One Piece Diaries #63: Marineford #2

One Piece is one of the most beloved anime in history, but at over 1,000 episodes, it’s tough for those who haven’t been watching from the start to jump on board. One Piece Diaries tracks one writer’s experience with this daunting rite of passage. With hype for the highs and critique for the lows, this column will help you decide whether to take your own One Piece journey – or let you relive the one you’re already on. It will be updated biweekly every other Thursday.

Episodes Watched: 467 – 475

Things are starting to pick up, and there’s a lot to talk about, so let’s just get right to it.

Luffy, the Whitebeard Pirates, and everyone else involved in trying to rescue Ace, are pursuing this goal relentlessly. Even if it means that many of them will perish in the process, they’re willing to risk it all. Meanwhile, Luffy is dealing with some of the strongest members of the Marines, all without showing any fear at all.

One of the subplots that grabbed me the most was about Squard, the captain of the Maelstrom Spider Pirates. Although he cared about Ace, he wasn’t on board with throwing away his life to save him. When Akainu tricked him into believing that Whitebeard was actively planning to sacrifice him and many of the other pirates, he stabbed Whitebeard.

It’s honestly pretty understandable that he believed this. Thousands of pirates have already chosen to potentially lay down their lives for one man, and they’re doing it because Whitebeard wants them to. Whitebeard says that he loves all of his “sons” equally, but he shows clear favoritism towards Ace. I don’t know that I’d stab Whitebeard if I were Squard, but I wouldn’t be too quick to trust him, either.

Still, the whole thing turned out ended up being quite lovely. It speaks volumes about Whitebeard’s character that he forgave Squard almost instantly. Not only did this restore Squard’s sense of loyalty, stopping the team from fracturing, it was just genuinely heartwarming to see the two reconcile.

I also want to talk about Ace’s response to all of this. He doesn’t want other people trying to save him – not even the people who he knows love him. He even tells Luffy that he finds the idea of Luffy trying to rescue him humiliating in a vain attempt to get him to stop. His real reason is that he doesn’t believe that anyone can defeat the Marines, and he doesn’t want to see all these people getting killed on his behalf – especially people like Luffy and Whitebeard who he would gladly lay down his own life to save. At the same time, he’s not ready to die. This was a remarkably human reaction, and it made me feel a whole lot more attached to Ace.

Another thing that stood out to me is the Pacifistas. So far, I don’t know too much about them, but watching Kuma go from being one guy who was capable of showing mercy to being a mindless parade of robots was horrifying. Seeing it through Ivankov’s eyes made it even more extreme since Ivankov had been a friend and comrade of his in the past. We know that this is because of human experimentation, but what does that mean? How did this happen, and is Kuma gone for good? I hope we’ll get more information about this!!

Overall, this was an exciting batch of episodes. Yes, the pacing was still off – I’m pretty sure there was at least a full episode’s worth of Luffy screaming Ace’s name – but there were enough exciting moments to make up for it this time. I’m very nervous about what’s coming next. I’ve read spoilers about who is and isn’t going to survive and I know there are going to be some moments coming up that will probably make me cry. I’ll be back in two weeks to scream at you about them.

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