, certainly, but compared to the "bad" stretches of arcs past, it was noticeably better-looking. And... idk I have not seen that much of One Pace but I did see their edit of Luffy VS Urashima and I think they managed to salvage it quite nicely, showing that there was something decent hidden amidst all the rather egregious padding.

Yeah, when I included Bakura Town episodes as rough I meant pacing wise. Art and animation wise it's great. Bakura Town is the only weak section of Wano anime IMO. Besides Ep 898, Wano doesn't have any ugly looking episode. Right now, Wano anime is great and I hope it continues that way.

[Aldia]

What a fascinating movie even though it's short, but now where's the damn episode of this week.. I couldn't find anywhere

[Sick_Fool]

Goodness. That was an amazing episode. Toei has served this amazing chapter justice and I'm very grateful for that.

[electricmastro]

Gotta say, after all the risks he has taken and knowing how much danger other people he cares about have been through, it really is something to behold how hectic the situation has gotten when even someone like Dragon gets nervous.

[Khamolen]

This might be old news to people more into the anime but I just realized the lead animator on the Seven Warlords sequence is the same guy who made this:

[Jabra]

The Warlord sequence, specifically Doflamingo's part, is among the most beautiful things I've ever seen on a screen.

Does anyone know why the quality was so insane this time?

[Crossword]

The Warlord sequence, specifically Doflamingo's part, is among the most beautiful things I've ever seen on a screen.

Does anyone know why the quality was so insane this time?

Basically Megumi Ishitani is one of the absolute best directors at Toei right now and is an incredibly strong storyboarder. Vincent Chansard, the animator responsible for that fantastic Warlord sequence, even praised it as the best board he'd ever seen. Couple that with pulling in some truly excellent animators capable of bringing her vision to life, good scheduling (the COVID-induced break back in the spring will help out there), good material, and you've got a stew going.

Speaking of Chansard, he's actually posted his raw animation and layouts if anyone's interested in the "making of".

[Zephray]

I missed it when the manga chapter came out. What’s the big speculation? They’re blaming Sabo for kidnapping Vivi and killing her father? That’s my bet. Probably someone went to kill Vivi/Cobra and only succeeded in one, then Sabo fled with Vivi. No way they’d kill her offscreen.

--- Update From New Post Merge ---

It was bizarre how we had a full episode of marines talking.