 Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review, your source for everything One Piece and more specifically, Saga's In Minutes. The series that aims to equip you with the basic knowledge to leap into the wilderness of One Piece. And today we'll be covering a big one as we explore the climax of the first half of the series with the incredible Paramount War Saga. The Paramount War Saga is the sixth in the series consisting of 108 chapters and 122 anime episodes, both of which, you know, sound pretty reasonable for a Saga, but we actually have an astonishing amount of ground to cover within these boundaries. So much so that I have actually made the decision to split this Saga up into two videos. Because even though this is meant to be a heavily abridged series, condensing it all into one video just doesn't do it any form of coherent justice. But with that in mind, let's begin this climactic journey. Following their departure of Thriller Bark, the Straw Hats arrive on the final island of the first half of the Grand Line, the Sabati Archipelago, in search of a coating mechanic to treat their ship so that they may visit the underwater realm of Fishman Island. In this effort, they stumble upon the legendary figure, Silver's Ray Lee, the first mate of the former pirate king who takes an immediate liking to Luffy and agrees to coat the Thousand Sunny. Here, the Straw Hats also make friends with a former enemy and a current mermaid. However, after the mermaid is captured and sold at a slave auction, Luffy reacts rather explosively and ends up punching a world noble in his excuse for a face. This action results in the immediate summoning of a marine admiral to the island, in this case, Kizaru, an absurdly powerful man who wields a logia devil fruit that allows him to conjure, manipulate, and become light. However, Luffy and the Straw Hats are not the only infamous group on the island at the moment, as rather faithfully, there are at least nine other pirates present who hold bounties of over 100 million berries. These figures are going to become exceptionally important as we go forward, so to briefly go through them, we have the Roar of the Seas Scratchmanapu, the magician Basil Hawkins, Capone Gangbeige, Red Flag Deers Drake, Big Eater Jewelry Bonnie, Mad Monker Rouge, the Surgeon of Death Trafalgar Law, Massacre Soldier Killer, and Eustace Captain Kid. And along with Luffy and Zoro, this group of 11 individuals are collectively dubbed as the supernovas. But due to Luffy's actions, all hell breaks loose for each and every single one of them, forcing some to flee the island immediately, fight a legion of marines, or even face off against Admiral Kizaru directly, which did not go very well for those who went with option number three, including the Straw Hats actually, who end up in a desperate situation facing off against Kizaru, as well as another dude who comes out of nowhere, and even Warlord of the Sea Bartholomecuma shows up for the action. In this no-win situation, Straw Hats are briefly rescued by Silver's Rayleigh. However, after a super-secret discussion with Kuma, Rayleigh allows him to split up the Straw Hats and send them flying all over the globe with the powers of his devil fruit, the Nikunikunomi. Luffy struggles desperately to stop this, but he must endure watching his entire crew disappear before his eyes one by one, until he finally succumbs to the same fate, with Bartholomecuma's parting words to Luffy, being that the two of them will not meet again. As a result of Kuma's powers, Luffy and the rest of the Straw Hats are sent flying for three days before landing on the respective islands that they were sent to. In Luffy's case, he was sent to Amazon Lily, an island located within the calm belt, which serves as a home to the old female Kujitribe, as well as Warlord of the Sea, Boa Hancock. And after walking in on her bathing, Luffy is eventually forced into combat with the Gorgon sisters, but after proving immune to the charms of Hancock, as well as being a bit of a boss in the Colosseum, Boa has a change of heart, a massive change of heart actually, which causes her to fall head over heels in love with Luffy. These feelings are not reciprocated. Shortly after, Luffy receives the news that his brother, Portgasty Ace, has been apprehended by the Marines, thus essentially informing us that Ace lost his fight against Blackbeard on Benaro Island. And not only that, but Ace was also scheduled to be executed, prompting Luffy to change his plans of finding his crew in order to save his brother. A love-struck Boa Hancock then agrees to help her new infatuation, and they set sail for Impel Down, the world's most secure prison, with Hancock planning on using her status as a Warlord of the Sea to sneak Luffy in. However, in doing this, she also agrees to respond to a summoning to Marineford, where the full force of the Marines have been gathering, anticipating an all-out war with Emperor of the Sea and the strongest man in the world, Whitebeard. In fact, the Marines were provoking this war, using Whitebeard's subordinate Ace as bait to lure out his full forces into an unfavorable combat situation. And as such, pretty much every Marine we've ever met in the series is seen preparing for the upcoming battle. Meanwhile, Luffy was successfully able to infiltrate Impel Down, thanks to the help of Hancock, and he finds himself causing a fair bit of chaos attempting to get all the way down to level six, where Ace is being held. During this time, he collects and makeshift grue of former enemies, many of whom actually have Luffy to thank for being imprisoned, but that doesn't stop them from forming a greatest hits group and bursting their way through to level four of the prison. At this point, they encounter the prison warden Magellan, who rather easily deals with Luffy due to his ridiculous double fruit, which is a Paramecia type that allows him to generate and control poison. After his defeat, Luffy is dumped on level five to die, but he and his last remaining ally, Bon Clay, are saved by a mysterious figure named Inezuma, who takes the duo to the secret level 5.5 of Impel Down, also known as New Cameland, which is governed by Emporio Evenkov, Queen of the Kanbaka Kingdom, and a member of the Revolutionary Army, conveniently led by Luffy's father, Monkey D. Dragon. As a result, not only does Evenkov save Luffy with his double fruit abilities, but he also agrees to assist Luffy in saving Ace, believing that Ace may also be the son of his comrade dragon. And so with Evenkov and Inezuma's power behind him, Luffy finally makes it to level six, only to discover that Ace had already been taken to Marineford for his scheduled execution. However, this was far from a fruitless endeavor as Luffy gathers two more allies, one being Jinbei, a former warlord of the sea who refused to take part in the upcoming war against Whitebeard and was thus arrested, as well as Sir Crocodile, another former warlord who Luffy defeated on Alabaster. This group, along with the newcomer forces and an ever-growing army of prisoners, proved to be incredibly overwhelming for the guards of Impel Down to deal with. However, at the same time that this breakout is being conducted, the prison is also invaded from the outside. As Blackbeard, now a warlord himself, as a result of capturing Ace, storms the prison in search of strong individuals to serve as part of his crew. And with so much chaos occurring throughout the facility, Magellan then makes the single worst decision of the entire arc and decides to free a former warden named Shiryu, who had been imprisoned for gross abuse of power and requested his assistance on the matter. But of course, in predictable fashion, Shiryu immediately betrays this trust by slaughtering the guards that were sent to free him. But with one set of people attempting to escape the prison and another set attempting to infiltrate, it was only natural that these two factions would meet on their respective journeys, resulting in Luffy immediately kicking into combat against Blackbeard, as he was responsible for Ace's current situation. But Luffy would be stopped by Jinbei, wisely advising him that this is not the time or the place. And the two groups peacefully parted ways. With Blackbeard's final words of warning, being that in a few hours, they'll put on a show that'll shake the world. This peaceful party of ways would not continue though, as Blackbeard and his crew soon ran into Magellan, who swiftly dealt with the entire crew with his poison and left them to die. However, in a stunning display of fate, the crew would be saved by Shiryu, who provided them with an antidote to Magellan's poison, and so they continued on their journey to level six. Meanwhile, despite a relentless pursuit from the Warden Magellan, Luffy's group are eventually able to escape from the prison as the A team, consisting of Crocodile, Darsbones, and Buggy, make their way to secure a marine battleship, and Jinbei invokes one of his many incredible powers to summon a legion of whale sharks to escort the remaining prisoners to the ship. However, this escape was not without cost, as Bonkle stayed behind using his devil fruit abilities to impersonate Magellan in order to force the employees of the prison to open the gates of justice, thus allowing Luffy and the prisoners to properly escape. Rather awkwardly, though, the real Magellan then storms in, wondering exactly what's going on, and finds Bonkle. He then asks him if he has any last words to which Bonkle's smuggler gives a one-word answer being satisfaction. And so Luffy and his group gratefully accept Bonkle's selfless assistance and set sail towards a new destination of Marineford. Meanwhile at the headquarters, only three hours remain until the public execution of Ace as he is being forced to walk up a lengthy set of stairs to his very own execution platform. In the process, remembering a promise he once made to Luffy to live a life without regret and with more freedom than anybody else, thus bringing an end to the first half of the Paramount War saga. Next time on Saga's In Minutes, we are concluding this with a bang as we examine the events of Marineford and the post-war arcs with the explosive and well-changing second half of the Paramount War saga. If you enjoyed this video and the content this channel produced in general, then please do consider donating to the Grand Line Review Patreon because the support of all of your amazing people is what continues to make this channel possible. And if you'd like to see more videos like this but applied to other anime and longer series, then please do check out my second channel, New World Review for all of your wider needs. And if you'd like to join the fun at any time, then please do head over to my Discord server where a wide array of shenanigan retakes place on a daily basis. And finally, please do comment with your thoughts on the first half of the Paramount War saga. This has been the Grand Line Review and I'll see you next time. I know that your favorite one-piece character is Zoro, but who is your favorite My Hero Academia character? Tough question actually, very tough. It really does depend on who is given more focus at any given time, I think. Like there are certain moments where it's really difficult to look past Deku because he is the heart and soul of the series. But at the same time, you also have Almighty as the true spirit of the series. And then of course there's Froppy, who is like the true rogue of the series. So, you know, it's a difficult question to answer. What did you think of the Enis Lobby arc? Mate, Enis Lobby 2 this day is my second favorite arc within the entire series. And a lot of that might have to do with nostalgia because I started reading the manga weekly while Enis Lobby was being published and it was a time for some serious hype. However, I think that one piece had a perfect moment with this arc. Everything was spot on, the drama, the action, the comedy and the chaotic nature of the Straw Hats resulted in the destruction of an entire island, which was a nice twist because generally arcs end with the Straw Hats saving an island. So yeah, just brilliant arc all around. Do you like sports, enemies? You know what, not really. I mean, it's not so much that I don't like sport anime so much as I just don't think I've ever really gotten into any of them. I'm actually trying to think of a sports anime I've seen. To be honest, the only thing that immediately comes to mind would be Keijo. And the only reason why I watched that was because it was just so extremely over the top ridiculous. So I'm not sure how I would deal with a proper sports anime. I mean, actually, you know what? I also watch Yuri on Ice and that was pretty interesting. But if you have any recommendations on sports anime, feel free to leave them in the comments below. Why did my parents get divorced? Well, look, I don't know you or your parents, but I'm assuming that it was your fault.