typenights

The story was really performing this time around. It has been a long time since One Piece’s story has managed to reach this level which was achieved way back when during the Arlong Saga and Nami’s storyline.

It didn’t hurt either that there was such a great twist midway with the unveilinhg of the CP9 members. It took me by surprise. It was very hard to even guess that the shipwrights working for Iceburg were going to turn on him since it was noted that these guys had been working with Iceburg for years at this point.

These episodes affirmed why I love Nico Robin so much out of all the other One Piece characters. She was always the mysterious one ever since she was introduced along side with Crocodile as Miss All Sunday a few seasons back. She had never taken on the spotlight within the show as her history and background were clouded in mystery. The only things viewers knew about her was that she was an archaeologist and a historian searching for and deciphering Poneglyphs scattered around the world. That and she had a huge bounty on her head, even though she seemed harmless enough.

With the inclusion of these episodes, we can see why she is such a great character. We learn such an immense amount of Ribon’s history and her motivation for “betraying” Luffy in the beginning. We see a young Nico Robin as she lived peacefully as she began to delve into the world of archeology on her island hometown Ohara. We learn of Robin’s mother Olivia and her struggles against the World Government who want to keep her dangerous research in check. And sadly we see what has been haunting Robin ever since her childhood, the dreadful Buster Call on the island of Ohara, leaving Robin the only survivor of that malicious attack.

We have the human cyborg Cutty Flam, or otherwise known as Franky who became a great addition to the Straw Hat crew. I mean, how can you not like a guy whose weapons are powered by Cola and can transform into a butt ugly horse looking thing? That’s awesome. They really fleshed this character really well, with an immense back story along with his secret partner Iceburg and their struggle against the World Government.

Now we can’t forget about the fighting. Just fantastic stuff, especially noteworthy of Luffy’s new “Gear” techniques. He sure wasn’t kidding when he said that all his moves up till now were going to evolve. It was great watching him move at such high velocity and totally kicking some serious ass.

And not to forget that the rest of the crew got their fair share of action too. Sanji heated his entire leg to extreme levels, Zoro used some crazy sword technique to bring his opponent down, Nami got more creative with her weather tempo batons, and Chopper turned into some huge uncontrollable berserk beast.

Despite it’s serious tone this time around, One Piece never forgets to take a seat back and inject some humorous tidbits here and there. The mermaid scene in the flooded tunnel immediately comes to mind. Zoro using Usopp as a “sword” is another moment as well.

I usually find Usopp annoying as hell, but this new Sniper King alter ego of his was very funny. Especially when he would burst out into random songs about his sniping origins during the most inappropriate of times.

The ending. Oh boy was it cheesy but I really loved it. Jumping into the ocean to see that the Going Merry on its own had followed the Straw Hat Crew to save them just at the nick of time.