 Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review, your source for everything one piece, so I just got finished watching episode 870, and while I don't normally do anime reviews, I think it's time to make an exception in this case, because this episode deserves some recognition. If you're familiar with my channel, then you're probably well aware that I have an exceedingly low opinion of the anime, and the trifecta of companies milking it for profit. However, in the interest of fairness, I have to give credit where credit is due. For the most part, this episode was just bloody fantastic. I mean yes, it does start out really slow with some anime additions of Luffy's training, but as soon as we kicked into Gear with Snakeman, episode 870 had me visually captivated right up until the to be continued screen, which came about far too soon because I just wanted more. Now this biking quality isn't too unusual, because Toei do generally nail these incredibly important events, clearly investing significantly more into them than the average episode. And first up, the Snakeman transformation was simply beautiful. It had an air of power to it that I think was very much missing in the manga. Although my personal favorite part of it was when we got a close up of Luffy's eye, and saw the pupil transform in that stunning spherical formation. It's such a little thing, but it really hammers home the idea that this is an entirely new form. It was just completely beyond my expectations, especially seeing the beginning of it at the tail end of episode 869. I'm incredibly glad that they brought completely new animation to the table, and I have no doubt that this is going to become one of those iconic moments in the series that gets shared to bring people into one piece for years and years to come. That's before we even get into the fight, and I am extremely happy to report that this episode was mostly non-stop action once it began. None of this 30 second standoff business or feeling too much time showing characters breathe at great length, it was just solid content. Although I will say that the initial jet culvering didn't quite have the impact I was anticipating, but also that's quite forgivable because Snakeman isn't some super-powered form. It's entirely focused on speed and maneuverability, with fairly average strength punches really. But also with that said, many of the other Snakeman hits proved incredibly satisfying, absolutely nailing the impact with both visuals and audio. And that of course also extends to the hits of Katakuri, who felt like an absolute powerhouse, especially when using the buzz cut mochi techniques. Like, oh my god, when they landed, it felt like it hit me, which is fantastic, exactly the effect we want. And on a more minor note, this reminds me that a huge part of why some of these impacts felt so great was to do with the animation of the environmental destruction, particularly in the case of the first buzz cut mochi. The wave of destruction it creates is just so powerful, and it's something that I don't think we get to see done very well or even at all for the most part in modern one-piece fight sequences. The characters were also completely on model during the episode, with some portions even looking like they were ripped straight from the manga. In particular, I'm thinking of the shot of Katakuri after he slams Luffy into the ground, the shot which I remember lingering on for quite some time in the manga because it just looks so damn cool. And that is exactly what I wanted to do here in the anime. Although speaking of that motion though, I was slightly annoyed when we came back from the pudding and sanji stuff, and they decided to show Luffy being smashed into the ground again. Not even in a very abridged way either, they just straight up repeated the scene. And as much as it was a stunning scene that does annoy me a bit, because at that point I was 100% on board and ready to move on, and then we get 40 seconds of action we already saw after an entire filler scene, so we just brought the pacing to a complete halt, which is a shame, but luckily this episode had the content to start it back up again with a very satisfying clash between Luffy and Katakuri. And I really could go on at great length about the rest of this battle, but I fear it would just become redundant. It's a fantastic fight, beautifully animated and for a very rare instance in this series One Piece was done justice. If every episode had this kind of care and effort put into it, One Piece would be hailed as the greatest anime of all time I have no doubt. But oddly enough it's episodes like these that really reinforce me into being so harsh on others, because this episode proves that Toei has incredibly talented staff, and when they are given the appropriate resources they can knock it out of the park. As much as it's such an easy solution to the One Piece problem to say that Toei just don't hire great people, that's not true. Just that the people they hire are never allowed to really do their jobs. And having said all of that, look this episode is far from perfect itself. I've already made mention of the Sanji putting into Lude, but also the stuff with Rayleigh in the beginning was kind of painful, considering that the last episode ended with transforming into Snake Man, and then it takes up until about eight minutes into this episode before we actually get to see the thing that we were so excited for, and a lot of this whole sequence is very much reused Gear 4th animation, which sticks out pretty obviously. I will say that the idea of seeing Luffy fighting Rayleigh as part of his training is kind of appealing. I mean I very much prefer this kind of filler to a lot of other filler techniques Toei employs, but it just took far too long, and in any other episode I'd probably demonize the hell out of that and go on some sort of huge rant, but the interesting fact is I almost don't really care, all because what came after it was just so satisfying. A huge chunk of this episode was flawless, and in this climate of One Piece animation I will take that wholeheartedly. If you, like me, are incredibly disenfranchised with the anime, I recommend watching this episode, because it should give you at least a sliver of hope in regards to the potential it holds. Whether or not the series will live up to this potential, or if it would just slip back into decay as it almost always does, remains to be seen, but for the first time in a very long while I'm excited to talk about the anime. 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