Be there. (I was!)
First Thoughts
I confused dates and I forgot that the new opening was not playing this week, but debuting next week. Oh well, I was almost the first to review the new opening. However, next weekend may be the true beginning of the New World Saga, but important points will be shown in this episode. Big events are occurring, if only to part the waters to the New World. It will be really cool to see the next episode, nonetheless.
Summary
Luffy says farewell to Jimbei, vowing to meet again at Fishman Island in 2 years.
Rayleigh takes Luffy to the island Ruskaina, an overgrown island ruled by beasts. He states that there are currently 500 beasts tougher than Luffy, and he begins teaching the boy about Haki and controlling this power.
Placing his trusty straw hat on the only "safe zone" on the ancient island, Luffy swears to become stronger. With excitement on his mind and confidence in his healing heart, the rubber man bounds off to begin his training for the New World, and for the future reunion of his scattered crew.
Thoughts
I have a confession to make. I stopped by the library a few days ago to pick up a light novel for the week, and ended up reading the Shonen Jump with the chapter animated in this episode. So I know what will happen in the first 10 minutes or so of the episode. I hate when I spoil myself (yes, that was a pun.)
Farewell to the First Son of the Seas
I am sad to see Jimbei go, he is awesome. Luffy, at least, will see him again when he goes to Fishman Island. I am not aware what occurs later in the story, I am basing my prediction on Luffy’s promise to Jimbei. I did not receive hints for this, of course not. What do you take me for, a person who sits around with a guy, listening to events from the manga all day? Oh wait, that was me, all of last year. Oops.
That was a wise thing for Luffy to say to Jimbei. It was strange; coming from Luffy the phrase felt so much different, because he is usually so immature. I like the little smile Jimbei has afterwards. It is really a cute smile.
I don’t think about it often enough, but the Kuja only like Luffy and Rayleigh, don’t they? I suppose they respect Jimbei now, and only tolerated the Heart Pirates because they treated Luffy, but it never struck me how strange it should feel that these hostile pirates are so cordial with men now.
Training for 2 Years on the Overgrown Island of Beasts
I feel bad because I know what is going to happen next. Ah, the burden of knowledge. I will never be able to read the manga again after this. Ruskaina is a pretty sounding name, and the island is a marvel of nature with rising columns and strange platforms.
It is strange seeing Hancock acting shy and meek around Luffy. She is rather decent, until someone tells her she can’t do something. Rayleigh does this and ignores anything funny we would notice.
Now Hancock is keeping track of the number of times Luffy says her name. I like the animation of her imagination about her “engagement” to Luffy. This is funny stuff right here. I have to give this one to Granny Nyon though: why has it gone from “marriage” to “engagement”?
Here we see abuse of an old man. Ah, society nowadays, allowing such travesties to occur.
I love this scene so much; my love cannot be expressed in words. This is the only time I have ever seen Rayleigh cornered or in discomfort. If only the Marines had thought of using Hancock to capture Rayleigh! All she has to do is pinch his nose really hard. Such is the awesome power of women. Of course, if the reason is to help Luffy, Hancock will relent and allow Rayleigh to ban her from the island for the next 2 years. Such is the suffering she must face.
Hey, that tree looks just like the tree in the 14th Opening. I didn’t know what that was, I thought it might be a big rock or monument, but this is probably it! I wonder why animals stay away from it.
This is an amazing old island. It’s not dinosaur-infested like Little Garden, and it is not full of history like Upper Yard held for the Shandians. I would love to be there having Robin translate the history for me.
Already that boy smells adventure. He is back to acting a lot like his old self, which I suppose is a good sign, but at the same time I still worry for him.
This situation sounds a lot like Sanji’s predicament. He also can’t sleep at night for fear of the Okamas getting him. Of course, Luffy’s is much less deadly than that; Luffy only has to put up with the threat of 500 deadly beasts after his flesh at all hours. It’s not a big deal. Nothing compared to rampaging Okamas.
Luffy asks an intelligent question. He is becoming more perceptive. This is a good thing; it means he is adapting to his environment. Of course, I already know what Rayleigh is about to say. It is pretty awesome.
This is the scene in the Manga where I stopped reading; when Rayleigh describes the “colors” of Haki. I am excited to learn more about it; I stopped spoiling myself after I read halfway into the man’s explanation, realizing what I was doing and I panicked. One question remains before I continue: How does such a huge elephant have such skinny legs?
I have been hoping that Rayleigh would explain Haki to Luffy for some time now, and I am really thrilled to get my wish. I am curious about this power, and it is one of the only bits of knowledge I did not learn from my (*cough* evil) friend. He didn’t pay attention to the explanations, only the fights. What a silly guy.
Observation Haki must be the Haki that Coby just discovered! That is a very exciting discovery. It just gets better and better.
I feel as though the elephant may be playing a game of Whack-A-Mole, and failing. It is funny to imagine it this way. It did worry me however when Luffy attempted to attack the beast in Second Gear and nothing happened.
Luffy remembers things like this in the past that were unexplained, such as Sandersonia’s method of knowing where his kick would be, and then the surprise appearance of other Haki users in Luffy’s flashback.
It was remarkable when I read this yesterday at the library, and I saw Eneru using Haki. Of course, in Skypeia everything is different, so they call it Mantra. It is wicked cool to see the Sky Island again.
I had forgotten until this moment, but Rayleigh went to Skypeia too, didn’t he? Roger even found the golden bell, and left a note in Poneglyphs. I still wonder what their motives were. Roger is such a mysterious (or just crazy) man, that I can never figure him out. At least Luffy is rather simple, so I can guess what he will do most of the time. Roger however, is more complicated than that.
Armament Haki was the one I did not read about. So that is what all those folks were using when they were able to injure Luffy, or when they blocked his attacks? That is intriguing. With this power, a person can attack a Devil Fruit user with ease.
Luffy is progressing much faster than I had expected today! He has already remembered Akainu, Rayleigh’s kick to Kizaru, and his inability to defeat Smoker or Aokiji in connection with his understanding of this ability. This is very impressive, and I like where this is going. If Luffy finally gets an ability to stand and fight with anyone, then that would protect his friends really well.
When Rayleigh unleashed the final rare form of third Haki, just like Shanks, Hancock, and Luffy have before, I was stunned. It was really startling, even if I knew what happened when that power was used.
Conqueror’s Haki, the power to intimidate your enemy. Of all the Haki powers, I think that would be the most useful.
Oh, I hadn’t thought about the negative effects of using the Conqueror’s Haki. I never thought the innocent people around Luffy that could get hurt.
Aisa and Eneru were both mentioned by Luffy. That is extremely important. To reference a past character implies that they will play a role in the future. Foreshadowing is awesome. Of course, because I really enjoy the little one-panel comics that tell side-stories in the manga chapters, I know what is going on with Eneru (even if I do not approve of it), but hearing Luffy mention Aisa is phenomenal. I mean, if this is canon, this could cause quite a stir to bring back a character like her. I would enjoy it immensely, if only for the conflict that would follow.
As they sit around the campfire, eating meat and chatting, I realized something. First, this is just like when Luffy was a kid with Ace and Sabo, beating up and challenging monsters in the forest and strengthening their skills. Of course, this time Luffy doesn’t have his brothers, and he does not have 10 years to train for fun, but he does have a coach from Roger’s crew to help him out. The second thing I realized is that the allusion to Skypeia is really ironic, considering that the last time Luffy sat around a campfire eating meat in an overgrown jungle of giant beasts, surrounded by decrepit old buildings, he was in Upper Yard in Skypeia. These references to Skypeans and Shandorians are fun.
I didn’t know Luffy knew that word, let alone that he would do something like this. The 14th Opening makes more sense now!
I’m leaving things here so they are kept safe.
I am witnessing a life-changing moment in this series. Just like when they rode up a mountain to get to the Grand Line, and just like the beginning of the series. This is such a huge moment! The coloring and animation here is gorgeous as well, and of course the musical piece playing in the background is a timeless classic from the earlier arcs of the series
It is strange, but at that moment Luffy thinks of his nakama, I suddenly missed them too. It was strange feeling what Luffy was feeling at that moment. I am eager to see them together again. They have been apart longer than ever before in the series, and I am relieved to see they will get back together (hopefully) next episode.
Training montage! I love montages, and this one is exceptional. I like how much time is devoted to Robin and Zoro especially, but this whole thing is so exciting! They are playing “We Are,” the original version, the 1st Opening theme song. Next week we move onto the 15th Opening, a new rendition of the original opening. This is going to be the biggest event of 2011, I am certain of it. Wait, that funky guitar solo at the end there is mysterious and awesome.
Final Thoughts
Now, on to the New World! Goodbye to Luffy and his crew as we knew them and hello to the future. This is a moment people will remember, “a day marked...” not in infamy, but hope. Greatness will be the word used to describe this day years from now. Even if this is only the anime version, this is where the New World finally comes to life, no matter if the manga already depicted this one year ago.
We. Are. Going. To. New. World.
Go to New World.
Sora, I believe you and I have gone through very similar ordeals. I have a friend whose been spoiling the show for me since I became a fan last year. He pretty much gave away all the biggest moments of the War back when I was still in season 3. I ended up going through the next 300 episodes knowing exactly what would happen to Ace. It was lame.
ReplyDeleteI am going to miss Jimbei too. He kind of was like a Fishman Uncle Iroh (sorry, I'm a huge fan of Avatar The Last Airbender. Love that show.) Though, I have a feeling we may see him sooner than we think. (After all Fishman Island is not too far away.)
It is kind of interesting that they kept bringing up the Sky Island arc this episode. I think the point behind it is was too really show us the viewers how important that arc of the story became. Back while I was watching it, it wasn't technically bad, but it did kind of feel like a lull in the story, namely because it was sandwiched between Alabasta and Enies Lobby, two vastly superior arcs.
Through the course of this last hundred episodes, I have come to adore Hancock. She is probably one of my all time favorite characters. Yeah yeah, I know what your thinking: "A GUY... a 23-year-old healthy single guy... really likes Hancock? OMG, I wonder why?" Yeah yeah I get it, now lets get our heads out of the you know what and let me explain. I adore her because her emotions feel very real and genuine to me. When she expresses love, she grows shy and has fantasies of what she wishes she could say. She's not like Sanji, whose eyes turn into hearts and he lollygags around like an idiot, and we're suppose to believe that's true love. No, when Hancock says she Loves Luffy, I whole heartedly believe it, she's crazy for him.
Likewise for when she's angry. Unlike Nami, who is constantly growing shark teeth and screaming at the top of her lungs, I can tell when Hancock is pissed just by looking into her eyes. Remember that look she gave Smoker back at the war? Good god that was scary. Scary but awesome?
It also helps I am a huge fan of Snakes. They are fascinating creatures and the mythologies surrounding them across the world are intriguing. If I could pick any animal character on One Piece to be my pet, it would be Hancock's pet snake Salome. He's just so cool.
Well, it took 12 years and 516 episodes, but it finally happened. Toei has successfully animated and aired the entire first half of Eiichiro Oda's masterpiece. I look forward to discussing a whole new chapter of this epic tale with you guys in the future.
See you in the New World.
Roger Gus Townson Jr.
(I swear, that is my real name.)
I feel your pain. Well, luckily for me Ace’s fate was the one major spoiler he did not give me. Ace was the whole reason I read ahead of the anime for the first time, and so I did a lot of research of my own up until the day the chapter was published with his actual death in it. I knew through my activities online from the blog, UnofficialOnePiecePodcast, and Twitter what had happened. It was everywhere, so I really couldn’t help but hear. I Could, however, deny it until I actually saw it occur, like 100 episodes later in the anime, and it was almost as excellent as having no spoilers at all. Almost. Still, I have convinced him to stop telling me spoilers for the big three anime, and now I am almost spoiler-free.
ReplyDeleteI love Avatar: The Last Airbender. I swear I have seen every episode over 3 times (including the final four episodes, and the hardcore-fan view that the live-action movie was butchered).
I always like talking about the Sky Island arc, because of how important it was in my One Piece career. First off, I have a strong suspicion that they showed a lot of Sky Island scenes because either the Sky Islands are going to play a role in the upcoming series, or some of those characters are going to make re-appearances later on. I noticed that the animators like to do a sort of “refresher” every once in a while to make sure the audience does not forget those characters earlier on in the series, especially around or a ways before the time when they are due to re-appear.
Secondly, you are not alone in your feelings over Sky Island, as it is routinely shown in polls to have been the least-popular canon arc in the series so far. Apparently people just don’t associate pirates with sky people, particularly after they had just been tromping around a desert, a very un-piratey location for a pirate tv series. I read an article about that about 2 years ago.
Finally, Sky Island is really important to me in that I watched the 4Kids dub on Toonami every night until it was cancelled, right in the middle of the Sky Island arc. I waited over 4 weeks to see if it would appear back on tv, but it never did. That is when I really first discovered the power of the internet. I denied it at first, sticking to my ideals of One Piece as I knew it (Sanji with a Brooklyn accent~), but I needed my One Piece, so I caved and began watching online as soon as I could locate a decent site. From there, it was history.
I agree with you whole-heartedly on Hancock. She is undoubtedly awesome.
Hard to believe, eh? The epicness continues yet.
Sora Tayuya
(This is my *maybe* real name, *maybe*)
You know I have never actually watched the infamous 4Kids Dub of the show, but I think I've seen enough from MarzGirl's video's from ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com to know just about everything there is. So, Sanji had a Brooklyn accent? Any chance it was the same guy who played Joey Wheeler in the 4Kids dub of Yu-Gi-Oh, which I did watch as a kid?
ReplyDeleteI am however, in the middle of going trough the Funimation Dub with my brother, trying to get him to watch the show (he's young and picky, so he refuses to watch anything in Japanese), and I basically like to call it, "The Cast of Dragon Ball Z and Full Metal Alchemist as pirates." Because that's pretty much what it is: Luffy is Gohan, Zoro is Picoolo, Sanji is Trunks, Usopp is Krillin, Nami is Wrath, Vivi is Winrey, Ace is Mustang, Buggy is Radidz, Arlong is Hurcule, Fleet Admiral SenGoku is Fiurer Bradly, and so on, and so forth.
After all, this is Funimation, who seem to recycle the same 20 voice actors (half of which sound like staff members who aren't real professional voice actors) for every single show they dub, and seeing as they pretty much now have a monopoly on anime localization, it's gotten really old.
But enough of that.
As for the subject on Sky Island, I actually thought that arc was the most pirate themed of all the arcs so far. There was a hunt for gold involved, and some nice touches of mystery and discovery involving the island, and how they combined the map of Skypeia to that of Jaya and notices how they were once connected. It was also the first appearance of the ship repairman spirit. All that pirate stuff was great. The real reason the arc lacked for me was because I felt like it overshot itself.
First of all, it tried to set up this huge conflict involving this war between the Shandorians and the Priests, much like the war between the rebels and the royals in Alabasta before it. Problem was I wasn't anywhere near as invested in this conflict as I was back at Alabasta. The big difference between the two was, I believe, Vivi. We spent the whole earlier portion of Season 2 going on other advetnrues with Vivi, getting to know her, understanding her grief and concern for her nation, and by the time we got there, we shared her pain.
In the case of Skypeia, we're just dropped smack dab in the middle of this conflict, and Oda is trying to get us to care about these characters as they are going into battle, and it just wasn't happening. In fact, it was so rushed, that he actually had to stop the entire plot right in the middle of the climax to give us a history lesson so we know what the heck everything's suppose to mean. I'm not saying it was a bad piece of history, just very awkwardly placed.
My second problem with the arc was the main villain, Eneru. He just wasn't as intimidating a foe as they kept making him out to be. Why? Well because despite the fact that he is probably one of the most powerful people on the planet, it was too predictable what his power was going to be. And as soon as we figure out he's a lightning man, our mind immediately goes, "Oh... well Luffy's made of rubber, which is lightning's natural weakness, so yeah, nothing to worry about."
Honestly, I have to admit that it took me a good 3 or 4 months to warm up to the "true" Japanese One Piece once I had to watch it all online. I actually considered to stop watching One Piece for a while (yeah, like 10 minutes). It was for a stupid reason too: I liked the English voices, and thought that I would be too distracted reading Subs to watch the show. I didn't like how much blood they showed (you see, I missed out almost the whole Arabasta arc in 4Kids because I was gone that summer, so I had to watch it for the first time last Spring), I didn't like all of the cursing the Subs would put in (fansubs mainly), but mostly what irritated me was the stupidest reason of all. Sanji's smoking. I really, and I mean Really, loved his lollipop, and was disgusted to find that in the Japanese original version he had a cigarette, so I boycotted the show...for like 2 weeks. Then I broke down and watched it like a mad person.
ReplyDeleteI love talking about my experiences with One Piece, but I tend to rant since my stories are so fun I love telling folks them.
Skypeia will always have a special place in my heart, even if it is the reason my one friend who watched One Piece with me every Saturday stopped liking the series. She said it was, "too random and off topic from pirating". I disagree, but that was her choice at the time. Gods, that was so long ago now. But hey, when I found out about Eneru, I decided I hated his guts, and screamed (near) profanities at the screen when he came on. Too all powerful and boss to my liking, which is why I seriously dislike what he is doing on the Moon right now...