One Piece 46

Eiichiro Oda – Viz – 2010 – 57+ volumes

When I found out the pace of the series was going to be sped up, the first thing I hoped for was that Thriller Bark would be included in this run of graphic novels.  It is.  Thriller Bark is my absolute favorite story arc in the series by far.  It isn’t the best, but it has everything I love about One Piece in it, plus some B-horror-type stuff, and I’m a sucker for that.

First and foremost, we meet Brook straight off the bat.  Brook is a walking, talking gentlemen skeleton with an afro.  Everything about Brook is brilliant.  He’s exactly the type of person that Luffy would adore, he is a musician, he makes horrible puns about being a skeleton, and despite being a “gentlemen,” frequently has horrible manners.  Also, he freaks everyone else on the crew out.  Luffy asks him two questions when they meet: whether he poops, and then if he’d like to be a member of his crew.  Brook accepts.

Brook is also a sad character, since he’s obviously dead and has been floating around for decades on a derelict pirate ship that can only contain the remains of his dead crewmates.  But he doesn’t let any of this get him down, and meeting the Straw Hats cheers him immensely before he runs off to get his stolen shadow back.

The Straw Hats wind up getting caught on a floating island called Thriller Bark, which contains, among other things, zombies, ghosts, invisible men, someone who can steal shadows, a Warlord of the Sea, and a famous doctor called Hogback who lives in a creepy mansion.

This volume is the absolute perfect introduction to the island.  Usopp, Nami, and Chopper, who don’t want to have anything to do with the island, wind up getting separated from the Sunny and are chased down by zombies, ghosts, and every other type of scary monster the island has to throw at them.  They have a great deal of trouble, since only Chopper can really match them in brute strength and Usopp is frequently too scared to throw fire ammunition at them.  They also are the ones that are the first to deal with Dr. Hogback, Chopper’s hero but also a rather creepy man.

After we follow those three through the island of terrors, then Zoro, Sanji, Robin, Franky, and Luffy go looking for them.  They… well, it takes more than monsters to scare them.  They go through all the same troubles as the other three, except it just doesn’t work on them, and it’s pretty hilarious.

My favorite scene is one where zombies rise out of a graveyard, and confused by them popping up out of the ground, Luffy just pushes them back down with no comment or malice.  There are a few good jokes with Luffy and zombies, and also old men with terrible injuries.

The method behind the madness in Thriller Bark isn’t really explained here, nor is Brook’s role in all this, so that waits for the next volume.

One Piece 45

Eiichiro Oda – Viz – 2010 – 57+ volumes

As far as in-between volumes go, this one is… not so light as it is a huge plot dump.  A lot of stuff comes out of nowhere, and a lot of things that happen here have far-reaching consequences.  Of course, the series is only about ten volumes further on at this point, but all of it is based on what happens here.

We are introduced to Vice-Admiral Garp, who is one of the more entertaining characters I’ve seen in awhile, and we also get to hear about his son, the revolutionary Dragon, who saw Luffy off in Rogue Town just before he entered the Grand Line.  We also get to catch up with several old faces, including Shanks, Whitebeard, Blackbeard, Ace, and… Koby and Helmeppo.  Helmeppo’s parts made me laugh pretty hard.

We also learn about Franky’s dream, and unlike all the others, he has the opportunity to make it happen in this very volume.  He tells the Straw Hats that his dream is to build a ship he designed out of adam wood (something he explains) and to have it sail around the world and become the greatest ship.  He himself plans to stay in Water 7, but when you find out he will be building the Straw Hat’s new ship, and also because he’s super, you can also assume that he will be joining the crew as the shipwright.

He doesn’t want to.  The Franky Family beg the Straw Hats to force him.  Iceburg bullies him.  The campaign to get Franky to join the Straw Hats is probably one of the silliest, most over-the-top and hilarious things the series has done yet.  It was completely uncalled for, involved a lot of pain, nudity, and embarrassment, and was… well, super.  Only Franky could still strike a cool, manly pose while all these terrible things were being done with him.

There’s also the problem of Usopp, who isn’t a member of the Straw Hats anymore.  That has to be resolved before the end of the volume.  Sadly, this happens in the middle of a fight with Vice-Admiral Garp, who winds up hurling cannonballs at Luffy because, well, stuff happened and he had to send him to a watery grave.

His new ship, the Thousand Sunny, is pretty amazing, although the SBS corners go into more detail in the next volume, and we also get to see it in action a little later.

Also in this volume, we find out that the crew’s bounties went up after bringing down Enies Lobby.  There are lots of amusing things that go along with this, chief among them Sanji’s poster.  Not only is it good for a laugh now, but it comes up again later, courtesy of someone who’s not him, doesn’t know him, and isn’t even a pirate.

In short, this volume is magical.  But not as magical as the next five volumes, which are all Thriller Bark volumes.

Thriller Bark is my favorite section of the series.  Hands down.  Because Brook is simply one of the best characters ever made.

One Piece 44

Eiichiro Oda – Viz – 2010 – 57+ volumes

YES.  The end of Water 7.  Most of this volume is the Buster Call and the fight between Rob Lucci and Luffy.

The Rob/Luffy fight was more interesting in this volume, but it still wasn’t one of the better final fights in the series.  I think the only thing that made it really interesting was Luffy’s use of Gear 2 and Gear 3, but other than that, there was just a lot of dodging, hitting, and trash talking.  Rob Lucci’s devil fruit power is that he turns into a cheetahman, which doesn’t lend itself well to anything aside from a straightforward fight.  Most of the highlights were the various ways their “battle arena” kept getting destroyed, whether it was from flooding or the Buster Call, and also the parts where the Marines discussed their complete faith in Rob Lucci and also when the Straw Hats (including Usopp, who magically wound up in Enies Lobby) cheered Luffy on to victory.  There was no question about the outcome, so it was mostly just a waiting game.

Luckily, we have the Buster Call to keep our attention.  I thought there would be a little more of the Straw Hats and company (Galley-La and the Franky Family) engaging the ships and Marines.  One of the ships is destroyed, but that’s due to the actions of Luffy and Rob Lucci (and the Marines, disturbingly enough).  There’s a brief scene where the Straw Hats engage the Captains and the Lieutenants aboard the 7 battle ships, but not much is made of this fight, either.  It’s a melee to buy time while Luffy finishes, and other than a few mentions that the opponents are tough (as tough as Smoke, since they have the same ranks), that’s about all we see.

Oh.  Also, I think one of them is the main character from Kochi-Kame, the longest manga in history.  Oda points that out in the next volume.  That’s pretty cool.

The Buster Call is pretty cool, and that kept me flipping the pages all the way through.  But this volume is a real classic because of what happens at the end.  There’s a crew member that steps in to save the Straw Hat pirates when they are truly chased into a corner and have their backs against the wall.  As corny as it was, it was a pretty happy sight in the context of the story.  This is followed by one of the saddest scenes in the entire series for the final chapter of this volume.  I couldn’t even believe how much it got to me.  It was a little stupid, and I felt bad for letting it affect me as much as I did… but dammit, I’ve been reading this series forever, it’s really good, and this was really sad.  All the characters thought it was sad, too.

Also, Kokoro.  Am I the only one that felt bad about laughing at those jokes over and over and over again?  I knew that she was, and I was wondering how it would come up, because I remember it being referenced later by the characters (in hilarious scenes where all thoughts of Kokoro simply vanish from their memory).  But it made me laugh so hard here.  I felt bad, because that’s like a fifth grade joke.  But still.  It was funny.

One Piece 43

Eiichiro Oda – Viz – 2010 – 57+ volumes

Things I love about One Piece #857: Eiichiro Oda’s extremely entertaining author notes at the beginning of the volumes and the SBS corners, which are equal parts informative and hilarious nonsense.  My favorite note in this volume was a bizarre one from a French reader that just asked if Oda had French bread in his house.  Oda called him out on the question, then said that he hoped the reader was still a fan of the series in two years, since that’s how long the SBS corner would take to show up in France.

Also, I have been entertained by the ongoing reader fascination with Wanze, a one-shot villain.  Questions about him seem to keep pouring in, but I think my favorite part was how freaking low he ranked in the popularity poll at the end of the volume.  The readers are just curious, they don’t necessarily like him.

Anyway.  I was a little uncomfortable with the goofy powers on display here with Sanji and Zoro.  They border on the… fantastic.  I’ve always liked that devil fruit is the only magic or unexplainable thing in the One Piece universe, and even that had rules.  Everything else was a fighting technique.  Sometimes you could do superhuman things, like walk up walls or make your body steel or whatever, but it was always plausible.  Catching parts of your body on fire… not so much.  Willing yourself to transform… er.

Tony’s transformation was a little easier to take.  It’s still sad, but I was happy to see everyone stand up for him, and others seemed to be impressed by that, too.

Kalifa and Nami’s fight was pretty amazing.  Kalifa turned out to be way dopier than I originally thought, but that’s all right.  I also like that Nami uses her brains rather than any fighting techniques whatsoever.  Not just the weather thing, but just figuring out a fight in general.  I’m not fond of Nami, but she has her place.

Speaking of places, the absolute best scene in the volume goes to Sniper King, who pulls off the most perfectly heroic save in the series yet.  It made me want to tear up a little, especially after everything he went through, both in the past and in this volume.  He tries so hard, but he is rarely in a situation that gives him the absolute advantage with his special abilities.  Even Sanji and Zoro are super-proud of him.

Other than that… there is a very disappointing fight between Rob and Luffy that is still happening, Robin is relatively safe, the World Government doors are open, and the warships are moving in.  Exciting stuff is coming in the next few volumes.  This story arc is great, and I can’t read it fast enough once again.  I… like Skypiea a little better… but Water 7 is still plenty amazing.