Scott Pilgrim Takes Off

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is an 8 episode original anime based on the comic book Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O'Malley.  The series was released on Netflix in November of 2023 and was produced by Science SARU.

 

    Scott Pilgrim is an unemployed slacker living in Toronto Canada.  He is part of an aspiring indie garage band called Sex Bob-omb of which his fake high school girlfriend, Knives Chau, is completely obsessed with.  Scott has been having dreams of a girl with short, multi colored hair, roller-blading through a desolate landscape.  He believes the mystery girl is the woman of his dreams and is becoming obsessed with her, much to his cool gay roommate, Wallace Well's, annoyance.  He and his band mates go to a house party after practicing and Scott see's the girl from his dream standing against the wall.  He can't believe his eyes and does his best to impress her, with obscure video game trivia.  After embarrassing himself, he slinks away in self disgust.  He runs into the woman throwing the party, Julie Powers, who hates his guts more than anything else.  He ignores her verbal attacks and pries the mystery woman's name from her.  He learns her name is Ramona Flowers and she recently moved to the great white north from New York City and is working for Netflix, delivering movies.

    With confirmation that she is real and a clue to meeting her again, Scott uses Wallace's Netflix account to order a movie, expecting her to deliver it, and awaits her arrival at the front door, not moving for a number of days.  Ramona eventually comes calling with the ordered movie.  Scott uses this opportunity to try to ask her out again.  His tenacity pays off and she agrees to a date.  Skip to the evening and the two are casually wandering the empty Toronto streets, enjoying the Spring calm.  They ask each other basic questions only to learn they have pasts they would rather leave in the past.  A sudden blizzard arrives and they seek refuge in Ramona's apartment, taking a subspace highway to get there.  The reason Ramona continued to appear in Scott's dreams was through using a convenience subspace highway that happened to run through his brain, making travel quick and easy.

 

    One thing leads to another and the two end up in her bed, but they both decide not to have sex, instead enjoying their company while they get to know each other.  Scott takes this as the start of a relationship  Desperate to see her again soon he invites her to see a concert his band is performing later that night.  Ramona, unsure about how she feels, but interested non-the less, agrees.  Before the concert Scott gets a letter from a man named Matthew Patel.  Matthew is part of a mysterious organization called the League of Evil Exes, comprised of 7 people Ramona has dated and broken up with in the past.  The League is run by a powerful musical mogul named Gideon Graves and he has decided to send Matthew to deal with Ramona's new boyfriend.  Scott, disinterested in the letter, ignores the bulk of the details and heads off to the concert.  The League of Evil Exes isn't the only thing he has to contend with though as he see's his fake high school girlfriend, Knives, has come to see them perform as well.  Wallace warned him that he needed to break up with her if he is going to date Ramona but Scott struggles with understanding why and tries to avoid it.

    Just as Ramona and Knives are about to share information that might make this problematic, Sex Bob-omb blasts into their first song, causing Knives, who is easily overcome with emotion, pass out from excitement.  The performance is cut short with the appearance of Matthew, who challenges Scott to a duel.  Scott accepts the challenge, after Matthew summarizes his letter to him and the intent of the League.  Much to everyone's surprise, Scott is defeated by Matthew in the first punch.  A punch that hits him so hard it kills him, leaving only change in his place.  Matthew has achieved victory and can now try to win Ramona's love again.  She outright rejects him among every ones shock as to what transpired.  After the bar has closed Knives regains consciousness to find out her fake boyfriend Scott was punched to death.

    At this point, the end of the first episode, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off diverges entirely from the source material and the 2010 live action movie Scott Pilgrim vs the World.  In those stories Scott defeats Matthew and moves on to face Ramona's other evil exes, while avoiding the real struggles he needs to overcome.  The battles are distractions and Scott uses them to ignore the unresolved feelings for his ex, the pretend relationship with Knives and his complexes about Ramona's past and how that will be projected on his relationship with her.  Instead, he just beats up a series of individuals in order to win her heart without really learning from his errors.  Ramona on the other hand goes along for the ride, more a reluctant guide through the process than a participant in convincing him he is doing the right thing.  She is willing to sit on the sidelines to see how things pan out, ultimately not being committed one way or the other.

    But that's the source material and its live action remake.  This time around everything is different.  Scott is dead at the hands of evil ex number one, Matthew Patel, and Ramona has to reconcile her emotions about everything.  She keeps running from one relationship to the other, many only lasting a week or so, not really satisfied with her part in them.  Yet this time something is different, she feels an urge to put in the effort.  She begins to investigate what actually happened, not convinced that Matthew actually killed Scott.  She has to start confronting her past to understand what effect it is having on a future she desires.  Against all odds and everyone approval she wants to reconnect with Scott Pilgrim.  The vast majority of the anime follows that journey.  Where originally the narrative was from Scott Pilgrim's point of view, who is coasting through his existence and only concerned with things on the surface.  It's Ramona's turn in the spot light as she approaches the situation, completely different than the original, reluctantly facing the things she continues to leave behind, hoping to make enough amends to make her desires come to fruition.

    I have been a mega fan of the Scott Pilgrim media franchise since the movie came out.  Obsessing over it, the source comic and the fantastic video game.  When news of a new anime based on the property was announced I was ecstatic.  When it was announced that almost every member of the live action movie was returning to provide their voices and the director of the movie was also involved in the production, I was floored.  All that was left was the wait.  I never have a problem revisiting the story, I greatly enjoy it and made a check list of things that the movie did not cover hoping to see in the anime.  I was a bit skeptical with the first episode.  I wasn't sure if I liked some of the voice acting an the script seemed a little lackluster.  They hit a lot of the important beats and kept some of the quirky charm that was present in both the comic and the live action, but some things just felt off.  There was a very prominent choice to incorporate point of reference focusing in the anime.  Things in the foreground will go out of focus to draw your attention to the back ground and vice a versa.  It seemed unnatural, particularly in an environment such as anime were everything is usually crisp and clean.  It felt like a distraction and a questionable choice in directing.  I was concerned that the script was giving weak lip service to the source material, given how much was being left out over the course of the first episode.  Then Scott died and everything changed.

    The moment when this series takes the original and its replica and throws it out the window you are hooked and in for whatever comes next.  It could be anything and suddenly you are faced with a new set of plot lines for a world that you love.  A set of plot lines that run counter/parallel to what you have obsessed over for years and years and it is amazing.  Suddenly the criticisms go away, criticisms that arose from approaching the well know material.  Criticisms that were not exactly justified.  Sure the continued use of focus perspective can be off putting but you grow into the charm of the idea and accept it as a good call on the direction.  The voice acting smooths out and it's great to enjoy everyone saying new lines as their characters, except for Scott, because he's dead.  You start to notice that the anime is paying homage to details found in the comic, the live action and the video game...lots of references to the video game!!  The creation of the show dug deep into the world of Scott Pilgrim and stuffed a plethora of nods and references to that across all of its formats.  Suddenly you're seeing new stories and recognizing aspects that you are familiar with in the old story and the video game and it makes the world of Scott Pilgrim feel even more loved and comfortable.

    If it isn't obvious, I am incredibly happy with this series.  I went into it expecting a redo of the comic, adding in the side plots that were understandably cut from the movie.  I anticipated it being a different teams look at this beloved story with all of the actors returning to provide the voices.  It was going to be comfortable and well understood.  Instead we are lulled into complacency and knocked off our feet with a twist that no one saw coming,  Suddenly the story of Scott Pilgrim wasn't actually even about Scott Pilgrim any more.  Instead it was about Ramona Flowers and she is a much better character than Scott.  Scott is a terrible person but we love him, or at least root for him to win, because we love Ramona.  Now we get to see a more fleshed version of her along with other sideline characters.  She isn't just Scott's success in life.  She is her own success, she has her own goal and has her own adventures she needs to go through to try and get to her desired end.  And the Scott Pilgrim story is in a much better place because of it.  I miss that some of the fun sub plots of the comic were again left to the realm of the comic but the new stories we got in their place was well worth the loss.  But not everything was omitted, the keen eyed viewer will pick up on subtle nods to plots from the comic.  Now if we can get a new video game based on the events of this new story....that would be perfect!

     The series was released in its completed form on Netflix and is available in a variety of countries in a variety of languages.  So far, I have watched it twice and will probably watch it again shortly.  Could there be more in the future.  Probably not, but time will tell, we had to wait thirteen years for this new material.

One Piece - anime part 12 - Island of Women

     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 twelfth story arc of the series, Island of Women, originally aired between July of 2009 and October of 2009 for a total of 14 episodes, between 408 and 421.

    The trip to the Sabaody Archipelago has destroyed the Straw Hats.  The overwhelming strength of both Warlord of the Sea Kuma and Admiral Kizaru was too much for them to overcome.  Kuma, using his devil fruit power eliminated each member of the plucky pirates one by one, intentionally dispersing them far out into the sea.

 

    Luffy finds himself encased in a bubble, flying rapidly through the sky, unable to stop.  He resigns himself to his moving prison, overcome with the destruction of his friend at the hands of Kuma.  His dreams nothing but a memory at this point and he waits.  A few days past, allowing him to sleep and gain a mighty appetite.  His bubble begins to lose its altitude and his crashes into a cliff on the interior of a heavily forested island.  After killing and eating a giant beats his appetite continues to drive him to ravenous consumption, including random mushrooms on the forest floor.  Unfortunately, one batch of mushrooms are more a threat to him than he is to them.

    A group of scantly clad women come across the prone form of Luffy, who is slowly being turned into a new home for the last batch of mushrooms he consumed.  Recognizing the danger he is in, they take him back to their village to attempt to save him.  The save him from the parasitic mushrooms but realize he is a man in the process.  The island Luffy has crash landed on is Amazon Lily, men are forbidden from stepping foot on it and the fierce warrior women protect their home with ruthless efficiency.  Luffy escapes from his prison with most of the village trying to kill him.  In the ensuing chase Luffy and one of the Amazons, Margaret, end up being flung into the surrounding jungle.  The appearance of Luffy on the island becomes complicated for the women with the imminent return of their ruler, Boa Hancock, the Snake Princess and one of the seven warlords of the sea.

 

    As Margaret chases Luffy through the forest, the Snake Princess' pirate ship is returning the the waters of her home island.  Waiting for them is a Marine ship and a vice admiral waiting to deliver a message and ultimatum.  The warlords of the sea are being summoned together in preparation for a confrontation with White Beard.  Luffy's brother, Ace, is going to be executed in seven days and they expect a massive rescue attempt to take place at Impel Down.  The vice-admiral presents the ultimatum of show up to fight for the World Government or be stripped of your title and protection.  Hancock, not wanting to show weakness to her crew, rebuffs the demand and uses her powers, turns everyone on the ship to stone, with the exception of the vie-admiral.  He tells her she has a limited amount of time to given him her answer or face the consequences.  Hancock dismisses him and their ship heads home.

    As the princess returns home, the women hunting for Luffy become more desperate.  Hancock is approached by their previous leader, an old woman named Nyon, who tells the younger woman to accept the demands from the World Government to continue to protect their lands existence.  Hancock throws her out of a palace window in anger and goes to take a bath.  When the princess or her two sisters bathe the entire city is put on alert and the palace is closed off from anyone entering it.  There is a legend that they had defeated a terrifying gorgon but been cursed with the gorgons eyes on their back as a result.  Now if anyone were to see the marks they would be turned to stone.  As she is bathing, Luffy is back in the city, searching for someone he can convinces to let him use their ship.  He ends crashing into the bath as Hancock is enjoying her relaxing time alone.  He sees the marking on her back but it does not turn him to stone.  Luffy also recognized the markings but before he can question her about it her sisters rush in to investigate the commotion.

 

    Luffy once again finds himself a captive of the Amazons.  He is brought to a arena for judgement and summary execution.  His executioner is a monstrous cat, which he quickly dispatches.  In an effort to plead for his life, Margaret reveals that she is the one who initially brought him to the island, not knowing he was a man at first.  For her confession, Hancock turns her and two friends into stone statues, horrifying Luffy.  Hancock then sends her two sisters to put him out of his misery.   They transform into creatures, revealing their Zoan type devil fruit powers to him.  The gorgon sisters use the hika power to predict Luffy's movements, causing him trouble in the fight.  In addition to that their physical attacks do damage to him, even though his body if rubber.  The battle does not last long as Luffy, determined to protect the statues of the women petrified because of him, summons his own battle spirit and busts through the sisters defenses.  He sends one flying towards the crowd, about to reveal the mark on her back.  Recalling they would rather die than have anyone see them he jumps to cover up her markings.  Knowing the danger the mark possesses the crowd flees the arena.

    The sisters admit defeat.  Hancock tells him that he can either choose to have the three woman returned to normal or be given a boat.  With out hesitating he chooses the woman to be saved.  The selflessness of his action moves Hancock to tears and she invites him to share in their feast, marking her return home.  Luffy is taken to the palace where they learn of his attack on a World Noble.  Hancock reveals the nature of their marks as symbols of ownership by celestial dragons.  She and he sisters had been kidnapped ten years earlier and sold into slavery.  During their time they were given devil fruit for amusement and it eventually helped them escape and return to their island.  During the feast, Luffy learns from Nyon that Hancock is one of the Warlords of the Sea and is being summoned to help protect the prison Impel Down while they prepare to execute Ace.  Luffy's only hope of getting there in time is to get a ride with Hancock.  He rushes to ask her to let him join the voyage but finds he suddenly bed ridden.  Nyon realizes it is a deadly affliction that has stuck down previous rulers of their land...Hancock is madly in love with Luffy.

 

    Hancock accepts this 'disease' and finds herself more than willing to help Luffy get to the prison to try and save his brother.  They leave immediately, meeting up with the vice-admiral, who is still waiting outside of their island.  Luffy has wrapped himself around her body and is hidden in her cloak.  Hancock restores all of the frozen Marines and the two pirates board the ship, headed to the worlds most infamous prison.  The place where all of the World Governments power is gathering in anticipation with a battle against White Beard, one of the 4 emperors of the sea.

    Meanwhile, we see short segments of the fates of the other members of the Straw Hat pirates.  Nami finds herself on a sky island that has dedicated its self to studying weather.  While there she learns of a rope technique for controlling wind that she can pair with her normal attacks.  Frankie lands in a frozen land full of more advanced machinery than he can imagine.  Due to the lack of cola, tea is instead supplied to keep his restored body active, turning him from a wild hooligan into a reserved and polite aristocrat.  Chopper ends up on a small jungle island where he has to avoid being eaten by large birds and hungry natives.  Sanji lands on an island filled with beautiful woman only to come to his senses and realizes it is a safe haven for drag queens.  Robin finds her self in a frozen land known as Tequila Wolf.  She is brought to safety bu a young girl who hides her in a work house.  The residents of the island are enslaved and forced to work on a massive bridge that is spanning between islands.  The residents are captives and prisoners of the World Government and the operation has existed for centuries.  Robin can now count herself as one of its residents as she failed to evade capture.  Zoro winds up on an abandoned gothic villa and ends up becomes the plaything of Perona, who was sent to the same place when she encountered Kuma at Thriller Bark.

 

    Resetting the crew and the story isn't a bad thing, given the way the danger for the crew escalated.  This short arc cools off the treat level quite a bit and settles into a ridiculous story.  The story for the most part is pretty rote when it comes to tales of men dealing with an island of amazons.  It didn't really become something that held my interest until Hancock revealed the nature her sisters markings and how that also tied in with Hachi's forehead tattoo.  She tells about a fishman pirate who was similarly branded and lead a slave mutiny, freeing as many of his kind as he could.  The symbol of their pirate crew was a modification of the brand, in an attempt to conceal it.

    Outside of this setting up Luffy's infiltration of Impel Down and what I sense is the coming apex of the series so far...I know a time skip is going to happen, just didn't want to find out when it occurs.  I suspect its coming soon though.  I am excited for the story ahead and it was nice for the relaxed story in this arc but a lot of it was pretty bad in general.  Next up, Luffy faces the World Government alone in his attempt to save his older brothers life, Impel Down!!!

One Piece - anime part 11 - Sabaody Archipelago

    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 eleventh story arc of the series, Sabaody Archipelago, originally aired between December of 2008 and June of 2009 for a total of 26 episodes, between 382 and 407.

    The struggles at Thriller Bark almost killed the crew of the Thousand Sunny.  But through Zoro's selfless sacrifice they survived and are reinvigorated to continue on to Fish-man Island...along with the newest member of the crew, the living skeletal musician, Brook.

    With a ship full of treasure and food, the Straw Hat pirates continue to follow the logpose to Fish-man Island.  What better thing to do, to help recuperate, than take a bit of time to pamper yourself!  They do so at a luxurious spa called, you guessed it, Spa Island!  Here they meet two sisters who are trying to find their father, who had left them years earlier for his scientific research.  They are attacked by none other than Foxy and his remaining two lackey crew.  The pirates, aware of the abilities of their opponents, handily defeat them and help the sisters on their mission to rejoin their father and complete his research.

    After this short distraction the crew is on their way forward with the plot.  They find themselves at the other side of the Grand Line, the Red Line.  Using a submarine stored on the ship, they investigate beneath the waves, looking for clues to how to get to Fish-man Island.  The submarine goes deeper than Frankie built it to withstand and quickly surface before the crew is lost to the depths.  Before they can plan their next step a giant sea beast attacks them.  After quickly dispatching it, the monster pukes out a mermaid and her starfish companion.  The mermaid, Kamie, thanks them for rescuing them.  She and her starfish companion, Pappagu, had gotten swallowed a while ago and in that time their friend, who runs a takoyaki stand, had been kidnapped by a gang of slavers called the Macro Gang.  Luffy agrees to help her rescue their friend...in exchange for food.

 

    The Macro Gang has captured Kamies friend in order to set a trap, in the hopes of capturing her, to sell into slavery.  Mermaids can fetch a lot of money on the slave market due to how elusive they are.  The gangs leader, Iron Mask Duval sees another opportunity falling into his lap with the plan, when he learns that Luffy and his crew are with the mermaid.  The Straw Hats arrive at the gangs base to find it suspiciously quiet.  They also learn that Kamies captured friend is the octopus fishman Hatchi, who had previously been a member of Arlongs crew and caused them some trouble back on Nami's home island.  Luffy changes his mind and refuses to rescue Hatchi, forcing Kamie and Pappagu to attempt to do it on their own.  This springs the Marco Gangs trap, whose forces reveal themselves and attack the pirates with full force.  Luffy and the rest jump into action to fend off the gang.  In the process Luffy is knocked into the hideout where he comes face to face with their leader.  In the struggle he knocks off the mans mask to reveal his face...

    The leader, Duval, a large man who had previously been a low key thug and belligerent in a small town, suddenly found his easy life as a thug disrupted when the Marines began to try and capture him.  The reason...he resembles the terrible drawn portrait on Sanji's wanted poster.  Duval sees the answer to all of his sudden troubles before him and eagerly takes the opportunity to defeat Sanji and clear his 'good' name in the process.  Duval underestimates the threat the Straw Hats pose and his gang is utterly defeated.  Sanji, unwilling to accept anyone's life has been ruined more than his due to the terrible portrait, kicks Duvals face with such ferocity that it rebuilds his bone structure, changing how he looks.

 

    With the kidnappers defeated and Hatchi rescued, the Straw Hats are given their promised reward and gorge on his takoyaki.  While feasting, Duval returns and pledges his servitude to Sanji in exchange for making him a handsome man.  He can resume his life as a petty thug without the Marines hunting him down thinking he's a Straw Hat pirate.  Hatchi agrees to help Luffy get to Fish-man Island but they have to go to the nearby Sabaody Archipelago first, to prepare the Thousand Sunny for the journey into the depths of the ocean.  He has a friend who is an expert at coating ships in a resin that will protect it from the crushing depths they need to travel through in order to reach the next island.

     Sabaody is not an island, but rather a collection of enormous mangrove trees that have created a solid surface to allow for buildings and people.  Hatchi warns them that they may encounter World Nobles, also referred to as celestial dragons.  They are descendants of the families that had come together to form the World Government 800 years earlier.  They are essentially above the law and if they feel like it, they have the ability to call on the Marines to dispatch an admiral to come to their aid.  He tells them that what ever a celestial dragon does they are not to react, even if they kill someone.  Sabaody exists in a gray area legally, even though it is close to the seat of the Wold Government.  Slavers and pirates and bounty hunters can move around without much trouble from the Marines...that is unless they cause a problem.  Even with the air of permission, he stresses how important it is for the Straw Hat pirates to refrain from drawing attention to themselves.  In addition to that he and Kamie try to hide that they are fishmen,

 

    After renting transportation they learn their first lesson regarding the ways of the island.  They encounter a man who is begging for help from the shoppers around him.  He is a pirate who has been sold into slavery and is trying to get to freedom.  The problem is a collar clamped around his neck.  He is begging people to help him remove it but they ignore his pleas.  The reason becomes clear when the collar explodes, dealing the man a mortal wound.  Before he dies the celestial dragon who owns him arrives, complaining about how bad of a slave he is and puts him out of his misery.  Hatchi tells everyone to get on their knees and avoid looking at the celestial dragon.  It takes every ounce of self control for Luffy to not avenge the poor pirates pointless death.  Lesson learned.

    On their way to meet Hatchis friend they thwart and attempt by bounty hunters to capture them, their presence on the archipelago has not gone unnoticed.  They reach the place his friend stays to find he is not around.  The woman who runs the bar, Shakki, tells them they have arrived at an interesting time.  Aside from them there are nine other rookie pirates who have bounties over 100,000,00 berries on the archipelago.  It is unusual for so many of the new crop of pirates to be gathered in one place as they all push into the new world, in search of more fortune and adventure.  The bounty hunters are itching to cash in on so many high bounties and the world government surely has eyes on their movements as well.  They head back out to try and search for Hatchi's friend, Rayleigh, heading to an amusement park first.

 

    Unfortunately their fun is cut short when a slaver captures Kamie, realizing that she is a mermaid.  The group rushes into action once her disappearance is noticed even calling Duval to have his gang help them search for her.  They know the best place to find their friend is the slaver auction hall but how are they going to get her back without fighting for her.  Duval and his gang spread through out the archipelago, gathering up the pirates, who have begun to spread out trying to track her down.  They get to the auction hall after the days sales have already begun and discover that some of the celestial dragons are there, further complicating their plan.  Nami is resolved to spend all of their treasure from Thrill Bark if necessary to buy Kamie.  Those chances are squashed when the same celestial dragon they had encountered, killing the runaway slave, out bids everyone with an astronomical price to add the mermaid to his private collection.  Luffy throws the place into chaos when he arrives, making a crash landing and ready to fight everyone, done with playing nice.  Hatchi restrains him, revealing his fishman nature, causing the gathered humans to reveal their anti fishman racism.  Luffy can no longer contain his anger and punches the celestial dragon, putting everyone life in danger.

    The Marines arrive swiftly, surrounding the place and a call is placed to have the nearest admiral arrive to end the disturbance.  In the confusion, Hatchi's friends Rayleigh, who had been captured himself, breaks out of his cell and removes his collar.  He appears in the middle of the melee and saves Kamie from being killed by another celestial dragon, reuniting with Hatchi at last.  Introductions are brief, but they learn that Rayleigh was once Gol D.Rodgers second in command and in one of the most wanted people on the planet.  He eagerly agrees to help them, given their relationship with Hatchi.  As they prepare to leave Luffy encounters two other rookie pirate captains, a first time meeting peers.  The three captains face off against the gathered Marines, showing off their physical prowess to each other in a display of strength, easily defeating the soldiers.  Once the threat is neutralized everyone scatters, fearing the imminent arrival of an admiral.

    Back at Shakki's bar they come up with a plan to coat the ship and leave as soon as possible  Unfortunately it will take Rayleigh three days so the crew needs to hide as much as possible given the sudden attention they have drawn by defying celestial dragons.  They agree to split up and meet back at the ship once the coating is done.  Unfortunately they don't get far before the weight of the World Government comes crashing down around them.  The admiral who has been dispatched is Kizaru and his arrival sends everyone into a panic, wishing to flee his wrath, even if they are not the primary target.  He is after Luffy and his crew but will arrest anyone else he comes across.  Kizaru is not alone, with him are replicas of Kuma known as Pacifistas.  They do not share Kuma's devil fruit power but are incredibly dangerous on their own.  The Straw Hats exert almost all of their energy taking one of them down and just when they think they can return to trying to hide, Kizaru arrives.

    Once again, at the end of their limit, faced with utter annihilation, the Straw Hats face a danger greater than anything they have ever encountered.  Kizaru, one of three Marine Admirals, has the ability of light at his disposal and is impervious to any physical attack.  To make things worse, more Pacifistas arrive along with Kizaru's nephew.  Before Kizaru can kill Zoro, Rayleigh arrives to try and buy the rookie pirates time to escape.  Even though Kizaru is distracted by the arrival of the highly wanted pirate, the Straw Hats escape seems impossible.  The real Kuma arrives, coming to the archipelago for a separate matter, and begins to attack the Straw Hats as well.  Instead of using his air expansion powers he uses his ability to 'disappear' anyone, as he had done to Perona at Thriller Bark.  One by one the Straw Hats are removed from existence until all that is left is Luffy, who has fallen into the pits of despair and terror.  And lastly Luffy is hit with Kuma's strange attack and the Straw Hats pirates are no more.

    Oh and then we have some filler episodes set in the feudal Japan world...a palette cleanser if you will.

 

    The story just continues to be really solid and well crafted, ever since the terrible arc that was Foxy.  From Water Eight, through the intense struggle that was Enies Lobby and then into the mortal dangers of Thriller Bark, the story has been full speed ahead, pushing these whimsical pirates up against one danger after another.  They nearly got wiped out in Thrill Bark.  Bt now, facing an Admiral and Kuma they were definitely out classed.  They have ambitious goals, at least Luffy and Zoro, but its these last few fights that really make you wonder if they can retain their optimistic confidence that set them on this journey so long ago.  Luffy recognized this time that they had no chance to survive and was doing everything he could to keep everyone alive.  But in the end, their luck and tenacity has run out and the overwhelming power of their foes has outdone them. 

    Kuma's ability doesn't make someone disappear from existence though,  Kizaru's nephew explains that he can hit someone with such velocity that it sends them flaying through the sky....sending them far away form where they were hit, essentially throwing them to the other side of the ocean.  The Straw Hats are not dead, they suddenly find themselves scattered to the winds and now we will move into some stories that will find them coming back together.  They have come so close to their newest goal only to have their gains erased in an instant.  They are now without a ship, there is no treasure and they do not have each other.  It could be a long road to pick up where they left off from and they may be different before that happens.

 

    The Sabaody arc has really ramped up the story telling and world building.  We have been seeing slices of the powers in the World Government and as Luffy becomes more infamous they begin to pay more attention to him.  He and other members of his crew are also benefiting from an amount of protection from some of those same power, for a variety of reasons.  For unexplained reasons some members at the top of the decision making tree want to see them survive into an unknown and potentially radical future.  Yet they can only grow and succeed on their own in the end and right now...they are at the bottom again.  At this point as well the show is into its tenth year and the production values are noticeably improving.  Over all the series is keeping at a slowly improving pace between both story its telling and the way its telling it.  But how long can it keep this pace up?

    Next up, the Isle of Woman arc before we get into an arc that seems quite interesting...but more about that when the time is right.