463: Incinerate Everything! Admiral Akainu's Power
Mihawk’s gigantic air-slash heads straight for Whitebeard, forcing those in its path to leap out of the way. But Jozu dashes in front of the Moby Dick and manages to intercept the attack and deflect it off into the sky. The marines marvel at this, and the dust clears revealing that Jozu’s body has turned to crystal. He’s “Diamond” Jozu! Without a word, Mohawk resheathes his sword.
As the fighting continues, Kizaru comments that in order for the battle to end with the least number of loses, they should strike at the enemy’s head. He dissolves in a flash of light and reappears in mid air over the battlefield, where he unleashes his Yasakani no Magatama (Sacred Jewel String) attack towards Whitebeard, but a figure gets between them and physically blocks the laser barrage. After the attack dissipates, it’s revealed to be Marco, swathed in wings of blue flame, who says that going after the king like that isn’t allowed. Kizaru remarks that he has the power of a mythical Zoan Devil Fruit, more rare than a Logia. The flames on Marco’s body vanish, and he claims that that attack still hurt, which Kizaru responds to by calling him a liar. Marco then turns into his animal form, and flaming bird, and the marines identify him as Marco the Phoenix. Kizaru launches another stream of lasers at Marco, but they prove to be ineffective against his regenerating blue flame. He switches back to human and manages to land a kick on Kizaru, and their earlier exchange is repeated, only with Marco being the one to call Kizaru a liar.
After being deflected and destroying part of the battlements, Kizaru reforms and warns the Navy’s squadron of Giants to be on the lookout for aerial attacks. The pirates prepare to take them on, but Jozu yells for everyone to stand back. He punches the ground and rips out a gigantic iceberg, and with great effort heaves it backwards over his head, straight for the execution scaffold.
Eyecatches: Brook and Robin
Akainu gets up from his chair, grumbling about Aokiji and Kizaru going off and leaving the scaffold unguarded. His arm heats up and turns into molten rock, before lava bursts through into the shape of a giant fist. Akainu uses his Dai Fuunka (Grand Eruption) technique and hurls the lava fist forward into the air, where it hits the iceberg head-on and punches through, instantly destroying it. The fist then explodes and rains volcanic debris upon the battlefield, destroying one of Whitebeard’s battleships. Whitebeard catches one of the rocks on his bisento and blows it out, saying that Akainu would be better off lighting birthday cakes. Akainu responds by saying that he should enjoy a well-lit funeral.
The fighting rages on, and as it does Coby begins to lose his nerve. Behind him, Helmeppo is in a similar position, and feels that they don’t stand a chance on this battlefield. Remembering his promise to Luffy to become an Admiral, Coby becomes paralyzed with indecision, but soon the two have much…bigger things to worry about.
Out from beyond the New World fleet a massive horned figure, towering over the battleships assembled, clomps towards the battlefield. The pirates cheer on this new arrival as he cleaves a battleship in two with a massive machete and call him ‘’Little’’ Oars Jr., as Tsuru identifies him as the descendant of the great demon Oars. Moria is beside himself, and declares his desire for the uber-Giant’s corpse. Oars Jr. declares Ace to be a nice guy, and because Ace is a nice guy, he won’t let him be killed.
A busy episode. It was primarily a montage of scenes dedicated to showing off new abilities. As such, it's kind of hard to make a natural-flowing summary from it, but I'll see what I can do. The storytelling is going to be like this for quite a while; constantly jumping between fifteen-odd characters. This episode covered to the end of chapter 554, and for the most part I thought the art and such was handled well. There were a number of incidental still shots, but I'm willing to forgive them for that.
Anyway, lots of new powers brought out in this episode. We learn that Jozu has some kind of diamond Paramecia, and is also colossally strong, given that he was able to throw that iceberg like that. I wonder if Mihawk really can't cut diamond, or just chose not to (much like how Zoro cuts steel only if he wills it). That scene also answered the question of how Mihawk's sword stays on his back: there are several straps on the back of his coat to hold it in.
The scene with Marco and Kizaru clashing was easily this episode's crown jewel. The animation for the movement and flames was amazing and very realistic. Marco got a good deal out of the Super Power Lottery. His power gives him flight, fire powers, and healing. Winning combination there. And he must have Ambition too, being able to strike Kizaru's arm.
Akainu. We finally get to see what his powers are, and his face. The three Admirals' appearances are all based off of Japanese actors famous for starring in '70s mobster films, I think. Aokiji is modeled after Yusaku Matsuda, though he still fits right in with the series's design aesthetic. Kizaru is modeled after Kunie Tanaka, and while his design is more detailed, he still looks very much like a caricature. Akainu, on the other hand, is modeled after Bunta Sugawara, and unlike the others, is drawn in a much more detailed and realistic style, to the point where he looks almost exactly like the actor and clashes with everyone else. It's a bit more jarring in the manga, though, since manga art is almost always more detailed than anime art. The standard Navy-issue baseball cap kinda clashes with the rest of his outfit too.
Anyway, the reveal that he has a lava Logia wasn't terribly unexpected, since once Kizaru revealed his Devil Fruit it was pretty obvious that Akainu would have a red-themed Logia, and lava was the most plausible element. The scene wasn'r as flashy as Marco's, but I did like how the animated his arm heating up and the lava fist bursting through. Very powerful and destructive power, and it's put to some grisly use later on, so I have to wonder how the anime's going to handle it. Will they censor it, or not? Ah, I'm getting ahead of myself.
Capping off the episode is the arrival of the pirates' newest ally, Oars Jr., ironically dubbed "little". Hell, he looks even bigger than the original Oars did on Thriller Bark. He's voiced by Keiji Hirai, and he sounds just like how I expected Oars to sound like, big, slow, and simple, not like the stuffy-nosed Luffy we did get. His whole situation felt like a BLAM Episode to me in the manga, as well as kind of forced, but it still showed us some new stuff. Let's see how it turns out.
