439: Luffy's Treatment Begins - Iva's Miraculous Power!!
After a dance routine that can only be described as ‘’eye-searing’’, Ivankov staggers on the stage, claiming that his exertions have worn him out, only to triumphantly rebound and exclaim otherwise. The crowd loves it, and Mr. 2 is still left agog at the sight that he’s witnessing.
However, a door is kicked open and a real beefcake of a man bursts in, armed with come kind of high-caliber mini-cannon, and he’s absolutely furious with Ivankov. Fifteen years ago, he explains, his father, the king of a country, journeyed to Kamabakka and came back just as queer as the rest of them, ruining his family’s reputation and forcing himself to become a pirate, and now he wants revenge. Ivankov panics, legs shaking. insisting that no violence take place. Just like before though, he quickly changes his tune and says that he’ll be fine.
Well the ex-prince won’t have any of this and fires his weapon. Ivankov simply whirls around and winks at the incoming cannonball. This Death Wink is so forceful that it actually displaces the air, and blasts the cannonball right back at the ex-prince. Leering from ear-to-ear, Ivankov then springs from the stage and comes down right on top of his assailant. Syringe-like spikes pop out of his glove-tips and he jabs the guy with them. Much to his alarm, the ex-prince’s bulk begins to shrink, his beard vanishes, and his voice gets higher, all while Ivankov taunts him. Once the transformation is complete, the spotlights focus on the now ex-princess as the inhabitants of New Kama Land applaud sarcastically. The newly-born women squeals in embarrassment and hikes up her pants and flees while everyone laughs and Ivankov says that she’s got a long way to go before she becomes one of them.
After picking his jaw up off of the floor, Mr. 2 prostrates himself before Ivankov and begs for him to work his miracle-making powers and to save Luffy from Magellan’s poison. Later, as Ivankov leads Mr. 2 down a dank passageway he asks him if he knows why he saved him. As he puts it, they’re all prisoners, they have no obligation to help others. The reason was that even though he himself was dying, Luffy had pleaded with Ivankov to save Mr. 2 himself. Very few people would be that selfless, so Ivankov had no choice but to heal him after that. His own treatment has been going on for ten hours already, behind a heavy, padlocked door.
Eyecatches: Luffy and Franky
Back up on Level 5, Buggy and Mr. 3 have taken to using wax slits in order to get away from the wolves, breaking the fourth wall in order to inform us of the fact.
At the padlocked door, Mr. 2 expresses horror at what he’s hearing, saying that this sounds more like torture than treatment. In a flashback we see Luffy chained to a giant slab within the cavern while Ivankov explains the procedure. It will knock a decade off of his lifespan, and even then, there’s still only a two or three percent chance that it’ll work, and that the success of this operation depends entirely upon his own willpower. And with that, he jabs his syringes into Luffy’s side, causing him great pain.
Back in the present, Mr. 2 is horrified at all of this, not helped by Ivankov describing how the hormones and chemicals that he injected into Luffy are breaking down the insides of his body and rebuilding it into one that can withstand the poison. Ivankov eventually has to punch him to calm him down and then lecture him on how even if he’s known as a miracle-worker, miracles are only brought about by one’s own will.
Finally, we have another flashback, this time one from Luffy’s perspective, of just him and Ace as kids, sitting by the sea.
There are now only sixteen hours left until the execution.
Well, more material with a plot element that I don't much care for. This time it's the whole "take X amount of years off of your lifespan" because that device is such an overused cliche in shonen and a cheap way to create drama/suspense, especially since it almost never has any actual consequences within the story itself. Unless Oda's going to have Luffy's figurative head on a chopping block at the end of the manga, I don't know. Anyway not much action going on in this episode, though there was one thing that really stood out and actually made the episode fun to watch, and that's the art.
This episode was handled by Naoki Tate. He's pretty much the Norio Matsumoto of One Piece, for those of you familiar with the Naruto anime, in that his style is looser with a greater emphasis on fluid animation. Some don't care for it much, but myself and many others enjoy it because of its spontineity and how each of his episodes are usually handled pretty well (his last episode gave us a nifty fight scene and some fanservice in the form of several key scenes from the Arlong arc being reanimated via Nami flashbacking, and an in-the-flesh cameo of Gold Lion Shiki). The little extra here was the flashback of Luffy and Ace by the sea, taken from the end of chapter 549. It was a nice way to end the episode.
Also, I liked the the text at the end wasn't narrated by the Narrator. Just having it appear with a big ol' DONG was plenty impactful.
