Anime: Marineford Arc- Episode 460

Once again history is about to be made, no matter what the end result is. Head to OnePieceOfficial.com to watch as the heads of the world collide in this epic battle of the ages.

First Thoughts

This was a great episode. Full of new sights, places, and actions. Gosh, it was really good. Of course, I did have high hopes for it to begin with, but still, this was really great in my opinion. They covered a lot more than I thought they would, and we even got to see a detailed Rouge’s face, which I’ve never seen before.

This episode definitely had a great touch to it, even if the whole thing was lined with strong hate towards Ace and lots of sadness and evil Marines. For one of the few (probably only) times in my life, I was glad Buggy was there. Sort of. He is surprisingly good comic relief in an otherwise rather sad-sounding episode.

Summary

The world reacts to news of Ace’s true family in very different ways, though none seen are positive. As the world reels from this revelation, a different story is shown through a flashback-like sequence on Garp’s behalf. Garp’s responsibility thrust upon him by Roger was to take care of and raise the Pirate King’s son. We then witness Rouge’s struggles to keep her pregnancy hidden from the Marines is outlined for the 10 months they stay on her island.

After finally being able to give birth to Ace once the Marines have left, Rouge dies and Garp takes the infant to be raised in secrecy. A little of Ace’s past growing up with Luffy is shown when the two meet for the first time.

After the flashbacks are through, a large fleet of allied ships to Whitebeard are spotted approaching Marineford in the distance, but neither Whitebeard or any of his commanders are seen. At the very end of the episode, Whitebeard’s great ship the Moby Dick is seen emerging from beneath the water (having been coated) in the center of the great ring of water in Marineford.

And the players are aligned to begin the most epic battle in the history of (shown) One Piece.

Thoughts

Well, to start off today, I must point out that I am still really loving opening 13. I will not rant on it, however, because I want to begin my ranting of this episode, with its greatness and all. The episode started out with everyone in the Archipelago’s thoughts of Ace’s true parents. And I have one thing to say:

“ALL OF THESE PEOPLE ARE HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE PEOPLE WHO DO NOT EVEN KNOW WHAT THEY ARE SPEAKING OF!!”

This is funny, thinking of polite, well-mannered Ace a a heinous criminal. Weird.

Yes, I get really crazy when people just have the wrong information, it burns me up. Here are all of the people in the world totally judging Ace by who his father is. Really? Really, people? I mean, I don’t know exactly every detail that Roger did, but maybe their fears of him are grounded. Maybe, for all of his goodness and coolness, he really did sack some towns and be fearsome. Maybe on accident, or even on purpose he sometimes hurt civilians. I can understand people’s fear and hatred of the Pirate King from that.

But the thing that just is killing me, which Roger was apparent of, was that they would immediately and unfairly judge any woman he associated with and his son. I mean really, if Garp had gotten his way and somehow gotten Luffy and Ace, or at least Ace, into the Marines like he wanted, would things be different? No. Well, probably not. I mean really people, it doesn’t matter who Ace would have been in life, but he would always have had fear of being judged this way? How can people do this to him?

Answer: I blame the World Government. The worst part is, he could never, ever, “clear his name” from he hatred many associate with him now, even if he wanted to. It is a terrible thing, judgment from the uninformed masses. Which is why masses of humans terrify me. This is truly a reality, this situation could happen anywhere out here too, not just to Ace. It really is a thing to fear: lack of knowledge. Only the people who actually knew Roger could accept Ace, only those who knew Ace previously would care. Heck, a person who bothered to learn a few facts about the world would learn this information beforehand and still not care and accept Ace, because that would be an intelligent person. That is the kind of person I want to hang out with, not the uninformed and brutal masses.

…I ranted about life’s criticisms, didn’t I? Oh well, I needed to show that, so I will continue now.

Now isn’t this guy just charming? NOT

Ok, now that I have been ranting about serious things and the unfairness of life, I will point out something that I like about the pic above. See that guy in the left-hand corner? I love his hat.

Yes, I really did just say that. I mean come on, that is a great hat. With the pom-pom on top, and I bet it’s really warm. I used to have a hat like that…

The people’s comments here all vary in position. Some people are worried about themselves, some are just shell-shocked about the news, a lot of the aristocrats think it is even more amusing (monsters…), and a lot of the bounty hunters are thinking the same things that guy in the tin-can suit was thinking.

For this next part, with the seagull, I really found myself enjoying this animation. It seems a little computer-animation was used to make this, and the result is really nice. The zooming in quickly from the seagull’s point-of-view is a very nice contrast to the norm, I must say.

Smoker looks a bit…well, I’m not totally sure on this one. Freaked? I mean, Ace has irritated him almost forever, right? Well, it isn't everyday you find out that the guy you've been chasing is the son of the most famous criminal in recent history. Honestly, I think he's taking it well.

I guess that now the seagull was used to show how they changed from showing the world’s views on Ace to the Marines right there. I mean, it must have been a big shock to hear this giant piece of news that their head officers and such were holding back all this time.

Each individual’s reactions were interesting, and I noticed that the Marines were less hate-filled than the normal villagers. I bet they just thought it was more of a duty and that he was already apprehended, plus the Marines are privy to more Intel than normal people too.

So…the Shichibukai have mixed opinions, yet none of them seemed to know this fact beforehand. Even Mihawk looks surprised. You know, as far as that guy can go in terms of other expressions than “serious” “very serious” and the famous “deadly serious”.

Well, I wonder what Hancock is thinking right now. I mean, she totally risked her butt to get Luffy into Impel Down to save his bro, and now she discovers that Ace isn’t even blood related. I doubt that affects much about her, though it is obviously news to her.

Then we see the reactions of the lower commanders and such. It really seems as though only the highest of the higher-ups knew this. The Admirals seems to be rather uncaring but it is hard to read their expressions. I really don’t know if even they knew that Ace was Roger’s son or not. I’d wager that they didn’t know, but that the info was easy for them to accept, them being big-shot Admirals and all.

OH, and now we see that Doflamingo looks even MORE amused. Is that possible…? And Moria is just wild with excitement apparently. Ha, he probably just wants to use Ace as a zombie, the evil freak.

A little bit of Coby’s thoughts too.

This scene here, this scene is amazing. The flame which represents Ace probably, and I am really amazed at how Roger did that with the flame. He put it out, and then lit it again? That was pretty impressive, and obviously foreshadowed something. Of course, Roger makes a great point. It is totally Garp’s responsibility to take care of Roger’s son now. He has to, or else, how could he live with himself for the rest of his life?

This scene right here, it made me think of something very intriguing. This makes me think of the person whom Luffy shares a hunter-hunted relationship with: Smoker. The smoke-man may be a little less humorous than Garp, but in practically all other aspects he fits the role Garp played to Roger perfectly. And of course, Luffy is practically exactly like Roger. So…this brings up some interesting thoughts which I will let people (including myself) ponder for a while. Stuff like, “could this same thing happen to Luffy?”, “will Luffy do as Roger did and will a scene like this happen with Smoker?” and other such things like these. It really is interesting, the comparison between each generation of Marine and pirate. Amazing.

I love this expression in his eyes. It is that determination that those with the name of “D” all seem to share. It truly is a frightening, astounding thing.

Now this next part, showing Rouge for the first time ever, this is great stuff. I believe that she totally beats Hancock in the most beautiful woman contest. She is just naturally beautiful. I really like that they have good animation here as well. Rouge really is a beautiful woman, and looks just like her son. She must have been a wonderful person for Roger to have loved her, and I wonder what they were like together.

Of course, during this part it is really apprehensive and sad because the Marines are charging around and just basically murdering women and small children. It really is horrible. Could someone’s bloodline really be that atrocious? I mean, I suppose I could learn to understand if someone had blood which held a genetic disease that they would blow up in 20 years or something, but I seriously don’t see a lot of good coming from eradicating a certain bloodline. It is only cruel, and ridiculous. Of course, I am saying this about the government which torched an entire island to get rid of a few books and an ancient language.

This part had a certain repetitiveness to it which I found very intriguing. Rouge must have been in anguish all of those months, and it must have been horrible to have to hold in a secret like that for so long. Literally, and mentally.

This is really a horrific event, the government just overtaking your peaceful island home for almost a year, lying to you, the pressure weighing high on everyone’s minds, killing friends and neighbors. What a horrific thing to occur. It makes me wonder if something like this would ever happen to Fushia Village where Luffy grew up. Of course, Luffy will have to get more serious and less carefree than he is right now to seriously fall in love with a girl, but I have a feeling that Oda may have that happen. People cannot remain innocent forever, as much as they try.

So we watch as this long period of time plays out and as it went on I really felt more understanding about Rouge’s situation. It really is a terrible thing, isn’t it?

These scenes where Rouge is just standing at the cliff edge with the sunsets are breathtakingly beautiful however. I just loved them.

The music for the entire span of her hidden pregnancy is amazing as well. It is soft, lullaby music with that hint of fear or suspense hidden within. This whole part I believe was done well for the episode. It just highlights the mood strikingly and sets it out there for everyone to see so well.

This scene with the rocking chair just helps with that haunting music theme. It is just so…determined, I should say. The mother’s determination to see that her lover’s child and her baby survive are astounding in this manner. They portray her survival need really well.

And all this times goes by...it is just horrible what the Marines have done here. It is unforgivable. Luckily, Garp comes finally to find Rouge. Unfortunately, she passes away, the strain too much on her body. That is really sad. She loved him so very much, Ace.

Ace was a cute little baby! His head was perfectly round, and he cried a lot. Aww!

Well, then Garp obviously can't just show up at Marine headquarters raising a random baby, so he brings the infant Ace to a mysterious person named "Dadan". Huh. Well, then we see about when Luffy was 7 years old and probably right after he had gotten his hat from Shanks, Garp brings Luffy to live with them too. And Ace watches from the tree as he is about to meet his new brother. Ha, Ace looks like an angry child. Well, then having Luffy be his friend and brother probably did him a lot of good.

Now the flashback-thing is getting distorted as Garp recalls his memories of it most likely. Ace as a little kid, and now more recently as a prisoner accepting his death. Gosh, look at his eyes. They look so much like Roger’s. As much as he hates his so called “good for nothing father”, he looks strikingly similar if you knew what you are looking for. Of course, It is just so sad to see that he is following the same fate as his father right now, about to die in this manner. One difference: he is not accepting his fate quite like Roger.

Garp is so obviously stressed at his decisions concerning Ace here. I mean, even that old lady Vice-Admiral notices. I just know that we will be seeing more of his hesitance and indecisiveness here soon in the fight. We don’t even truly know how he felt about raising Ace anyway, so I can’t give any of my questions out. Still, it brings to mind how much he really loved Ace and how much of that was just his heart-felt duty/responsibility? That is a lot to think about.

And now Sengoku has to torment Ace some more. Really guy? Of course, he is a big-shot “leader of the Marines”. It is totally Not taunting. It is “informing the public of his heinous crimes” or some other spiel like that.

Wow. Talk about a reality check. No…a reality “slap-in-the-face”. Did Whitebeard Really mean to put Ace on his ship because of his dad and that he wanted him to be the next King? Hm…food for thought. There is a lot of that today. Seriously, look at Sengoku right now. He just looks so high-and-mighty it’s rather sickening. Ug…and then he just goes and makes more accusations…still, how much of that is true? The Marines only ever look from one standpoint however…

Ok, and now we have some very obvious opening 12 zooms here. Hm…the Admirals, Ace on the platform, and quite a few more shots. Weird, but cool, I suppose.

Ooh? Now this is certainly news to me. The gate is randomly opening…ha, which means that Luffy’s little rag-tag crew can get in! Oh good.

…but how is it opening?

I shall take this time right now to comment on how flippin’ HUGE this door is. Ever since I saw the first one at Enies Lobby, I have thought: “Wow…that is one huge beep door.” Yeah, it is so big, it is epic on it’s own accord. Impressive.

I still love Mr. Three’s faces. Weirder and weirder…

Now, my question is as this giant butt door opens randomly, where is Buggy? As many people are probably wondering, he would have probably been doing something random with Mr. Three right now. The answer is…he must be plotting to do something… …

…Stupid.

And he is. He is indeed. Attempting to get even More ralliers to say that he is opening the door with some ridiculous power. Well, I gotta give this clown credit; he sure does have this tendency to get freaks and random people to follow him with very little effort on his part. Somehow, Mr. Three still is intelligent enough to get that he is totally faking. But poor Luffy…oh Luffy, you’ll get to Roger and Shanks’ level of awesomeness someday.

Buggy, that is majorly un-cool. Right there. Well, everyone has to admit that (somehow) Buggy’s interest level has spiked considerable amounts since his apparent re-involvement with the Strawhats. Which could prove a good, or altogether and more likely bad, thing.

When I got to this part, I almost died laughing. I said aloud: “Buggy. I Know God. His name is Eneru. He does not give a Beep about you becoming King of the Pirates.” I had to laugh at this one. I could not help myself.

And here we go…not, getting serious yet. Oh well. The waves killing the boat are really funny in their own right.

Oh Doflamingo. You have absolutely no right to say what is natural and unnatural. Look who is talking, guy.

And it begins! The pirates ships all lined up outside of the heavily protected Marineford base, reading and waiting to attack for Ace’s sake. Still…not a single one of Whitebeard’s many ships are there. What gives? Hm…he is a great strategist…and asking many of his allied pirate crews to go a traditional method of attack seems like a good…distraction. Hm.

Ah! I love all of their mastheads. Pandas, elephants, caterpillars, oooh! They are so cute! Yes, I did just go there. So many people willing to save Ace, it is really nice, you know? Well, probably few of them actually know Ace personally, but if they are allied with Whitebeard then it is safe to assume that they believe that any friend of Whitebeard is a friend of theirs. So that is cool. Does that one say “Oars III”?

So many big-shot names that I’ve never heard of! Ooh, I’m very frightened. However, I doubt that after this battle many of these pirates will be going back to the New World and ever meet with the Strawhats. That is a really saddening thought. The “good guys” (Whitebeard and allies) are fighting the “bad guys” (Marines), which to the rest of the world is the opposite (and any strange fan of One Piece who supports the Marines and not pirates…). It is obvious from the scale of such a very-soon-to-be battle that not everyone is going home, especially the attackers. So, we are losing possible allies for the Strawhats and Luffy, which is Really majorly bad.

How could Ace not expect them to come? I mean, I completely understand how he would not want any of them dying on his behalf, but how could he seriously not expect to come?

And more crazed creepiness from my fav villain, Doflamingo. He thinks just about everything involving violence and strength is fun. Wow…he is so insane. That is why he is so interesting though.

Ooh, I agree with Garp and the old lady. Right where you least expect them…hm…and there they come, out from under the water! Amazing, they got their ships coated. Well, that was really awesome. I must admit, my curiosity has been peaked with this one. I have yet to see how a coated ship works, and this looks very interesting. Obviously they won’t explain it, but they look super cool when they are coated.

Arg, she be the white whale!

I must admit, this episode covered way more than I had thought possible to cover. From the great enigma that is Portugaz D. Rouge to Roger’s words to Garp, and all of the drama and sadness in-between. Amazing stuff, and I loved the music as well. The scenery and sunsets were done fantastically. I really need to hand it to the animators, they did a terrific job with the music and colors to set the scene.

Preview

Looks like we see Whitebeard and Ace’s past, probably for the whole episode. We get to learn about his life with the huge crew, and probably the relationship between the old man and his shipmates. Hopefully this includes seeing how Ace joined this crew, I’d really like that. Oh, and a little sample of Whitebeard's killer awesome power. I really want to see it.

Unless they really rush it, I doubt they will actually get to the real fighting next episode, but maybe if they hurry they could get going on it. That would be really great, seeing some more on Ace’s past and the fighting start.

Next Episode: The Beginning of the Battle! Ace and Whitebeard’s Past