449: Magellan's Plot! The Escape Effort is Blocked
Having taken care of Ivankov and Inazuma, Magellan sets his sights on the rest of the fleeing prisoners. Luffy tries to attack him out of anger, but like before, Mr. 2 tries to stop him since there's no way he can beat Magellan right now. Jimbei overhears a group of guards talking with Magellan via telesnail and realizes that there's another scheme afoot. He gets Luffy and the others to head for the main entrance, but Magellan sics the Hydra on them once again. However, the highly acidic poison is blocked by a hardened wall of Mr. 3's wax! Their unlikely savior bemoans Luffy's nature, claiming that this is just to make sure that he remains undebted to him, and urges everyone to hurry and beat it before he loses his weak nerve.
Luffy tells Jimbei to go on ahead to steal a warship, since he's got an idea that'll help him fight Magellan. This requires Mr. 3's reluctant help, and a bunch of the prisoners gather up weapons to help out as well. Luffy's big plan? Wax armor on his arms and legs, similar to Mr. 3's Candle Champion wax suit. After being overcome by the sheer coolness of it, Luffy springs into action, dodging Magellan's Hydra heads and landing a Champion Rifle on the warden. Thanks to the wax, he can now touch Magellan without getting poison on himself, and the prisoners add a barrage of cannon fire to the mix. Magellan's not looking quite so invincible after all!
The rest of the escapees finally reach the top of Level 1. Mr. 2 gloats at how powerless their enemies are, but Mr. 1 admonishes him and points out how there are still ten battleships out in the harbor that they'll have to get past. Jimbei also points out that there's one more additional obstacle that they need to get past in order to escape.
Buggy and his men, meanwhile, have reached the exit to the outside. Buggy rallies them for the final upcoming push against the marines and to hijack a battleship, and they all get ot work pushing the massive wooden doors open, letting bright sunlight into the dank, dark prison.
Eyecatches: Zoro and Luffy
Following Buggy's lead, the freed prisoners pour out onto the pier...only to find that there's not a battleship in sight! There's no way out. Just as they start to fall apart and despair, Jimbei tells them that they have no time for tears. Magellan ordered them to set sail only a short time ago, so the ships are just shrouded in the fog not far away. Since they have him with them, there's still hope. He pulls one of the doors off of its hinges with his bare hands and tells the group that they can use it as a makeshift raft in order to hijack a ship. Crocodile, Mr. 1, and Buggy get on (Buggy more for the protection Crocodile and Jimbei offer than bravery), and off they go, flying across the water thanks to Jimbei's speed. The warships open fire on them, but Jimbei manages to dodge each shot before warning the occupants that he's going to launch them onto the deck of the nearest ship. He dives underwater (much to Buggy's horror, as he thinks the Fishman's abandoned them), and uses the Fishman Karate Mizugokoro (Water Soul) technique to grab ahold of the ocean water as if it were cloth and heave it upward. The result is that a giant waterspout erupts from the ocean, blasting Crocodile, Buggy, and Mr. 1 onto the deck of the nearby battleship. The soldier onboard gird themselves; all they need to so is force the intruders overboard and they'll drown!
Back inside the prison, Magellan demands to know how Luffy can still fight him after getting so thoroughly defeated before. Luffy retorts that he's already forgotten about that and retaliates with Champion Bazooka. Magellan says that this time, he make sure that he'll never forget.
This episode was like an apology for the last one. The problems back then were mostly absent here. The real high point was Luffy's armor. Ever since the Demon Beasts were introduced in the original manga, I was eagerly looking forward to seeing Mr. 3 bringing out his old Candle Champion battlesuit, since they seemed like the perfect enemies for them, and was mightily disappointed when that never materialized. Then came the armor later on, and I thought "Cool! This is going to be great!" as the idea was so delightfully absurd yet made perfect sense in this situation. And then "Champion Luffy" was in the manga for all of about two and a half pages. This is where the anime usually comes through in giving more screentime ot stuff that the manga sometimes skims over. It came through here, let me tell you, with added scenes and a nifty little transformation sequence reminiscent of the one for Big Emperor back in Thriller Bark. I especially liked the standoff at the end, with Luffy's retort of having forgotten about the earlier fight being a perfectly in-character, smart-alecky way of showing his determination.
The other highlight of the episode was the makeshift raft ride. Good choice of music there, and some great faces for Buggy. Impel Down is coming to a close with only two episodes left after this one. Hope they go out with a bang.
