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 eighth story arc of the series, Water Seven, originally aired between April of 2005 and April of 2006 for a total of 35 episodes, between 229 and 263.
With the Marine Base G-8, the Foxy crew, lose of memories, the return of Foxy and a dangerous Marine behind them, the crew continues on their journey to discover the One Piece!
After surviving their run in with Admiral Aokiji, the Straw Hat pirates move forward towards their ultimate goal. They run aground when they come across sunken train tracks for the worlds only sea train. The woman who manages the station at the section of track the encounter tells them about all of the islands connected by it. She tells them their Logpose is pointing at a nearby island called Water Seven, home to the best ship builders anywhere. They strike off with enthusiasm in hopes they can finally find a shipwright to join their crew and get the Going Merry back into shape. Water Seven is a marvel of engineering. The city is made up of a series of canals that are traversed by sea creatures that act as horses, the foundations of the building underwater. While not exactly refused entry, everyone they come across on their way to dock tells them to dock away from the city, not waiting to deal with pirates directly. The moor the ship on a rocky outcropping and break off into groups to explore the city and resupply.
Luffy, Nami and Usopp head out to cash in their gold treasure from Skypiae and then to the shipyard to find someone to work on their ship. They meet members of the shipwright company Gallery La, who had just gotten through thrashing a gang of pirates refusing to pay for their repairs. One of the foreman, a man named Kaku, who shares a prominent proboscis like Usopp agrees to take a look over the Going Merry to assess the damaged. While he is away Usopp is attacked by a gang of thieves called the Frankie Family, who liberate him of two thirds of their money. They also attempt to attack Zoro, who is the only one keeping on eye on their ship. Meanwhile Chopper is separated from Nico when she is approached by a masked man.
Kaku returns with grave news about the Going Merry, her wounds are too severe to repair and they are faced with having to dismantle her and find a new ship to continue on their journey. Before they can break the news to Usopp, they notice that he is missing. At the same time they realize that their luggage was swapped and the foreman explains it was done by someone from the Frankie Family. Nami runs off to take what remains of their money to the ship encountering a badly beaten Usopp in the process. Usopp confesses about his attack and theft. While Nami heads back to the ship to get help, Usopp drags himself to the bass of the Franky Family, to demand his money back. He is unable to do anything and their leader, Franky leaves him to be beaten to death by his gang.
Luffy and the others head off to find Usopp and the Franky Family in order to get their money back. When they come upon the near dead form of their ship sniper all concern over the missing money is lost. With the boss missing in action, the Straw Hat pirates lay waste to the Frankie Family and their hide out, wanting nothing but revenge for what happened to their friend. Returning to the Going Merry they tell Usopp that they are going to have to find a new ship. Usopp, unwilling to accept the truth chooses instead to leave the crew and challenges Luffy to a fight to end things between them. Luffy wins the dual easily, leaving Usopp to his own devices as has fully chosen the leave the Straw Hats crew. Unwilling to force the issue the others decide to take what they can from their ship and leave it to Usopp as they head out to find a new one on their own.
The next morning the town is a buzz with news that the mayor and head of the Gallery La Company was attacked in the middle of the night and almost killed. When the mayor a man named Iceberg regains consciousness, he says that one of the two two would be assassins was Nico Robin. World spreads immediately and the foreman of the Gallery La Company starts to hunt down all of the Straw Hat pirates. Hearing the news about Iceberg, Luffy and Nami head to meet him in order to find out whats going on and to talk about securing a new ship. Before they can get to him, Franky challenges him to a fight in the shipyard. The fight is interrupted by the foremen of the Gallery La Company who tell Luffy they are going to kill his crew for trying to kill their boss. No matter what Luffy says, he can't convince them they have the wrong idea about the shooting.
In a bought of rage, Frankie fires a devastating weapon at the foreman who are interfering in his battle with Luffy. Luffy and Nami use the distraction to escape into the city, trying to regroup with the other members of their crew and figure out their next move. Luffy finds Iceberg recuperating in his bedroom and tells him that the blame placed on his crew is wrong. Iceberg confirms that rumor that Niko Robin was one of his assailants and tells Luffy to bring her to him. They run into Zoro, who is fleeing a mob of citizens looking for street justice. They hide long enough to escape them and rejoin with Chopper. Chopper tells them about what happened when he and Sanji found Robin. They take her parting words as a message to them, that she and the people she are working with will be attempting to finish the job again that night. The crew decides they will intervene in the attack in order to clear their names and get Robin back to their crew.
They find the compound heavily guarded and before they can figure out a plan of action the group that Robin is working with, a mysterious group known as CP9, makes their move. CP9 proves to be more powerful than the dockyard workers can handle and easily invade the compound. In a moment of betrayal Iceberg learns that many of his trusted foreman have been undercover CP9 agents the entire time. They are part of a secretive wing of the Wold Government and are finishing an operation that has been in action for years. TCP9 has been searching for secret plans to build a powerful hip that has the capabilities of destroying the world. The plans have been passed down in secret for years between master shipwright and apprentice. Iceberg's master was known to be in possession of those plans meaning Iceberg is their current custodian. Iceberg, prepared for this eventuality, had tried to fool them into thinking he had the plans. Instead they reveal their knowledge about a second apprentice who was long thought to be dead that should have the real plans. That apprentice is none other than the gang leader Frankie.
Luffy and crew bust into the Gallery La company compound during the chaos of the CP9 infiltration, hoping to face Robin and resolve their problems. With the Straw Hats innocence revealed, Iceberg and his remaining loyal foremen fight together against CP9...but are quickly subdued as they carry on their mission. In the meantime, seeking revenge against Luffy, Frankie tracks down Usopp and kidnaps him and the Going Merry as bait, not knowing the real threat that is unfolding. CP9 easily subdues Luffy and the other defenders at the Gallery La headquarters. They have rigged the building to explode in a matter of minutes and leave to hunt down Frankie and the plans. Back at Frankie's hideout, he forces Usopp to say good by the the broken Going Merry, releasing it into the churning waters of the approaching storm. Not long afterward, CP9 arrives to secure the secret plans.
With the plans in hand, CP9 arrests Usopp and Frankie, then head to the sea train, to depart before the storm hits the island. A flashback sequence shows how Frankie, abandoned by his parents, was adopted by the master shipwright Tom. He long with Iceberg were trained as his apprentices. An agent from CP5 named Spandam had come to the struggling Water Seven island in search of the secret plans that he suspected Tom had in his possession. The plans for the ancient fearsome warship Pluton. Tom refused to confirm his possession of it and confronted the arrogant agent. Years earlier Tom was help guilty of treason for building Gol D. Rogers flag ship and sentenced to death. He had convinced the judge to let him amend for his 'crime' through his plan to build the sea train and its track. His goal was to connect Water Seven to the neighboring islands, allowing it to trade goods and services with the others, in hopes of reviving its failing economy. Agent Spandams arrival in search of the plans coincided with Tom's delayed judgement and the completion of the sea train.
Spandam enacted a covert plan to make Tom look like a criminal, ruthlessly attacking the city he loved, using ships built by Frankie. All three shipwrights were found guilty and were to be executed. Tom convinced the judge to let his completion of the sea train be used as payment for the recent attacks he and his apprentices were blamed for. Instead he would only be found guilty of his original crime, aiding the worlds most notorious pirate. The judge approved and Tom was executed while his apprentices were pardoned. Unsatisfied with the outcome Spandam had to return to the World Government defeated, to plan another course of action to retrieve the Pluton plans. Spandam is now the leader of CP9 and is the mastermind of the infiltration of Icebergs company.
Knowing that Nico Robin is leaving the island with the rest of CP9, the crew rushes after her before the sea train departs, but are unable to reach her in time. To make things more dire the yearly storm hits the city with a furry never seen before. Unknown to her, Sanji had gotten to the train earlier and was successful in sneaking on to it. The remaining members of the pirate crew regroup and convince the head of the foreman, Kokoro, to help them stop the train and get Nico Robin back. The remnants of Frankies Family arrive as well, recognizing that Luffy and his crew are not their enemies, vowing to join them in their fight against CP9, knowing they need to rescue Frankie. The woman from the train station, who is revealed to have been Toms partner, takes the band of misfits to a hidden sea train, the original prototype, with the intent of helping them use it to catch up to the one speeding away to the Government island Enies Lobby.
As the entire back up squad heads out into the raging storm, Sanji starts to fight his way through the train, rescuing Usopp and Frankie in the process. Sanji, using a communicator on the train, is able to contact Nami to let her know whats going on. Nami tells Sanji that Robin has purpously given her self up to the members of CP9 in order to protect the Straw Hat pirates from the wrath of the Marines. She has chosen to sacrifice herself to save the only ones she has considered her friends, fearing the same force that wiped her home island from existence will bear down on Luffy and the others. Unwilling to accept that sacrifice, they head further through the train to rescue her. All while the others a rapidly speeding towards them, everyone ready for a serious fight for their own brand of justice against the world government.
Usopp is able to get to Nico Robin as Frankie and Sanji confront the SP9 agents. Instead of fighting them, they decide to flee with Robin but are thwarted in their attempts by her. She continues to insist that she is done with them and is a fully compliant prisoner of the agents. Forcing them to leave the train and her behind. Luffy and the others catch up to them and learn of what transpired. Unwilling to accept her surrender they charge ahead, understanding that they will not be able to stop the train from reaching Enies Lobby, choosing to bring the fight to the front door of the World Government instead, risks be damned.
The Water Seven arc leads directly into the longer Enies Lobby arc and was a much needed palette cleanser from the terrible Foxy arc. This arc covered ushered in a new direction for the story as the crew is faced with the possibility of having a different make up than it has to this point. The loss of their ship plays a big roll in the dynamics of the crews inner struggles. The underlying story centered around Nico Robin that has been charging ahead since Alabasta is fully revealed. The World Government is trying to recover long lost super weapons as a last ditch effort to end the age of pirates for good. This doesn't sit right with pirate or average citizen, as both are highly suspect of the World Governments real intentions or trustworthiness.
This arc gave us a new style of conflict as well which is a welcome change to the standard antagonists the Straw Hat pirates encounter. In every confrontation before there was a clearly defined line between enemy and ally. But with the attack on Iceberg and the convenient set up of the pirate crew, they find themselves being hunted by a group of people they had considered allies the day prior, people they are not exactly willing to beat into submission. On top of that they have to face the vary dangerous group think of the citizens of the city, as world spreads quickly. There is so much respect for Iceberg and rumors spread quickly that the citizens, who normally would shy away from getting involved in pirate conflicts, fully mobilizes to dispense mob justice to the unjustly framed pirates. Luffy has to start using his mouth and brain to try and resolve the threat that snowballs out of control. The only saving grace is the second attack from the government agents, deftly revealed by Robin. As the scheme speeds ahead to its conclusion, forces that were enemies become allies in a shared threat and a change in perspective.
Next up, the assault on the center of the World Government to save Nico Robin and Frankie...Enies Lobby. What kind of monsters lurk in this place of 'justice'? Only Sniperking knows!!
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