One Piece: A storyline finally ends, in predictably awesome fashion

One Piece, Volume 79
By Eiichiro Oda
Published by Viz Media



This is it; after around 12 volumes, Eiichiro Oda finally hits the big finale of the current One Piece storyline, which has seen the Straw Hat pirates fight in increasingly high stakes battles to liberate the nation of Dressrosa from the tyrannical rule of Don Quixote Doflamingo. In the previous volume, the various battles between characters reached their conclusions, leaving only the big showdown between Luffy and Doflamingo, and it seemed like it was almost over. However, Oda manages to drag it out for a few more chapters, ratcheting up the drama and turning it into an expectedly epic final confrontation that allows the entire nation to contribute to the victory.

That's a great example of how well Oda paces the series; even though this battle has lasted multiple volumes and hundreds of pages, it doesn't feel like it's padded. The stakes build and build, with the fates of thousands of people in the balance, and while the good guys are sure to prevail, they end up doing so not just through determination, but by rallying an entire kingdom.

So how does Oda take a fight that seemed to be drawing to a close at the end of the last volume and drag it out for several more chapters without making it seem tiresome? He has Doflamingo briefly knock Luffy out, meaning that our hero needs about 10 minutes to recover his strength for a final attack. But during that time, the "birdcage" that Doflamingo has placed around the kingdom is contracting, and it's likely to cut everyone to ribbons before that 10 minutes is up. So that gives everyone, from the Straw Hats' remaining allies, to the surviving gladiators and pirates, to the members of the Navy, a chance to struggle as hard as they possibly can to buy Luffy enough time to get back on his feet:



And then, when Luffy is just about ready, the coliseum announcer from the gladiator battles earlier in this storyline makes sure everyone in the kingdom knows exactly what is going on and who the man fighting to take down the tyrant is:







This makes for an incredibly rousing moment, with the entire kingdom cheering for Luffy and lending him their emotional strength. And sure enough, the final confrontation is awesome and epic, about as satisfying a finish to one of these lengthy storylines as the series has ever done. Oda is a master at building emotional stakes and then paying them off in spectacular fashion, and this is just the latest example.

So what's next? With the battle wrapped up, the rest of the volume provides some nice closure, including a look at how Luffy's childhood pal Sabo survived his apparent death and eventually made it back into his life, and it starts setting up what's to come by introducing a new antagonist, a guy so tough that he survives a suicide attempt in which he jumps from a city in the clouds:



That's funny stuff, a great way to show us that this guy is going to be a major threat. I'm sure it will be another dozen volumes or so before Luffy gets around to fighting him, but I'm happy to wait that long, because it's sure to be awesome.

One Piece: Aargh, why do I have to wait for the NEXT volume for the awesomeness?

One Piece, Volume 78
By Eiichiro Oda
Published by Viz Media



Writing about each new volume of One Piece is kind of difficult, since it's tough to do it in a way that's not just "And then this cool thing happens! And check out this other bit of awesomeness!" The series has gone on for so long that it can be hard to come up with other things to say. Not that it's not still great; every new volume is tons of fun, full of crazy action, funny jokes, and emotional character moments, and this one is no exception.

So: how about a summary? This is what seems to be the penultimate volume in the current storyline, in which the Straw Hat Pirates are fighting the evil Don Quixote Doflamingo, who has been tyrannically ruling the kingdom of Dressrosa for ten years. The battle has raged throughout the last several volumes, but Luffy and his allies (who have grown in number here to include not just the Straw Hats, but the kingdom's former royal family and a bunch of other gladiators and pirates) have defeated most of the bad guys, with only a few of them remaining.

As usually happens in this point of these stories, various one-on-one matchups occur, and the ones we get here are pretty great. We get to see the gladiator Kyros (who spent the last ten years and most of the last several volumes in the form of a toy soldier, but has now been restored to his full, if one-legged, form as a total badass) face off against a guy named Diamante, who murdered Kyros' wife. Diamante has a weird power where he can turn things into paper (or some two-dimensional form) and back again, and he uses an attack where he shoots a bunch of confetti up into the air then turns it into a weapon:



But that's no real obstacle to Kyros, who refuses to be harmed by such cowardly tricks:



Diamante shoots Kyros in the leg, leaving him open to damage, but he won't stop coming, demonstrating some intensely righteous badassery:




I love that sort of stuff. Also good is Zolo's fight against a guy named Pica, who has taken the form of a giant stone version of himself and is about to attack the former King Riku and stop any opposition to Doflamingo's rule. But by the time Zolo realizes what's going on, Pica is halfway across the town, so his only way to stop him is by getting one of his gladiator allies to throw him the entire distance:






That's actually not the end of the fight; it goes on for several more pages as Zolo continues to fight Pica's stone form in mid-air, and it's awesome.

And then there's the big final battle between Luffy and Doflamingo, which seems to come to a climax here but looks like it's going to stretch into at least the first few chapters of the next volume. It's one of those high-energy fights that Eiichiro Oda does so well, somehow managing to keep raising the stakes further than they already are throughout, with Doflamingo beginning to make the "birdcage" surrounding the kingdom contract, which will eventually end up killing everyone inside, and the seemingly-defeated Trafalgar Law managing to strike more blows against Doflamingo at the last moment. But Doflamingo is cunning and resilient, and he manages to survive even though Luffy keeps doing awesome stuff like this:




So that means Luffy has to shift his powers into "Gear Four". We had previously seen him use additional "gears" when he came up with new levels of his abilities, but this one is especially weird and goofy. It involves him pumping his body up into a form that resembles a muscular balloon and then using his psychic "Haki" powers to armor himself up and resist any damage. This allows him to basically fly and keep attacking, but he can also sort of telescope his arms to deal incredibly powerful blows:



It's one of those signature One Piece moments that's silly but effective, and Oda sells it by demonstrating Luffy's anger and determination. He also throws in some extra drama by having King Riku exhort his citizens to not give up, even though their situation seems hopeless:




Those are the sorts of moments that I love in this manga; scenes that are awe-inspiring in their awesomeness and plain in their emotions, while still retaining a sense of fun and adventure even in the midst of high-stakes battles. This series continues to be pretty great, and I can't wait to cheer at what I expect to be the resolution to this long storyline in the next volume. And then it'll be back to waiting for a few more years for the next big moment like this, but based on past experience, it will all be worth it.

One Piece: Yes, It’s Still Awesome

One Piece, Volume 76-77
By Eiichiro Oda
Published by Viz Media



This many parts into a looooong storyline, it may seem that Eiichiro Oda might start running out of steam, trying to keep his myriad plates spinning as he keeps charging toward a finale that is still in the future. But no, he manages to make it work, as always, checking in regularly with the dozen or so mini-plots and battles that are going on while Luffy and company keep charging toward a final confrontation with the villainous Don Quixote Doflamingo. He even manages to spend a good half volume on a flashback filling in the backstory of Trafalgar Law and his history with Doflamingo, bringing some additional emotion to the fighting. It’s kind of impressive to watch him juggle so many things going on at once; every time you wonder what’s happening with, say, Zolo’s battle with the stone-man Pica, Oda checks back in to see how it is progressing, providing a promise that a larger focus will eventually return to that subplot before zooming off to whatever is currently holding the spotlight.

So, to make an attempt to sum up, the evil Doflamingo has trapped everyone in the land of Dressrosa in a giant “birdcage” and is making them either attack each other or the Straw Hat Pirates, who are trying to fight their way up to the palace on the top of a plateau. Luffy is leading the charge, but he is joined by a large group of gladiators that he helped free from the arena, all of whom get into a huge battle with Doflamingo’s powerful officers. Meanwhile, the kingdom’s population of tiny people, the Tontattas, are trying to break into a factory that Doflamingo uses to make artificial devil fruits in hopes of freeing their enslaved brethren and rescuing their princess. On the surface, that doesn’t seem like too much to keep track of, but it’s only the starting point for these two volumes, and things get substantially crazier and more chaotic as they progress.

How crazy? Well, there’s a big fight involving a bad guy named Gladius, who is attacking Nico Robin, a gladiator named Cavendish, and another pirate named Bartolomeo who is a total Straw Hats fanboy, meaning that he is awed to the point of blubbering tears to get the chance to help out his heroes:



There’s another goofy battle going on between Franky and the tough guy Señor Pink, who dresses as a baby. They both act super badass and make manly proclamations about toughness, but when they fight, this is the sort of thing that happens:



Usopp gets a pretty great moment when he realizes that Luffy is about to be turned into a toy by the creepy-cute Sugar, which would make them all forget he ever existed, so he makes an amazing sniper shot from halfway across the kingdom to take her out at the last minute:





And there’s also plenty of really silly comedy, with moments like the elderly kung fu master Lao G facing off against a couple of gladiators and almost dying of old age in the middle of the fight:




But while that stuff all advances the overall plot, the real crucial part here is the flashback, which gives us some insight into Law’s need for revenge against Doflamingo, as well as some speculation about what message about the real world Oda is trying to convey here (if any). It turns out Law was from White Town, in the country of Flevance, where the main industry was mining a mineral called white lead, which was used to make all sorts of luxury items, but was actually toxic, slowly poisoning everyone in the kingdom. The world government let this happen even though they knew the people were dying, and even though the sickness wasn’t contagious, they allowed people to think it was, quarantining the country and eventually killing all of its inhabitants. Law managed to escape, but being infected with the sickness, he faced a certain death within a few years, so he joined Doflamingo’s pirates in hopes of killing as many people as possible in revenge. While he fit in well with the pirates, Doflamingo’s brother, Corazon, who was secretly a good guy trying to stop his brother’s evil schemes, couldn’t bear to see him waste his life, so he kidnapped him and went in search of a cure. This was eventually found in the form of the Op-Op fruit, which gave Law his super-surgeon powers and allowed him to heal himself, but Corazon died getting it for Law, demonstrating the only kindness anyone had ever shown him.

So there’s the latest heartbreaking backstory, and it works fairly well, although it seems like ground that we’ve trod before. The stuff about rich governments exploiting people’s suffering is interesting though, calling into mind the way the diamond trade destroys lives in Africa. Whatever Oda is going for, I expect it will make for some compelling emotion as the final battle plays out, with Luffy demonstrating his brotherhood and compassion for Law by kicking Doflamingo’s butt.

In the meantime, we’ve got some definite awesomeness, like in this move, when Law uses his powers to move Luffy into place for a decisive punch against Doflamingo:





That one actually happens pretty early in the fight, and things go in some unexpected directions from there, but as the various battles occurring elsewhere begin to wrap up, it’s clear that we’re heading for a finale (which will probably still take at least a volume or two to get here). That only means that Oda is going to start piling awesomeness upon awesomeness, so I expect what’s coming next to really knock my socks off. Don’t let me down, One Piece!

One Piece: Still awesome, 75 volumes later

One Piece, Volume 75
By Eiichiro Oda
Published by Viz Manga



If you were expecting this latest installment of this long-running series to be some sort of special anniversary volume with a big climactic moment or anything, well, be prepared to be disappointed, since it's just the next in the series. But you can also expect to be excited, since it's the latest volume of One Piece, which is rarely less than awesome. And while there appears to be plenty of time to go before this current storyline wraps up (it has lasted nine volumes so far, with at least two or three to go, I expect), things are definitely heating up here, with some big plot developments taking place, several exciting battles being set up, and an endgame in sight.

Should I try to explain the plot? Sure, why not? So, the Straw Hats are on Dressrosa, which is ruled by the dastardly Don Quixote Doflamingo, who has enslaved much of its population in a particularly cruel manner, using the power of one of his underlings to turn them into toys, after which they are forgotten by all their loved ones. The previous volume ended with a last-second defeat of the person who was controlling all these toys by Usopp, resulting in the sudden transformation of a ton of toys into angry pirates and gladiators, who are now all ready to rise up in a revolution against Doflamingo. First among these is Kyros, who was once the greatest of Dressrosa's gladiators before the king's daughter tamed his heart. He had been turned into a toy soldier, but now he's back to almost full strength (he only has one leg, but that doesn't seem to slow him down at all), and he immediately storms Doflamingo's stronghold and chops his head off. But it turns out that this Doflamingo was just a puppet composed out of the "strings" that the real villain controls with his powers, and he responds by initiating his fail-safe plan: the Birdcage, in which he surround the entire island with a giant cage of razor-sharp strings, trapping everyone inside. He then starts controlling random people with his puppeteer powers, forcing them to start attacking everyone around them. He announces that people can either try to survive long enough to kill him, or they can kill all of the Straw Hat crew and their allies, at which point he'll drop the birdcage. Oh, and he's put a huge bounty on their heads, and since the country seems to mostly be populated by ruffians, you can guess what choice they make.

And that's the setup for the rest of this story arc, with Luffy and the various good guys on his side, including rival pirate Trafalgar Law, samurai Foxfire Kin'emon, Dressrosa's former King Riku, his granddaughter, the gladiator Rebecca, and even Luffy's long-lost pal Sabo (who we last saw in volume 60 and we learn is now a high-ranking member of Luffy's father Dragon's revolutionary army), all teaming up to fight their way to Doflamingo, facing opposition from bounty-seekers and the Navy (who have decided to try to maintain the status quo), and some support/rivalry from the various pirates and gladiators who have been freed from their toy-based slavery. There are sure to be plenty of twists and turns, but it looks to be non-stop action from here until Luffy presumably defeats Doflamingo in a huge battle.

But even though this volume is mostly setup, it's still pretty action-packed, with some awesome stuff happening, such as an attack by Pica, by one of Doflamingo's minions who can control rock, in which he takes the form of a huge, animated portion of the landscape:



When he tries to punch Luffy and pals, it's as if they're being attacked by an entire village:




There are also some of the series trademark moments of emotion, as when Princess Viola explains to her father why she believes in Luffy and his crew:



And there's plenty of the series great humor, of course, with my favorite moment involving Usopp, the most cowardly member of the Straw Hats, being hailed as a savior after defeating the person who had enslaved everyone, and the words he is barely able to utter being misinterpreted as a call to follow him:




There's plenty of other stuff to enjoy here, and the next volumes promise much more, including another element of the series that I always like in a flashback to Law's childhood, where we'll learn why he hates Doflamingo so much. Stories in this manga can take a long time to build, but when they get moving, little else can match them for energy, inventiveness, emotion, and general awesomeness. I expect the next few volumes to be exciting and moving; I just wish I didn't have to wait another six months or more to read them...

One Piece is Still Awesome as of September 2014

I've continued reading One Piece as it came out in digest form since the last time I wrote about it, but even aside from my near-complete lack of blogging since then, I haven't found much to write about. It's been enjoyable enough, but the story that lasted from that volume (67) all the way up through volume 71 got kind of draggy, acting mostly as setup for the next portion of the plot, which is finally kicking into gear as of the current volume, #72. But with all the craziness and stuff that's going on, I'm back on board, at least for now (we'll see how I feel in a few months, when the next volume comes out).

Want some examples of the stuff that's got me excited again? I would start with the plot, but as usual, it's way too complicated to explain in a way that makes much sense; it basically involves the Straw Hat Pirates infiltrating the kingdom of their current enemy, Don Quixote Doflamingo. They're supposed to do a prisoner swap with him while secretly planning to destroy a factory he's using to manufacture artificial devil fruits (the things that give people the crazy superpowers that almost everybody in the series has). Things immediately get sidetracked when Luffy gets distracted by a fighting tournament, in which the prize for the winner is the Flame-Flame fruit. This was the fruit that gave Luffy's brother Ace his powers, but now that he's dead, somebody else can claim it (that's apparently how things work in this world), and Luffy doesn't want anybody else (especially some vicious criminal) to have it. That gives the tournament some stakes, but that doesn't matter all that much (for now); you never need much of an excuse to throw a fighting tournament into a shonen manga series.

The previous volume featured some of the preliminary rounds of the tournament, but the bulk of this installment is dedicated to the round that Luffy participates in, and it's as awesome as one would hope. As with any big fight scene, Oda takes this chance to throw in a bunch of crazy characters, like this martial artist whose badassery is somewhat tempered by the frilly ruffed collar he wears:



Or this cactus-hatted fellow:



Or these brothers, one of whom has the bizarre power to be worn as a jacket:



But while that's funny, we still get some awe-inspiring, grin-inducing action, like this moment in which Luffy comes up against a giant who had been wiping the floor with everybody:




I love the reaction shots that Oda mixes in to the action there, especially the one at the end of the first page. We see Luffy winding up for a massive punch, but it actually happens off-panel, and we just see the crowd freaking out about it, before turning the page and seeing its immediate effects (and a further freak-out as the shock of what just happened continues to register).

Later, the battle comes down to Luffy and another powerful foe, and you can tell it's going to be awesome as soon as they throw their first punches:



Their fight gets a bit of emotional stakes due to the revelation that he was a pirate whose life was ruined by Luffy's grandfather Garp (you see, he had hidden his pirate treasure beneath a glacier that only he could break open, due to his diamond pointed head, but Garp punched him on the head so hard, it wasn't pointy anymore), so he swore revenge on Garp's family. I won't spoil the resolution to the battle, but it's awesome and hilarious, and as the other competitors get fleshed out and their motivations come into focus and begin to tie into the rest of what's going on in the kingdom, I expect it's going to lead to some pretty amazing places.

But that's not all that's going on in this volume. There's also a bit in which Sanji starts to form a relationship with a lady who is working for the kingdom's organized crime family, and she has one of those powers that Oda occasionally uses that is based on the silly things that kids do (see also: CP9's finger pistols):



And she also has a pretty good kick-to-the-face move:



I also liked a scene in which Trafalgar Law, the Straw Hats' ally, is facing off against Joker/Doflamingo and a Navy General, when the latter apparently uses a power to call down a meteor strike:



The three of them use their various powers to block it, leaving a gaping crater and the three of them standing on tiny pillars:




It's only a short scene, but it's a hint at an epic battle to come, demonstrating the immense powers that our heroes will have to face at some point. I can't wait to see how Oda deals with it, whether it's Luffy, Zolo, or any (or all) of the other characters that will have to come up with some way to battle literally world-shaking forces.

On a lighter note, there's a running subplot in which Nami, Brook, and Chopper get attacked by a lady who has the power to turn people and things into "art", which means they get transformed into the following forms:




That's really weird, but I like the references to Munch and Picasso. This lady also lets Oda break out one of his classic gags, in which an ugly woman insists she is beautiful in a non-sequitur manner:



And I didn't even mention the other running subplots, in which there are some tiny people living underground in the kingdom planning on launching a rebellion, or that half of the country's population is living toys. The latter looks to be leading up to a classic emotional reveal, since there are hints that somebody with strange powers is turning people into toys, who then go on to secretly help out the families that think they are dead without revealing their true identities. That sounds silly, but if anybody can make it work, and even wring tears from it, it's Oda. I'm hoping he won't spend too many more volumes working it all out, but if the rest of this storyline is as enjoyable as this installment, I probably won't mind.