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 sixth story arc of the series, Sky Island ~ Skypiea & The Golden Bell, originally aired between February of 2003 and June of 2004 for a total of 52 episodes, between 144 and 195.
After exploring more of the Grand Blue, with out a lot of direction, the crew of the Going Merry gets to have some more relaxed adventures while avoiding a persistent Marine flotilla, culminating in a port town that is the scene of a mysterious rainbow haze that leads to an isolated shop graveyard, detached from time and space.
The crews log pose seems to be acting strange, pointing them towards the sky. Nico mentions something about a place called Sky Island that exists in an ocean high in the heavens. Intrigued by the prospect of such a place they decide to search for it, having no idea how to get from the Grand Line into the floating water of legend. They begin their search in the wreckage of a ship that crashed into the sea near them, falling out of the sky, reinforcing the idea of a floating island. Before they can search the sunken ship a strange salvage ship shows up to do the job instead. The salvage crew encounters the three Straw Hat pirates that are inside of the sunken ship but before an all out war can break out they are interrupted by a giant sea creature and then even larger shadow beings. The crew kicks the ship in high gear and escapes their impending doom as soon as possible.
Unsure where to go next they follow the log pose to a more accessible landmass, an island with an inviting port town. Though town may be a bit more inviting than they bargained for. The place is a haven for pirate crews, who run amok, understanding the only consequences will be at the hands of other pirates. While asking around about Sky Island, Luffy, Zoro and Nami find themselves targeted by the strongest pirate crew staying in town, Bellamy the Hyena, who beats Luffy and Zoro to a pulp while ridiculing their desire to search of fabled lost treasures. Understanding the fight is pointless, Luffy instructs Zoro to just take the beating and let them think they have won. Satisfied with humiliating them enough, Bellamy lets Nami drag her two beaten crew mates out of the bar to lick their wounds.
Instead of giving up they follow a lead they received in town and head out to another part of the island, searching for a ostracized man named Cricket. Before they can reach him they run into the brother of the salvage crew captain they met earlier, winning against him as easily as they did his brother. Sanji confirms a tale tied to the man they seek, a cautionary fairy tale of the North Blue about a man who lied to his king about a fabled golden city and was executed when it was not found. Cricket is a decedent of the man from the story and he has come to the island to try and wipe away the shame attached to his family name due to the foolishness of his grand-sire. They gain Crickets trust when they explain their purpose for seeking him out. He agrees to help them with whatever knowledge he has, encouraged by their determination. The salvage monkey brothers arrive as well, appoint themselves as Crickets followers and agree to help the Straw Hats as well, even if they were both beaten by them earlier. The plan is to use a strange phenomenon known as a Knock-Up Stream to blast the Going Merry up to the high of the clouds, to hopefully land on unusually petrified cloud formation in hopes of finding the mythical sky island.
Before they can depart, Bellamy and his pirates arrive to rob Cricket of any gold he has salvaged from the sea floor. The attack took place with the Straw Hats were searching the jungle for a bird that will help them navigate to the Knock-up Stream. They find Cricket and the monkey salvage brothers near death, before any repairs and reinforcement are made on the ship. With an actual reason to fight Bellamy, Luffy runs off to town to confront him while the others work hard to prepare for their trip into the sky. Luffy shows Bellamy and his crew of pirates why his bounty is as high as it is, taking the savage man out with a single hit. Satisfied with retrieving Crickets stolen treasure, Luffy runs back to the others to cast off for the their potential death.
As they reach the Knock-Up Stream they are approached by another pirate crew, looking to take cash in on Zoro and Luffy's bounties. The head of the ship is none other than Black Beard, who Luffy's brother is hunting. Before Black Beard can attack the Knock-Up Stream blasts the Going Merry high into the atmosphere...and potential destruction. Through quick thinking and a lot of luck, they make it into the clouds to find a sea made of buoyant fluffy water. Before they can rest a strange man flying through the cloud sea attacks them, showing them the limitations of their bodies so far in the atmpsphere. Before the man can finish them off another stranger appears to fight him off. The man introduces himself as the Knight of the Sky and offers to come to their aid again when they need it most.
Left on their own they journey forward, looking for actual land or other people. They come across a gateway that appears to lead them higher up in the clouds. A strange old woman greats them, explaining they have to pay a toll. When they refuse she agrees that she has no way of stopping them and they continue on, being carried upstream to the next level and their target, Skypiea. They find a secluded beach and take the opportunity for some rest and relaxation! Their risk and efforts have finally paid off as they see nothing but fantastical paradise before them. They meet a resident of the island, a young woman named Conis. She and her father welcome them to their home, showing them all the hospitality they can, welcoming the strangers like family. While the rest of the crew is kicking back and relaxing, Nami is playing with a sky island boat that can power its self using technology built on sea shells called dials. The others become concerned when she is gone so long, Coni's father warns them she may have ventured off to a nearby forbidden island. Luffy, excited by the possibility of exploring a forbidden island, suggest the crew head off right away to 'rescue' Nami.
Nami has in fact found the island, referred to as Upper Yard. The island is the domain of the God of Skypiea and anyone who ventures on it is punished with his divine retribution, meted out by his four priests. Nami witnesses their retribution when she sees them hunting a man who has tried to enter the island. She quickly escapes, before they can detect her presence. Unfortunately all of their presence is already known by God and his priests. As the others try to sail off to 'rescue' her, the local authorities arrive to demand they pay their entrance fees or be deemed criminals and punished by God. The crew refuses, instead fighting and defeating the authorities, increasing the severity of their crimes against the authority of Skypiea. The crew decides its time to leave the area before any more trouble falls on their heads. Before they can escape, half of the crew along with their ship is hijacked by God and taken to the interior of the Upper Yard. Luffy, Sanji and Usopp are left to journey through the island to rescue them, facing danger and death at the hands of God and his Priests.
The crew members trapped on the Going Merry find themselves atop an ancient temple alter in the middle of the island, surrounded by dense foliage and a river filled with giant sky fish, wanting to eat them whole. Zoro, Nami and Nico decide to explore the woods around them, for any clues to whats going on and how to get out of their situation, leaving Chopper to guard and repair the ship. Meanwhile the others are traveling through the Upper Yard, dodging all manner of traps and death only to come to a cross road where they have to choose between four gates, each of which will lead them to one of the Priests and a challenge. They choose the test of spheres only to come face to face with a bizarre Priest named Satori who proves to be much stronger than his ball shape would suggest. Satori uses spheres filled with different surprises to both attack and entertain his victims. On top of that he also uses strange physical attacks and has the ability to predict their movements and actions.
While Luffy, Snaji and Usopp struggle to deal with one of the Priests, Chopper faces another all by his self, the Priest Shura, who wields the power of fire. He has come to kill Chopper since his life was forfeit once the others left the alter to explore the forest. In an effort to save himself and the ship he blows on the wistle to bring the Sky Knight. Through perseverance Luffy is able to break through Satori's abilities and continue on their way to the altar to save the rest of the crew. Shura proves too powerful to the Knight of the Sky, who is the old, deposed God, Gan Fall. Chopper dives into the danger filled water to save the old man and Shura, assured of their death, leaves to join the others. Zoro, Nami and Nico finally make it back to the altar to find Chopper and the injured Knight of the Sky. They had been rescued by giant versions of the same bird they used to navigate to the Knock-Up Stream. Soon Luffy, Sanji and Usopp make it to the altar as well, everyone has been reunited at last. Now they just have to get their ship into the cloud river to continue on, wanting to face off with this God and find the lost treasures of Sky Island.
The begin to suspect the true nature of Upper Yard when they consider all of the evidence. Long ago a large Knock-Up Stream had blown part of island that Cricket lives on high into the sky, causing it to rest next to Skypiea. Gan Fall tells them about the history of the island and its people, informing them that the inhabitants of the island who survived the trip were kicked off of their homeland by the residents of Skypiea, claiming it as a sacred land for only their worship. The decedents of those people, the Shadorian Tribe, still live among the clouds and have fought a war with Skypiea ever since. A group of Shandorian warriors, ready to launch an attack on God, sees the sudden turmoil and confusion wrought by the Straw Hats, to make a desperate last attempt at defeating God and claiming their ancestors homeland.
The current God of Skypiea, a man named Eneru, defeated Gan Fall six years earlier and has been enacting a secret plan ever since. He used shame and fear as a weapon to keep the residents of Skypiea in control and granted his Priests special abilities to enforce his authority. Seeing that the Straw Hats have survived his trial so far and the sudden attack of the Shandorian warriors, he decides it is now time to finalize his plan. He instructs his remaining priests and other warriors under his control to search out and destroy all of the invaders. The Straw Hats get separated again once they find themselves caught up in the melee between the forces of God and the Shandorian's. Everyone is fighting each other, unsure of what the end result will really be.
As they progress through various victories, the members of the Straw Hats find themselves at the ruins of the ancient Shandorian city. Nico confirms it is the ancient city she has been searching for all of these years, trying to unlock the ancient history of the world that has been lost, convinced, once known, it will change everything. Eneru makes his appearance and instructs the fighters that remain of his plans. His ability as God seems wasted on this small unnatural floating island. He plans to bring it crashing to the land below, with he and his chosen followers to descend to rule over all. His overwhelming power is too much for those that choose to stand against him, making them powerless to stop him from enacting his ambition.
Eneru quickly lays waste to everyone opposing him using his overwhelming power of lightning. Nami finds herself a captive on his giant sky ship as he launches it, enacting his plan. Using the ship, that he has been building since he took over the roll of God, he will concentrate his abilities to destroy every solid bit of cloud, removing Skypiea and everything else from the sky. Luffy races to face him, realizing that his rubber body will be able to withstand his lightning attacks. Unfortunately he has no deterrent to his ability to predict his moves. As the fight rages on so to does Skypiea's destruction. Even though she and her father have been rejected by the other citizens, she races to the town to tell everyone to evacuate. The sky begins to fill with ominous storm clouds, a sight they have never seen so high in the atmosphere, confirming the doom that Conis is warning them about. The authorities take heed and begin to evacuate everyone to Heavens Gate, in hope to escape destruction.
After being thrown from Eneru's ship, Luffy with the aid of Nami head back to face the God before he can completely destroy Skypiea. The last thing Eneru wants to do is clam the legendary bell that the Shandorian's have pledged to protect for centuries. The bell was the centerpiece for their ancient ruined city, a city that had been abandoned well before their part of the island was blown into the sky. The fabled liar Nolan, Crickets ancestor, had landed on the island before the city of gold was blasted into the air. There they befriended the tribe and helped them to overcome a deadly disease. In thanks, the tribe took them to their ancestors city, telling them the legend of the bell as a beacon to call their ancestors home. It and the ancient inscription in an unknown language are the treasures they are entrusted to protect against all invaders. In the present, Luffy is determined to stop Eneru from taking the bell and to ring it as a message to Cricket, that his ancestor was right all along.
While unable to defeat Eneru, Luffy succeeds in sinking his skyship, sending it and the bell into the depths of the cloud sea. While much of the land was destroyed, much of it still remains, including most of the Upper Yard and the people from both tribes have largely survived the ordeal. The ringing of the bell signals a new future for everyone on the sky island. Nico is able to read the inscription at the base of the main temple, comparing the information with that she saw beneath the palace in Alabasta. A second inscription exists on the remaining upright for the bell, an inscription written in the ancient language, talking about how Gol G Rodger had been there twenty years earlier. These clues form a greater level of understanding in her quest to find the secrets of the worlds lost history. Understanding that the legendary King of the Pirates was also on her path emboldens her resolve to keep pushing forward. This is also the first clue they have found related to Gol D. Rodger that may help them to discover the location of the One Piece. Considering the journey to the clouds a success the crew of the Going Merry packs up and heads out to return to the Grand Blue and the continuation of their journey.
The longest story arc since the East Blue arc that introduced everything has been the most enjoyable arc so far. This was a really fun story with a lot of amusing characters and world building. We finally see some progress in the quest for the One Piece, even if Luffy is unaware of that fact. Early on we also got a glimpse of the leaders of the world government and negotiations they enacted with the remaining warlords of the sea, following Crocodiles defeat. Nico's inclusion, however temporary it may be, to the Straw Hat pirates is proving to be quite crucial to forging the underlying story of the world and their journey. Her quest to learn a hidden history of the world and its apparent connection with the exploits of the King of Pirates could prove quite pivotal to everything. While the journey to Skypiea appeared as a distraction, the last minute save and tie in to the actual goal, the crew is once again among the waves of the Grand Blue and are ready to keep pushing forward. Even though they have been in danger the entire time, its nothing like their growing notoriety back on the surface. Things are going to become significantly more dangerous for them as they journey forward.
Next up, Escape! The Marine Fortress arc. Hopefully the story can keep going with the quality of entertainment its been bringing for the past three arcs!
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