441: Luffy's Back! Iva's Escape Plan Begins!!
The New Kamas are naturally shocked that Luffy managed to complete the treatment far earlier than he should, Ivankov even calling the recovery ‘’beyond miraculous’’. They all gather around and begin to toss him into the air in celebration. Mr. 2 is beside himself in relief, but he promptly keels over. Ivankov assures Luffy that it’s just from exhaustion, and Luffy tries to thank him only to be told that Mr. 2 is really the one he should be thanking for cheering him on despite the cost to himself. Luffy kneels down and tells his unconscious friend that he is indebted to him.
Inazuma, now a man once again, steps through the crowd to give Luffy back his straw hat and a new yellow vest. He tells Luffy that now he must rest for a few days in order to fully recover, but Luffy won’t have any of that, as he’s eager to resume his rescue attempt. After checking his Vivre Card he asks where they are, and Ivankov explains that they are in between Levels 5 and 6. Luffy asks if he’s going to try to escape as well, since that’s why Mr. 2 was willing to come down this far. Ivankov finds this amusing and says that he has no plans to escape at the moment. Right now, the World Government and the Whitebeard Pirates are attempting to tip the world’s scales of power, but one other group hasn’t budged yet, the Revolutionaries under the command of Dragon. Once they do, Ivankov, himself part of the revolutionary movement, will rise up and rejoin the outside world.
During his exposition, Luffy casually mentions that Dragon is his father, and once Ivankov realizes what he just heard, he flies backwards into the cavern wall in shock (with a triple take, no less). Seeing everyone’s surprise and confusion, Luffy admits that he doesn’t even know Dragon himself, or even what he looks like. His simplicity, along with the feats that he’s just pulled off, convince Ivankov that he’s telling the truth, and we get a brief little flashback showing Ivankov and Dragon on a rocky, windswept island. Ivankov notes that Dragon always faces in one certain direction whenever he comes out here, and inquires as to whether he has a family or relatives in that direction, to which Dragon essentially tells him to mind his own business.
Ivankov orders Inazuma to find out Ace’s execution and announces his intentions to go with Luffy down to Level 6 to free Ace. In his mind, he thinks that since Luffy is Dragon’s son, by extension that would make Ace his son too. What could the World Government be thinking, antagonizing both Whitebeard and Dragon? Once finished with that thought, Ivankov tells Luffy to be more discreet concerning his parentage in the future, and orders all of the New Kamas to prepare for battle. They’re all going to break out of Impel Down after all! Luffy’s all psyched up over this…and promptly passes out.
Eyecatches: Luffy and Zoro
After a brief moment where Ivankov pisses off everyone present by leading them to believe that Luffy’s dead, Ivankov diagnoses him with extreme exhaustion after the treatment, and so injects him with Tension Hormones, an extra-strong dose of adrenaline that’ll keep him going for a day regardless of his condition. Of course, there will be nasty side effects afterwards, but Ivankov wisely assumes that Luffy won’t care.
Meanwhile in Magellan’s office Hannyabal, now sporting a new jackal-themed nemes, is puzzling over what happened to Buggy, Mr. 3, and Mr. 2, as they naturally haven’t been found yet. Despite the prisoners being on the loose, he’s still not very motivated to actually do much about them, until he learns that his job could be on the line, that is. Speaking of Buggy and Mr. 3, they’re currently tearing through Level 4, thanks to it being practically abandoned. Their only obstacle is one lone telesnail, which is thankfully knocked out by leftover fumes from the fight with Magellan earlier. Magellan himself is on his way down to Level 6 on the elevator to extract Ace, while a convoy led by Vice Admiral Onigumo awaits outside the prison.
Luffy, Inazuma, and Ivankov tear through Level 5 in the meantime, Ivankov blowing the wolves away with his Death Wink. Inazuma unlocks the giant door at the end of the level and they descend towards Level 6. They’re quickly spotted by security, and Hannyabal, suddenly taking his job surprisingly seriously, orders countermeasures to be deployed.
The rescue crew may be too late though, as Magellan and his jailers have already reached Ace, to transfer him to Marineford for his execution.
There are now only six hours left.
Earlier I said that that in order to wrap this arc up cleanly, one of the episodes would have to cover less that a chapter of material. Well, this was that episode, which covered the last three-fourths over chapter 539, so we should be back to at least 1:1 pacing for the rest of this arc.
Episode-wise, this was fairly average. The art was okay. Nothing spectacular, save for perhaps the shot of Ivankov's eye twitching and the one of Ace at the end which looked like it was taken straight from the manga with all the lines, and crosshatching and stuff that it had, but passable. The only real point of contention was the brief flashabck with Dragon which had noticeably weaker art, Dragon especially poorly drawn. But it was over pretty quickly. Next episode will be handled by one of the stronger animation directors, though I will admit that from watching the preview it looks like it will not be one of her stronger efforts. Well, as long as they're saving their money for the really big stuff coming up.
Well, we're finally past the New Kama Land episodes, and the jailbreak will soon begin in full. Lots of action, and hopefully there will be some expansion filler going on as well. I remember being rather hard on the upcoming material when it was coming out in manga form, but let's see if the passage of time has softened my heart a bit.
Oh yes, during the part where Ivankov was explaning the power balance, in addition to the requisite silhouettes of Whitebeard, Shanks, and Sengoku, they showed a few of the new division commanders, namely Atomos, Vista, and "Trap-chan". Vista was the only one that wasn't shaded in a certain color, so one could make out his color scheme as being predominately white, which is sort of odd when you consider that his clothes are inking in in the manga. Maybe they'll change it when he makes his full appearance later on, as they've done that before.
And one last observation that has nothing to do with the anime (well, it sorta, kinda does). Each and every one of the Straw Hat pairings on the recent coverpages in the manga (Luffy/Nami, Sanji/Usopp, Brook/Franky/Robin, Zoro/Chopper) are the same "teams" that the Straw Hats were divided up into for Strong World, the tenth film. Oda must be fond of those pairings or some such.
