One Piece Multi-Piece #13: Dressrosa Arc (First Piece)
a.k.a. Master Of the Tickets,
Meister Of Anime.
Ahoy, Ticketholders!
It's been a long time since the One Piece Multi-Piece graced the waves with my look at the Punk Hazard Arc (a.k.a. the short "half" of the Dressrosa Saga, a.k.a. the One Piece Running Simulator Arc).
First up on the travel itinerary, even though I published it on Saturday, I chose to delay promoting the August Time Drops calendar so I could devote my time and energy to bingeing this week's chunk of the Dressrosa Arc, which, thanks to a decent portion of each episode being devoted to theme music (the high-energy "Wake Up" by AAA, accompanied by visuals of the Straw Hat Crew in flashy vacation attire fighting the massive supporting/fodder cast of Marines, gladiators, Pirates, and other villains, including an interlude dialogue exchange between Luffy and Blackbeard that may or may not actually impact the plot of the arc, but I don't know for sure yet), recaps, eyecatches (the same as we've seen in Fishman Island and Punk Hazard so far), and previews, was easily digestible.
With Doflamingo seemingly having taken the bait, the Straw Hat Alliance sails to his island kingdom of Dressrosa to hand over Caesar to the Warlord, King, and possible Celestial Dragon (though I doubt this last because he isn't ugly enough) as a distraction while they destroy the Smile (artificial Devil Fruit) factory (and theoretically get Doflamingo arrested by the Navy now that his Warlord status has been surrendered, but this arc is over a hundred episodes long, so there has to be at least one complication to inflate and stretch out the plot like it's made of Luffy himself, right?).
In the first few episodes, we learn little bits of information about the world-building and the arc in particular.
Captain Kidd and at least two of the other Supernova Rookies from Sabaody have formed their own alliance and comnandeered Thriller Bark.
Also, we get verbal confirmation of the identities of six of the Seven Warlords Of the Sea (sorry): Mihawk, Doflamingo, Kuma, Hancock, Law, and Buggy (because Buggy from Impel Down onward is just the best), with the seventh Warlord simply being referred to as "the Other Guy."
And it's important to know for later that Doflamingo has four generals based on the suits in a deck of cards (because he's the King and the Joker), and for sooner that he is also in possession of Ace's Flame-Flame Devil Fruit (because when a person with Devil Fruit powers dies, their fruit respawns at random somewhere, and Doflamingo has crazy resources, so he found it offscreen).
As for complications, Law doesn't know where the Smile factory is, so the crew are forced to split up and explore Dressrosa. Law, Robin, and Usopp (I was today years old when I realized his fibbing nature and fascination with the giant land of Elbaph—I previously misspelled it with an "F"—are a reference to Æsop's fables, because autocorrect isn't entirely useless) escort Caesar to Green Bit (an island of giant vegetation and super-strong fairy/elf/dwarf people who worship Nolan the Liar as their legendary hero and serve as a Gulliver's Travels reference) for the handoff to Doflamingo that gets complicated by the reveal that he strategically faked his resignation, as well as the arrival of a blind Marine with Observation Haki and meteor-summoning/gravity-controlling Devil Fruit powers. Zoro loses his way (as Zoro always does) when his legendary sword is stolen by one of the little folk (the Tontatta). Sanji falls in love with a two-faced, psychic flamenco dancer, showcasing the best and worst aspects of his character as the moment requires. Brook, Chopper, and Nami remain behind to protect the Thousand Sunny and the perverted dragon-boy samurai Momonosuke from Donquixote Family goons. Franky befriends a sentient toy soldier with designs against Doflamingo and his family, and learns that all sentient toys on Dressrosa (yes, this arc has a society of mythical little people and an oppressed minority population of sentient toys) were once humans and have been scrubbed from the memories of their loved ones somehow. Kin'Emon runs around the city, yelling at the top of his lungs about the samurai he's going to rescue, even though everyone is supposed to be in disguise and act discreetly. Yeah, stupidity tries and fails to pass for comedy in this arc. As does introducing a metric vomitorium of new characters who each express their single personality trait with a single, ad nauseum joke that will never get old because my Sarcasm Haki is too powerful.
But the main focus of the beginning of the Dressrosa Arc is on Luffy (wearing gladiator armor and a fake Master Roshi beard under the "yes, Seven Deadly Sins ripped this off, too" alias of Lucy) fighting his way through a battle royale tournament (held in a Roman-style Coliseum, beneath which the Smile factory is revealed to be located) where Ace's Devil Fruit is the grand prize.
While there, he reunites with formerly minor antagonists he encountered in Mock Town, like Bellamy the Hyena (now looking more ripped and experienced, and with spring-limb powers) and some members of the Blackbeard Pirates, and clashes personalities and fists with several combatants who have grudges (or more...unusual relationships) with himself and his grandfather. These include Pirate Lord Cavendish (a self-absorbed pretty boy trope with a swashbuckler gimmick whose looks are like Conqueror's Haki that only works on women—and probably certain men, too—and he wants to kill Luffy for stealing his publicity), Chin Jao (an old martial artist Pirate with Armament and Conqueror's Haki who has a blood vendetta against Luffy for Garp flattening his head-spike when they were younger, but Luffy does the "Sanji kicks Duvall pretty" thing with an Elephant Gun punch, so all is forgiven and I could see the payoff of their fight coming from space), and Bartolomeo (a disgusting cannibal with barrier powers who saw Luffy's declaration at Loguetown and developed a yandere complex). Also of importance is Rebecca (a scantily clad gladiator who would've been right at home on Amazon Lily, though she is the granddaughter of the old king of Dressrosa, trained to fight by Franky's new toy Soldier friend—strongly suggested to be her father, though there is also a mysterious masked gladiator who could be her father or the king himself—to fight passively), who befriends Luffy (though the plot recycles the "female befriends, betrays, and is forgiven by a Straw Hat" thing that was done with Sanji and the flamenco dancer earlier, just without the #metoo Japravity because Luffy ain't about that life) and is among the many, many side characters who want Doflamingo DonaldTrump overthrown because every day is No Kings Day.
With an emphasis once more placed on fighting, the animation is back on another level this arc...at least, so far. There are several pacing issues (the flashbacks, the "minor character charges their best attack for two episodes, only to get eliminated when it whiffs" trope, waiting for the smoke to clear and reveal to the normies that the dead guy wasn't dead after all, the inane, pre-fight dialogue that renders the episode title a lie because there's no bloodshed and barely any fighting, etc.), and twenty-four episodes in, the fourth block of the first round of the tournament (where the four block winners face each other and the champions of the Donquixote Family for the Flame-Flame Fruit in the finals, I think) hasn't really begun yet. Still, Dressrosa is off to a good start, the new fantasy elements are mostly interesting, and if I wasn't pressed for time, I would have watched more to see how the tournament turned out.
That's going to be next week, though, as might the Tontatta Revolution and Blackbeard having more than a conversational presence in the story, but I need to focus on watching Godzilla vs Megaguirus and reading Sleepy Hollow comics for this week first. Wish me luck, Stay Tuned, and please continue to support me and what I do by Becoming A Ticketholder (you haven't yet), leave a comment at the bottom of this post and any others you have opinions about, help out my ad revenue as you read so I can one day move on from having to babysit the Worst Generation, and follow me on BlueSky, Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and LinkedIn to like what you see and receive the latest pieces of news on my content.
29
Master Of Tickets,
Piece,
Out!
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