Saturday Splash Page #241

"God's Mistake," in "Future Present from God", in Wanted!, by Eiichiro Oda

I reviewed this 5 months ago, so we won't belabor the point. Wanted! is the collection of Oda's work prior to starting One Piece. It consists of 5 stories, including Romance Dawn, a kind of first draft for One Piece, as it stars a rubber boy with a straw hat named Luffy, who wants to be a pirate, but ends up fighting more dishonest pirates.

Most of the stories revolve around twist endings, and the protagonist, up to that point portrayed as a goofball or not someone to take seriously, turns out to be a badass. Gill Bastar, star of Wanted! spends most of the story either avoiding the many bounty hunters after him for the price on his head, or defeating them through trickery like, "Look over there!" It's only at the very end he turns out to be such a great marksman the ghost of a bounty hunter he killed with trickery moves on to the other side, having realized (if unwilling to admit it) he'll never find someone skilled enough to take revenge for him.

Describing him like that, Gill sounds like Vash the Stampede if he really did turn murderous once pushed far enough.

You get stories with a swordsman whose fixation on disrespect appears to doom a town to destruction via dragon, who in the end exposes a couple of frauds, and kills the dragon in one swing. Or a monk who spends most of the story running in terror from an evil spirit haunting a forest, only to immediately overpower the spirit once he learns it killed and ate his master. Maybe Oda wanted to do the comedy, but still have the cool finish. I'm not sure it really works, as I don't find much of it funny. 

You see his artwork evolve, especially as he gives himself more room on the page by decreasing panels. His lines tighten up and grow thicker, the characters look less sketched and more sturdy and defined. It doesn't hurt his ability to exaggerate expressions, and I think the additional space helps his action sequences.

Making Preparations to Set Sail

Wanted! is a collection of Eiichiro Oda's work prior to One Piece. Which, if this volume is comprehensive, consists of 5 stories. That's including Romance Dawn, the last entry in the book, which is kind of a dry run/first draft for One Piece, as it consists of a kid in a straw hat named Luffy with rubber powers, who wants to be a pirate. It doesn't get as far as Luffy actually recruiting a crew; he saves a young girl who was trying to protect her friend (who is a magic bird) from some creepy-looking guy with weird powers.

Yeah, that guy.

All the stories have comedic elements to varying degrees, and fall into different genres or styles. WANTED! is a Western, with a legendary gunman being haunted/annoyed by one of the bounty hunters who failed to kill him. The lead, Gill, spends most of the episode trying to run away or outsmart his pursuers, or yelling at the ghost to shut up as it plots his demise. Future Present from God is set in the modern day, about a pickpocket that God intended to kill for being a negative to society, but God fucked up and now said pickpocket has to keep a department store full of people from dying in a meteorite impact. Ikki Yako follows a cowardly monk (named Guko, and there's a monk named Ginko from a series called Mushi-shi. I don't know if Oda was spoofing that, or it's just a coincidence. He says he just thought a monk manga might be fun to do) who gets roped into trying to vanquish an evil spirit terrorizing a village.

Monsters is the closest to an entirely serious story, as it involves a swordsman who poses as a courageous hero, but actually uses a town's terror at an impending dragon attack as a cover to rob everyone's homes after they flee. There's another swordsman, Ryuma, overly serious and quick to anger, looking for the greatest swordsman in the world so he can challenge them. But he seems like an idiot, and managed to piss off the entire town because it seems like his fault the dragon's coming.

One thing the first 4 stories have in common is late surprise twists. That Gill was never actually in any real danger from the dangerous bounty hunter after him, because his skills are far greater. The thief pulling a fast one on God, Guko seeming like a talentless coward for 90% of his story, then becoming a badass at the very end. Monsters has a last page reveal about the true identity of the mysterious swordsman "King," that Ryuma's looking for. Romance Dawn's the exception, as Luffy shows off his powers about halfway through, and had already told us in a flashback he ate a mysterious fruit, albeit without telling us what it granted him.

The other thing I notice is the newer works tend to have fewer panels. WANTED! runs 6-8 panels a page, in a variety of layouts, for basically its entire length. Meanwhile Romance Dawn is almost entirely 4-6 panels, minus a handful of pages near the end with only 2 panels. Those are usually pages that involve someone getting hit, so the reduction in panels might reflect a shift towards more action-oriented stories. The 2-panel pages start to appear in Monsters, where Oda understandably seems to want more space to draw a guy leaping at the jaws of a dragon.

Sunday Splash Page #401

"Skeleton Crew," in One Piece, vol. 46, ch. 442, by Eiichiro Oda

One Piece is, obviously, still not finished. There have been over 700 chapters since the one pictured above, and yet, not done! But, as there is no chance in hell I'm going to try and track this entire series down, we're going to hit it now.

So, One Piece is about Monkey D. Luffy, a kid whose dream is to become King of the Pirates. The last King of the Pirates died over 20 years ago, and, as he stood on the execution platform, announced to the world he left all his treasure in a mysterious location. The notion got started that whoever found the treasure would be the new Pirate King, which kicked off an "Age of Piracy," so there's no shortage of competition. There's also the fact Luffy ate a "Devil Fruit", which, while it made his body like rubber, with all the stretching and inflating that allows, also means he sinks like a stone in the water. As a pirate, sailing the seas, that's a bit of a pothole. So is the fact that he's often an impulsive idiot, in the sense of not learning basic seamanship before setting sail, or diving into the ocean to catch a fish he saw, despite the whole thing about sinking in the ocean.

Luffy travels the world, gathering a crew, each with their own dreams ranging from becoming the world's greatest swordsman, to making a complete map of the world, to finding a fabled place where all the ocean currents intermingle and all the world's fish can be found. They end up fighting pirates a lot, less over treasure than because those other pirates are hurting innocent people. The "Straw Hats" (named for Luffy's hat, a gift from a pirate he admires, who received it from the previous Pirate King) occasionally pursue treasure, but usually end overthrowing a dictator in the process.

On the one hand, it's often silly. The Straw Hats all behave like dorks or idiots at times, or have comical reactions to something ill-advised their captain does or says. Zoro and Sanji will start fighting with each other in the middle of a fight against enemies. They might fight a pirate that looks like a clown and is very self-conscious about his big red nose, or a guy whose Devil fruit lets him take on properties of things he eats, so he eats a house to gain protection, or eats himself to slim down and resume chasing someone through doors.

There are times the crew's disorganized, chaotic approach feels out of place in a tense situation, but it does contribute to that feeling this is not some well-honed, elite tactical unit. This is a friend-group of (mostly) teens trying to find their way through difficult situations on the fly.

Because Oda also establishes, almost from the start, that this world is deeply fucked. Luffy finds his first crew member tied to a post in a Marine base, where Zoro is enduring 30 days without food as part of a bet with the entitled son of the base's commander, as a way to protect a young girl and her mother. The brat runs roughshod over the town because his father kills anyone who opposes him, and fully intends to have Zoro executed as soon as watching him starve ceases to be entertaining.

The further along the series goes, the worse things get. There's a "World Government", but it's only real concern is maintaining the power of the people seated atop the world, in a "holy city" thousands of feet above the seas. The citizens of that city have almost unlimited leeway, including being able to murder other people if they see fit, or claim them as slaves. If a pirate takes over a random island, they don't care. If pirates kill or plunder from innocent people, not their problem. It's notable Luffy had defeated plenty of pirates, Marines, and even attacked the symbol of their judicial system, but it was only once he punched one of the holy city's citizens that an Admiral came down to squash him like a bug.

The Marines (or Navy depending on which translation you see) are ostensibly the peacekeeping force, but they can only help the regular people so long as the Government allows it. If the Government orders an entire island, and all its inhabitants killed, the Marines must either obey or die as well. Pirates can be offered positions as "Warlords", which means they help the Government out when requested, but can otherwise do whatever they want, including overthrow the governments of nations.

Luffy's grandfather is a famous Marine, but we see firsthand how useless he and his belief that he can serve "Justice" ultimately are, when he sits and watches a child he was entrusted with get killed, simply for who his father was. Monkey D. Garp can't bring justice to the worst people on the planet, because they're the ones giving him orders. The system isn't broken, and therefore can't be mended from within, because it works exactly the way the people who set it up want it to work.

Which is how it keeps falling to Luffy and his allies to fix all these situations, overthrowing dictators, crushing people who use others for experiments, for slaves, who starve a population or strike them with drought. When the system was built to be inherently biased a certain way, you won't get anywhere working within its structure.

(You'd think the fact his own son left the Marines to start a literal revolution would have tipped Garp off, but apparently not.) 

I don't love everything about the series. Oda leans a lot into "humor" about characters being perverts. Brook, the skeleton in the picture above, tends to ask women upon meeting them if he can see their underwear. Or Sanji's bemoaning the fact someone else go the invisibility Devil Fruit he always wanted, for sneaking into women's baths. The proportions Oda gives most of the women would give the worst excesses of '90s Image artists a run for the money, and that only seems to have gotten worse as the series progresses. There's not really any room in Robin or Nami's torsos for organs, unless they've somehow moved to inside their boobs.

Also, there was a big reveal in the last 100 chapters or so that Luffy's Devil Fruit is not what we had been told it was all this time. Instead, his is a super-special Devil Fruit with a historic lineage that the World Government wants contained. And I know that "the protagonist is actually really unique in some way," is a common shonen thing. Goku's an alien, Naruto's the vessel for an incredibly powerful spirit fox, I feel like there was all kinds of shit going on with Ichigo Kurosaki. But I liked the idea Luffy had what was regarding as a fairly low-level Devil Fruit, but, through his creativity, he could fight guys who control sand or lava or gas or manipulate time.

Plus, it's not internally consistent that the World Government knew the fruit was "disguising" itself as a "rubber" Devil Fruit, but this young pirate shows up, causing trouble with a rubber Devil Fruit, and they don't immediately send out the big guns to stop him? They wouldn't even have to explain why they're sending an Admiral after a rookie pirate with a bounty of only 30 million (it's over 3 billion now,) because they never have to explain. Especially if they pick the right admiral, AKA, the mass murdering Admiral Akainu.

Anyway, I like the series best up through the Ennies Lobby arc. Probably related to my preferences when it comes to superhero team roster sizes, I liked the Straw Hats at a crew of 7. It was manageable, you could, in theory, give everyone some time as the lead, or with a subplot, and everyone would be able to bounce off each other with some regularity. I wouldn't say the stakes were smaller - they were still stopping attempted coups, taking down power-mad tyrants and challenging the Government - but things were a little more focused.

The Straw Hats are up to 10 now, but there's maybe 2 crews allied with them, and an entire fleet that claims to follow Luffy, that I'm not entirely sure he even knows exists? And all that means a lot of time spent on backstories about this character or that character, many of whom I don't care about. The whole thing with Trafalgar Law and Dolflamingo might be One Piece's equivalent to Jean Grey and Scott Summers in the "dooooooooooon't care," category. And that means we might go dozens of chapters without any real focus on a character I do care about.

The series is supposedly in its "final arc", but I feel like I've been hearing that for 5 years. Oda seems to have so many plates spinning at once I don't know how he's going to bring things to a conclusion. That's his problem to solve, though there have been enough things he teased early in the series that paid off or turned out to be significant later, that I suspect he's had it largely worked out for a while.

Recruitment Drive

The Straw Hats rescued their Robin and escaped the Buster Call. Meaning the Marines only succeeded in leveling their own government's judicial island. If only the evil in our world was so stupid. But the Merry Go has sailed its last, which leaves the pirates stuck on Water Seven. They're all pretty broken up about it.

I said, they're all pretty broken up about it.

That's better. One Piece, volume 45 is a bridging volume Oda uses to offer some measure of closure between certain characters, while also introducing new things that will eventually blow up into big deals. So on the one hand, we have the famed "Hero of the Marines", Vice-Admiral Garp, showing up by barging through a wall (because it's more dramatic), yelling at Luffy for not becoming a Marine. Which is when it's also revealed that, in addition to a Marine grandpa, Luffy's father is the leader of the Revolutionary Army, and considered the most wanted criminal in the world.

While this could give Luffy another title to aspire to - no one but Pirate King should be Most Wanted! -Monkey D. Dragon is clearly not the smartest man in the world if he left his son in the care of Garp, who in turn, foisted Luffy off on a bunch of bandits. I mean, Dragon was raised by Garp, he knew how shit a parent the guy was and still handed Luffy over. I get the impression Oda doesn't think much of blood relatives as family. All the people who are actually related in this series treat each other horribly. It's the weirdos you meet along the way and choose to run around with that are cool. See also: Sanji's father and siblings, Usopp's deadbeat dad, Franky's parents who just abandoned him, Robin's mom, etc.

Robin also gets covertly approached by Admiral Aokiji, mostly to confirm he did the right thing not murdering an 8-year-old girl 20 years ago. If he really wanted to do the right thing, he could gargle with concentrated sulfuric acid. Instead, he'll eventually lose a battle to become Fleet Admiral, leave the service, and throw in with an asshole of a pirate.

One of those things that will blow up much bigger later, the guy who inspired Luffy to become a pirate, Red-Haired Shanks, pays a visit to Whitebeard, proclaimed the Strongest Man in the World, and the captain of Luffy's brother, Ace. Shanks wants Whitebeard to keep Ace from chasing after a member of Whitebeard's crew that killed a crewmate. Considering Ace was hunting the guy when he met Luffy in Alabasta over 25 volumes ago, Shanks' concern is a bit belated. Especially since, at the close of this volume, Ace finally catches up to his target, Blackbeard. that fight isn't until next volume, and will result in a huge war.

The whole conversation also serves to highlight a different side of Shanks. We mostly saw him as this cheerful guy who teases Luffy as a little kid about drinking juice, but is kind enough to lose his arm to keep said kid from being eaten by a sea beast. Although I think there's been some recent revelation that the loss of the arm wasn't entirely as it seems. Here, we see Shanks the badass. So powerful that Whitebeard's weaker crew members pass out in his presence, the start of the whole "King's Haki" thing that has steadily mutated into "Supreme King's Haki," and Supreme's King's Saiyan God Haki with a Cherry on Top."

However, the two matters of most immediate import involve Franky and Usopp. Franky reveals what he used the money his crew stole from Usopp to buy, and that he intends to use it to pursue his dream of building a great ship that can circle the globe. If he's got a dream, then Luffy's got to have him on his crew. A difficult task when dealing with someone as stubborn and impossible to shame as Franky.

(Not even the chance for another Florida Man joke will get me to post a panel of Franky running around with his bare ass exposed.)

As for Usopp, though he fought alongside them at Ennies Lobby, he's still not back on the crew. It's unclear if he'll rejoin them or not, or if he'll be accepted if he tries. Usopp is, like many of us after an ugly fight with friends, trying to come up with ways to just slide back in like nothing happened, avoiding a tough conversation about who may have said what, or who challenged whom to a fight for their ship. Which leads to a tense moment as most of the crew seem eager to play along, and Zoro's not having it. He makes his own ultimatum: If Usopp doesn't apologize first thing, he can't come back. Or else Zoro will leave, because he won't follow a Captain that would allow himself, and by extension, the crew, to be disrespected like that.

I've seen some arguments about how, well, Zoro didn't make Robin, who also left, apologize. Ditto for Franky, who attacked Luffy, stole their gold, and had his crew beat up Usopp (twice.) But Robin never officially left, so much as just took off. She didn't attack Luffy (though she did attack Usopp when he tried rescuing her on the train, rough week for the Sniper King), or defy an order. If she didn't specifically apologize, crying out she wants to live and for them to please take her with them is a pretty clear acknowledgement she was wrong.

(There's also a bit in volume 44, after she gets Luffy to safety aboard the Merry, where she covers Luffy's mouth rather than let him thank her. Which seems like a clear sign Robin didn't want thanks for helping her captain, who declared war on the World Government for her.)

As for Franky, he wasn't on the crew when he did that shit. Doesn't mean there shouldn't be some hard feelings (particularly from Usopp), but that's a different situation. And when Franky says he'll be their shipwright, he tacitly acknowledging Luffy's captain. Franky's joining a crew, so he's got to recognize who's the boss. Plus, he built his dream ship and then entrusted it to Luffy, despite the fact he saw what happened to Luffy's last ship. Putting your dream ship in the hands of someone you know is a reckless idiot is a definitely a sign of something. Respect, or maybe just poor judgment.

In like a Lamb, Out like a Hero

Sadly, despite taking a lot of (well-deserved) damage in this volume, Spandam survives.

One Piece, volume 44. CP9 is (mostly) beat, Robin's free of the seastone cuffs and ready to rumble.  But the Marine fleet responding to the Buster Call has arrived, and they intend to blow up almost everything. They still want to take Robin alive, which means the bridge she and Franky are standing on is the one safe place to be, if the rest of the crew can get there. 

Unfortunately, Luffy still hasn't finished off Rob Lucci, who damages the tunnel so it'll flood. Fortunately, Franky's mother-figure, Kokoro, is a merwoman, much to the dismay of Sanji, who naturally envisions mermaids as gorgeous. Whatever, she got them to the bridge, so they're safe. Thanks, lady!

Or not. That's a lot of Marines, though the Straw Hats' fight is played as secondary to Luffy's, which gets most of the panel space. The crew are relegated to montages of panels showing them crushing a bunch of mostly-generic characters that don't get names. 

(It's a little ridiculous, because the Buster Call is supposedly led by 5 Vice-Admirals. Any one of which ought to be enough to stomp the entire crew into the dirt. The only thing any of them do is give us Lucci's backstory, which, I don't care, and shoot one of their men when he hesitates to carry out an order. What, afraid to get your coat dirty?)

In the meantime, Luffy's running out of gas, as even busting out the only hinted at until now Third Gear doesn't help (it massively inflates one part of his body, increasing his strength, but is too slow to actually hit Lucci.) It's only when Usopp discards his "Sniper King" mask to first call out Lucci, then yell at Luffy to get up and fight for his crew like he promised, that Luffy is back on his feet. Oda overdoes it a bit, as he introduces some ultimate Cipher Pol attack, a combination of all Six Powers in one move, which appears to stop Luffy cold the first time it's used. But then he gets tagged by it two more times, and by the third, he's not even falling down. Maybe it would have been enough if Oda removed the second hit.

But really, all that's preamble. The main show is, once Lucci's down, the Straw Hats still can't escape, because the ship they intended to use gets shelled. And then, out of the smoke, appears the Going Merry. With no one sailing it.

Merry, with a little help from Iceburg, pulled itself together to save its crew. There's a nice bit where all the massive Marine ships can't hit this one caravel, partially because of something Sanji did that abruptly changed the currents, but also because it's one tiny ship among ten giants. (Also, the one time someone did actually demonstrate good aim, Zoro and Sanji use an exhausted Luffy to catch the cannonballs and sling them back, which is hilarious.)

Unfortunately, the escape from Ennies Lobby takes all Merry had left. The bow falls off right as they meet Iceburg, aboard another ship. Which really sells the idea Merry was holding together on sheer will until it knew the crew would be OK. And so the volume ends on a downer note. The crew won the fight. Robin's with them in body and spirit. Usopp maybe proved something to himself (although after his big speech, he threw the Sniper King mask back on. Luffy and Chopper are left wondering where Usopp went.) But they lost the ship that carried them this far. At least Luffy acknowledged how much of the damage was his fault for being an idiot (though he didn't apologize for ripping out the mast to hit a whale, which is still such a mind-boggling stupid thing to do I can't get over it.)

So they're a crew without a ship. What now?

Hitting the Long Shot

Yes he does, Zoro. Do you think theme songs just appear from thin air?

Back to One Piece, volume 43! Chopper's transformed into a monster, unable to distinguish friend from foe. Nami's fighting, and mostly losing, in her attempt to beat Kalifa and get a key that will unlock the handcuffs shackling Zoro and Usopp to one another before they're killed by Kaku and Jabra. Spandam accidentally triggered a Buster Call (because he's an imbecile), so Ennies Lobby will be destroyed in a hail of broadsides within a half-hour. But he'll have Robin through the Gates of Justice and on her way to prison long before that unless Luffy can get past Rob Lucci.

But besides the Power of Friendship, nothing helps the Straw Hats get their shit together like pressure! Chopper busting through the wall like Kool-Aid Man distracts Kalifa enough for Nami to get some sort of a plan going, despite the weird effects of Kalifa's Devil Fruit. Chopper's rampage also sets in motion Sanji's return to battle, though that doesn't become apparent for a while yet.

With Franky rushing to get the two keys they have so far to Robin, and Nami managing to uncuff Zoro and Usopp, things are looking up. Except Zoro's got his hands full with just Kaku, leaving Jabra to tear into the over matched "Sniper King," until Sanji makes the save. Which doesn't do a hell of a lot for Usopp's self-esteem, that he still couldn't win his battle, but Sanji reminds him there are things Usopp can do he can't, and the sniper should concentrate on how those skills can help save the day. 

All the fights are a mixture of gags and the Straw Hats unleashing new abilities. When Chopper busts in Kalifa is briefly convinced he's actually Nami demonstrating some Devil Fruit power. Then she tries to cover it up, insisting she wasn't fooled, while Nami ignores her in favor of trying to reach Chopper. There's also a bit about Nami gradually messing up "Sniper King"'s name more and more, until she's not even getting one of the syllables correct.

At the same time, you've got Sanji fighting with this wolf-man who tries cheap stunts like claiming to be Robin's long-lost brother, or tossing his key on the ground so he can pounce when the character reaches for it. All of which pisses off Sanji enough he spins on one foot until the friction lights his leg on fire. So now his kicks are strong - which wasn't making much headway against CP9's "Iron Body" technique - and hot, which is more effective.

Zoro, meanwhile, is fighting a guy with a giraffe Devil Fruit, who can somehow retract his neck into his body, then extend it like a lance, or fold his body into a cube to protect vulnerable parts. So Zoro, naturally, gets angry enough he grows two more heads and two more sets of arms, complete with swords. As one does. I mean, I don't know about you, but I do this all the time when frustrated with my workload or bosses. It's a great boon in multi-tasking, minus the blinding destructive rage (and the way all the hands fight over preferred writing implements.) Kaku says Zoro's creating 'visions' by force of will, but these aren't illusions, and I don't think he's moving his body so fast as to make it appear he has extra limbs, either. I'm not sure if Oda's explained this, even 700 chapters later.

Amid all that, Luffy finally busts out Second Gear again, evening things enough for Lucci to unleash his Devil Fruit, and given Franky an avenue to slip past. But it looks as though it's not going to be enough. Robin's fighting her hardest to survive, but Spandam's still dragging her towards the gates, running his yap the whole way (which might be the worst part to experience, you know that guy has the most irritating voice), when -

(One thing that bugs me about manga is how often they do these big images that just barely leak over onto the next page. Not enough to make it feel like they needed the space, but enough to make it messy if you try to do a scan that I end up using smaller selections. The big image of Usopp interrupting Spandam right as he's about to drag Robin through the gate was like that, so was the big image of Usopp backlit by the Sun and pointing to the sky. Either do a full-page or double-page splash, or don't. This 1.1-page splash crap is just irritating and pointless.)

Usopp's accurate fire from a mile away - the thing he can do Sanji can't - gives Franky time to catch up and free Robin. So everything's looking good. Too bad the Marine fleet just arrived. . .

There's Always Hoops to Jump Through

Florida Man banned from all national parks after sharing methamphetamine with elk.

Robin's admitted she wants to live and keep sailing with the Straw Hats, so One Piece, volume 42, is the Straw Hats crossing the gap to breach the Tower of Law and get her back. Unfortunately, she's wearing seastone cuffs, which neutralize her Devil Fruit and are (somehow) hard as diamonds.

Each CP9 member has a key, so if the Straw Hats want to truly free her, they have to beat all of them to get the right key, and rescue Robin before Spandam (being escorted by Lucci) gets her through the Gates of Justice. As a thief, Nami ought to be able to pick the lock, but this lets Oda split the crew back up and throw them into 1-on-1 battles against CP9. That consumes the remainder of the volume (and the next 2), so how are they doing?

Not great! Nami gets a key away from Kumadori, who speaks in these bold, poetic (and moronic) statements, but he's too strong for her and she can't escape him. Chopper, who intervenes, can't seem to beat him, either, though he does temporarily trap him in the fridge in the Tower of Law's kitchen.

Zoro was holding his own against Kaku, despite Kaku having gained a Devil Fruit that lets him become a giraffe-man since their last encounter. But they end up in the same room as Sniper King (aka Usopp) and a wolf-man agent. In the middle of all that, Usopp manages to cuff himself to Zoro with a different set of seastone cuffs. Neither of their opponents has the key to that pair, so it's a lot of them running away or Zoro trying to wield Usopp like a sword until Chopper can maybe find the right key.

Sanji, meanwhile, runs up against Kalifa, the sole member of CP9 that's a woman. And Sanji, of course, won't hit a woman. So even though he's stronger than her, he's summarily tossed out of her room, reduced to some odd state where he looks like a partially-completed clay sculpture. Nami sees through his claim that he couldn't win, recognizing he didn't really try, and he responds he won't fight a woman, even if it kills him. Not to put too blunt a point on it, but who gives a fuck about his life? After all his big speeches about being the one to rescue his "Robin-chwan," he won't even fight for her.

At any rate, this leaves Nami fighting Kalifa for another key, in the hopes it'll be the one to Zoro and Usopp's cuffs. And while she eventually figures out Kalifa's new Devil Fruit, she's still too slow to actually do anything about it.

The one person having any success is Franky, who manages to defeat Fukorou, though it's a back and forth affair. Franky initially runs out of fuel (cola) and there are a few gags of Chopper throwing him the wrong drink because he's trying to open and shut the fridge door before Kumadori can escape. Once Franky's back to full strength, Fukorou starts relying on his greater speed and agility, plus his ability to "moonwalk", meaning walk on air. Franky, like he did in his fight against Nero on the Sea Train, has to find a way to counter that maneuverability.

Their battle destroys the fridge, freeing Kumadori. Chopper wins out over that dope, but in the process turns himself into a mindless, rampaging monster that can't distinguish friend from foe. So even when things go well, they go poorly. Case in point, Luffy (who was so focused on beating up Rob Lucci the rest of the crew left him to it) catches up to Spandam and Robin. While Luffy tries to get past Lucci, Spandam fucks up and triggers the Buster Call in his attempts to taunt Robin about how worthless she is. Now the Marines are going to level Ennies Lobby and everyone in it. Just as soon as the flotilla gets there, in say, 30 minutes or so.

Nothing like a ticking clock. . . 

20 Years of Misery, All Leading to This

That title might be better saved for the anniversary post this December, but too bad.

The Straw Hats have finally caught up to their imprisoned crewmate. But Nico Robin doesn't want them there, doesn't want to be rescued at all. After 20 years on the run, betrayed at every turn or watching those around her killed, she'd rather die than see it happen to this little pirate crew, and have them die hating her. Luffy, of course, handles this in a delicate and sensitive manner.

Or, maybe not. Volume 41 of One Piece is the Sad Backstory of Nico Robin volume. She lived on the island of Ohara, a land renown for its scholars, her mother among them. Of course, Olvia ditched her when she was 2 to go on some archaeological expedition, leaving Robin in the "wicked stepmother"-like care of the sister-in-law.

(One Piece has a strong core of people pursuing their dreams, but so damn many of them decide to have kids first, then fuck off to be a pirate or an archaeologist or a revolutionary, and leave the kid in the lurch. If you aren't going to raise your damn kid, don't have one!)

Robin made friends with the scholars still on the island, and even passed the exam to become an archaeologist with a perfect score, at age 8. Outstanding! Now she can help them study the mysterious block covered in weird writing they have in the basement!

Oops, she's not supposed to know about that. Much worse than her knowing about it, the World Government knows Ohara's got a Poneglyph. So while Robin's making friends with a giant that washed ashore, the Marines, hot on the trail of the only survivor of that expedition (Olvia), are invading the island. And they're led by the dipshit father of that dipshit Spandam. Once it's confirmed the scholars have a Poneglyph, Dipshit Senior orders a Buster Call, essentially a ship-to-shore bombardment that will level the island, and all the scholars with it. One particular Vice-Admiral, who will grow up to be Fleet Admiral one day, decides to go ahead and kill everyone on the island just to be sure no scholars escape.

(Someone once pointed out, Atomic Age fiction in the U.S. showed radiation producing superheroes, while in Japan it produced Godzilla. The difference between dropping A-bombs and having two dropped on you. So I wonder about the Buster Call being a naval bombardment intended to destroy an entire island, given the amount of firepower the U.S. Navy unleashed on places like Okinawa. Oda's not old enough to remember World War 2, but I'm sure he grew up with people who did. And future-admiral Akainu deciding the only way to be sure the archeologists are stopped is kill everyone on the island sure feels like shades of, "we think the entire nation of Japan will resist an invasion, better wipe out a city to crush any thought of resistance.") 

Robin's giant pal turns out to be Vice-Admiral Saul, who objected to the order and tries to take out the ships bombarding the island. He ends up frozen solid thanks to his friend, Kuzan, who will one day be the pervert Admiral that attacked the Straw Hats back in volume 34. However, Kuzan let Robin go as a favor to Saul (Saul will, hundreds of chapters later, turn out to have survived being turned into an icicle), but not before Dipshit Senior caught sight of her. Which is how an 8-year-old gets a bounty, finds every "decent" person trying to turn her in, and falls in with criminals.

In the present, Spandam has the capability to trigger a Buster Call at the press of a button (courtesy of Kuzan, which tells me Saul needed to pick better friends.) Though in the nature of things will dealing with a nepo-baby who thinks he earned his way to the top, Spandam thinks it'll only target the pirates. Robin knows different, but the idea this moron would get himself and all 10,000 Marines and government agents stationed at Ennies Lobby killed through stupidity is not much comfort. She just wanted to protect the Straw Hats, but they're not interested in saving their lives at the expense of hers. If they have to declare war on the world for her, that's what they'll do.

This act moves Franky to the point he reveals he had the blueprints for the ancient battleship hidden inside his leg, and then burns them. Which means the Government can't get them, but also means there's no way to find a weakness against the battleship if the World Government gets it. Which means the Straw Hats absolutely have to get Robin back.

Then a train crashes through a drawbridge. 

Find a Higher Gear

Volume 40 of One Piece is essentially one long, running battle through Ennies Lobby by the Straw Hats and their allies. The Franky Family's efforts to open the main gate are stymied by a pair of actual giants. By the time they get past them and open the gate, the Straw Hats (still in the Rocketman train) are too close.

So the pirates use the iron fence as a ramp and Dukes of Hazzard right over the gate, which has the added bonus of the train delivering a big metal kidney punch to one of the giants. From there, the invasion force tries to make their way to the Courthouse and the Tower of Law, but run into stiff resistance in the literal thousands of Marines and government agents stationed there.

The Straw Hats (minus Luffy, who we'll get to) aren't really the focus. At this point, the enemies are relative small fry, and everyone understands the pirates are the ones who'll have to take down CP9. So it's more an opportunity for the shipwrights and the Franky Family to show their stuff. Oda even takes time to give a little backstory to the two enormous "king bulls" (basically whale-sized, intelligent sea horses) that are carrying everyone. Franky saved them when they were young, but claimed he was just keeping them around in case he got hungry later. Obviously he never got around to eating them, and they became part of the family. Now they're determined to carry the people who can rescue their "big bro" as far as possible.

When the Straw Hats do act, they alternate between demonstrating terrible strength, and a complete lack of any cohesion. Nami tests out her new weapon and fries a bunch of Marines, but also most of her friends. Sanji is casually knocking out a member of the "Guilty Jury" (former pirates that act as enforcers for the Government now), and in the next moment, attacking his own friends to make sure he's the one leading the charge to rescue or Robin. Zoro defeats over a dozen Marines with one attack, then somehow gets lost going up a flight of stairs.

Think of all those comics where the superheroes get trounced because they're disorganized and lacking in communication. The Straw Hats are somehow worse than that. Thank goodness most of their opponents aren't any better!

Interspersed with that, Luffy reached the top of the Courthouse, where he runs into a member of CP9. Unlike their Spandam, who is so busy bragging and taunting Robin he can't envision any pirate getting near here, the actual field agents are more on the ball. So Bluneo and his weird "Door-Door Fruit" power are waiting.

And even though Luffy does much better this time around - certainly Bluneo isn't prepared for his punches to actually hurt - he decides it isn't enough. Which is when he introduces "Gear Two." It's essentially Oda's variation on Goku's Kaio-ken, where the hero's speed and strength are increased dramatically at a physical cost. For Goku, it was that the increased energy and force pushed his body beyond its limits, until his muscles were pulling off the bone.

That's less of a concern for someone made of rubber, but the way Luffy makes it work means it puts a lot of strain on him, and burns up his energy. Still, with Bluneo trounced, Luffy's almost to Robin. His crew haven't quite caught up yet, but at least CP9 is down to 6 agents (plus Spandam.)

The Counterattack Starts Now

Florida Man, accused of attempted cannibalism, says he, "Just wanted to see what all the fuss was about."

One Piece, volume 39. The government kill squad is taking Nico Robin to the judicial island of Ennies Lobby, where she will be found guilty and sent on to either torture and imprisonment, or torture and death. But, the rest of the crew now know she's doing that to try and protect them, so they're not going to let it stand. Sanji already snuck on the train and started causing havoc, and now he's got Franky and Usopp to back him. Well, Franky, maybe, as Usopp bowed out. Only for the mysterious "Sniper King" to turn up moments later. Hailing from Sniper Island (which is located within your heart, so you might want to get that looked at,) he was asked by Mr. Usopp to lend them a hand. This disguise fools absolutely no one. 

Fine, it fools absolutely no one except Luffy and Chopper. Whatever, the point is, a 3-person rescue squad is better than a 2-person rescue squad. While Sanji kicks the crap out of Wanze, a government agent who also fancies himself a cook, and Franky takes on Nero, junior member of CP9, Usopp circumvents all that and makes his way directly to Robin.

Oda doesn't drag either fight out too long, while also playing up the opponents' dangerous and idiotic natures. Wanze's nuts, but he can make essentially an exo-skeleton out of ramen, while also getting furious when Sanji kicks him in the face so hard it makes him look like a pretty boy manga protagonist. 

Meanwhile, Nero has some of the same techniques as Lucci and the others, but he's cocky and unprepared for an opponent who fights dirty. Right off the bat, Franky catches him with the, "What's that behind you?" trick, which sets the tone. Nero keeps thinking he's got the upper hand, and Franky goes along with it, busting out stuff like spitting nails, or the "Franky Centaur", that seem utterly pointless. Until Nero finds himself trapped and about to get clobbered with a big metal fist.

Unfortunately, the rescue attempt fails when the rescuee refuses to be rescued. Robin's trying to protect them from, a Buster Call, essentially an overwhelming bombardment by the Marines. It's what wiped out everyone, except her, on her home island, and she just doesn't see any fighting it. Worse, Franky ends up a prisoner again, so CP9 has the guy with the blueprints for the ancient battleship, and the lady that could find the real deal.

Still, the interesting part of the whole sequence is probably that Usopp, who wouldn't go along with Luffy's decision and left the crew, tells Robin to have faith in Luffy, even as she's walking away with CP9. It speaks to how it wasn't really Luffy's choice to save farewell to their ship that caused Usopp to leave, but his feeling of inadequacy. He was supposed to maintain the Going Merry (with no actual experience, just he was the one that tried), and couldn't. He couldn't protect the money they were going to use to repair Merry. He wasn't good enough, so he left before they could cast him aside. That's also the fate Robin's trying to avoid, albeit for different reasons.

While all that's happening, Luffy and the rest of the crew, plus Franky's gang and some of the shipwrights, are hot on their trail in a more experimental Sea Train. Zoro gets them through a couple of problems - including when two train cars Sanji detached are on the track and Luffy simply orders, "It's in the way. Cut it." - and they pick up Sanji and Us-sorry Sniper King along the way.

A plan is devised as they approach, but plans never survive first contact with Luffy, who promptly slingshots himself into Ennies Lobby and starts fighting everyone he sees. Meanwhile, Franky's gang and the shipwrights are still on the plan of opening the gates so the Straw Hats can charge in and through without wasting a lot of time fighting small fry, but they run into a small problem. Well, two large problems, actually.

Come On, Ride That Train

This fucking guy. A coward, a moron, but also a sadist with a massive ego and a huge sense of entitlement. Sure hope he's not going to be a major part of the next 7 volumes!

OK, recap going into One Piece, volume 38: The Straw Hats got their asses beat by government assassins. Robin's turned against them, Usopp (no longer on the crew) and the Going Merry were taken hostage by Franky. Franky, in turn, has been captured by the government assassins, who want the plans to ancient battleship he supposedly has.

The volume wraps up Franky's flashback, showing he somehow survived being run over by a train, and somehow rebuilt himself into a cyborg. When he returned to Water 7, Iceberg gave him the plans for the battleship and told him to change his name and scram. He did the first, but not the second, and now he's a prisoner. Worse, the guy commanding CP9 is the same dickhead that got Franky's mentor arrested in the first place.

Back at Galley-La HQ, Chopper gets himself, Nami, Iceberg and Paulie out of the burning building, and Iceberg explains that Robin is working with CP9 in exchange for the Straw Hats' safety. Leaving two of them to die in a burning building would suggest the promise isn't being kept, but at any rate, Robin's entirely willing to sacrifice herself (and possibly the rest of the world) for this little crew. This is great, because it means the Straw Hats can activate the Power of Friendship to go with the Power of Overcoming Odds! John Cena has nothing on shonen protagonists when it comes to overcoming odds!

But first they've got to find Luffy and Zoro, who were sent flying into the city by Rob Lucci, and do it before the Aqua Laguna inundates most of the city. Nami and Chopper manage it, barely, but the Sea Train's already departed to the Government judicial island, Ennies Lobby. So they've got to find another ship or train and pursue. A train that can't be stopped once it starts is perfect for Luffy.

But Robin has at least one friend aboard, as Sanji snuck aboard, and starts making his way to the front of the train. He finds Franky and Usopp, the latter of whom appears unwilling to help. But Usopp might just put in a call to the mysterious hero, the Sniper King, and see what he can do. . .

Regrets? Sure, He's Got a Few.

Most Annoying Guy You Know Thinks You Just Need To, "Hug It Out, Bro."

The Straw Hats are face-to-face with the ones responsible for the attack on Iceberg, which they took the blame for, as well as their former crewmate, Nico Robin. The confrontation goes poorly, as Robin seems to have fully broken with the crew. Worse, the two strongest Straw Hats, Luffy and Zoro, are easily trounced by the government assassins, who have trained in the art of "Six Powers", turning their very bodies into weapons.

The agents are also ruthless and more than a little sadistic. When their leader, Rob Lucci, is confronted by one of the shipwrights he's worked with for years now as part of his cover, Lucci says he knows this must be difficult to accept. Instead of following with a bland justification about it not being personal, Lucci's asks if smashing Iceberg's face in would help drive the point home.

With the Straw Hats down and the Galley-La HQ burning, the remainder of volume 37 turns to Franky, leader of the local criminal underworld. He's got Usopp and the Going Merry as hostages to lure out Luffy for a rematch. But, upon learning Usopp left the Straw Hats, Franky offers him a place in his gang. Usopp declines, dead set on finishing repairing Merry and sailing back home to the East Blue. Which is when Franky intervenes, echoing the assessment of the Galley-La shipwrights that Merry's done as a sailing vessel.

The surprise here is that Usopp admits he's known all about it since the crew's adventure to the sky islands. He saw a child repairing Merry one night, and was certain somehow it actually was the ship. (The spirit of a ship that's loved enough by its crew to manifest is apparently a real thing in One Piece, according to Franky.)

Even knowing this, Usopp's unwilling to just give up and let the Merry go. If Merry is going to work so hard to keep sailing for them, then he doesn't see how he can do any less for the ship. There's probably a lot tied into the fact Usopp's mother died of an illness when he was 7. All he could do was assure her his father (the sniper of Red-Haired Shanks' crew, the guy who gave Luffy his hat) was coming back soon, and watch her slowly waste away.

(There's a fair amount of division in the fandom about whether Yasopp's a shit dad or not. Supposedly the text says Banchina encouraged him to join Shanks and go to sea, because she knew it was something he loved. So he didn't abandon them, the "not a shit dad" contingent argues. But Banchina's been dead 10 years by the time Usopp meets Luffy, and Yasopp apparently didn't come back to visit once in that entire time. Even Cyclops only took like a year to go back to look in on Maddy Pryor and his kid. When you're more delinquent than Scott Summers, I think we can safely rule you're a Shit Dad.)

That's about the point Lucci and the others find Franky, because he's the one hiding the blueprints of the ancient warship they want. Franky gets as effortlessly trounced by Lucci as everyone else, so Oda can instead dive into his tragic backstory. Basically, Franky's selfishness and casual discarding of the warships he was building ended up getting his and Iceberg's mentor arrested by the World Government, and Franky feels guilty about it. To the extent he got run over by the Sea Train trying to stop it from taking away said mentor (who also built the ship of the previous Pirate King, so I guess Oda's going for symmetry when Franky ultimately builds Luffy's new ship). Yes, the cyborg's face turn is in full swing!

The Web Draws Tighter

Bold words from a guy who spent the last 200 pages getting outwitted and outmaneuvered at every turn.

Let's recap going into volume 36: The Straw Hats' ship is beyond repair. Usopp, reeling from the news and feeling worthless, left the crew, then challenged Luffy for the Going Merry. He lost, but Luffy and the others left Merry to him. Another crew member, Nico Robin, is missing, and accused of attempting to assassinate beloved local industrialist/politician, Iceberg, last night. So the entire town is after the Straw Hats, including some especially strong carpenters at the shipbuilding company Iceburg runs. A local gang leader that dresses like Ace Ventura is after Luffy for destroying his house and beating up his gang. And, there's a notorious annual high tide, the Aqua Laguna, on its way.

The volume starts with the carpenters interrupting the fight between Luffy and Franky. This is when Luffy learns about Iceberg, and Robin's alleged involvement. It also establishes the carpenters as tough fighter in their own right, as Luffy gets kicked around by them while protesting his (and Robin's) innocence.

(The fight also establishes Franky as a wildly erratic character. He goes from laughing at Luffy's troubles to flipping a table (he presumably made himself off panel) and yelling at the carpenters for interfering in his fight. Later, he'll grouse at a bartender for charging customers money for drinks, then freak out when he learns he's still got some of the money his gang stole from Usopp, and buy rounds for the entire bar.)

Luffy manages to escape to confront Iceberg, but that only frustrates him further. Iceberg remains insistent it was Robin he saw last night. That doesn't help anyone find her, but Robin finds Sanji and Chopper instead, telling them she did attack Iceberg, and she's leaving the crew. From how she phrased it, the crew concludes there may be another attempt on Iceberg and try to stake it out.

That doesn't go well, as Luffy flies off half-cocked and gets separated from the others, who have to fight their way through an army of shipwrights, all while the real killers (and Robin) are already in there with Iceberg. It's talking, interspersed with brief scenes of the masked figures tearing through the shipwrights with ease, as Iceberg discusses what these people are really after (blueprints to an ancient, powerful battleship), and that his mentor always told him Robin needed to die because she was the last person left who could read the stone blocks that might reveal the location of that battleship.

Iceberg's attempt to pull a fast one on the assassins falls apart for a variety of reasons. Primarily that they were both closer to him and stronger than he suspected. They're able to figure out who really has the blueprints, but before they can track him down (it's Franky), Luffy and the most of the remaining Straw Hats bust in from two different directions.

(Sanji's gone off on his own somewhere, and won't pop up until later on. Which is kind of a thing he does a lot, drift off by himself somewhere and do something quietly critical. It's weird to me that a character that becomes such a loud, obnoxious dumbass around any woman can be that good at being covert, but I guess if you grade on a curve, relative to the rest of the crew, he's pretty quiet.) 

Franky, meanwhile, has gotten fed up at being unable to find Luffy and finish their fight. But his gang have figured out Usopp is alone on the Merry. And Usopp is out there working on repairs, largely oblivious to everything that's going on around him.

Rubber Meets Steel

Florida Man Stages Charity Dance-Off to Rebuild Home After Drunken Rampage.

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.