“The Yokozuna Appears! The Invincible Urashima Goes After Okiku!”

With Otama being threatened to show her Devil Fruit power that allowed her to control the savage beast, Luffy, Zoro, and Okiku are on their way and Luffy comically just goes for the loud public challenge to go against them. But that just draws so many others here that it puts Okiku to panic because he doesn’t understand how this town is all in league with Otama’s kidnappers and he’s just upping her danger and their own.

Thankfully, Luffy knows to not bother with these low-level punks and a rare show of his Haki is delightful to see as it reminds us of his stature in the big picture overall. It’s good to see and Okiku fills us in on this place where it’s not in ruins per se but has fallen significantly over the last couple of decades from an important castle town to where it’s held by these evil men and everyone else keeps their heads down to survive.

Naturally, we can’t get Luffy to Otama too quickly as she has to go through the torture preparations, and that has Luffy running into a sumo wrestling thing in the streets and that sets us up for some action there. Luffy’s fun as he’s just publically calling out for help and information but with Urashima and his goons, they just want to tussle and show their dominance. Which with the low-level guys, this trio can handle easily as they’re not low-level themselves.

The one moment I wanted more of was Okiku stepping up in this event as she’s part of the group at this point and having Urashima going after her again leaves her in a position where she has to really make things clear. While it’s not as big of a moment as I would have liked, it gives me hope we’ll see some really good stuff from her as the arc goes on – especially if she pairs up properly with Zoro in a fight.

In Summary, the drawn out nature of One Piece is a given so having it take a bit from the group to get to Otama is no surprise at all. The show does a nice job with the recap at the start here but otherwise keeps it focused on Luffy, Zoro, and Okiku as they make it to the town and have to deal with Urashima and their crap. Which is done quickly and effectively but doesn’t give them the results they wanted.

There’s a lot to like, especially with Luffy using his Haki for the first time in forever, and getting to see more of what Okiku is capable of. Things are ramping up in predictable ways but as has been the case with this arc, the execution is strong enough so that it’s pretty enjoyable.

Thanks for reading! See you next week!

乂⍱‿●乂