460: An Enormous Fleet Appears! The Whitebeard Pirates Invade
In the wake of Sengoku’s announcement, the audience at Sabaody are left with even more apprehensiveness at the new significance of this execution. The soldiers at Marineford mutter amongst themselves, while Moria states that the existence of Roger’s son is a miracle, given that anyone with connections to Roger was hunted down. Coby and Helmeppo wonder to themselves if Ace and Luffy aren’t really brothers at all, since they had simply assumed that they were both Dragon’s children. Garp flashes back to a visit he made to Roger while he was imprisoned.
There, in a dark dungeon, Roger revealed to him that he will be having a child, but that it won’t be born until after he’s already executed. Garp asks why he’s being told this, and Roger explains that the government will undoubtedly try to hunt the mother down and kill her. He and Garp had fought and nearly killed each other countless times, to the point where he’d trust Garp as much as he’d trust any of his own crew members, and so he is entrusting him with his child’s safety. Garp yells at him to cut it out, but Roger simply replies that he knows that Garp will carry out his wishes.
And so a force of Navy marines and World Government agents descend upon the island of Vateria. As a marine explains to his commanding officer, Roger was spotted here behaving much unlike his usual self, acting more like a father would. The officer says that Roger’s bloodline must come to an end, and orders his men to search the island and investigate every child born during the ten-month period after Roger’s arrest, as well as the mothers and kill anyone who’s suspicious. Of course, this is all for naught, as the woman that they are looking for, Portgas D. Rouge, a woman with a tropical flower in her strawberry-blond hair, manages to keep her child inside her womb for much longer than the normal gestation period through sheer willpower. Eventually they give up, but one night Garp pays a visit to the island’s clinic to witness the child’s much-delayed birth. Holding her newborn baby in her arms, Rouge names him Gol D. Ace, as Ace was the name Roger had chosen for their child if it was a boy. And then, she dies.
Garp did fulfill his promise to Roger in the end but shielding Ace from harm, and eventually takes him to a person named Dadan to raise. Dadan’s reaction to this is to fall off of a stepladder in disbelief. Later on, Garp brings the young Luffy to Dadan’s place to live too, where the ten-year old Ace is still there, glowering at Luffy from a tree branch.
Eyecatches: Zoro and Luffy
Back in the present, Sengoku continues his story by saying that Ace had been on the government’s radar ever since he formed his own crew – the Spade Pirates – and very quickly gained great fame and power. The government realized the truth, but so did Whitebeard, who took him in to his own crew with the intention of making Ace the Pirate King. Ace shouts back that that wasn’t the truth, that the real reason he’s a part of the crew is to make Whitebeard the Pirate King, but Sengoku rebukes him by saying that he’s the only one who thought that, and finishes by saying that the true intent, aside from extinguishing the Roger bloodline, of this execution is to ensure that Ace does not inspire a new generation of pirates much like his father had.
As his speech comes to an end, a Navy officer runs up to the execution scaffold’s base and reports to Sengoku that the Gates of Justice have begun to open on their own and that they can’t get in contact with the control room. Outside, the battleship is still stuck in front of them, unable to progress. Luffy suggests punching the colossal gate open, an idea which Mr. 3 quickly strikes down, and while Jimbei wonders what to do the Gates of Justice starts to open on their own! Everyone on board is shocked at this, since the officer that they talked to before claimed that they would never open, until Buggy takes advantage of the situation by claiming that he is the one willing them open, winning even more praise and admiration from the collected prisoners, which Mr. 3, again, finds ludicrous. Buggy secretly agrees, but then decides that this is a sign that the heavens are smiling on him and wish for him to become the Pirate King himself. And then the ship is knocked off balance by the disrupted current.
Meanwhile, a fog starts to roll in on Marineford, and a lookout hastily reports that a fleet of forty-three ships has emerged from the mists, captained by famous New World captains such as Doma the Bohemian Knight, Thunder Lord Mc Guy, the Decalvian Brothers, Maelstrom Spider Squardo, and many more. While the soldiers prepare for combat, Doflamingo laughs and tells Whitebeard to hurry up and appear himself. While everyone wonders where Whitebeard could be, a shadow appears in the center of the harbor, and with a great torrent of water Whitebeard’s flagship, the Moby Dick, breaches the surface.
So now we get to hear the previously untold story of Ace's birth. Compared to the corresponding manga chapter the flashback was expanded immensely. We got much clearer images of Rouge, who ended up looking somewhat grim (though I suppose that's entirely justified), and I guess sort of is a redhead after all. The investigation force was also shown in a bit more detail as it showed the soldiers investigating doctors and clinics in addition to people. The implied baby-killing was a bit much, but there's also the implication that they never went through with it, having never found anyone suspicious enough. Still, it's unsettling to think that the government would be willing to go that far. Makes me miss the days before the CP 9 saga when the Navy weren't portrayed as being mostly dominated by [[Knight Templar Knight Templars]].
There are some little nitpicks I have with this flashback, aside from the whole twenty months thing. Like how Rouge somehow managed to not show at all (whereas in the manga she did, and wore a more concealing dress), and what "acting like a father" entails, especially when you still have yet to be one. When the officer said that I got the humorous image in my head of Roger being one of those dads-to-be who are sort of overwhelmed at the prospect, running around handing out cigars and bragging to everyone about it. "Lover" probably would have been a better word choice, methinks.
Moving back to the present, we have Buggy pulling a Moses on the Gates of Justice, complete with Ode to Joy and what I assume to be an ad-lib on the part of Shigeru Chiba (the lambada is a Brazilian dance, by the way). We also get a look at some of the stars of the New World, who are certainly an...interesting looking bunch. I'm not really expecting many of them to have that big a role in the story, however.
My one real complaint for this episode was the entrance of the Moby Dick at the end. Very weak, silly-looking animation. I know it's supposed to be evocative of a whale breaching the surface, given the ship's bow, but whales do not awkwardly soar through the air (complete with jet engine noises!) like that. Ending with an extreme zooming close up on Ace while he makes a guttural noise in shock was not what I'd call a strong finisher either. Well, it's still early in the arc, so I hope that once the action finally starts things will pick up.
