Anime: Post Marineford Arc- Episode 495

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First Thoughts
So we are only five episodes away from the big 500. Yep...The big 500. Wonder if Toei is going to do something special for this episode. Wonder if Funimation going to mention something. I wonder if anybody is going to complain how episode 500 wasn't exciting due to the material that the episode covered. Yeah....That what most likely will happen.

Oh yeah....We talking about Episode 495 which is five episodes before Episode 500. What is there to say? Hmm....It was good. I guess you can read the rest of the post to find out my thoughts since I have nothing here.


Summary
(Flashback) 

Ace and Sabo manage to save Luffy and beat up Porchemy.

Bluejam takes Porchemy out of the equation for his failure.

Sabo moves in with Ace and Luffy at Dadan's house.

Thoughts

 

You know....it is pretty sad that two ten year old kids with pipes was able to beat a grown man with a sword. I am guessing the award for 'The Most Pathetic Person in One Piece' goes to Porchemy for his action in this flashback. I  can completely understand not getting Luffy to reveal the location of Ace and Sabo's treasure. We knew it was impossible to do that since Luffy is Luffy. The problem is that Porchemy being the big strong man that he is got his butt handed to him by ten year olds. Also remember he had a group of people to back him up.

Either way looks like we won't be seeing Porchemy and his ugly mug in future episodes. We didn't see him get shot but it surely doesn't sound like he be walking among us anytime soon. It was interesting to see how Toei was trying to censor out Bluejam shooting Porchemy. I don't remember if it was censor like this in the manga but it was funny to see how obvious it was that Porchemy was killed.

Somebody needs to see a dentist

Bluejam....I wish I could take him super serious but those teeth! Oh my gosh! Those teeth! They are horrible! How does he not scream in pain everytime he takes a bite into something much less close his mouth! When I see Bluejam I always look at his teeth and wonder if his teeth was made to look like that or if he isn't screaming in pain inside his head. Maybe Bluejam's teeth is the reason why the guy is a coldhearted man.

Bluejam clearly is a ruthless man that surely cares nothing about money. He has no problem with killing his own men for not doing their job which is something we haven't seen much from pirates in the series. We seen some ruthless pirates but nothing straight out like this. We surely going to see Bluejam later on in this flashback seeing that Ace, Dadan, Luffy and Sabo were making a bit deal about this guy throughout the episode. This won't be the last we see of Bluejam and his horrible teeth.

And surely we see more reasons why Luffy has one of the worse childhoods in Shonen Hero History.

 

That first image is for all those Young Luffy fans out there

So we hit the aftermath of the whole Porchemy incident. Luffy is saved and Ace and Sabo have their money safe. Minus losing a pipe and getting beat up with a spike glove it looks like everything is okay.

"Being lonely is more painful than getting hurt!"
-Young Luffy

That line almost made me cry. Hearing Luffy say after seeing all that has happen so far in the story really hits home. Currently Luffy lost his crew and his older brother so he is alone at the moment. It would seems like Luffy has a fear of being alone which he is very close to having and could explain why he is taking Ace's death so hard. The idea that he lost both his brother and crew must be tearing Luffy up at the moment. Then you are getting this statement of 'not wanting to be alone' from a seven year old version of Luffy may indicate that there is a deeper meaning to the statement.

Still I may be over thinking with that last statement there. Either way Luffy is expressing the fear that many people today have. The fear of being alone which is something I personally can relate to. The world is a big place and going though it all by yourself is a hard thing so it is naturally that we want to be around people. The worse part is that the world and a person's life is always changing so you never know when you will lose a friend and thus the fear of losing one is always there. As in Luffy case, those people may not treat you good but still it is better then being alone. (Though in reality, we should maybe strive a bit better then somebody who throw trees at us.) Still looks like Luffy is desperate to be friends with Ace.

New animated Ace past filler!

So the key to Ace's heart is to tell him that you want him to live. Of course Luffy would say that he wants Ace to live. The best part is that Luffy said that out of pure innocence not knowing the hardship that Ace has been though as the son of the former King of the Pirates.

Thus this begins the friendship between Ace and Luffy. A serious question that got an innocent response. Who would have thought that these pseudo brothers had such a rough start to their brotherhood that has always looked so loving.

Still for now let them argue and fight. haha

This was my favorite part of the episode. Where Ace and Luffy argue about crying. Ace acts as if Luffy had no right to cry while Luffy counters saying that he was hit with a spiked glove. I have to side with Luffy here about crying. Anybody has a right to cry after getting hit with a spiked gloved multiple times. Heck! Luffy should most likely be dead right now but let not get into that.

 

And now we enter the part of the episode that has a lot of filler! It wasn't all bad filler but still it was filler. The worse of the filler seem to have been here with Sabo introduce himself to Dadan and the fart joke. The played out one too many times fart joke. I am sure that little kids would have found this funny but as an adult I kind of wince in pain every time Sabo did a fart. I wonder if I was the only one who thought the same thing about the use of the farts.

" 'Truly manly'? I'm a woman! I'm no gender bender!"
-Dadan

I wonder if this was a reference to how everybody thought that Dadan was a man whenerver she was mention by Woop Slap. It is understandable why people would think Dadan is a guy just by looking at her. haha Still it is funny how everybody thought that she was a he until this flashback. Interesting joke.

Another question: Was I the only one who found it funny and strange how Luffy was trying to keep up with Ace and Sabo in that one scene? The two older kids were running with ease as Luffy was pushing himself a bit to keep up. Then he pops into the conversation saying that they should get something to eat. haha


So we get filler on introducing Sabo to Luffy's power which was interesting. We get a look at how Luffy came up with some of his earlier attacks which was actually pretty cool. We saw a preview of this process back in the Arlong Arc when he made Gum Gum Pinwheel. This showed us that Luffy made all his attacks from scratch with little to no help from others. Much cooler and funnier then just learning how to do them from somewhere else or just knowing them. haha

What Luffy learn while developing Gum Gum Balloon: Deflate before the enemy is able to kick you like a ball. haha

Filler is filler but you got to love how it explains the details that the manga doesn't include.The whole alligator scene is a good one since in the manga you just see them carrying the alligator and then Sabo mentions that Luffy got eaten by it. You don't actually see Luffy get eaten by said alligator.

Also this explains something that we will see in the next episode.

And this is the 'Image of the Week' from the episode.

Sigh...Luffy....I don't know why you decided to include colorful flowers for camouflage. Either you are the smartest kid or just a very special one. Then again if Porchemy is any indication of how smart the Bluejam Pirates are then maybe Luffy is just fortunate that they don't notice the brightly colored flowers in the distance.

Then again maybe Porchemy was the best of the Bluejam Pirates as we saw later that Ace, Luffy and Sabo were able to outrun them. Sigh...Bluejam must have not known how good he had it with Porchemy. haha

 

So thus this episode ends on a happy note. Ace, Luffy and Sabo are best friends, Dadan and her men get to live for another day, and Porchemy doens't have to worry about getting beat up by ten year old kids anymore. Everybody gets to go home happy.

Still it looks like this flashback is far from over as it looks like we are going to be heading into the nearby kingdom. What adventures awaits Ace, Luffy and Sabo within it's high walls? How else can Luffy childhood be any worse then it is? Just got to find out next week.

Boy...This looks like it will go on for awhile.

Preview

So looks like in the next episode we are going to get a bit of backstory concerning Sabo and where he came from. It looks like Sabo wasn't born in Gray Terminal at all. That is unless Gray Terminal was a nice place three or so years ago.

Thought next week seems to have an important moment included. We saw a part of this scene during Marineford and now we finally get to see it happen in person. Exciting things.

Next Episode: One Day We'll Go Out to Sea! The Oath Cups of the Three Brats!

Wait? Is that the correct translation for the title? Umm...Okay. Onward to the next episode! That be out next week!