One Piece 24
Posted: January 20, 2010 Filed under: One Piece 2 Comments »Eiichiro Oda – Viz – 2010 – 56+ volumes
First up in the One Piece week is the volume I skipped over before. This is the tail end of the Baroque Works arc and the very beginning of the Skypiea arc. We see the relief efforts in Alabasta and hear tell of a sky island in Jaya, an island of pirates, but this is mostly an in-between volume.
In-between volumes are my favorites, as I’ve said before. Oda’s sense of humor really shines at these parts, and there’s just so much random stuff going on. Robin reappears here, and the way she wins over all of the Straw Hat Pirates except Zoro is pretty hilarious. The flashback to what happened after Crocodile was defeated between she and Luffy in Alabasta was also nice.
There’s little touches, though. The salvage pirate that has a strange fondness for being watched, and gets along with Luffy. The way he randomly shows up on the Going Merry after a maelstrom. The strange sequence of events that include a gigantic galleon falling from the sky, a gigantic Neptunian eating the ship, the sky going dark, and giants appearing all make for an awesome read. Also good: the discussion on pirates and dreams, and the way Luffy decides to deal with the situation, even after getting the blessing to wipe the floor with the uppity pirates. I liked that scene a lot.
It also starts off the Skypiea arc with a nice quote: “Anything man can imagine is a possibility in reality.” Or something like that. The fact that Skypiea really is impossible, and the characters are ridiculed for wanting to go there, and people have been ridiculed through the ages for believing in it, and yet it exists and is fantastic and is one of the best story arcs in the series speaks more to… I don’t know, achieving one’s dreams than any other shounen manga could.
And that’s why One Piece rocks harder than any other series.
Alabasta was progressing to becoming King of Pirates by traveling further down the line, defeating rivals, and confronting one of the big threats of the line, a Shichibukai.
Skypiea is progressing to becoming King of Pirates by showing they have the strength to achieve their dreams.
True. I read this before going back and re-reading the first three volumes, and it becomes more and more true. It changes from simple bad guy fights to… well, Skypiea. The biggest change does seem to be between Alabasta and Skypiea, but it’s hard to believe how different the early battles are in relation to even Alabasta. I didn’t realize how much it had changed over the years.