One Piece Episode 628
What They Say:
Breed has used his Peto-Peto powers to totally overwhelm Luffy and Law – and with them now drowning in the sea, no one can stand in his way! But will he be able to make his dream of an all-animal kingdom come true? Or is there a weakness in his powers that the Straw Hats can exploit? Meanwhile, a big shakeup in the New World reorganizes the power balance for good!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The problem of sending largely Devil Fruit users down under the sea to chase after Caesar is starting to become a bit more pronounced here, with Breed having manipulated things with Chopper and having Law and Luffy tossed over the side to drown. Amusingly, we did get the nod towards that when the group left as those on board the Sunny commented about it, but you knew it was foreshadowing that things were not going to go well and there was going to be a way to deal with it. With the two tossed, Chopper completely out of it at this point and our favorite Dugong panicking and in tears, it’s built up nicely with some drama. Which Breed of course cackles about with his comical laugh that ends up twisting the mood. Kudos to the Dugong for trying to smack him down, even while collared.
Thankfully, while this could have been its own subplot with them being tossed over, the pair end up coming back pretty quick as they managed a trick in doing so to deal with Breed. His ability is one that is certainly interesting with how he controls people, but it took someone like Law to get involved to see through the trick and use it to his advantage. With Breed’s power being one that works through sound rather than directly into the head of those being controlled, blocking the sound saves them from being controlled. And their being tossed overboard comically timed with Law using his ability to shift, which landed them at the ship below that Caesar was about to steal and head off in. Which essentially puts Law and Luffy on top – for the moment – since they get to recapture him and outsmart Breed. But can that really last?
Not surprisingly, the second half shifts to some posturing before Luffy is able to rally most of those that were enslaved to fight back against Breed, who had bulked up in order to show that he’s not all talk. It’s short overall but nicely done in a simplistic kind of inspirational way since we get Luffy and the Dugong fighting together to take out Breed. You have to appreciate the simplicity and fun of it all. This manages to resolve the whole subplot surprisingly quickly, which almost disappoints since there is a certain kind of fun to it and I loved having the Dugong back for awhile. The show does close out with some interesting stuff though as the newspaper arrives (always a comical event) and we get to see the fallout from what Doflamingo has done in quitting and how Law is now in an alliance with Luffy. It’s a little bit ot stage setting in showing how the various factions are aligning and some of the reactions by the common folks as they sense that events are going to change in the New World.
In Summary:
As a small side story, I really enjoyed this one since it was short and to the point and was very fun along the way. The gap between main arcs can be problematic at times with poor filler stories, separation of characters and just way too much material, but this little story definitely ticked off all the right boxes for me. We got some good time between Luffy and Law, got to be amused by Chappy and I absolutely loved the return of the Dugong. Breed wasn’t the most engaging of villains but it was enough to serve the story that exists here before moving on to the next thing. The scope of the storyline continues to grow and as we see more of the fallout from recent events, it’ll be interesting to see where it ends up going next. Having not read the manga, it’s a series that still manages to surprise and delight.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.