445: A Dangerous Encounter! Blackbeard and Shiryuu of the Rain
The New Kama army continues to rampage throughout Level 4, freeing more prisoners to add to their ranks as they go. Saldeath sends the Blugori after them, but Ivankov takes them out with his Hell Wink attack. He then tells Luffy that he has to keep going, but there's an even bigger obstacle before them, the three Demon Beasts. Luffy and Jimbei move to attack, but a new group of the New Kama bar the way, telling Luffy that he mustn't waste time and that they'll fight the beasts instead. Ivankov explains that these fellows are called the Six Forces, and that they're hankering for payback. As it turns out, however, they're useless as well, so the burden of defeating them fall to Luffy, Crocodile, and Jimbei, who do so with one shot each.
Up on Level 2, Buggy and his forces are still stuck at the poison blockade. After much deliberation over how they should handle it, Mr. 3 comes up with the idea of using wax to remove it, similar to how they used wax to defeat Minotaurus. So Buggy tries to punch out the poison barrier with the newly christened Bara Bara no Do Hade Tonkachi (Chop Chop Flashy Hammer) and fails epically. He takes to cursing at the wall of poison, and the other prisoners join in, believing that his poisonous words will overcome the poison.
Eyecatches: Nami and Robin
On Level 1 the Blackbeard Pirates are making short work of the guards in their way, and then Shiryuu shows up, startling the ones who were unaware of his release. Blackbeard asks if he's Magellan, and Shiryuu only confirms Blackbeard's identity and begins to unsheathe his sword.
Back down on Level 4 the escape army rushes forward, boldened by the Demon Guards' defeat. However, Sadie is still there, and she lashes out with her whip, destroying part of the bridge in the process. Luffy moves to fight her, but Ivankov once again says that he can't keep getting caught up in these battles, and hurls him across the gap. Then he confronts Sadie himself and...turns himself into a woman. Really. Apparently this offers him/her certain advantages in combat, such as lithe movement and shock absorbancy.
While this is going on, Luffy manages to pull himself out of the Luffy-shaped-hole in the wall and Inazuma tells him that he'll open the exit door for him. When they get there, however, the door opens on its own, and the grunts are blown away by a halberd-wielding Hannyabal.
This episode is a bit of a connundrum for me. It wasn't terribly great, in fact, it felt pretty listless at times, though at the same time, I can't say that it was that bad either. It's like the good and the mediocre cancelled each other out and left behind a big, blank feel of adequecy.
But I guess there are some things that I can comment on. First, the filler. The filler New Kama were about as lame as expected, which is why they're glossed over in the summary, though Crocodile being unimpressed with them was funny, since he was echoing the sentiments of all the watchers. Buggy's filler started out on the right track with the wax foreshadowing, though it went on for way too long, so by the time he was leaping around with his behind showing, I was just ready to move on to something else, anything else. The animation got better and less lame towards the end with Ivankov (his voice staying exactly the same only added to the absurdity of the situation) and Hannyabal's arrival. I wouldn't call it a great cliffhanger though, since the preview makes it abundantly clear that Luffy pounds the stuffing out of him.
Now, on a different note, there's a cam rip floating around of the tenth movie, Strong World. The framerate and sound isn't very good though, so it's typical bootleg quality. I skimmed a few key scenes that I wanted to see how they came out, but I'm not going to be using it to blog the movie. That'll have to wait until it's properly out and subbed. I will say this though, it's certainly going to be a treat, with all of it's visuals, animation quality, and character interactions.
