One Piece Episode #487 (

By:Chris Beveridge
Review Date: Sunday, February 13, 2011
Release Date: Saturday, February 12, 2011

It's a full on retreat as Marineford begins to collapse and Akainu is pissed.

What They Say:
As Blackbeard prepares to bring Navy HQ tumbling down and Fleet Admiral Sengoku fights a desperate battle to stop him, Akainu continues his pursuit of Luffy - which could prove fatal for Jimbei! All this is interrupted by a mysterious visitor - who has come to protect Luffy!

The Review:
Some shows handled the power-up issue with its characters pretty poorly in that it seems like they keep getting ridiculously stronger. With One Piece, we do have that happen in a sense as we now see that Blackbeard is something different with two Devil Fruit powers that has now instilled a great amount of fear in both Navy man and pirate alike. With that happening on top of the chaos of Ace dying and then Whitebeard being taken out, it's pretty intense. What makes it worse is that the world is now watching as Marineford itself is crumbling before their eyes, a symbol of strength and security for the world. It's a humbling moment and one that can make or break a man.

Blackbeard's amusing at this point as he's just looking for a fight and nobody really seems to be up to one at this point, at least with him. Akainu is still looking to kick some pirate booty as he's going up against Ivankov with a real vengeance and Ivankov is doing his best to make sure that Luffy gets away above all else. Thankfully, we do see the Navy men rally since it would be a real psychological defeat if they don't at least try to fight back and it's kind of inspiring since they're not acting cruel like some of the Admiral's do with things. There's a push by them to not falter but rather to go forward and uphold their honor and presence. With the world watching, they have to make sure that they don't cause a loss of confidence. It's a small piece of the episode, but one that I appreciated seeing since so much of this is getting out there and Marineford is such a key piece of world security.

The main thrust of events here focuses primarily on either Jimbei or Ivankov as they deal with Akainu. Akainu has such intent on really going over the top on them, to brutally take them down, that it unfortunately is what his character has seemed like from the start. Few characters come across as harsh and cruel as he does, so seeing him going after those two and doing it in a way that's cruel is no surprise. What is a surprise is that Crocodile steps in to help since he's been largely absent outside of a few key moments of this battle. Having some of these players come back into the picture at a critical time is definitely a great moment, especially when Buggy inadvertently helps out again and gains back his following. It's these kinds of moments that really make you smile in the midst of such carnage and know that even though there are intense issues going on, there is always hope.

In Summary:
One Piece is in that kind of awkward stage where the big moments have happened but it isn't the quiet stage yet or the start of a new arc. They're in retreat and being beaten up and the Navy men are trying to cope with the loss of Marineford and their honor while deciding to get it back. There's carnage everywhere and Akainu in particular is intent on taking down as many key figures as he can. He's not in a rage, but he's in a tightly controlled anger that he's unleashing in a brutal way. Yet they can still sneak in a little humor and have fun with things while moving it all forward, even as pirates and navy men alike are dying around them. And, of course, it ends in such a way to really make you grin and wonder what will happen next.

Japanese 2.0 Language, English Subtitles

Review Equipment

Mania Grade: B+
Audio Rating: NA
Video Rating: NA
Packaging Rating: NA
Menus Rating: NA
Extras Rating: NA
Age Rating: 13 and Up
Region: All Region DVD
Released By: FUNimation Entertainment, Ltd.
Running time: 23
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Widescreen
Disc Resolution: 480i/p
Disc Encoding: MPEG-2
Series: One Piece