「巨大艦隊あらわる 襲来! 白ひげ海賊団」 (Kyodai Kantai Arawaru – Shūrai! Shirohige Kaizoku-dan)
“A Vast Fleet Appears! Here Come the Whitebeard Pirates!”

IF HE’S THE SON OF THE PIRATE KING, HE MUST BE EVIL! Ah, sheep of society, how little do you know. After last week’s “epic” reveal, the world is in total shock. I believe the audience is a bit shocked as well, unless you’ve read the manga. It’s funny, although I admire the scenes showing thousands upon thousands of marines, if you pause, you’ll notice they’re just repeats of sections of the art. With a couple parts of the pattern that really stick out, it becomes painfully obvious where that pattern ends, but I digress.

Random ramblings aside, this week’s episode finally begins the long awaited “Whitebeard War Arc” (at least long awaited for those reading the manga, like me). However, the fighting doesn’t really start until the next episode. Assuming from the preview, there won’t be any fighting right away in the next ep either, but starting from near the end. However, once it starts, it should take off pretty quick. If you’re thinking that telling you they’re actually going to fight is spoiling, well, that’s just a little absurd given the context.

Bearing in mind that the main point of this episode was to show how much of a beast Portgas D. Rouge was, the fact that the government had orders to kill mothers who were suspicious of holding the next child of Roger was a little morbid. Like Roger said, an unborn child bears no sin, and they could have killed that baby instead of the mother (though still morbid, but then you wouldn’t be taking two lives, I suppose). Such cruelty really makes you wonder what justice really is, and whether or not it’s a bit unfair that Oda slanders the Marines so much like this. The Marines definitely get their shine at times, but it’s pretty rare. It was a bit heart wavering to see Rouge as some sort of maiden who was left behind as the man she loves goes on to chase his dreams. It’s a little sexist if you do want to look at it that angle, but I’m a romantic, so I just see a tragic romantic ordeal here. I did kind of laugh at the way they presented Rouge trying to stop the growth of the baby by sheer willpower, with her just sitting on a rocking chair as the days and nights cycle, but her repeated words of “not yet” was a nice touch for emphasis.

Surprisingly, when the Gates of Justice opened, I did not expect Buggy to be standing there holding his staff like the son of God. I couldn’t help but stifle some laughter, especially with those rainbow colors wavering in the background. It was nice though, as there hasn’t really been any of that good ol’ One Piece humor in a while. Also, it was interesting how the Moby Dick looked when it came out of the water. As Sengoku pointed out, the Moby Dick was coated so it could go underwater, and it was shown with some sort of bubbly material that apparently pops as shown in the preview. I don’t really remember how it looked like in the manga, but this made it pretty obvious. Could it be possible that this is what Thousand Sunny’s coating will look like after Rayleigh’s done?

Note: Regarding my delay, I had my final exams yesterday, but I’m done with the summer term for a month or so. I’d still expect erratic releases within the weeks of OP episodes, but I’ll never be later than a week~ 😛

 

Preview

17 Comments

  1. Can’t wait for next week’s ep.

    What I don’t understand is that it’s now confirmed that Luffy and Ace aren’t blood brothers but Ace does look a bit like Luffy. Especially in Ace’s fight against Blackbeard.
    http://i33.tinypic.com/23ueqhc.png

    Perhaps they are cousins? Or relatives of some kind since they both have the initial D in their names.

    Eamon
  2. Lol!!!! I laughed so hard during the scene where Beethoven was being played as Buggy’s stood there with his arms raised as if he was opening the door, rofl, KIMASU KIMUSU YO!!!!.

    (Reminded me of Neon Genesis, anyone else lol?)

    crazystudyguy
    1. You mean the art style. The actual animation is a lot better than Naruto.

      A lot of people initially get put off One Piece by its art style. Even I did. But when I started watching I got used to it and now I really like it.

      It’s pretty unique.

      Eamon
      1. No, Libby was right the first time, I think the animation (not the art style, I love One Piece’s style) was terrible as well. Plenty of panning frames and badly-done speed tricks with a lot recycled from the last opening. I think they’re just trying to save up budget for the fights, but it’s still bad.

        Shad_Phoenix
      1. Yeah although I love the eccentric whackiness that is One Piece’s art style I must say … MS Paint indeed .

        I’m sure they’ll pick up their game, especially if they plan on doing animated WB any justice >:(

        Stellaris
      1. Yeah, they had a few very strangely animated shots for that fight but overall it was well animated… Much more so than a standard episode of any long-running shounen, that’s for sure

        abashagaf
  3. http://www.mangareader.net/103-17409-15/one-piece/chapter-551.html
    Looking back in the manga, Moby Dick doesn’t look all that different though.

    And man, never noticed it before, but the anime is almost exactly like the manga, with very few differences (mostly just additions that doesn’t mean much in the end).

    But yeah, I think the Marines being set up as evil (with exceptions of course) started out at the very beginning (like with Nami village, taking away her money and working with Arlong) but is only truly being emphasized here and in Enies Lobbies. This is all the setup, I feel like later on (especially with the addition of the Tenyrubites (sp?) they’re going to reveal their higher up ultimate plan or something.

    Anon
  4. The marines aren’t evil. They are just clearing the sea from pirates. Most pirates are hostile and would rob normal ship or villages and probably kill everyone afterwards. Of course there are many exceptions such as Luffy’s crew and Whitebeard and Shanks. Their definition of piracy is to be as free and fulfill their dreams without anyone stopping them; and of course, to find treasure.

    The evil people could be the World Government who are in direct control of the Marines. They allow the aristocrats in Sabaody to own and purchase slaves and they ordered the bombardment of Ohara and destroyed the ancient civilisation from the void century.

    Eamon
  5. YEah!!! Naruto vs. Pain was an EPIC FAIL battle!!!! But I still think OP’s art style is not that good… (I believe that one of the many reasons I totally dislike OP is because of what 4KIDS did to it…)

    Libby

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