Summary:
Luffy’s group reaches the first level of the castle while the Marines and Fujitora are held back by Sabo. Bastille warns his men to stand back as they face Sabo, whose fighting skills are more than equal to the marines and the vice admiral. Issho provided support by summoning Meteorite, but forgot Birdcage and the resulting damage was more than expected. Sabo then walks out of the fire, having defeated Bastille and is ready to fight Issho.
In the royal palace, the Colosseum group began to climb the palace. This worries the executives, who were certain that the attackers would not get past the Marines. As Luffy fights his way through Level 1 of the new Royal Plateau, the Colosseum group catches up with him. Child 5 notices that the marines are being held back by a large wall of flame. Fujitora asks Sab if there is no way he can convince the revolutionaries to move. As a member of the revolutionary army, Sabo explains that he will not let anyone through who tries to harm Luffy or his allies. Then he corrects himself that he’s also doing it like a big brother. This leads Fujitora to question whose brother Sabo is.
Bastille warns her men to stay away from Sab because he is a Logia user. The marines fire at Sab, but his body is immune to damage due to his Logia powers. One marine notes comments about how strong Sabo’s fingers are, but Sabo corrects him by calling them “claws” as he crushes a bazooka with one hand. He makes the bazooka explode as Bastille tells them to move as he will deal with the Revolutionary. Sabo easily breaks Bastille’s blade with his fingers as the Vice Admiral curses him. Sabo then grabs his head and says he can crush a skull like an egg when he breaks Bastille’s mask. Just then, Issho drops a meteor and wonders if he can break through Doflamingo’s cage. However, the cage only cuts the meteor to pieces and causes great destruction to the kingdom. Fujitora realizes his mistake and hopes no one was hurt as his men ask him to warn them before using his powers again. He then asks Sabo if he’s aware of the predicament he’s in, but Sabo only notes that he’s still having trouble controlling Ace’s powers as he reveals that he defeated Bastille.
Fujitora notes that Ace was Luffy’s brother and realizes that Sabo is the same. Sabo confirms this by saying that they have had drinks together and have an unshakable bond that causes several marines to be shocked by Luffy’s brothers. Sabo mentions that if Luffy ever needs help, he will be there for him. He has a flashback of finding out about Ace’s death and refuses to let anything happen to his loved ones again and confronts Fujitora.
When Dellinger wondered why the Marines weren’t defending the fighters from the coliseum, it took longer for Baby 5 to answer him in the anime than in the manga.
Sabo’s battle with the marines drags on.
The opening fire of the marines on Sabo is greatly expanded compared to the manga.
Sabo uses Hiken before fighting Bastille.
In the manga, Sabo grabbed Bastille’s Shark Cutter when he first attacked him. In the anime, Sabo first dodged attacks that sliced several buildings apart.
The anime adds the following:
As the coliseum warriors advance to the first level of the New King platform, Lao G says three words with the letter “G”.
Orlumbus and Blue Gilly bicker briefly.
This is the first episode to use Hard Knock Days as an intro.
As Baby 5 and Lao G stare at the Colosseum fighters, Baby 5 can be heard making the sound of “ji” (ジー), the Japanese phonetic for “staring”. However, Lao G makes a “G” sound, creating a pun.