One Piece Revisited vol. 19 - Rebellion

I think Sanji shoulda been on the cover, instead of Luffy doing his Sanji impression.

For those who got into One Piece in the last few years, you may not be aware of the Dark Era of the fandom. See, One Piece has always been considered part of the "Big Three" along with Bleach and Naruto. This is because for about a decade during the mid 2000's to early 2010's, those three monopolized the top 3 spots of the Weekly Shonen Jump popularity polls, had massively successful anime adaptions, tons of merchandise, and generally were the most popular anime/manga properties since Dragon Ball.

The thing is, in Japan, One Piece was always the clear front-runner. It was the oldest, best-selling, most popular, etc. Eventually it would go on to simply outlast its rivals, as Bleach petered out and Naruto raced to a messy conclusion. Now, Naruto still lives on in the form of Boruto, while Bleach is essentially forgotten. But in America, it was Naruto that dominated, with Bleach 2nd and One Piece the distant third. If you were into anime or manga in America during that time period, you know what I'm talking about.

This always grossed me out, like dude has a whole CHUNK of flesh missing, that's his entire shoulder, thank God for One Piece anatomy where you have a good couple yards of trapezius before your neck starts.

Naruto and Bleach's popularity is self-explanatory, so why didn't One Piece take off as well? A big reason was art style, I think. It just looks more cartoonish, and for middle schoolers looking for something "badass", a goofy rubber man can't hold a candle to a ninja possessed by a demon fox, and a half-ghost samurai with a big sword. Despite how, as I think I've made plenty clear, One Piece is just as violent and "mature" as the others. But it's the same problem Nintendo found, against the Playstation and Xbox - it got labeled as the "kiddie" choice. And nothing contributed more to One Piece's kiddie image than the horrendous 4kids dub.

4kids was a localization company that handled the English dub for a lot of extremely popular anime - Pokemon, Sonic X, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Ultimate Muscle, Kirby: Right Back At Ya!, Shaman King, and of course One Piece. You'd think with so many venerable shows under their belt, they'd be good at their job, right? Wrong. 4kids went out of their way to Americanize the shows, removing all traces of Japanese culture, and heavily censoring things.

Yes, this doesn't look ridiculous at all.

They edited every gun out of Yu-gi-oh, so that people now just make finger guns instead.

Why remove the writing??? It's not even in Japanese!

See, Pokemon and Yu-gi-oh and the others were able to become popular despite 4kids best efforts. It was a case where the property was just TOO marketable to be ruined, and in all fairness I still like the original Pokemon dub. It's corny as hell, and full of puns, (a staple of 4kids dubbing) but sometimes manages to be honestly funny. But for One Piece, they probably had no idea what they'd just gotten their hands on.

It's nice that Movie Gold makes use of the casino theme, since it's wasted here. Oh, and I love the abrupt two-page sequence with this and the following:

welp. ya got tricked.

Take the above as an example of the 4kids CEOs when they learned the goofy, silly, cartoony pirate anime they just licences is full of guns, blood, death, smoking, drinking, and general mayhem. You know, pirate stuff! I'm constantly surprised by people who write One Piece off, or don't take it seriously, just because of the art style. Well, at this point I'm not surprised anymore. Just disappointed.

In any case, 4kids' butchered dub was never nearly as popular as Bleach or Naruto, and so Viz didn't bother making the manga released a priority. As a result, One Piece ended up years behind the Japanese release, and when 4kids essentially just gave up and dropped the licence after Alabasta, the fate of official One Piece media in the U.S. looked grim. Then Funimation stepped up to the plate, putting together an extremely serviceable dub, in a collection of DVD releases that I've yet to buy because reasons. And they got Viz Media's ass in gear, who began cranking out the volumes at a rate of 5 per month. And they got some of the new video games localized, too. Then Toonami came back, and the new dub of One Piece was on TV again!

This is a really dynamic page, from Vivi's mid-air pose, to the continuity of the chair piece hitting the ground, to the way her whip-cutter recoils after the attack.

So finally, One Piece has been done right by the West. But for a time, it was limbo - 4Kids had stopped at Alabasta. The last games to come out, only included elements up through Alabasta. The official releases were still in Alabasta (either this volume or the last was the first in the new accelerated pace). It was an Alabastan hell, and while it's a great arc, everybody was pretty sick of it. It was a huge moment when the Funimation dub advanced onward to Skypeia, as if a great weight had been lifted from the fandom's shoulders, like finally getting off Namek.

such an iconic look for Robin.

As for what the heck's going on in this volume, Crocodile is being a wonderfully evil bastard and trapped the crew in a cage, then set up an elaborate death trap - the cage is sea-stone, meaning Luffy and Smoker can't use their powers to escape. The room is filling up with water. The only key has been fed to a giant alligator, of which there are several. Vivi is given the choice to try and find the right alligator, kill it, and free her friends, or run away to try and intercept the Revolutionary Army in an attempt to save her people. Of course, it turns out the key Crocodile threw wasn't even the right key, so it was an unwinnable situation from the start.

A cool way of showing slow but deliberate movement in a single panel. Probably referencing the final fight scene in Jackie Chan's Drunken Master 2.

Now that's how you make a death-trap, people. Diabolic, crushing the spirit of the heroes with a false choice, and in the end you ensure that they can't solve it anyway. However, Crocodile didn't count on Sanji, reprising his role as the best 6th man, coming off the bench to save the day. All this time, from Whiskey Peak to Little Garden to their encounter with Mr. 2, he's coincidentally remained off Baroque Works' radar. Donning a pair of glasses and going by the alias Mr. Prince, he's the unknown element that acts outside of Crocodile's schemes.

Oda would later clarify that Mr. 3 is floating, despite being a Devil Fruit user, due to a small piece of super-buoyant wood underneath him. N-no, it wasn't a mistake! It was just the DEEPEST LORE!!

Sanji's ability to take independent actions is a cool element to his character, and I'm glad this isn't the last time we see it. Meanwhile, Luffy and Zoro and the rest are pissed af and ready to crack heads, so they board an incredibly convenient super-fast crab and race towards Alubarna. It's a bit of plot contrivance I'll allow, but maybe it could've not been a necessity if the climax hadn't already been set for later that day? Maybe have the rebels and royal army clash tomorrow, have Baroque Works' Utopia plan go into effect tomorrow?

I love it when stories need maps.

This sort of thing where the Straw Hats have a deadline, but conveniently find a super-fast mode of transportation, or arbitrary shortcut, become more common in later arcs. A slight annoyance, but I guess Oda likes it when everything has a sense of urgency.

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Sanji punting the shit out of something very large and heavy will never get old.

One Piece Revisited vol. 18 - Ace Arrives

It always looked to me like that bottom panel is cutting off Ace's shorts. 

We're introduced to Luffy's brother Ace in this volume, who will go on to be a pivotal character in the series. I have mixed opinions on him later, but he's very cool this first meeting.

well, aside from falling asleep while eating.

Oh, we may as well talk about the elephant in the room - Ace's tattoo. As the editor's note says, it's a manji, not a swastika. However, in future appearances, Oda changed the design to a simple cross, to avoid pointless controversy. While I don't believe in artistic censorship, I do think that it's an artist's duty to know how their work will appear, and it's a damn shame but the Nazis ruined that symbol for everybody. You can't expect to use it and not have an international audience go "hey is that a swastika". Since it has no deeper meaning here, Oda just thought it would be cool, there's no harm in using an alternate design.


I'm just gonna say it, Nami and Vivi really make those belly dancer outfits work.

There's also a little sadness in realizing that this is the last time Luffy will talk to his brother in peaceful circumstances. One Piece dodges the cliche of having a Fateful Duel later (a la Naruto), but instead they'll be reunited just in time for Ace to die in Luffy's arms. In a way, it's even crueler - we never get to see Luffy "surpass" Ace, because that chance is ripped away from them. That sort of swerve from a seemingly obvious and anticipated plot point is a sort of meta heel move.

I like how hot it looks

Vivi also has a flashback, where we learn how cool a guy her dad is, and the origins of her friend Koza (now the revolutionary leader). I don't think it's a coincidence that we have an arc about toppling a corrupt king, and an arc about preserving a righteous king's rule, back to back. As I noted before, Oda isn't really a big proponent of democracy. He sees no hypocrisy in the concept of monarchy, as long as the ruler is and enlightened one.

And King Cobra is certainly enlightened.

But what's kinda funny is that aside from the King and his daughter, everyone else is still in that subservient feudal mindset. Koza's dad is tripping over himself to apologize for his rude little boy, and Igaram drops his spaghetti similarly when the King doesn't do things by protocol. Makes me wonder how King Kobra ever got to be like this, if apparently his entire environment is operating as if he's an unquestionable, infallible tyrant. I would assume they're still a remnant of his father, who must have been a traditional king? Not necessarily a bad one, but one that expected absolute respect from his people and stuff. It's not a plot hole or anything, just odd to think about.

Mr. 2 has the best expressions. Also, I like the idea that he's on board with Baroque works schemes not because he's a bad guy, he's just amoral and thinks its fun. This is why he's able to express such noble sentiments otherwise, because he's not rotten to the core.

So there's part in this volume that never really sat right with me. It feels out-of-character for Luffy, pointlessly mean towards Vivi, and a weird sort of moral.

Luffy, I know you're stubborn and childish, but why on earth would you open what is essentially a "we should change courses" discussion with "I quit"

I can believe Luffy thinking that just talking things out is boring, but his actual argument here isn't that it's boring. So why even say it?

This is all true, but isn't the goal to avoid the bloodshed? Just get the rebels to wait literally a week, and defeat Crocodile during that window.

Extremely out-of-character. Luffy is the sort who believes he can save everyone. And if they'd gone to Katorea from the start, then most likely Vivi could have indeed delayed the rebellion and they'd saved those lives

.

Yes, she's risking her own life. That's what she's willing to do, because she values the lives of her countrymen more? This is your M.O., Luffy. Why are you having an issue here

SHE IS ALREADY LETTING YOU HELP HER WHAT IS THIS ABOUT

you could've resolved this in a much less controversial way

See, aside from it coming as a very weird "insightful and logical, telling the hard truths without letting emotion get in the way" speech from Luffy (which is more Zoro's bag), I just don't like the message. Yes, in the contrived specific situation they're in, thanks to circumstances Luffy isn't aware of, they're making the best decision and it will work out. But it's such a weird thing to say "ignore the underlying causes of resentment and trying to use discourse to prevent violence, let's just take out the ONE bad guy, surely all his schemes will just cease to have effects after that!". Like, wasn't that the whole point of Wonder Woman? (until the super-secret final badguy ruined that)

And then it's weird to spin this as some sort of thing where Vivi is risking her own life, and that's bad? Or that she's trying to shoulder the burden alone? Pretty sure she's been relying on you all from the start, and will continue to need you in order to get to Katorea or wherever in time. I don't know, it's just strange to watch the other Straw Hats basically go "yes, this is wisdom" when Luffy is being a rude asshole for no reason and coming up with an alternative plan that still barely works.

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This is a very good desert punk aesthetic. I especially like Zoro wearing a cap, and the idea of football gear as post-apocalyptic armor.

One Piece Revisited vol. 17 - Hiriluk's Cherry Blossoms

See? I told you, pink.

So, we need to talk about Wapol's powers. They're even more broadly defined, and more physics-defying than most Devil Fruit powers. First, he's able to stretch his mouth to eat and digest anything - simple enough. Then it's revealed he can use what he's eaten as a part of his body, such as cannons. Also fine. Then he eats two of his subordinates and "fuses" them into a single entity, as they walk out of a door in his stomach. But it's not clear whether they actually fused into a single unholy being like a goddamn Potara earring, or if Sanji is right when he says they're "just sitting on the other's shoulders." At the very least, their clothes are fused. Then, Wapol eats himself.

This is some kinda body horror shit, jeez. 

And this is where I draw the line. How the hell you gonna eat yourself, at least Vanilla Ice was hiding in another dimension or something, and his stand isn't technically his own body. But in an extraordinary example of cartoon logic, Wapol is able to slim down by eating himself. Where's the excess mass going? Is he just condensing himself? If he has this power, why ever be a fat man? I realize I'm overthinking it, but it's just weird as hell, man.

Love it when villains have a stupid reaction face when their plans fall flat. Eneru will take the cake later, but for now this is pretty good.

Speaking of transformations, Chopper shows off his variable forms in this volume. It's a concept that I think goes a little under-developed, since he hardly ever uses Jump or Horn point, and post-timeskip seems to almost exclusively fight in Kung-Fu point. Mainly, he just abuses the ability to turn into his tiny Brain point to get out of traps, and tries to make the most of his 3-minute time limit to win with an Arm point finisher. And that part, the time limit and consequences of going over it, are explored quite well at least.

okay this move I just never got. I don't really understand which way he's winding up

or how this launches Wapol. Is he hitting him with his head, or throwing him? Why isn't he spanking him repeatedly as he spins? No wonder this move was never used again.

After a largely gag-based fight, with the only real drama coming from whether Wapol would shoot down Hiriluk's flag or not, the people of Drum Kingdom are free at last. Dalton oddly shows up with an explosive belt ready to kamikaze, after the fight was essentially decided, which seems pointless. But then we once again get the familiar scene of Kureha acting cruel towards Chopper, in order to get his ass out the door quick. Oh, but don't worry, Chopper later learns that she packed his bags in the sled, so he knows her true intentions anyway! It keeps happening.

Remember, Chopper is a blue-nosed reindeer, who was made fun of by all the other reindeer. And I know the cables to the top of the mountain were established precisely so this shot could happen.

But finally, we get to the real payoff of the arc - Hiriluk's "cure", which turns out to be a powder you shoot into the sky to turn the snow pink. It sounds kinda lame, compared to literally making cherry blossoms appear, but when you think about it, do we have anything like this? That you can just use to turn the snow a different color while it's still in the clouds? Not really! And in the end, what Hiriluk wanted to heal was his country's heart. The cherry blossoms would go on to become a symbol of the nation, so I'd say he succeeded.

So majestic! 

Oh, during the post-Arlong Park party, I noticed Yosaku doing that silly chopsticks-in-nose, basket-waving dance that has become a staple of One Piece parties. I though it was just something culturally universal to the OP world, but it's fun to see confirmation that he was the one who taught them the dance, and Luffy brings it with him wherever he goes. Apparently it's based on the dojo-sukui, an actual Japanese comedic folk dance. Well, not the chopsticks part. Because that would be impossibly painful in real life.

I wonder if Oda just forgot about Karoo this arc, and had to make up a reason why he was absent. I don't care about Karoo anyway.

Finally, the crew moves on towards Alabasta itself, for the final act of this saga. Mr. 2 makes his first appearance, as does Sir Crocodile. I'm really excited, personally. If Arlong Park set the template for future arcs, Alabasta codified it. It's such a solid piece of shonen manga, complete with adventure, emotion, humor, and action. The same could be said of One Piece in general, but Alabasta really is one of the best arcs.

Crocodile is a strong contender for favorite villain in all of manga.

And you know what? Drum Island was pretty good, too! The action is kinda lame, but I'd forgotten how many iconic pages there are, and how damn good Chopper's backstory was. Hopefully this re-read will improve my opinion of other not-so-favorite arcs!

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The very picture of resilience. Luffy's will, Hiriluk's dream, both are unbreakable. The flag is just a symbol, but an important one. The value Luffy places in flags will make his future order to shoot down the WG flag even more significant. 

One Piece Revisited vol. 16 - Inherited Will

With all the talk of cherry blossoms, you might expect this volume cover to be pink. Well, that's saved for next time.

The title of this volume, Inherited Will, is a pretty significant theme in One Piece. This is the second time it's been mentioned by name, the first being in a quote ascribed to Gold Roger, way back in Chapter 100:

Dragon, you got a scary face.

So, what is an "inherited will"? Simply put, it's a passing-on of ideals from one generation to the next. Not to say it necessarily needs to be hereditary, in One Piece, there are plenty examples of families not bound by blood - Bellemere and Nami, Zeff and Sanji, Hiriluk and Chopper. Each one of these parental figures instilled in their foster offspring certain values that they would continue to carry throughout their lives. It's a passing of the torch, symbolized almost literally with Shanks giving Luffy his straw hat.

But what of the other concepts? "Dreams" certainly play a large role in One Piece, being portrayed as something worth risking your life for. Those who crush others' dreams, or have given up on dreaming themselves, are the lowest of the low. And as for the "ebb and flow of the ages", that's something that comes up later, when the Straw Hats begin to be more active on the geo-political scene. I'm sure I'll have the opportunity to talk at length about both at another time.

Anyway, back to the actual volume at hand!

I like how voluminous the avalanche looks, and Drum Island's namesake mountains make for a cool skyline.

With the avalanche bearing down, Sanji takes a bad hit to preserve Nami and Luffy. So, Luffy carries them both up the side of the freaking mountain, basically a sheer vertical climb, apparently 5000 meters. For reference, Mt. Everest is 8000 meters. Though to be fair, a good deal of the height comes from the more normal-shaped mountain leading up to it, so I guess the prominence is less than 5000m, but it's still insane. A case where analyzing the numbers makes the feat look ridiculous, instead of impressive.

Zoro is somehow one of the best sources of comedic relief, despite being such a badass.

In any case, all three get medical attention from Dr. Kureha. She refuses to let Nami out of bed, saying "Patients only leave my care in two ways - dead, or completely cured." which I think we can all agree is a pretty good motto. Kureha is easily in the running for coolest old lady in manga. (A surprisingly small field, actually - lot of cool old dudes, not many cool old ladies.)

You said it, Luffy.

There's a madcap comedy bit where Luffy and Sanji are chasing Chopper around, trying to eat him (for some reason), ignoring his cries for help. Then suddenly they can understand him, but then Kureha chases them around instead, then gives up, then they chase after Chopper but this time to get him in the crew.

It falls totally flat and feels like the worst kind of Japanese comedy, when things are just busy and loud instead of being clever or humorous in any way. Why would Sanji and Luffy want to eat a clearly sentient little guy like Chopper? Didn't they see him doing doctor stuff? I guess they were just joking? Maybe with a few more pages of set-up it could've worked, but.

I miss Chopper's original design. The muzzle was cute, and he was a little chubby. Instead of a gigantic noggin and :3 mouth.

Finally, into the meat of the volume - Chopper's backstory. Essentially given human consciousness by eating a Devil Fruit, he's a sort of Quasimodo figure, rejected by everyone except the kind Dr. Hiriluk. The doctor heals him and raises him, instilling a pirate's spirit of rebellion against the orthodox, encouraging him to break new ground (both medically and figuratively) and never give up on the power of science. He also entrusts Chopper with his life's work - creating a way to bloom cherry blossoms even in the frigid Drum Island climate. Again, the "inherited will".

I just like how atmospheric that top panel is.

Now, Dr. Hiriluk is an interesting character. For starters, he's not even a real doctor - he's a quack, who causes as much trouble attempting to treat the sick as he does good. The story he tells of a pirate who saw cherry blossoms and was cured is of course about himself, only he wasn't truly cured. I think the important thing is that his soul was cured, he stopped despairing of death and began working for the sake of others. But still, he's clumsy and uncouth, and enjoys no love from the local populace, who consider him a radical menace.

What makes him a good man is that he's trying. He isn't skilled, and he doesn't know what he's doing, but he's trying to do good with the time he has left. Though his obsession with the cherry blossoms is a little hard to pin down - does he actually think seeing them bloom will cure people? Or is he trying to actually create a cure-all, and the cherry blossoms are just metaphorical? Or is he simply trying to recreate the beautiful vision he saw, in the hopes it will have the same transformative effect on others as it did on him?

Wapol getting punched in the face bookends Chopper's flashback. There's about 9 chapters before we see the punch connect.

And when it does, oh boy. As if Wapol wasn't already an unlikeable puke, the flashback really makes you glad to see him get his face caved in.

I don't get the (what has become obligatory) part where Hiriluk tries to scare Chopper away at gunpoint, saying that his death would be too traumatic for him. So casting him out from the only family he's every known isn't traumatic!? It doesn't work, of course, and they reunite. Chopper, after hunting high and low and getting numerous injuries, brings the doctor a mushroom, not knowing it's toxic. But I think Hiriluk knew it was. So why did he eat it? Is not hurting Chopper's feelings less important than his life?

Well, yeah. Plus there's the whole fact that he's gonna die soon anyway, no matter what he does. It's one of those things that seems like over-the-top honorable bullshit (and it kinda is) but it makes total sense for the characters. Hiriluk places no value in his own life. He knows he's living on borrowed time, ever since his disease was momentarily "cured" by those cherry blossoms. So it should be no surprise that he puts the wellbeing of everyone else ahead of his own.

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Another great sequence, I have to post the whole thing:

He knew it was a trap, but he walked into it anyway, because the slimmest chance there WAS something wrong with the doctors was worth more than his own life.

get ready

preach it

Hiriluk spitting the classic lines.

For some reason the line "He's my son. Don't hurt him." really gets to me. It's the first (and only) time Hiriluk calls Chopper his son, but the fact is he'd considered him as such for a long time now.

good parallel action of the doctors drinking

Hiriluk kills himself, to go out on his own terms (instead of succumbing to disease), to deny Wapol the pleasure of executing him, and to not make Chopper a technical murderer. But it's like he said - he isn't dying at all. His dreams will live on in his son.