Marineford is absolutely insane. I can never breath when I watch this arc and I'm in a constant state of screaming. Just, wow...
To start with, Luffy's interactions with Whitebeard have been one of my favorite parts of this battle. He quickly began competing with the strongest man in the sea and even stood as equals with him. Before Buggy and Ivan's reaction my jaw dropped at the
- "That was important, thank you."
- "No problem."
as they stood side by side. Then later when he saw the full extent of Luffy's resolve and how he lived up to everything he's heard he decided to make sure Marco and him keep him alive through this war. Now that was amazing. Luffy's one freaking strong boy, always rushing in to do what he believes even if he's just come back from hell. Now that's something anyone can respect. Further, Whitebeard is so cool! I had thought the news of Ace's execution being moved up was a slip up due to the disorganization of what's taking place, I felt weird about it but I justified as a mistake because the communications would be in chaos right now. Yet, Whitebeard went to the next level and predicted that was on purpose which solves the issues I had with accepting it and makes it clear that was probably what happened. The more I see Whitebeard the more I'm on Ace's side, Whitebeard should be king! Well, only second to Luffy of course.
The epicness of this arc can even be seen in the area they are fighting in. A frozen bay, a deceased giant decorating the floor, and ice walls encapsulating the arena as if it's telling them there is nowhere they can go. Now that is the perfect arena for this battle if you ask me, it makes all of the incredible battles taking place that much more powerful.
Speaking of those battles, this episode we had Jimbei counter Moria which is a great choice, in fact it made me realize how great of a fighter he is for this encounter. He is a fishman who can use the sea water to dunk on any power user! Like, we've seen his water kamehameha's so he's not even limited to being close to his foes and the water. We also saw Luffy charging into Kizaru as if he still hasn't learned he can't brute force all of his problems anymore, but that quickly turned into a Ivankov vs Kuma situation which gave us some crucial information. Alike how Ivan has deep ties to Crocodile and Crocodile has deep ties to Whitebeard, Ivan noted he has known Kuma for a long time and for them to fire at each other is unthinkable. Everyone here has an intertwined past and it made me wonder if Kuma intentionally missed that shot that went through Ivan's hair, by the way that totally looked like Dizzy's instant kill in Guilty Gear. As for Luffy and Kizaru, I was wondering why Kizaru wasn't closing in on Luffy the whole charge he did but it seems he's intentionally letting all the soldiers wear Luffy down and having fun with that. At least going forward with Marco presumably watching out for Luffy, Marco and Kizaru could start confronting each other again if Luffy is forced to face Kizaru!
This whole episode looked really awesome. The way Kizaru's kick was reflected in his glasses or the way we saw Kuma's silhouette as he charged his blast and the reaction from Ivan. Plus we have to mention the super gorgeous third gear animation at the end of the episode!
The fight animation as Luffy fought through the guards even defending himself with a dang sword looked awesome too, as Luffy took more and more damage and Ace screamed for him not to come. I loved Garp's look as he was doing that, like he understood exactly what Ace was doing but of course Luffy responds that he doesn't care what Ace says, in fact "I'M YOUR BROTHER!!". It was seriously so powerful especially paired with Ace's amazing vocal performance. I love how his voice sounds when he's absolutely distraught. |