Wow... I took a lot of pictures of this episode, but there's a lot to take in! Hope it's not too long for yall, this is the introductory episode for the fourth member of the crew. Err, fifth, I mean. Well technically fourth because Nami isn't really part of the crew just yet, but anyway, on with the episode summary...
This episode takes place all out on the ocean, and in the memories people never leave behind.
First island on the trip with the new ship is a little plateau with another little plateau on it, guarded by someone who calls himself god, but turns out to be just a man in a box.
The battle continues, but not for long! Luffy beats Kuro. Usopp saves Kaya. The Jango pirates are chased away and Jango lies on the ground in the forest, dead or not? We may never know.
The Usopp pirate crew is disbanded with tears and hopes for the future. Usopp packs his bags. Kaya gives a boat to Luffy & Co, designed by Meril. It's called the 'Going Merry'. Usopp sais goodbye, planning to leave on his own, but it ends with him going with Luffy & Co anyway.
Going merry, they all sail out and on towards new adventures! I guess it's time to find the chef and musician then. ;)
The fight continues! Kaya is running through the woods as well as she can together with the three little pirate kids trying to escape from Jango, but he eventually catches up. Zoro and Usopp chase after and get pretty close by the end of the episode. It ends just at the right place, where the suspense is as high as it can be.
When it seems like Kuro is about to be defeated he reveals his special move, Shakushi. It sounds a bit like sushi and can be compared easily as it features him attacking in a blind (and virtually invisible) rage slashing up not only Luffy plenty of times but also members of his own crew. Slashes with purple smoke behind them appear both on cliffs and ground and crew members all around. It's a pretty hellish ability. Luffy manages to stop him once but then he disappears again and only the next episode will tell us how things turn out. Sail on!
In this episode we dive back in the life of Kuro as he tells the tale of how he ran rampant on the seas together with Jango but grew sick of planning for the rest of the crew and decided to retire. So he let Jango hypnotize one from his crew to act him and one from a marine ship to act the one who caught him, and the him that wasn't he was killed, and he went to the island and the plan commenced.
He speaks of how pirate crews aren't worth more than shields and how they are meant to be used at the disposal of their captain and Luffy doesn't like this talk at all. Zoro defeats a hypnotized Jangman brother in the meantime & Jango the hypnotist goes after Kaya, who is escaping with the three small Usopp pirates.
The fight is getting intense. Sail on!