476: Luffy's Limit! All-Out War in the Oris Plaza!!
Out on the bay, Ivankov manages to cross the ice without falling in the water, presses his ear to the wall, and takes a listen. Upon hearing the sounds of battle beyond and imagining all of the gruesome fates that probably befell Luffy, he accuses Jimbei of being at fault, claiming that if he had already beaten everyone and saved Ace none of this would be happening. Jimbei simply tells his flamboyant companion that that would be impossible.
On the other side the battle continues to rage. Whitebeard prepares to throw out another seismic wave, but Aokiji uses an attack called Ice Ball to freeze him inside a block of ice. Whitebeard manages to shatter the ice with his powers and stabs Aokiji, yet the Admiral simply forms him body into a hole to avoid the blade before being stiff-armed by Jozu, who tells Whitebeard to go on ahead while he takes on the Admiral.
Elsewhere, Coby and Helmeppo hide away from the fighting. We get a brief flashback to the Post-Enies Lobby arc where Coby promised that he was going to become an Admiral. In the present he recognizes that despite his words then, he hasn't really changed at all from the crybaby that he used to be.
As he watches, Luffy encounters Vice-Admirals Momonga and Dalmation (the latter being a dalmation Zoan, unsurprisingly), and quickly gets overwhelmed by their swordplay and Rokushiki techniques, and as he tries to get up he gets hit with one of Kizaru's lasers. Kizaru tells him that even if he has the courage, he simply doesn't have the power to stand of this battlefield before kicking him away. This time, Whitebeard is there to intercept Luffy
Eyecatches: Zoro and Sanji
Kizaru says that Whitebeard's standards must be slipping if he lets someone like Luffy lead the charge. Just when he's about to send another laser his way, a voice calls out telling Jimbei that "I told you so!" Everyone looks up to see the sight of Ivankov's massively enlarged head dangling over the top of the walls with Jimbei standing next to him, before getting down into the plaza (Jimbei by jumping, Ivankov by falling). Awakened by the commotion, Luffy starts thrashing around in Whitebeard's grip demanding to be let go. Whitebeard tells him that he's done enough and tosses him to his men to heal. Luffy doesn't want any of that, but as soon as he tries to run off again he goes down.
Whitebeard comments that he likes reckless fools like Luffy before stepping forward and challenging the marines to battle. His attack though, is intercepted by Akainu, who says that he can't allow Whitebeard to rampage freely lest he destroy the island completely. Whitebeard challenges him to protect it and their two powers clash.
While this goes on, Marco turns into his phoenix form and takes to the air, making a bee-line for the execution scaffold, his body invulnerable to the marines' firearms. Just when he's there though, Garp springs from his seat and slugs him into the ground. Sengoku chastises him for jumping suddenly into the fray, but the marines are rallied by he prescence of the legendary hero. Garp sits himself down on one of the Admiral thrones beneath the scaffold and declares that the pirates will have to go through him.
As expected, Sengoku's big show of rolling up his sleeve last episode was for nothing. In fact, he even rolled it back down!
Not a whole lot really happened in this episode. Luffy's down, presumably for the count (if I ignore the preview and my knowledge of what happens next, that is), more fighting, weird, slighty out of place comedy relief with Jimbei and Ivankov, and things not really picking up until the last six or so minutes, when Akainu stepped in. That scene looked really impressive, and Akainu's monstrously strong himself if he's capable of fending off Whitebeard all on his own.
I did like the filler scene of Coby admitting that he's still a wuss despite his promise to grow stronger, because that's exactly what the audience is thinking, and I think the anime crew did a good job towards the end at turning a page-long panel montage into actual scenes. Garp introducing Marco to the "Fist of Love" was a nice little moment. Wasn't overly flashy, but still got the desired impact across, no pun intended.
