Coming off a two-week break, One Piece returned with a bang and delivered one of the most exciting chapters in the past month. Moving away from the Corrida Coliseum, the spotlight has shifted back to Trafalgar Law’s team, and their mission to return Caesar Clown was certainly marked with a ripping sense of adventure. The captain of the Heart Pirates is a character that fascinates me to no end and his craftiness and keen acumen were, once again, evidenced in his latest endeavor. Whether it’s his blatant refusal to repel the “Fighting Fishes” or his quick wits that took advantage Caesar’s abilities, Law is always thinking one step ahead of everyone else and he has definitely proven himself to be a force to reckon with. But even someone as formidable as Law has his trepidations and clearly, Donquixote Doflamingo is an opponent that warrants such anxiety. Not only does Law intend to conserve all his stamina for the imminent clash, the Shichibukai also took precautionary measures and went as far as to deliberately lead the marines to their location, just in case their plan fails. This would, to a certain extent, explain why Dressrosa was overrun by the marine forces – Admiral Fujitora and CP-0 are just some of the imposing personage who are present – and Green Bit is certainly no exception in this respect.

It can’t come as a huge surprise to anyone that I’m ecstatic to see Nico Robin again – after all, she is my favorite character in One Piece. That she has a mind of a steel trap is utterly beyond doubt, and Robin is probably the only one who’s cognizant of Law’s hidden intent and motives. Her vast intellect and sharp intuition pretty much speak for themselves, and she is, no question, the perfect person for the job in a reconnaissance assignment – Usopp tagged along like a “courtly gentleman”, as usual. Evidently, the sudden appearance of the dwarves came as an amazement to even Nico Robin, and by the look of things, it seems like the mysterious beings are not creatures that you run into very often. There’s not a whole lot that we can say about the dwarves at the moment, all we know for sure is that their hyper-speed movements make pinpointing them into sight extremely difficult and though they are presumably small in stature, the ones featured here were able to ferry a gigantic Fighting Fish with ease. How will the newly-introduced dwarves fit into the overall picture is something that I’m very much looking forward to, and similar to the fishmen, there’s bound to be a fascinating exposition surrounding their livelihood and individuality. The topic of discrimination and inequality has always been a major theme in the One Piece, and I suspect this intense debate will come into play again with the unveiling of the dwarves.

Random tidbits:

  • I’m sure most of you have heard about Oda sensei’s recent trip to the hospital – let’s hope he doesn’t work himself too hard, and I wish him all the best for a full and speedy recovery!
  • Another week, another person discovered Lucy’s secret identity – Bartolomeo is now in the know!
  • How did Bellamy figure all that out? – That is, the extent of Luffy’s exceptional Haki abilities and the fact that the Straw Hat cheered him on during the coliseum battle.
  • Law and Robin would make such a cute couple – I can’t be the only one who sees the potential in those two right?
  • The sight of Caesar as a hot air balloon had me laughing out loud – that was pure genius!
  • “You’re as reliable as ever, Usopp” – Snap! Robin’s snarky demeanor makes her all the more adorable.

tl;dr: @SeishunRC – #OnePiece 710: The spotlight shifts back to Trafalgar Law’s team at Green Bit. How will the newly-introduced dwarves fit into the picture? #Manga
 


32 Comments

      1. My Japanese is pretty horrible 😡
        CCC from Arlong Park has the English translation over here.

        A message from the author, Oda Eiichiro sensei, to all his readers, regarding One Piece’s hiatus:
        This is a real blunder!
        I tried enduring a bit too much, but that just made the problem worse.
        To you, the readers who are looking forward to the rest of the story,
        and to the Strawhat crew, who are looking forward to more rampaging and going wild,
        I’ve really done you wrong.
        At the moment, I’m undergoing some painful treatment.
        With long-awaited developments coming up in the story next time [next chapter?], I can’t wait to have everyone read it.
        I full-well acknowledge just how long two weeks can seem to young boys [he uses “shonen” here].
        Just hang in there for a bit.
        Oda Eiichiro

        Seishun
  1. You always hear about Mangaka getting really sick. Work conditions for Mangaka in Japan must be absolutely horrible. I have to imagine sweat shop levels of bad for the frequency.

    Zero Hour 17
    1. When you work all day and sleep 3 hours like Oda apparently does, it’s pretty taxing. On the other hand, the man single-handedly keeping Jump and the rest of Shueisha afloat is bagging $20m annually in royalties. He’s making enough that he’s got no other reason for working so hard except that he loves his story and loves to write it. That’s also probably why OP is a cut above the rest of the WSJ series.

    2. It’s like what Luxor said, he works too hard, and apparently, he’s a heavy smoker too 😡
      Not surprisingly, One Piece is the top-selling manga for the first half of 2013. He’s definitely making his fair share, that much is clear.

      01 – One Piece (7.9 million copies)
      02 – Magi (4.8 million copies)
      03 – Kuroko no Basuke (4.7 million copies)
      04 – Shingeki no Kyojin (4.3 million copies)
      05 – Hunter x Hunter (3.6 million copies)

      Seishun
    3. With such success and prestige earned, Oda really should consider taking a leaf out of fellow WSJ contributor Togashi Yoshihiro and start enjoying the fruits of his success while still writing the story he loves IN HIS OWN PACE, not at the expense of his health. He deserves it, surely Shuueisha couldn’t be so dumb as to work the chicken that provides them with these golden eggs to exhaustion?

      Last thing we want is another Author Existence Failure that has befallen series like Zero no Tsukaima, especially for a series of with a fanbase of such a mainstream magnitude far bigger than ZnF.
      http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AuthorExistenceFailure

      Anonymous
      1. If Oda will do so, he will lose not only all of his credibility, but also visibility. He could do like Kentaro Yabuki (To Love Ru) and Hoshino Katsura(D.Gray Man) by changing from weekly to monthly, but he will lose visibility still despite his enormous success.

        I hope not a early departure, the story is far too long from the end. At this point he should speed things up if there are more complication.

        StarFang
  2. Once more Oda shows us the versatility of devil fruits by making Ceasar turn into a human hot air balloon. Damn I haven’t laughed so much in a while.
    Also someone tell Oda not to call them dwarves they prefer the term little people.

    K
  3. Oda once again brings out very old references. They were priced as slaves in the auction house and were told by Noland when going to a “land full of midgets”.

    TheOrangeOne
    1. Interesting, I’m guessing they’re not worth as much as the merfolk XD
      I wonder if the dwarves are the same beings that Zoro encountered on Dressrosa – those pesky fairies!

      Seishun
  4. So nice to have a focused chapter again after some of the blatantly extraneous characters/fights of the coliseum subplot. While the fight scenes were nice, the whole cannon fodder nature of the tournament was a little too literal and left me not caring about most of the fighters. Hopefully the focus on the crew and its actual missions continues in the next chapters. Heck I don’t think I’d mind the coliseum fighting if Oda would just get to the point and have Luffy fight instead of a bunch of characters who already don’t matter after their couple pages of “screen time.”

    spike
    1. I’m glad we’re taking a break from the coliseum fights too. There are a number of subplots moving about concurrently at the moment, and what’s happening at the coliseum is not exactly the most interesting one 😡

      Seishun
  5. I was let down by Law in this chapter. Ever since his first battle with Luffy and Kidd I’ve liked him as a character and only admired him more when he saved Luffy at Marineford and again more so after the time skip, however this week his bit about not wanting to overuse his power because it would tire him I just found odd. Maybe I’m forgetting, but I don’t think there has EVER been anyone in One Piece who had a limited use of their devil fruit ability? It seemed up until now that use of the power was near infinite, so it was disappointing that Law revealed this isn’t true, especially since his power is so cool.

    On another note, seeing Usopp and Robin battle the fish was nice, I enjoy seeing how far the strawhats have come since before the time skip.

    Celecia01
    1. That, or Doflamingo is that much of a badass and a threat that Law would rather save up all his strength in a fight against him, in which using even a fraction of his abilities means that much to him.

      ronri
    2. I think it just shows how terrifying an opponent Doflamingo is, nothing wrong with preserving his stamina for the big one coming up. Plus, it did seem like Robin, Usopp and Caesar had things under control 😉

      Seishun
  6. the pixie must be one of those hobbits errr i mean little folks. is it just me or that guy who won in block B just shitted his pants after hearing the name mugiwara?

    Ryuuzaki
  7. I cant stop laughing at that picture of Caesar with the fake mustache, and then the chapter proceeding to abuse the crap out of him lol. Last arc’s super villain now downgraded to a mere pawn hah.

    YanDaMan
  8. Great chapter! Glad to see someone else who shares my love for Nico Robin. Being on the team with Law sets the stage perfectly to show her intellect and new powers after being with the revolutionaries. Wouldn’t surprise me at all if she is hiding some pretty powerful upgrades given how she tends to keep things under wraps.

    I wasn’t sure if Law needing to save up his energy was Oda’s way of introducing a weakness into what has been a pretty difficult to challenge devil’s fruit ability thus far. I’d rather not see Law nerfed at key moments by running out of stamina or something.

    Avalon
  9. Is it just me, or do those fighting fish seem perfect for BBQ? Maybe it tastes like beef!
    And I must agree, Law x Robin actually do look good as a couple… and Law really makes that mustache work. XD

    NaYa
  10. Law is pure love <3

    I love his reactions
    I'm not annoyed at how he wants to conserve his energy and not fight, I think it makes sense.

    Anyway, there's a nice race introduced! I'm really really looking forward to that. Halfway(?) through the manga and suddenly another new race is introduced, but because it's Oda it doesn't seem out of place/randomly introduced and it's probably planned super early on anyway. Things are finally getting more interesting! Not that it wasn't before, just…

    Anyway I'm glad Oda is back and all, but I hope he's really fine. I wasn't expecting him to be back so soon and all, so I was surprised to get an update for a new chapter. At first I was: "Ooh it's a new chapter!" but seconds later I thought: "Hey are you sure you should be up and writing yet?!"
    That man works too much.

    ZJ

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