Strong World: Part 2
Inside his castle, Shiki recieves word that the pirate captains that are participating in his plan have begun to arrive. At this, he tells one of his men to release one of the villagers working for him, to provide the others with a little glimmer of hope before he snuffs it out. Indigo runs into the room miming, and reveals that Nami has escaped!
Riding on the back of the bird, she managed to get out via a water duct that connected the greenhouse pool to the outside. The two end up popping out of the waterfall on the edge of the main island and fall into a water-filled crater on another island floating below. Inside the basin are a bunch of monsters, but the bird electrocutes them all, and is quite proud of its accomplishment until it sees that Nami's floating facedown in the water too. She turns out to be all right though, and despite getting electrocuted, thanks it for saving her.
After climbing out of the crater, Nami spots the Sunny lying in a clearing at the bottom of the slope and starts heading towards it, when suddenly there's a commotion nearby in the jungle. Luffy emerges from the foliage, sees the Sunny, and then sees Nami. Thrilled to see her, he makes a beeline for her...as do the monsters that had been chasing him. Fortunately for Luffy and Nami, the bird electrocutes them too.
Afterwards Nami changes out of her bathing suit while Luffy munches on the remains of the monsters that were just killed. Luffy names the bird Billy (after the Japanese onomatopoeia for crackling electricity biribiri), and the two decide that they'll go search for the others.
Elsewhere, Franky, Robin, and Brook are making their way through a cactus-filled desert on the back of a crayfish that Franky converted into a "Zarley Davidson" motorcycle. They spot a town off in the distance, and are forced to abandon their vehicle and walk when they encounter Daft Green spores.
In the air, Luffy and Nami are riding on Billy's back (with Nami riding piggyback on Luffy for some reason) as he flies through the sky. They run into more spores, so they need to plug Billy's beak in order to continue. Nami spies a village surrounded by Daft Green trees, and comes to the conclusion that they're being used to keep the animals away.
So Luffy and Nami reunited with the others, and everyone, Sanji especially, are relieved to see that she's safe and sound. They're greeted by Xiao and her mother, who invites them into their house to rest. Luffy suggests that Nami take a nap inside, and she obliges. However, the telesnail patrolling the town is secretly recording all of this and transmitting the feed back to Shiki's palace. Upon seeing this footage, Shiki declares that it's time to retrieve his navigator.
Robin, Franky, and Brook are inside a giant, packed beer hall. Franky notes that everyone here is a pirate and wonders why there are so many, and Robin suggests that they were all invited, since they all seem to have an Eternal Pose. A waitress walks by, and Robin asks why she has feathers growing out of her arms. The waitress replies that they all think that they're birds, which only serves to puzzle Franky. A man drinking at a nearby table recognizes the three as part of the Straw Hat Pirates and thinks that they're part of Shiki's plan. Robin plays along and asks why Shiki has gathered so many pirates, and the man says that they should pay attention to the news and hands her a newspaper.
At the village, an excited Xiao runs past the sleeping Straw Hats and into her house and tells her mother and grandmother that one of the village men has returned. According to him, Shiki and his men are finally going to leave the island with their animals for the sea, to East Blue! Her mother says that she wishes Shiki would go there immediately and leave Merveille be. Huddled in a corner, Nami overhears her, fingers her bracelet, and starts to realize the meaning behind all of Shiki's words to her. In a frightened tone, she says Luffy's name, and gets up to go to him.
The newspaper Robin was handed was the one reporting on the destroyed villages in East Blue. The man who gave it to her explains that Shiki's plan is to take the animals to East Blue and have them destroy it to prove his power and frighten the World Government into surrendering to them. Another man at the table tells Robin that there's a dress code for the participating pirates to follow, and that tonight, Shiki's going to give them a little demonstration of what's to come by destroying the obly inhabited village on the islands.
Nami sets outside to find Luffy gone, but then his voice calls out to her to stay back. Luffy and the others are standing on an elevated patch of ground, and before them, standing against the setting sun, is Shiki himself. Shiki reprimands Nami, claiming that her leaving him without a word hurt him deeply, and goes on to say that the Straw Hats should have protected her better if they didn't want her to be taken away. Of course, he adds, he's pretty sure that right now there's no way that Nami's going to leave him. Angered, Luffy says that he's not going to let him get away with hurting Nami, and that he's going to kick his ass.
Shiki laughs at that prospect, and Luffy launches himself forward and tries to clothsline him with Kama (Scythe), but Shiki avoids it by flying into the air, where he dodges and deflects attacks from Usopp and Zoro. Chopper manages to land a blow on his back, and Sanji tries to kick him, only to have Shiki catch his blow. He complements them on managing to hit him and prepares to strike Sanji, only to have Luffy rocket into him from behind, freeing his crewmate.
As the Straw Hats regroup, Shiki comments on how annoying they are and says that he'll take them all out at once. Using a technique called Shishi Odoshi Chimaki (Menacing Lion - Ground Winding), he breaks open the ground and fashions the waves of debris into giant lion heads that loom over and surround the Straw Hats. Luffy manages to destroy one of the heads with Cannon, giving Sanji and Zoro an opening to attack, but it's ultimately futile and they all get buried under the huge wave of earth, which them forms itself into a massive spiral pillar, trapping them inside.
While Nami watches this in horror, Shiki walks over to her, saying that fighting the others was a real pain since she had finally realized what was going on. Nami begs him to not harm her friends or East Blue any more, and Shiki replies that she can only make such demands after she joins him. He goes on to explain that right now, storms are the biggest threats to him, and that he needs a skilled navigator to help him. Noticing Nami fingering her bracelet again, he asks if she's going to leave that as a memento, and Nami answers that it's a gift that her sister gave her when she left her hometown, and asks if he'll really spare East Blue if she joins him. Shiki replies that of course he will, since he values his crew members and would never lay a hand on their homelands.
At this point Usopp, the only one of the others still conscious, shouts out at Nami, telling her that she can't do this and that Luffy would never forgive her if she left them. Nami tells him that this is to protect East Blue, and that they should continue on on their journey without her. Usopp continues to shout at her until Shiki smashes a boulder into his face.
After pretty much being forced into pleading to join Shiki's crew, Nami finally falls to her knees and says that she'll join him. Shiki welcomes her and floats the Tone Dial from earlier over to her, saying that he's an honorable pirate in that he'll let her leave a farewell message for her old crewmates. After she gives it, Shiki remarks that it's a fine message, and gestures over to the large telesnail hiding nearby.
Seeing Shiki's signal through the telesnail's footage, Indigo announces the commencement of Shiki's plan.
Just over half-way through the film, roughly. The pacing has slowed down, for now we get a sense of what Shiki's plan is and introduce the main conflict. Of course, the real significance of Shiki choosing East Blue as the target of his plan is All There in the Manual, and thus lost on anyone who hasn't read the backstory in Chapter 0. I'm not really a fan of that kind of stuff; making a viewer have to consult multiple sources to fully get the main plot.
Anyway, the centerpiece here is Shiki flexing some muscle and the situation with Nami. The Float Float Fruit is certainly quite powerful; that attack with the lions was on a scale usually reserved for Logias, and that's on top of keeping all of these islands in the sky. I wouldn't hesitate to mark it as one of the most powerful Paramecias we've seen so far, along with Kuma's Paw Paw Fruit and Whitebeard's Quake Quake Fruit. You could see Oda's fingerprints all over the fighting, in how the Straw Hats worked as a team in fighting Shiki. I also liked how Luffy used some attacks that he hasn't used in a while. Can't say I really cared for the Conspicuious CG, but that part was over pretty quickly.
As for Nami herself, well, now she has the dubious honor of being part of three different pirate crews over the course of the series. I did like how in the beginning of this section she managed to successfully escape on her own, defying the Neutral Female archetype. As for her Face–Heel Turn, I did like how she did it primarily to save her hometown, instead of the more standard Sadistic Choice with the Straw Hats, though that was certainly still a factor. Also, regarding Nami's bracelet, it being a gift from Nojiko was actually mentioned in a Skypiea-era SBS, but this is the first time that's been brought up in the series itself.
Kinda disappointed that Robin, Franky, and Brook are missing out on all this. That's the one issue I have with how Oda uses his characters. It always feels like the older members get most of the focus, and he doesn't always know what to do with the newer ones.
