The showcases continue as the Straw Hats push back against Hordy and his horde of pirates.
What They Say:
The battle at Conchcorde Plaza continues – each of the Straw Hats demonstrating how powerful they have become in the past 2 years! The secret hold that Hordy has over Surume is revealed – and a shocking ending may spell disaster for everyone at the Plaza!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With all the things that have happened since Marineford, the main thrust of what we get with Hordy here is that we get to see the Straw Hats all together and fighting against a common enemy. I was frustrated at the start of this story since we had everyone separated into smaller groups so quickly after coming back together after the two year separation, but in the end it’s come together well now that they’re all fighting against such a massive crew. And I definitely liked that Jimbei was brought into play for all of this, which also tied back to the early story with when Nami came into the crew and all that history.
With the first half here, we get a bit of more variety in seeing how everyone is fighting and showing off their skills, which works well with Brook and the like. Franky, who I’m still not all that keen on but hope to change as more of the DVDs come out with earlier episodes, has some fun here as he gets his motorcycle style thing on and goes against Hordy’s crew, though not with any good results at first. His continual transformations of the machine is certainly comical and I’ll take the general word of others in how technology has been applied to this series at face value even if I don’t care for what he does here. It works in a silly, silly way, but that’s how I’ve always viewed Franky since getting to lightly know him since the early four hundreds.
While Franky does dominate the episode, others get in their chance to shine along the way as well. Nami showcases her new wind gust abilities and Usopp goes to town as well. Hordy’s specially powered subordinates put on a good show, but they’re also set up to lose pretty quickly here and in a flashy way, which is amusing to watch at times. Where the show takes a curious turn though is when they deal with the kraken, Surume, once again. With Hordy controlling him, it adds a good bit of danger to things and some conflict as well with what he’s done to help the Straw Hats so far. Of course, because of the way things have happened, this gives Luffy the opening he needs to set things right and push against Hordy in another way that will only serve to rile him.
In Summary:
One Piece keeps Hordy and Luffy to the sidelines for most of it here, though they have their moments in both speech and action that helps. The Straw Hats get most of the focus as do some of Hordy’s crew as they do what they can to stand against Luffy and his crew. The action is decent, the silly works right and it’s good to see the crew showing off the moves. And then there’s Franky. I’m still not sure what to make of things there. When it comes to Surume, I like the small reveal and how Luffy makes his simple but earnest promise which could be part of a game changer that comes from just his personality. Of course, the show has to give us something big to hook us at the end, which it does in spades as the tension is palpable just in the scale of the ship that’s suddenly revealed. What it means is a mystery to me, but it left me wanting more.
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.
