Events are starting to swirl and build once again while Hordy gets ready to put more of his men into the world.
What They Say:
Trapped in a cage at the Ryugu Palace, Zoro, Usopp and Brook try desperately to find a way out before drowning when all of a sudden Brook shows off his new, horrific skill! Meanwhile, Luffy goes toe-to-toe with Jimbei, the only person standing between him and saving his crew, all as an unexpected player enters the stage.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Getting things back into the present has definitely worked well for the show since i’s been able to work a few stories now with the cast in different places with the new information that we’ve learned over the last couple of months. It’s turned into one of those situations that’s both easy and difficult as Luffy shouldn’t really get involved because of what’s going on, but he can’t help it because his crew is trapped and he has to do what must be done to free them. For Jimbei, it’s a good moment as he realizes that Luffy is just like his brother, and with the history that he has with Ace himself and the way things unfolded, there’s little he can do but to step up and help in order to honor that memory.
Of course, he has decides to honor it by making sure Luffy doesn’t get himself into a worse situation, and killed, by trying to take him down. We’ve seen how close Jimbei and Luffy are from the prison arc so you know there’s difficulty in him doing this on a few levels, though he thinks he’s doing the right thing to protect him. Though we do see a little bit of what Jimbei is capable of here, most of it is done off screen in order to get to the important dialogue bits about why Jimbei is doing his best to keep him from just going wild to rescue his friends. It does make a certain amount of sense based on what’s happened in the past to the residents of Fish-Man Island, but there’s also the main problem in that Luffy and the others have made so many friends since coming there that are now in trouble.
When it comes to the trio that’s been captuerd, things just take a weirdly amusing turn there as Brook shows off an ability that I don’t think I’ve seen before in that he’s able to separate his soul from his body. Well, it’ not exactly separated as there’s a trail back to it, but he’s able to get out of his body that’s trapped along with Zoro and Usopp. It’s amusing to see his minor flashback that highlights how he ended up figuring out he could do this and his panic over it. Brooks escape allows him to go looking for some help which brings him to Pappagu, someone that I have to admit I forgot about completely. It’s amusing to see how he ends up finding him and how he’s perceived, but it’s part of the fun of this subplot at the moment.
In Summary:
One Piece does a decent job of getting things in order a bit here and showing a bit of forward movement. Mostly it’s just cementing the positions more and getting ready to kickstart things though, such as Brook helping to figure out a way to get free before the trio is drowned while Luffy makes it clear to Jimbei that he’s not going to sit idly by while his friends are in danger. The dialogue and small revelations throughout are pretty nicely done though and Jimbei comes across well as he makes his case for his position clear and it’s completely understandable, though it’s also one that won’t make a hill of beans when it comes to what Luffy wants to do. While we had a lot of back story, we’re now getting the slow build again in the present towards what will happen and it’s moving along well.
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.
