「麦わらチーム到着 風雲急を告げる戦場」 (Mugiwara Chīmu Tōchaku – Fūunkyū o Tsugeru Senjō)
“Straw Hat Team Arrives! Tension Grows at the Battlefield”

Continuing right where they left off last time, Luffy and co. have finally joined the battle at Marineford. I remember reading something about the good first half of the episode being recap, but explaining why they were falling doesn’t really count. Anyway, I’m not sure if you could ride a wave on a ship and go from the bottom of the wave to the top, but that made for some laughs. Of course, Aokiji froze that wave a couple episodes ago, which caused their predicament. Hearing the secret plan of executing Ace earlier than planned, Luffy and co. quickly smash the ice beneath them to slide down back to the waters (with Buggy pulling no weight whatsoever). However, all of them hit the wrong side, causing the ship to fall down directly below.

And thus, we continue right where we left off last time, again. Frantic, Luffy quickly tries to find Ace, and finally locates him on the execution platform. Knowing nothing else, he shouts from the top of his lungs in order to reach him. While this was a simple scene, it was still powerful, and he quickly made his presence known to the entire battlefield. Garp herniates, Moria can’t get words out of his mouth, and Hancock swoons. A typical day for Luffy, really. His “ragtag” team also catches the attention of many of the higher ups, and suddenly their strengths become just a little more evident than before. It’s great to see really old characters reacting to Luffy’s appearance, such as Smoker, Helmeppo, and Django, for a little nostalgia trip.

Making haste, Crocodile does what he came to do, and quickly heads over to Whitebeard. Luffy stops him, leading to more nostalgic flashbacks of the old 4:3 days. Luffy’s dialogue with Whitebeard is also typical fare (but causes knee slaps nonetheless), with his absolute carefree attitude to most authoritative figures. To make things worse, he declares that he’s going to be the Pirate King instead of Whitebeard. However, while everyone’s shocked at his “disrespect”, Whitebeard acknowledges him to hold his own in the battle. I think people just underestimate Luffy, what with his small frame and relative unknown battle history. But since he can actually back up his words with his own strength, people that know better can respect him. So don’t try this at home people.

I don’t believe there will be any slow pacing from now on, but you never know when they could throw in a filler. The animation should start ramping up in production value these coming episodes though…

 

Preview

23 Comments

  1. Does this show have an ending? Just by think of how many episodes there are, I feel intimidated and become discouraged from watching. Just like Bleach and Naruto. I did watch a few episodes towards the beginning and I remember getting some good hearty laughter out of it. Just reading your post makes me chuckle more. ^^;

    I wonder what the anime community would do if these mentioned shows actually ended. xD

    Shirt
    1. dohohoho, you’ve come to the right person~
      Yes, this show has an ending, since Oda has planned the entire story structure since chapter 1. However, it will take quite a while to get there, and the story is currently halfway there at the current arc, the Marineford War. I’d assume One Piece still has 10 years left to finish up it’s story, so yeah, quite daunting.
      The anime is great to watch, but quite long. You could read the manga, but it’s also quite long.. -_- so you really have no way out except to get yourself addicted enough to not care. I prefer the anime, as it’s incredibly faithful with better pacing (though it gets a bit slow later, but you don’t notice if you never read the manga).

      1. (big lol) Not very encouraging, you are.. xD

        I doubt I’d read the manga. Haven’t been able to put down my iPod Touch. ^^;

        Only halfway and so many episodes? Oh my gOda(*slapped*), that’s insanity! 10 years?! I’ll be like.. 30+ by the time I finish it! That’s depressing! I have enough trouble waiting for these other shows to finish. Hell, I’m still watching Winter Sonata!! Maybe when there’s a season with an anime line-up that has less appeal than a Vocaloid’s chest, then I’ll watch it from the beginning.. Till then, I’ll just enjoy your detailed posts. 0:3

        Shirt
      2. Ahh, sarcasm. Your not talking about non-stop, right? I’ve marathoned two seasons straight of a show before in one night, but that’s my limit. I completely shut down after that. A few weeks of One Piece and I think I’ll start acting like an anime character. D: *shivers*

        (By the way, that show that was so good I had to marathon ALL of it in one go was Victorian Romance Emma. I saw that you hadn’t watched it yet on your MAL. Good tear jerker. ;P )

        Shirt
      3. No, not sarcasm. Let’s see, 466 episodes, with a 4 week span. You can watch 3 episodes in about an hour, making it about 156 hours. Let’s say you watch 3-4 hours a day (and up to 8 hours on weekends), which is quite reasonable (for the sake of catch up, I did this with LOST lmao). You can easily do it in under 30 days, without ending up smelling like you never took a shower.
        I would check VRE out, but I just have too much backlogged. -_-‘

      4. “Backlogged.” That’s a good word for it. I’ve got to many shows I’m watching right now too. I’ll add OP to my list. I was hoping to clear out my Plan to Watch list someday. I may not be using your regiment to watch One Piece, but I’ll definitely use it to catch up in shows that I haven’t watched yet. Like Bakemonogatari and K-ON!!.

        Shirt
  2. GREAT EP!!!! love all the REACTIONS to luffy. *reading the conversation above* gotta agree with Kiiragi, the Animated version is the way to go “but waaaaaay too time consuming” look at it this way, there are actually only a few Shounen titles that reach the “400 and on mark” to choose from and *opinion* all the major Seinen *good ones at least* are either stalling out *wink wink* or finished, and as far as Comics….well that’s another beast entirely ,sooooo………actually i think i just depressed myself…there really isn’t much of a variety of “top shelf” shit to peruse..wow…I may have just pigeon-holed myself…………QUICK somebody please suggest something new in the genre for me

    BROOKLYN otaku
    1. croc did not die he just got punched through solid bed rock and was knocked out then arrested then escaped and joined luffy for the merine ford arc

      once its over he is going to become an enamy again

      clinton
  3. After starting watching OP in this arc ,I am starting the anime in the Enies Loby arc ep 264 so I think is gonna take a year to catch after all there are tons of other series in the weekly release.

    BoozerX

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