So yeah, I decided to watch One Piece's filler arcs. I'm.. I'm not sure why, exactly, but I've been watching/reading a lot of anime recently. I got caught up to My Hero Academia after everyone and their mother told me that the final saga is beginning. I've been rereading Attack on Titan and basically fell in love with the story all over again. Pretty great stuff, huh? Also, after doing that, I started rereading the physical copies of One Piece I just got on one of those huge collector's box things. I'm currently around halfway through the East Blue Saga. Pretty neat stuff, rewatching these.
But then at some point as I begun to start off my watch-through of the Wano-kuni arc for One Piece's anime, I talked a bit with a friend of mine who exclusively only watches the anime and never touched the manga. We talked about the newest movie, Stampede, and, got into a bit of a discussion about the general story... and we talked about some events that I have no idea about. So yeah... the wonderful land of anime filler.
What's a filler, you ask? It's when an anime that's based on a story in a serialized manga catches up to the manga. A lot of old anime simply can't just do reruns and has to keep producing new episodes every week, but how do you make new episodes when the manga itself is still at a certain point in the story? The solution -- self-contained story arcs slotted in a convenient place between major arcs in the story. These tend to be non-canon to the manga and manga-based anime episodes, but it's still pretty interesting to watch them regardless. Bleach and the first Naruto were, as I gather, pretty notorious about this. I know Yu-Gi-Oh had a bunch of them, too.
Now more modern anime tend to work more on 'seasons' now after the success of... Attack on Titan, I want to say? And even newer manga-based anime like My Hero Academia tended to have their filler be like, a single episode or two. But One Piece is basically the last one of the old-school anime that trudges on every single week. It doesn't quite has as much filler as Bleach or Naruto, as I gather, but there's still quite a few. And, hey, last year I watched through all of the movies, so yeah, at this point, why not? I'm going to try to watch all the filler arcs, at least as One Piece Wiki defines them!
__________________________________________________________
Warship Island Arc, a.k.a. Apis Arc [Episodes 54-61]
This particular filler arc ran 8 episodes, though a bit of the final parts of chapter 61 is adapting a scene or two from the manga of the Straw Hats climbing up the Reverse Mountain. And... and this is certainly a filler arc that dragged on for quite a bit and is clearly paced pretty slowly, and I'd say deliberately so. I mean, I know the One Piece anime runs on pretty slow pacing most of the time, but hey, I guess being filler does mean that they're buying time.
This particular filler arc really feels like it's tailor-made to be pretty standalone, and I wouldn't be surprised if this was originally meant to be like a rejected movie or OVA script. The story is pretty simple -- our heroes meet a little girl called Apis, who escapes from a marine ship. After some typical shenanigans as our crew meet the girl and interact with her, they bring her back to her hometown of Gunkan Island (literally Warship Island). They pretty quickly discover the little secret that Apis is actually friends Ryu-jii (literally grandpa dragon) with a massive old Sennenryu, a Thousand-Year Dragon. The Straw Hats being Straw Hats, they quickly decide to help Apis out in getting Ryu-jii to his homeland of which would allow him to heal.
The climax goes about how you expect it to go. Our heroes fight the marines and Eric, though rather surprisingly, Ryu-jii gets shot down by the marine fleet's cannonballs and straight-up dies, although not before summoning literally the rest of its species. Turns out that Gunkan Island is Ryu-jii's homeland, and his death there means that he's reincarnated as a little baby dragon. The actual moment of Apis mourning Ryu-jii is actually pretty well-done, and the story closes off with our heroes bidding farewell to Apis and sailing off to the Reverse Mountain.
...except, no, wait, Eric sneaks on board and threatens to blow up the Going Merry as it ascends Reverse Mountain! ...and Nami just quite literally kicks him off of the board and he falls down into the waves of the Reverse Mountain. Being a Devil Fruit user, the crew jokes about how he's most likely just straight-up dead and... yeah, Nami just cold-bloodedly murdered a guy. I'm not even mad, that's actually unexpected. Earlier in the arc Eric also murders Nelson Royale with his wind-sickles, so this otherwise light-hearted arc actually has a pretty substantial body count, it seems.
And... and honestly? Overall, the filler arc was pretty slow, but it had a pretty solid plot and the four primary characters -- Apis, Ryu-jii, Eric and Nelson -- pretty much filled their roles with how you expect them to. Not too much to say here; I did feel like it dragged on quite a bit, though as always the antics of the Straw Hats and the voice acting does make the silliness of, say, their dragon-raft-mountain-boarding pretty neat to watch. The drama with Ryu-jii's death and the bickering between Nelson and Eric adds just a bit of spice to what would otherwise be pretty boring. 
There are some interesting bits going on, though. Apis is herself a devil fruit user, who ate the Hiso Hiso no Mi (Whisper Whisper Fruit), allowing her to speak to animals. She does help out the crew by talking to birds like once or twice in the arc, but I really kind of wished that she had just a bit more of a presence beyond just being the arc's obligatory kiddie guest star. As far as those go, she's not terrible, but she's not especially memorable either.
And... yeah fucking dragons also show up, which is the biggest nod to the fact that this arc is one of the most non-canon among the filler arcs. I mean, sure, you could argue that the Sennenryu is a different breed of creature, but the fact that the cast explicitly talk about how dragons are supposed to be fictional and are surprised to see dragons in Punk Hazard and Wano... yep. Again, don't really think too much about it, clearly the anime staff just wants to make something that can be handwaved as 'oh, the Straw Hats had a minor adventure in-between major parts of the story'.
Ultimately, I think that the Apis/Warship Island Arc is pretty slow, but it's slow in a good way. I did like this story arc a fair bit, even if obviously it's throwaway filler, at least it's a very self-contained one with some genuinely well-done voice acting particularly near the end.
Random Notes:
- In addition to the Reverse Mountain scene, the second episode of this arc also loosely adapts the scene where the Straw Hats sail into the Calm Belt and causes a horde of Sea Kings to appear. Only instead of Usopp falling off, it's Apis that falls off instead.
- Another plot hole in addition to the dragon thing is Zoro making it a point to say that "I can cut through steel" and does so to slice through the steel chain blockade. This arc happens before Alabasta and Zoro's fight with Mr. 1.
- Another far more minor plot hole that falls into the 'the manga hasn't come to that point yet' is that Nelson Royale's rank among the Marines is 'Teitoku', a rank that isn't part of the official list of ranks in the Marines. It translates to something along the lines of Fleet Commander or Admiral, though the latter obviously now means something else in One Piece. This one is more easily handwaved by being an additional rank like how Garp is also an instructor in addition to being a vice admiral. (Plus, y'know, Nelson straight-up got killed in this arc, so...)
- Eric's Kama Kama no Mi is based on the mythological Kamaitachi, the sickle-weasel yokai that can create wind blades in myths. It's basically just Rankyaku, isn't it?
- Apis's devil fruit is also kind of undersold by Luffy being able to hear Ryu-jii's voice as well, though whether this was intentional (how early on was the Voice of All Things foreshadowed? I genuinely don't remmeber) or just a handwave from the anime staff? I'm legitimately not sure.
__________________________________________________________
Post-Alabasta Arc [Episodes 131-135]
This one is... a lot more 'filler' than the rest, but I actually really like this sequence of episodes. It's something that modern One Piece, particularly post-timeskip, very rarely has any time to do. Maybe you get a couple of panels in-between arcs in the manga, but it is something that I certainly appreciate, showing little adventures and little interactions between the Straw Hats. Taking place after Alabasta, the five episodes in this 'arc', if you can call it that, is more of a series of standalone episodes, each featuring a member of the Straw Hats. For a moment I thought it was just going to be a clip show, and, yeah, there sure are flashbacks, but for the most part it's all brand-new.
None of these are particularly groundbreaking or super-exciting. Sure, 131 gives us Chopper creating his first medicine essentially as a dare by Dr. Kureha as she's on death's door. And I've heard people refer to 135 a lot, which is the Johnny-and-Yosaku episode. Remember Johnny and Yosaku? I liked them. I also do like the acknowledgement that Zoro has to actually train with his ridiculous three-sword style, and apparently in his youth one of his big problems is being so reckless with his katanas that he keeps breaking them, all but Wado Ichimonji.
The rest of the episodes... it's all right, mostly a reaffirmation of each character's goals as they sometimes reminisce about the past. The Sanji and Usopp ones are probably the ones that feel the most 'complete', in a sense, in that they actually have a mini character-of-the-week story and isn't just the Straw Hats goofing around. And the Zoro one is essentially almost entirely a flashback. Otherwise... eh, they're all pretty all right., though nothing to write home about. Also somewhat more interestingly these episodes also feature Robin on their boat while she's still in her enigmatic-smiling-is-she-on-our-side phase, and the little bits where she hangs out with Chopper, or gets Luffy briefly interested in books, or giving Zoro a jacket... pretty nice stuff.
__________________________________________________________
Goat Island Arc [Episodes 136-138]
A corrupt marine officer called Minchey tries to set up a trap to get glory over the Straw Hats' capture and steal Zenny's treasure behind the backs of the rest of the Marines, but despite surrounding the island in a trap and almost tricking the Straw Hats, the arrival of Zenny riding his ship down from the mountain ends up saving the Straw Hats in a way. The climax basically takes Luffy and Zoro out due to circumstance, allowing Zenny to have a bit of a face-off against Minchey. There's a vague 'my comrades are my real treasure' moral tossed in somewhere, and Luffy and company takes out the corrupt Minchey and earns the gratitude from the moral Marine captain Moore.
Ultimately... eh. It's not quite as long as the Apis arc, only lasting three episodes, but I didn't really care for Zenny as a character, and throughout the episodes it's also pretty clear that Zenny doesn't really have any treasure. The three episodes flip-flopping on the actual severity of Zenny's medical condition also doesn't really help matters either. I dunno. Not a particularly big fan of this one -- the base concept of the story is actually all right, and the idea of Minchey as a Marine profiteer is a neat antagonist idea... but ultimately they really didn't do enough for me to actually care.
Random Notes:
- Sanji makes a Mille-Feuille cake for Robin in episode 136. We're still a timeskip away from having Robin actually use Mil Fleur, but I bet someone in the anime department thought it'd be cute to have Robin eat a cake that has a similar name to her Devil Fruit attacks.
- Throughout this arc and the previous batch of random vignette episodes, Robin is seen reading a book called 'Rainbow Mist', which leads into the next filler arc. I'm actually not sure if it's a book that exists in the manga, or if the anime staff were pretty clever in incorporating it.
__________________________________________________________
Ruluka Island/Rainbow Mist Arc [Episodes 139-143]
So after escaping some Marines and landing on Ruluka Island, an island where taxation is enforced by the pirate-turned-mayor Wetton. The Straw Hats quickly befriend local eccentric scientist Henzo, and half the crew (Luffy, Robin, Usopp, Zoro) gets roped into investigating a local mirage-esque phenomenon called the Rainbow Mist. Meanwhile, Sanji, Nami and Chopper sort of... stand around and fight Wetton's grandson and son, one of whom rides around a bicycle-powered mecha suit -- which is actually kinda cute.
Throughout the middle portions of the episodes, Luffy and the rest of the crew caught in the Rainbow Mist basically figure out that it's a ship graveyard and also a time-space anomaly (no, really). Mostly because Robin read a novel detailing this exact incident. They can't get out because jumping or sailing out just brings them back into the same spot. Then they meet a bunch of four children... and surprise surprise, turns out that due to time-space shenanigans, these four kids were buddies and nakama with Henzo when they were children. When Wetton's pirates attacked Ruluka Island in the past, they were trapped within the Rainbow Mist after sailing in, leaving Henzo behind in the island to age 50 years while they aged like a couple of weeks. It's an interesting concept, but beyond some vague 'do not disrespect your nakama!' speeches from Usopp, it really goes nowhere.
Luffy and the kids' captain, Rapanui, gets separated from the others for around an episode for no real reason other than to get Luffy out of the way before the final fight. With the utterly simple idea of tying a string to a boat, Nami manages to enter the Rainbow Mist, and later on Wetton blows up a lighthouse to convert it into a bridge or something. We get a typical showdown that's honestly comprised of Luffy going "this isn't what pirates are supposed to be", while Zoro's fight gets interrupted hilariously when Robin just plucks out the power cables to the mecha suit.
But then apparently the lighthouse exploding caused the space-time distortion to... change? And with the kids staying behind in the Rainbow Mist, they create a big enough wind to push the Merry out and into reality. Throughout the episodes we've got a Marine Major that's powerful enough to flick coins to blow up entire warships, and has been secretly helping the Straw Hats out in the background of the city a couple of times. He shows up to arrest Wetton and his crew... and then, surprise surprise, turns out that the four kids were blown out of Rainbow Mist 50 years in the past, and Rapanui and Isoka at least became Marine officers. And also the author of Robin's novel. And also also because the coincidences needed to pile up even more, the Rainbow Mist distortion disgorged the Going Merry and all the humans trapped inside, but it also sucks in Wetton's house, and all the treasure on the beach, the mansion and the boat.
And... and I don't know. On paper it's not a terrible idea -- heck, the trope of a mysterious fog that doesn't let ships out really even becomes canon with the Thriller Bark arc. But the Rainbow Mist itself is less of an interesting locale for our heroes to explore and more of a stopgap that keeps part of the cast in one place. Wetton is an extremely underwhelming antagonist; while Henzo and the Pumpkin Pirates were pretty bland and their story never expanded beyond what you'd expect from them (i.e. a nakama speech). The fact that we get a random 'we get blown back to the past' bit really feels like it comes out of nowhere, and I actually did feel that it undercuts the comrade knowledge since Rapanui and the others end up basically leaving Henzo to wallow in grief in Ruluka for 50 years. And the pacing of the episodes, particularly the last two, really felt kind of messy.
Random Notes:
- The final shot of episode 143 is the shot of the massive ship falling out of the sky, starting off the Jaya arc. Also, we've got several extra scenes in the final fight where the Going Merry gets a couple of additional damage done to the mast and the figurehead.
- Igaram gets a cameo in episode 143 putting a Rainbow Mist book back on a shelf.
- I know filler arcs and movies tended to take inspiration from the concurrently-running arcs in the manga, so did the electric mecha get inspired by Enel?
- Zoro insisting that he will cut electricity gets absolutely made fun of by Usopp and Robin. That was cute.
__________________________________________________________
Anyway, I think that's a decent place to stop off for right now. Now I do understand that none of the filler arcs are going to be amazing or blow me away, but it's still neat to watch them -- if nothing else, filler arcs like these do help to sort of build up little adventures for the primary cast, something that is a very valid complaint about how the actual manga itself runs -- particularly post-timeskip. Granted, out of the four (three and a half, really) filler arcs here the only one with a halfway decent story is probably just the Apis Arc, but... hey, we're doing this. Apparently the next one is the best filler arc ever. We'll see, boys. We'll see.
No comments:
Post a Comment