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!!!
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