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Hey hey, sorry for the month long reply. Had some things going on.

Starting with, belated Eid Mubarak. Hope you had a fun time. I didn't do much on Eid but had a nice outing with a friend.

I can respect that. BM is my least favorite of the Yonkos or should I say Gokous. But I like each one for different reasons. Makes me realize how diverse each one is. Can't think of two with similar ideals or demeanor.

Yeah, on my re-read, Dressrosa is definitely a low point in the series. This is also the arc during which I started OP and caught up with the series just as G4 was being revealed. But yeah, Dressrosa is my least favorite major arc so far (not counting Fishman island).

I also agree. The slow pacing during major battles is my least favorite aspect of Oda's writing, right after the fakeout deaths. Fortunately, I do not dislike it that much in EH since its the big bois we're dealing with, rather than wasting time on the millionth minor characters fight (aham Dressrosa, Alabasta, Enies Lobby, FI etc.). As for Vegapunk's message delay, yeah that's typical Oda. Couple that with the giant robot as well. But honestly, its a double edged sword. It has its merits as well. I feel like a lot of the series loose potential in their mysteries by revealing them too quickly. The brilliance of a mystery series lies in letting the reader care about the mystery. AoT and OP are fantastic examples of this. Although in this instance, we already care of the message so might as well reveal it, but in the case of the giant robot, its not a bad idea to introduce the concept first and then wait for the reveal. I felt ranking of the kings really failed in this aspect. It had a lot of mysteries going for it, but really failed for engage the reader enough before revealing them. Ended up finishing the series, and felt it was really carried by the superb production quality and world building. The characters and fakeout deaths were by far the weakest aspects of the story. 6.5 ~ 7/10 series for me.

I'm particularly interested about sword fights man. Not those random ass big slashes that Toei often does. I'm not particularly the biggest fan of action series but the titan fights and sword fights in AoT just do it for me (WIT only). The impact of the punches in titan fights is the single most satisfying thing and would translate so well into Luffy's final punches. Toei's sound department is so underwhelming that despite some unreal effort by the animators, the punches don't feel too satisfying (except a few instances where they've knocked it out of the part). I'm also particularly interested to see how they'll handle Sanji's combat. I always feel like Toei's hand to hand (or should I say feet-to-feet) combat is weak, compared to how Pierrot handles them (in Naruto). Lastly, Zorro's sword battles will also be a treat to watch. If only they could reveal some information regarding the series :( Been 4 months of drought now.

I've been binging some WIT content as of late in anticipation. Consistently impressed with their works. Despite my criticism on Ousama ranking, its production was stellar. The art direction, character designs, soundtracks etc. were all done pretty well. The pacing and flow was a bit iffy but that mostly due to how weirdly the manga is structured. Even watched some anime original Pokemon short series by WIT. Greatly impressed honestly. The art style was gorgeous, but what impressed me most was how good the flow of the story was despite the simple nature of the series. Perfect placement of soundtracks as well. A+ in terms of the production. Moreover, I also watched Spy x family. Thought I would really dislike it but ended up enjoying the series a lot. I can guess the art direction was handled more by Cloverworks, because the thin lines was a little uncharacteristic of WIT but the animation was still very superb. Also in the second season, the art did feel a little downgraded, almost as if they started using two layers (coloring/shading) instead of three layers (coloring/highlights/shading), but regardless, it was really enjoyable to watch. The characters really grew on me with each season and I'm a little surprised by the negative reception of the later seasons since I felt the show was very consisting throughout its run. The show was paced to perfection. Not a single moment felt dragged or rushed. The background music in important scenes was implemented really well. Overall, great setting and cast of characters with a very good adaptation. I'll rate it a generous 8/10. Rare to see a proper adaptation nowadays really, with most series employing over the top animation but sacrificing the direction in its place. Similar case with One piece. I feel like the direction is definitely a huge step up since Wano and even more so in EH, but its significantly below early One piece, especially until the end of W7 or beginning of Enies lobby. The animation was very simplistic and thus, had to use innovative ways to make the scenes engaging from moment to moment. The series was very consistent overall. Now it is very evident that certain episodes have extremely competent directors and animators, while others are very lackluster in their production. Makes the series very inconsistent overall. Can't blame too much honestly, its hard to maintain consistency in a weekly running series with no breaks. Toei's immense talent is carrying this series afloat.

Frieren's current rating is insane. I guess this is what happens when a production manager known for having connections to some of the best talents in the industry picks up an award winning story. Not too mention, Madhouse is an amazing studio, dare I say the best after KyoAni. Really knows how to keep animation simple but very effective in its usage. Also, judging from Bocchi the Rock, I can imagine the direction must have been stellar as well. I'm keen to watch the show but do not feel like watching it at the moment. I'll give Frieren a watch someday; I do think dialogue centric series are my cup of tea, especially since Sangatsu and Monogatari are some of my favorite series. But until I watch it, I cannot have a say.

First of all man, Ramadan Mubarak !! May this month shine blessings upon you and help you overcome your struggles :D I miss Ramadan with my family the most (been 7 years now), so cherish this feeling :)

Secondly, I always say this but "me (and my family) before others". So before stressing over others, figure your situation out first. Screw the friend for now. He might have his situations and circumstances, but then again, before you tackle him, sort your self out.

Thirdly, RIP Toriyama. I may not be a DB fan, but I respected Toriyama a lot. His early juvenile DB was beyond charming.

One thing I'm slightly concerned about regarding OP's ending is the sudden lore drop all at once. I feel too big of a change in story's perspective might feel alienating. Hence, I really hope Oda starts dropping some plot points here and there. EH has been good at revealing major plot points, but I feel like more should be done (especially God valley, Shanks and Mihawks BS, BB's BS and Dragon's BS), so that everything doesn't seem overwhelming at the end. It's like writing a motivation letter for universities. You should never write new information in the ending paragraph, and instead reiterate what has already been said. I feel like Oda should take a similar approach. Drop 90% of the lore (expect OP and void century) and give 100 ~ 150 chapters for the lore drop to feel normal and not overwhelming. The final arcs should just be closing plot points, rather than forming new ones.

Ehhhhh I will disagree with you. IMO BM is the only yonko that's actually terrifying. She is a senile psychopathic old lady with dementia and personality disorder and doesn't even stop at killing her own children. Her backstory is horrifying; in that she is someone so oblivious to how terrifying they are. She is ruthless and cannot be reasoned with, unlike other antagonists. I love her chosen character within the context of the story, rather than being the same old serious antagonist. Wano did her dirty though; the memory loss and defeat were out of place. BM was a freaking powerhouse honestly. Abnormally strong with giant's strength, an extremely overpowered DF and ACoC. I don't think Luffy could've 1v1'd BM like he did Kaido. WCI is freaking top tier and I will stand by this statement until the end.

Cannot say the same about Dressrosa though. I'm re-reading it (43 chapters into it) and it has glaring problems. Almost 30-40% of the fluff could be removed and no one would bat an eye. It is extremely bad at establishing too many parallel events; doesn't develop much when an event is onscreen and just before a climactic moment, cuts away, only to come back to the event with things resolved off-screen. There is way too much idle dialogue that should be removed and the side villains do not need to have as much of a screen time as they have. It is the worst executed arc honestly, which is a shame since it boasts some of the best content; Doffy is a freaking cool character and his (and Law's BS) is one of the best. Fujitora's and Sabo's introduction, Law's character arc, Usopp's moment, smile fruits, as well as the coliseum are fun events if not juggled with thousand other events. The Tontatta BS is vital for the plot, as well as the SH alliance. Similarly, the setting of the arc is beautiful, and should've gotten the same treatment in showcasing the beauty, as with Water 7.

However, the amount of uninteresting side characters is hindering this arc. Wano is long, but atleast the characters are interesting. Doffy's underlings are some of Oda's worst characters. I really dislike Rebecca's character, from her design to her personality and to her character arc. Violet is ok but occupies way too much screen time. And I'll reiterate it but I really dislike Doffy's underlings. If re-adapted, Dressrosa is definitely the arc that needs the most work. It should capitalize on its strong points and reduce the unnecessary fluff as much as possible. It could easily be a 50 - 70 chapter arc with a very solid plotline.

I'm very glad that Oda, after his regressed writing (Post TS till Dressrosa) has continuously improved his writing with each arc, especially the straw hats themselves, which I perceived to be very one dimensional post TS. However, Oda has done an excellent job in developing Luffy, Nami and Sanji, and bringing more life to Brook, Franky and Jimbei. I'm hopeful for Usopp but he has been neglected very badly for a long time. Chopper's character is the most concerning since he has been sidelined the most. Lastly Zoro ... hhmmm I feel like his more stoic character makes sense and I like it a lot but I loved the old goofy Zoro with more emotions.

Lastly, I do think EH is shaping up to be the best of OP, but I have some issues with tension building. Granted this was never OP's strong suit, but I kinda wish for Oda to tone down Luffy's G5 reactions a little, and involve more straw hats in the conflict. OP as it is now feels way too heavily centered on Luffy.

As for Ranking of Kings, I'm surprised WIT has managed to extract as much out of it as it already has. The premise is interesting but there is a huge problem with lack of direction, with events and character motives changing at moments notice. I feel like this story is unplanned and abrupt. WIT has really created something out of nothing here. Gives me immense hope for The One Piece. Btw Asano Kyoji (the character designer and chief animation director for AoT and Psycho Pass) has shared some OP related content within the past two months. Is this perhaps a given sign that he'll also take charge of the remake? I love his refined character designs and how he shades characters (the two color shading with white outlines and dark areas for shadows). Most of his series have involved studio Bihou for background art (except SxF because Cloverworks did it), which you should know from AoT, is a beast of a studio in background art. He is an excellent animation director. However, I can't picture his style fitting the goofy nature of One Piece. Like I just cannot picture it. Noboru Koizumi's early One Piece is timeless (episodes 1 - 402) and I can't see anyone replicating that style. Extremely exaggerated and funny expressions, fast animated comedy and character designs. I'm just beyond excited to see the character designs since that'll make the largest difference overall.

I gotta read/watch GTO someday.

Yeah, not the most pleasant memories but an experience that reminded me of many important things. Alhamdulillah, my mother is doing great now :D And so am I.

Hey man, screw the depression. Focus on good positive stuff. I don't know if you remember, but around a year ago when we started talking again, I was suffering from depression for no particular reason. Like, everything was good in life, however the mental state was bad for no reason. Now I'm not the one to let depression take over my life, but everything felt very shitty at the time. Having these small discussions with you at the time was a great mode of recovery for me. Now I feel like I'm happier and much more positive than I've been in the past five years :D So, while not every remedy has the same solution, I'm always here to talk about the good geeky stuff. Engross yourself in meaningful things. The worst you could do is stay locked in your room. Start setting random feel-good goals for yourself. Like for instance, I don't know, start jogging and set a milestone for how long it takes you to build stamina to run X number of km etc. What we have right now is time, so it's best if we take baby steps and slowly improve on different aspects of our lives that will make us feel more positive. If you ask me, there is so much I would like to improve in myself. I would like to start reading good literary works, and as soon as I am done with my degree, you can bet I'll start it. I also want to build a good physique. However, since diet and supplements are very costly here, I'm delaying that until I find a full-time job. Point being, I have many things to look forward to, so in the present, I want to focus on what I'm doing and do the best I can in it :) All these steps take a lot of conviction but just take the first step. It's also the most difficult step to take.

Again, you're one of the two people to be bombarded by my obsessiveness about things I'm passionate about, which has primarily been One Piece for the past 4 years or so. So, I would very much like you to be happy as well, and talk about things that make you happy :D

"To make matters worse, the protagonists' motivations became so unclear" - Couldn't agree more. It more so felt like Isayama's motivations also became unclear. Which is a shame, because I actually liked the Marley arc (minus the butchering of the previous cast of characters) and thought it was a very nice continuation of a story that was otherwise very difficult to follow on from the conclusion of season 3. I don't think the series should've ended with the basement reveal since it felt uncompleted at that point. But as you pointed out regarding "blurring the lines between right and wrong and changing our perspective on the story", it could've been dealt without opening up so many new plotlines that had a very unsatisfying conclusion just to fit them in with the current narrative of the story, Gabi's and Magath's plot lines being the prime example.

You've summarized my main gripes with the ending a lot better than what I wrote. Freedom was such a beautiful concept to focus and conclude the story on. Isayama had every ingredient handed to him to write one of the best conclusions to, in my opinion, one of the best storyline in anime. But Isayama just couldn't cook. Seeing how Isayama fumbled big time, it makes me a little skeptical to trust Oda regarding the conclusion to One Piece, but so far, Oda has covered so many themes in the story and he has done such a remarkable job that I'll choose to trust him, even if he ends up not delivering. I don't know if this is an unpopular opinion, but I'm loving the theme of "liberation" that has been adopted by Oda in the past few years. I think its a great theme to align and conclude the story on. It very neatly encompasses all the events that have occurred in the story so far, and it's also a very fitting response to people that criticize that each arc revolves saving a kingdom, country etc., since that now inherently has become what the story is all about. Now this also raises some criticisms about making Luffy the "chosen or the destined one", like other shows within the same genre, but I think there is a huge misconception surrounding this debate. I've always perceived it as it's not that the chosen one is Luffy, it's just that because of who Luffy is, is why he will be the chosen one. It's not destiny choosing him, it's him that's choosing his destiny. Sounds very pretentious but to me, it's very clear that it is meant to be that way.

Also, I skipped past my re-reading journey and went straight to WCI because I felt like reading it. I am pleasantly surprised by WCI in all honestly. I regarded the arc highly when I first read it, but upon my re-read, I'm placing it even more highly. It was a brilliant read from start to finish. WCI has the most frequent occurrence of some of the best events in the series. Sanji's backstory, Sanji vs Luffy, Luffy's hunger strike, the formation of the assassination alliance, Brook calling BM young lady, Brook breaking BM's portrait, Brook retrieving the poneglyph, Luffy's genius way to ruin the party, Jinbei leaving BM, BM's backstory, Luffy vs Kata, Luffy vs Cracker, Katakuri's short backstory, the redemption of Germa after saving the SH/Sanji, Beje being an absolute homie, reveal of the fifth emperor, Pedro's sacrifice, introduction to underworld players especially the GOAT big news Morgan, Nami getting Zues, heck even Lola's father's death felt very tragic. Like this was atleast an A+ tier arc. Also, the comedy was spot on in this arc. I was laughing my ass out so frequently, especially Gangster Gastino and Brook sleeping with BM xD Also, I really liked BM's ideals, even if she didn't implement them properly. And I feel like this arc did a great job of letting the secondary characters shine. Overall, potential top 5 arc. I'll re-read Wano to see if it also holds up well. But WCI really covered a lot of good content in 78 chapters. Also, while reading, I tried to imagine potential pacing of the arc. All in all, the arc fits wonderfully in 26 episodes with episode 1 and 26 being 45-minutes in runtime. The earlier episodes only covered 2 chapters, while starting episode 18, the pacing can really be sped up, covering 4-5 chapters at a time. This was all possible by cutting out content after the party crash, where story started dragging a little. In my fictitious directing role, I cut out a lot of the content surrounding preparing the cake, BM fodder having useless monologues towards the very end, and streamlining some scenes, such as removing a lot of cutaways in some scenes and instead merging the content for some scenes to play out entirely, rather than be segmented with 10 other events.

I also started watching Ranking of the kings, to really see what WIT is capable of. I can confidently say, if the pacing is not too fast, WIT will knock this adaptation out of the park. It just seems that WIT doesn't know how to produce anything bad. WIT is one of the very few studios that doesn't copy paste manga to anime (cough Mappa and Toei) and instead, really looks to bring out the potential of animation and sound, in contrast to static panels in manga. I feel like they'll really breath new soul into this series. Also, it seems like WIT is really hiring a dedicated staff for One Piece. From May 2023 onwards, they've grown from 153 employees to 200 employees (as of January 2024), and I'm confident this number will keep growing a bit more for the next 3-4 months. The only point of skepticism is that I've triple checked every official announcement, and we're only getting East Blue. Its very clearly mentioned in all of the official announcements. Hopefully, they consider re-making the entire manga, because I can assure you, arcs like WCI deserve a remake very badly.

Alhamdulillah, I'm glad to hear that it's a benign tumor. Insha'Allah she'll make a quick recovery and hopefully, it can be treated without a surgery. P.S: I ended up writing the following experience but meh, it's better if you just ignore it. Brought back some back memories. It's better that I talk about happier things :D



So, I've gone ahead and finished all of Attack on Titan now. I have a lot to say; however, it would be nice to know your opinion about season 4 part 1 and 2, as well as the final chapters. Based on the reviews, I'm in the minority it seems, so I'd like to hear about your take, not only about the ending but everything post-timeskip. Since I'm extremely bad at expressing my opinions, I want to just write some bullet points about the main things I'd like to discuss (which I may forget) since I've finished the series freshly. The following list is just for me to remember things:

• Eren, Armin, Mikasa
  
• Levi, Jean, Conney and co., Gabby, Colt, Zeke, Hange's outing
  
• Armin, Annie
  
• Marleyan Eldians
  
• Psychology, general direction and execution of ideas: Eren, Mikasa, Armin and Ymir/resolution, NGE and Shinji
  
• Alliance, alliance and rumbling
  
• Extension of 131
  
• Yeagerist sub-plot and Yelena
  
• Dialogue, Events: Annie, Azumabito, plane, Colt, fight at port, Mikasa and blondie, Sadies and Magath, Sasha and Gabbie
  
• MAPPA, soundtracks
  
• Suspense, strategy
  
• Art vs Animation
  

Ok, wow, I didn't think there were so many points that I had. I don't know even know if I'll ever have the time and energy to properly express my thoughts. In case I never get to express myself, TLDR: I think after finishing everything, I've fallen out of love of a story that hooked me like non other. Everything leading up to the basement is, in my humble opinion, the most suspenseful, perfectly executed and most engaging piece of media I've ever watched. From the basement to the rumbling (and chapter 123 and 131), the quality is equally as good, if not even better as that to pre-basement; however, just with a very lackluster direction and depiction my MAPPA.

However, I cannot even begin to express how bad everything in-between rumbling and the ending is. I don't even dislike the theme of the ending that much; but what lies in-between was painful to watch. I watched the entire thing at 1.5x because I just couldn't watch it without physically cringing. It doesn't help that I'm the biggest hatter of marvelesque story-lines, "saving the world" bs, everyone ending up happily every after, artificial suspense that the writer continuously hammers down the viewers throat, shallow storylines that casual watchers will defend as "deep" etc. Again, I will not address every event, but it was a poor handling of interpersonal relationships and the struggle.

As for the ending, I can respect the actual theme of the ending. I respect Eren's dilemma and I can respect the aftermath of the ending. I don't even mind the plotholes since this was a bit of a trainwreck. What is unforgiveable to me, is that the show wasted so much time on the alliance bs, that it completely chose to ignore to show Eren's psychological struggle (which NGE does a masterful job of), choosing to incorporate a very complex physiological concept (Stockholm syndrome) but instead showing nothing and dumbing down the entire Ymir plotline to "love", and a half-ass resolution of Mikasa being Ymir's savior??? Also, ignoring the pseudo-philosophical discussion between Armin and Zeke, where a lot of words were thrown out without any meaning, what is the whole deal with Eren's "love" for Mikasa? That was so bad to sit through. All in all, Mikasa's character, although non-existent in the first place, was reduced to nothing, Armin, who was actually developing well during the second and third season, ended up being a one-dimensional character and Eren's character and storyline was completely destroyed, and destroying with it the complete build up of storylines that the first three seasons worked so hard to develop. I hated everything about this, and I hate the fact that I can no longer watch and enjoy the first three seasons again, especially knowing the characters I love will get butchered at the end. This whole sequence of ending events have wasted a wonderfully crafted series.

Overall, I'd rate individual seasons as:

• S1: 9+/10, bumped up to a 10 because it holds a very special place for me. Amazing introduction, mystery-building, action and drama. Only downside was weak characterization.
  
• S2: 10/10, this season was the pinnacle of world-building, mysteries, plot-twists, story-telling and character writing. One of the very few "perfect" things I've watched.
  
• S3 P1: 8.25+/10. The production, with some off-model shots and CGI took away a bit of fun. The pacing was a bit iffy as well, and there were some inconsistencies. However, great world-building and characterization.
  
• S3 P2: 9.9/10, this was perfection as well. The directing and production wasn't as good as the second season, however, everything else was in the same tier, with the actual events being a tier higher than the second season. Also, I loved the strategic conflicts and the amount of stakes this whole arc head.
  
• S4 P1: 8.25/10, the actual plot elements in this season were some of my favorites in the whole story. However, MAPPA did a terrible job on this and ruined my experience
  
• S4 P2: 5.5/10, chapter 115 - 123 is the best sequence of chapters in the entire series and possibly, in the anime/manga as a whole for me personally. I absolutely loved the chapter 119 "brothers", and it is a masterpiece of a chapter. Part of me wants to forget what happens after this, and part of me wants to fanaticize a hypothetical WIT's version of this, but I can only work with what we got. Again, while MAPPA didn't do too bad on this, they were obviously nowhere near WIT. Anyways, everything following 123, I wouldn't like to discuss it. Its a 2/10 from me for the rest of it.
  
• Final chapters: 6/10, the production was great, and the direction was very good, with solid use of background music. The plotline .... you know
  

As a whole, I'll rate AoT an 8/10, and unfortunately, forcing me to remove it from my favorites list, after staying there for 12+ years.

Lastly, as for the remake, there is a journalist from "what-on-netflix", which isn't an official NETFLIX news source, that claims the remake is a 25 episode series going over the EB. While I don't trust the source, I think 25 episodes is a little too fast paced, but I'm okay with it since we've already seen EB many times. However, maintaining this pace in the later arcs would be a bad thing in my opinion. Learning more about the industry, it is a little concerning that Toei has 1200+ employees and only focuses on few projects, while WIT only has 200 employees and is involved in a lot more projects. This leaves me a little concerned for how long it may take to complete this project, assuming it adapts the entire manga. However, the fact that Madhouse, with 150 employees at the time, was able to dish out 148 episodes of extremely well-produced HxH, gives me a little hope. I just hope the pacing isn't 4 chapters an episode. At best, they should limit to 3 chapters an episode, on an average.

Hey man, I'm really saddened to hear about your mother's health. I will definitely make prayers for your mother and that she makes a speedy recovery. I can very much relate to your situation and I know it must be tough going but Insha'Allah she'll undergo a successful surgery. Please keep me updated regarding the situation.

Yeah, the fighting and power-scaling aspect of slime is definitely the least attractive thing about the series. However, like you've stated, I'm here for the SoL journey. It's a calm and relaxing series. Also, I'll mention this again but really solid cast of fun characters.

Well, I think I've been a little too harsh on MAPPA. If there's something to celebrate, it's that atleast it wasn't a "bad" series overall. It could've turned out much worse, especially had it deviated from the source material. Atleast MAPPA sticks to the source material. I guess my hatred for the studio is more directed towards the fans, that proclaim that MAPPA did a much better job compared to WIT. I'd go as far as to say, even WIT's CGI is significantly better than MAPPA. Only reason being that WIT cleverly focused on aerial or away shots for CGI colossal, which actually didn't look too bad. Actually, I very much liked the S3 P2 colossal. On the other hand, CGI monkey boy, armored titan and warhammer titan were abysmal.

Yeah, I know you're a hardcore shounen lover, so SL is right up your ally xD I've heard A-1 is doing a solid job overall.

Yeah, I've watched and read One Piece more times than I can count. Honestly, I have a habit of re-watching stuff that I really like.

I've grown so used to Toei's slower pace that sometimes I can't imagine a pace faster than 3 chapters/episode. Who knows, it may turn out to be better than my imagination. I mean, imagine a 25 episode Dressrosa. Could very well make Dressrosa a genuine fan favorite arc.

As for the composers, I have very little confidence that the OG composers will be returning. Mostly since they're still composing new OSTs for OP. I'm greatly enjoying the new OSTs. They're a breathe of fresh air in EH. And it honestly excites me to imagine a new composition for OP, because now matter how hard I try to imagine it, the original soundtracks just don't escape my mind. Also, I think Sawano's style is very fitting for an arc like MF. I've been hearing SL's new OSTs and it's very evident that Sawano has a certain style of composing with heavy usage of drums, guitars and trumpets. It would suit MF a lot, if we ever get to that point. And I completely agree, MF is a brilliant arc. Unfortunately, it was carried completely by Oda's story in the anime. The anime, rather than elevate the arc, actually did a much worse job than the manga. A 13 episode MF arc, under the supervision of Araki, is definitely a must, with music and animation comparable to something like AoT.

Honestly, as soon as you mentioned AI, I was going to comment that it has practical applications in generating backgrounds with final touch-up by actual people, NPC characters and fine-tuning the VAing lines in case they plan on reusing the VA recordings from the original series. Then, I go and check the AI generated short film by WIT and they're using AI for the exact same reasons I mentioned. I'm actually very open to this idea. I think wasting resources on background art, which is, as of this moment, the only thing that AI tools are really good at, is not a good idea. And I don't think it comprises the artistic process that greatly. Afterall, it's only background. However, at the the same time, I didn't like the background art in the short-film too much. I honestly think it needs to be more detailed. I think the ideal usage would be to generate background art and include some hand-drawn details as a finishing touch.

Until we get more information, I'm dissecting the already released information. I have become a lot less optimistic about this honestly. NETFLIX's statement makes it seem like we're confirmed getting the East Blue Saga only. Additionally, from one of the sources, it will be released exclusively on NETFLIX, which is imo a very weird decision. For example, what is Fuji TV doing on the production committee, if not to serve as a broadcasting station in Japan? I hope this is just a misinformation; however, multiple sources mentioned this (which could be a case of copy-pasting news from the same source). Lastly, I'm a little worried about the VAs. Franky's VA is struggling already and with time, other VAs are sure to decline with age as well. I think there are a lot of characters that need a VA change, such as Dragon. But I cannot imagine the main cast with different VAs. Even some of the side characters such as Law and Buggy just wouldn't feel the same with new voices. I've heard there are voice doubles as well, so I hope they can replicate the original VAs. Lastly, there is news circulating regarding changing a few things in the initial arcs, with one of them being Luffy's character. I hope this is false news. I already disliked them making Luffy an inspirational, heroic justice warrior in the LA. Whereas, he is supposed to have his own twisted moral compass and is definitely not a cardboard cutout justice uploader like Tanjiro.

You should definitely re-watch Sangatsu no Lion. Though I'm definitely a biased fan xD On the other hand, I need to re-watch NGE. I liked a lot of things but the plot was very messy overall.

Hello brother, sorry for the late reply. I had a friend over from Germany recently and was quite busy showing him around. But yeah, the start to the year has been very busy but fun. What about you? How's everything been?

Freiren sounds interesting. Still, I'm not too motivated about watching it at the moment. Instead, I've recently started Slime. It's very different from what I expected it to be. I'm loving the colors and the animation so far. The characters are equally good. The whole vibe is very light-hearted. And yeah, I'm enjoying it so far. The one thing I'm not too fond of is how easily everything goes Rimuru's way. I wouldn't mind more conflict in the series. Also, the pacing in the second half is a little too fast.

I see. Killing off characters left and right does seem a little redundant. Hopefully it ends in a satisfying manner. Shounen series are terrible at endings.

I think I don't really like MAPPA as a studio. It does have some excellent staff though. Like I'm noticing it now but for me, its pretty much Watanabe Shinichirou who's carried MAPPA so far. Everything he has been involved in has been A+. The character designs, the art-style, the animation, the composers; everything has been top notch in any project he has been involved with. Why couldn't they do AoT justice though? :'( I'm still so salty about that. Like the producers at MAPPA are absolute crap ngl. Araki Tetsurou, the director for AoT, is an absolute directing GOAT. Like I cannot even imagine how the 4th season would've looked under his supervision. S4 had some of the best twists and MAPPA flopped hard on those scenes. Declaration of war, From you 2000 years ago etc., Araki would've made those the most iconic scenes in all of anime, yet MAPPA couldn't even make them memorable. Also, they chose the absolute worst person for character designs and I'm not even kidding. I've yet to see worse character designs than AoT S4. My MAPPA slander will never end. Aside from Isayama writing the worst possible ending, MAPPA completely killed my love for the series. And for everyone copping and saying MAPPA's AoT is not bad, I'll keep being toxic around them xD

So, I'm re-reading the OP manga nowadays while keeping how many chapters would fit in an episode in the back of my mind. Honestly, 3 chapters an episode could work. They could skim through some of the dialouge which doesn't hold much bearing on the current events. (though, it would be criminal to remove comedic interactions at the back of some panels). But 3 chap/episode seems very idealistic pacing.

For the gore, I say 100% include the gore already part of the manga. That's one of my main gripes with Toei, that they removed some cannon moments. I'm only against them adopting a more series tone for the series. Gore is 100% ok in places where is it meant to be placed. I hope the colors are as poppy and bright as possible. I love bright colors in One piece. As I said, I'm watching Slime right now, and I love the green landscapes and poppy colors. As an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fzA-WgzUgc&ab_channel=ONEPIECE%E5%85%AC%E5%BC%8FYouTube%E3%83%81%E3%83%A3%E3%83%B3%E3%83%8D%E3%83%AB highlights my preference. I think this is also what Oda wanted One piece to look like. He always mentions that OP should be bright and colorful and seeing this color palette in the video, I couldn't agree more. OP from beginning of NW to end of WCI has some of the most bland looking colors. WANO was perfection, on the other hand. For EH, although I love the art-style, I'm kind of iffy about the choice of dull looking colors. I hope they opt for more poppy colors in the episodes to come. It still looks 100 times better than dressrosa though.

I had a thought about the choice of composer. Personally, now that I think about it, Hiroyuki Sawano doesn't suit a series like One piece. Maybe for more dramatic and thrilling scenes yes, but otherwise, not really. In general, from within WIT, I think MAYUKO, the composer for Ranking of the kings, is a very fitting choice. However, the most suitable composer, imo, is someone like Kevin Penkin. His soundtracks for Made in Abyss assure me that he is the absolute perfect fit for this job. Other than the OG composers Tanaka Kouhei and Shirou Hamaguchi, he's honestly a little too fitting for the role. I hope somehow, he ends up being the composer for the remake. Along my search for great composers, I found a few other which are honestly legendary, however, their style doesn't fit OP. For example:

- Yoshihisa Hirano: My favorite works of his are in Death Note and HxH. Both series have some of my favourite soundtracks ever.
- Yoko Kanno: I don't think I need to state why. If not for Hiroyuki, I think she's my second favourite composer.
- Yasuharu Takanashi: FT and Naruto. Some of the best emotional and hype music out there.
- Yuuki Hayashi: I just noticed that he did the OSTs for both Hikyuu and MHA. And for both series, I immediately added the soundtracks to my playlist after hearing them once in the series. Didn't know that he was behind not one, but two of my favorite OSTs.

Also, imagine MF looking like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4-71D75KcI&ab_channel=AtsuxOnePiece.

If MF, with a shitty pacing and production can be legendary, just imagine a fast-paced, better animated, more dramatic MF with amazing soundtracks and sound design. Like in the video, if they can make it as chaotic, with things happening right and left, just imagine it man *_*

An even more difficult question would be: Who should be the chief director for the remake? I honestly cannot think of a single candidate. I just want some news man :( like, its my drug at this point. I want to hear the tinniest of the news leaks. Someone made a fanart of the teaser image: https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/6fa57a5f-3ad6-4577-8de5-39615780da22/dglbjst-7f177851-3467-4dd0-86e5-cde59f1103e9.jpg/v1/fill/w_1280,h_754,q_75,strp/the_one_piece_teaser_colored_sketch__by_shiredora_dglbjst-fullview.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9NzU0IiwicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvNmZhNTdhNWYtM2FkNi00NTc3LThkZTUtMzk2MTU3ODBkYTIyXC9kZ2xianN0LTdmMTc3ODUxLTM0NjctNGRkMC04NmU1LWNkZTU5ZjExMDNlOS5qcGciLCJ3aWR0aCI6Ijw9MTI4MCJ9XV0sImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTppbWFnZS5vcGVyYXRpb25zIl19.s_UyPV6wNuA-ew0R4tmH6KekE-WMiX1vT0oXk6-QcsM

If it looks even remotely close man, I cannot even imagine how gassed I would be. I would be pausing at every single frame xD

Lastly, as for Solo levelling, I watched the first two episodes. The production looks solid, about 7.5-8/10 and totally not what I expected. Soundtracks are obviously solid. But I don't think I'll be continuing it. It's not my type of show and I really dislike these type of setups. Its the same reason I didn't delve deeper into the manhwa and stopped around 35th - 40th chapter mark. I mean you know me, gimme a show with depth which forces me to think a bit, and I'm instantly invested xD SL is more of a power fantasy story for casual watching, and I unfortunately have grown out of these.

Also, THEY ANNOUNCED NEW MONOGATARI WITH ALL OF THE STAFF RETURNING !!!!!! Ok, I'll calm myself down, but if, just if they end up announcing a third season for sangatsu no lion, I'll loose it man. But now there's actual hope. If Shinbou can return for this, there's hope for sangatsu !! We're living in the best timeline.

That's nice to know. If a series has managed to impress you, then I can at least be assured that I'll like it as well. However, for some reason, I am not least bit excited to watch Frieren. I get the appeal, but it still seems very dry to watch for me atm. I think that might be a good thing though, I'll go into it without any expectations. That'll be a first time in a while that I'll watch a praised series without any initial bias. As for Solo levelling, I don't know man. I read the first 30-35 chapters of the Manhwa a while ago. To me, its just another Manhwa with RPG setting where a timid MC becomes over-powered. And that's something I've always held against Manhwas. There is nothing new in 90% of the Manhwa settings, they keep rehashing the same concepts over and over again. Also, while I think the animation is definitely an improvement from the previous trailers, the art feels very cheap. It is very close to the Manhwa version, but that only gives it a very web-toony and cheap feel. I hope I'm proven wrong though.

Yeah, heard Gege's been killing everybody at this point. Kinda makes the ending atleast a little bit interesting. Sukuna for the win xD But ngl, seems a waste to kill all the characters. JJK has freaking interesting cast of characters, something new gen series have failed to deliver. It obviously reminds me of HxH, but honestly, it reminds me more of Tokyo Ghoul characters for some reason. I hope Tokyo Ghoul gets a remake someday with a good pace and faithful adaptation of the manga. As dry as the later half of TG:re was, I still think a remake would be a great watch, especially if the art is on-point.

Yeah, SARU started off with a different direction and now its slowly transitioning to mainstream stuff. I think its a good direction though, considering the amount of talent they have. Hope MAPPA on the other hand goes back to its old ways. MAPPA's resume is insane, up until a couple of years ago, where they've really started increasing the volume and reducing the quality. I remember when Hajime no Ippo was transferred to MAPPA from Madhouse and MAPPA delivered big time on it. Also, series like Zankyou no terror and Sakamichi no Appolon had a sick aesthetic and amazing direction. And now looking back on it, MAPPA has produced amazing content over the years. Its just a shame that when they've been given the best content, their production has taken a hit. I still think they'll bounce back. They are an amazing studio overall with minor hickups recently. I'll still be salty about AoT though.

Ok now, time to discuss the main thing (good luck if you manage to read it all xD because this is what I'll be excited about for the next few years):

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THE ONE PIECE
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Ok, firstly like a mature adult, let me just say, YEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS, MY WISHES HAVE BEEN ANSWERED !!! WOOOHOOOOOO !!!!!!!

Aham, I mean, yes, it is an understatement to say I'm beyond hyped for this. I was sure that a remake would only be in talks years after the series ends and even then, it'll be a remaster of the original series like Dragon Ball Kai. However, this is probably the most insane announcement I've seen in my 12 years of following anime. Like, this is huge !!

However, firstly lets address some of the more technical and concerning stuff. Because it is important to be skeptical in this regard. Firstly, the production itself. I would absolutely dislike two things: First being that the series is produced in seasons of 12 or 25 episodes and secondly being NETFLIX itself, where all of the seasonal episodes are released in batches. I do not want it to end up like Part 6 of Jojo's, which became dead after the first part. I know that chances are low, but I hope and pray that they make it a weekly show with a continuous production and if they plan on taking breaks, I hope they don't split the entry into multiple parts since 50 entries of One Piece would be a disaster in itself. I mean they have all of the advantage in the world. They have reference material from Toei, since Toei is on-board with the project. I presume they will have access to the voice acting from the original series so they wouldn't need to call upon the VAs again. And hopefully, they have access to all the original scripts and drafts, which would save them a ton of time and enable a consistent production without needing to redo every single detail. If not this, they're currently hiring a new team for One Piece so hopefully, like Toei, this team will be able to maintain a continuous schedule. I sincerely believe that with a 50 episode initial buffer, they'll be two years ahead of production time and will be able to make weekly content for a long time. Moreover, with each year, they'll grow more used to the One Piece aesthetic and as a result, the production usually speeds up as the series goes along. Lastly, once production is a significant way into the series, they'll be able to reuse a lot of the things from earlier episodes, like certain sequences of animations (kinda like Toei often does). Lastly, One Pieces is relatively very easy series to animate. The character designs and art-style is very fluid and simple and majority of One piece is long sequences of dialogue and simple visual story-telling.

Secondly, I really hope that the art style they adopt is very close to Toei's Wano or movie Red/Stampede/Gold. Or even close to the art in early One Piece around Whiskey peak. I think that aesthetic fits WIT really well, with their signature "white" shadowing. For reference: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpMwb0I67Z8&ab_channel=Tetsuyagiri), notice how Zoro's drip has white outline or how around, 1:38, Luffy has a lighter shade on the outline. This is very close to WIT's AoT aesthetic (ref: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6pnMWpM5yc&ab_channel=RyukahTK), with the use of light and dark shadowing. This type of shadowing along with thick outlines like Toei implemented in Wano would honestly be the perfect and most manageable art-style for One Piece. Tbh, if the production wasn't an issue and they are able to hire a significant staff, the more softer art-style of Megumi Ishitani would be the best possible outcome. On the other hand, I'd hate if they go for the thin outlines and more of a "sharper" art-style and honestly, this scares me a lot because this is WIT and NETFLIX's style in Suicide Squad Isekai (or even Spy Fam) (ref: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLz7F7VlBfY&ab_channel=DC). I am not a fan of this aesthetic at all and even Toei's non-Wano One Piece (except Dressrosa) is multiple times better than this. But you know, a boy can only dream. If they go with my direction, you can bet I'll be fanboying on the new series every chance I get and no one would be able to stop me.

Secondly, let's talk about background and aesthetic. This is honestly what I'm most excited about. WIT is a master of background and lightning. Especially the aesthetic of sky in AOT and the background art in Vinland Saga (ref: https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=2098618&msgid=69345333). Like it is gorgeous to look at and this has been a trademark for all of WITs projects. I haven't watched Ranking of the kings but the sceneries in its second opening are beautiful and One piece's landscapes are picturesque. I sincerely think this is the area WIT can absolutely nail the most. Ocourse, early One Piece's pastel colored aesthetic is GOATED but I wouldn't mind if WIT went with the AoT or VL's gorgeous aesthetic, but with a bit more color and pop to fit One piece's aesthetic. Secondly, WIT is obv equally good with their lighting. Despite how shitty the Suicide Squad art-style is, the lighting is on point. I personally believe lighting and shadowing are the two most important elements of a polished art. The best example is ofcourse, any episode directed by Megumi Ishitani. The abolishment of Warlords in 957, the iconic walk in 1015 and my fav scene in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu4V3iTjpeY&t=12s&ab_channel=Crunchyroll. All of them have breathtaking lighting and shadowing. I hope WIT implements such an aesthetic in important scenes but its highly unlikely. I believe Toei had Asahi productions onboard for Wano, which made the complex shadowing and lighting possible. Even if we take examples of earlier episodes like 235 (ref: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5x-6tgsiow&ab_channel=OneTail%27Anim) -- (sorry couldn't find a better version but this is hilarious xD) OR (ref: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5h3ZW6A8lM&ab_channel=PieceAnime), just notice the golden hue or the clouds and stuff, this is peak OP to me. Or the contrasty blue in (ref: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMuiAajBkJ0&ab_channel=Crunchyroll). I think W7 and Sabaody was the best OP has been in terms of overall direction, coloring and pacing. I know WIT has it in them to replicate and improve on these aspects of the show and I hope they do it. Especially the lighting with the new tech. Example (ref: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3hTd3dS1CM&ab_channel=Provsoo). Also, praying that they adopt a similar "snow" aesthetic to VL because Toei's snow episodes are ugly to look at (sadly looks like the case again in Egghead). All in all, just hope they do everything similar to what they did in AoT or VL because that's peak stuff.

Moving on, for fight scenes, I'm not concerned at all. WIT's choreography is the best in the industry so anything they do is bound to be better than the original one. However, the thing that is concerning is the comedic and goody nature of One Piece. And this is where I have to say that I really disagree with your take on the more mature aspect of OP and this is also where I disagree with a lot of people vouching for 3-4 chap/episode pacing. OP is goofy and fun and that's what separates it from the other generic fighting shounen. Obviously, they can add the violence like with Zeff's leg in the manga or Luffy cutting his eye in Romance Dawn, but OP is all about goofy and fun. Its a series meant to not be taken seriously, even in the fight scenes. You look at early OP and it is not until Enies Lobby or Sabaody that we get our first serious fight. Everything before that is goofy and as it should be. Majority of big 3 (and a lot of other series) fights are stupid because there is nothing at stake. Why do we need to see the fight between X and Y when it has no bearing to the overall plot. They could remove the fights and it'll all be the same. So atleast, why not make the things comedic and fun like OP does. People may give Toei a lot of shit but the first 300 episodes of OP are GOATED and I think WIT will definitely not be able to surpass Toei until about Enies lobby, where pacing and directing takes a huge hit. With how WIT handles the comedic and goofy aspect of the series is what'll make or break this remake. Secondly, the pacing. anything over 2.3 ~ 2.5 chapter an episode will be rushed as hell. OP is dialogue heavy and very dense with a lot of visual story telling tucked in the smallest corner of some panels. JJK is a testament to how fast pacing isn't always an answer. I think WIT's pacing of AoT and VL is GOATED so I trust them to stick to the slow pacing. OP won't be OP without room for breathing. Often, the most beautiful parts of the story are the slow moment where they allow the viewer to breath and relax. One of my personal favorites is end of MF where they showcase the outcome of the war. So on lore-heavy episodes, 1.5 chapters, on early moments in arcs 2 ~ 2.5 chapters and during the middle to later half where things drag out, especially with many fights going on at the same time and constant back and forth from fights, they can replace that with a more dynamic, fast-paced take with intense but momentary action sequences and wrap up the fights quickly. This is where they may go upto 3-4 chapters and trim down the weakest aspect of OP, which is the slow and often, repetitive fights. However, early chapters in arcs, short lore-heavy arcs and post arcs must be slow, just like in the original series. I actually made a hypothetical OP remake pacing on December 9th, around 10-15 days before the announcement (freaking hell, me calculating a remake pacing and talking about WIT before the announcement. Coincidence?? xD), I calculated the pre-timeskip to be 260 episodes instead of 516 episodes and post TS until end of Wano to be 186 episodes instead of a whopping 572 from Toei. Overall, leading to a pacing of 2.38 chap/episode, which IMO, is the best most optimum pacing possible. Also, PLEASE ADAPT THE COVER STORIES. PLEAAASEEEEEEEEE !!! Toei not adapting cover stories is the biggest crime charge against them.

Onto OSTs and sound design: Firstly, screw Toei's sound design. Especially in Wano with the garbage phew phew sound effects from DBZ and some other old ass sound designs. Quite unnoticed by many people, but WIT's sound design is freaking amazing. Definitely excited for it. Could be the simplest things such as ocean sounds in slow moments but I am absolutely excited for it. I believe this alone would be a huge improvement. And secondly, the OSTs, and this is what I'm praying for the hardest. So we know Toei is part of the production committee or atleast, they still have rights to the series I think, so I wonder if WIT is allowed to reuse some OSTs from the original series and make some new of their own. Because I'll be honest, sometimes overused, but OP has some of the best OSTs ever. I mean WIT has Hiroyuki Sawano and let's be honest, he is the best in the business. Any new OSTs by his team would be the best thing to happen. Overall, AoT's soundtracks are the best and YOUSEEBIGGIRL is the best anime OST of all time and don't even argue me on this one but I hope the remake is able to use OSTs from the original series. I still do not get the big issue with re-using original material, especially FMAB and FMA. Both are from the same freaking studio so why not let them re-use some resources. Like the OST "Brothers" from FMA is so good and they never bothered to reuse it. Part of the reason why FMAB is an okay series is because it has some of the most mid OSTs. But coming back, like the OG OP OSTs are just so amazing that it'll be the biggest waste not to reuse em. TBH this is the only reason I was thinking a remake or remaster by Toei would've been the better choice. I'm all for the remake but without the original OSTs, its not the same series anymore. So, I really hope that even if they mess everything up, atleast they get to reuse some OG OSTs. That'll save em so much time and resources tbh. It's almost foolish not to reuse them. Toei, in a lot of ways, functions very different to most studios, in that they pretty much own whatever they produce. So since they have a stake in this, it'll be a weird choice not to reuse the OSTs. My denial self believes that the trailer mentions "all new animation team" so maybe the OSTs could be reused xD xD Lastly, I believe the VAs will be the same. They could either reuse the original recordings or just let AI fill in some bits. Especially since Mayuki Tanaka voices in the remake trailer and also, I know she'll still be busy with the original series. So makes sense to reuse the recordings. Again, saving so much time and effort on the production and making a continuous run of the series very plausible. Also, we know VAs cost shit ton on money, so to me, this seems like a no brainer. For once, reuse most of the OSTs (and obv make some new to fit certain moments) and voice recordings and just maximize the profits of all parties involves xD

To summarize, this is all what I want in my definitive version of OP, which is just a polished version of OP. I'm beyond excited for the news regarding this, about the staff and details, about the production process and how they're planning to release this. Everyday I wake up and just search for any tiny bit of news on this xD I just want to see whether it'll be anything close to my ideal version of the series. Honestly, the original teaser hints that this is not OP re-imagining and just OP-repolishing, which is the best we can hope for. The first 300 episodes of the series are very close to perfection and honestly, if they can polishing the remaining 800 episodes, this'll be a perfect representation of the series. Obviously, a more epic, fast paced, better directed visually and aurally MF is something that's guaranteed and I'm excited for it but I'm especially excited for how Punk Hazard, Fishman Island and Dressrosa will look but let's be honest, they're garbage in Toei's version and part of it is due to the series director at the time, who was incompetent. Thankfully, a new person undertook Zou and WCI and then obviously Nagamine has been a GOAT for bringing in such a competent team, especially the free lancers (direction was still lacking overall but atleast production was fire). Honestly, Uda Kounosuke (director for episodes 1 - 278) and the production team for Wano brought by Nagaime would result is an epic version of OP, however, WIT can take a page from the OG series and implement the positive aspects and remove the bad aspects.

Punk Hazard with faster pace, new sound design and animation and better background art (because snowy episodes can be so memorable if done right), and FI with better background (bluely hues, beautiful art) and better OSTs and faster pace can be an incredible experience. They can really trim the boring parts in both arcs, like all the useless fights and focus on the "vibe" more and honestly, that's the thing I am most looking forward to. Also, a faster paced and better animated WCI and Dressrosa will be so refreshing to watch. For WCI and Dressrosa, 3-4 chap/episode after mid-way point is ideal and for Wano, 2.5 ~ 3.5 chap/episode is ideal.

Anyways, this is all from my side. Honestly, as much shit as Toei gets, they've done an incredible job on a major chunk of OP (minus everything from Impel down to beginning of Wano). Handing a continuous production seems so much more amazing, especially when you look at series like JJK, struggling to complete 23 episodes. So, kudos to Toei and everyone that worked on One Piece for 25 years. Without the fear of catching up to the manga, they'd have done an incredible job throughout.

Yeah, week after week, Frieren is seemingly maintaining a very high consistency. Atleast, that's what I get from the general public.

JJK manga is pretty hot nowadays. I guess it's a good thing it's ending while it's still good. I hope they maintain a better schedule for future seasons and add some touches to the BD version.

Speaking of Kyoani and good studios, shall we discuss Studio Saru? If they manage to bring in revenue, it seems Saru could become the golden standard for artistic anime. Especially since as of late, they're bringing in amazing talent. I'm sad that Yamada Naoka has left Kyoani, but she has already directed masterpieces and Saru seems like a good new chapter in her journey. Her new movie seems to be very artistic and I'm excited for the release. Also, Dandadan's trailers are looking insane so Saru definably focusing on mainstream stuff as well. I'm very excited for their progression. I hope it doesn't end up like Tezuka.

Ok now, let's talk about the elephant in the room. We were hyping up WIT lately and you know what, someone must've eavesdropped our conversion because the announcement felt like a fever dream 😂 I'll let you begin.

Yeah, Sousou no Frieren was extremely anticipated, right from the moment the manga was in it's early chapters. It was winning awards left and right. Glad to see the GOAT madhouse back in action. Probably the best studio alongside Kyoani and WIT.

No, I'll watch it once it ends. I'll be honest, I'm actually hyped to watch the second season quite a lot. Obv I'm aware of some manga spoilers which are inescapable at this point. But I peeked into the latest chapters and it looks absolute whack 😂 Def the best new gen to me.

One Piece is all about mysteries, world building, adventure and characters to me. And Egghead has all the elements of an S tier arc. Def alongside MF, Sabaody, Water 7 and Wano for me. My fav arcs in the series. I trust Oda more than any other author and I wholeheartedly believe this final saga is going to be just as good as Egghead.

I think what stands out about WIT for me is their directing and music composers. They always have an amazing combination of talent staff members and their vision behind every adaptation is just absolute perfection. From the pacing, where it's fast when it needs to be and really slows down when it needs to be, to the handling of mystery and handling of major scenes. WIT absolutely gets it. That's why I hail them as one of the best studios alongside Kyoani. Kyoani is also a beast in directing their style of shows. Some of the episodes of Clannad AS has so many events happening in one episode, yet it never feels rushed. Same with Silent voice. They adapted the whole manga, yet handled the pacing like a champ. And not to mention, like WIT, they have amazing composers. Ofc there are other studios as well which are worth mentioning, such as Shaft. Though since Shinbou left, it has been downhill.

I think the issue with handling pacing is something MAPPA really lacks. It was really evident from JJKs first season. They didn't slow down when needed and as a result, I wasn't able to appreciate some great scenes. One piece might be slow as a snail, but it really allows you to digest the moments and hence, despite it's shitty pacing, it resonates with a lot of people and communicates the message effectively.

I really want to watch Sopranos as well. Hopefully, after exams.

Alhamdullilah everything's going more or less fine. A little busy, yes, but that's about it.

Watching anything interesting nowadays? JJK seems to be in the news each time an episode drops. Be it about some on-going events in the story or just flaming MAPPA for slaving the staff and so on. How's the direction and animation according to you?

Also, OP manga has been fire for a while now. Oda's cooking hard with Egghead. I think it could be top 5 or even top 3 for me.

Lastly, AoT ends. End of an era. What'd you think about the ending? Needless to say, I still think it's a garbage ending and while that prevents AoT from attaining GOAT status, I'll still look back onto it with fond memories. WIT's AoT is still a masterpiece in my eyes. MAPPA may have tried their best but it's not easy to replicate WIT's direction of the series.

Hey brother, been some time. Sorry yes, things went full throttle since semester started. How's it going on your end? How're your studies so far? And how's everything else?

Re-watch update no. 2:

I still don't mind the reuse of animation. However, there's one difference in my opinion from the previous one. I'd change the Boro breath. It's not because I essentially dislike the sequence they used as its highly stylized as well, but I have another sequence on my mind which I think would've looked even more epic and would've prolonged the fights a bit more. So the direction they went with was 100% fully looney tunes. However, for that particular scene, I would rather go with a more conventional one since it would look really epic. Kaido blasting his breath, then maybe an aerial shot of the blast going towards Luffy to build up sometime or multiple angle shots of the blast would've also worked. And then the actual rebound could've been made about 6-8 seconds like, and more emphasis on the ground with some pan shots of Luffy's face and the ground in a back and forth frame to build suspense and amplify the force of the blast. And then the actual rebound towards Kaido could be fast. Big missed chance since it looks really cool playing in my head.

That's the only G5 scene I'd change. I'd keep the rest the same since they nailed it :D But we still have a lot more to come. I hope Nagamine is not in charge since he has a lot more responsibility and cannot dedicate separate time towards individual episodes. I hope a one-off director ascends to the role.

I got to watch the episode live on the Japanese broadcast. I've never watched an episode while airing so this was a new experience and I can confirm I've watched the episode about 5-6 times since, including seeing the reactions of other people. Surprisingly enough, as much as the manga readers are complaining regarding the Boro breath sequence being incomprehensible, all the reactions I've seen so far deciphered the scene effortlessly.

Luffy's awakened performance has played out in one of the previous episodes, but I reckon they'll use it in the episodes to come as well since this will span around 4-5 episodes. As for my personal opinion, I have my gripes but I really enjoyed the episode. My heart was beating so fast anytime G5 was on display and I had the biggest grin on my face, as the moment intended to. I personally don't mind them reusing the scene since the second and third time was the usual repeating of a scene between half-way point and they changed the OST to kind of say, "moving onto the next sequence". I've heard complaints from manga readers about the close ups and I think people are missing the point. Luffy's face is only clearly visible on the very last panel of chapter 1044 so they had to tease it from different angles until they reached the panel in the manga.

My favorite moments were the beginning of the episode, I loved the build-up and it was very suspenseful. The gorosei scene + OST was done to perfection. They absolutely nailed the nika scene and the official G5 title panel, it was perfection. Luffy's VA is insane, just observe the range she portrays. The muscle muscle scene is so whack, I loved it. I even loved the Boro breath, I'm a sucker for unique animation styles and while that made things incoherent, I really like the diversity in the styles. Btw I expected the episodes to be discombobulated after hearing Nagamine say that he planed to stick to the manga initially but a lot of animators vouched to join in the episode so this was a showcase of the brilliant animators in the industry and I think it 100% fine to test it on this episode since I really wanted this episode to be the wackiest episode that completely sets it apart from rest of the iconic moments. This moment is not for the ones who're skipping past everything and just watching to bash the hype. This episode is for us who understand the significance of this moment. I honestly dgaf about the haters. You watch half the comments on MAL and you'd see similar names popping up in all other social media forums trying to undermine the hype just cause they cannot be part of it. It always happens for anything which has already been shown in another medium. And lets be honest, the other half of people who dislike this blindly are the usual casual fans who don't even watch the series and just compare this to conventional cool powerups, which I absolutely don't dislike but I just love One Piece for how it sets it self apart while also being thematically very fitting.

In short, its a bloody win for us and we have 3-4 more episodes of this :D I think they'll definitely be less experimental in the coming episodes since 1071 had to be a statement episode. My only gripes were the flashbacks towards the end. I'd have preferred stretching out the fighting scenes or doing Ishitani-esque flashbacks but I can understand with how work was distributed among animators, it was more of an individual showcase of each animators work and they might've not factored in how long they'd be making their respective scenes. I'm very excited for the coming episodes. It might've not lived up to the hype but it was a blast nonetheless. I definitely think we need some talented direction for the coming episodes and personally, Ishitani doing the Kaido flashback could be orgasmic.

Btw I was one of those who disliked 1044 when it first came lol but the more I think about it, Oda is a genius with linking up seemingly asspulls with past plotpoints to make it seem like it makes sense. Like, the mythical zoan reveal was questionable but you know, Luffy having different forms like a zoan DF, his insane durability and recovery, again like a typical zoan DF, his unexplained powerups like Red Hawk might have a plausible explanation with the the Sun deity. Moreover, G5 is truly the culmination of all previous gears really. As Luffy puts it, "I can do whatever I've ever wanted to do" or "this is my peak". I mean, his heartbeat was a crucial factor to G2 and now I presume he's able to do it effortlessly or in another gear since this is limited only by his imagination. He pulls out G3 frequently in G5 and does it effortlessly again. And finally, now instead of coating himself in arnament, he was leveled up to COC coating. Btw loved the whole COC just spilling out uncontrollably. Man split the sky single handedly. Overall, G5 has grown on to become my fav gear. G5 > G2 > G4: Snakeman > G4 > G3

I'm curious as to which OST would that be? I've searched a lot and couldn't really find anything concrete on it. But yeah Drums of Liberation is perfectly fitting. Still hope they end up using some of the soundtrack from vol. 103 promo. The faster pace is pretty hype. But yeah, I think the OSTs will make or break episode 1071. It needs to be a very dynamic episode and that will be very challenging but I hope they manage to pull it off. I'm a little worried for the directing as well. Pulling of Looney Tunes is tough but if they match the energy of the G5 teaser, it'll be historical. Episode 1070 is out and the official episode preview for 1071 is also out. I'll say, the G5 teaser shot my hype levels through the roof but the preview brings it down a little bit. But we will see, August 6th cannot come any sooner.

Uff that's a tough take for me. Top 10 is a bit too much. Now I'll admit this, the starting to TYBW is definitely the best part of the arc, but top 10 is pushing some boundaries for me. Top 50 maybe. My main problem with Bleach is how unplanned everything seems. Introducing new characters left and right, and having these characters get rid of other characters that we have grown to love for hundreds of episodes. Now this did work early on, but now I feel its a little too late to use this formula. But yeah, the second half of TYBW is atrocious. It's just fight after fight between characters that'll get introduced in the 11th hour of the series. Thinking back, this was the exact same problem with Fairy Tail's last arc. But yeah, S1 of TYBW is definitely the hypest portion of it. But tbh, I feel like the average shounen fan would actually not even care about how messed up the power levels are going to become and then how anti-climatically the seemingly invincible villains will go down.

Despite all this, excited for Kenpachi vs the imagination guy whom I forgot because he was introduced just to be beaten in 2 chapters. Honestly, that guy had the power to finish Bleach for good, but Kubo realized how absurd of a power he had given him and decided to dispose of him.

Ayo, One Piece are eating good nowadays. So much great news all week round. That G5 teaser has been absolutely great and drums of liberation are perfect. I hope they use some of the faster paced one as well from the vol. 103 promo video.

Yeah about Bleach, any opinions on the ratings? Like its def good and an amazing adaptation above that. And its really playing into the strengths of Bleach which is style and cool aesthetic. But I do think its a little overrated. Either that or there has been a shift in preferences ever since COVID. I've observed that the longer shunning shows are gradually increasing in ratings and popularity and tbh, for some reason, I'm also in the same boat. I used to hate long-running stuff but now I much prefer it over shorter stuff. I cannot narrow down as to why's that the case now.