451: Bring About One Final Miracle - Break Through the Gates of Justice
Magellan stands frozen with disbelief as the whale-sharks happily frolic about in the bay carrying the prisoners, his poison golem collapsing around him. Jimbei orders them to bring the prisoners over to the ship, and the fish all line up and bounce Ivankov and Luffy like beach balls from one to the other until they land on the boat’s deck. Upon recovering, all of the now-former prisoners jump up and celebrate, for they’ve finally managed to escape Impel Down. Jimbei, however, says that they’re not out of the woods yet and takes the ship’s wheel, steering them towards the exit. Ivankov says that they need to treat Inazuma’s poisoning immediately, and has several of the New Kama run off to the infirmary to fetch some medicine. Buggy asks all of the prisoners who they have to thank for all of this, and they all shout his name in unison.
Meanwhile Magellan orders one of the Navy ships to come back so that he can board. The escapees haven’t yet noticed that they’re still trapped, so he’ll take care of them himself. The other ships meanwhile open fire on the escapees’ ship, and Jimbei begins evasive maneuvers, saying that warships are formidable regardless of who’s on board. However, these maneuvers are useless, for the prisoners had completely forgotten about the colossal Gates of Justice barring the way out. Despite the panic that breaks out, Jimbei stays calm and says that they’ll sail right through, and Crocodile suggests that they return fire with their own cannons. Naturally the marines wonder what could be going through the escapees’ minds to keep on sailing forward, since the only way to open the Gates is from within Impel Down.
But then, the impossible happens. The Gates of Justice slowly begin to open! Mr. 3 thinks it’s a trap, but Luffy and the others could care less and start celebrating this new stroke of fortune. The marines are left at a loss. The answer comes from within the control room, where none other than Magellan is giving the orders to an understandably skeptical team of guards. And their skepticism is well warranted, for another Magellan bursts into the room demanding to know what’s going on. The jig is up, and Mr. 2 turns back to his normal self, laughing at how he tricked Magellan again. Magellan manages to retain his composure and says that even if the ship does make it through the Gates of Justice, they still can’t escape with so many warships after them, so Mr. 2 turns back into the warden and issues an order to close the Gate. Magellan yells back to not do it, and the confused guards ends up accidentally hitting the button on the control panel to close it anyway. Mr. 2 shouts that he’s won and kicks the device, destroying it.
Eyecatches: Usopp and Chopper
Outside, having learned the truth, Luffy insists that Jimbei turn the ship back, as he can’t abandon Mr. 2 after everything he’s done to help Luffy and contribute to the escape. Jimbei retorts that they’ve already abandoned countless allies during their escape, and that he can’t afford to do something as reckless as going back, and that somebody needed to stay behind to open the Gate, and that Mr. 2 had volunteered himself as his Clone Clone Fruit is perfect for a task like that. It would be a complete waste of his and everyone else’s sacrifices to turn back now. But despite this, Jimbei does hand Luffy a baby telesnail that’s connected to one Mr. 2 still has on him, but it’s range is limited. Once they go through the Gates of Justice and they close, that’ll be it.
Back inside, Mr. 2 continues to laugh in Magellan’s face as the warden gets angrier and angrier, and saying that it was very lucky of him to have copied Magellan’s form while he was disguised as Hannyabal earlier on Level 4. However, Luffy’s voice calls out to him through the telesnail within his warden jacket, much to his surprise. Luffy wants to know why it always has to be this way, Mr. 2 sacrificing himself for him, just like back in Alabasta where he fought Hina to allow the Straw Hats time to get away. Even now, just when they were going to escape the prison together. The other escapees start calling out to him over the telesnail too, and Buggy and Mr. 3 are moved to tears, with Buggy even apologizing for his selfish behavior during their time in the prison. Then, with Mr. 2 still not having answered and the ship sailing through the Gates of Justice and the transmission starting to break up, Luffy and the escapees all cry out “THANK YOU!!” into the communicator. Mr. 2, hearing all of the crying and cries of gratitude over the telesnail, finally breaks down himself and yells out for Luffy, and shouts through his tears that he knows that Luffy’s going to save Ace, no matter what happens. And then, the Gates of Justice close and the transmission dissolves into static.
Safe from the fleet trapped now trapped on the Impel Down side of the Gate, the entire escape team bawl their collective eyes out over their comrade’s brave sacrifice, proof that friendship can blossom, even in such a hellish place. Inside, Mr. 2 squares off against Magellan, who, for the first time during the entire arc, has completely lost his temper. As he prepares to strike a killing blow, he asks if Mr. 2 has any last words, and he has only one thing to say: "Satisfaction!!"
So, in the end, even though Magellan was able to take his vengeance out on one prisoner, over two-hundred and forty managed to escape, the first successful jailbreak since Gold Lion Shiki twenty years ago, and the worst blunder in Impel Down history. However, this incident didn’t end there…
And there we have it, the end of the Impel Down arc. Most of the episode consisted of the ship trying to sail away while under bombardment, so there really wasn't much to analyze there. I did like the touch of Magellan's poison golem dissolving like that, symbolic of his defeat since he wasn't physically defeated at any point.
The highlight of the episode was, of course, Mr. 2's sacrifice. I won't lie, I found it to be Manly Tears inducing. It's just one of those things that even if you know it's coming and know that it's a definitive moment of awesome, that doesn't stop it from feeling so unfair. I think the anime executed that moment very well, adding some nice touches such as Mr. 2's tear smudging his mascara, and using the same music track for the closure of the Gates that they did when he fought Hina back in Alabasta. I think it worked even better here. If there's one thing that I would have changed about that scene it would be to remove the dialogue during the montage. Actions speak louder than words, as they say.
So is Mr. 2 dead or no? Well, by all rights he should be, since there's no way Magellan's going to back down from this, especially since he's finally snapped and the cutaway in both the anime and manga show his hand an inch away from Mr. 2's face, but since this is Oda, he'll probably come up with a contrived way to spare him, and I personally fully expect him to become the next Ivankov of Impel Down. Well, either way, it was quite an emotional sendoff.
As for the Impel Down arc as a whole, it was an arc that had its share of the good and the bad. Things I enjoyed seeing were the old villains like Buggy coming back into the story, and Magellan was a refreshing antagonist, being a villain who was all business, yet his only crime was taking his job seriously. He wasn't a wackjob or a sadist like some of his peers, and his performance was quite impressive, never once coming close to losing in battle, but was still defeated symbolically when the crew managed to escape.
The bad, well, some of the confrontations were anticlimactic, and the existence of Ivankov and his men required quite a bit of Willing Suspension of Disbelief. The pacing during the second half was pretty brisk, which ironically translated to sluggish during the animation. There were a few moments that I really wish the anime would have expanded on a bit more, but unfortunately failed to deliver. In the end I'll say that this was by no means the greatest arc in One Piece, but for what it set out to be, it did its job competently.
