Archive for February, 2012

Decken’s true motivations are revealed, much to the surprise of the citieznry.

What They Say:
Vander Decken finally catches up with Shirahoshi, but he’ll have to deal with Luffy first, before he can get to her! Meanwhile Camie and Nami, having escaped the Ryugu Palace, are on their way to the Sea Forest, where Nami hopes to meet Jimbei – hoping to find some answers!

The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the various events starting to finally come together in this arc, One Piece has been slowly but steadily gaining momentum as it’s gone on here. The arrival of the Fish-men Pirates to the palace definitely got things rolling and having the princess escape and meet up with others now on the outside so she can have a bit of an adventure herself is another good element, especially since it brings Luffy back in hand with most everyone. But it also goes for some good, solid action as we get to see Zoro take on Hordy, underwater no less, and that just has you wanting to see how it will all play out.

And that area is just completely up in the air as the princess being out in the world amongst others from this area has them rallying to her side and seeing Luffy as a threat. But even worse is the sudden arrival of Decken who just wants to marry her, which is comical considering he’s “been throwing weapons at her” for ten years as the citizens know. What helps is that the princess gets a good word in here that sets the mood and really gets Luffy fired up to help her, as well as letting the other Straw Hats know what’s going on and why they need to back him up. It’s fun to see Luffy get into SecondGear mode here and stand firm with something serious as most of what we’ve seen so far in this arc has been kind of lighthearted and loose on his part, more of an adventure than something serious.

The episode does a lot of moving around with what’s going on here and the focus is stronger on Luffy and those around him with the princess, especially as Chopper gets to serve as an observer of sorts for it to know what Luffy is doing and why. But there’s also some fun to it as Luffy really gets energized, even if playing it straight and serious, and that helps a lot. The others aren’t ignored though as we do get some mild movement with Nami as she makes her way to where she can help next and we also get a little more time between Zoro and Hordy, a section that we really want to see more of. The main focus is on Luffy though and that’s not bad as Decken really does deserve a little time to be dealt with first.

In Summary:
One Piece has a decent episode here as it starts to tie things together a little bit, but it hasn’t really gone all out at this point. There’s a lot of stuff going on but it focuses primarily on that of Luffy and Shirahoshi as they deal with the citizens who think Luffy’s kidnapped her and then with the realization that Decken is trying to steal her away. It’s a good moment for Luffy to be able to try and position himself as doing the right thing by the princess with the populace, but after what’s happened at the palace, it’s a hard sell. There’s things to like here but it’s again one of those episodes that’s more about placement and setup than the big moments. It teases, and does it well, but it doesn’t provide a knockout episode.

Grade: B

Readers Rating: [ratings]

Streamed By: FUNimation

Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.

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