What They Say:
Fourth Gear gives Luffy the power he needs to head off Doflamingo at every strike! But the energy required to keep Fourth Gear going starts to take a toll on Luffy. Will he have enough left to finish the job?
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
For better or worse, One Piece always likes to remind us of the stakes with what’s going on as each arc moves towards its climax. We got a good run of the fight between Doflamingo and Luffy the last time around but it was built on top of time seeing the way that the various people on Dressrosa are coping with the Birdcage effect while seeing what the fight is like. That helps to make it far more than just two guys slugging it out as there’s a greater emotional and human level to it all to drive the narrative forward with more meaning. As much as I enjoy watching Luffy when he’s pretty intense, and he is that here with his Fourth Gear, it works even better because we see how everyone else is reacting by doing more than just standing around waiting for something to happen. They help each other, they rally to survive, and we see leadership reemerging once again. Something that’s definitely necessary of Dressrosa is going to exist if they survive and displace Doflamingo after all of this.
Amid the rallying cry that goes out, something that works well, we continue to get a pretty solid fight between Doffy and Luffy as we see him using his strings to really try and take Luffy down. It’s still unclear if he’s still just playing with Luffy to some degree, if he’s really taking it seriously, but Luffy is all in and Doffy is certainly enjoying himself as he uses his abilities in some big ways to try and crush him. When Luffy does, once again, start turning things around as he knows he’s running out of time, the show handles this very well with the swell of the music and a sense of hope and promise coming out of those elements. It’s a strong piece as Luffy takes on an almost god-like sense of power and importance here and it makes an impact not just on Doffy but in how everyone watching takes in the situation. It’s moments like these where true legends are born in how the story will be told.
As it moves past that into the quieter moment, all while waiting for the other shoe to drop, there’s definitely some welcome humor as everyone tries to find out if Luffy is really Luffy since the legends about him are pretty crazy already anyway and he doesn’t look like he usually does. Plus there’s the whole bouncing thing that’s going on too. What we get, however, is the truth of the matter in that Doflamingo wasn’t taken out but just down for the moment since the Birdcage is still there. It was too easy for things to go as they are of course so seeing Luffy having to take it a step further – just as he hits his limit – is pretty much pure One Piece material. The scale of exhaustion that his body has gone through is impressive and a crash was coming sooner than later. But what does this set up? What I really want out of the show, and that’s for everyone else to rally up and deal the final blow to reclaim Dressrosa and their lives.
In Summary:
One Piece does pretty much go as I expected here, though I wasn’t sure if it would be this episode. The progress of the fight has been on a solid track and it’s worked well here to get us to this point while not truly feeling as drawn out as it could be since the subplots have fallen away nicely recently and this fight wasn’t mixed into most of it. Luffy and Doflamingo definitely provide a strong and excellent fight, one that’s likely in the top five for me, and seeing the power levels at play and the toll they take hits a sweet spot for what I want out of the show. There’s a lot to like here and the episode doesn’t skimp in its quality with what it needs to do. I’m definitely excited to see what comes next from it all.
Grade: A-
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.