It is now two weeks after the war. Surprisingly, Ivankov and his entire New-Kama crew left Luffy in Jinbei, Law, and Hancock’s care. In good hands no doubt, but judging from last week’s outlook, I figured they were going to stay together for a lot longer. Like Invakov said though, I’m pretty sure they’ll meet up again in no time.

So Luffy finally awakens, though it’s only been a couple chapters. His acceptance of Ace’s death is rather normal, given only a rampage of destroying the landscape and crying his heart out. Though I guess the typical is kind of disappointing to see given the many theories on what he would do when he woke up. Alas, I’m probably just hungry for twists every chapter given how many that’s been shown lately. This chapter was relatively tame and actually a tad bland compared to previous chapters. I was spoiled not too long ago about Ace, so when it actually came, I didn’t feel as sad. However when I first heard it, I was pretty shocked, so that feeling is probably the same. Seeing Luffy like this in this chapter didn’t do much either, but I’m not heartless, it’s just that manga is constantly disjointed and it’s much sadder in animated form with voices. I’m sure I’ll shed some tears when the anime finally comes around though.

I guess Oda feels on telling the story of how Ace and Luffy first met and their childhood stories of how they came to grow up together. It’ll definitely be interesting and will help give Ace more character development, though I kind of feel it’s a bit too late. Usually characters get flashbacks of their history before they die so the author can suck in as much empathy as possible for the character, but this is a reverse from Oda. I don’t think I remember seeing someone do this kind of backwards storytelling before, but it should still work somewhat. It will definitely help cushion and transition Luffy’s acceptance.

On a side note, it’s rather funny that Luffy complained about Garp hurting his cheek by pinching. It makes me think of Haki’s effects even more. Is it passive enough to be “on” all the time, or is he just concentrating it on his hand to punish Luffy? Maybe once you’re conscious of your Haki, it will be on all the time?

Somehow I feel after this flashback is said and done, Luffy’s going to decide on something drastic. He’ll either plot revenge or accept it and get on with finding his crew! Hooray for if that happens, I miss the whole bunch.

51 Comments

  1. I miss the whole bunch.

    Me too. Sure, I’d love to see Luffy taking revenge on Blackbeard and the whole Marines but I can’t see that happen any time soon. I think Luffy is going to search for his crew and then they’ll continue with the One Piece Quest – in honor of Ace and maybe Whitebeard. If they’re beating the crap out of Blackbeard and Co. while they’re at it… even better!

    1. Supposedly Blackbeard is going to be their last and final enemy, so they probably won’t have an epic clash anytime soon. On a random note, I was going to say BB needed some girls in his crew, but then I remembered the manly looking.. mermaid?

      Kiiragi
      1. Too bad but I think you’re probably right with that.

        The manly looking mermaid with the witch-like nose? Well, not every woman in One Piece can look drop dead gorgeous. Besides BB doesn’t deserve a hot chick in his crew. And I think we had more than enough fights between a Mugiwara crew member and a good looking opponent. Personaly, I’ve had enough of scenes in which Sanji was heart eyeing a female opponent.

  2. I didn’t think it was that bland. I felt sad watching him tear everything up and try to forget this happened. True, we’re used to having twists and such every chapter, but I was fine with good ol’story telling a la One Piece. It’ll be cool to see how Luffy and Ace became so close anyway.

    But I do have to agree that it was a tad bland after so many chapters of fighting, shock, tears, and revelations. But that’s what a down chapter is, so I can’t really complain.

    Though, this scene’ll probably be more emotional in the anime. (I’m already pegging myself at crying during Ace’s death and I’m more than prepared if how they animated Merry’s viking funeral had an effect on me).

    queenie
  3. One piece is the only series that can be gay sometimes but it will always fix itself with a good story i just love how long this anime is, i mean they could do this forever its just so great they even had bondage last episode so i wouldnt be suprised if they start with romance on the ship would be nice to see nami kiss or anything sexual.It would be nice if another hot female character would come on board

    gnomtastic
    1. Perona is a little creepy…she laughs so weird in the anime. I can’t imagine her on Luffy’s crew. And 1 thing came to my mind…who will her servants be? Don’t think anyone on Luffy’s crew will be her slave. LOL

      LightningJC
      1. She has her little ghost servants doesn’t she? I guess they can’t do physical things though :/ She’ll just have to adjust having no servants, or have a running joke in the series where she keeps making the crew feel emo and do her bidding :]

        Kiiragi
  4. I disagree that this was a bland chapter. Correctly executed character development that can actually trigger readers’ emotions are rare in graphic novels. The flashback serves to remind readers of the significance of Ace’s death. After all, death in manga is all too common, most of the readers would simply write off Ace’s death as a common and forgettable plot device and move on. Instead, Oda is devoting couple of additional chapters to further develop this particular relationship and make it truly unforgettable.

    I hate Bleach. Bleach character development, my foot.

    DukeTheGold
    1. She’s gotta be the ugliest character in One Piece. You’d think Oda would make her a bit more attractive as she IS Ace and Luffy’s foster mother.. but nah, Oda’s like “How many more ugly characters can I put in this manga and still make them important?” If the flashback triggers any emotion from me to Dadan, I will salute Oda for his balls of gold.

      Kiiragi
      1. i still think Kokoro remains the ugliest character lol but not really in a bad way as i love this character designs. as for Dadan, knowing Oda there was no way i expected her to be some hotty, that happens in other shounen.

        Pax
  5. I’m all for the upcoming flashback arc. I hate how things slow down to a complete halt after a big tragedy in stories. I don’t need 10 chapters of emo Luffy clogging up the pages. By doing the flashback arc, even if it’s a mini one, it allows Luffy more time to get over things “off screen” if you will.

    Plus, the crew needs more than 3 weeks to power up to the point of being helpful. All of them would be decimated by Blackbeard’s crew right now. They’re not main protagonists who power up after each fight with little effort… aside from Zoro and maaaaaaybe Sanji.

    Jaysus
  6. I don’t think that Luffy’s going to end up plotting revenge against the marines. First, he’s not a schemer. Second, if his hissy fit in the forest is a sign of anything, it’s that Luffy isn’t bottling up his anger and turning into some dark character. His tantrum is still classic Luffy.

    This will likely set up Luffy’s quest to reunite his crew, as well as make him stronger (probably by getting better at using haki). With Ace dead, Luffy’s crew is the only family that he has, so he’ll definitely want to not only re-assemble his crew, but also get strong enough so that his crew won’t die like Ace did. If Aokiji’s almost killing Robin got Luffy to develop Gears Second and Third, I can’t wait to see how much stronger Luffy will get now that Akainu killed Ace.

    KyonSmith
  7. Okay guys i think ill try to give OP a try tell me from where would you suggest for me to start from? ( anime only) My friend told me its original and different so ill give it a shot!

    Sin1505
    1. With how hard it is to find archived OP (it was a pain in the ass when i tried) your better off reading the manga based on shear readability. Personally i cant stand the anime, not sure why though.

      Chris
      1. If you’re talking about downloading the anime, then, yeah, but all the episodes should be available to stream online via gogoanime.com or any other big site like that. The anime could be animated better and I do like the manga more just because of how much more impact Oda’s drawings have. However, I still think the voice actors are great and it’s still an enjoyable anime to watch.

        @sin1505, 450+ episodes is A LOT to watch and I think that alone can scare off a lot of potential viewers. So, to save you some trouble, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to start with episode 227. If you’re interested in the backgrounds of the rest of the crew up til that point, you can always go back, but I think this would be a great starting point cause things really start to pick up at this arc and only get better from here on out.

        brianwuzhere
      2. Believe it or not i picked up one piece about a month ago, started from episode 1. I can tell you all the episodes are online(although i won’t tell you where for obvious reasons), but i will also tell you that i devoted all my otherwise free time to the series(sometimes watching 10+ in a day) it it’s taken me a month to catch up. So, good luck in picking it up, it’s a huge undertaking, but imho it was worth it. I love the episodes in the past 3 arc’s, and i don’t think I would have enjoyed them as much if i had skipped right to them. (as a note, i did skip all filler arc’s and all those dumbass “boss luffy” episodes along the way, so i even saved some time)

        DSSeraph
    2. u cud try starting at the CP9/Water 7/Rescue Robin arc… a lot of character developments there as well as episodes dedicated for flashbacks only (what happened in the anime so far)so you wont get lost much and yet experience the epic story. XD

      kaz
    3. Tho The Beginning of One Piece can really Turn Off New Comers i highly recommend starting from the beginning rather than go straight to an important arc…

      For Most People The Arlong Arc is where One Piece Truly Begins…
      which starts around 20 episodes in…

      Darklsins
  8. OMG Ace died! SPOILED! LOL.I should have known spoilers, but boy this was big.

    One piece was my first manga when I bought it in 7th grade. I stopped reading so that I would enjoy the anime plus the fact I got busy with school…but guess what I just graduated school…wth 10 years since i started reading One piece. I’ll alsways have a soft spot for OP. And god, embarassing but I think Id be reading manga till im like 40 i swear…:(!

    unknown2
  9. as things are going i think that time has come for oda sensei to grant us the long awaited time skip!!!….(2 or 3 years would be great)…i just wanna ask u guys how many chapters do you think are left till the time skip (if there is one)?

    Abel
  10. Doesn’t seem like there will be a time-skip at this point really. The end of the war with Luffy being in a coma seemed like the most ideal time. Perhaps Oda intended to have Luffy wake up after 2 weeks and changed his mind since the release of Strong World.

    Snorlax
    1. well oda said that the 10th movie is luffy’s last adventure as a 17 years old teenager for both anime and manga so a time skip is bound to happen…well..as you said this is the most appropriate time for that..maybe ater this little flash back chapters!!

      Abel
    2. It could happen but if it did I can’t see any of the characters designs or personalities changing much. OP has always had a sense of timelessness to it and I don’t think Oda would draw them differently at all. I can imagine it skipping to where the Straw Hats reunite (probably Saboady). Any further of a skip and we’d miss too much precious adventure. How they could there could be explained through a new set of cover arcs.

      1. as you said the characters might not get much of a change (maybe something on the design side and all of them powring up a little bit) other than this and it will change the hole OP image we fans have..anyway all we can do is wait and see maybe the hole time skip thing is to get them together as soon as possible which might take too long with conventional ways!!…

        Abel
    3. I think time skip is very likely to happen in OP. Since it is a shounen jump creation..there will be TS!(just like Naruto) I think Luffy is going to get another Gear after the TS.

      LightningJC
  11. “On a side note, it’s rather funny that Luffy complained about Garp hurting his cheek by pinching.”

    Uh, we’ve always been told that when Luffy gets hit by someone that cares about him it hurts him. I think I remember Nami hitting Luffy and then him having a flashback to Garp punching him and wondering about it…

    Kanao
    1. Honestly, Nami being able to hurt Luffy is a complete joke. It has nothing to do with Haki or whatnot, it’s just the whole running gag of her being a woman and being able to hurt guys no matter what their power, otherwise she’d be the strongest of the crew and beating up male enemies this way and that.. and of course that isn’t happening.

      And given if what you said was true about getting hit by someone that cares and it hurts, it doesn’t explain Sentoumaru at all, nor the Snake sisters hurting him way more than it should. Haki is a given that’s been explained already to why it hurts him, and we know Garp has the ability as well.

      Kiiragi
  12. They arrived on the island of Kiuja Luffy and continues with that face of collapse. The way it is overcoming the death of Ace is amazing. Oda is incredible, how can you create so much fuck? By the way, Akainu is no way out, if they understand me. If it happens, is one of the struggles most of all fuck manga. The guy who did Luffy pro Jimbo scared me, not even want to see him face to face with Akainu. The cry of it, the scenes in the woods, all very well done, amazing, speechless.

    I liked the Law Jimbo and continue with it, it makes me think more and more that the Law will become a friend and the 10th Jimbo Mugiwara. Some people have said that now that the White Beard died Jimbo will have to stay on the island of mermaids to keep everything in order, however, a fake spoiler made me think that could actually happen Whitebeard’s crew split to take care of the islands that were under the protection of the old. If that happens, the Jimbo would be free to join the crew. But regardless, I think Oda will put you on the crew: “If I die, please take care of my brother.” It’s the best building possible, from the characters listed for 10th Mugiwara, in my opinion.

    Don't speek english
  13. There’s also the flashback from Skypie arc where Oda shows the past of characters that were centuries dead. Still sad, though. This chapter made Luffy seem much more human.

    Sissy

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