第30回：一人じゃない

Ideo is one of the longarm people?! Alongside Dellinger that’s the second time this arc I’ve been left reeling from a simple, obvious and satisfying answer to a character’s mysterious appearance.

His line about victory was entirely appropriate to frame the action-packed conclusion to Dressrosa; so many of the colisseum fighters have been featured extensively in the battle with the Donquixote Family building up to the final battle with Doflamingo that this is definitely a shared victory against the Mingo’s forces. I can’t help but wonder if the final blow against Mingo will be a physical embodiment of this shared accomplishment.

Being such a poignant line, I was curious if there were any similar lines from One Piece in the past. Sure enough a search brought up this ’heart’-seeking missile from Jaguar D. Saul: "No one is ever born into this world completely alone!."

Such ideals seem to fit the general pattern throughout the series of developing a ’circle of close friends’ where nobody is alone in life.

The chapter served up a chance for Bartolomeo to shine as a legit fighter who doesn’t simply hide behind barriers and fawn over the Straw Hats with little to show. Following Sabo’s Fire Fist attack, Bari Bari Pistol is the second homage attack from Dressrosa and aptly named, Homage Holy Fist.

That *really* sounds familiar to the fighting style of a certain popular Shonen Jump 1980’s boy’s manga hero. Oh, and did that punch remind anyone else of these scenes?

This is actually the second major homage-based attack from the arc as Sabo’s Fire Fist was in tribute to Ace.

Also of note was Robin’s speed.

Robin stopped Hakuba dead in his tracks which is impressive for a fighter who’s said to be as fast as the wind! Since Alabasta we’ve known that she excels at fighting fast opponents, but fast as the wind!? Exactly what kind of training did she do during the time-skip?

As for her sprouting ability, what the what!? Sprouting in mid-air? Hopefully Oda-sensei can expand upon this in an SBS but I thought Robin could only sprout from objects! Did I just take it for granted that should couldn’t? Or maybe she actually did sprout from something! It is it possible her hands sprouted from flower petals scattered by the commotion of battle??

He first appeared in Episode 637 as a colisseum-attendant who accurately remembered the masked gladiator ’Ricky’ from roughly 20 years ago.

She was also glimpsed in the comic but there was never any confirmation one way or the other. Hopefully we can now assume that she is in fact the queen! I wonder what happened to her…

How awesome is it that I can go from bawling my eyes out to painful fits of laughter in a span of 4 minutes and 53 seconds? One Piece rawks.

The corresponding events in the manga were covered in the 11th edition of this column and the Kyros’ reaction to Scarlet’s death hit me so deep that I decided not to address it then. The feeling of helplessness was augmented by how swiftly events escalated from Kyros telling his family goodbye to *cutting off his own leg and his wife dying in his cold arms without any memory of him*. There was very little time to digest the situation as it kept spiraling into an increasingly cruel series of events.

The animation added Kyros’ desperate rush to the palace including how the sea-prism stone was chained to his leg, but the most important addition was the parting hug shared between the family.

I’m hoping for a perfect bookend scene to close out this sad saga in Kyros and Rebecca’s life.

And now for something completely different! Usoland! MY MAN!!! In the column, I asked (begged) Toei to add a little bit to this fight, just enough to see our brave warrior of the sea in action and they obliged (coincidence)! Before being completely disabled, Usopp unleashed three anime-original attacks:

Considering the outcome, and what yet lies in store for Usopp this arc, this was the perfect amount of extra material to make it meaningful, interesting and ultimately hilarious. Kappei-san, YTMND!