 Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review, your source for everything one piece. Last week we boarded a train in hot pursuit of Nico Robin and this week we have finally arrived to tackle the Juggernaut scale events on the island of Ennislobi. Ennislobi is the 16th arc in the series consisting of 56 manga chapters and 46 anime episodes, making it a solid chunk of story and really it needs that because this arc is just incredible and one of my absolute favorites in the entire series. From the very beginning Ennislobi is like nothing we have ever seen before. Usually the straw hats will land on an island, discover some sort of hidden evil, and end up fighting for the people or a person of that island. None of that here. This time the straw hats and their allies just flat out invade the territory of the world government and it is glorious. I think it's particularly satisfying to watch the straw hats just wreck face because during water seven and even the sea train our protagonists were essentially powerless and caught up in a flow of events that others had laid out for them. But here despite being on enemy ground it is the straw hats who set the pace of this arc through their unexpected invasion and managed to switch up that dynamic. So Ennislobi holds a very special place in my heart because this happened to be the current arc that was being published in Weekly Shonen Jump when I caught up with the series. To be specific the very last chapter I was able to read before switching to Waiting Weekly for One Piece was chapter 387 and if you don't know what happened in that chapter off the top of your head it ended with this. The revelation of Gear 2nd is still one of my all-time highlights in the series. I went absolutely mad when I saw that final panel because up until now power-ups hadn't really been a thing in One Piece. Oda had somehow managed to go almost 10 years writing a Shonen manga without resorting to a Super Saiyan style power-up and I was initially a bit worried about gears because one of the primary reasons that I loved One Piece was that it was able to avoid all of the usual Shonen tropes and if it did engage in something trope-y Oda put his own personal spin on it and made it fantastic. But I was pretty satisfied with gears when it was revealed that they come at a high cost to Luffy and even though this is not in the best interest of our protagonist I really liked this idea because I really hate the concept of amazing power-ups without consequence. Although it can be argued that currently in the series this cost us kind of being forgotten about. But we're not here to talk about that far in the series just yet we are here to talk about any slobby and Luffy was not the only one to receive a power-up during this arc. The rest of the straw hats receive a wide array of new abilities one of which is Sanji's Diablo Jumbo which has been put to fantastic use ever since its introduction. But we also have the shocking revelation that is Monster Chopper and I was so thrilled when this happened because Chopper was in that really awkward place of being kind of strong but still pretty weak. He needed this transformation and the way he wiped out Kumidori was just brutally satisfying. And of course in retrospect this also served as the first example of an awakened Zoën type fruit in the series. Or you know what an awakened devil fruit in general. Moving to Nami and she also received a much needed moment in this arc as she proved victorious over Calipha. At this point Nami hadn't really had a proper fight since Alabasta so this was long overdue and I love this fight because the climb attack is probably the most fascinating and versatile ability that any straw hat crew member has and it is used to perfection during this arc. Unfortunately to this day I would argue that Nami has never shown this potential ever again. After any slobby Oda has kind of removed his female characters from any sort of direct conflict and yeah Nami and Robin do still have their moments but absolutely nothing like this fantastic fight during any slobby or even Robin's fight against Yama in Skypeer and that is a huge problem with modern one piece in my opinion but I could do a whole video on this topic so let's just move on for now. The least impressive upgrade probably comes from Zoro actually. The R0 is cool and all but it really comes out of nowhere and I think it only gets used once again during Sabote. It hasn't been seen at all in the new world yet come to think of it but with that said who even cares because the rest of his fight against Kaku is like the manga equivalent of Crack. I could not get enough of this battle. Oda's arc was 100% on point and who would have thought that a giraffe could be so badass. I also really enjoyed that Oda was able to sprinkle in a ton of comedy in regards to Kaku coming to terms with the fact that he has recently become a giraffe and I guess that brings up another point so this doesn't happen often but every now and then I will hear some people criticize any slobby for the surprisingly large amount of comedy it has. The primary argument is that it simply feels out of place after coming from the super serious events of water seven and to that I say BAH! The humour in any slobby is perfectly balanced and even serves to complement the incredibly epic and dramatic events that are occurring. I mean the whole thing about any slobby is that this arc took the shattered straw hats and rebuilt them so of course we're going to see them return to full form in every way including comedy. As for CP9 the argument also exists that their status as villains was diminished due to their own humour in particular Kaku and I'd argue that the humour enhanced their characters and allowed us to identify with them more. All of the super badass serious traits that we loved from water seven are still present within Rob Lucci but the other members really needed something to set them apart or else they just all be Lucci clones and you'd have like a bleach style situation of introducing a whole group of characters with essentially the same personality. Instead I really love that we got to know the crazy quirks of each CP9 member and it is a huge contributing factor to how fondly I remember them as a group of villains. So any slobby is also one of those arcs where I became quite thankful that we went through the story of Little Garden. A lot of people don't really see the point of Little Garden but the introduction of giants and giant culture would have huge ramifications on the series a prime example of which is seen right here in any slobby when Usopp meets the giant guards Oimo and Kashi and convinces them to join outside by telling them the truth about Dory and Broggy and that is far from the only fantastic thing Usopp would do during this arc and in fact you can make a solid argument that Usopp is the real MVP of any slobby. He doesn't get a power up like the rest of the crew but he does get to show off his fantastic abilities by shooting down Spandam and directly assisting with the rescue of Nico Robin and of course we have to mention one of the most powerful moments of the entire arc which is when Usopp finally removes the Saga King mask to encourage Luffy not to give up in his fight against Rob Lucci. This moment really can't be overstated it is a phenomenal climax to a relationship shattered during water seven and all of the pain that we as an audience endured is more than worth it for Usopp's triumphant speech here. The other character you can make a solid argument for being the MVP of the arc is Frankie. Not only does this guy take out a member of CP9 but he also burns the plans to the ancient weapon Pluton, soft dues and saves monster chopper, rescues Robin and keeps fighting like the boss he is against the army of Marines sent to deal with them right up until the end. After this arc there was no doubt whatsoever in my mind that this man was going to become a straw hat. The action of this arc was pretty on point in fact it was downright spectacular in the manga but in the anime I have to say it was very hidden and miss. Any slobby rather unfortunately marks the point where one piece became noticeably poorer in terms of animation quality. As a result certain fight sequences in this arc are great while others are just completely cringe worthy. I think this is particularly visible in the Luffy versus Luchi fight because it takes place over quite a long set of episodes so certain episodes make that fight live up to the manga and other episodes just make it a complete joke. So yeah any slobby is definitely the point where I became heavily disenfranchised by the anime and after it concluded I stopped watching one piece weekly and began only tuning in to see big events but we cannot let that detract from the majesty of this arc. One of the things I love most about any slobby is the fact that by the end of the arc the entire island is just completely destroyed which is a nice contrast from the usual straw hat adventure which generally involves saving an island. But here in their desperation to capture Niko Robin and kill the straw hats the world government are more than willing to sacrifice the entire judicial island and even though this was triggered by spandam accidentally summoning a buster call it tells us a lot about the world government that they are willing to go to such lengths to keep their secrets shrouded. And just while we're on the buster call any slobby introduced us to a gaggle of vice admirals in charge of the attack who represented a huge spectrum of personalities. We had figures who we would consider sort of a classic evil antagonist like Onigumo but we also got to meet more reasonable figures of justice like Doberman. Although I do have a slight problem in retrospect with introducing five vice admirals and that is that I really think that in this situation they would more than likely have fought the straw hats directly rather than leaving the combat to their underlings. If Niko Robin is important enough to warrant destroying an entire island then surely she's important enough for a vice admiral to get off their arse and join the fight. Aside from that I feel like there's only one more thing to talk about and that is the woman of the hour Niko Robin. It's taken a long time to get to her but she is the heart of this arc and her very existence is the reason why both sides of this conflict are going to such extremes to emerge victorious. Any slobby finally revealed what we've been waiting for ever since the end of Alabasta and that is Robin's past. Like all straw hats her history is incredibly tragic and gut wrenching especially when she is rowing away from the decimated island of Ohara while laughing like soil with tears in her eyes. And those heartbreaking moments continue well into present day during any slobby with Robin finally expressing her true desire to live and journey through the seas with the straw hats. To me this is Robin's defining character moment as well as a huge sigh of relief as a fan because as soon as she said this everything was all of a sudden okay all we had to do was beat the bad guys and stroll on home which did turn into a bit of a monumental effort but entirely worth it to take Robin back. And from here I'm not entirely sure what more to say. Any slobby is an arc full of emotion action and orchestration of characters we've never seen before in one piece. It is a most satisfying culmination of everything built up during water seven and the sea train and all together probably the best arc in the entire series and that about does it for any slobby. Next week we are heading back to the shipbuilding island because this story isn't over just yet. We've got celebrations revelations and a lot of tears still to come when we cover the return to water seven. If you enjoyed this video then feel free to like favorite or subscribe and please do comment with your thoughts on any slobby. This has been the Grand Line Review and I'll see you next time.