Anime: Impel Down Arc- Episode 439

This episode was seen on onepieceofficial.com!

First Thoughts
haha What an episode! The first half of this episode was just funny beyond believe! I mean I really did enjoy the first half and this so makes up for all the depressing stuff that we got a few episodes back with Luffy vs Magellan. Ivankov really put on a show this time around and  now for some reason a certain scene will not be out of my head for a while! haha

There sure were some scary parts in this episode but I get to them.

Summary
Ivankov tells Bon Clay that he has started the painful healing process to cure Luffy of Magellan's poison.

Thoughts

Yep. If I wasn't busy laughing my head off then my face would be the same as Bon Clay as he watched what was going on. haha This episode had an interesting lead to it from the summary. I really did enjoy that background music that was being played out though the first half of the episode. It provide the scene of a certain type of club with an eerie feel to it. Though I have to admit that I was caught off guard when it started to play during the summary and wonder what was going on. Then was even more surprise to hear it again as the episode started. So it really grew on me but I think this be the last we hear of it. Maybe again next episode but never again after that. HEEHAW!

Also Ivankov has a huge head....

A new challenger appears!

Lame joke!

A bit off but this tough guy seems to only be here for two reason as you all have seen. One reason is to just past time and be 'filler'. The thing is that this filler moment was in the manga so it isn't all filler! This then leads to the other reason why he is here. So he is purposeful filler! Though I am not sure how this moment was handled in the manga but I am sure that the anime took the liberty to make this moment last a bit longer.

Still I don't really mind really since it game them another reason to play the cool background music. It kind of fitted with the spotlights and such that appeared on him and made up a lot of these moment. Good use of spotlight guys! Or girls!

This is my image of the week! Or special one that I liked. Ivankov's face here looks funny and cool. Very different from what we seen before. I liked it and that is the only reason why it is in this post!

And this was Scary Moment #1! For some reason these guys dancing was creeping the heck out of me. I mean for one thing they are not wearing pants....yeah...Then with everything that is going on they just keep on dancing with those creepy smiles on their faces. Yeah....They scared me everytime they appeared on screen which was a lot in the first half.

Scary Moment #2! This scene right here where the guy went to girl! I was having shivers run up my spine but that was for something else! What scared me was the background music as I felt it was just went from happy to scary as you saw what was going on onscreen to the guy. Good use of music even though it was the same that we been hearing for a good part of the episode so far! Still I got to say it did made me a bit scared as I was use to cool tone of the beat.

Then there was the clapping that happen. That was something.

Still now we see the second reason why this (once a) man is here!  To show off Ivankov's power! The use of hormones! We got to see Death Wink animated and then saw that Ivankov is a pretty big guy! The guy was kneeing but still Ivan was towering over the guy back in one of the screenshots above! Then the guy gets stabbed with female hormones to become the lovey lady that we saw there (bare-chested). Still that is something. Even though things were happy just a few moments ago, we get sent back into seriousness that this arc seem to be giving off in a somewhat sadistic humorous way.

I like the image there of Luffy there. It has a lot of meaning to it. Even though the guy is frozen and dieing of poison he is still willing to wait and demand that Bon Clay gets healed first. I mean Luffy is going though heck himself right now and maybe suffer more then Bon Clay but still even though Bon Clay ran off on him, Luffy still wants to makes sure Bon Clay is treated first. Some guy. Putting others before himself. Some may say that this will be Luffy's downfall but this is what makes Luffy the hero he is today.

"Some friendships can't be ruined even in prison."
-Ivankov

This I feel has summarize what we been seeing in the last episodes in a few lines. We been seeing examples of this throughout this arc as Bon Clay goes back to save Luffy and how Mr. 3 and Buggy are still together (Even though part of it could be because they need each other to get out) but that is it right there. Friendship comes into play once again in this show even if the setting is prison.

This is something that was too stupid that I  couldn't keep it out of this post. It be wrong if I didn't put it in here.

I knew this was stupid. I knew that it was pointless. I knew it wasn't going to go anywhere. Still I watched and see what was going happen. I had no idea what they were doing but I knew it was going to be just as stupid as the Candle House thing from last episode. Boy was I right! haha It was pointless but funny. haha

So remember kids! Walking on bamboo (or wax) stills is fun!

And then the symphony of screaming begins! Boy now this was Scary Moment #3. When you see Luffy's face though the peep hole and it is all dark and bloody(?). While getting the screenshots for this post I was focusing on the timing and pauses it right on there. When I did that I was able to see Luffy's face clearly and that scared me a bit. Then when I un-paused it was when I got the scream that surprised me.

I don't have much to say about Ivankov's speech. It does bring up a good point that one's spirit is what pushes them to do better and go on and that is something that we can't depend on others but by now I was wondering when this episode was going to end. If you were paying attention to the time of this episode, the eye-catcher was a bit late as it came in around fifteen minutes? So everything after that felt a bit long. I am sure that it all happened in the manga but really maybe it was just me.

And the last thing we see is Luffy having a flashback of him and Ace as young kids as he screams with those cool looking chains on him! How nice.

The flashback felt a bit random but I am going to say that it was a strangely drawn scene. We seen young Luffy when he received the straw hat from Shanks and I am sure he wasn't that small. Did the kid shrink a bit after Shanks left or something? The hat is super big and Luffy's head looks so small! I am guessing this is from the change of drawing style or something. It just that Luffy looks really small there.

Still you got to give props to Luffy's Japanese voice actress. She is doing a  really good job in displaying pain and emotion into this episode. That is really something. Most of the time she is playing Luffy as a happy guy but for this moment there is no happiness from Luffy. Just pain and suffering in these last few episodes. So good job Luffy's voice actress!

Preview

So seems like next episode we are going back to the seriousness of Impel Down. Yay...haha This time we seem some guy with a sword and he is killing happy to say the least! Got to wonder what this guy is like but he has wings on his back. Wonder if he is part of the staff.

One thing that I forgot to mention before I think is that the wings on Magellan and Hannyabal are detachable! That is nice to know.

And that is all for this week's episode! Seems like we got some interesting stuff next week.

Also to the manga readers, no new One Piece chapter this week. Though expect something on Wednesday.