One Piece Progress: Skypiea Saga

[Leafy]

lol I suggest watching like 10 episodes a day.

[Bacon]

Originally Posted by Devroux

I think it's right around the beginning of the Water 7 arc.

The trip to Enel's lobby is epic. 8D

[C4 Karura]

O.O. I apparently accidently erased about 70 reviews. Is there any way to undo edits?

[Devroux]

Originally Posted by Bacon

The trip to Enel's lobby is epic. 8D

*Enies

*snickers* >:3

Originally Posted by C4 Karura

O.O. I apparently accidently erased about 70 reviews. Is there any way to undo edits?

You click on the link at the bottom of the post and compare it to the older version. Copy and paste the version right before the edit. If you need me to do it, I can.

[Bacon]

SHUT UP DEV

Why you play league ;_;

[C4 Karura]

Uh... What link? On second thought, you should probably just do it yourself. But thanks for saving all of my work!

[Bacon]

"edited by", that's the link dev was talking about. If its your own post, you can click it and compare your old edits.

[C4 Karura]

Ok, I'm comparing. What do I have to click to change it back to the older edit?

[Bacon]

Copy your old version and paste it

[Devroux]

That's the best I could do with just copy/pasting. Reordering and retyping what I couldn't fix is up to you. Better losing only half a review than several full ones. Sorry.

[C4 Karura]

Actually, I think you got everything. Thanks! My iPad was being wierd and not letting me copy the whole thing. :/

[C4 Karura]

Episode 180: This episode started with a conversation between three Angel Children about how one of their dads is a "Divine Soldier," one of those redshirts who's been dropping like flies for ten episodes. The Little Angel Boy talked about how he's heard from his mom how much of a brave soldier his dad is, and how much he can't wait to finally meet his dad. A little sad, since all of those guys have died, but it would've been better to place this scene (the sole reason given so far to care about the Divine Soldiers) before we saw them fighting for 10 episodes. Then I might've been at least a little moved by these guys dissapearing behind Stock Explosion Animations.

Also, Enel's master plan was revealed, lowering my respect for his character's intellegence even more. In Skypiea, Vearth (soil from the ground blown into the sky) is rare and worth as much as gold. So what's he going to do? Take all that Vearth down to Earth to make himself rich. Except Vearth is worth nothing down there. It's like taking a mountain of gold on Earth and travelling to a planet entirely made of gold. Without it's rarity, these materials are just soil and rocks. Seriously, it's like the writers didn't even try with this one.

Last, the guy who's actually the Rebel Redshirt Leader (not that Hot Rebel Redshirt who died-except-not-really in Episode 173), let loose that Chekov's Gun to attack Enel. I'd actually forgotten about Kairoseki, that "sea in stone form" Captain Smoker used 100 episodes back to Kryptonite Luffy's powers. I suppose that is pretty much the only realistic way someone would be able to defeat someone who can transfrom into lightning, but I'm confused how the Rebels would know of it's power. After all, Skypiea has been kept a seperate society from the rest of the world for hundreds of years, with no one but Enel posessing Devil Fruit powers. And no one even knew he posessed those until this day in the timeline. How would the Rebels even be aware of what Devil Fruits were, let alone that Kairoseki would neutralize them? I know, I know, I'm demanding way too much logic from a show like "One Piece," but if I'm gonna take a few hundred hours of my life to watch this show, I'd like for them to at least keep the major details of their mythology consistent.






Episode 179: With all of the Redshirts and Henchman dead, and almost all of the remaining characters gathered on the same block in Shandora, "FLAW" finally turned off this week. And that was apparently all this series needed to finally start moving into epic territory. I'm actually genuinely excited to see Nico Robin, Zolo, Gan Fall, and Wyper take on Enel next episode. Still, I'm confused as to how the writers could possibly fill 16 more episodes with this storyline. After this Four v. Enel fight, pretty much the only thing left will be the Luffy v. Enel fight. I'm worried I'm gonna have to suffer through a lot of generic shots of the Angel People fleeing their city for 10 episodes. I really hope I'm wrong.






Episode 178: Well, that Zolo fight is finally over. His fans probably loved it becuase he got a new attack, but since I'm not a fan and all of his attacks look the same to me, I was just glad it was over. After that, it was time for THE RETURN OF NICO ROBIN. She's so badass, she manages to make Enel seem a little badass by extension. Meanwhile, the last of the Nameless Redshirts (both Rebels and Goats) finally died, so hopefully we can stop getting five interchangable cut scenes of them fighting every episode. And for all of Zolo's inner monologues about how he must rescue Nami from that snake, he's now spent 40 minutes waiting around and slowly beating the Prophet instead of doing anything about his crew mate being digested. (Sidenote: It bugs me more than it should that Zolo can apparently do Kim-Possible-level-Kung Fu without those three giant scabbards on his hip ever getting in the way of his flips. Why not just take them off?)




Episode 177: I'm going to quote extensively from the Comics Curmudgeon here, because he explains it better than I ever could (http://joshreads.com/?p=8659#mary): "A comic panel is, when you think about it, a curious way to convey narrative: although it’s tempting to think of it as a single frozen moment, panels with dialogue do depict a certain amount of time passing, and so each of the motionless characters must occupy a particular instant within the interval that the panel contains. In today’s panel two — which, I hope I don’t need to say, is the most wonderful thing anyone will show you today — Dr. Jeff still bears the beatific expression of a man in the midst of a good uninterrupted bloviation, whereas Mary and Adrian’s looks of stricken horror indicate that they’re living in the moment after Jill’s drunken interruption ruined everything good, forever."

Indeed, while it's tempting to blame the ridiculously slow passage of time in anime on the writers stalling to avoid catching up with the manga (like that one time in Alabasta where the last 30 seconds before a bomb went off took 15 minutes), the manga itself does place a large number of conversations in moments that should only last a split-second. Imagine any of those times where you've seen a manga character jump to attack in one panel, followed by a panel of them and their Rasengan/Chidora/etc. two feet away from the shocked villain, giving a four paragraph long "Why You Suck" speech, followed by a panel of the villain being blown away by the attack. Logically, there's no way they could've been able to say all those things in the middle of a second-long sneak attack, but we don't think about that when we're reading a comic. Unfortunately, since anime puts everything into motion, it makes it really jarring when two characters suddenly freeze in mid-air to have whole conversations in the middle of one arm thrust. This arc, and anime in general, is rife with moments like that. It's an interesting trope you don't really see in any other genre.

Anyway, I basically wrote all this (my first three paragraph review!) becuase it's been on my mind for a while, and there was pretty much nothing to say about this episode. The last three straight episodes have ended with a cliff hanger proclaiming "Zolo v. Prophet!!!" is about to start, and I've yet to see any real attack from either of them. 18 episodes left...

[C4 Karura]

Episode 176: "Four Lines, All Waiting" ("FLAW") was in high effect this episode. Making it even worse, most of the Cameos were just the characters standing around and recapping what they've already been doing. Blond Angel? Still on the boat. Enel? Still sitting somewhere and cackling maniacally. Luffy? Still trapped inside a snake with no digestive system whatsoever. These scenes could've been cut with literally no effect on the story. I suppose there was some minor progress in that Zolo/Prophet/Old Guy/Rebel Redshirt battle, but it was hard to take it seriously as the life threatening battle it's clearly trying to be when they're straight up stopping the battle every few minutes to explain each of their moves to each other. And what was up with Rebel Redshirt trying to rescue Little Girl from Nami by firing a giant laser beam at them? If Nami wasn't a main character, that would've easily killed them both. It's probably not a good sign that I'm looking forward to the filler arc after Skypeia more than anything in the next 19 episodes.



Episode 175: Huh. I really didn't have that much of a reaction this episode. Not good, not bad, it basically just moved the characters in the direction they need to go to find their next battle. I suppose it's partly becuase One Piece follows what TV Tropes calls "Four Lines, All Waiting," where the show equally divides it's attention among a dozen or subplots, with no true "main" story. The 7 Straw Hat members are divided into 5 different groups/locations, which each have their own subplot (being trapped in a snake that looks like a cave, being chased by the Fourth Prophet, trying to keep a bird from stealing their lunch, etc.). There's also the five or so Redshirt Rebels with names who each have a certain goal. There's Enel. There's the Little Girl who senses people dying somehow. There's that Blond Angel and her dad. There's a bunch of Enel's henchmen that I can't remember at the moment. And each of these seperate groups usually make at least one appearance per episode. The problem is that now there's only time for one or two scenes from each group. It takes forever for any character to actually get anywhere when they're seen a minute an episode. It's getting better, with several of the Minors joining Nami on the Merry Go, but it's still frusterating to get only five seconds of Nico Robin in a whole episode.


Episode 174: OH MY GOD YES. I've said ever since I starting watching this show again (today) that all I really needed from "One Piece" was Nico Robin, walking around and being Nico Robin. Did this episode ever deliver. The first 10 minutes were basically just her taking her sweet time to beat the crap out of that Henchman I've been hating for a while now. Sure, he was a boring character and his only skill was being obscenely fat, but who cares when you've got Nico Robin snapping his neck while he falls off a 1000-foot cliff? (Which on this show has a 0% chance of actually killing him in any way whatsoever. A quick glance at the One Piece Wikia confirms that he does turn up alive and imprisoned later.) And after we got done with the fight, there was the Shandora reveal. Usually this show's ten-years-old animation quality just serves to distract from the story, but the animators got it right this time, actually making the city feel giant and awe-inspiring (as an Ancient City That Was Once The Center Of The World And Made Out Of Gold And Was Attacked In A Global Conspiracy By The Government To Erase A Century Of History And Then Blown 30,000 Feet Into The Sky should). And I loved the moment where flashbacks showed Nico (50 episodes earlier) desperate and distraught after 20 years of failure in discovering the truth of the Blank Century, ready to just die in the Alabastan tomb after she was stabbed by Crocodile, contrasted with the look of pure, giddy joy on her face as she kept on discovering more and more hidden sections of Shandora, more and more clues that could help her complete her journey on the Grand Line. Anime, at it's best, should make us empathasize with and feel for a character, and that's exactly what that scene did. I rip on "One Piece's" writing a lot, but that one moment of pure emotion has made the last 10 episodes of schizophrenic characters and poor decisions totally worth it.



Episode 173: Well, Nami fought someone. Did it match up to Ms. 1? Not even close. For starters, her enemy didn't have anything that could come close to Ms. 1's Spiky Murdering Boobs in terms of awesome wierdness. Instead, we just had Farting Hands. Did anyone actually find those things funny? The fight only lasted for about ten minutes. And half of that was spent on the enemies actually talking in the most obnoxious voices possible. Still, that final moment where Nami latched onto one of the Henchmen Who Weren't Actually Priests Despite What I Said Two Reviews Ago and blew the guy's head off with a Dial in her hand was bada** enough to make up for it. In another subplot, Rebel Redshirt Leader finally met his predictable death at the hands of Enel. Surprisingly, he actually made me feel a little sorry for him at the end. Once he realized that he truly couldn't beat Enel, he immeaditely set out to warn his friends instead of stubbornly denying it and attacking until time was up like a Secondary Anime Character usually would. And the look he got in his eyes as he realized that he couldn't escape Enel, and his friends were all gonna die becuase he didn't run away fast enough? Heartbreaking. Or at least it would be if I hadn't already seen 173 episodes of this show and know that he's gonna be discovered alive and happy somewhere down the road. (One last note: I was gonna call "Double Standard!" on the animators for spending half of Nami's fight with the camera pointed directed at her boobs. Then I realized they've been just as generous with shots of Sanji/Several Redshirts's abs and changed my mind. Why shouldn't the straight dudes get some eye candy too?)



Episode 172: Chopper fought somebody, which is always adorable. I just wish it hadn't been against such a generic opponent. None of the Priests are really standing out that much, but Swamp/Poison Gas guy is especially bad. After a whole episode of him fighting, I can't even remember his name. And even with the extra low bar by which I judge the intelligence of Enel's forces, I had to call BS when he knocked a bloody Chopper to the ground, stood on a tall rock next to Chopper planning his next attack... And then continued to stand perfectly still as Chopper spent 4 minutes climbing up to him to grab his shoe. At least there's only one Priest left. On the much brighter side, Nico Robin continued to be awesome while dropping more vague hints about Polygraphs and the Blank Century. This upcoming battle between her and Aonther Henchmen Who Isn't A Priest better last at least two episodes.


Episode 171: Huh. This episode was only about 40% filler, but I still ended up being bored. This time, it was becuase characters were making wierd, out-of-character decisions to help the writers get the plot moving where they wanted it. Let's start off with the most egregious storyline: Enel showing up on the Merry Go. Why did he go there? We never get any explanation whatsoever. He just pops on the deck, shocks Sanji and Usopp into unconciousness, tells Nami and Gan Fall that his master plan is to steal a bunch of gold that's on the island, and then leaves. Why did he do this? How could explaining his master plan to his enemies possibly help him? Besides that, he's already been in charge of the island for years. Why wouldn't he have taken it already? If that conversation doesn't eventually turn out to be a red herring Enel is using to throw the Straw Hats off course, I'm gonna be really annoyed with the writers. (And on a sidenote: Why didn't he just kill Sanji, Usopp, Nami, and Gan Fall right there? They're skilled fighters who have already taken out some of his top henchmen, and he's a merciless dictator who's been shown killing Innocent Townspeople for way less.) Ugh. It's hard to take this Saga seriously when it's big baddie is so colossally stupid. ...I was gonna take the time to pick apart the irrational behaviour in some other storylines, but I've already spent a full paragraph on Enel, and I don't want this review to go on for a full page. Suffice it to say that I'm annoyed there's still 24 episodes left in this storyline. The only bright spot was Sanji's and Rebel Redshirt Leader's abs being on full display the whole time to distract me. C4 like. (Oh, and here's really hoping that Nami pulling out her Clima Tact against the two Priests means she's finally gonna get another fight. Her last battle with Ms. 1 in Alabasta has always been my favorite.)



Episode 170: I find it amusing that literally everything I needed know from the previous episode was covered in the first two minutes of this episode. The only thing they left out was the explanation of the Dials as objects that can absorb all shock and then release it, and that's okay given that the writers have apparently already forgotten that and changed them into being generic dues ex machinas that will do whatever is needed for the current plot, whether that's being a bomb or making a cloud or allowing a character to Tragically Sacrafice themselves to defeat a villain. (That last one hasn't happened yet, but it's basically just a huge Chekov's Gun looming over the Redshirt Rebels, waiting to take their leader at a crucial moment.) Anyway, not much happened this episode either. There episodes reek of filler, and the anime writers taking one or two panels of Chopper Comedically Running away from nameless baddies in the manga and pointlessly stretching it out over five interchangable scenes. I suppose Zolo fighting with one of the Redshirt Rebels who's name might have been said at some point counts as plot happening, but it was so interchangable with any of his other battles that I spent most of the time glancing over at my Rosetta Stone lesson. It wasn't all bad, though: I finally remembered why I raved about Nico Robin so much in my old reviews. Cause she's a freaking bada**! While everyone else was wandering around and getting lost in the forest and fighting nameless baddies for five episodes, she proceeded immeaditely to the planned destination, took out her nameless baddy in ten seconds, and then casually started examing the ruins while wondering what was taking everybody else so long. I swear, I could watch 10 filler episodes of her just snarkily commenting on the other crew members.



Episode 169: Yes! I am back after 3 years! I kind of drifted away from manga and anime in general for a while there, but I'm starting to get interested again, and I figured there was no better place to start than getting caught up with one of the Big Three. Anyways: This episode was 70% a filler episode, with long tracking shots of people running/walking through the forest and recapping what they're doing (trying to kill Enel/trying to kill the rebels/trying to find the rest of their group). I suppose I'd normally be bored with that, but it definitely helped this time. The other 30% was: Old Guy giving a cool explanation for what "Dials" were, the Redshirt Rebels taking on one of the Priests and winning, and the leader of the Redshirt Rebels mistaking Luffy for an enemy in the episode's cliffhanger. I'm sorry if there are any fans of the Rebels out there, but I can't take them seriously as a threat when they're so transparently a copy of the last Saga's rebels (Kora and his followers in Alabasta). And since the rules of manga dictate that none of them stand a chance against the Saga's main villain, we're just gonna be left with 10 episodes of them slowly being picked off, possibly cultimating in the leader doing a "couragous last stand" against Enel before dying. (Although he'll turn out to be alive 100 episodes or so down the road because no one with a name on "One Piece" is ever truly killed.) I suppose it was fun to watch an anime episode again after so long, but it reminded of a few anime tropes that drove me away from the genre in the first place: the slow pace, the jerky animation quality, and sheer stupidity of certain villains. Here's hoping I enjoy the next few episodes more. (One last comment: My favorite scene was that minute with the Shirtless Cowboy of the Redshirt Rebels before he got cut in half. I mean, damn!)



Episode 168: Ok, I didn't put anything up for months becuse back in February the site I used just stopped working. As in, all the videos were gone. I tried every other site I could find, but they had all gotton the same problem. I assumed that Viz had deleted all the fansub sites online, since they were now (slowly) catching up on thier own site. I'd planned on just waiting for the Viz site to catch up to where I was, but at two episodes a week, it'd be past summer before they got there. So I decided to check the site I use today, and lo and behold, it now worked! (Admittedly, the video quality had gone way down. And there's that wierd glitch that's on all the fansub sites that makes the sound on all the episodes from halfway through the 160s to 168 get further and further behind the image of the video as it goes on.) Anyways, not much interesting happened this episode. (The sound being 30 second behind the video didn't help.) The Luffy team basically ran from a giant snake and got seperated (and it took around 7 minutes to happen, too, all with bad animation). The Ussop team got some Exposition (most of which we already knew) from Gan Fall. Wiper continued to go out of his way to make sure that everyone knows he's a bad guy. And Enel continued to talk diabolically to himself about his evil plans. Basically, everything that happened this episode couldn've been effectively told in a minute and a half. Instead, it was stretched out over 20. Here's hoping the Skypiea arc gets better.



Long, Long Break Between Updates: Feb. 13-May 29. But now I'm back!



Episode 167: After a string of semi-interesting episodes, this one got me interested in the arc again. Enel is finally revealed, and he doesn't seem at all annoying. The mystery of what he's really after actually makes him interesting. The other mystery, who that ghost-like figure that was repairing the Going Merry was, was good as well. Even though I already know who that is, for those without spoilers, it's something you will never guess. The day I've been mentioning finally came to a close, but the next one may take just as long as well, given that the Shandians are attacking, the Straw Hats have thier plan to escape in place, and Enel comments, "The festival (the wave of events that will happen that day, possibly including Enel's mysterious plan) is starting. It shall be magnificent. Today is a great day." (similar to Nico saying, "That's right... It's 7 o'clock. A long day is beginning," at the start of the day with Operation Utopia, which took almost a year in the manga). It's becuase of these extremely long days that even though One Piece has been released for over ten years, less than one year has passed in the storyline.



Episode 166: I was confused as to why Nami was wearing glasses at some parts in this episode, given that she's been able to see and read things just fine for the past 160 episodes. The arc continues to deal out unpredictable and intresting twists, with the revelation that Jaya and Upper Yard made a skull-shaped island back when they were together on the sea, solving the cryptic last words of Montblanc Cricket, revealed almost 20 episodes ago. The whole thing with the wolves was kind of annoying. We finally find out what Vearth is. The long, long day that started with the Straw Hats on the ground seems like it might finally end next episode.



Episode 165: A less impressive episode. Wiper is getting pretty annoying. When it looked like he and Luffy were about to fight, I was like, "Nooooo! It'll be boring and probably last a few episodes!" As it turns out, it was boring anyway. The Straw Hats finally found each other, but the last few minutes served as nothing but recapping.



Episode 164: Again, sorry I didn't update for so long. The Nami storyline in this episode was one of the greatest twists so for this arc. Although the fact that Upper Yard was a part of Jaya was one of the few spoilers I did know about the arc, I enjoyed it's revealing nonetheless. This episode also pointed out that this is the same day that started on Episode 151. That's one of the defining aspects of manga, that they can spend an obscene amount of time on the course of one day. Over in Naruto, at Chapter 479, it's still on the day that started in Chapter 456. The day that started back during Summer Vacation shows no signs of ending soon. It gets even more extreme regularly. (The day of Orochimaru's invasion, near the beginning of that series, lasted from Chapter 98 to Chapter 138, nearly 11 months of weekly release.)



Episode 163: Sorry, that I didn't have an update for so long. The site I use had a problem. For some strange reason, the audio was two seconds behind the video, no matter how many times I refreshed it. It was just annoying enough that I had to find a different site to watch it. The site I use is also filled with some pretty blatantly spam advertisments, so I have to be careful to not accidently click the mouse and open them. And, my one is one of the better fansub sites. That's why I'm so glad that the official companies are wising up, and making the series available, free online, themselves. There is one problem, though. For some reason, the quality is worse than on the fansubs (especially on the Naruto site). That will probably be solved within a few years, though, as it becomes cheaper to have high-definiton video on the internet. Anyway, this was an okay episode. Chopper finally stopped being flaky (somewhat). The end to the Satori fight was kind of dissapointing, though. Sanji going on and on about how he has to "rescue two beautiful girls" felt lame, and mildly sexist.



Episode 162: Chopper was good in this episode. Still, in the previous arcs, he was one of the stronger characters. Now, in the Skypiea arc, they're making him scared of everything, and unable to fight anybody. He actually argues that he's the weakest in the crew, when he clearly was not back in the Alabasta arc. That's not to say that his character isn't one of the best in the series anymore, but it's still such a change.



Episode 161: I'm mildly annoyed at the recurring joke where one of the guys, while swinging on a vine, decides to do a Tarzan yell, for some reason. I liked that flashback sequence where Nami, Usopp, and Chopper all argued that they were the weakest one in the crew. The fight with Satori is getting a little boring, though.


Episode 160: Okay, I've been saying "good episode" at the start, every time, since the Skypiea arc started. From now on, unless I say otherwise, it was a good episode. Anyway, I'm liking the Satori fight, but I was suprised when they said he was a guy. I really thought he was a girl! Besides his appearence and speech, one of the reasons I assumed Satori was a girl is becuase there's always at least one female in every group. Baroque Works has Ms. All-Sunday, Miss Doublefinger, and a ton of others. The marines in Lougetown had Tashigi. The CP9 has that girl who Nami beats. It's only in the earlier part of of the East Blue Saga, when every girl was flaky, that you would get all-male groups, like the Buggy Pirates, or the Baratie. I wonder why they didn't make a female villain for this arc.



Episode 159: Good, funny episode. I liked the scene that showed Chopper is still trying to prove himself to the crew, as he wonders if he'll be brave like them someday, and is glad they trust him enough to watch the ship while they're gone.



Episode 158: Wow. There hasn't been a bad episode yet, this arc. It seems like the Straw Hats are finally about to reach Upper Yard, which should be good. Plus, there's a huge twist about Gan Fall, near the end of the episode, that I totally didn't see coming. I know almost nothing about the Skypiea arc, so I'm really enjoying this. Unfortunately, I have a lot more spoilers on the two Sagas that follow, so I probably won't enjoy them as much.



Episode 157: Once again, a good episode. Although Luffy's been wanting a musician since the beginning of the series, this episode is the first time the need for a shipwright has been mentioned.



Episode 156: Another good episode. I was annoyed at the part where Conis went "damsel in distress" when the giant fish attacked, and had to be rescued by Zoro. If it had been any male characters, even Usopp, they would have tried to run out of the way, or something. But, nope, becuase she's a girl, she's going to stand there and scream in a high-pitched voice, so one of the male characters can jump in and save the day. Fortunately, the series makes up for this female flakyness later in the episode, when Nami decides to run down the Captain of the White Barets with the Waver, just becuase she's annoyed by the huge fine he's giving them. (Which was a pretty funny scene, by the way.)

[C4 Karura]

Episode 155: Again, a really good episode. This one introduced the four underlings of Enel. Even though I've gotten a lot of spoilers, I don't know what happens to these guys, so I'm actually going to be curious when thier fights' roll around.



Episode 154: This continued to be one of the best arcs so far. The cliffhanger leaves us with more foreshadowing on the "god" of Skypiea. Anyway, I've noticed something about the series. The girls are in general, way smarter than the guys. In this episode, Nami learns how to ride the Waver by herself in minutes, something which usually takes 10 years to do. A few episodes back, Robin catches the Southbird with ease, after everyone else has spent a few hours trying to get it. In general in the series, the girls are the ones who know things, like how to do this, or what exactly that thing is. In Episode 144, Robin is able to recreate a human skull from little fragments, and then figures out when and how they died, where they were from, what the ship they were on was, and a whole other c***load of stuff from just the skull. The men, on the other hand, are sent off to go bring more stuff for her to investigate, since they aren't able to help with something that requires knowledge. I've been noticing this for a while. Why do you think Oda makes every girl insanely smart, and then makes jokes about the men's semi-stupidity? (Mostly Luffy, but the other guys have clueless traits, too, like Zoro's absolute lack of direction.)



Episode 153: This was one of the best episodes of the series so far. The only problem with it is the the "Knight of the Sky" guy is a little annoying. I liked the part where Luffy and Chopper wondered what it was like to swim. The twist at the end is only making me more excited about the arc.



Episode 152: This was awesome. The part with Knock-Up Stream was incredible, and well worth the 9 episodes that built up to it. I liked the choice to have the first opening play in the background during the last few minutes. It has the same theme of setting off to explore an unknown sea. It was nice to see, after over 20 episodes, Luffy and Zoro finally find out about the increase in their bounties. Anyway, as for the Jaya arc, as a whole: It was alright. The villain wasn't that interesting, nor were most of the characters who were introduced in this arc (except for the Blackbeard pirates). However, almost any part that was foreshadowing or giving hints about Skypiea was cool and well-done, so I have a good feeling about the next arc.



Episode 151: This episode introduced a lot of important characters. Still, if you didn't already know who the characters were from the manga (or spoilers), it would be hard to keep track of them all. It was nice to see Bellamy finally get stomped. I'm really looking forward to Knock-Up Stream.



Episode 150: Well, the first half of the episode really lagged. In manga, unless supporting characters beat a villain immeadietely, you know they're going to lose, so the episode spends about 5 minutes where you wish the Bellamy Pirates would just leave, already. After that, it gets better. It was nice to see Robin catch the Southbird with no trouble at all, after averyone else had spent a few hours running around, looking for it. Also, the fight between Luffy and Bellamy begins in the next episode. I'm not really looking forward to the fight that much, but after the fight is over, the Knock-Up Stream part begins!



Episode 149: Another good-but-I-can't-appreceate-it-becuase-I'm-looking-forward-to-the-Skypiea-arc episode. The find-the-bird storyline looks to be interesting. I really enjoyed the part with Usopp, Nami, and Sanji. It was nice to see Usopp completely unfazed by the spiders and insects, while the other two freak out uncontrollably. I'm not too interested in the Bellamy storyline, but there's only three episode left in the Jaya arc, so I can live with it.



Episode 148: This episode was good in it's own right, but, more importantly, it's getting me really excited about the Skypiea arc. The "Liar Norland" thing was interesting, as well as the mystery of Sky Island, Jaya, and that mountain of gold. I enjoyed the part where Cricket said he had gold. Nami got her "greedy-money" face on, and Usopp told her, "Stop it. Stop it now." I was also liked that scene near the end with Mahawk. It's funny that some of the characters are like that. They'll disapear for 100 episodes, do a short scene, and then dissapear again for an unknown amount of time. I've pointed this out before when Smoker and Tashigi left at the end of the Alabasta arc, but this is even more extreme.



Episode 147: It was alright, but I'm getting bored with the arc, and want it to get on to Skypiea soon. This episode has the first mention of how the Going Marry is reaching a state of disrepair. I still don't get exactly why Luffy decided not to fight in the bar. I was dissapointed when Nami didn't beat the s*** out of Sarquiss after he asked how much it cost to buy her. Also, Shojo's character was annoying.



Episode 146: The Bellamy Pirates take center stage. The scene where Bellamy stabs that guy's hand, shoots him, lights him on fire, and then pushes him out a fourth-story window is severely edited. (He just grabs and crushes the guy's arm, instead of stabbing his hand.) This episode has the first mention of the "New Age", which is an important concept in the current manga. It also gives the first view of Blackbeard, who has been briefly mentioned and shown in shadowy form several times since the Drum Island arc, over 50 episodes ago. I was slieghtly annoyed with Nami's character at the end, though. While Luffy and Zoro have to keep themselves from fighting, she doesn't even try to stop the villains from beating the other two up. Even if she couldn't do anything against Bellamy, she could at least take care of the fodder underlings who are chucking drinks at them. But, nope, she she just stands by and watches them getting beat up.



Episode 145: It was good to see Buggy and Ace again, even if the scene was annoying at parts. It gave more foreshadowing on Whitebeard. Still, the scene with the huge figures was incredibly well-done. Even with all the spoilers I've gotten about the series, I actually don't know what those are, so I'm really curious about the Skypiea arc.



Episode 144: Pretty much the whole episode was incredble. I liked the part where Robin was telling about Sky Island, and explaining to Nami that the Log Pose wasn't broken, but was pointing up to Sky Island. The scene adknowledges the implausibility of an island in the sky, and becuase it admits that, you're are able to stop focusing on the implausibility of it, and look at the coolness of it instead. The speech Robin gives to Nami during the scene was very well-done. ("No, Miss Navigator. What you should think of now is not how to fix a broken Log Pose, but how you are going to get to the sky. No matter what bizarre circumstances your ship should encounter, no matter what panic should befall you, you must not doubt the Log Pose. That is an iron-clad rule. On this sea, if there is something to doubt, it's your own common sense. Where that needle points, you will find an island.") Also, this episode reminds people that she's an acheologist, as she recreates a skull from one of the dead bodies, and then deduces a whole ton of stuff from just the skull. The only problem with the episode was that Masira was a little annoying.



Episode 143: This was incredible. I loved all the shocking twists at the end! For thore who skipped the fillers, watch this arc. Seriously, it's worth it. I won't give spoilers here, due to those who will decide to watch the arc after reading this. I've finally returned to the canon, and, I have to say, I enjoyed these 13 filler episodes. They had some decent plots. Plus, it gave plenty of the spotlight to Nico Robin. Now, about the cliffhanger, which was a canon event. It was awesome. That shocking moment where it revealed exactly what was falling on them was fantastic in the manga, but, suprisingly, it was even better in the anime! As much as I enjoyed the fillers, I am throughly enthralled that the Skypiea storyline is about to begin.

Episode 142: It was good. We finally find out what Rainbow Tower is for. However, the villan's are annoying again. Also, there's was one scene where Nami acted startlingly out of character. She's willing to let the villain kill the little kid just to make sure she gets out of the Mist with the money. She says, "I'm not nice enough to go around saving strangers." This, from the girl who cared and helped Vivi through her worrying about Alabasta, back when they had just met, and were strangers. Seriously, I don't know what the filler writers were thinking.

-Episode 141: The villains aren't annoying anymore! They're actually funny now! The inside-the-Mist storyline continued to be great, and the outside-the-Mist storyline is now totally worth it, becuase, as I've already said, the villains are funny now! Still, I was really annoyed with the ending. It has a Sea King bearing down on Sanji, Chopper, and Nami, and the screen goes black as Nami emits a loud scream. They're making Nami flaky in this arc again. Neither of the others scream, but, of course, becuase Nami's a girl, she's the one who's going to freak out, while the men get ready to attack it. This filler arc is incredible, but, geez, it's being really sexist towards Nami.

[C4 Karura]

Episode 140: It waas a really good episode. The whole thing with the different aging speeds could've easily been cliched, but (thankfully) it wasn't. The answers to the Rainbow Mist mystery were good, and didn't feel lame at all. I liked the part where it pointed out that if they stay in there too long, Nami and the rest of the crew outside will become old people. This was a very creative story from the anime writers, and, so far, it's my favorite filler arc yet! Sure, the villans aren't great, but they haven't played a large role in the arc yet.



Episode 139: I'm liking this arc. Sure, the villains are lame, but I'm actually curious about the mystery surrounding the Rainbow Mist. This episode also explained why the Straw Hats keep being attacked by Marines during these 3 filler arcs. (Since they have three people with bounties on the ship.) Still, I was annoyed when Nami didn't fight that villan in the electric suit. He and Sanji were having this whole dramatic standoff thing, and I kept expecting Nami to suddenly beat the electric guy in one second. But, nope, she went and hide behind a doorway, while yelling at Sanji to not get her shopping bags dirty.



Episode 138: This was good. For starters, Robin beat the main villain. In other series' fillers, the main character always beats the villain, while other character's take on the henchmen, regardless of whether those other characters are stronger than the main character or not. I didn't get how Robin hurt her head, though. I'm also not sure what happened to the Marines. Did they sink? It was hard to tell... Anyway, this was a good arc. It was fairly unpredictable, and none of the characters were annoying, or all that lame-looking. Next up is the Rainbow Mist arc, and then it's back to the canon.


Episode 137: I didn't get that scene at the beginning, where the crew was helping Zenny build the ship. Why wasn't Robin helping? It seems like her Flower-Flower ability would be useful for carrying the wood, or nailing it in, or something. I really can't imagine any reason other than that the filler writers didn't think a female character could possibly help with physical work, especially a character who can beat dozens of people without any real effort. *sarcasm* I did like the scene where Robin talked with Zenny. She says she's still not sure yet if it was a good thing Luffy rescued her from the collapsing tomb, when she wanted to stay in and die. Zenny says that she doesn't regret that it happened, now. Besides being a decent scene, it helps keep the arc in touch with when it takes place in the series. (See the Episode 136 review to understand what I'm talking about.) This was a decent episode, as a whole, and I'm looking forward to the next one.


Episode 136: This was the beginning of a three-episode filler arc. It's the second of three filler arcs that take place between the Alabasta arc and the Jaya arc. The first of those (the Post-Alabasta arc, the last in the Baroque Works Saga), was comprised of stand-alone episodes focusing on an individual character, and was mixed of decent and downright horrible ones. This arc, at least, is off to a good start. The villain (Minchi) isn't annoying at all, and is almost interesting. There's a pretty decent mystery. I liked the scene where everyone thought Zoro had killed Zenny. ("Marimo." xD.) I liked the fact that Captain Moor mentioned that Hina and Smoker had recently failed at capturing the Straw Hats. Usually fillers are fairly generic storylines that could go anywhere in the series, so it's nice when there's a filler that's actually relevent to the current events in the plot, and when it takes place.

[Devroux]

How are you writing these? Just typing them straight to the forum or copy/pasting from somewhere else?

[C4 Karura]

Originally Posted by Devroux

How are you writing these? Just typing them straight to the forum or copy/pasting from somewhere else?

After each episode, I come on here and type whatever's on my mind.

[Devroux]

Hmm... As far as I know, the forum doesn't have a text limit. But really, I don't know. Sorry about it getting cut off.

[Bacon]

I think there's a 10k word limit or something,but it's been while since I hit any sort of limit xD

[C4 Karura]

I'm considering changing the next saga's reviews to being put up in individual posts. That way I wouldn't have to worry about saving old reviews in a megapost and it would alert my readers when I'd put up reviews. What do you guys think?