 Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review, your source for everything one piece. And today we have a review of episode 894, He'll Come, The Legend of Ace in the Land of Wano. And what a title that is seemingly out of nowhere. It's a title that I think may initially give a lot of hope to a very, very small group of people who saw the preview last week and became wildly insistent that Ace was still alive and was somehow going to play a major role on Wano. And it's moments like that where as a Manga reader, you just need to, you know, stay quiet and let them learn from their mistakes. So as pretty bluntly stated by Luffy during this episode, Ace is dead. And that's not to undersell that moment at all. I know he Tetsu said Luffy delivered it a bit too casually in terms of the timing relating to Tama, but that one line was just superbly performed. It certainly didn't feel casual to me at all. In fact, it was more like Luffy mustering the strength to effectively get the words out. Mayumi Tanaka's delivery was spot on and it's always fantastic to listen to her completely nail Luffy's more serious side because I'm so conditioned to thinking of her voice as a goofy rubber boy. And it's always a nice surprise when she delves into her range to make Luffy a believable authority. In addition to that, the sound was just as integral in giving Luffy's words that much needed impact as it was reduced to near silence with only birds chirping in the background, which is an interesting choice because it's not a sound that I would naturally gravitate towards enhancing heavy words, but it works really well. And I think that's because the birds provide a realistic feel to the atmosphere. You know, we don't have any crazy creatures like giant baboons making noise or over the top stylized music or even music at all in this case, there's just birds. The sound that we are all very, very familiar with and it creates that sense of realism that really makes Luffy's line hit home. Now, in terms of Ace, while it was great to see him, I was honestly hoping for a bit more from the anime here. Having seen what they've done with Zora's quote unquote story, I feel like there was a missed opportunity here with Ace. I mean, they certainly expanded upon the manga material which was about four panels, only two of which actually featured Ace. And easily the best thing they did throw in was that little section of the montage where Tama is teaching Ace how to weave hats, which is a connection that is really nice to highlight because it brings the whole Ace and Oz Junior mini flashback to a close. And as it turns out, we can essentially thank Tama for providing Oz Junior with a hat. And it adds another tiny piece of interconnectivity within this world that one piece is just so damn good at doing. However, I do think there was a missed opportunity here in terms of perhaps exploring the spade pirates a bit more. Because remember, this is before Ace became affiliated with Whitebeard. So he was still the captain of his own crew and that's something that has never really had any light shone upon it, apart from the Ace novels. Although I can understand the creative drive behind not going into them too much because it may detract from focusing on the bond that developed between Ace and Tama. But that said, I still think it could have been done effectively. And what I'm thinking of is in that montage of still images, for example, the one of Ace and Tama eating dango, maybe the spade pirates could have been in the background also eating or arguing or helping the village or something that develops them as a crew even slightly. Because here's the thing actually, in this anime adaptation, he Tetsu only ever says Ace. You know, he has lines like Ace came to one or Ace untied himself. Whereas in the manga, he Tetsu said that the pirates came to one or the pirates untied themselves and so on. Which is a small but interesting change. One that I'm not so much a fan of, but I get it. You want to focus on Ace, but at the same time I can't help but think there is a chance for that connective tissue that I just mentioned I love so much within the One Piece world by expanding upon the role of the spade pirates ever ever so slightly rather than actively diminishing their presence through dialogue choices. But hey, that is a minor complaint. So let's move on to something else I am very much enjoying and that is Tama. A lot of people pointed out to me last week that Tama is voiced by Megumi Han, which is fantastic, because if we have any Hunter Hunter fans in the house, well, she's the same actor who portrayed Gorn Freaks in the 2011 anime. And I did not notice at all, which I suppose is the ultimate credit to her performance in One Piece because I've watched the 2011 Hunter Hunter series many times over now. And not only that, but Killua's voice actor is also set to make an appearance as a certain one or character, which is incredibly exciting. But in general, I'm finding that I'm having a lot of fun with Tama's adaptation. In fact, my favorite moment this week was when she announced that she was going to become a Bowichin Kunoichi. And then she did her Bowichin movements to go along with it. I'm a big fan of that sort of energy being injected into her character, as well as the bits of extra emotion, which brings us to the rice cooking scene. This is probably the biggest difference between the anime and the manga this week, and how it originally appeared was a very casual affair. We see one panel of Tama cooking, looks pretty normal, nothing special. And then she immediately serves the rice to Luffy. And the intent behind this was to make the act of feeding Luffy the rice so incredibly mundane that the impact of learning how special this rice was really amped up when we did find out. Now the anime chose to go in a different direction with this, really drawing out the cooking process. And it was a very nice scene actually, very well supported by a minimalist, but inviting and homely soundtrack, almost as if it were a child waiting for their mother's home cooking. The bit that really gets me though is when Tama sees the cooked rice for the first time and then she has that look of utter amazement and bliss on her face. So knowing what was going to happen that was ever so slightly heartbreaking for me, but I really appreciate what the anime did there. And you know what? It also made me crave some plain white rice actually. Like you know, one of the most flavorless foods possible, but watching it be cooked and seeing Tama's reaction. Look, I'm going to be honest. Immediately after the episode was over, I made a bowl of plain white rice just because. So for a piece of media to have that sort of effect on me is pretty awesome. However, I can't help but wonder if the increased focus on the rice does minimize the effect of the ultimate reveal by flagging its importance to Tama a bit too early. But at the same time, I have to admit that I am way, way too deep into this whole storytelling business given that I work in theater. So to the average viewer, there may not be any significant difference. And who knows, maybe extending the cooking scene even made the overall effect that much more profound. And that is a question I will leave open to all of you anime only watchers. Another thing that really struck me about this episode though were the interesting little risks that the one or error is taking. I'm not talking about anything huge, but there were flares of creativity that pop up here and there that as a long time one piece viewer, I just wasn't expecting. And a good example of what I mean would be where we came back from the eye catches. And we had that little segment of ace that was flickering like a broken TV. Artistically, I think I kind of get it because it's perhaps representing movie's memory and the flickers are there to imply the momentary shock that he's feeling with ace having been brought up. And I'm not sure how much I like that specific device so much, but I am really enjoying these odd little creative decisions that are being implemented because it's about time that we started to push the boundaries of what the one piece anime is and what it can bring to the table. So if they continue pushing for small things like this and not fall into an established method of storytelling, then I do have some decent hope that the anime will not easily fall into stagnation again. One creative bit of flare that I thought worked really well though was the transition from ace and Tama in the flashback to the Monday where Luffy and Kitetsu were standing in their places. It's a very simple transition and something that's been done to death in almost all forms of visual media, but for good reason because it's incredibly effective. It really gave me a sense of Luffy being caught up in ace's legacy and feeling that drive to carry it forward. And that's sort of enhancement I really look towards an anime being able to provide. And another one of these decisions can be seen in the Drake segment where his ex appears on screen which gave me a bit of a laugh actually. Highly inappropriate for the context of his situation being a terror to the people of Amigasa village, but the ex popping up just gave me these supervillain vibes. But you know what, otherwise it was really nice to see him in action even if he was being a dick. The action wasn't anything super special but Drake is one of the more intriguing members of the worst generation to me. So I doubt I'll ever be complaining with more of him thrown in. Then of course, we also have Hawkins appearing in this episode, although not in the way I was expecting. So his scene was changed, not radically at all but in the manga he gets a call out about losing contact with his dude bras on Curry Beach. And then there is this wonderful panel of him stating not to tell Kaido that he will go and sort it out. Whereas in the anime he gets the same call but he seems like he's already on the way to the beach or somewhere else. And I don't know, that might be a knock on effect of introducing him earlier than intended with the last episode but I definitely prefer the way the manga did it. And I'm not sure why the anime is making these small changes to Hawkins. I mean, perhaps they plan to use him for some extended filler sequences that require him to be galloping off somewhere at this very moment. We'll see I guess. But he also doesn't get his little 1-0 introduction card yet which he did at this point in the manga. And look, I don't know, there seems to be some sort of plan to use Hawkins at play. So whilst in the past I would have complained incessantly I'm going to do something unusual and decide to trust the direction for now. I just hope that it pays off because at the moment I feel like we sacrificed a really beautiful manga panel for something much less effective. Although the saddest part about this week's episode is the preview, which reminded me that we've got some one piece stampede tie-in episodes coming up. And to me, this is awful timing. Not for the film's release of course but because we were just getting into 1-0 and I'm loving just about everything I'm seeing so far. So much so that I really do not want to leave, especially for movie tie-in stuff which let's be real is historically awful. I think the best we can hope for out of the next two episodes are a glimpse of Douglas Bullet to really hype up stampede. But even then it's so difficult to be excited for that film because I have no idea if it's even coming to Australia. And even if it does, we could be looking at a wait of several more months. So with all of that in mind I would personally rather stay in 1-0 but I understand that the one piece anime is not made for me which is something I've known for an awfully long time now and that it's catered towards a Japanese audience who seem to really appreciate this kind of stuff. But the really sad thing is that the stampede tie-in episodes look like they've still been done in the standard one piece style of animation that we are used to. So going from these episodes and then stepping back into that it's a big ask for a one piece snob like me. So to be perfectly honest, I'm not entirely sure if I'll be reviewing the next two episodes until 1-0 comes back but as usual I'll kind of leave that up to you guys. If it's something you would really like to see then do let me know in the comments and yeah, I'll probably get onto them. If not, just say no and message received. But that pretty much does it for episode 894. If you enjoyed this video and the content this channel produced in general then please do consider donating to the Grand Line Review Patreon because the support of all of your amazing people is what continues to make this channel possible. And if you'd like to see more videos like this but apply to other anime manga series then please do check out my second channel New World Review for all of your wider needs. And if you'd like to join the fun at any time then please do head over to my Discord server where a wide array of shenanigan retakes place on a daily basis. And finally please do comment with your thoughts on the episode. This has been the Grand Line Review and I'll see you next time.