#so excited...

Zoro, you tryin not to laugh? Bro, that's disrespectful as hell.

Happy to report that the second part of the show's Little Garden adaptation has thankfully fixed the pacing issues I had with the original manga. For one thing, the stuff with the giants were fixed, where Broggy is simply incapacitated by his wounds, and Dorry is frozen in wax by Mr. 3. I think having them out of the way like this as opposed to involved directly in Mr. 3's wax sealant helped things a lot; arguably took away from the giants being present in the episode, but I think it still works.

I really like what this episode did with Usopp, especially in relation with how Broggy inspires him to keep going, and how fear is a natural part of the process. Him being the one who frees Zoro, Nami, and Vivi by tricking Miss Valentine into using her powers to crack open the wax casing really adds a lot to his character. Very fun, very fun. Also, I forget if this was done in the manga, but I didn't know Mr. 5 could use his own breath as bullets like that! Cool as hell, and much more interesting than him just having a gun for the sake of it.

David Dastmalchian really continues to shine as Mr. 3, like genuinely. He's just such a perverse little creature, especially when he runs away giggling after pulling one over on Luffy during their fight. As noted before, the application of Miss Golden Week's powers here were a lot more interesting and meaningful compared to how they were used in a more limited scope in the manga; they also gave her some hints of depth, which was fun. Gives a bit of elaboration to how a child ended up in Baroque Works. Everything culminating in her getting smeared with all FIVE of her own traps at once was also fun, though it seems to have a negative effect on her.

Also, I'm kinda ashamed to just now admit I get the joke about The Unluckies: Miss Friday and Mr. 13. Friday the 13th. Unlucky. Yeh. The fight scene they had with Sanji was cool, especially when it was done to the backdrop of the transponder snail hold music (which as I heard is apparently the second opening of the anime; neat!). Also, through this, we get our first look at Crocodile, and he looks great, especially the hook. Oh, just can't wait til we get to Alabasta. Also, Sanji's codename being "Mr. Prince", eh? He is a prince...

The deaths continue to stack up here, too, the most notable being Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine both being outright (if not heavily implied to be) killed, 5 by Zoro's blades and Valentine by Mr. 3 who wants her to keep quiet. I only really say this cause both of them are shown to still be alive in the manga; granted, it's only for the sake of a cover story, and it seems to be none of the agents that escaped back to the Spider's Cafe will end up sticking around. A shame, but I get it. The Unluckies were also taken out by Sanji, though Miss Friday a lil too anticlimactically, I'll admit. Granted, they weren't HUGE characters, but still.

Also, the scene where Mr. 5 reads the newspaper, you can see snippets of a story where a pet food shop reopens in the East Blue (even name drops Chouchou from the original Orange Town arc), as well as a story about WATER 7 BABY, WOOOOOO!! SUPER!!! Ahem. Cool to see these little hints to stuff that either wasn't covered in the live-action, or stuff that's upcoming. Makes the world feel more interconnected, even for these blink and you miss it details.

Lots of good lines, like Valentine just going "HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!" right as she's trying to crush Nami, or Mr. 3's "You focus too much on the Work, you don't spend enough time being Baroque", which got a laugh out of me. Good humor, all around. Also, I could see Nami's staff breaking from a mile away, cause she's gonna be more or less out of commission during Drum Island, and it gives explanation for why she suddenly has a climate baton during the Alabasta arc. Speaking of set up for Alabasta, I like how Mr. 3 notes that his wax is as tough as steel, and because of that Zoro can't break through it, which is apart of his character arc going forward that culminates in his battle with Mr. 1. That may have been in the manga tho so if it is...whoops!

If I get Castorice, cool! she'd be my first limited Remembrance character, Sunday would finally get a team and I get to take advantage of her global passive. She'll be E0S0 though, not gonna invest in her

If I lose the 50/50 even better, I get the (admittedly slim) chance of getting Blade, Seele or Fu Xuan and my Phainon would be guaranteed. I'm truly hoping to get Blade 😭 that would be a dream...