What They Say:
Luffy’s burning enthusiasm to catch Caesar is put on ice as he squares off against Monet’s frigid powers! Chopper loses control of the children and Mocha is the last standing between them and the candy! And Vergo and Law spar in front of the SAD facility – but aren’t alone for long!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
We’ve had plenty of quiet episodes along this arc in its discovery phase, and even a few during the action phase, as more revelations come out and the group starts to come together. Only to split apart again in order to do what’s needed. It’s been fun watching how, now that everyone is pretty skilled and confident from their years of training, go off and just do what’s needed in order to secure the larger goal and focus on their individual aspect. That makes the separate plots work well rather than just watching people run in fear. Even if we did have a bit of that with Zoro and Brook as they ran from the gas. But now things are starting to focus and isolate a bit more as more of the reveals came along, particularly with what Trafalgar Law is up to with the SAD weapon.
The bigger fight of the episode involves Luffy going at it with Monet as she’s fairly intense with her cold powers and how she attacks him relentlessly. In a way, you feel like that even as she manages to freeze him a bit, he should be able to cope with it better than he does from the get go considering his time in Impel Down. But his recovery is nicely done and quick, though it ends up throwing him in a whole other direction down into what’s essentially a garbage chute of some sort, which puts him in a difficult position. This plays in contrast to the more intense fight that we get between Law and Vergo as Vergo is intent on really putting Law in his place considering what Law has done. The view of him as a dog that’s bitten its masters hand is nicely done and allows for Vergo to really want to take a more personal approach to beating the snot out of Law.
Chopper gets a bit of time in this episode as well as he does the best that he can to try and deal with securing the kids and keeping them away from the bad guys. For some of them, their cravings for the candy is over the top at this point and difficult to deal with which makes it hard for Chopper to handle them. With all of this and having Caesar making further progress himself as his plans come to fruition is a lot of fun, especially as he watches from above with the monitors and decides that he’ll make them all pay in a simple but effective classic villain mode. Because of his voice, I’m glad it’s short, but also that it leads into the best moments of the episode with Law and Vergo going at it with a manly intensity. One that will get only more so with the arrival of Smoker that makes next week a must-see for me.
In Summary:
With its focus spread across a couple of different areas, everyone will latch onto different things to enjoy and take away from it. I liked Luffy’s section, though I wanted to see him brush away the cold more easily after his Impel Down adventure. I liked Chopper’s bit but it’s just too short overall. And that left me to really get behind the Law and Vergo scenes, which are bookends for the episode, as they provide something more intense here and without the goofy nature that sometimes permeates the Straw Hats and what they do. There’s a heavier focus towards the end with a nice shift that should make for a good sequence or two as it progresses from there and leaves me wanting more. It’s still not a knock out of the park, but it’s keeping me interested in the game overall while still wanting more of the larger series itself.
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.
