@MasterKingJC:
Giant Luffy was just…..so weird. XD
Yeah, the animation didn't help.
Also there's also the matter of….Lilly's boobs. O_O
--- Update From New Post Merge ---
@Crossword:
…That was really bizarre. Between Zoro not getting any lines, Robin ripping apart midget subs with her bare hands, Alpacacino knowing Ambition, Shuzo trying to rip off Crocodile's famous scene, and Luffy's ''transformation'' (btw, shouldn't Gear Second have boiled Lily alive?) to cap things off, I think this is the most surreal episode of One Piece I've seen since...oh I dunno, somewhere around Rainbow Mist.
It was also very bad. Little East Blue was definitely worse than Z's Ambition overall, but at least didn't fumble it in the fourth quarter and actually had a cool little fight and a character moment in Nami relating to Yoko how Luffy saved her from Arlong. This was just...bad. And unremarkable. I can't say anything else.
Well, okay, Momonga's scene at the end was good, and the Z cameo had a little more substance than the one with Shiki back then, but they couldn't save it. Oh well, on to better things in the New Year.
Thing is, both arcs began and ended the exact same way.
I wouldn't realy say this was bad, definitely nowhere near as bas as Little East Blue, mainly because in my eyes Colt is a strong contender for being named the Chad of One Piece, and Yoko was absolutely annoying, not to mention the whole thing with Boss was never even acknowledged in the movie.
This does make me wonder why Momonga had to even be in this filler, if all he did was exchange a few non-striking blows with Zoro and then show up at the end to talk about the "law" (even if Marines have executed people, even their own subordinates, without trial before in this series). Realy, an honest to god filler marine would have been enough for the handfull of scenes he was in.
On the plus side I didn't hate Lilly or Panz Fry, just Lilly's hair colour looked way too fillerish to me.
But the biggest problem here was the plot, as in there was none. I have yet to see all of G 8 but there, we had a similar situation, meaning there were tons of marines around and we had to get someone/something (Merry) before being able to leave and there it took several episodes to achieve that goal. Here we have Panz freed from the marines the first episode he shows up, the episode before that is all just setup, and the other two episodes are fighting. Problem is the fighting isn't that good, because it does seem like Luffy got floored a bit too much early on.
In addition, they want us to have some sort of emotional response for the Neo Marines conviction to kill themselves but first it's all no name fodder, and second of all they were sacrificing themselves to crash into rocks nowhere near their target.
Once again this arc was constructed in a way that will surely in no way lead into anything in the movie, and the sole connection is an extra goon under the control of the absent Main bad guy, who won't ever show up during the movie.
Also didn't dislike the wtf transformation, just found it weird.
So yeah, overall this wasn't nowhere near as bad as the Little East Blue Arc, the original characters aren't unenjoyable and while Shuzo doesn't show much in his fight with Luffy beyond simple rokushiki techniques (btw him blocking Luffy's Haki punch this early into the New World seems like a bit of a mistake), but at least he showcased something. Don't realy care for the guy, his laugh was dumb and he had no personality, realy, but meh. Also Alpacachino's voice was well and truly annoying.
So overall, not sure if it's better then the Rainbow Mist Era fillers, but definitely better then LEB and all of Ice Hunter outside of the fight with the Don (because seriously Puzzle, you suck).
–- Update From New Post Merge ---
@Nolus:
Reading the comments I decided to skip most of this episode.
I only have one question: whatever happened to Momonga between floating on a piece of ship and teaching Shuzo about how Justice works? Did he just… lose or something? Did he geppou back to a base and call for help?
EDIT:
Shuzo: How did you survive?
Momonga staring at him. Suit's stainless. No sign of fighting whatsoever.
Hilarious.
Watch the rest. Ya gotta see Giant Luffy. Ya just gotta.
–- Update From New Post Merge ---
@Crossword:
Well the issue, or at least the issue I have, is that instead of Shuzo actually putting up a good, tough fight it felt more like his attacks suddenly started doing 9999 damage for no reason.
Thing is they apparently didn't realy figure out a unique or visualy interesting fight style for Shuzo. The lack of a DF limits them to basic fighting and the anime was never realy good at that, in my opinion.
I mean, the Don threw heat balls and his nose to fly like a jet, that was something somewhat cool. Shuzo just throws a "full hand" shigan, but they didn't even bother animating either one of the two, so we're just supposed to imagine how it looks like.
–- Update From New Post Merge ---
@Thousand:
The fuck did I just watch…?
--- Update From New Post Merge ---
I think the worst part was how bad it made everyone look. Never mind Luffy getting his ass kicked, the fact that the rest of his crew did not lift a finger to help him and just stayed watching from the sidelines with barely an emotional response even when their captain got gutted? Ugh.
Also what was with them fishing in clear skies? This was supposed to be the New World!
This filler arc just completely destroyed any sort of tension we had for the New World. Can we go to Punk Hazard now?
Well they usualy don't gang up on people. Unless Kuma shows up after they already took out the boss. :ninja: