“The Coming of the Treasure Ship! LuffytaroReturns the Favor!”

In today's episode Zoro and the others dash out of BakuraTown on the treasure ship filled with food! Luffy catches up to them bringing a huge bucket of fresh water! Then, they distribute the food and the water to the people of Okobore Town who were thirsty and hungry.

Amusingly, things have gotten a bit messed up by Luffy being here, which has drawn Zoro into it, as Law’s dealings have now taken a turn for the worse. Amusingly, once he learns Luffy is here he realizes that things are going to get a lot more difficult – especially upon seeing Otama there. I’m a huge fan of Law and just seeing what he’s got to deal with is a delight. And Luffy is definitely doing some good in the area as he has the tribute stuff for the shogun now, including a lot of water, and is bringing it to the village to be shared, which pleases Otama. It’s no surprise that Law is aligned with them at the moment but he’s got a natural understanding of how dangerous this all is amid his own plans but at the same time he knows there’s no point in really trying to change Luffy’s mind. The most he can do is guide him from time to time to nudge slightly, which amuses me.

The episode spends a decent bit of its time doing the celebration thing here with the montage of everyone having a good time. And with Luffy making it clear that he wants this kind of happiness to be regular for Otama and that she should have that in her life. While Otama is sent off to where she should be by the end here, you know it won’t e the last of her as she’s got a key role to fill it seems like. Once she’s gone, that gets everyone else serious about their next phase which is heading upward to where the shogun is. But I like that we get the small moment with so many people being thankful for what they did because it reaffirms what Luffy is doing but surprises some of the others and frustrates Law because he knows it’ll just encourage Luffy again, especially since he’s still of the view that pirates shouldn’t do good things.

In Summary:
With the initial arc within the greater Wano storyline wrapping up for the moment, there’s a good sense of minor closure here and some victories to be proud of, though one can imagine they may be short-lived. This arc has had a rough start overall with the feature film episodes butting in and the 20th-anniversary piece so it hasn’t been quite as smooth as it could be. But I’m enjoying it well enough and getting a largely celebratory episode here with lots of positives and happiness is a welcome moment since we don’t really get them too often in this series.

Thanks for reading! See you next week!

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