Nice episode. Quality art all around, I liked the new traditional Wano OST I heard, and making it basically all Komurasaki felt very focused and impactful.
Let's get the bad out of the way. I'm quite annoyed with how they handled Caribou's cover story. This is Oda writing a filler episode for Toei. You could easily improve Wano's pacing by taking advantage of these things, you get one less half chapter episode and deliver an experience Oda can't do in a one-page-per-week cover serial. Yes, this particular episode loses direction and nobody cares about Caribou but even 5-10 minutes of him would still make this majority Wano content. Caribou was messing around in Kaido's territory, it definitely matters to the Kaido arc. I'll say this: at least they acknowledged it. Jinbei grabbing a poneglyph for Big Mom and Wadatsumi joining the Sun Pirates came out of nowhere in WCI. Jinbe's solo journey got zero respect. Caribou got his minute.
Komurasaki sounds just great. Not hard to nail down since we've been through this before. She's introduced as a malignant beauty like Hancock who kicks a kitten, petrifies and steals supplies from Momonga's ship. Komurasaki was not that awful, though some manga readers certainly felt that way. The anime went to extra lengths to show us the scummy manner Bingoh obtained his funds and abandoned his family, the other men in the same situation look even worse. You can't really think bad of her for taking their gold, "I hate poor people" is just reflecting their own terrible money-making practices against them.
It's a little premature to judge Orochi but I'm sure he'll be just fine. Not until he does the Orochi dance! We've seen all sorts of voice actors from high pitched like Wapol and Spandam to more deeper voices like Charloss and Hody play the detestable scumbags you love to hate. He may just be doing for the intimidation factor, but I actually hope he keeps the low gruffy voice.
Finally, adapting Zoro meeting Yasu is a wonderful decision. The manga skipped right over and just had Yasu describe the events. We're getting the show and not the tell this time, it is already an improvement. Zoro grows a bond for this man. The more time they spend together and the more organic their relationship feels, the better his ties are deepened to Wano and the better his motivation becomes to take on Orochi and the Beast Pirates. I hope he has sword battle against a strong yakuza and doesn't just streamroll fodder again, but if they want to save animation for canon fights then I completely understand.
Also Wanji
