The reviews are in, and One Piece is certified fresh, with an 85% approval rating from critics and a 96% approval rating from audiences. Just about every major media outlet weighed in on the series, from the Hollywood Reporter to CNN, New York Magazine, Rolling Stone, and USA Today. Though many critics applauded the show’s fidelity to the manga, a few—most notably Mike Hale and Alison Herman—felt the show lacked a reason to exist. Writing for the New York Times, for example, Hale argued that One Piece was a bigger misfire than Netflix’s much-derided Cowboy Bebop, while Herman, writing for Variety, asked: “If the best result one can hope for is an approximation of the original, close or far, what does this version of ‘One Piece’ provide that the original can’t?” Other critics were more enthusiastic, praising the performances, costuming, and fight choreography. In a thoughtful, in-depth essay for Geek Girl Riot, Sherin Nicole reassured long-time fans that Netflix stuck the landing: “This series gets it. It’s about found family and freedom; it seeks to dismantle systems of subjugation and its surrogates; it’s goofy and heartfelt.”
AROUND THE WEB
If you ever wondered why your local library doesn’t own a complete run of One Piece, or doesn’t offer free electronic access to manga, I strongly encourage you to read Priya Sridhar’s excellent, in-depth article about the unique challenges libraries face when acquiring longer series. [Anime Herald]
Gab Hernandez explains why Stop!! Hibari-Kun! is “so progressive yet so paradoxically backward.” [Anime Feminist]
Alexis Sara explores the complexities of transgender representation in yuri manga. [Anime Feminist]
Wondering what to read after Fabricant 100? Kara Dennison offers three suggestions, all of which debut this month on the Shonen Jump app. [Otaku USA]
Bill Curtis compiles a complete list of September’s new manga and light novel releases. [Yatta-Tachi]
The Reverse Thieves name She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat their manga of the month. [Reverse Thieves]
That Manga Hunter delves into the history of shojo manga imprints, from Shojo Beat to Steamship. [That Manga Hunter]
Join comic pros Ed Piskor and Jim Rugg for a lively tour through Katsuhiro Otomo’s earliest work. [Cartoonist Kayfabe!]
Over at The Comics Journal, Austin Price revisits a favorite series—Knights of the Zodiac (Saint Seiya)—and discovers that nostalgia ain’t what it used to be. “I realized what I would find there was only disappointment,” he observes. “Not the true extent of that disappointment, you understand; as I said before, no one can know how wide is the disparity between their idyllic memories and their mundane present until confronted with it.” [TCJ]
REVIEWS
This week’s must-read review comes from Erica Friedman, who praises The Moon on a Rainy Night for resisting the most common tropes around disability. “What we get in Moon on a Rainy Night is the coming together of two people who help one another to become their best selves,” she observes. “It is a fantastic tale of what ‘accommodation’ ought to look like in a perfect world.”
New and Noteworthy
- Coffee Moon, Vol. 1 (Ian Wolf, Anime UK News)
- I Don’t Know Which Is Love, Vol. 1 (Nicholas Dupree, ANN)
- Ms. Itsuya, Vol. 1 (Adam Symchuk, Asian Movie Pulse)
- Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch: Aqua, Vol. 1 (Rebecca Silverman, ANN)
- My Picture Diary (Publisher’s Weekly)
- Nejishiki (Publisher’s Weekly)
- Record of Lodoss War: The Crown of the Covenant, Vols. 1-3 (Richard Eisenbeis, ANN)
- A Reincarnated Witch Spells Doom, Vol. 1 (Rebecca Silverman, ANN)
- Star Wars: The Mandalorian: The Manga, Vol. 1 (Twwk, Beneath the Tangles)
Complete, OOP, and Ongoing
- Dandadan, Vol. 4 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)
- Doomsday with My Dog, Vol. 3 (Sakura Eries, The Fandom Post)
- Nichijou: My Ordinary Life, Vol. 11 (Ian Wolf, Anime UK News)
- Otherside Picnic, Vol. 6 (Sandy Ferguson, Okazu)