One Piece Episode 647
What They Say:
Luffy stands along against Don Chinjao, and learns about the old grudge he bears against Garp! Meanwhile, Usopp and Robin get swept up in the Tontatta Kingdom’s raid against the royal family, and Franky learns the eerie secret of Dressrosa – the land of living toys!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
As the Dressrosa arc has gone on, it’s been a lot more fun throughout it than I expected. While I typically like One Piece, the drawn out nature and slow builds can be a bit annoying at times, especially if the material for the arc in the build up doesn’t connect well. Here, I’ve really enjoyed the whole arena aspect that’s been going on and some of the other areas as well. Even the less than enjoyable stuff has worked decently since it’s been kept to smaller pieces, like Zoro’s running around or the weirdness going on back at the Sunny. The main fun has been elsewhere and the arena arc itself has managed to be playful and fun even as it just shows a bunch of characters fighting that we may not see again or get invested in. And it’s fun with Luffy still wearing his disguise.
That series of fights has been varied in quality, but it’s been fun and it’s been taken up a notch now that Luffy is going up against the Don who has a serious issue with Garp that he’s held a grudge about for thirty years. And he’s now able to take it out on Garp’s grandson in a big way to provide even a little closure. Of course, it goes in a weird mix of strong action and a whole lot of crying on the Don’s part because of the emotional aspect of it. With the other characters in the series, we finally get up with Sanji as he and our less than favorite samurai find out what Luffy’s up to and then discover that the Navy is hanging around outside the colosseum waiting for the pirates and other criminals to come out so they can capture them. Of course, it’s a long wait since nobody is coming out at yet since the survivors watch the following matches and most of the losers are likely unconscious.
This episode also gives us a bit more on the toys that exist on the island and some of what the rules with them are about, but also the hint that they may have been humans formerly that ended up in this form. That’s shown with one toy who remembers and tries to get back with his girlfriend, which ends very badly for him. This exploration of events works pretty well as with Franky and the toy he’s with, we get a tiny bit of history about how all of this happened and that’s definitely interesting, though it leaves you wondering how it’ll impact the larger storyline of this arc. Nothing happens in One Piece without being connected to the rest, at least within an arc, and bringing up people being made into toys could be both fun and scary when it comes to the Straw Hats.
While Luffy’s fights tend to be big, there’s some fun when it gets down to one on one material. His time with Don Chinjao definitely works nicely here as it progresses since the two of them go at it earnestly without any playing. Luffy’s just intent on Chinjao taking up his issues with Garp himself and not him but Chinjao is just going to go bigger and bigger in order to deal with his grudge. We get a bit of action in different way as well towards the end of this episode as we get a little more over in Green Bit with what Law is dealing with. The meteor strikes are getting a bit much at this point, it’s a little over the top to be used this much, but it’s definitely fun to watch Law being on the defensive side and taking some rel hits along the way.
In Summary:
One Piece does some decent stuff here as it works through the arc. While we get a good bit of action throughout it that’s fun and serious depending on the situation, we’re also getting a bit of knowledge along the way. While the teases at the end with Usopp and what he and Robin learn are interesting in the bigger picture, it’s the other pieces that come in that I liked, from seeing the toys explored a bit more and to seeing what the Navy is up to at the arena. The big sell continues to be the fun of the fight in the arena with Luffy and Chinjao and while it doesn’t go as big as one might hope, or as quickly, it has a lot to like and is definitely fun. You can continue to see events drawing closer here as the various subplots are starting to connect more and nearing some merging points.
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.