What They Say:
Sanji, Zoro, and Brook’s encounter with the Yeti Cool Brothers is revealed! Meanwhile, the action builds as Law makes a move towards finding the cure for the children, and Luffy and the others crash the gates at the facility uninvited!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
One Piece has worked through a variety of things with the Punk Hazard arc and taken a number of odd turns, which is the norm for just about every One Piece arc. Thankfully, the majority of the body switching is behind us, though there are still a few people who haven’t gone back to normal just yet. The biggest change that we’ve really had so far though is the temporary alliance that Luffy has formed with Trafalgar and his Heart Pirates, which has surprised a lot of the Straw Hats, but they’re gone along with it because there is a definite amount of trust that exists between them and Luffy after all these years and the range of adventures that they’ve had together. Being in the midst of watching the Water 7 arc on DVD while going through simulcasts reminds you of how they can break and how those breaks have reinforced the bonds overall.
A good part of this episode is focused just on being mobile as we have a look at Sanji (in Nami’s body still) running out in the cold part of the island with Zoro and Brook as they look for the samurai since that’s part of what needs to happen at this point. They’re fun to watch together since there’s some good banter and dialogue, but you have to love when they come cross him frozen in the snow and don’t realize it as they’re walking all over him. The trio aren’t exactly enamored with him after all that’s happened, so the way they come together is certainly comical and you have to love the near dismissive attitude they have when it comes to him. But their interactions with him in this form reveals his weakness, which we knew because of all the other Devil Fruit users we’ve met, but the idea that he’s weakened in general because a part of his body that’s still missing is likely in water somewhere is definitely interesting.
While their story gets a pretty big bit of mystery brought into it, the show also focuses on the others as there’s plenty going on with this island. With the storyline involving the children being fairly important here now that they’re basically revealed to be forced addicts, there’s even more incentive to fix that situation, which has Trafalgar working towards that and a highly motivated Luffy and company. But they only get to edge into the episode here overall with what they need to do, but there’s a really great sense of power and beauty to how Trafalgar gets around with Chopper in tow, something that really impresses Chopper and ups his admiration of the man nicely. These two are the kind of characters that just with the minute or two of them we get together, you would want a mini arc with just them traveling together and experiencing stories as it has an almost Lone Wolf & Cub kind of feel about it.
In Summary:
One Piece hits a decent bit of material here that is, admittedly, just wheel motions where it’s moving the story forward, but at a smaller increment. What it does do is to move it in a fun and engaging way as I really liked the trio of Sanji, Zoro and Brook as they deal with finding the samurai, which took up the bulk of the episode. But even the smaller moments elsewhere won me over a lot with Trafalgar and Chopper and the utter silliness of Luffy and his move, which is bringing him into contact with Smoker and the Navy men in order to start something that could be quite the distraction – but also a lot of fun. It’s definitely Luffy’s front door approach to any situation and it’s just great to see Franky and Robin geared up and happy to be standing with him for it.
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.
