459: The Decisive Battle Draws Near! The Navy's Strongest Formation Set!
Within the Marineford holding cell, a guard undoes the chain binding Ace to his chair, and commands him to stand. He is then led out of the cell and escorted down a hallway lined by more guards, until they reach a tall staircase leading up to the surface, and he is ordered to ascend that.
Around the world, people have already begun to hold their breath over the impending battle. On a rainy island in South Blue several men at a market wonder whether Whitebeard will even show, as he’s pretty old by now and hasn’t been very active in recent years. A group of East Blue shepherds doubt that Navy HQ can be beaten, but an older man reminds them that Gold Lion Shiki managed to destroy half of the city all by himself twenty years ago, and says that this time will surely be worse, and that it’ll be better for everyone if the execution goes off without a hitch. In a winter-locked town in North Blue a young man argues with a bar owner who refuses to sell anything due to the coming crisis. At a bar in West Blue a man with a peg-leg warns the patrons to not underestimate Whitebeard, since he met him only a year ago and felt that he was going to die simply by being in his presence. On an island in the Grand Line some children sing a song while playing likening the pirate to the Devil.
Meanwhile, all of the civilians on Marineford have been evacuated to the Sabaody Achipelago, where a large crowd has gathered to watch several giant display monitors showing live feed from the battlefield. There are less than three hours left until the execution. In Sengoku’s office Garp pounds the desk in anger before asking if what he plans to do is really necessary. Sengoku replies that the world must know how large the true significance of this execution is, and as Garp leaves, adds that he bears some responsibility too. Outside in the plaza, one hundred thousand marines and dozens of warships have assembled, ready for battle. In addition are the five remaining Warlords of the Sea, Kuma, Moria, Doflamingo, Mihawk, and Hancock, on the front lines, and the three admirals Aokiji, Kizaru, and Akainu, a man with a grim face wearing a red suit and the standard Navy baseball cap, seated directly in front of the execution scaffold. All of this prepared to battle the world’s strongest pirate crew.
Meanwhile, still within the fortress, Ace continues his march up the stairs. As he does he has a flashback to his and Luffy’s youth, of the two if them gazing out to sea, with Ace making the both of them promise that one day, they’ll both go out to sea, and live how they want to live, having more freedom than anyone else. Of course he has this flashback while bound by chains and being led by others into the light…
Eyecatches: Luffy (twice)
Meanwhile, the jailbreak team’s battleship has finally reached Marineford’s Gates of Justice. While Luffy remarks on how the voyage from Impel Down was shorter than he thought it would be and Buggy rallies the prisoners and trash-talks the Naval forces and Whitebeard, Jimbei recalls the earlier conversation with the Navy officer over the telesnail and wonders how they should get inside.
On the other side, Ace is chained to the execution scaffold while the soldiers hold their collective breath. Sengoku tells Garp that he’s ready to disclose everything, and Garp mutters to do whatever he wants before going off to the scaffold’s base. Once he gets on top and receives a telesnail, Sengoku announces to the assembly that he has an announcement to make regarding the significance of the execution. Below, Vice-Admiral Tsuru tells Garp that this isn’t his fault, which causes him to chuckle and comment on how women tend to be sympathetic during times like this.
Sengoku now addresses Ace directly and asks him to say the name of his father. Ace replies that it’s Whitebeard, but Sengoku claims that this is false. Ace starts to deny him, but Sengoku continues on. Years ago, he says, the government put a great deal of effort into locating a certain man because they thought that he had had a child. But no matter how hard they searched, they could never find this child nor its mother. However, this is because the woman deceived them. Through sheer willpower, she managed to keep her child inside her womb for twenty months. The mother’s name was Portgas D. Rouge, and she lived on the South Blue island of Vateria. As soon as she gave birth, she died. She gave birth to a child with the blood of the evilest man in the world within him. That child was Ace, and the father was none other than Gold Roger!
The Naval army falls dead silent, while the people watching at Sabaody gape in shock. The Pirate King’s bloodline lives on!
So now the Marineford arc begins proper. There are a number of things to talk about in this episode, so let's dive in.
First off, there's the new opening, "One Day." While all the other openings for this show have been upbeat sounds about adventuring, this one is much slower and more somber, with lyrics about chasing after someone who was a source of inspiration and wondering whether they are strong or not, which were clearly composed with this arc in mind. Footage-wise, it's centerpiece are action shots of most of the main players in the coming battle, Whitebeard, Marco, Jozu, Vista, the Jailbreak Team, the Warlords, and the Admirals. Aside from that there are some rather melancholy shots of the Straw Hats doing their thing on board the Sunny, and an extended sequence that ends with Luffy reuniting with Ace amidst what I take to be the ruins of Marineford. There are also a few shots from Ace and Luffy's past, which is some needed character-building that was absent in the manga at this point. I wouldn't necessarily call it the most creative or innovative opening animation, but the song fits and from a technical standpoint it looks great (one of the key animators and even animation director from Movie 10 did some work on it).
I could go on and on about the new opening, but there's still the episode to get through. This is the one with the revelation. The big reveal that Ace is Gold Roger's son. This completely blindsided a number of people when it was first revealed, thanks to some Red Herring work earlier on, but now in retrospect you can kind of see the resemblance. We also get to see his mother Rouge (who is apparently not a rehead, despite what her name would lead some to think), and the matter of the twenty-month pregnancy... Well, I wouldn't call it shark-jumpingly bad, as I've seen a few others do, but that is still requires quite a bit of Willing Suspension of Disbelief (especially since the only explaination is "just go with it"), since unless something goes horribly wrong, it's usually always nine months all across fiction. Ah well.
Anyway, the directing in this episode, as well as the art, was pretty good. I noticed that they finally used some music track from Movie 10 (during the sequence showing people all around the world and during Ace's brief flashback), and the reference to Shiki surpised me, since that wasn't in the original. It was a nice little Continuity Nod and helps tie chapter 0, and Movie 10 itself, more closely to the main story.
So, I'm looking forward to seeing how this arc will be handled in animation. There are a number of hurdles and difficulties to overcome, and I'm sure there will be some not-so-great moments along the way, but if the quality manages to remain at the bar that this episode set, it will certainly be a fun ride.
