534: ''Ryuuguu Palace Quivers! Shirahoshi's Kidnapping''

[MetaMario]

They've also gone out of their way to explain things more. For example, Den explaining that all ships that crash into Fishman Island eventually end up at the Sea Forest, and that the Sunny would be there. I remember when we first saw Franky in the manga he was already there with Den for no explained reason at all.
Him being shown going down there also helps to establish that this is a different place some distance from FI, same as the fishman district. A lof of people were really confused about this with the manga.

Yeah, this is what I liked in a nutshell. Oh, and Sanji's scene.

Good episode I'd say.

[Sick_Fool]

I thought this was a damn good episode. Art and pacing was good and animation was decent. No complaints, really.

I really loved the filler scenes, added more depth to the rushed scenes in the manga.

Also, I'm fine with Inoue next week because while it's mostly an exposition episode, there are quite a handful of action scenes. Preview looks promising.

[TheCook]

WOW! The anime actually had some really decent artwork!
And Sanji's fight scene looked great.
Music was also very well used throughout the episode.

Not sure if I liked the Hody/VDD meet as much as I did in the manga.
It seemed darker and had more cursing than the anime AFAIK.

Good episode overall though. Glad to see the anime is doing FI so good,
sad that it seems better than Oda.

[Kizuchan]

WOW! The anime actually had some really decent artwork!
And Sanji's fight scene looked great.
Music was also very well used throughout the episode.

Not sure if I liked the Hody/VDD meet as much as I did in the manga.
It seemed darker and had more cursing than the anime AFAIK.

Good episode overall though. Glad to see the anime is doing FI so good,
sad that it seems better than Oda.

I don't think this still excuses the botching up of the more important arcs Marineford and Impel Down, though. The anime is wierd, the better arcs are animated and done lazily, but the worse arcs are done better. Regardless looking forward to the stuff with Jinbei in the coming episodes and hopefully the quality won't drop off.

[thewonderer]

Its hilarious how people think its Odas fault what happened with the manga

First, there was nothing he could do about the brightness of the setting. Manga is black and white....so while its okay to say the anime did it better, this isn't Odas fault at all

Second, Oda has tons of situations to keep in mind when writing every detail...in other words he has to write quick yet effectively. Its impossible for him, at this point, to write without the flaws.....the man has so many stories left to tell its only natural he'd needed to have a changing pace

I see people commenting that FI was too slow too quick.....? Everyone would NEVER be satisfied.

Also, don't give me this bs about pacing and whatnot, people are enjoying this arc more not because its in the anime, but simply because no ones in mad anticipation as to seeing an established foe. Everyone during the manga time was so impatient, that messed up their view on things. Now, people have the manga to satisfy their ongoing story needs and can appreciate in the anime what this arc was all about

[Mr. Luffy]

Actually, I can't recall the anime really adding much of overall significance between Thriller Bark up to the time skip. I think the only exception was Sabaody Archipelago and Amazon Lily. Thriller Bark, Impel Down, and Marineford had some rather bad filler and overall sluggish pacing, outside of a handful of episodes.

It's just that on Fishman Island, and with some good examples in this episode, they are including filler that does not feel like filler (for the most part). There's no Buggy filler, or the equivelent of such, being thrown at us and filler is being used better to prevent wisely to prevent the staring contests and the "slow running" that plagued Marine Ford. The Sabo flashback was the first "arc" that I recall in the pact couple years that had a consistent effort being put into the filler that helped flesh out the series and characters. The past 30 episodes or so have been quite an improvement in terms of pacing, at least in my opinion.

Now this episode was quite good, despite some dodgy animation. The scene with Hody and Vanderdekken had some good ambience, with Hody's voice actor really selling how he is able to intimidate these pirates to do his bidding. There was also some real suspense with Hatchi outrunning the arrows--possibly the best executed scene in the episode. Also well-done was the comedy in the scene with Sanji and Chopper. Couldn't help but to laugh during some of those exchanges.

[Mugiwara-San]

The whole arc is shit anyway....
Can't wait for the set off to new world

[Miss Saturday]

I was a couple minutes into the actual episode when I realized I was watching it for the second time. The hell? Whatever, was bored with this episode and found it very forgettable apparently. Preview for next week has me excited though!

Well if you forgot you had already seen something, I'm not surprised you also found it forgettable.

Spoiler:

Sorry, I can't hold back the funny.

[Sphingx]

Really enjoyed this episode. Only thing that bothers me is that the humans that VDD throw don't expload from the water pressure when they hit the water.

You don't explode from water pressure...

You implode. *shifty eyes* ;)

I quite enjoyed this episode really.

[BossJinbei]

I really enjoyed this episode, especially since I was looking forward to seeing how the scene with VDD and Hody would be executed in the anime. I feel that the anime is doing a really good job with this ark.
Jinbe is in the anime now! Yes~~~!

[Hisoga]

i am sorry but can somebody make a list of what anime 'explain things more' than in the manga in this arc because up until this episode I can't find one including this " Den explaining that all ships that crash into Fishman Island eventually end up at the Sea Forest, and that the Sunny would be there." i mean in Oda did explain why sunny got there in the manga.

[MasterKingJC]

The whole arc is shit anyway....

[thewonderer]

The whole arc is shit anyway....
Can't wait for the set off to new world

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRVUOGUmxJI

[XMURADX]

Why is it a waste?

He should have worked on 536 or 537 which have some good action parts cause next week is a normal chapter and I'm still hoping they would do like ep 525 and 526 when they covered more than a chapter for the action parts.

[Roronoa Zacho]

Hachi is like OP's Yamcha.

16 chars of... True. True.
VDD's laugh is creepily awesum!
When he threw the pirates I thought:
typical OP-Zyko-badass!

[worstje]

Actually, I can't recall the anime really adding much of overall significance between Thriller Bark up to the time skip. I think the only exception was Sabaody Archipelago and Amazon Lily. Thriller Bark, Impel Down, and Marineford had some rather bad filler and overall sluggish pacing, outside of a handful of episodes.

You forgot the Luffy-Ace-Sabo flashback, which imo was among the best things to roll out of Toei since Thriller Bark finished.

It's just that on Fishman Island, and with some good examples in this episode, they are including filler that does not feel like filler (for the most part). There's no Buggy filler, or the equivelent of such, being thrown at us and filler is being used better to prevent wisely to prevent the staring contests and the "slow running" that plagued Marine Ford. The Sabo flashback was the first "arc" that I recall in the pact couple years that had a consistent effort being put into the filler that helped flesh out the series and characters. The past 30 episodes or so have been quite an improvement in terms of pacing, at least in my opinion.

The anime used to have specials episodes. Boss Luffy. Chopperman. Etc. What happened to those? :( Dislike them as I might, having 3 or 4 of those a year would skyrocket the general anime quality in my opinion. Far less need for stretching scenes out, and more chance for old fashioned strawhat antics (be it in a slightly different setting); the seiyus have time and time proven to be capable buggers that can carry almost any joke, devoid of actual funnies as it might be.

Now this episode was quite good, despite some dodgy animation. The scene with Hody and Vanderdekken had some good ambience, with Hody's voice actor really selling how he is able to intimidate these pirates to do his bidding. There was also some real suspense with Hatchi outrunning the arrows--possibly the best executed scene in the episode. Also well-done was the comedy in the scene with Sanji and Chopper. Couldn't help but to laugh during some of those exchanges.

I fully agree on these points. I also liked the little bit with Franky nearly popping the taxi bubble by accident, and the peeved off taxi fish that resulted in. Add in the pleasant banter between Luffy and Crybaby, and it was a good episode. :)

[Skadi]

For the next episode i just hope two things

1- That this is the only shitty drawn moment


2- That A and B (who could have at least appeared on the preview, but didnt ¬¬XXX) are as close as possibal to my prediction

Otherwise most of my Ask VDD answers involving them will be completely fucked

[Joe]

I don't see what's so bad about that drawing.

[MasterKingJC]

I don't see what's so bad about that drawing.

Look at Hody's head, then look at Decken's face.

[Baou Zakurga]