© Eiichiro Oda/Shueisha, Toei Animation
Episode 10 of Fish-Man Island is all of the Straw Hat pirates at their absolute peak selves, if not necessarily their best behavior.
The Hody Jones and Vander Decken crew entered Ryugu Castle, which sparked a fresh conflict. Zoro and Usopp both get chances to flex here. I love it whenever Usopp shows off unique slingshot ammunition. Zoro gives us more of what you’d expect: a simple worldview that results in honorable action followed by high-octane combat. The Zoro and Hody fight is exciting enough, with lots of fluid motion that isn’t obstructed by too much in the way of flashy explosion effects or big impacts. The high contrast highlights of red and blue on their weapons was a smart decision, as it helped provide clarity for the audience as to what was happening on screen.
Nico Robin has a big flex scene too, for which I am eternally grateful. There are long stretches where she only gets to say some light exposition or react to events happening elsewhere without doing much. Any time Nico Robin gets to do something cool it is like breaching the water surface to take in a big breath of fresh air, and today I am refreshed. The shot of her smiling while leaving was icing on the cake.
The final Sanji scene falls in line with everything I’ve been saying up until now: Sanji’s great weakness brought hilarious consequences. Like, sure we’ve all been thirsty before. Perhaps horny even! But dear reader, have you ever been so down bad, so catastrophically fiending for it, that a reindeer child burst into tears that your thirst might kill you? Because Sanji did, and also he turned himself to stone in the process (?!). Truly, a legend in the realm of embarrassment.
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