One Piece 22
November 5, 2009
Eiichiro Oda – Viz – 2009 – 55+ volumes
I don’t have a lot to say about this volume. There are a lot of epic battles being waged, mostly between Luffy and Crocodile. One of my favorite things about the series is that everyone seems put off by Luffy’s insistence that he will most certainly win the fight, no questions asked. Even someone as arrogant and straightforward (ie, not as goofy as some of the other big bosses in the series are) seems mildly shaken by this. They cycle through several stages of battle, and by the end, Crocodile is very upset that he has killed Luffy several times and Luffy still lives. So yes. They still fight. The cliffhanger to next volume is that Crocodile “Still doesn’t get it!” I suppose we’ll see how Luffy survives being run through with a poison hook next time.
At one point Luffy fills himself to bursting with water, which, with the gum gum fruit, means he fills up like a gigantic water balloon. Hilariously, since Crocodile had literally run him through with a hook, he leaks water out the front and back through the holes pierced through his midsection. Deadly, but funny.
One of the best thing about this volume was Miss Father’s Day. She shows up at the end and has one of the best character designs in the series so far. It’s a shame she only sticks around for a couple chapters.
What else… lots of running around trying to stop the fight, then trying to find the bomb in the town square so that it doesn’t blow up and kill every soldier in the kingdom. That gets held over to next volume, too. The Marines show up, but they don’t have a role to play yet. Poor Tashigi just gets beat up by Miss All Sunday and left.
Speaking of… the only really interesting thing about this volume is that we find out more about Miss All Sunday. She can read a language that nobody else knows, which is why Crocodile is keeping her around. Their aim was to find a stone tablet that reportedly had the position of some ultimate weapon (pluton?) on it. We also find out that Miss All Sunday sunk a fleet of Marine ships at the age of 7. She is a scary lady, but gets suddenly wimpy when Crocodile turns on her.
I had forgotten about pluton. Maybe it’ll still have a part to play in the story. Hmm. Speaking of, in the title page story playing throughout this volume about Hachi, we see a little mermaid that re-appears 30 volumes from now. I had forgotten that she shows up first here. Well, remember her.
Yeah. One Piece is usually amazing… but this Alabasta story is slow. Very, very slow. I’ll be happy when it’s over.
November 5, 2009 at 2:57 pm
I love One Piece, but one of the things that always bothers me is that near the end of the big arcs, it always just feels like a bunch of people are running around while big epic battles are going, and it all feels a bit overwhelming. That’s what happened here, in Enies Lobby, Thriller Bark, and it’s happening in the current storyline as well. It’s like the big battles in Lord of the Rings movies, which are amazing, but when you try to remember it, it’s all kind of a blur.
November 6, 2009 at 3:15 am
Yes, you are exactly right about that. I stopped reading during the Enies Lobby arc due to boring fights and sort of wandered back somewhere towards the beginning of Thriller Bark, and the current storyline has me floored with the way it completely derailed into a gigantic melee I have no interest in right in front of something that the entire plot has been leading up to. Every new chapter is an agony, because there’s this awesome fight happening, and I want to like it, but I just want them to move the story forward.
I think I hold it against the Alabasta arc more because I lose interest with desert settings really quickly. Thriller Bark was awesome, and I am still interested in the current storyline because of all the stuff going on, and even Skypeia had things that stayed interesting when the story got bogged down in battles. I really ought to go back and read Enies Lobby all the way through. It can’t be nearly as bad as I imagine.
November 7, 2009 at 7:22 pm
I have to disagree. One Piece has never bored me. In fact, One Piece has only gotten better and better since it began. I find the current arc to be the best of the series so far. Yes, it’s a gigantic melee to be sure, but isn’t that what all wars are like? I’m not really sure how you find every new chapter an agony. The only agony I experience is the wait for the next chapter is to come out.
November 8, 2009 at 1:29 am
Don’t get me wrong, it’s still my favorite series. I like pretty much everything about it, but if I had to complain about something, it’s the really long fights that happen while I want the plot to progress. The current chapters are hard for me to read since I am really, really interested in how things will turn out and how the plot will go from here, possibly moreso than I ever have been since I have no idea how things will move forward from this fight (I assume the King of Pirates, at the very least, will somehow come of this). I know while I’m reading that this fight has to happen, but the wait for Luffy to get to that platform is killing me. It’s almost funny every week when I get to the end of the chapter and it still hasn’t happened. It’s huge and epic, and it’s a tremendously great fight, but it’s agonizing when I want to see what will happen afterwards, you know?