We also get a wonderful moment in this new intro. We already had Jinbei drinking with Kin, Denjiro, & Inuarashi. Now look who it is in front of Jinbei, Kin's introducing Tsuru to the rest of the crew! Otsuru is still the one I really wish we'd seen more of. She is lovely and wonderful and Kin is lucky he realizes how lucky he is to have her.
Then we get the most random pairing I adore. Couldn't not mention this. Hiyori & Toko gave Brook a makeover. Fun was had by all. Precious, precious spooky silly skeleton man. I love him. Between this and Film Gold, can we get behind the headcanon Brook has a drag persona? Drag Queen Brook anyone?
"Well at least they caught this one's good side." I like the think Kiku had that thought. This was a really, really cool little setup scene to a much more touching extended one of Kin & Momo trying to learn to act like father and son. Gave us Momo's amazing line "I'd prefer you being insolent over flatulent!" in the dub. Kiku's not really in that much but this was neat, them seeing their wanted posters up even after all these years. That's an excellent bit of added world building and I love their straw ponchos!
It's so perfect I want to eat the scene. Yep, just plop the scene on a plate and I'm good. Giving Kiku & Toko a moment was fun, if you're going to expand on one of the little panels in the celebration this one gave you something to build off of for a well-received new face. It's charming, Kiku actually has a nice speech here and the delivery was perfect. No notes, just a nice and fluffy expansion of a little scene and...
We wanna talk about how Kiku's little speech over idyllic shots of people enjoying Feudal Japanland is framed just like Luffy's? It's subtle brilliance, this extra speech actually accomplishes a lot without tampering with a tight ending. It's important to establish Kiku's here, right in front of Raizo, for the conspicuous absence coming up. But it's helpful if you need to pad a little to give her more, make you actually think about her if you kinda forgot towards the end of the Raid. I don't think they'll draw too much attention to that by itself, but I'm curious what they'll do with her in the aftermath of the Ryokugyu battle. So let's have a little fun with the imagery and what she's actually saying:
You know I didn't miss the excellent shocked face. "Yes, of course. All thanks to everyone...for saving the present moment and the future. So from now on, no matter how many seasons pass...and look, you can do this one all the time!" The interesting part of what she's saying to me is slipping in stuff about time and seasons. The sparkler was already kinda cool for being potentially another little example of her theme of being a step ahead. Manga it looks like she had it going before the big fireworks. So working time back in for a bit with Kiku would be one of those lateral moves in adaptation we talked about.
Then you have a lot of chrysanthemum imagery to go along with it. The flowers are clearly mums but the fireworks? That type of burst is called a chrysanthemum as well. Many of them are named for flowers.
Such a cute shot. My word are those eyes dinner plates or what? If nothing else a little extra love on the scene really lets us take in the pretty kimono. But I actually think this is one of the best additions we got. It's subtle but does everything you want it to do and more. I bet a lot more anime onlies are going to notice what happens next for our girl because she quietly got that extra love here.
Okay, Dub Hamlet is a national treasure. First of all, this scene here? Where he and the others are pondering the mystery of a detached pair of legs? "Perchance a dream?" Excellent. Nice little nod to the play and especially after seeing a few samurai movies that work in Shakespeare references I do think that's somewhat intentional with Hamlet so a nice bonus in English.
Nowhere near as good as what came after. When they're sorting all this out and Usopp explains how Kin's legs are talking...Hamlet remarks how he must learn this skill. I love you giraffe man.
Episode 1081 was exactly what you'd expect, but that was a good chapter to adapt. We highlight the samurai who'll show up to fight Ryokugyu and I love giving them all an extra scene. That still of Denjiro with the wheat enjoying a quiet drink...that might be my favorite for him. But of course, my main concern is the absence. I love that it is never highlighted and just left to speak for itself.
An astute viewer could probably remember Kin was way off with his wife and it's nice to set up that Raizo has split away from Kiku & Toko from last episode. I like to think Kiku absolutely crushed the shooting game to win Toko a big prize before she went back to grab a shawl. Still like that addition after the first time she goes out after the injury. It's a sad beat but makes sense for her.
Anyways, like how we're playing the absence straight, letting it speak for itself. Still curious to see how the next couple of episodes handle this wrinkle. And the fight + Shanks scenes looked so good!
This actually calmed my heart on a stressful day. Like, legitimate positive effect on my health. Some extra shots of our babby siblings to heighten the impact of Izo's sacrifice. I love that we keep everything focused on the two making it by themselves in Ringo. This is about them, not Oden.
It's amazing how this pairs with what was already queued up though. I love how it reinforces heavily that Kiku is typically shown happiest in bad situations. Look at the sweet smiles!
Look at the simp go! This is right after Drake shows up for his "Army of One" bit and slips in as we're moving into the Ice Oni bit on the Live Floor. I love the anime adds it tbh, though Simpji over here seems to have forgotten darling Okiku is perfectly both strong and lovely which is the perfect combination.
Caught a couple of bonus scenes as sweetie and I make our way through the anime. Love this one of our cutie supremo looking badass. Think like a lot of these scenes it kinda nudges at flying slashes and speedy quick-draw Iai techniques being a specialty.
Also...my sweetie finally got to the traitor reveal! It was so funny because I'd played off the seething hatred for Kanjuro quite well. For a while he pegged Denjiro as it and even briefly when we saw the bit of Orochi talking about it pondered if Kiku/Izo had a third sibling. Which was a pretty compelling thought I don't remember seeing week-to-week.
