Episode 581

"The Crew is Confused! The Shocking Beheaded Samurai Appears!" is the 581st episode of the One Piece anime.

Short Summary
Luffy, Zoro, Usopp, and Robin are standing near the dead dragon that Zoro killed and Luffy is trying to pull out the man who is stuck in the dragon's body. Luffy succeeds by pulling out only the legs, making everyone think that he killed the man. However, the legs are alive and they run away trying to look for a Shichibukai. Luffy runs after him and gets stuck to the legs after the legs fall on top of him.

Elsewhere, the Straw Hats who were captured by the people in the hazmat suits (Sanji, Nami, Chopper, and Franky) are in a prison cell marked CHECK-102 and were shown to a gaseous figure known as "Master" who is very interested in Franky. They wake up minutes later in a cell and try to figure out how to get out. They then see a man's head which was cut into pieces and put it together. The head is alive and it tells them that his body was cut into pieces by a Shichibukai and he feels shameful for not getting killed after getting sliced.

Back with Luffy's group, Usopp sees a harpy girl on top of a burned down building, but after he yells for everyone to look, she disappears suddenly. They then approach a lake that separates the fiery and icy halves of Punk Hazard. Luffy befriends a centaur that thought that Luffy was one of his kind. The people of Punk Hazard who work for Master see Luffy's group and tell the harpy girl about them.

Long Summary
Luffy, Zoro, Usopp, and Robin are standing near the dead dragon that Zoro killed and Luffy is trying to pull out the man who is stuck in the dragon's body. Luffy succeeds in pulling out only the legs, making everyone think that he killed the man. The legs are revealed to be alive, making the whole group gawk at it. Robin points out that there is no trace of an upper body while Usopp states that he is quite tall. While the crew remains baffled, the legs start to attack them but promptly run away after the unknown Shichibukai. Luffy is then seen calling to it to join his crew, causing Usopp to hit him on the head and telling him to stop it. Luffy runs after and launches himself at the legs, colliding with it and they both falls.

The group is barbecuing and eating the dragon meat. Luffy asks Usopp what does one call someone "like this" and the latter replies that it is a centaur. It is revealed that the pair of legs is now stuck onto Luffy. Before he can do anything else, the legs lift Luffy up and piledrive him into the ground. Usopp tells Luffy that there must be an upper body in trouble somewhere but Luffy questions where is Usopp's sense of adventure before stating that the legs were born like that. He asks what name does the legs go by when it piledrive him again. Zoro calls to the others from atop a building. He points and the crew realizes they are standing right before a lake, beyond which is a mountain range covered in ice. Usopp and Robin realize that the distress call they received came from the cold side of the island. Luffy is excited by this and wants to eat shaved ice. Usopp, while shouting at Zoro (who, along with Robin, wants to explore the island with Luffy), senses something strange on a nearby chimney. He looks over to see a smiling winged woman staring at him, who then flies off like a bird. Usopp tells the others about what he saw but is not sure about it himself.

In a laboratory, a guard walks in to inform the master of having kidnapped Sanji, Nami, Franky and Chopper and the master is very pleased, especially over Franky's cyborg body and chooses to experiment on them later as he tells his men to lock them in a room. Back on the Sunny, Brook, having been left behind due to them believing he was already dead, wakes up while some guards are still on the ship. He questions if the guards know the whereabouts of Nami and the rest but the guards are too shock and shoot at him.

Later, Franky wakes up to the sound of Sanji kicking the wall and asks what is wrong. Nami tells him it should be obvious and Chopper tells him they are locked up. Franky tries to remember the last thing he did, and Nami assumes that whoever took them must have hit them with sleeping gas, which is confirmed by Sanji. Franky then wonders where Brook is, Nami replies that she doesn't know. Chopper says that if humans are being abducted, then skeletons are not needed. Franky tells Chopper that he isn't human either and Sanji retorts that neither is Franky. From one corner, a voice asks them if they like riddles. The group looks around for the source of the voice, and Chopper jumps back in shock. The voice is from a mouth that is one of eight pieces of a disassembled man's head. The man asks if they could piece him back together. Each member gives it a shot, and they finally get pretty close, having only mixed up the hair and chin, but he admits his gratitude regardless. Chopper asks him why he is alive, and the head says he does not know as he thought himself to be dead when he was cut up by someone and claims he feels shameful for what happened.

Back at Luffy's group, everyone except Usopp plan to go to the cold side and wonders how do they go about crossing the lake. Usopp is pessimistic about surviving till then and wonder how can Luffy stays in high spirits. Luffy is attacked from behind but he manages to dodge. The attacker is a centaur with leopard legs and they instantly become friends after realizing what they have in common. He apologies to Luffy for mistaking him as an intruder. Zoro and Usopp note that he has made another weird friend.

Above them, another person is watching them and counting the numbers. The Den Den Mushi rings and bird woman Usopp saw earlier is asking if the intruders were found. The person answers in the positive and states that they are about to kill them. The bird woman is flying at the cold side of Punk Hazard, pleased.

Anime Notes

 * The following scenes are added in the anime:
 * Luffy catching the samurai's legs after a short chase.
 * Brook waking up and surprising Master's subordinates.
 * The unconscious Straw Hats being brought before Master.
 * Luffy befriending the centaur that is only seen in the background in the manga.
 * The Straw Hats that got captured don't escape until the next episode unlike the manga.
 * The room they were locked in was marked CHECK-102 while in the manga the CH was blocked by a word bubble.
 * Franky mentions eating shellfish desert rather than the Sea King meat due to the changes in the story caused by the Z's Ambition Arc.
 * The We Go! opening contains a preview for One Piece Film: Z, which replaces the battle scenes of the Straw Hat Pirates fighting the Marines until it returns to the normal opening to show Luffy using Gigant Pistol on a warship.