Anime: Post Marineford Arc- Episode 496

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First Thoughts 
There are a lot of scary things in One Piece. Some of those things include villains who have horrifying powers while others include beasts that have fangs that can rip your stomach out. Still this episode of One Piece had maybe one of the most horrifying this that will ever grace the pages of this series.

Sabo's mother.

Did you see her face? It was freaking creepy. The worse part was that we got a close up and personal view of her face which made it even scarier. There are just somethings that shouldn't get a close up and personal look and the face of Sabo's mother is one of them.


Summary
Ace, Luffy and Sabo sneak into the city.

After ditching to pay the bill, it is revealed that Sabo was from a noble family.

The three brothers reveal their dreams for the future and declare themselves to be brothers.

Thoughts

 

 

Luffy got beat up a lot as a little kid didn't he? We knew this whole time that he never was able to beat Ace and let we find out today that wins against Sabo were fall and few. If anything Luffy seem to develop a lot of his 'Gum Gum' techniques against his fights with Ace and Sabo.

Poor Luffy though. Getting beat up so much by Ace and Sabo. The kid seems to can't get a break. If he isn't getting beat up by adults then he is getting beat up by his friends. Though it makes me wonder why people don't do things like grab Luffy arms and such more often. Eneru did it once but never did it again. Just grab Luffy's arms and then make him hit himself.

"When I become 10 years old, I'll beat you two up!"
-Young Luffy

That is so something that a little boy would say after getting beat up. haha You got to admit that some good scripting was use to make Luffy sound like an actual little kid. I don't give props to the Japanese VAs often but so far Luffy's VA has done a great job as Young Luffy. She has been given great lines and has been executing them nicely.

One of the few happy moments of Luffy. haha As horrible as a childhood that Luffy had, you got to admit he is very happy go-lucky. Not letting nothing stop him from having fun or a good time. Amazing that he was able to help take out a crocodile with Ace and Sabo helping him out. the scene was nice to see. I will even ignore the fact that they did a flashback to what happen last week.

Speaking of last week, I guess I was wrong about them killing the crocodile from the episode. I guess this one was used for what will be used later on in the episode. Alright. Luffy did said that he liked Crocodile meat after all.

 

Three kid totem pole is this week's 'Cute Image of the Week'.

Maybe all the adult thugs on this island are stupid. How else can you explain three kids around the age of ten beating up adults. Don't these guys have weapons like knives and guns? Lead pipes can't be that dangerous right? Apparently in the hands of Ace, Luffy and Sabo they are.

Apparently adults on this island are not very smart or strong.

So here we are in the Goa Kingdom. Far from Windmill Village was this huge city where rich people, not so rich people and douchy people all live together. Most of them all think that they are better than everybody else. You have the richest of the rich in the middle. The rich surrounding them. The poor living on the outskirts. Then the trashy people living on the outside. Very simple.

Kind of strange how we never seen anything of this city all the times we visit Luffy’s home island. Oda really did a good job in keeping this place secret since he tried to have no reason to show it. I thought that Windmill Village was like the only thing on the island or something. If anything the island just had small villages dotted all over the island. Makes you wonder about the other islands that we visited during the East Blue Saga. Makes you wonder.

Now let take a look at the symbol that is on the wall in High City. That symbol could be seen everywhere in some form or way. Later on in the episode you could see that the cop had the symbol on his hat. It was a circle with three feathers coming out of it. That looks very similar to the symbol on the wall. Some people seem really proud of their kingdom.

I see what you did there!

Fine Dining Eiichiro. Hahaha I really wonder if that was going to be the name of the restaurant in the manga. I wonder if this is somebody way to tell us what they wanted to do incase a certain career choice didn’t work out too well. Haha

Interesting note about the pendent that Sabo showed to the owner of the restaurant (Beside it not being in the manga), that flower symbol could be seen on his belt buckle as well. Maybe it was just me but they were really trying to make us notice that symbol since I remember seeing it early in the episode. We then get to see it again as the kids were falling from the fourth floor of the restaurant.

 

Since Ace, Luffy and Sabo became friends, this flashback has had a very carefree and happy go-lucky feel to it. You are seeing Young Luffy acting more childish and you are seeing the three kids acting like kids. (If you minus the fact that they are beating up adults.) It has been really fun to watch the kids having so much fun such as dining and dashing.

Still this just means that we are only being set up for something bad. Whenever something good is happening in a flashback It only means that something bad is going to happen soon. Raising the mood so it will only hurt more when something bad happens. Brace yourself guys.

And here is the dashing part. Haha

Remember I mention that that pendent, well you can see that flower thing on Sabo’s belt buckle. We are slowly building up to something.

Also remember when I say that the Goa Kingdom symbol could be seen everywhere? Well in two of the images above you can see that symbol with a circle and three feathers. Yeah…Maybe not building up to something but it is something to notice.

I think it was here that I started to draw mustaches on characters as I was gathering screencaps for this post. It was passing the time. Apparently Ace, Luffy and Sabo look really good with a fine mustache. Heck even the guy that does have one could always use a longer one.

I should really consider uStreaming me getting screencaps. Would anybody be interested in that? Let me know in the comments. I see what I can do. Maybe it could happen.

 

So the news comes out. Sabo is the son of a noble from the Goa Kingdom.  Sabo ran away from home to live in the Gray Terminal because of his parents. That would explain the pendent and the belt buckle both matching. He apparently kept some of his clothes from the city and his things. At least the nice looking things.

Ace and Luffy’s reactions to Sabo’s reveal were funny though. They just took it as nothing and were about ready to move on. Haha Got to love friends who would see you no different after revealing something big about yourself. Friends that are willing to stick with you.

 

Sabo has the most disgusting parents in the world. I say it right now. I hate parents who try to push their kids to do things that they want instead of letting the kid do what they want. They pushed Sabo to study all day just so he can get married with some girl from the royal family so they can be happy. What is worse is that they were trying to convince Sabo that their happiness would make him happy.

“They loved those who can maintain their status and defend their property.”
-Sabo

It is a disgusting thing to know that your parents care more about ‘status’ and ‘property’ then their very own son. Sabo was crying and in pain after having to defend himself from a noble kid with a knife and all his mother cared about if the noble kid was hurt. She even offered to send him to a doctor to treat the kid’s wounds. That is after she slapped her own kid. Showing no respect for her own kid who is now crying right behind her back. Sabo dad is just as worse.

Still it would seem like Sabo’s dad wants Sabo back. Maybe he feels bad that his son ran away from home. That would be nice of him but who knows.

Somebody. I dare you to make the image above your computer’s wallpaper.

Yeah…Sabo’s mom has a scary face. Even when she is pissed her face looks scary. She looks deranged and crazed in every scene we see her in. One of her eyes is a bit off as well so that doesn’t help. Her left pupil is slightly lower than the other if you look closely. My gosh if Oda wanted to create a parent that was derange and crazy then he has succeed.

I don’t want to see this lady anymore. Please let us not see this lady again.

Happy Sabo! Look at how happy Sabo is! Away from parents who want to make him into something he doesn’t want to be.

Sabo running away to see the people in the Gray Terminal would explain why he decided run away to that place. The Gray Terminal doesn’t look that great of a place but when you hear of tales about how much fun they have on adventures then it seems like paradise to a kid. I kind of find it funny that none of these men tried to jump Sabo for any money he may have but then again it seems like anybody living on this island that isn’t from Windmill Village are idiots.

I think I see something here. Kids who were force by their parents to be a certain way seem to be happier when they are away in a place where their parents have much less control over them. Not sure if it is true but it makes sense. It is when they see or talk to their parents that they seem to feel bad.

Sabo on the other hand seems to have break away from his parents and now is much happier doing whatever he wants to do.

So now we have a tale of three kids. Each one of them wants to become pirates in order to be as free as they can be. They each have their own reasons to become pirates but the root of it all is to be free. Sounds familiar to what a certain straw hat wearing kid has been saying recently?

I am beginning to wonder how much Luffy wants to be Pirate King. He hasn’t mention this in a long time yet recently he been preaching more about being free as we saw back in Saboady. Notice how we didn’t hear what Luffy wanted to say when he was on that cliff. Maybe Pirate King is just Luffy’s way to become free since as he said before, “The King of the Pirates is the freest person in the world” or something like that. If anything ‘being free’ and Pirate King just happen to be the same thing and Luffy really wants to be Pirate King more.

An interesting thing to ponder about.

If anything it was funny to see Ace and Sabo’s reaction to what Luffy said. Haha We may not have heard what Luffy said but apparently it was something big that they didn’t expect him to say. Apparently Luffy is going to do something that will shock the world. Haha Surely we are in for an interesting adventure. Haha

This part of the episode was amazing. We finally get to see how Ace and Luffy became brothers. It also seems like they were part of a trio with Sabo as the third. Very sneaky since we have seen part of this scene during the Marineford Arc but we never saw the third cup. Still if you want to look back at the scene then it would seems like there was  a shadow next to the two cups that looks like a third. Something that could easily be skipped if you weren’t looking or expecting it. Haha

So the bond of brotherhood has been made. Ace, Luffy and Sabo are only brothers in pact but apparently they are going or have developed a bond that could be stronger than one in blood. A bond that will forever remind each other of the others no matter where they are when they are at sea.

Too bad this won’t be true for one of them. Still for now this was a great way to end the episode. A touching moment between three kids who believe in each other. Now we just need to see how this is going to hurt.

Preview

So next week we have more fun with Ace, Luffy and Sabo as they run around the city and give Dadan heart attacks. It seems like they are using Luffy in some form or way but who knows.

To tell you the truth, next week's episode looks to be mostly if all filler. The preview only seem to have one scene that I recognized from the manga. I don't know what to make of this episode really. It could be good. It could be bad. So far Toei has been doing a good job in making up filler as we seen in the last few episode. So maybe making a full episode based on one thing in the manga could work? Who knows. If anything they are trying to pad out this arc.

We can only sit and watch what could be a good episode. If anything it has been fun watching kid Ace, Luffy and Sabo doing stuff. So I am expecting something like that for next week.


Next Episode: Leaving the Dadan Family!? The Secret Base is Complete!

Come back next week and see what we thought of the episode!

Also at the time of this post posting it is May 5th which happens to be Monkey D. Luffy's birthday. The hero of this awesome story! So Happy Birthday Luffy! To another great year of adventure!