Things get deep.
What They Say:
“An Underground Maze! Luffy vs. the Tram Human!”
The Tram-Man arrives! And has Luffy, Bartolomeo and Desire on the run! The deeper the three fall into the pit, however, the more clear it becomes that Bill’s group hides a terrible secret!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
After so much time spent with the past arc, something like two years I think, going into a new arc – even a short one – feels kind of surreal. There’s a kind of lack of knowledge of the foundations that makes you feel even weirder – even though it’s all just minor background setup for the film to try and draw viewers in – that it’s almost disconcerting. It becomes amusing just how comfortable we get within these sprawling arcs that take so much time to be worked through and the kind of unease you feel when it shifts to something else. In the end, as we get into the Silver Mine mini arc, it reinforces just how much of a big piece of my life this show is that something like this can affect me like this. It’s a good thing and I enjoy that because it gets me to reshape my views a bit and take in the show with a fresh set of eyes.
Part of the appeal of this arc is that we get Luffy and Bartolomeo paired up for it and against my better judgment I find myself enjoying old Barto more than I expected. It’s also welcome for Luffy to just get some time being light and fun after so much seriousness. With the two of them plus Desire down deep in the pit, and seemingly getting deeper and having to deal with what’s down there, it works the comedy well enough such as the guy that’s essentially an ore cart all on his own, albeit with bombs that he can carry. And that’s what we get here is just a lot of fun silliness and running around, which definitely delights, as that sense of fun is so needed. You know not to treat this arc serious and just set to enjoying it for the simplicity that it is. After all, how seriously can you treat an arc in One Piece where the main opponent is a man named Bill?
With the first half working through some silly stuff like this, and showing what Bill is up to, the back half keeps us just on Luffy and Barto as they recover from the escape and work with Desire a bit to try – unsuccessfully – to get Luffy out of the silver ball he’s in. The bowels of the mine are interesting as they open Desire’s eyes a bit as she discovers that a lot of the miners there are former Silver Pirate Alliance members and she can see how Bill did this to them, though she tries to deny it at first. The show gets cute in an almost 70’s cartoon kind of way when we get Luffy finally figuring out how to break out of his ball and there’s a kind of lighthearted giddiness to it that really is fun here that I can’t quite qualify in a way, but it works well. The grouping of Luffy and Barto with Desire isn’t bad – she doesn’t get a lot and Barto is essentially continuing who he was in the arena segment of the last arc, but it’s not as rich as it feels like it could be if Desire had a bit more to her.
In Summary:
A One Piece arc like this isn’t something that lights a fire of interest under me. It’s light and meaningless, particularly since it’ll be an age before I get to see the movie, and I just can’t connect with it since I know what it’s intent is. That said, I enjoy it for what it does do and just giving Luffy a chance to go silly and fun and to give us a little more time with Bartolomeo. It’s fluff but cute and fun fluff.
Grade: B
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.
