Vergo’s past is revealed and it certainly answers a few questions.
What They Say:
The Master makes a move to reclaim the children as his experimental subjects, while Luffy, Law, and the others awake to find themselves prisoners in his stronghold! The unexpected appearance of Vergo adds to the mystery as the depth of Caesar Clown’s operation – and the shocking secret of who is behind it – slowly become clear!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With Vergo revealed in the previous episode as a bit of a manipulator of events here, and likely to have a past that intertwines with other characters that we’ll see more of as time goes on, it was interesting to see Trafalgar’s surprise and his eventual beatdown which comes up early on in this episode. Trafalgar has long been a favorite of mine because of how he carries himself, so seeing him get roughed up a bit definitely makes it apparent that Vergo has a certain place in the scheme of things. Of course, the show is just going to tease us when it comes to all of this, hinting at the relationship between the two before shifting to the New World and some other random island.
This random island is actually important as some relatively low level in comparison Navy men have shown up and are just being a bit obnoxious. But what twists things a bit is that the place is where the children on Punk Hazard are from, so they’re doing the whole begging and pleading things, not realizing that some Navy folks like this are just asses and not interested in actually doing what’s part of their job since they just want to take down pirates. The dismissive attitude of the men is pretty mean to be sure, but they do actually manage to back it up a bit because they refer back to Vergo and how he’s tired of hearing about it, which of course leaves you laughing since it’s a bit of a vicious circle. You have to feel for the parents and even though the Navy men are being pretty cruel, they’ve had their own issues as well when it comes to their superiors on it.
The episode splits its time cross a number of areas and there are some interesting things going, especially the little nugget when the kids see the Master and are all excited about it, which is comical considering the trouble he’s causing. The fun of seeing some of the Straw Hats dealing with the pink blobs continues as well, and their arguing in the midst of it is just right. But there’s even some humor when we see Trafalgar wake up later on and realizes he’s chained up along with Smoker and the other Straw Hats. With Vergo being all aggressive in speech with them, it’s the kind of moment where you have to pay attention to the dialogue in order to see what’s really being said, which Trafalgar sees through pretty quickly since he knows his actual past, which makes for some fun little reveals.
In Summary:
One Piece again provides for a decent transitional episode where we’re getting some revelations, but nothing that’s truly huge or game changing. The background information with Vergo is certainly interesting and it explains certain aspects of what’s been going on with this island and those behind it. It also provides some of the answers when we see the other island in the New World where the children have come from and why the Navy hasn’t really been able to do much. With so many of the Straw Hats tied up at this point, it’s a bit of a waiting game in a way, but a decent one as well. Add in some fun on the island itself with the jellies and how they continue to combine and there’s some good stuff going on here that adds to the storyline overall.
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.