Anime: Post Marineford Arc- Episode 505

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First Thoughts
Oh my! I don't care what anybody says. I truly believe that the anime is better then the manga. It is episodes like this one that makes me really love the anime. It is times like this where the anime takes what they are give and then improve upon it ten times. The manga is good and all but the anime just knows how to take it and fill in the blanks and shine the good parts even more.

Also I got a lot of screencaps of Makino. That is always good....I don't have a problem!

Also lots of StrawHat crew images. Wow.....

Summary
Garp arrives at Windmill Village and claims to watch over it.

The Red Hair Pirates, Whitebeard Pirates and allies mourning at the burial of Ace and Whitebeard.

Jimbei talks to Luffy and pulls him out of his depression.


Thoughts

 

So here we are back at Windmill Village. Weren't we hear already? This time we are in the present and get to see some awesome Garp scenes. I really appreciate to see Gary doing his Meteoric Fist Shower attack since it seems like his men are use to doing this type of thing. haha They seem so numb to Garp doing things like this all the time. He has them well trained.

The people of Windmill Village seem to be well knowledgeable about the world. It was kind of surprising to hear one of the ladies ask about how the world will be now that Whitebeard is dead. I guess even the people of this remote island in the East Blue knew how important Whitebeard was to deter pirates from getting out of control. I figure that they knew a bit about the world seeing that they read the newspaper to keep up with the happenings of Luffy but didn't think read enough to learn about the world. Way to go people of Windmill Village on being smarter then the people within the big city of Goa Kingdom! haha

There are a lot of awesome moments in this episode but one of the bad moments was this scene. What was up with the shading on the upper part of Dadan's face? Were they trying to hide the fact that this was Dadan? I think anybody who been watching the recent flashback episode would have figure out it was Dadan without that shading unless Dadan lost some major weight in the last ten years. The shading on that upper half looked really bad and awkward. If they were going for the whole 'dark and angry' thing they they should have just shadow out the whole face or something.

 

And her we have is a family argument. Kind of touching to see these three character arguing about what happen at Marineford. You have Garp who acted as a dad (sort of), Dadan who acted as a mom (sort of), and Makino who acted like a mom/older sister (no bias) to Luffy and Ace. They all feel bad and grieving in their own way. Garp feels horrible that he couldn't do more to help Ace and Luffy. Dadan blames Garp for not doing more. Makino is sadden to hear that Luffy had lost his brother.

Also props to Makino for getting in the way of an angry Dadan. I wouldn't want to get in Dadan's punch but there is little Makino brave enough to get in between Dadan and Garp. Poor girl.

 

Many Makino screencaps were taken...No....I don't have a problem

It broke my heart a bit to see Makino's face as she realized that she was wrong. Surely Garp is suffering but Luffy is the one suffering the most for using a brother that cared for him deeply. It shouldn't be a contest about who is suffering the most but we all know how much Luffy cared about his brother. This little flashback made it hit harder as we saw that Ace truly did care for Luffy and his well being. Ace was an important person to Luffy and clearly the two were almost inseparable.

This little moment reminded me of my own little brother. They can be annoying as heck at times and never wanting to leave you alone. Still they mostly mean well and at the end of the day you still care for the little kid. Luffy did an awesome job in the role of annoying little brother to Ace. haha

So it looks like Ace and Whitebeard were buried in the New World on a Spring Island. Wonder if Luffy will stop by this island when the crew eventually go into the New World. It would be interesting to see his reaction to when he sees the tombstones for Ace and Whitebeard. What would he do? Cry? Pray?

Still everybody is mourning for the death of Ace and Whitebeard. You see a lot of people such as Whitey Bay and other people that we saw at Marineford. Still one person seems to be missing which is Jouz. The last we saw of him was that he was being frozen by Aokiji after being ridden around like a pony by Doflamingo. I wonder if they are trying to defrost Jozu or something. The guy didn't look too well seeing that he possibly lost an arm.

 

That was some personal speech from Shanks. The whole speech that men shouldn't be afraid to cry but they should also keep moving forward. Very touching coming from a man that once rode on Roger's ship. Ace was like Roger til the very end. Refusing to run away and protecting his crew. In a way it sounds like Shanks has surpass his mentor but also has a long way to go before being in the same position of the once great Pirate King.

 

Boy! This was when things really picked up in the episode. Everything before the eye-catcher was amazing in it's own right. The touching moment between Dadan, Garp and Makino to the awesome speech from Shanks. Still everything from here on out was just outstanding!

Just look at Luffy's face as you can literally see the frustration, guilt and grief on this face. Just so much emotion being shown here and the acting was just perfect. Luffy rampaging around the jungle ready to take anything in his way out. May it be a rock or even Jimbei. His actions and everything was just amazing to see. Really blew my mind.

Such a great way to do this montage! The animators could have done the regular way how they do montages with the faded lens but instead they went the extra mile and make them a bit tinted. Really help add with the pain that Luffy is feeling at the moment as he is recalling all that he has gone though.

"But all those formidable enemies took away your confidence!" 
-Jimbei

The flashbacks to Marineford that Luffy was showing surely proves the point of what Jimbei was talking about. Luffy so powerful people from both sides of the spectrum. All of them maybe people that Luffy would have to fight sometime along the line. Still clearly Luffy can't challenge them using his current strength. It can be disheartening too especially since he couldn't even save his own brother. Luffy is in a pretty deep place at the moment. So much doubt and despair.

Speaking about doubt and despair! BEAUTIFUL!

Surely this wasn't the most beautiful thing to ever grace the anime but the imagery and representation was. In the manga it looked as if Oda randomly just surround Luffy in big bubbles as he was crying in pain. Kind of random and one could have gotten the idea that they represented his doubts and sadness. Here in the anime it was clear that each bubble represented his doubt and despair as they pile around him one by one with each foe that Luffy saw at Marineford. What follow this was even more beautiful!

 

 

 

 

BEAUTIFUL! ON! SO! MANY! LEVELS!

First let go though the not so good parts before I rant on how awesome this scene was!

You can so hear the Bon Clay in Franky's voice. Incase you didn't know, Bon Clay/Mr. 2 share the same voice actor with Franky.

Also Franky and Robin looks a bit off in that big group picture.

I literally teared up in the last five minute of this episode. I don't know why but the last two episodes have had such wonderful endings where I been coming close to tears when watching. Watching from Luffy's perspective as he saw his friends one last time on the ship before arriving on Sabaody. Then Luffy counting down his friends on his hands was just the icing on the cake. The fact that Luffy still has his friends to depend on even right now was heartwarming. It is like they never left him at all.

Then this final line from Ace was a nice way to end the episode:

"He had such reliable friends"
-Ace

Preview

Next episode it looks like we are going back to seeing how each StrawHat is doing. The preview looks like we are going to check up on Chopper and Zoro but the title makes it looks like we are going to see every StrawHat. Not sure what to think about this.

Either way looks like Chopper and Zoro are having a hard time. Both looks like they are getting beat up by animals. In Chopper's case it looks like he is also fighting against humans. Doesn't look good.

But it does looks like Zoro is going to get a visit from a certain "World's Greatest Swordsmen". Wonder where this is going to go.

Next Episode: The StrawHat Crew Shocked! The Bad News Received!

Til the next episode!