Oh One Piece, you’ve run on longer than Dragon Ball Z and yet you still remain entertaining, exciting and enjoyable. How is that possible? Well, that’s not the answer I’ll attempt to answer on my lonesome but I would like to take some time to review the recent episode. The plan will be for this to be regular in time with each airing of the TV show. Please note that from here on out, there will be spoilers. I can only hope the title is a sufficient deterrent for those that are not quite this far in the One Piece saga.

Background
So by means of a quick catch up. Where are we up to now? Well Luffy and his crew are already half way through the Grand Line, whether or not this signals that we are halfway through the One Piece epic remains to be seen, in a way we hope yes but at the same time why would we want it to end when it seems to just be getting good!

Well, as they hopped from island to island in the Grand Line using the Log Pose, all routes converge at a single point which is The Sabaody Archipelago, which is the route all must go in order to continue on to Fish-man Island. While the crew where in the Sabaody Archipelago, they needed to get their ship ready to make the journey and needed to seek the assistance of the only person who can prepare their ship for the next leg of their journey. In searching the area, they encounter many of the other ‘Rookies’ and their pirate crews, some of which have bounties higher than Luffy himself, which means we can only assume they are either significantly stronger than he or have been significantly more ruthless and nefarious in their travels.

One of the other significant events is that Keimi is kidnapped and is sent off for auction to be sold into slavery, with her being a Mermaid, she would have received a high price and the Royalty of the Sabaody Archipelago, the Dragons — who effectively are the untouchables in this region have full reign without any fear of reprisal feed a growing industry in human slave trade. It is during this auction that a massive chain of effects is set in motion which not only allows to catch glimpse of the other ‘Rookies’ and their abilities but also sees the calling out of the an Admiral to the scene, followed by the Shichibukai Bartholomew Kuma, who — to cut a long story short — makes each and everyone of the Strawhat crew disappear into thin air. Leaving absolutely no one left and the Strawhat crew defeated.

Luffy Fighting the Gorgon Sisters

In subsequent episodes we see Luffy flying through the air and can only concluded they have been sent flying in different directions by Kuma, it would seem as an act of mercy, to avoid them being slaughtered by Admiral Kizaru and the Kuma Robots/Pacifista’s.

Luffy eventually arrives on a strange island which turns out is inhabitated by a Woman Warrior Race. Skip forward a few episodes and see discover the for men to trespass on their land is punishable my death. In This episode, we are amidst a battle between the nations two strongest warriors and Luffy as he defends the lives of those that attempted to save him.

Still with me? You’ll appreciate I’ve left a lot out, but I’ve just tried to cover about 20+ episodes in as few a lines as possible. On to today’s episode.

The Kings Disposition

Episode #414
As I’ve said already, Luffy is amidst a fight with some formidable foes that use techniques he has never heard of. They refer to this new technique as Haki. For those paying close attention, Luffy had encountered this before, in fact twice and both at Sabaody Archipelago. The first was when Rayleigh came out and then second was at the arrival of a strange guy with a massive weapon who travelled with another Pacifista and claimed to have no Devils Fruit ability. Last weeks episode ended and this one begins where Luffy has some how tapped into his own Haki (AKA Willpower) which stuns everyone in the vicinity to the extent of making some of the Amazonian warriors faint. I can’t help but make a connection to the Bleach equivalent, which must be ‘Reiatsu’ or Spiritual Force/Power.

Second Gear

Either way, it is revealed that Luffys massive Haki is known as the Kings Disposition and is rare. We begin to get hints that Luffy is different from all but a handful of people ever to have such Haki. In any case the fight continues, with Luffy eventually stepping up into Second Gear. I am yet to tire of seeing this. The foes are surprised by his strength which inevitably overwhelms them causing them to concede defeat but not before Luffy once more displays his compassion at the very moment before absolute defeat. Despite the heat of battle protects the secret of the Gorgon Sisters even though he knows not why, he simply knows that it is because they would rather die than have it revealed.

These past 2/3 episodes have been leading up to this. We due to find the out the back story of this mysterious mark. For those in the manga there are little surprises for you but the way the fight scenes are portrayed will, in my opinion, always win out over the manga.

Let me know what you thought of the most recent episode. If your not following the manga too. Feel free to speculate below.