One Piece

Episodes 928-930

Episode 928

In the midst of the Orochi rampage, his ninja bodyguard surround Robin and Toko before they can make their escape. Brook arrives in the nick of time sporting his apparition costume dlc, and in their frightened state Robin lets loose with his trademark flurry o' limbs to send the goobers flying.

Kyoshiro draws his blade and in true dramatic fashion strikes down the Oiran Komurasaki. As she falls to the floor slain, everyone at the party is gripped with shock, including the shogun. Nami and Shinobu meanwhile are observing from above when they are accosted by another ninja. The ninja recalls Shinobu's famed reputation as a woman of shocking beauty. After a deadly display of jutsu, they fall into the main room and Nami lights up the space – I mean when doesn't she? – with an attack from Zeus. In the confusion afforded by her attack, Shinobu deploys her kite once more and helps ferry Nami, Robin, and Toko to safety far away from the castle.

After a brief sequence of Luffy and Hyogoro being watched at prison, we rejoin Chōpper and crew escorting Big Mom – who still has yet to realize who she is. Chōpper is advocating that they do literally anything except let her tag along and be nice to her, but everyone else is quite adamant that they can help Big Mom because she's nice now. Big Mom reiterates that she is quite hungry but off they go!

This was not quite as tense an episode as I was hoping given the stakes, but wow Kyoshiro's attack on Komurasaki is a show stealer. What an absolutely phenomenal sequence. The light beaming from his blade, the black silhouettes of the strike itself, the pristine brutality of it all. The red splash page of the pink petals gushing in the air like a fountain of blood – just a brilliant sequence. The sort of bruised purple tinge to the pink hues that normally accompany the Oiran was a smart call too, it all really came together for this shocking moment.

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Episode 929

Robin, Nami, Shinobu, and Toko have a meeting with Kanjuro in a snowy cabin to discuss what happened. They deliberate on their next move while Robin relays how “little” information (read: she knows all the things) she discovered about Kaido's forces and movements.

Back at Ebisu, the Law, Usopp, Franky, and Sanji hear the news about Komurasaki from the papers. She's dead! Sanji wails at the beauty that Is lost, and then suggests creeping with the raid suit. Usopp and Franky do the Lord's work and pummel him for the suggestion while Law worries about the rest of his crew. We transition to a brief scene with Big Mom's crew wondering what should happen next and who should lead, without much headway being made on either front. Chōpper, Big Mom, and company have decided to hitch a ride on the back of a giant gator of some sort, which is terrific honestly. They report back in to Hitetsu what's going on via transponder snail, and he has a number of misgivings about all this (which he voices, loudly). Kiku relays the plans and locations to him before we jump back to the prison.

At the big house, Luffy has continued to give his food tickets to Hyogoro. He is approached by an Alpaca man who begins to admonish Luffy with a lot of flying spittle. Even though Luffy protests both being forcibly seated in the splash section and the horrible stench, Alpaca man keeps on talking. Meanwhile, Hyogoro is approached by an enormous scorpion guard who is furious that Hyogoro has so much food. He knocks him down and begins putting the boot in quite violently, and we head on to our good friend the To Be Continued sign.

Really enjoyed this one, particularly for the comedy beats. Robin having found out nearly everything there is to know about Kaido and weeping “uwu I didn't find hardly anything” was – my own pro-Robin bias notwithstanding – a great opening gag. Plus the Alpaca guard… I was dying. Luffy having to deal with the stinky spit, the ridiculous dance he was doing, it was too much. Not to mention Takeharu Ōnishi's voice work in that scene – his over-exaggerated PAH PAH PAHs – a riot, I loved every minute.

I'd like to make special mention to the recurring theme of purposeful brutality with the scorpion guard. Once again we see that even though the system has not been broken in any way – Hyogoro is exchanging tickets for food, same as everyone else – there's something fishy about it. The point of the system is not to feed the prisoners, the point is to brutalize and dehumanize them. Even when Luffy is playing by the rules, he runs up against the inherent brutality of the world's structure and it brings him into conflict with those structures.

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Episode 930

At the gates of the prison, a strange new guard approaches to deliver a key that was “misplaced.” The crab(?) man guarding the front gate takes the key to store it safely in a chest… but what's this!? It turns out the newcomer was none other than totally-average-sized-head-ninja Raizo, who makes short work of the goons, grabs the keys, and heads into the fortress. The cunning infiltrator makes his way deeper into the prison o free Luffy.

Luffy catches wind of the beating the scorpion guard is laying on Hyogoro. The former boss is glad to go out this way in the land of the samurai, not backing down – but Luffy won't let it end like this. Inputting a quick quarter circle back + heavy kick, Luffy leaps into the air to wallop the guard and send him sprawling. Hyogoro is saved and the other inmates cheer this new savior, the fires of revolution beginning to spread.

Queen is also on his way to the prison, returning at the head of his Mad Maxian doom brigade – his personal chariot pulled by warthogs no less. As he and his Fist of the North Starian goons return, Queen wonders why it is so noisy within the prison. Luffy, it would seem, it still kicking guards and making inmates cheer, until the elephant man Warden approaches. Delivering a single powerful cannonball blast, he lays Luffy out. Our hero bemoans not being able to use haki due to a combination of his restraints and his hunger.

Queen ogles a picture of the Oiran for a moment before entering the prison. There he puts on a song and dance routine for the guards, who eat up his amazing moves. Afterwards he takes a well-deserved rest in his cool boos dude chair while the elephant man Warden casually relates everything that has happened with Luffy's continued attempts to cause trouble. In fact, Luffy is escaping right now! This prompts a hilarious gag expression from Queen who eyes Luffy scaling the walls, and we end on the sunshine lad's grinning determined face.

Another episode that's fun but not necessarily a home run, with the real star of the show being Queen's show. The song and dance routine is truly a joy and it's hard not to dance along to the ridiculous display. This really cements Queen as a memorable character too, given his expressive movements and the fact that we don't get a lot of villains with their own silly song and dance routine.

On a completely personal note, Masashi Ebara laid me out with his voice work on Raizo in this episode. Raizo is such an absurd character anyway, but when he's running and panting nin nin nin between each step I couldn't help but laugh. What a delightfully weird character in this delightfully weird work.

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Grant is the cohost on the Blade Licking Thieves podcast and Super Senpai Podcast.

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