I am beyond calling these reviews, because after nearly three hundred episodes if my arc by arc reviews either will have or will not have convinced someone to jump into this show. At this point I'm just doing these because I've been enjoying sharing my thoughts on the show as I've been going. This is me just giving my thoughts on the arc I happen to be watching, and that's how these should be looked at going forward. I'll eventually do a 'full series' review when I finally catch up on this behemoth, but that is a long ways off. So for your warning, I will be spoiling anything that has happened before and during the Water Seven arc. I'll also not be recapping previous arcs, as I am assuming you are reading this because you are interested in someone elses thoughts on the arc you've likely already seen.
That out of the way, Water seven has surpassed Baratie as my favorite arc of the show by a long shot. Something One Piece I felt struggled with was the balance of action, intensity, and comedy. A lot of times the show would undercut it's own tension with some fairly bad timed humor, or the plot moving forward just because certain characters just dumbed their way forward and stumbled into the place they needed to be. This was not an issue going through water seven. Never once did I feel the jokes interrupted what was otherwise a great scene. And believe me, the show still has an abundance of hilarious moments. Honestly, I probably laughed more with this arc than any other. A highlight being Frankie, whose front is almost entirely robotic, but his backside is not, defends himself in a fight by laying down. The look on his opponents face when he just... didn't know how to react to this was great.
Another thing I've been back and forth on the whole show is how much I like Ussop as a character. Sometimes I find him obnoxious and want him to go away, but other times I think he's fantastic. This arc has seen Ussop as far and away the most invested I have ever been with him. The entire arc he is constantly struggling with a mix of his own pride and ideals, knowing how weak he is compared to the others on the crew and struggling with his place here, it's something that has existed through the show until this point but we finally see him hit a breaking point. And that ended up resulting in a duel between him and Luffy, something that was actually a really fantastic fight. While weak, Ussop is a really clever and tricky fighter, so despite the power difference he actually had a strong showing. Even going in knowing there was no way Luffy was going to lose, it still hooked me.
Sanji was off screen for most of it, but the whole time he's on your mind because you know he is doing something. He's a bit of an odd one, because he's not crafty like Ussop, but what he is really good at is simple and effective strategies that make use of the situations he ends up in. This happened multiple times in Alabasta making use of the fact Baroque works didn't know his face. It happens again here as he has the idea that eventually Nico is going to try to leave the Island, and simply stakes out the Sea Train. Sneaking aboard the train since the others can't make it there in time, there is a long time building until we actually get to see Sanji in action. And this is where I am going to explain why it is Sanji has been my favorite character up until now. Sanji, much like Zoro and Luffy, understands what it means to be both a Pirate and warrior. He understands that the hard decisions need to be made, but he's visibly not as comfortable with it as someone like Zoro. Sanji is, at his heart, a cook. Yes, he's a Pirate and understands what he needs to do to live as a cook on these seas in search of the All-Blue, but that is almost secondary for him. It's why despite being a fairly clique line, the moment he hears Luffy say 'Give them hell' I was hyped for what was about to go down on that train.
That said, while I would rank him as the third strongest of the Straw Hats behind Zoro and Luffy, he is still able to be a hell of a fighter. It wasn't Zoro or Sanji that showed the Iron Body used by the CP9 guys could be beat through, it was Sanji. He doesn't fight for the for the sake of fighting like Luffy or Zoro, Sanji fights when he has too. It's something I like about the entire crew, everyone on some level seems to have something that connects them in some way to every other member of the crew, all while each feeling entirely unique. It makes the entire dynamic feel natural.
What really sells me on this arc though is my new favorite character, Nico Robin. I loved Nico every since the end of Alabasta, and she quickly grew on me more and more. This arc saw her supplant Sanji as my favorite. More than any other member of the Straw Hats, I believe her devotion to her crewmates more strongly than any other character. Sky Island made me love her because of her devotion to knowledge and history, this arc made me love her more for her devotion to her crew. The moment she was asked if she would really choose the life of the Straw Hats over the entire world, there was no hesitation in her answer. And because of her reasons as too why, there was no doubt that was always going to be her answer.
And while I don't love him as much as many of the others, I am really liking Frankie. I managed to avoid almost any kind of One Piece related spoiler, but for some reason I remember hearing about Frankie so I believe he is going to be the Shipwright moving forward. I may be wrong, but regardless I am looking forward too seeing more of him.
The whole arc was just fantastic, and it may be a bit before I jump into the next one, I am excited for what's too come. There is so much the show has built up for it, a lot of action I am expecting to see, and I really want to see how the situations with Nico and Ussop resolve. I think I can officially say that I am now a huge fan of One Piece.