So, one Straw Hat is down just like that. Eneru is strong, and his prediction is looking more and more true. I wonder which Straw Hats will stand until the end. In fact, that scene was the most interesting part of the episode for me. I wasn't expecting Eneru to visit the Going Merry like he did, I wonder what his goal is assuming it involves speaking to Gan Fall. He did mention that he didn't plan to harm them. Maybe he's going to explain the situation or he wants something from him, I'm not sure. Usopp and Nami were horrified by Eneru killing(lol) Sanji like that and it transferred to the audience well well. To cut to screams before showing us what's going on was a good choice.
I was wondering why the Blue Sea people were seen as a threat by the Shandians, but it made sense once Wyper told Luffy that because he was on their land he was an enemy. It's a waste resources and manpower to lose the greatest Shandian warriors to Straw Hats where there's divine warriors and priests, but it's acceptable coming from such a spiteful leader.
I didn't mention before, but the way that the Straw Hats were separated was notably contrived. A giant snake appears out of nowhere, not established before and acts as a plot device(unless controlled by Eneru or something) in order to separate them. This parts fine but not good. Then Zoro shows he's the stupidest he's been in the series for a joke, thinking the right eye means to go right no matter what. He's not that dumb come on. Luffy walking in a stupid direction makes sense. Robbin making it to the ruins makes sense. But Chopper not using his smelling to track down his friends, or the ruins willingly was somewhat outrageous. You could state this was because he was "so scared that he forgot how to smell scents" or "there's so much going on that he wouldn't be able to distinguish who was who", which both would be valid excuses but it didn't play with either in a valuable way. Instead, even if he forgot a sense that has been used by him intuitively from birth which itself is silly, he wanders his way to the ruins accidentally and then claims, maybe "I was smelling to track down the ruins subconsciously". If I knew immediately that he should have tried that, I think he should have to. My point is that this is a weak plot element used to separate our crew and give them individual fights and it's clearly transparent in how it's trying it. At least it let us see Robbin snap a guys neck, and see Gedatsu refer to Chopper as a "raccoon dog...", a comedic reaction suited for someone who's never seen a humanoid reindeer before, but one we don't get enough.
Next thing is the Zoro fight with Brahman. I do enjoy greatly the fact that we saw Zoro plan for a fight against a sky fighting ranged opponent as he's extrapolated from seeing some of them fight, and by hearing the noises of the war. That part is awesome, and it makes sense why Zoro would have a plan ready to go against Brahman. The goggles scene was hilarious. The fact Zoro fought the guy with guns rather than the swordsman for once is amazing, it's a nice break! But my problem lays where the fight actually went. It was brief, short, and even sort of boring. Zoro dropped his guard and his amazing threat detection that he nearly always has up to think about food and got shot. And he won by doing one slash inspired by some of his last attacks that, to me didn't even look like ranged attacks. He's never trained them as far as I know, and he's never used one intentionally as a ranged attack. Yet he does here which one shots Brahman, which is the one way he can win, and ends up being unsatisfying and overly convenient. I did adore the detail where the bullet grazed Zoro's face and made him bleed since that was a subtle but intense way to show how close he was to death, and how fearless he is. I also found him dodging bullets to be funny.
Because of those, the art and animation decline I mentioned last thread, and the pacing of this arc telling a broken up story of multiple perspectives that struggles to get anywhere, it make me view this as a functional, and even enjoyable arc but not one of One Piece's strongest. |