One Piece Episode 953 - Hiyori's Confession! A Reunion at Oihagi Bridge

[JazzMazz]

Big Mum vs Kaido was animated by Tu Yong Ce and Junwen Tan, with Tan mainly doing the effects and explosions from the cutaways, with the actual action being animated by Tu. Its absolutely insane, from the effects work, to the camera work, to the background animation. Truly, an absolutely wild fight scene.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1335407313985957888

(Confirmation from animator Tu Yong Ce)

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1335392042025771008

Also, worth noting, that a fan of the series who I'm actually on a discord server with also provided 2nd KA animation for the Onigashima part of the episode. 2nd KA animation is more just correcting other peoples animation. Still, its fantastic to see a fan make their debut on the series. They even appeared in the credits.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1335391857493368832

That's a wonderful achievement.

 

[Roronoa-sama]

big meme the swordsman

She's weaker than Mihawk

 

[vikas]

Presenting you Sangoro's Aniki
Tsunagoro

Same attire, same leg hair

 

[Lampyris]

• That entire Big Mom vs Kaido exchange
  
  
• I love that Kaido starts smiling as he clashes with BM, then gets angry again when the fodder try to interrupt his fun. Inserting character into the fight to make it feel more personal.
  
  
• Funny ass Queen scene. Still wish we got his reaction to the clash last week.
  
  
• Just hilarious that Babanuki is makinf a full recovery from having a green flaming bio-nuke go off inside his own trunk.
  
  
• So Caribou and Reddot-sama are friends now? He just sucked that guy into his swamp and for some reason they get along.
  
  
• Tsunagoro and Cho look like complete bosses. Yatappe is what if Gaimon went right...or wrong:yasu: (your perspective). Ohmasa is a horrible combination of colors thrown into one man.
• Kamawatsu stalking the big city is like an episode of Ninja Turtles in old Japan. A very sad episode.
  
  
• Oden VS Kaido already? Toei pulling out all the stops to hype Zoro's new sword.

What a good episode. I can't believe they put the master at work with Kaido vs Big Mom. The exchange last week was nice, but everything here just blew me away. The comedy in the Queen scene was on point. The first half of Kamawatsu's flashback was very fluid, picturesque, and you could really feel it with the OST choices. I don't like that Oden vs Kaido is being shown next week since Oden's flashback is supposed to build to that moment. More or less a big animated spoiler. Hopefully that means we get an extended epic fight between Kaido and Oden in the future, but none of that stuff is part of today's episode.

 

[vikas]

We even have Yassops Aniki and Ussops Uncle.

 

[Bounty]

 

[DarkWitch]

Kaido vs Big Mom in the beginning was awesome!

 

[Kejon]

Big Mom punching Kaido was so random, but I enjoyed it

 

[JazzMazz]

This was a really nice episode.

I think that Big Mum and Kaido's fight doesn't need to be mentioned. It was absolutely fantastic. I already covered the details at length about the staff behind that scene in this post.

This episode was storyboarded by Yutaka Nakashima, and directed by Ryosuke Tanaka. I think it was overall, handled quite admirably, though I will say I didn't particularly care for the Udon content. The Queen stuff was funny though.

I think the emotional core of the episode was really in the Gyukimaru bridge section. Hiyori's and Kawamatsu's flashback was excellently executed. Definitely delivered the emotions necessary(and we haven't even gotten to the good part of Kawamatsu's flashback).

A few interesting things worth noting. Masami Mori animated a chunk of the flashback with Hiyori. Even though his work was more conservative, it was nice to see him working on the television anime.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1335406853837234176

Although he didn't do anything stand out, I did like his run cycle with Hiyori. That had some nice background animation and felt very nice.

Masami Mori is probably more famous among One Piece fans for this scene on 870.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1089533751837765634

Interesting, this episode also featured the return of Yoshikazu Tomita, who hadn't animated on the TV anime since that Romance Dawn special. He appears after Tetsuro Nireki's combo attack animation, and animates till the end of the episode. His style of character animation is incredibly distinctive, but I find it more intriguing that his toned down his typical shading.
(Tetsuro Nireki 0-18 seconds/ Yoshikazu Tomita 19- end of scene/and episode)

http://imgur.com/igEu19N

Tomita was an animator all over WCI, with probably his most memorable action scene being the Black Mamba. His been absent throughout Wano, but I wouldn't mind seeing him being added to the staff roster again.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1089546523204038656

Overall, this was a pretty solid episode, with a fantastic opener, and nice bits of animation sprinkled throughout. The direction and storyboarding sold the important emotional moments really well. Props to all involved.

The next episode is covering one of my favourite chapters from Wano, so I'm hoping its really nice. It looked promising based on the preview.

 

[EmperorKinyagi]

“BiG moM raN aWay fRom MaRCo!”

 

[Fuckthis3]

Lmao yuck

 

[vikas]

we already saw it earlier too.

 

[Charlotte LinLin]

:cheers:

 

[vikas]

Meme>Kaido confirmed

Kaido used Thunder Bagua to deflect her attack, while she casually put it away.
Meme > Kaido

 

[Akai2]

- When I said I thought the Big Mom v Kaido clash was understated last week, I didn't know they were saving all the fireworks for this episode That was awesome. And Queen is the best

- Tama's ability is such a troll. Looks like it'll work on the half/half smiles not true Zoans.

- I honestly forgot the Yakusa bosses even exist, they look cool, but not sure if they'll ever get any significant characterization.

- Zoro x Kawamatsu combo was great. Looking forward to Onimaru backstory next week.

- Oden looks SAVAGE in the preview. Looks like they'll animate Oden's cut on Kaido this early before the flashback.

So Caribou and Reddot-sama are friends now?

I'm glad I wasn't the only one that thought this lol

 

[Kromage911]

 

[Red Admiral]

a real fight from 2 Yonko
10/10
canon

 

[Worst]

10/10 episode but they really showed Oden Vs Kaido in the preview lol

 

[Kromage911]

People need to understand that whatever extra happens in the anime isn't non-canon/filler. The makers aren't dumb. Oda can't put everything he wants in the manga and hence they're expanding on it in the anime, most probably on the request of the editors or Oda himself.

 

[Finalbeta]

10/10 episode but they really showed Oden Vs Kaido in the preview lol

Which makes it an imaginary 11 right?

TOEI did such an astonishing job when it came to their animations in the next episode. Animations are looking very sharp and Oden's in particular. We all claimed he is a chad in the manga, now what is he even LOL.