Summary:
Robin takes to the forest to search for ancient secrets, Zoro takes to the water to slice and dice with Hody Jones, and Luffy is branded the king’s kidnapper by an enraged mob of Fish-Men.
Luffy and Shirahoshi are still on their way to the Sea Forest.
At the palace, Neptune begs someone to protect her daughter. Hody just comments on how weak he is, stating that he only joined his army for military strength and knowledge. He says he will revive Arlong’s dream and ambition. Nami is shocked to hear this and runs off with Camie during his speech. Hody declares that he will destroy the army and the Straw Hats and begins to flood the palace. They attack the guards and Neptune defends them. Zoro tries to attack, but Hody blocks the attack with one of his men. Usopp and Brook are told by Zoro to untie the guards and help in the fight. Zoro decides to hold off Hody while the others escape and prepares to fight him underwater.
On the shore of the island, Chopper tends to an injured Hachi while Sanji notices the citizens surrounding them. They state that the Straw Hats are responsible for the mermaid abductions and how they should pay for their crimes. Sanji claims they didn’t steal any mermaids and they are framed. Luffy and Shirahoshi see them and Luffy goes down to try to find out what’s going on and hears Hachi’s pleas to leave the island. The citizens believe that Luffy left the palace and tried to kidnap Shirahoshi, but others say that it is impossible due to her size. Unfortunately for Shirahoshi, Megalo has finally reached his limit and vomits her up, shocking the citizens. Chopper comments on her size and pleads with Sanji not to turn around or she will die and the citizens believe the crew kidnapped her.
In the anime, there is a flashback not shown in the manga. It shows that Dosun was kidnapped by pirates as a child, and Hody and other future officers of the New Fish-Man Pirates tried to rescue him, only to be defeated. The pirates were about to kidnap them as well, but Arlong came and subdued the pirates and saved Hody and his friends.
This also contradicts a statement that Hody later makes, where he admits to Fukaboshi that they never had any personal interaction with the cruelty of humans to justify their actions.
The anime shows Robin arriving at the Sea Forest where the Thousand Sunny is and then leaving to find the Poneglyph.
In the manga, it was mentioned that Usopp hit Brook off-panel after Brook made an insensitive joke about Arlong. In the anime, Usopp instead told Brook to shut up in an angry tone.
Zoro’s fight with Hody drags on. In reality, Zoro uses Santorya: Tatsu Maki, a technique only shown before the time jump. The post timeskip version is called Kokujo O Tatsu Maki. Zoro has yet to use the technique he used before his two years of training in the manga.
In the manga, a citizen of Fish-Man Island said that two mermaids disappeared on the south beach, while in this episode, the citizen says three.
Hody’s Yabusame attack could be performed both on land and while submerged in water. When they were on land, drops of water were released, which then turned into arrows that attacked the target(s). When immersed in water, air bubbles were used instead, which were carried out in a similar manner to attack the target(s).
As Hody gets into position to perform the Yabusame, Zoro briefly sees the silhouette of Arlong above Hody, indicating that Zoro has seen Arlong perform the technique before. As Hody and Zoro then fight into the water, Hody acknowledges that Zoro is the only person who can see Yabusame’s attack coming and asks if Arlong has used this technique on him in the past.