What They Say:
As the contenders for the battle of Block D dwindle to only thirty, Rebecca has her hands full with the menacing Suleiman the Beheader! As he fends off her signature finishing move, the Back-to-the-Water Dance, all hope seems lost that she can take him down and move on to the finals!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The shift between the various stories in this arc of course means that some of those that you want to see more of get the short end of the stick from time to time. I’m still in the frustrated boat of wanting more Sabo, or seeing more of Luffy thinking about him, since there’s so much potential to work with there, even if you can largely see how the arc is playing out in regards to Ace’s devil fruit. We’ve gotten a good mix of material recently with what’s going on across the board as the threats are growing, the cast has come together in some ways, including deciding their overall course of action, and events are on the move. This arc has felt like it’s had more of a purpose earlier on than a lot of other arcs, so it’s been enjoyable during the buildup phase more than usual for me, especially after the last arc really took awhile to get going.
So, naturally, this episode spends a good bit of its time focusing on the whole coliseum arc where we get Rebecca doing her best to try and gain the fruit so she can change things on the island for the better, to change the way people view her father and family. There’s a level of animosity against her that’s hard to quantify even after all that we’ve seen and the rooting against her is intense as Suleiman really gives her a run for her money. There’s some decent stuff to it, especially as the numbers fighting are dwindling and Rebecca does get a little help along the way as there are some believers in her left out there. That’s good to see since you don’t want her being completely isolated in general in the world with only the Straw Hats and some of the more unusual residents of the island going to rally behind her.
Amid all the fun in the arena, we also get some small continuations of other stories, such as Luffy’s journey now – in costume – which has him losing Zoro along the way to comical effect. We also get a look at what’s going on down below under the island at the trading port as the fairies are showing Usopp and Robin what’s going on and the bigger plan there with what they have to deal with. It’s turning into a more complicated caper to be sure, but it also has some hilarious moments as the fairies show just how slick they can be. It’s also fun as we see how Usopp starts to take a real command position with all of this, though not without some scared moments on his part that’s true to his character all these years, but seeing him leading with the fairies is definitely a lot of fun. With that and some of the events going on in the coliseum, there’s a lot of decent movement and action here as events are picking up more and more, especially now that we at least get a couple of seconds of Sabo visible back in the coliseum.
In Summary:
One Piece is moving right along and as is the design of the show, the subplots getting just as much attention as the more main plotlines. Which has its positives and negatives of course, but in the end it really just treats each story as important to the overall narrative, especially since they do all connect together in the end and nudge things along the way. The coliseum fight takes up the first half and then has a gotcha moment of sorts just towards the end and the rest of it is given over for the most part to what Usopp and Robin are up to in the underground trading port. That story is proving to be a whole lot more fun than I expected it to be in general, especially with the fairies, and I’m even liking Usopp more than usual. Definitely a fun episode that shuffles itself forward a bit more in some decent ways.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
