Anime: Little East Blue Arc- Episode 426

First Thoughts
Welcome to Little East Blue! Where people from the East Blue some how got their butts over here. No idea now but oh well. Why question the One Piece world. It is crazy after all.

"You are all idiots" is what I kept telling myself throughout this episode. Though that usually happens a lot when I see the filler episodes and well....most episodes that are not action intense. haha

This was an interesting episode. It kind of reminded me of Apis and those episodes back when the crew got into the Grand Line or whatever. Though this time around the townsfolk were just there or background. This time the townsfolk were active and doing something. At least they talked and were friendly with the StrawHats. haha


Summary
A flashback episode: Luffy and crew are attacked by a beetle that stole their fish. Luffy, Zoro, Ussop and Sanji get on it. They land on an island that has people who come from the East Blue. They are lead inside a cave to see that it has buildings that look as if they came from the East Blue. Nami is called to go in as well but little does she and the other four StrawHats knows is that a group who are hoping to gain flavor from Shiki is also heading for the island too.

Thoughts

New Opening

So we finally got a new opening. I guess I was kind of right. I was guessing we were going to get one when we hit Impel Down or when these specials aired or after these episodes. I guess the second was true.

Still got to say that the new opening is different. Much different from what we have gotten in the past. To tell the truth this song sounds like it is from an old shojo anime. I read some of the lyrics and they were talking about love and how you are the one for me. Very strange for One Piece but okay.

Still my first reaction was, "Umm...What is going on? This is One Piece right?". It took me like five minutes just to go though this opening because I was pausing it and replaying it. It just took me a while to sink in.

This opening like mostof the past openings had a lot of colorspreads though. Or I been told that he old ones had colorspreads moments. I do know that the image above here did came from a colorspread in the manga because I saw this one. Very nice one if you ask me.

Then we hit the spoilers of scenes that are to come. I don't really care for this one here but the next image is the one that reel me in.

The scenes of people we have seen and will see later on in Impel Down as Luffy is running. I had to see this a few times to get them all but I got a good list of people who we will see that we know and don't know. Hold on and see all the ones I got.

Buggy
Mr. 3
Mr. 1
Blackbeard
Mr. 2
Inazuma (First time being seen in anime)
Crocodile
Jimbei (First time being seen with features)
Ivankov (First time being seen in anime)

A good round of people that we will see in the anime. These guys are familiar faces to manga readers though and shouldn't be a surprise. Still I am glad that we finally have the anime features and coloring for Jimbei since we all have seen his outline several times in the anime but never had a face to give him.

Though this part was icing on the cake. haha It was perfectl timed to appeared right here and I give the animators a nod for this. Way to go. You made the character I hated the most get a honest laugh from me. Congrats.

And here is a very lovely image of Ivankov falling from the sky. haha...I now think that I gave myself and anybody who view this blog nightmares. haha Oh boy.

Overall I like this opening. It is different like I said and I know it doesn't match the setting of the current events of the anime but I think we are going to need this in the near future. Impel Down isn't exactly a happy place. So the opening was made to focus on happy stuff so at least we can go into the episode feeling happy rather then watching depressing clips and then getting more depress as we watch Luffy duke it out in Impel Down. Also I like seeing the StrawHats having fun. To me the openings are ways to see more of the StrawHats's life. Just them having fun and being themselves with no impending doom above them. It is nice. We also got to see more of them since we are nowhere near seeing them again.

I been seeing that a lot of people don't like this opening and I can understand. Still if you don't like it then skip over it. It looks like it is here to stay for a good while so get use to it. I like it and I am sure it will be needed soon.

Now to the episode! haha

So we start this episode with a bit of narration about Impel Down. We basically get a recap of what been happening for the last few episodes about where Luffy broke into Impel Down and then we learn about the only person to ever break out of Impel Down.

Shiki, the Flying Pirate. Just like how the anime had how planned for this episode to happen right when the jailers of Impel Down found out about Luffy. I have planned that for me to mention Shiki. haha

Wow. I don't know how I got this image. I got it by accident and then tried to get it to appeared again. Still got to say it was impressive to see this part of the anime. How it was nice and calm before then we get the alert from the Impel Down Transponder Snail about the escape. It just broke the focus of us watchers. I am sure that mostly everybody had no idea what was coming here as Shiki flew though the hallways of the prison.

Then I am sure the manga readers got a question they been wondering for a long time now. Well I was wondering this too which was how did Shiki escape from Impel Down. Got to say it is pretty damn bloody. I knew that the handcuffs were made of SeaPrism to negate Devil Fruit Powers but crazy how he was able to get around that. Shiki literally cut off his legs in order to escape and basically run out of Impel Down. That itself is surprising. Nobody at Impel Down saw that coming.

That also may explain why Shiki has swords for feet.

The main reason why I got those two images above is because they look cool.

Though as I was saying before. Nobody saw what Shiki did coming. Judging by Magellen's face at the sight of blood on the floor. I bet that somewhere there was Shiki's feet there too but those were cut out of view.

I got to say that Magellen looks good in brown.I mean black is a good color and makes anybody looks cool but the thing is that since Magellen has a lot of black on him already. So when you have a color like brown on him that it kind of provides a good balance to the black. So the Magellen of today's One Piece time looks good in black but doesn't have that cool factor to him. Or that is what I think.

In short, Magellen in brown equals cool.

Then we get an explanation of why we are seeing this how this is revent to the current story. Seems like these episodes lead up to Movie 10: Strong World and how the StrawHats Pirates kind of get involve. Not really sure how but I am guessing that Shiki will hear about Luffy and crew from the events here in this arc and then encouter them in the movie. Kind of like in the Baroque Works Arc. Luffy and crew did some things to get in Baroque Works's way and then Crocodile heard about Luffy and crew that way.

To me it seems like all of this happen before Luffy and crew got separated. It just feels like that based on what the narrator said. Which means that this has a strong chance of being anime canon. So that is good. I don't mind. To me it makes more sense the anything else. Still the true test will happen after the current manga arc. We will see as time passes but my money is on before Impel Down.

Mexican pirates! OH MY GOSH!...Well the are Mexican theme so that as close as we ever get. A part of me should be angry but you know what. I don't care. I mean Mexicans are very under represented in animes so really I should be happy. I mean even one of the men there talks Spanish or adds it to his words so that is cool. Too bad that they are bad guys but oh well. You win some you lose some. haha Maybe we will get more Mexican pirates later on. It is a long series after all.

We got more into Shiki's mind though. Seems like this old pirate has been gaining allies since his time out of Impel Down which explains all the suited men that we see in the Movie 10 trailers that we been seeing. Cool.

You are all idiots. Every single of one. Don't let anybody tell you anything different. If they do then they are all lying to you. haha

I am going to be saying that a lot from hear on out for the rest of this post. Well I already said that already in this post but yeah. I was thinking that for most of the episode and that isn't a bad thing. Usually it means that this was a good episode and this episode was no different. It was just funny and because of our favorite pirate's stupidity, we got some interesting moments. haha

You are all still idiots.

Though if anybody know their One Piece fish then this fish that Brook caught should be familiar. It is the one that Sanji got back in LogueTown. Cool eh?

Still sucks that the fish got eaten up but that beetle.

Yeehaw! We got ourselves a big one! Gonna go catchin it!

It is Usopp's outfits that sometimes make me love him the most. Thriller Bark to this. All very awesome. Amazing how all he did was put on a few straps, a hat and sunglasses to look all awesome. haha

You are all idiots. Every single one of you....

haha And Luffy gets all sparkles eyed on us. Nice. If this wasn't filler then I would be scared but still this is Luffy. So he could have been so for the idea of having a beetle on the crew.

I....need.....heeeelllllppp~!

Slow Mo for the win!

haha

I know that Nami was wearing the same thing for the whole episode but literally it took me this long to realized that it was a see though shirt that revealed her bra. Hmm...Very nice. Very nice. I had to replay this scene a few times to investigate a bit more and figure out what Nami was wearing. Upon further investigation, it seems like I was correct in what Nami was wearing and thus I took this screencap right when I saw it in the first see though.

Still more investigation is needed so I hope that Nami will be wearing this later on in the arc. We need to find out what she is wearing damnit!

Fail!

And this is why you shouldn't get on a beetle and make it fly towards a cliff. You will be too heavy for it to fly correctly.

You are all idiots. Every single one of you.

I mean why did you all got on the beetle? I mean I understand Usopp because he had no choice but Zoro and Sanji? Why? You didn't even do anything to stop it or something. You two just rode on there with no problem.

Then Luffy...I am not even going to touch that subject. You deserve to have Yoko bit your head off. haha

Little East Blue is pretty well developed. I mean we have buildings from all the places the StrawHats come from. We got a place from Luffy's home town. I remember there was a windmill where Luffy live. Then we have a dojo for Zoro and a Baratie for Sanji. Very impressive. I wonder how long these people been here. I guess around five or so years since that is how long Yoko's dad been dead.

You are all idiot. I hate to say that about my Robin but sorry. To even suggest that you need to build and insect cage is crazy enough. Still this is proof that these guys has been here too long to know how Luffy thinks. haha Still I love you Robin. Sigh. haha

Hmm...It seems like Nami really is wearing some sort of bra over a see though top. A black bra nonetheless. To tell the truth, it looks like the top is attached to the bra in some form or way since those straps seem to be keeping the top from falling. Hmm...This will be a very interesting investigation. haha

Finally! We get to see the waver at use. I love the waver and I really wish we get to see more of it. I mean for real, the last time we saw it was before Thriller Bark when Franky made some changes to it and that was it. Since then it been just there doing nothing. Glad to see it back and hope we see more of it soon.

Did anybody even remember that the Nami still had the waver?

Still little do our StrawHats crew know that a band of Mexican (theme) pirates are also heading for this island. I am guessing that they are after Boss (the beetle from before). Shiki must have some sort of connection to this beetle or something.

By the way, I like the ships in the One Piece world. They look like ships even if they are not really ships. This here is a submarine but I can so see this sub going up and look just like a ship. It even has the back rail. Love how they make high tech things believable in this world.

We got a good episode. I am interested to see how this unfolds in the next coming weeks and how it is connected to Movie 10. Lets tune in. Though this was a FAST episode. I was so watching this and then when the To Be Continued screen pop up I was surprise. I thought we had more to this episode and was wondering if I accidentally skipped to the end. Turns out that the episode ended. That sucks.

Preview

Gun Gun Fruit User? haha Oh I pray that I am wrong but right at the same time. haha

We got ourselves a long preview too. Though this one included a short preview and some talking from the VA that I think does Shiki. He looks old enough I guess.

Looks like our Mexican (theme) pirates are making their attack and Luffy is caught by surprise. Still I am not throwing Luffy out of this fight just yet. I am sure that once he see these guys attacking the people of Little East Blue that he will get up himself and start attacking. Also maybe some flashbacks to our guys back from their days in East Blue. Also maybe see who this girl from Syrup Village is. Interesting that she got the best house on the island. Maybe she knows Kaya? haha

And some talking from the VA of Shiki I think. Well he sounds excited. I am not sure. I don't speak Japanese.

Best part of the Movie right here. When the StrawHats appeared in mafia outfits. Remember, black makes anybody looks cool. It just that black make the StrawHats looks awesome. haha Can't wait to see this movie. Still the movie is a bit far off so I just have to say I can't wait till the next episode. haha Till then.