One Piece Episode 610
What They Say:
It’s a showdown between two Navy vice admirals – Vergo and Smoker – in the SAD manufacturing room! Meanwhile, Caesar continues to corral his enemies into the first floor of R Building in order to further his devious plans. While the action rages on, Luffy finds himself deep in the facilities garbage dump — and he’s not alone!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
As the storyline goes, there’s a lot of characters in different areas that do eventually come together into larger groups, but there’s just a lot of subplots. It’s something that can be fun and engaging but it also hits its frustration notes at times, such as with the Vergo and Law fight going on here as you want more of it but have to work through some of the less interesting aspects of the storyline. At this stage, I have to say that I am indeed definitely tired of the oversized kids and their subplot, even if they are a minor part of it since the arrival of more of the Straw Hats that have come to help and defend them in the midst of all this chaos. Thankfully, the show really doesn’t wait too long to get back to the Vergo and Law storyline, which changed slightly with the arrival of Smoker in the previous episode.
Of course, it’s not going to get a ton of consistent time since we had the fight between Vergo and Law in the previous episode and while it didn’t dominate, it has to be parceled out slowly so other stories can draw up well. Still, there’s some fun in seeing how Smoker calls out Vergo for what he’s been up to and attempts to tweak him in his own way. Beyond that, the show runs across a few of the groups but it also spends some quality time with Caesar as he talks with his troops about his plans and what’s going to happen, but there’s also a minor monkey wrench in the works here as they realize that there are similarities to what happened on the island in the past that freaks them out and what’s going on now in regards to Vegapunk. That put Caesar in a precarious position because of his own connection to it that could cause him to lose their loyalty.
Some of what Caesar goes into with how far he wants to go does cause some concern among those higher up in his ranks as they’re finding some of what he wants to do to be rather cruel, but Caesar just revels in it, which only reinforces their concern. He has his long term issues with various opponents and supposed allies in a way and all of it adds to the overall style he has and his determination to create such dangerous things. Getting some flashback time to what happened earlier in the history of the island here with Vegapunk and seeing how he was taken down by them until he caused the catastrophe on the island that has lead to it being what it is today is welcome to finally get, especially since it’s just a couple of minutes rather than an overly extensive flashback arc.
In Summary:
Though we do get some interesting information here about Caesar, from his past to the way he’s dealing with his subordinates at this stage as events unfold, the subplot with him is one that is admittedly boring me a fair deal at this point. And annoying as well as his voice and the sound that comes from his existence is just getting on my nerves and has been for some time. He’s a decent villain, but one that has worn out his welcome for me and that makes the extended time we get with him here rather painful. The reveals are nice and I do like what we get as it explains away a few missing aspects from the past and that helps to flesh things out while giving a few nods in the present to what’s going on. But I am so ready to finish out this arc and move on to something else, even if it’s a sea of fillers and side stories for a few months.
Grade: B
Streamed By: FUNimation
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.