 Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review, your source for everything one piece. And today we have a review of episode 903, a climactic sumo battle, straw hat, versus the strongest ever, Yokozuna. So after watching this guy here, I think it's pretty official that the anime has almost completely re-immersed itself back into its old habits. I feel like I say this every week now, but there was good stuff in this episode and the new art style is doing a lot over the heavy lifting, but there was just so much nothing that happened this week. And that makes an awful lot of sense because this week only eight or so pages of the manga material was adapted. So not counting how the reverie arc was handled, this is an all-time low for the series. So how did they get away with it? Well, just like last week, there was more than two minutes of straight up recap with some of the recap coming from episode 901 two weeks ago. However, that's just what they did with the official recap because the beginning of the episode stepped back in time a bit and spent a further two minutes replaying an event we saw at the end of last week with Luffy's initial confrontation with Urashima. Now to be fair, this episode did add something different to the mix, which was the initial slow-mo section with the nice vivid coloring of everyone and the very cool atmosphere setting sound in the background. I much preferred this to the way in which this moment was presented at the end of the prior episode because when the sumo clash actually occurred, all of a sudden transitioning into this world of energy and chaos was made much more potent by starting off with this initial moment of subdued serenity. However, with that said, this was still something we saw last week. And as a result, we went more than six minutes into this episode without seeing a single shred of new content. And that is dress-rosa levels of bad. And I think huge calls to be concerned going forward with Wano. And the thing about episodes like this is that they are very much a waste of time in my mind because you can skip them and not miss a single thing because I guarantee you that next week, every major thing that happened will be covered in another extended recap. In fact, you could replace this episode for next week's recap and have the same experience but more concise and to the point, possibly even more satisfying. Basically, Luffy fought and defeated Urashima and sent him flying into Holden. That is the takeaway from this week. And it took an entire episode to accomplish what the manga did in half a chapter. And when we do get new material after six minutes of nothing, it's extended to all hell. For example, after the clash, we go into like 45 seconds of Luffy just going, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Trying to stay in the Sumo ring. Well, when Luffy and Urashima's fight recommenced and we were just treated to the same shots of Urashima striking followed by the same shot of Luffy dodging over and over and over and over again. Just like the Zoro Batman situation. Actually, you know what though? As far as the anime is concerned, Batman could have wiped the floor with Urashima. I mean, he repelled Luffy's punch with Armamentaki imbued. Meanwhile, Urashima couldn't even repel a non-Armamentaki, but slightly gear third at slap. So if anything, Batman really should be considered the strongest Yokozuna on Wano, if not Pirate King. But getting back to reality, like I said before, the art style and the animation really are still putting in quite a bit of heavy lifting. And as a result, even the most extreme of padded episodes do still look good and they have their moments. Like Luffy's giant Sumo slap was really well done. I like the way the anime is depicting these big power moves with the wind effect. And while I wish that the slap would have instantly decimated Urashima like it did in the manga, rather than having, you know, an extended clash, it was still good and very satisfying to see him send flying. And do you know what? There was even a nice piece of filler inserted into the bout where Luffy used Armamentaki to smack away Urashima's hand. Small moment, but very nicely done. I wish that the rest of the extended fight had been handled in a similar manner. And something else I thought was quite nice and mostly filler was the cutaway to Law and the Heart Pirates. Now, strangely enough, this was actually in the manga. There was a one panel cutaway to Beppo lying on the floor and Law going, why did you have to do this now? I think it might feel a bit weird in the episode because there's no sense of urgency with Law. Like remember, right now Law is in a race against time to stop Luffy from doing something really stupid. And the way the anime portrays it is that he's just casually taking his time. And it's not because he's not overly concerned about Beppo either. He knows it'll pass. However, I cannot help but love the moment where Beppo starts acting all cute with the sparkles around his face, which to me makes extending this one panel entirely worth it even if Law's urgency is a bit lacking. Although to be fair, at the pace the anime is going, Law has all the time in the world to be where he needs to be next. The other reason why this cutaway might feel a bit off to me is because in the manga, it was accompanied by another cutaway which was omitted from this episode. It's nothing wildly spoilery, but it is a panel of Hawkins right next to the one of Law. And I do wonder why it was removed for the anime adaptation. I mean, if you're looking for material to insert and fill an episode, then this one panel could have become another short scene like Law's, but the anime have made some odd decisions in regards to Hawkins specifically. Almost every incidental panel he appears in has either been moved or omitted from the anime entirely. And this is of course with the exception of when he was the straight up focus for a couple of episodes confronting Luffy and Zoro. But I can't discern any reason as to why this is being done otherwise. I mean, maybe it makes some sort of sense to save all of the Hawkins material for when he becomes more relevant again. But on the other hand, the anime has always been very much in favor of dropping small scenes of major characters just to add a little bit of hype like they've done with Law, Drake, and yes, even Hawkins. To me, it takes what was in all honesty a bit of a flat manga chapter and adapts it into an even more flat anime episode. The fight was extended into oblivion. Law had no sense of urgency in this situation. And any further complications from outside forces like Hawkins are just omitted. So we really don't come out of this with the same sort of, oh, shit feeling that I had whilst reading it. Instead, I'm sitting here being more like, yeah, okay, I guess everyone is just going to casually run wild without consequence. But I feel like that's what I'm missing from Warner right now. It doesn't feel like the straw hats have infiltrated the territory of one of the four emperors, which was something that was and is always in the back of my mind when reading it. So hopefully that changes. But I think that this more casual pace is something that we should reacquaint ourselves with. And just to end, I'd like to point out one more thing that I actually enjoyed, which was when Luffy did his all, I'm going to be the king of the pirate speech, except it was performed in a traditional Japanese old timey style. It was just a nice twist on a statement that we've been hearing for over two decades now. So well done there. But that pretty much does it for episode 903. If you enjoyed this video and the content this channel produces 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 applied to other anime and 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.