470: The Swordsman Mihawk - Luffy Faces the Black Blade's Slash
Luffy says that he has no time to fight someone as strong as Mihawk, and activates Gear Second in order to jet past him. Two of the New Kamas, claiming to be former victims of Mihawk, try to hold him off and get some payback, but they are effortlessly cut down, with Mihawk simply saying that he doesn't remember every weakling he defeats. He then comments that Luffy is still within his range and sends an air slash across the battlefield which knocks Luffy into the bay wall, trapping him.
With Luffy currently incapacitated, Jimbei steps up to the plate to fend off Mihawk, claiming that no matter the outcome of this battle, Luffy is still the hope of the seas. The two clash, and Jimbei is sent crashing through the ice and into the sea, defeated. Mihawk then leaps into the air and tries to perform a diving attack with his sword. Luffy manages to free himself from the rubble, get away, but as he's about to attack he realizes that his arms would just get cut off and aborts. Mihawk observes that Luffy isn't as reckless as he thought and takes another slash at Luffy, which misses its target and instead slices the massive frozen wave in the distance in half, sending giant blocks of ice raining down on the battlefield.
Meanwhile, Doflamingo explains to Crocodile that soon the age of Whitebeard and his generation will be over, and that the era of the strong will be ushered in; an era for individuals like themselves. Crocodile responds that he'll never be an underling for him, and blows him away with a sandstorm. Elsewhere, Buggy and his followers launch their plan to sneak by the fighting and steal one of the telesnails transmitting the battle to Sabaody, only to be caught up in this very storm.
Eyecatches: Brook and Zoro
Seeing an opportunity, Luffy grabs Buggy out of the air and uses him as a human shield against Mihawk's attacks. Despite being immune to blades, Buggy's none too happy over being used like that, and sends one of his Muggy Balls at Mihawk, who simply deflects it back at him, blowing the clown to Kingdom Come. Marco orders Vista to back Luffy up, and he intercepts Mihawk, commenting that it's a pleasure to fight him. Mihawk himself monologues that Luffy's most dangerous ability isn't his Devil Fruit or his fighting skills, but rather his ability to gather allies over to his side to back him up.
On the execution scaffold, the executioners flank Ace, even though the scheduled time has not yet arrived. Sengoku orders the broadcasting telesnails to be switched off so that the world doesn't see what's to come. All they need to know is that the Navy is victorious.
Out beyond the frozen bay, several of the New World ships suddenly explode, and an army of Pacifistas emerge from the smoke and flames.
I'll say this was an okay episode overall, even if it did have some kinks here and there. I was hoping for an animation director who was higher up on the food chain to handle this episode myself, but instead it was a merely average one. Some parts of the animation, like Mihawk slicing the wave in half, was kinda clunky, and his filler clash with Jimbei was kind of awkward. Still, Mihawk casually slicing that wave was a nice little sneak-peak at what's to come during the endgame, I think. I wouldn't be surprised, nay, I expect, Zoro's final fight with him having entire islands and junk getting split.
The little part with Mihawk's swordsmanship being utterly ineffective against Buggy was cute. If you pit them against each other in one of the Grand Battle games, Buggy even says "Even Hawk-Eye can't cut me!" and it turns out to be true. It's funny how this Joke Character from the very beginning of the series pretty much completely gimps this massively powerful, endgame opponent,
Anyway, now that the Pacifistas have arrived, the battle starts getting more desperate and intense, if I remember the manga chapters correctly. But I'm going to take a little break from blogging the episodes, as my next project is to blog Movie 10. A nice change of pace for me.
