Anime: Impel Down Arc- Episode 436

First Thoughts
Well this felt like another intense episode again. You know how most One Piece episodes seem to find to make ways  to make your laugh?  I mean no matter how serious the fight is, you can still laugh or smile. I mean we had serious fights before like the first and third Luffy vs Crocodile fight but at least you can put on a smile during the fight as you watch Luffy fight or get some relief from the antics of the StrawHats as they search for the bomb.

I can't be certain about this trait that One Piece battles have since I missed a lot of CP9 and I think seeing Luffy go Third Gear counts as funny and then I would smile everytime when I see Luffy go Second Gear because I know some cool stuff is going to happen. Though for a lot of this episode I was on the edge of my seat waiting for the title screen's statement of Luffy's 'last attack'. It was a rough ride. As in rough I mean this also felt like a slow episode too. Maybe that is why this episode felt so intense since what was going on the the screen was being dragged out so each moment felt painful to watch as we watch Luffy just suffer. Still I go into detail on that later.


Summary

Luffy and Magellan continue their fight on Level 4. The poison starts to effect Luffy more as the fight goes on and eventually Luffy is defeated at the hands of Magellan's poison.

Hannyabal defeats Buggy and Mr. 3 and was able to take them away until Bon Clay appears.



Thoughts

You know. This part of the episode kind of disappointed me. I mean I really wanted to see Hannyabal fight. I wanted to see proof of how come the Marines would give the title of 'Vice Warden' to Hannyabal. I mean the guy doesn't look or act smart. For goodness sake! Hannyabal has a beer belly! Still last episode I was thinking that the next time we see Hannyabal it will be him in battle with Buggy and Mr. 3.

Still we just get them on the ground in what looks like an easy match. I sure hope it wasn't but oh well. I guess I am going have to keep the tag I have for Hannyabal now because I still don't really like him that much....

Though...I wouldn't mind having some filler scenes where Hannyabal was fighting with Mr. 3 and Buggy. I think it would be interesting. So it is up for our origination to figure out how Hannyabal defeated to somewhat powerful people. I am guessing it involves him spinning his trident like he was a cheerleader or something.

Meanwhile we get this.

No offense. I understand what is being done here. The writers want to show how much it hurts Bon Clay to leave Luffy behind to fend off Magellan on his own. It hurts to see this happen emotionally but to me this felt kind of unneeded. I am not sure if this was filler added to make the episode a bit longer and I won't know till tomorrow but really it just felt tacked on. I love the part where the tear drop fell and you see though it but it felt just there.

Also for those that thought you heard Franky's voice here as Bon Clay talk then don't worry. That may have been him since Franky's Japanese's VA is also the VA for Bon Clay. So just like English VAs where you can sometimes tell that Vic Mignogna is doing a part on the same show he is doing another voice, the same goes for the Japanese version of the anime.

Back at the farm....

It really looks like Luffy is trying to turn the tables on the battle here. If anything he wants to get as much damage as he can on Magellan before he knows what will happen to him. Got to say that if anything we got from the scenes of Luffy fighting Magellan then it is that we got some nice animation fighting scenes here. Luffy using Twin Jet Pistol and nice Second Gear smoke. Still it that gut feeling. The scenery or something was making me nervous. Maybe it was the fact that I knew this wasn't going to end pretty for Luffy or something.

Terminator much?

Magellan: I am the terminator! ROWR!

Still this is where things go south for your hero Luffy. I mean not only does it seem like Magellan has terminator abilities to the point that he can just reform after getting hit with punches. It seems like he just just keep going as if he wasn't hit at all. Still I can see why people would thing that his Venom Venom powers would be a Logia type power.

Still what a creepy attack. Having that Venom Cloud behind you as you realize that you may get screwed. I can see how Magellan got his post as Warden unlike certain....people who are Vice Wardens *CoughHannyabalCough* To be able to hurt people with little effort as they stand there. To spread fear to all that is watching and of the weak of heart.

Also I found it cool the sound that Magellan was making as he was emitting the poison gasses. Well I wasn't thinking that when I was watching the episode but when I look back at it now, that was kind of a cool sound. Though I don't think I want that sound coming from my  car...that is a bad thing.

This had to be one of the worse parts of the episode to watch as a fan. It kind of give you that down feeling as you watch as Luffy tries to fight against the poison but also at the same time the poison takes effect on him. I mean you kind of don't think about it and this all comes after you take out all the jokes referring to drugs and all. It is kind of part sad and part acid trip with all the colors. The blurry vision that you get as we get the to see how Luffy is seeing. The strange and far out colors! It was just out there. Far out!

I was kind of wonder if the episode would end here though. I mean it seems like Luffy would be down for the count here  but then I keep on remembering the title of this episode about Luffy's 'final attack' and we still haven't gotten. I mean I doubt Luffy's last attack would be Gum Gum Balloon. That would be lame. Still it was kind of painful to see the kid fall down that last scene before the eyecatcher.

This saved the episode for me. Seeing Mr. 3 do that with his tongue was really funny to me. haha I was just sitting there in my chair wondering how long Mr. 3 was going to stick out his tongue. haha I mean it just flapped there as he threaten take his own life. haha I shouldn't be laughing at somebody wanting to kill themselves but really it was just funny to watch. haha Sigh...expect One Piece to make suicide threats funny....Wow...that is so wrong....

"Komon (anus) stinks!"
-Buggy

It is things like this that makes me wonder how Funi will dub this when they get here. I mean it make sense since that body part does stink but I wonder if Buggy heard Mr. 3 right or just said that because it sounded like the Japanese word for torture. Still I wonder how the joke with be played out.

Then we finally see the return of brave Bon Clay! To tell the truth after that whole thing at the  beginning of this episode and the last I am glad to see this happen. I mean to me this whole Bon Clay thing was taking it a bit too far but then again it did deliver what kind of emotion that was wanted. Still I would have been fine if we didn't have that moment of Bon Clay at the beginning of this episode. If it wasn't for that moment back then then I would have maybe felt a bit more surprise to see Bon Clay come back here to save Buggy and Mr. 3.

One thing that I notice though here after this episode is that I am thinking of Bon Clay as two different people. During the thinking of this post I was thinking of Bon Clay as 'Mr. 2'. The name he had as an enemy of the StrawHats. The name that we (or at least I) put all the negative feelings towards. Now that we have seen Bon Clay has a nicer side and this whole thing back on Level 3, I been trying to call him Bon Clay since that seem like his name and much more honorable you can say. Still I found it harder to call him Bon Clay for this post. Strange...

And for a brief moment we had a vision of heaven deep in the depths of heck....Aww....I been so looking forward to this part but be brave Mikey-san! You can wait a week! Don't falter One Piece viewers! We will see this marvelous image next week! I hope!

Back to the depths of heck! Douche bag guards that have no problem with lying to you about what is going on above even though it is your own brother fighting for your freedom. Personally I would have told Ace to make him suffer even more. Knowing that you are responsible for the death of your own brother can be heavy. Or just give him the hope that his brother is going to rescue him only to make him go mad when he waits and counts the hours when in realization he has been dead or captured.

WOW! That sounds ever so horrible! haha

That poor kid. I mean this has not been the type of fight that Luffy can win. I mean both of his attacks (Or all three of them if you count Whip) missed Magellan all together. For once I wanted to tell Luffy to give it up because it is just too painful to see the guy fight Magellan with little hope to win. I mean it goes against everything Luffy does but still it is painful to watch the kid struggle like that.

Usually Second Gear gives me a hopeful feeling when I see it and I love how awesome it looks but for this moment I guess it was the sign of things to come. One thing that did pop to my mind was if maybe Second Gear was the  reason why the poison seem to have gotten to Luffy so fast. Doesn't it pump the blood though Luffy faster and if the poison is in his blood then wouldn't that spread the poison faster? It was just something that I was thinking about after seeing Luffy go Second Gear the first time.

And with that last heroic jump into the Hydra, Luffy is now cover in poison. Each second is another second to the countdown to what could be the end of our rubber necked pirate. I would suggest you enlarge the image above and just stare at Magellan's face and then look at Lufy's. Got to say they look nice.

Still overall I found these last two episodes hard  to blog about. They were a bit dragged out for fight battles if you ask me with some of the stuff (that I think were filler) from Bon Clay and the pan outs to each other faces like we had before Luffy made his final attack in this episode. Also I think all I did for these last two post was put images together and thank goodness I just made them small. Still this wasn't a nice battle overall. I just can't wait for our piece of heaven in next week's episode. haha

Preview

So it seems like we are going to Level 5 now. Freezing Hell! Either that or Hannyabal is stupider then I thought. haha Though I am thinking that our boys in stripes (Bon Clay, Mr. 3 and Buggy) are going to be our best people here in the next episode. To tell the truth I am looking forward to this episode since this fight is now over and we won't have to see Magellan's terminator powers at work. So make me happy boys!

That doesn't look good. Luffy covered in poison and in what looks like a prison cell. Ouch...Still as long as we get our piece of heaven then I am all good! Till next week's episode!