Anime: Post Marineford Arc- Episode 509

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First Thoughts 
This episode had a lot of cool things to look at. Zoro himself is cool to watch and add a bit of Mihawk and Perona you have a party! Then we have Brook who is always a riot.

To tell the truth, I so really enjoyed watching this episode the first time around but it does not seem to do well in reruns. Either way it was a fun episode to watch as we get bits of information here and there via Mihawk.

Summary
Mihawk gives Zoro a boat to help him return to Sabaody.

The Humandrills proceed to keep Zoro from advancing to the shore.

Brook empowers the people of Hungeria to fight the kidnappers from the Longarm Tribe. The kidnappers were defeated but ended up abducting Brook.

Luffy decides to return to Marineford based on Rayleigh's suggestion.

Thoughts

Mihawk is Bring Sexy Back
The episode starts off at Mihawk's castle which surely has a 'vampire' feel. He and his new guest that can control ghosts make the castle a haunted house. Until a few months ago I never noticed the vampireish design and vibe that Mihawk emits whenever he is on the screen. My mind was always thinking about how his name that fits in with the animal theme that the Warlords had. Also, there is the fact that he carries a freaking huge black blade on his back. After seeing Mihawk in his home environment, it is now clear that he has some Dracula-esque inspiration in his design.

Keep Perona at that castle and it would seem like Oda is trying to create another thematically gothic horror based area within the world of One Piece. “Nightmare Before Christmas” style setting, grand castle, scary animals, vampire-like owner, and ghosts. All we need now is a Frankenstein.

Really liking the hollows here. Good job on animation here.

Seems like we learn a bit about what happen to our jolly friend Moria, and it seems like he was killed during his interaction with Doflamingo and his Pacifista friends. Or is that what the newspaper and/or World Government want us to think? (Editor’s Note: the World Government lied to the newspaper about Gecko Moria and told them that he died in the battle.) It is true that Moria did not look too good but we have seen the guy stand up from just as much injury as in the past. Remember that he did get fairly bruised and bloody before going crazy in his rampage against Luffy and crew. Then even after getting beaten into submission by Luffy he was up for a fight at Marineford. Once there the guy did not have an easy time but he could hold his own. The question is whether he even stood a chance against an army of Pacifistas and the mysterious powers of Doflamingo.

Either way Perona is not taking the idea of Moria being dead too well. Sure she did not want to be there when things were going south back at Thriller Bark but apparently she cares for the big onion. I wonder what is her connection with Moria. She has been with him since she was a young child as can seen in a small flashback displayed for Hogback. It would be nice to see her back story one day.

In the meantime it seems like Mihawk has brought her some comfort. Not much since he does not seem to desire her friendship. At least he told her that Moria is maybe alive and the newspaper is lying. Then again, who knows? As Mihawk left Marineford once Shanks had arrived.

Hacking and Slashing with Zoro
Looks like Zoro is having a hard time at the moment as he tries to escape from The Nightmare Before Christmas. These baboons, now dubbed as Humandrills, have been causing him trouble. They are able to mimic people with precision muscle memory. Very scary, especially since it seems like they grew up around humans that were at war. The result of that war was that all the humans died and were never heard from again. This left the Humandrills to continue fighting for sport. Kind of interesting since we even have one that attempted to mimic Zoro's three sword style. This enemy alone does not seem much of a challenge for Zoro.

I do not remember this humandrill being in the manga. I know this 'fight' was not in the manga, but there could be a chance that Oda drew a humandrill wielding three swords. It is possible because Oda loves to put in little Easter eggs within his pages.

Some food for thought, fighting against these baboons could prove to be useful to Zoro in training. They are all very strong and if he does defeat them then he could become stronger. Still Zoro is not fighting to become stronger nor is he in the best shape. His top priority is to return to Luffy.

 

I have to give my props to Toei for reanimating the fight between Mihawk and Zoro. They look very nice and much better than the strange looking horizontal bars they used to make the old animation fit in the new TV ratio. The reanimation looks very nice and is a good extra to see. To be honest we all know that they could have just done what they mostly do, which looks kind of bad.

And this is where we leave off with Zoro. A cliffhanger! This turn of events does not look too good for Zoro seeing how his swords are now flying in the air. I wonder what has happened to the guy. He was not doing too well before challenging the humandrills and most likely wo not be in the best of shape after that last attack. I wonder who will save Zoro from from the onslaught of attacks: Mihawk or Perona?

Also I should mention, we seem to be lacking a lot of Perona cleavage. Why Toei? You seemed pretty happy to be doing it a few months ago.

 

The Bare Bones
Brook's part of the episode was surely the more comedic. I, out of all people enjoy the comedy of Mihawk and Perona but they ca not hold a candle to Brook's.

To be honest, it was not as funny as what Franky gave us last week, but there is no way we can compare this episode to the grand masterpiece of last week's. Still, Brook gave it a try and did a good job. Watching the people run around like idiots posting the sheet music, believing they were talismans was kind of funny. When you think about it, Brook is doing this all for the panties. What a guy. haha

 

Then things start happening as Brook turns up the volume. (I should stop it with the jokes right?) I really liked that piece that Brook was playing on his violin. I not sure if we have heard this piece before. It sounds familiar but I ca not put my finger on it. Either way this tune is great and it not only got the villagers excited but it made me excited as well. That was pretty cool and I am not sure if the music was meant to do that. I wonder if anybody else watching this felt a bit excited as the people of Hungeria went into battle. They lost and needed Brook but I guess that was the charm of the humor here.

This was the best portion of Brook's part of the episode! haha I really love how he tried to scared the Long Arm tribesmen with his 'curse'. I wonder how Brook was able to make the blue flames. I should not worry about it too much, but you have to admit they are a nice touch. Really help makes things scary.

Then again, a talking and walking skeleton should be scary on its’ own.

The reason these guys were kidnapping the people of this country was because they only had one elbow. I am guessing that these guys do not get out of their kingdom much if they are amazed by people with one elbow. I wonder if Apoo is from the same place. Seems like people from this island do not get out much thus becoming a pirate is a rarity among the people of this land. That is only a guess since these people could bring in so many 'one elbow rarities' if they would only go out to sea.

And we leave Brook by watching him get carried off...by the people he tried to curse earlier. Well that cool moment did not last long. I am guessing that these guys are busy working on their next get rich scheme which must involve showing off Brook.

Funny last words from Brook. He starts off wishing Luffy well then yells out calling Luffy to help him. haha Good luck Brook.

Back at the Farm...
We seem to be getting more exposition over what Rayleigh suggested to Luffy.  What seemed to be suggested does not look like a popular idea. Hancock and Jimbei surely sound as if they are not fond of this idea. Luffy on the other hand is unsure. Still, the one thing that he is sure about is that he wants to be able to protect his friends.

All we know is that Rayleigh's idea of helping Luffy to protect his friends involves going to Marineford. This return to Marineford request seems like a strange request if we remember that we were just there almost twenty episodes ago. Does his plan involve Luffy getting captured? One idea I had was that he wants Luffy to disband his crew. That would surely suck since we have already spent almost 500 episodes with a crew that we have learned to love. Now Rayleigh wants Luffy to leave his crew behind? That does not sound cool.

Final Thoughts
The episode was great! I remember really enjoying it, but I did not get the same feeling while I was rewatching it for screencaps. In either case the episode was funny and I enjoyed seeing Zoro and Brook once again.

The news about Luffy deciding to return to Marineford surely is a surprise though. The announcement makes you wonder what Rayleigh has up his sleeve. I guess only time will tell.

Preview

Next week we see how Sanji is doing as he finally meets Ivankov. I wonder how this will go since both know Luffy. Will Sanji get Ivankov to help him out? Such help does not look like it will come to pass, as the two seem to be in heated combat.

We also see Robin in what looks like MUCH better animation compared to the last time we saw her. Strangely enough, we also see Chopper as well. Will they cut Robin's section of the next episode short in order to include Chopper as well? Not sure.

Next Episode: Sanji's Suffering - The Queen Returns to His Kingdom!

Till next time!

Written by: Mikey-san
Edited by: Dsaftler