Volume 35 of One Piece, which covers chapters 328 through 336, picks up where the previous volume ended, and continues to stack the odds against the Straw Hat Pirates. The crew sharpshooter, Usopp, is ambushed and two-thirds of the money the crew intended to use to repair their ship, the Merry Go, is stolen, while Usopp is badly beaten. His attempt to retrieve the money himself ends not only in failure, but with his being beaten even worse, and mocked by the "secret boss" of Water Seven, Franky.
Oda doesn't reveal Franky's true appearance until the end of this volume, keeping him behind a mask and cloak he's going to use as a disguise while he travels to the black market to purchase whatever he's after (this won't be revealed until many volumes later.) However, his gang, the Franky Family, are some of the dumbest looking jackasses I've ever seen, as Oda outfits them in giant metal diaper, or legless overalls, or something. They deserve the asskicking the Straw Hats give them, for their terrible clothing choices alone. As Franky's long gone with the money, this does nothing but get the crew on one more person's shit list once Franky sees what they did to his home.
(I see people conjecture Franky's based on Elvis, though apparently Eiichiro Oda says it was actually Ace Ventura that provided the inspiration. Given he reminds me of Johnny Bravo, I'd lean towards Elvis, but I can see the pet detective.)
The volume's central scene is the fight between Usopp and Luffy. Usopp, already feeling like a failure for losing the money, is distraught to hear Luffy has decided they'll get a new ship, since Merry is no longer capable of sailing. Since Usopp was doing his best to act as ship's carpenter (despite no training, and with his idiot captain racking up a lot of damage), this is perceived as another strike against his value to the crew. Deciding it's better to walk away than be left behind, Usopp leaves the crew and challenges Luffy for the Merry.
The fight, while highlighting Usopp's ingenuity, is ultimately never in doubt. This is a shonen manga; the clever but underpowered character never gets to beat the vastly talented protagonist. It's interesting, though, because it makes every argument between the rest of the crew a little more fraught. Zoro and Sanji butting head doesn't just seem like ordinary rivalry. Sanji trying to stop Chopper from offering first aid to a battered Usopp becomes the sort of thing, you wonder if it'll linger.
Now minus their ship, with one crew member departed, and Nico Robin still M.I.A., things are looking bad. Learning that Iceberg, the mayor of the city and owner of the Galley-La shipbuilding company was shot a half-dozen times the night before, adds a new element. While Iceberg keeps his suspicions on why he was targeted to himself, he's more than willing to proclaim Robin was one of the two who attacked him. Now the Straw Hats are on an entire city's shit list.
Luffy and Franky can't even have a simple (as simple as fight involving a teenager made of rubber and Cyborg-Ace Ventura can be) brawl between two guys who each think they have justified beef with the other, without getting attacked by the shipwrights of Galley-La. None of whom seem too concerned about fighting a pirate with a bounty of 100 million.
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