Going back to the night of the Celestial Dragon's arrival at Dawn Island, Dragon's ship is docked outside the village of Shimotsuki. Ivankov yells at Dragon for being late, but then reacts in surprise when he sees what the other man is carrying. The crew runs off to get a doctor as Dragon tells Ivankov that he went to watch the arrival of the Celestial Dragon at Dawn Island, and that he didn't tell Ivankov since he'd stand out too much. After getting confirmation that they've resupplied, Dragon declares that they're setting sail for their home of Baltigo.
As the months wear on, life on Dawn Island and the Grey Terminal pretty much return to normal. Luffy and Ace are still training in the forest to become pirates, and Luffy's Pistol attack has progressed to the point where he has much more power, but his aim is still weak and he can't take its recoil. Ace laughs and says once again that rubber can't be used for battle, while Luffy retorts that he's thought up a lot more moves. Both of them look to Sabo to support their arguments, only to remember that he's no longer here.
Their adventures and quest to grow stronger continue, with lots of mishaps and scrapes along the way, until seven years go by.
Eyecatches: Luffy (twice)
The day eventually comes when Ace sets out to sea in a little sailboat, with a 14 year old Luffy, Woop Slap, Makino, and most of the mountain bandits there to see him off. Ace calls up to Luffy to tell him to take care, and Luffy says that he'll be much stronger when it's his turn in three years. Ace declares that he'll make a name for himself as he sets sail with everyone else waving him goodbye. The only one not there is Dadan, who's alone in the cabin. The bandits return and tell her that Ace has left, and she grumbles that Garp will probably blame them. One of the bandits delivers a message from Ace: "Sorry for all the trouble, and thanks for everything" she quickly changes tune and lets out the waterworks.
At their old training ground Luffy, now alone, takes another stab at destroying the rock in the middle of the clearing. After imagining the advice that Sabo would give him, he manages to perfect his aim and destroys it with a single punch.
Finally, the day of Luffy's departure comes. He tries to get Dadan and the bandits to comes see him off, but Dadan says that if they went down to Windmill Village, they'd scare all the people. Luffy's a little disappointed at first, but then says that while he hates mountain bandits, he likes Dadan's group, which serves to bring out the waterworks again.
At the dock at Windmill Village, one of the citizens offers Luffy the use of his old fishing boat, saying that the rowboat he has now is too flimsy, but Luffy says that he doesn't mind. He then proclaims aloud to Sabo that he's going out to sea, simultaneously bemusing and confusing the villagers. He says that though he's the third one to go out to sea, he won't lose to Ace. As soon as he sets out, he runs afoul of the local Sea King, much to the villagers' horror. However, Luffy says he's been waiting for this day, and with his perfected Pistol technique, he punches it out with a single blow.
With that obstacle cleared, Luffy looks out towards the open sea and says that first he has to find a crew, and that ten people should do it, as well as his own pirate flag. He bellows to the world that's waiting for him that he will become the Pirate King.
We then skip forward to the present, with Ace dead and Luffy on his knees on Amazon Lily. Luffy clutches his head and screams that he's weak.
And there we have it. I liked the little cameos in the beginning of Kuina and Zoro at the dojo. It helps give a sense of scale to the story. The scene with Dragon is pretty strong evidence that Sabo's still alive, especially with the anime's addition of Dragon's lines about watching the Celestial Dragon's arrival. So for once it seems that we've made it through a main character's flashback without someone major being Stuffed into the Fridge.
Most of this episode and the chapter it's adapting was a montage, making it difficult to write a decent summary, but the ending scene was worth it. This is actually the first time the sequence of Luffy first setting sail and punching out the Sea King has been properly animated, for when Luffy's backstory with Shanks was originally done in episode 4 (wow, exactly five-hundred episodes ago) they cut it off with Shanks setting sail. Better late than never, and they did a pretty good job with it.
But man, the juxtaposition of Luffy cheerfully setting off being followed by his crying that he's weak on Amazon Lily...that was tough. But now that Luffy's admitted his weakness, he can start to recover, and now that we're in the present, we can get to the real good stuff of this arc.
