Sanji and head chef Zeff put their differences aside to save a severely wounded Zoro. A ruthless Fishman on a mission stirs up trouble for the crew.
(Source: Netflix)
this was a great episode! <3 but onto spoilers! XD Zoro mihawks fight was nice i love that they left the tiny sword. Kinda wish zoro's flashback was here and not in usopp arc but there would have been no time. for me personally the emotions were not as strong as i felt in the manga and the anime. I think mostly it was because that whole fight happened right after don krieg, and zeff and sanji were also watching this fight, and then zoro cried T_T this was such a big moment. But i think because of time constrants they had to cut a lot out. and it was still good considering how much they had to remove. however for me the problems with don kriegs removal start here, because luffy doesn't have his hero moment here. he doesn't save baratie. zeff doesn't say his iconic line about luffy's inner strength. This while part was the one that had sanji gravitate towards joining the strawhats. Also watching zoro's fight too. Other than that zoro pledging loyalty to luffy, i almost cried T_T but tbh luffy here is so much weaker, that zoro being the only strong one pledging his loyalty to him felt a bit strange but still nice. I didn't like nami blaming luffy for this. though i do understand where they come from. nami holding usopp's hand was super nice. shows some bonding, shows that she cares, and also ties with later parts of the story where nami and usopp constantly panic together XD i like how they showed zeff and sanji cooking together, it showed that they are not really hating each other. Sanji's backstory, honeslty the best one so far, i think because it was coherent. wasn't cut out and sprinkled throughout. A little sad that they decided to make emphasis on him making gourmet food or something instead of throwing away the leftovers. That was such a great arc for sanji, and they could have totally done it. I love that they stuck to the manga version about the leg. The actor playing wee sanji was doing great. But i'll be honest i was so immersed untill he said "you ate your leg" honestly it was terrifying and more impactful than the anime/manga but when he said the phrase it broke my immersion. I do think this was one of those times where they should have gone with the show not tell method. Same with shanks. instead of it's my fault, just crying would have been more impactful for me personally. Here too if he just lost strength in his knees and just fell down of the horrible though, instead of saying about the leg, would have been so much more impactful for me. But nevertheless this backstory was the one i liked the most. And i believe it was because it was shown as a whole. (thank you oda sensei for telling them to keep the backstories as is and not change them T_T), speaking of oda sensei even though i love zoro and nami bonding over drinks but That you Oda sensei for telling them not to include any romance with strawhats! There is completely no need for romance in here! it will only drag them down. Arlong coming here. honestly i wasn't really against arlong being shown early, but the thing is, first of all Luffy fighting arlong here was super unnecessary, this is not a kaidou fight, showing luffy losing easily like that created more problems for me. Second bring the phrase "which one of you is arlong" here is so sad T_T this phrase lost it's meaning and took a different meaning in here. :( in the manga luffy says it in the village helping nami, and there it was sooooooooooo impactful, as it was like i don't care what rumors i have heard, i don't care who you are, you hurt my friend so come out and i'll beat you. That was so impactful. here it wasn't. But at the same time i'm thankful they kept the phrase. But luffy losing here, was strange, because now when he loses, Sanji's desire to join the crew feels strange, and zeff being ok with sanji leaving was also strange. They didn't see zoro fight, the y just saw him deadly injured, they didn't see luffy against don krieg, they just saw how he was beaten by arlong. So him leaving felt a bit odd. i kind of wish they would have kept the whole stuff being like go away sanji your cooking is bad and all, but i understand that they didn't have time. Also the "dogeza". the goodbye and thank you on knees T_T man i cried during that moment, but here him being on top of the ship and looking down on zeff but saying thank you was a bit odd :( even though he acted very well, his voice cracking and all. I guess this was more for a western audience. :( though i'm also one, but i prefer the japanese way XDStill they have done really great if we consider all the limitations they had!luffy saying zoro i need you and zoro pledging loyalty here. Honestly it was moving, but at the same time, i felt sorry for luffy, i was thinking like, yes zoro please protect our precious luffy. While luffy has to be stronger from the very start XD But I LOVE luffy jumping on zoro immediately after zoro waking up XD lol XD that's so luffy XDNami leaving it was very different so it didn't have that shocking impact of "omg she is evil she betrayed them O__O them" feel that the manga had XD it was good in it's own way <3 oh right, mihawk telling garp about luffy. honestly i'm not sure about this. he fought zoro, so he could have told about zoro, but he didn't see anything of luffy, except him having shank's hat. but i guess maybe like haki feeling or something XDmarines, i still think they are taking too much of the precious time but at the same time understand why they are doing it XD coby and helmeppo bonding over drinks? XD it was weird and had vibes that were not really about those two but ok XD i still ship coby with that girl from the manga though. Overall it was a great episode, which ties us in with arlong park! :D but i have to mention how much i love the paintings on baratie walls! and gaimon being in one of those T_T perfection T_T