YES!
What They Say:
The Birdcage draws tighter and tighter around Dressrosa, threatening to destroy all life on the island kingdom! Meanwhile, Doflamingo stands down Luffy for a final confrontation, but a surprising twist shocks everyone on the top of the Royal Palace! less
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The arc brought itself to an interesting place the last time around as it returned its focus to Luffy as he finished dealing with Bellamy and moved closer to Doflamingo. Having him find that Doffy had essentially taken down Law in a brutal way, it was no surprise that he was set off in a pretty intense form. He’s not at the level we saw when he saw Ace killed of course, since that was a wholly different situation, but Luffy is the type that’s never really looking for anyone to be killed, friend or foe, so anything to this level just pushes him into a different place. Things just get tighter and tighter here as the dynamic between Doffy and Luffy works along its path and it’s pretty fun to watch simply because both characters have such personality about them.
It’s also something where, as the show digs more into the personal level, we also get the scale playing as well with Doffy’s Birdcage power playing out in the background. This is slowly drawing into the whole island and we’re seeing buildings sliced and collapse along with a whole lot of fear from the general populace – and rightly so. It’s a pretty freaky situation overall and reminds of just what kind of power Doffy has. This all works well in the opening half of the episode to really set the tone for whatever everyone else is going through while the more personal showdown occurs above it all. And in that place we get the wonderfully villainous moment from Doffy as he makes it clear what’s going on to Luffy, relishing what he’s doing, and the anxiety it causes in Luffy. It’s a proper villain moment to be sure in setting things in a clear fashion all while balancing it against the panic in the streets from the regular citizens. It also lets some of the others work well to save people, letting the Navy folks actually feel like they’re decent people for the first time in seemingly forever.
As much as I like elements like these, and One Piece often does it well, I love the fight that finally gets underway between Doffy and Luffy. It’s intense and strong, worth the wait kind of material, especially when amid it you get Law leaping up and striking Doffy with the Gamma Knife! Doffy’s utter shock and surprise is very well played and should leave fans cheering the moment loudly! There’s so much history between these two that we’ve seen in this arc that having the moment arrive is powerful even if we do get the minor flashback in it that explains how Law did what he did. It’s a well-executed trick and one that even Luffy manages to not screw up. So when they work together, amid Doffy’s disbelief, it’s wonderfully intense even if drawn out just a bit more than you want. You want finality to it all, but that’s not the One Piece way (thankfully). There’s such history here for Law in what must be done that I cannot begrudge the look back at the why for all of this being done.
In Summary:
One Piece knows how to work an episode at this stage of an arc and this is one of the better ones to be sure with what it does. There are a lot of things in play in this storyline, but the show knows to slow down to just three of them with a little Trebol in the background to provide encouragement. The focus for the bulk of the episode with Doffy and those with him is spot on and the way it brings about the character strength, intensity, and overall sense of intent is fantastic. When One Piece goes for payoff, it definitely sets the stage perfectly and lets all of that past well up wonderfully.
Grade: A-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
