One Piece - Episode 517

One Piece has finally reached the half-way point, well not exactly. But some people are terming it that.

Synopsis

It has been two years since the war at Marineford between the Marines and Whitebeard. Luffy's crew have been training for the last two years. We see Luffy leave Ruskaina, and Zoro arrives at Shakky's bar. We find out that the Marine HQ is now at G1 which is in the New World. Apparently the new Head of the Marines (after Sengoku) wants to crack down harder on the pirates. Brook is singing on the final day of his concert and Sanji arrives at Saboady Archipelago, and leaves the Newkama's. A group of people claiming to be the Straw Hat pirates then try to get Nami to join them for a drink, but she refuses and then the Nami from their group attacks the real Nami. When Usopp sees this he uses his new technique called Green Star to stop them. After which Nami and Usopp leave, but not before Nami leaves the fake Straw Hats a little shocking present that she learnt over the last two years. The Marines notice the fake Straw Hats and thinking that they are the real ones are coming to capture them. Robin is also on the island and notices two flyers, one for Brook's Soul King concert and the other for the Straw Hat recruitment. We then see Franky near their ship but he looks a lot bigger, and we finally see Chopper also on the island and he can't wait to see his friends again. Then the fake Straw Hat pirates are shooting these two people because the looked like Nami and Usopp, when Luffy bumps into the fake Luffy and it looks like a fight is going to break out.

Thoughts and Discussion

With the absence of the Straw Hats for 2 years another group has been using their name to cause havoc, and it looks like they have the locals scared. Also due to the relocation of the Marine HQ there is less Marine presence on the island and this resulted in more of a pirate presence. There seems to be some big bounty pirates on the island already. Luffy's attack on Marineford and the fact he is Dragon's son has really made him a superstar.

I can expect to see the massive progress the characters have made in the battles to come, but what I'm most interested in is who the next Fleet Admiral is. Also we have seen (or know of roughly) a bit of what Nami, Usopp, Chopper and Luffy have learned. But what happened the Franky, he looks so different. What happened to Robin, and what did she learn from Luffy's Father And what is Luffy's bounty now

I guess their next stop will be the Fishman Island where they will meet Jinbei. I don't think there will be many episodes on Saboady Archipelago, but I hope they are interesting. The next episodes is the fake Luffy versus the real one. This should be funny.