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Behold of my awesomeness~
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But my feels.
I am not a children-person but Nami was right... you can't turn your back to a crying child.
Sanji was super badass but lol for envying the kids XD
Franky was pretty cool too and Brook making snowmen was so funny...
I actually loved this episode so much. There were so many parts that made me laugh. Franky's "SUPER" catchphrase is my favourite thing. I'm so glad they got an Arlong reference in with Nami's tattoo as well, one of the most powerful arcs from the beginning of the series still affects Nami's morals and her decisions. Really good storytelling.
Can I also just say how awesome Usopp is with all of the seeds he has?
The biscuit room give me the Promised Neverland vibes for those who know what that means. So many connections there already. The daycare scene itself was both awesome and a little bit much for me. Franky, Chopper, and Sanji getting their own fans as Nami appreciated the fun they were having was so sweet. I specifically loved how Franky got super into it, showing off his incredibly cool hair, picking his nose with his small hand, and having everybody do the pose with him. I feel like moments like this are what Franky lives for, to show off and be super!! Then having that one kid walk over and slowly point to Sanji and say “hey, spiral eyebrows” had me laughing so hard. Having Leg-maro’s concern for his child come out as panicked and frightening shouts on top of his already scary appearance with a great gag too!
The part that I feel conflicted over was the latter half of the scene. I have always thought of Nami as being the most altruistic Straw Hat, she acts like she's self-interested and tries to make the best of everything for herself but as soon as somebody needs her help she's willing to drop all of her money to protect them like Camie, she's willing to forgive people like Hachi and Jimbei instantly, and she can understand the plight of children due to her own past. She has a big heart so it was clear either Nami would choose to fight here or come back for them, to me that was the obvious decision being made yet we got a huge montage of Nami thinking of the kids doing things we literally just saw. I thought that perhaps there may be collateral damage for fighting in this room with children in it and that was why they were running instead of knocking these guys out but since they started the fight here that wasn't even the case, and to end it with helping the kids seemed obvious to me. It wasn't bad, it just felt over dramatic because everything was going according to how we would expect and yet it was dragged out to be suspenseful.
Like I said though, I didn't think that was bad, it showed some awesome moments. We had Sanji using the reasoning that I've started to associate with him, “it’s not our job to save every single person” as I think he cares about his crew above all else, he can be cruel to people outside of it or leave them behind, and that really shows sometimes. Chopper wanted to go back but Franky was very practical about it and stated that even if they get away they can't bring these kids around because they don't know what to do themselves. It was a nice little moral dilemma even if it felt overbearing, and I liked some of the dramatization going on, those guitar strings that started to play as the bad guys were about to start shooting felt like Jojo to me. It was rad. Having Sanji exploding into the sky to fight for Nami’s wishes and annihilate everyone while smiling as Franky took to his side with the reasoning he can’t let his fans down was perfection. Franky and Sanji are a duo I want more from and I think that was a great little moment of respect. I also think of the time he left Nami with Franky and went to Zoro’s side.
Luffy's group got a smaller scene but one I much enjoyed. I love the image Luffy had of riding of Usopp and Zoro’s back and the fact that Zoro was preparing for it. Zoro thought the water would be a good temperature too.. HAHAHAH. Then the bit of having Luffy ask if Hyoutarous changed his mind had me crying, “YOU’RE RECRUITING AGAIN?!”. Can’t forget Luffy immediately taking the banana boats captain seat for himself either, he loves that position no matter the size of the boat.
I would say there were two important moments I wanted to mention more than the others. The first is how well the green stars suit Usopp. Franky may be a shipwright and a darn good one but he’s not the only handyman, Usopp has always been an inventor. With his different slingshot attacks, with his Kabuto, with the clima tact, with his use of dials, this has always been his forte. The seeds that he uses for green stars totally rock with his original design and gives it a new layer. The fact that everything he creates is so perfect now does feel a little bit less personal than the inventions he would make otherwise, like his tabasco star, but I still much appreciate it. Someone in this thread wondered how Usopp resupplies his seeds and I’m going to guess it’s like dials, they come up when useful in a seemingly infinite amount. However, it would be charming if Usopp contacted Heracles to send him seeds through like carrier pigeon or something!
The other thing is that I didn't consider the possibility of there being two branches of leadership on this island. It did seem that it wasn't just centaurs that were looking after the intruders, there were others in contact with them like that harpy, but as it is now there is a distinction to be made. There is a boss of the centaurs that is not the master, and the centaurs were calling the boss for help as they were being slashed up by the samurai who could either be Leg-maro, Momonosuke, or someone else. These groups may be linked to the master, as the dragon may as well, but there's some more nuance here. Further, this boss thinks that the Zoro is the samurai that was cutting up his people so we may be in for a fight next episode if he's not a talking type. I may also recall a line of dialogue an episode or two ago from the gas mask guys that suggested they didn’t know where the others were despite the centaurs finding them so who knows, I could be totally misremembering that. I wonder if perhaps this group could become allies to fight against the master! Hyoutarous may end up Luffy’s friend after all.
Lastly, the Brook scene. It's always a delight to see Brook making the best of his situation, this time with snowmen quite adorably, but the more plot relevant detail is that, as I'm sure many of us and myself included expected, the torso has ended up with Brook! It seems to be slicing away without care so that could have been what happened to the centaurs I suppose, or you know the samurai himself before being cut up could have fought in self defense as the centaurs seem to seek out intruders quite brutally and he’s here for his son. Either way the story has set up for the Straw Hats reunion also being the samurai’s body coming together.
Can we get some praise for the musical direction that took place after Nami said "How could I turn my back on children?" That deep acoustic. ... It was very uncharacteristic of the show. Not the typical One Piece background music.
Thus far this arc has been a huge improvement from the damned fishman arc. The most important change aside from the art style is actually the pacing. It improved quite a bit. Things were constantly being introduced in this first couple of episodes, there was some comedic bits, and also some interesting bits.
HOWEVER, I'm starting to notice something that worries me. The pacing towards the end of this episode became VERY, very slow. I'm talking about when the crew was running away from the children running away from the men in gas suits. This running sequence gobbled up minute after minute and everyone was just running and jogging forever and ever. After a while, it seemed like an eternity and I was getting irritated. I sincerely hope pacing like this isn't seen in every episode during this arc.
It looks like the people who sounded the emergency signal was one of the enemies after all.
Nami finally stopping to save the children was a really strong moment. I knew that she saw herself in them when one of them was so desperate to get out of there that she begged them to save them no matter what.
Some comments saying boring and nothing happened. But compared to a long a past episodes, Fishman Island especially, this one was actually decently laid out while addressing every group's situation. You have the Sanji group being introduced to this mysterious group of children all locked up in a daycare, who they are now fighting to protect because the children know they are prisoners. You have Luffy's group going across the lake and are now about to encounter the person the emergency signal was intended for in the first place. And finally you have Brook doing random Brook things before encountering the samurai torso. The wait it's behaving, I guess it's acting semi-independently from the rest of the body in terms that it maintains what it was doing before it got seperated (i.e indiscriminatingly cutting everything looking his son).
So the wano samari got cut up by law. And his toros probably been attacking people. I feel like the centaurs might actually be good and just defending themselves.
As for the kids I’m kind of surprised that Franky and chopper didn’t stop with Nami sooner. Also one the few if only time that Sanji was yelling at Nami. But I knew Nami and the gang wouldn’t leave the kids.
My theory is they will save them all, but they will give them to smooker and that’s how they won’t fight (or fight more then an episode) smoker will take the kids from them and rerun them home.