Anime: Marineford Arc- Episode 465

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First Thoughts
This is a special anime episode for me. The manga material that this episode was based on was the first chapter that the blog recapped a year ago. The post can be viewed here and you can see the opening image for this post is similar to the one that I used a year ago for Chapter 556. That post happen one year ago so it is kind of cool since this moment kind of falls on the same time of this blog's one year anniversary. I would like to believe that I have gotten better in both anime and manga posts but maybe they just got worse. haha

Still enough about this. Got to say that this episode was something. It covered everything that was in Chapter 556 and I was really happy that this episode ended at the same spot that the chapter ended too. Though this was an packed episode that had a lot of things happening.



Summary
Oars falls to the ground as the Whitebeard Forces push into the Marineford Plaza. Doflamingo begins his attack as Akainu punish Marines that try to run from the battlefield. Garp begins to show some feeling about seeing Ace on the verge of death. Luffy and his forces from Impel Down begin to rain down from the sky.

Thoughts

The image above is from the previous episode that I got from the recap but just wanted to let you know that Wolverine from the X-Men has been around for a good while. I am sure you can easily spot him in the image above. Now back to the part that we care about.

This was a long moment. The moment after the title card made me think that the Funimation video player had broke or something due to the long pause on Ace. Then I found out that there was just a very long pause so we can see Ace and Oars Jr's pained faces. The big guy is so close that if he just inch a bit more then he could touch Ace. Still it wasn't meant to be as we see the big guy falls to the ground. That has to suck for Oars Jr.since he wanted to repay Acebut gets ganged up by Moria and Doflamingo.

Still Moria seems happy. The guy must be making up for a possible lacking performance back on Thriller Bark. He seems like such a happy person too. Moria is like a little kid at a candy story with that smile on his face. Though other people that don't look like little kids in a candy store has to be Oars Jr's crew. They look....interesting. I am wondering if Oars Jr. asked them to put on that jaw thing or they are doing it out of respect to him. Still it doesn't look pretty. Kind of like their boss at the moment.

I wonder who is in more pain. Ace watching his friends fighting on the battlefield for his sake or Whitebeard watching his 'sons' being taken down one after another. The big white mustached man doesn't seem too happy that Oars Jr. was taken down. That has to suck. That giant though choose a horrible time to attack Whitebeard though since I feel there was some rage behind that attack. A quake to the face! So doesn't look too pleasant.

OH! Doflamingo is giving us the finger!

Looks pretty fierce down there on the battlefield since Oars Jr. gave them the opening they wanted. Though it looks kind of strange to see them all walking on top of the big guy. The Whitebeard Forces must be pretty fast if they were able to get over the big guy.

And once again Doflamingo is being cool as he takes control of Atmos while also giving us the finger. haha Wonder if that was intended or something but sure makes a great screencap.

Welcome to war my good friends. This is a place where anything can happen and anybody can be your next opponent. A chaos that is control but wild at the same time. Looks like Atmos's men will find this out the hard way.

Coby has funny eyes here. (No I didn't alter this image at all.)Click to enlarge.

War is a great way to make your small world grow. It is the time where you can see powerful and close people that you know look like ants.  I am sure this was a powerful vice admiral but the world is filled with powerful people.

Seems like Coby is finding this out the hard way. It kind of reminds me of when the StrawHats witness the might of the Marines with Aokiji back then. Slowly their world was expanding and Luffy knew he had to become much more powerful if he was going to lead his crew further. Also this moment helps build up to something that Koby does later on in the episode.

Yeah...I would be scared of that too if I just saw somebody get a lava bath.

Akainu is a pretty scary man. He must really love his job if the guy punish somebody for being fearful. The Marines do need brave and loyal men but there does have to be a limit at times right?

Though this moment and the last moment really do tie well with each other. In the manga we just saw Coby randomly running with Helmepo not too far behind. Still the last scene really explain why Coby was running from the battlefield. This fear from before was building up after seeing how things were playing out on the battlefield.

This is just here because I want to put it in the post. Whitey Bay sure looks hot.

Also I joked about this on Twitter and I do it here. Whitey Bay will be voiced by Caitlin Glass. Both Bay and Vivi have blue hair. You heard it here first!

Atmos doesn't seem to like the idea that he is attacking his own men. The guy looked really pained. Though now we knew that Doflamingo a guy that you don't want to cross.

On the subject of Doflamingo, the way he fights here reminds me of how Doflamingo fights in Unlimited Cruise 2. If you look around 3:30 you can see Doflamingo avoid attacks which was something he did with ease against Atmos. Guessing Toei drew inspiration from somewhere.

"Justice will prevail? Of course, it will! Because the winners claim justice!"
-Doflamingo

Still this is some speech from Doflamingo about how kids who know war never know peace and kids who know peace never know the suffering of it. Yet in the end it is those who win who define justice. Something that is very true in our very own world. The winners are the ones that write history while the losers are the ones that suffer.  Just a little bit of realism in this world of fantasy.

It really makes me wonder where Doflamingo came from. Was he one of the poor kids that suffer though war or was he one of the well off kids. If we ever get a hint about Doflamingo's past then I think I would enjoy it.

Looks like Tsuru has some sort of devil fruit power since she was able to wash those men. Then again maybe I should just read her One Piece Wiki page. This was made public in one of Oda's SBSs. Got to say it is a cool power. haha To be cleaned and such. Those guys sure do look happy.

Though this battle is going to get tough it seem as Sengoku finally makes his move. He seems to have something up his sleeve if all the Marines are being told this via DenDen Mushi. Wonder if Whitebeard will be able to stop Sengoku's big plan.

These were some touching scenes between Ace and Grap. How Grap wanted Ace and Luffy to become men of the Marines while the two kids are just trying to do what they wanted. Guessing that Grap knew that because of the two kids parentage that the Marines were going to be on them. I don't remember if this was filler or part of the manga chapter but it was a nice thing to add. It gave us the chance to look into Grap's mind and see what the grandfather is suffering though.

Ace may be a pirate and somebody he has to hunt down but he is also his grandson. Such a thing to be torn upon.

So I am guessing that this be the last of Opening 12 scenes? We finally see Luffy falling from the sky which was how Opening 12 ended. We got zoom ins on the admirals. So no more right? Well we see since I am sure they can sneak in a bit more in order to save time and money.

Love all the expressions we got here. Especially Grap and Hancock when they see that Luffy is falling from the sky. Clearly Hancock is thinking that her love is finally here while Grap seems to be saying, "OH FUDGE! Another one of my grandsons is here!".

This is very interesting. The last time we saw Luffy and his band of friends was a huge tidal wave that was looking like it was going to overtake them. Now they are flying in the sky. I can only guess that the wave had shot them into the air and now they are going to fall to their deaths. Sounds like a great way to end the series but we all know that this series is long from over.


Preview

Looks like we are going to see what happen to Luffy from the last time we saw him four episodes ago. Some sort of storm was happening and now they are falling in the sky. Looks very nice from the spot that Ace, Grap and Sengoku are at. Seems like we are up for an awesome adventure next week as we are going to go step by step the journey that Luffy and team had from the Gates of Justice to them falling down into Marineford.

Now this looks like an awesome moment. Luffy and Whitebeard coming to face each other. The figure of the past looking down at a person of the future. This should prove to be interesting.

Next Episode: The Straw Hat Team Arrives – The Battlefield Grows More Intense

And surely the battlefield will grow much more intense as the powers of Whitebeard and now Luffy have enter the fray.