I’d Rather One Piece | Week 6

EP 234-273

This week I watched episodes 234-273 and it was quite a ride. I think this may be the best arc of One Piece I’ve seen so far. It’s been full of surprises and some epic moments. This week I saw betrayal, childhood trauma, and infighting.

This week started off kind of crazy. Usopp got beat up by the Franky family when he tried to get 200 million berries back from them. This led to Luffy, Zorro, Sanji, and Chopper completely demolishing the Franky family. One of my favorite lines of the week came from when Luffy said, “Not even your bones will be left when we are done!” And sure enough, seconds later the entire Franky House was demolished.

Unfortunately, even after all of that they still didn’t get their money back because Franky was out spending it all. When the crew finally got Usopp back on his feet, Luffy told him that they were getting rid of the Going Merry. This led to a huge fight that ended up with Usopp leaving the crew and challenging Luffy to a duel for ownership of the Merry. Usopp was still pretty injured but this ended up being a great fight. Usopp fought proudly and he definitely earned some respect in this fight. He knew he couldn’t beat Luffy, but he pulled out every trick in his arsenal to stop him. In the end, Usopp stopped all of Luffy’s attacks but still managed to lose the fight. Luffy gave him the ship anyway. I wonder when Usopp will officially return to the Straw Hats?

Later on, we see Robin attempt to kill Iceberg and frame the Strawhats for the crime. I say attempt to kill but the fact that she didn’t kill him simply means that she wasn’t really trying. Either way, this part of the story left me very intrigued on what was really going on. In the end, we find out that Robin is working with a secret World Government Organization named CP9 and she’s actually doing it to protect the Strawhats from a Buster Call. Apparently, a Buster Call is what completely destroyed the island where Robin grew up. She was the only survivor. The government is using her childhood trauma to manipulate her. This is pretty deep for a shonen anime.

After CP9 accomplishes their goal, they take Robin away to Enies Lobby, the headquarters of the world government. Luffy and the crew go on a rescue mission to save Robin from the ridiculously strong members of CP9 and thousands of government soldiers. Usopp is also there to save Robin in disguise, as Sniper King, because he doesn’t want to show his face since he’s no longer a part of the crew. Sniper King’s theme song is really catchy and I found it quite enjoyable.

The last few episodes I saw this week were basically just a bunch of marines getting beaten up (mostly by Luffy). Luffy also delivered some more awesome lines.

Marine: Hey Luffy how many friends did you bring with you? We have 10,000 men here at Enies Lobby.

Luffy: Sorry it’s just me. {Cracks his knuckles and proceeds to dismantle the marines}

And this line he delivered with so much passion to one of the members of CP9.

Luffy: I don’t care about your honor, your government or any of that crap.

I can’t wait until next week to see more of this awesomeness. I’ll never grow tired of Luffy’s fearlessness against seemingly insurmountable odds. So hype for next week!