Anime: Post Marineford Arc- Episode 494

Be happy, it is a Chibi-Luffy! Only at OnePieceOfficial.com do you get such touching flashback-arcs and cuteness of little kids. Aw.

First Thoughts

Sora here, on time - who’d have thought? - and extremely excited to see this new opening! Gods, this opening was amazing! It absolutely blew the last two openings right out of the (proverbial) waters with the music, animation, and presentation of events. I love the part when Ace pushes Luffy towards the straw hat; it is portrayed really well in the suddenly zooming-out manner. Otherwise, this episode was

Oh, and whatever happened to episode 492? Did they just decide that that particular episode was bad, or did one of the animators find great offence in the number 492 randomly? We shall (probably) never know…

Summary

Luffy's determination to follow Ace through the forest has finally paid off, and has taken the rubber boy into the Grey Terminal, a world of dirt, junk heaps, and criminals. As Luffy wanders around the wasteland searching for Ace, the older boy steals a bag of money from two men and runs off to his hiding spot. At the spot, Ace meets with his friend Sabo, and the two discuss their plans of running off and starting a pirate crew.

Luffy overhears them however, but is captured by the pirates whom Ace stole the money from. Being Luffy, he tells the men he is Ace's friend, but then refuses to say where the money is hidden. The pirates take Luffy away to force a confession out of him thru torture while Ace and Sabo hide their treasure in a different place, for fear that Luffy will squeal.

Hours later, Luffy has undergone brutal beatings but still refuses to back down. Sabo realizes that Luffy has not told and rushes to inform Ace, before Luffy is no more because of his stubbornness. As the pirate is about to slice Luffy in half, Sabo and Ace break thru the wall of the shanty, startling the pirates.

Thoughts

I personally am very excited to see this episode. It was only 30 minutes ago that I actually saw last week’s episode, and it made me really thrilled to see this flashback arc. I had no idea this was coming; this was in none of the spoilers I received.

As I watch this episode, I am reminded of Luffy’s age once more, and his current age (10 years ago) is such a stark contrast to it. I’ll bet this arc proves to be extremely important, as I hear it is canon. (I was so surprised about Dadan however…wow. Just…wow. Didn’t see that coming. Of course, it is So totally like Garp to have his grandson raised by mountain bandits…-.- Great parenting, Garp.)

This Sabo kid…first off, I didn’t know that he was a kid at all. I didn’t know anything about him or Dadan; haven’t gotten any spoilers about them, surprisingly. I really want to know about this Sabo kid…

Awesome!  A lawless area and a smoky junkyard. Great for little kids to play in, I’m sure. Well, at least now I know where Ace kept hearing all of those things about Roger. I had been very confused before…

Running around being threatened by lawless rouge dudes is such a bad thing for a small child to spend their afternoon doing. Haha! Oh, nice. So now Hairy Butt-Head is threatening a small child. Nice.

Oh! Sabo…cool.

This is really a cool scene, I finally get to learn about Sabo and Ace’s friendship…a “pirate fund”? Sounds like Ace wants to be a pirate…with Sabo? I wonder…

0.0 Haha, wouldn’t Nami be impressed at this?

Oh yeah! I just remembered something I read a few hours ago. Sabo’s VA is the same as the VA for Naruto. Just a fun fact there.

This hopeful scene with Sabo wanting to leave the East Blue with the money he and Ace have saved up…it worries me. I have seen nice, hopeful scenes like this before, and they often (unfortunately) take a turn for the worse sometime later on. I don’t know quite exactly how, but I fear as though their stash of money may be, erm, “compromised” by Luffy should the boy stumble upon it at all. I am not sure. Sabo’s dream…I hope it comes true, though I worry for the boys…

OHH! LUFFY! Haha, I just love their faces when Luffy shows up. I really didn’t expect him to find the boys for a while longer, so this is really even funnier than I had thought. Aw, poor Ace, it isn’t gonna be a secret anymore, not when a 7 year old named LUFFY knows about it, haha.

Ah! Hahahahahaha! So the boys just scuttle down the tree really quick and knock Luffy on the head at the same time! That is priceless, haha!

Oh gods. It just gets so serious: “We need to kill him.” And then…oh gods, the hilarity of ten year-olds. Hahahaha! This is such a funny scene.

Geez…what serious pirates…this is bad situation for the boys…

LUFFY! How could he get caught!?

Freakin’ funniest. Episode. EVER. Officially, with this face Luffy makes while in the hands of that pirate dude.

Oh Luffy…

I really hate this pirate freak. I am also a little more than a bit peeved at Ace and Sabo for abandoning Luffy and choosing to save their loot. That is so mean of them…of course, this means that they are totally gonna lose this money now, due to what happens when people are greedy and inconsiderate of others. Beating up a little kid with spiked gloves…that is horrid. Beep him.

Oh wow, this is awesome. They actually realized their mistake of leaving Luffy and are sincerely worried about him now. Since Luffy didn’t squeal…they found out that he is probably being tortured for the info…wow. They are really smart kids. I am rather impressed with their desire to help Luffy out, even after abandoning him the first time.

You can’t beat up a little kid like that…meanie freak…I Really hate this guy now…Gods…this is brutal.

Wow…even the lackey dude thinks this is too cruel…this is really out of hand…

Wait, wait, wait, the Bluejam Pirates are paying money to the Nobles? What is this business? Oh geez…ug, paying off the World Nobles in order to commit any crime they want? That is so underhanded, I hate this.

“No one will care about another dead body turning up.” This dude is so stupid; if only he knew that this wasn’t just “some dead body”, this is a much more, erm, “different” kid than what they would be used to. Still, it was nice of them to think of calling the sheriff…

Oh gods…that is a serious, extremely tense pause, and then with the giant sword…oh gods…

Sabo! Ace! Wow, they finally came…so LATE. Geez boys, could you be a bit later? Oh well, I want to see how this turns out next week…

This was a terrific episode. I really enjoyed it, even the really worrying parts with Luffy in them...an overall excellent episode. Well done.

Preview

Well, it looks like Ace and Sabo are gonna get pretty serious about saving Luffy, at least. Good. But, it also looks to me as though Sabo and Ace are both gonna survive, which is preferable, haha, and maybe even Sabo is gonna join Ace and Luffy’s little “family” of bandits, as there was a brief clip of Sabo talking to Dadan. How fun. It looks like this is going to turn out well, at least, I hope…

Next Episode: Ace’s Plan of Desperation - Do-or-Die!

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