Just how could Luffy resist an island on fire surrounded by a sea of fire?
What They Say:
After beating Shuzo and his clan, the Straw Hats keep exploring the New World and reach an island with an active volcano – surrounded by a sea of fire. There, their Transponder Snail receives an emergency signal with a call for help from a place called Punk Hazard. Intrigued, Luffy and his gang decide to take the Mini-Merry and scout the island to rescue the caller.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the Shuzo arc now done and over with since it was all just made for a different part of the franchise, the series gets fully into the whole New World experience. Side stories that involve the movie franchise can be pretty hit or miss, but they tend to be more misses for me since it’s years – if ever it seems – before we see any of the movies that are made. So there’s a definite sore spot there since they all look like a lot of good fun in a big way in a short amount of space, compared to the arcs of the series, and missing out on them since as of this writing we’ve only had one movie come over definitely rankles and impacts the enjoyment of the TV side of the lead-up to them.
With Lily’s story over, the series shifts well to what’s next as it works off the manga material, bringing us to a new land, an island that definitely stands out. While the Log Pose doesn’t indicate that they should be heading in that direction, Luffy can’t resist an island surrounded by a sea of flames wherein an active volcano is inside. It’s hugely appealing to his nature and even Sanji sees some fun in it since they have the huge oyster that they got from Panz Fry that they could cook in that sea of fire. There’s some nods towards history in regards to this island as it may have come up in discussion in a past adventure and that just makes Luffy all the more eager to get in there and see what’s going on. Especially when the gang gets a transponder snail message from a place called Punk Hazard with a distress call. Of course, the Navy hears it too and that means Smoker and his crew are going to investigate it as well.
With a little creativity from Nami, a small group heads over in a steam ship of sorts to check out the island and find out where the signal comes from. Naturally, Usopp is all panicky over everything, but there’s a fun sense of adventure when it comes to Luffy, Robin and even Zoro as they make their way there. The exploration of the island is slow and steady, but it has its sense of fun as well as the gang strips down a fair bit to survive the heat as they look for the person who sent out the distress call. Visually, it’s an interesting land and one that starts to show some neater designs to it as it goes along and hints to what its real history really is. It doesn’t get too far overall, though we get the obligatory big moment towards the end that does its best to make you come back next week. Which, after 578 episodes, isn’t all that hard to make me do.
In Summary:
One Piece gets rolling with its next arc here and it definitely has some fun to it with the introduction of a new island, Luffy’s insistence on going and the general design of it all. The Navy takes a back seat but still has its moments here that will bring them to bear soon enough, bringing Smoker into play once more. With him being one of my favorite Navy men from early on, I’ll certainly welcome that. With Luffy and the Straw Hats, we get some decent bits here and a good use of the crew together for awhile before they naturally split up again. This is just a regular aspect to the show to be sure, frustrating as it can be at times, but the two groups have a good layout to them and it definitely leaves me wanting to see more of what they’ll be doing, both on and off the island. The arc doesn’t demand you come back in truth, but it offers up some fun material ahead by all appearances.
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.
