With all three initial Zou episodes being home runs, it was only a matter of time before we got an episode that was just “pretty good.” The majority of the crew has reunited, minus Sanji, so most of this episode is the crew sitting around with their new Mink friends and filling each other in on the events that they've missed out on since splitting up early in the Dressrosa arc. As a result, this episode is low on the awe and wonder that this arc was off to such a great start with.
That being said, there are still a few things that I have to give Toei props on, mainly the continued inclusion of genuinely entertaining filler sequences. At the beginning of this arc, the samurai duo who had been tagging along with the Straw Hats, Kin'nemon, and Kanjuro, got knocked off the back of Ryunosuke and had to restart their climb up the elephant on their own. This time, they're using a new living drawing in the form of Nekozaemon the cat. In the manga, that's about as eventful as their re-climb gets. But in the anime, we see their trials as the elephant's run-off water from last week knocks them back down yet again and Nekozaemon just barely survives being washed away, remaining as this horrifying zombie-looking monster that insists on continuing its climb. That image got a big laugh out of me, and I was happy to see Toei editorializing the story in a way that was actually fun to watch.
The rest of the episode centers around a flashback as we learn the immediate events of what went down with Sanji's half of the crew after splitting from Dressrosa and getting chased by Big Mom. We get confirmation that Bege Capone has joined Big Mom's forces and is assisting them with the capture of the Straw Hats' mad scientist hostage, Caesar Clown. The ensuing fight is one of those cool team-up attacks that we don't get to see from the Straw Hats often enough, and I really like seeing Sanji's Sky Walk ability animated in a way that actually has a sense of speed and impact. The crew does manage to escape and even blow a big hole in Big Mom's ship. Not a small feat when your opponent is one of the Four Emperors.
The episode ends with the promise of the continued story of the “Twirly Hat Pirates” and the eventual explanation as to where exactly Sanji has been this whole time. The flashback is to be continued as the crew travels across Zou to meet one of the county's two Dukes, a man named Dogstorm (or “Inuarashi” if you prefer the Japanese name).
This episode isn't exceptional like the last few have been, but it's solid nonetheless. In an ideal world, this is what the lower-end episodes of this show would look like; it's not especially stylish or ambitious, but more of a connecting information episode designed to transition us between the really cool parts of the story. The flashback to the Twirly Hat crew had some good action, and Brook's arrival on the scene was super funny as we learn the natural relationship between a batch of living bones and a community of dog Minks. Lastly, the episode preview for next week looks especially cool as we step closer the the grittier side of Sanji and company's previous adventures on Zou.
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With all three initial Zou episodes being home runs, it was only a matter of time before we got an episode that was just “pretty good.” The majority of the crew has reunited, minus Sanji, so most of this episode is the crew sitting around with their new Mink friends and filling each other in on the events that they've missed out on since splitting up early in the Dressrosa arc. As a result, this episode is low on the awe and wonder that this arc was off to such a great start with.