- Hybrid Kaido is my favorite Lucha Libre villain. Love seeing all the Tobiroppo's Zoan powers and I guess Queen's coffee beam comes in extra dark.
- The Ice Oni fodder gaining height, muscle mass and becoming harder to take down is a nice touch.
- Briscola more worried about the gorilla than he is for himself. What a bro.
- Sanji expects another Strawhat to give him lip, but Jinbe the humble just immediately apologizes.
- I like that the Fire Festival honors a Yamato-like demon and an Oden balloon as their protectors.
- The retainers thinking for even one second that Kaido is actually finished. It gives more value to Ashura's wake up call and Kaido's reality check at the end, but I just would not have added that moment to men that came to the roof expecting to die.
- The movie lighting, the shaky cam, Kiku's flying arm pausing in the air. Picture perfect portrayal of how easily the samurai lose control of this fight.
PAINT is another stunning Wano opening. The song itself is a relaxing, dreamy night time theme tacked on a dramatic war arc much like One Day was for Marineford. It doesn't flow that well with all the animated chaos on screen, however, it's not Kaze wo Sagashite playing before every episode of Impel Down so I can live with it. The visuals are just insane from end to end starting with all the "greats" flying by Luffy as he punches Kaido. An all out Beast Vs Strawhat brawl on the roof with the sky getting split is a dream scenario come true. The episode preview is limited to just 10 seconds this time so at least they're getting shorter. Some cute and whimsical scenes at the end as Kid and Law fling Luffy to meet the Sunny and crew on the sky where they all present themselves. For me, PAINT leapfrogs Dreamin On not on music but based on structure and much more fun visuals to become Wano's #2 OP.
The episode itself was pretty good. Not much going in that first half, but an enjoyable second half with Jinbe beating Briscola at his own game, the lovely atmospheric scenes at the Fire Festival, finishing with a banger as Kaido whips up a tornado. OST and storyboard were okay, I don't see the point of moving the festival scenes but I do appreciate Kaido getting back up this episode and delivering a dramatic cliffhanger when he could have easily stayed down until next week. Also nice to see a big pool of red blood from Kaido and spatter from Kiku. Creative censorship rarely beats the raw deal. Unexpected quality next episode as it looks like we're starting off the year just right.