One Piece Log: Fish-Man Island Saga

Episode 18

Episode 18 of One Piece Log: Fish-Man Island Saga continues the battle for the fate of Fish-Man Island by upping the stakes (quite literally).

Big fan of how this arc's finale comes into focus. If we're nitpicking, Hody Jones' plan is a bit overcomplicated. Relying on Vander Decken to get Noah heading towards Shirahoshi, then have her swimming up and away only to kill him so it descends on the island… it's a lot, right? There are more than a few variables there that could go sideways. But I'm willing to give it a pass because it's incredibly dramatic in the best, most over-the-top fashion. Making Shirahoshi the target only to betray his co-conspirator and ultimately have Shirahoshi's attempted escape provide the potential energy needed to drop Noah on the island with meteoric impact – it's dramatic, it's bold, it's classic villainy. Hody Jones wins big style points in that regard.

There's also a lot of good old-fashioned pirate action to enjoy in this episode. The Straw Hats get another round-robin-style sequence of attacks, something I always enjoy and wish we got more of. The best part for my money was Zeo under Brooke's shoe yelling about the slow attack he was using. Nothing like killing your foe on a geological time scale. The Luffy and Hody fight also incorporated Luffy's Devil Fruit weakness/Achilles Heel in a way we seldom see. The management of the bubble's buoyancy to keep him mobile and prevent him from drowning was a nice touch that, again, doesn't come up nearly as often as you would think. I know it would be a crutch to use it all the time, but as Jones points out, it's a pretty significant weakness for someone who wants to rule the seas. Glad to see it brought to the forefront and add a different element to the combat than usual.

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One Piece Log: Fish-Man Island Saga is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.