One Piece 42

Eiichiro Oda – Viz – 2010 – 57+ volumes

I was so happy when I saw Funkfreed on the cover.  Then… Funkfreed took on a different role in the story.  This has been seen before, with Mr. 4, but I didn’t like it back then and I don’t like it now.  On the other hand… it’s an elephant named Funkfreed.  I have a hard time finding fault with that.

Another insignificant detail: The Baroque Works reunion title page story cracks me up, especially when Miss Golden Week uses her rainbow powers to disguise everyone escaping.  I got a big kick out of Crocodile and Mr. 1′s costumes.  I also like the peek at… was it Impel Down or Marine Headquarters?  I love how significant things come up first in these title page stories.

As for the matter at hand… yes.  The Straw Hats fight the members of CP9.  I wondered how this was going to be handled, because clearly only Luffy was a match for these guys.  All the characters have their moment though, with the possible exception of Sniper King and Zoro.  Their fights quickly intersect.  Sniper King’s fight was funny to begin with, but then Zoro’s fight quickly turns absolutely ridiculous.  With Zoro and Sniper King’s power’s combined, we get the best fight in the volume.

Actual fights are had between… Franky and the zipper-mouth guy and Chopper and the long-haired guy.  I felt bad for Chopper since he didn’t really need to fight his opponent, and he resorted to an extremely desperate measure in the end.  Poor little guy.  Franky’s fight is more along the lines of what you would imagine.  It is also super, as anything connected with Franky must be.

We do get to see Califa and Kaku’s new devil fruit powers.  Kaku’s are… uh, yeah.  Awesome in a way that only One Piece superpowers can be.  Califa’s powers are slightly more formidable.  She fights Sanji at first, and I was pretty furious with the results of that fight.  Nami takes her on next… which was surprising, because I figured Nami would just steal her key and avoid fighting these monsters altogether.  In a jump that is not explained, the Kalifa/Nami fight begins with Kalifa in the bath and Nami on the floor of the bathroom.

Next volume, we will get the fight between Rob Lucci and Luffy, and if we are lucky, Zoro and Sniper King fighting together.  The latter is what I’m looking forward to most, which has a lot to do with the powers of their opponents, too.