Episode of Sabo

Episode of Sabo: Bond of Three Brothers - A Miraculous Reunion and an Inherited Will is a TV special of the One Piece anime. It retells the events of the first third of the Dressrosa Arc from Sabo's point of view.

The special depicts Sabo's childhood with Luffy and Ace, the Marineford War and his reunion with Luffy in Dressrosa from Sabo's point of view.

Short Summary
While investigating Dressrosa, Sabo thinks back to his childhood with Luffy and Ace. At the same time, Luffy enters the Corrida Colosseum tournament, attempting to obtain his late brother's Devil Fruit. The two reunite for the first time in 12 years, and Sabo eats the Mera Mera no Mi while Doflamingo's rule over the island begins to collapse.

Long Summary
Sabo appears at Ace's grave with a newspaper covering the Straw Hat Pirates' return and pours three sake cups; talking to Ace, he reminisces about his history with Ace and Luffy as children in the Goa Kingdom, where the three planned to become pirates and became brothers by sharing sake. A Flashback to the Summit War of Marineford sees Luffy temporarily rescue Ace from execution but ultimately fail when he is killed in battle by Akainu. Sabo apologizes to Ace for not being able to save him and pledges to inherit his will.

Later, Sabo and Koala are investigating weapon smuggling in Dressrosa on behalf of the revolutionary army. Koala informs Sabo that the living toys in Dressrosa were people and the memories of a toy's previous life are forgotten by everyone except the toy themselves. Hack, who is already undercover at the Corrida Colosseum looking for a hidden port, calls and informs them that the Mera Mera no Mi is the prize in an imminent tournament sponsored by Doflamingo. Several hours later, the Straw Hats arrive in Dressrosa, where they split up as part of their plan to destroy the SMILE Factory. Luffy disguises himself and enters Doflamingo's tournament under the alias "Lucy" after seeing a broadcast promoting the its prize. Sabo joins Hack in the colosseum to watch the tournament.

Luffy meets Rececca when he takes an interest in the statue of Kyros and she explains Kyros' fame. Jesus Burgess and Bartolomeo win the first two of four blocks, where Hack is defeated. Luffy competes in Block C, where Sabo recognises him. Don Chinjao also competes, and a flashback shows that Chinjao is unable to retrieve buried treasure after his pointed head was deformed in a fight with Garp; Chinjao plans to kill Luffy as revenge. Bartolomeo also recognizes Luffy, and recalls becoming his a huge fan of his after witnessing his escape from Buggy in Loguetown first hand. After a one on one fight with Chinjao, Luffy wins Block C. Meanwhile, Law fights Fujitora and Doflamingo elsewhere in Dressrosa.

Sabo continues to reminisce about his time in the Goa Kingdom: Sabo and Ace are adding stolen money from the Bluejam Pirates to their hidden pirate saving when Luffy spots them. They tie him up, but are interrupted when several Bluejam pirates come looking for them. The pirates find Luffy and unsuccessfully attempt to torture him into revealing the location of the pirate savings. Some time later, Sabo and Ace rescue Luffy and, surprised that he never caved in to Bluejam, accept him into their group. Sabo is introduced to Dadan, and the three spar with each other to gain strength and develop their fighting abilities. While in town, a man recognizes Sabo and he soon admits to Luffy and Ace and this person is both his father and a noble. Sabo says that the three of them should go out to sea so that they can be truly free, and Ace and Luffy announce their ambitions to become the world's most notorious pirate and the King of the pirates respectively. The three declare themselves brothers by sharing sake.

Back at the Colosseum in present day, Zoro and Kin'emon meet up with Luffy and contact the rest of the crew on a Den Den Mushi. Franky informs Luffy of the King Riku Army and their plan to rescue the people turned into toys be knocking out Hobi Hobi no Mi user Sugar with a spiked grape. Zoro, Kin'emon and Luffy plan to join forces with the King Riku Army alongside Franky, Robin and Usopp, but they are interrupted when Law's fight with Fujitora and Doflamingo finds them. Doflamingo shoots Law and flies him to the palace with Fujitora in tow. Zoro and Kin'emon head to the palace while Luffy asks Bartolomeo to take his Lucy disguise and win the Mera Mera no Mi for him. Sabo approaches, reveals his identity to Luffy and takes Luffy's place rather than Bartolomeo. Sabo promises to help Rebecca and internally considers Dressrosa's similarity to the Goa Kingdom.

In a flashback to Sabo's childhood, his father finds him and forcefully takes him away from Luffy and Ace. Sabo learns from his newly-adopted brother Stelly that, in preparation for a World Noble's visit, the nobles plan on burning down Grey Terminal, the area where Ace and Luffy live, and kill everyone living there in the processes. Sabo is unable to warn or prevent this, and once he is exhausted begs Dragon, a nearby stranger, for help. A few days later, Sabo steals a ship to begin his life as a pirate, but the approaching World Noble ship shoots him down. Dogra witnesses this and, assuming Sabo to be dead, informs Ace, Luffy and the Dadan Family, who all escaped the Grey Terminal fire. Ace and Luffy later receive a letter from Sabo, sent before his presumed death, and resolve to set out to sea also.

Back at the Colosseum in present day, Diamante joins the tournament's final round alongside Sabo, Burgess, Rebecca and Bartolomeo. Meanwhile, Luffy, Zoro and Kin'emon arrive at the palace where Violet meets them as an ally. As they take down several Donquixote Pirates and invade the palace, Violet informs them that the other team has failed. Usopp is passed out and Sugar has identified the spiked grape; she feeds it to Usopp, but his reaction is shocking enough that she passes out. The toys return to humans and the memories of everyone in Dressrosa are restored, causing Rebecca to realize that Thunder Soldier is her father, Kyros. In the Colosseum, Sabo wins the tournament, eats the Mera Mera no Mi and uses Ace's signature Fire Fist attack to destroy the Colosseum's arena.

Anime Notes

 * Sabo is shown to have gone to Ace and Whitebeard's graves and placed the sake cups after the Straw Hat Pirates reemerged. However, the gravesites and the items on them are spotless, conflicting with the manga which showed the objects decaying after two years.
 * There are extended scenes from the Marineford Arc and Luffy's past.
 * As with all 'Episode of' specials, some scenes are recapped within a few minutes and non-canon scenes are added.
 * In the original manga and anime, Luffy learned about the prize of the Corrida Colosseum tournament from one of Doflamingo's thugs. In this special, Luffy saw the prize while watching Doflamingo's broadcast.
 * Aremo Ganmi makes a cameo, with another different appearance. Additionally another woman with a different appearance having red flower in her hair, similar to the character's manga design, is possibly yet another misinterpretation of the character, as she is also shown covering her face but not her eyes.
 * Sabo learns that Lucy was Luffy right after Hajrudin's defeat, while noticing the familiar scar on Luffy's face.
 * Luffy is seen using Geppo during his fight against Don Chinjao, which Luffy has never been seen doing. During his fight with Doflamingo, Luffy did show some kind of Geppo in the form of Gear 4 but it is rather different from the normal Geppo and based on his Devil Fruit form.
 * Scenes from Chapter 786 (Sabo beating up Jesus Burgess when he tries to attack a weakened Luffy following the wearing off of Gear 4 against Doflamingo), Chapter 792 (where Sabo was shown striking Burgess after the latter ridiculed him over his incapability to save Ace in the war), and Chapter 794 (Luffy tearfully hugging Sabo after learning he is still alive) are shown before the events are fully depicted in the anime, although the way Sabo introduces himself to Luffy differs between the anime and the manga.
 * This special was dubbed into English before the Punk Hazard and Dressrosa arcs. Because of this, it is the first time that many characters' dub voices were heard. These include Caesar Clown, Bartolomeo, Kin'emon, Cavendish, Fujitora, Trebol, Sugar, Viola, Diamante, Kyros, and most of the colosseum fighters.
 * The dub for this special marks the last project released by FUNimation with Vic Mignogna as a cast member, and the last time he portrayed Sabo following his termination from FUNimation due to sexual harassment allegations.

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