One Piece - anime part 5 - Dreams!, The Zenny Pirate Crew!, Beyond the Rainbow

    One Piece (ワンピース) is the epic pirate themed shonen battle anime based on the manga of the same name by Oda Eiichiro.  The fifth story arc of the series, Dreams!, The Zenny Pirate Crew!, Beyond the Rainbow, originally aired between November of 2002 and February 2003 for a total of 13 episodes, between 131 and 143.

    With the success of Alabasta behind them and the Marines even closer, the crew of the Going Merry heads off into waters unknown, pushing deeper into the Grand Blue in search of the One Piece.  Yet they have a stow away in Crocodiles assistant, Nico Robin, who has convinced them she only wants to join them to continue her lifelong passion of archaeology, but can they trust this dangerous assassin?

     For once since they arrived in the Grand Blue, the crew finds it's self able to relax (aside from the frequent attacks by Marine shops) and use this time to get their barrings and restock their ship as they head into more dangerous waters.  Chopper gets an opportunity to spend time with Nico, helping to easy his mistrust of her.  Nami is able to secure some high quality durable paper to begin her life goal of mapping the entire world.  Sanji gets an opportunity to pass on some of his skills to a young apprentice cook on a Marine ship and Usopp is encouraged to become better at making fireworks by a girl growing up in a firework master family.  We get to see when Zoro gained the two lowly bounty hunters, Johnny and Yusaku, as underlings, while he works to defend a town from bandits in exchange for getting new swords.

    In a another episode of having to flee from a surprise Marine flotilla, the Straw Hats find themselves at a secluded island, populated by a gang of goats and a marooned old man who uses them to fight off invaders.  Before they can understand whats going on the old man passes out from terror.  Chopper revives him and starts to tend for his chronic heart issues.  The man uses emotional leverage and forces the crew to make it up to him by doing his chores while he recovers.  Chopper however lets them no the old man has very little time to live and the crew redoubles their efforts to help him out, to make his final days easier.

    Their reprieve from the Marines is short lived as the location of the island is discovered along with the identity of the dying old man.  In order to set a trap to capture the Straw Hats a lower ranking Marine in the flotilla offers to set up a trap for the pirates.  His real intentions are to land on the island and find the old mans hidden treasure, from the time he was a notorious money lender.  Meanwhile, Luffy and company are helping the man build a pirate ship high in the mountain, a ship he has decided will be his burial place.  But Luffy isn't ready to let him lay down and die and wants to help him life his dream as a pirate before its too late...if only the pesky Marines weren't in their way.

    After escaping the flotilla, the Going Merry head of again into the unknown.  The soon find safe harbor in a port town, but things are not exactly easy going for them there.  The town is ruled by a money hungry tyrannical mayor and the outsiders find themselves being targeted by a slew of officials demanding sure charges for everything they do.  The draconian taxation is being funneled into a long running project helmed by an old diminutive inventor .  The project is focused on detecting an phenomenon called the rainbow mist.  The old man, Henzo, explains to Luffy, Usopp, Nico and Zoro that the mist appeared fifty years ago when the town was under attack by a dangerous pirate fleet.  His friends ended up being lost inside of the mist as they tried to escape the destruction of their town.  He has been working the entire time to find them and the mist again, to return them home.

     A ship suddenly appears in the harbor, the same ship that Henzo's friends has disappeared in, the rainbow mist has finally reappeared and Henzo's life work will be tested.  Before they can think twice, Luffy and the others board the Going Marry and head into the mist...not caring about how they will return.  Inside they find an eerie ship graveyard talked about in seafarer lore.  They are soon attacked by a crew of children and it isn't long before they understand they are Henzo's missing friends.  The strange space has stopped time from progressing for them.  With the first part of his life work complete, they now need to find a way to return to the normal world.  But that hope quickly fades as they navigate the area to find it has no end, only looping back into its self.

    Those lost in the mist don't have long to wait.  Chopper, Sanji and Nami are dealing with their own issues back in the town.  They have drawn the ire of the authorities and soon find themselves face to face with the draconian mayor.  Once the mayor notices the rainbow mist has returned he switches his attention to enacting his long brewing plan to 'invade' the ship graveyard to claim all of the lost treasure for himself.  Henzo's work was the creation of a massive tunnel, to be launched into the mist, connecting its interior with the outside world.  The mayors forces quickly invade, intending on ransacking everything they can.  What they didn't expect is the resistance of the Straw Hat crew trapped on the other side.

    What at first seemed like a collection of random story lines, to break up the epic story centered on the near collapse of Alabasta, instead is a series of thinly intertwined events.  The end of the Rainbow Mist arc presents the common thread and it was actually pretty cool!  Beyond this fun way of tying these three stories together in one larger narrative it was a lot of fun to see the crew on a series of simple adventures where the risks are low, where they can just be their fun loving selves.  Next up is the significantly longer Sky Island story arc...time will tell how enjoyable this narrative will end up being, but this small break was really refreshing and worth the time.