The fighting is over and it’s now time to party.
What They Say:
Though they don’t seek the limelight, the Straw Hats are welcomed in the Fish-Man Island as heroes after Hordy’s defeat! Luffy’s offer to Jimbei to join the crew still stands – will he accept? And a deep, ancient and mysterious secret is revealed!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the events on Fish-Man Island still feeling like they came to a close a little too anti-climatically, I keep having this sense that another shoe is about to drop with it. But the real knowledge is that it’s just going to shift elsewhere and what we got here during this arc was a whole lot of setup and new characters brought in, or expanded upon, that will likely have impact later. But it also served as a strong arc overall for bringing the Straw Hats back together as a team after two years apart following Marineford. And in the end, more importantly I suspect, it eases the tensions between human and Fish-Man with what Luffy has done.
The fallout from the battle is interesting since we have a lot of people down on Fish-Man Island now that Hordy had used as prisoners to be cannon fodder. Neptune at least treats them right and offers them free passage, something they want, but how to deal with the Fish-Men that were signed on willingly with Hordy? Or at least went along with him even though they may have been manipulated. Thta bit of closure is interesting is they’re told that they must live on the island as law-abiding residents. That doesn’t go over well with them or the residents, but it’s the kind of forced re-connect that must happen on both sides in order to repair the problems that existed within the community. Things are drawn together simply to be sure, but it’s the kind of glossing over that works well in the One Piece universe.
The party atmosphere that comes into it works pretty nicely, even as Luffy and the others don’t want to be treated as heroes. There’s some minor closure for the moment in things like Jimbei’s becoming a member of the crew (deferred! As expected) and the higher-ups of Hordy’s crew put away and the District shut down so as to avoid further problems. This lets the focus get more on the banquet and the fun of it all, as uncomfortable as it may make the Straw Hats. But it’s good to see them having to deal with some adulation and praise considering what was done by them and the real and honest appreciation of the people that were saved by them from an overflowing war that would have happened should Hordy have won.
In Summary:
The party atmosphere does dominate the second half well and it has a good bit of humor along the way as the gang enjoys themselves on a number of levels. There’s some good lightness and levity here that’s definitely needed after all the fighting and background given involving the death of the Queen and so many others. The end gives us a nice tease as a secret is revealed though as Robin spends some time talking with Neptune, having read a Poneglyph in the Sea Forest earlier, and that brings about some reveals that will launch the show forward again as it brings us some information about Joy Boy and more hints about Noah as well. The show knows how to place information to be sure when it wants to and this is no exception here.
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.
