The other half of the fake Straw Hats begin to get caught up in events now.
What They Say:
The mystery deepens as the fake Straw Hats continue to stir up trouble on the Sabaody Archipelago! Will Chopper realize the ruse before he gets himself into trouble? Meanwhile, Zoro stumbles into some trouble of his own!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
While One Piece hit the time leap in the previous episode, it was a mixed bag overall with what it did. I liked the changes that we saw for the characters but the slow progress in getting them all back together is a bit frustrating. But it’s the kind of thing where we know it’s happening, we know its imminent, so it’s just getting to that point. What made it problematic though is that it opted to use the whole fake Straw Hats angle. Considering what Luffy himself and his crew have been involved in over their duration of their journey, would anyone be stupid enough to take on their identities in order to score some coin? It seems like far too much of a risk, especially considering the chaos that Luffy was involved in and broadcast around the world.
Luffy’s run in with his fake counterpart is amusing, but I’m glad they did a brief flashback showing how Hancock filled up his backpack for him with lots of necessities that in the end serve as a good bit of training for him with some additional weightlifting. And it lets us see more of how smitten Hancock is even after all this time. There’s plenty of cuteness beyond this, but it’s like the other half of what we saw in the previous episode as we see more of this fake crew out there with the fake Sanji, Robin and Zoro people going around with their own Chopper. And unfortunately, the real Chopper comes across them and sees them but doesn’t realize the difference at first, thinking they’re the real thing. It has been a couple of years so he’s rather confused in a surprisingly cute way.
But this is what makes up the bulk of the episode. There’s lots of cute material and focus on particular characters that didn’t get much time in the previous episode. Sanji has some solid material here as well as he enjoys being among real people again and enjoying all manner of wine, women and song. Or at least viewing the women as his heart is still stuck very much on Nami. His small arc here is useful as it has him getting back in touch with Rayleigh and those that protected the Sunny all this time to find out what’s up with the ship and who else has arrived so far. With everyone making their way here and enjoying Sabaody while waiting, it has a nice and relaxed feel to it.
In Summary:
One Piece keeps to what it did in the previous episode but largely shifts up the focus on the characters that are involved here. In some ways it feels a bit annoying because you want progress while on the other hand it is fun to see how they’re all getting back together and the kind of silly things that are slowing them down a bit. With the focus this time on Luffy a bit and then Sanji and Chopper with a great bit of Zoro at the end, we get some small progress on things that helps to show what’s been going on over the past year. I like it, but at the same time I’m getting kind of antsy for them to be together. I’d almost say that I’d prefer two or three episodes of them all just carousing together, eating and being merry than this kind of lead-up to the reunion which is shoving the fake Straw Hats into it. But in the end, it is fun and I am enjoying it.
Grade: B
Streamed By: FUNimation
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
