“I’ll Protect You! Yamato Meets Momonosuke!”

As we go into the big installment next time around with all the hype around it, the show at its core is doing what it always does. In this episode, there’s some good fun with the whole running around thing at the start with Nami being chased by Big Mom, but then we get the weirdness and hilarity of Franky coming flying through and Brook providing a key assist. It’s a welcome return moment for them after being away for a bit and taking Big Mom down for a little while at least helps to slim down things here. We get similar but not quite the same from Usopp and Chopper as they continue to move along but they end up dealing with some oversized opponents that shake the hell out of them pretty hard, which at least makes for some comedic moments and is pretty on par for these two when you get down to it. The levity is nice that we get from both of these moments, especially with Nmi being so happy to see her big bro Franky.

The episode 999 jumps around to a few other spots and does some movement to get Momonosuke moving again with the right crowd so things can eventually change here. But I’ll admit, I do like that it goes back to Big Mom after a bit with her getting up and being really tired of the Straw Hats that are like fleas that you can’t seem to get rid of. Naturally, as the episode goes on and with the big one coming around next time, things start to turn a bit bleaker after the initial round of fun that we got. There’s the right kind of hope mixed into it, mostly coming through Franky and his absolutely super positive attitude here, and it’s enough to start rallying some of the others like Usopp and Chopper because they see the whole combination thing coming up that they can do to take the fight to the big guys. It’s not unexpected but it’s a good rallying point toward the end.

In Summary:

Franky faces Big Mom with the help of Robin and Jimbei, but the Numbers come interrupting their battle. One of them holds Brachio Tank with Usopp and Chopper inside in his hand. Meanwhile, Yamato, the self-proclaimed Oden, finally meets his son Momonosuke.

Thanks for reading! See you next week!

乂⍱‿●乂