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As pathetically predicted last chapter, Oda continues on to tell the stories of Robin and Sanji, of whom share quite interesting character involvements. A lot went on this chapter and it’s hard to determine what should really be mentioned to keep this post short. Robin gets a new nickname as “The Light of Revolution”, as she was the sole survivor from Ohara and someone that Dragon has been trying to locate for over ten years. The question for the reason of the bridge is brought up again, but still remains unanswered. Previously, I had thought the bridge was to connect some random islands, but I guess there must be a more sinister reason since it’s from the Tenryuubito. Perhaps it’s being built to make slave trading easier.
Apparently Dragon is going to take this fragile time to gather his “leaders” and either protect it from crumbling or turning for the worse, or reforming it to his own world. The questionable morality of himself still makes this a hard one to predict, but recent chapters show that he’s a pretty nice guy. Kuma on the other hand is pretty much no mystery anymore. His story is basically that he somehow became captured by the government and converted into a half robot as “brainwash” of some sorts. This chapter also proves that it really was him on Dragon’s ship a couple chapters ago, as well as being one of Dragon’s and Ivankov’s nakama.
Regarding the newspaper that everyone seems to be reading but not telling, it’s starting to become a huge tease. However with Vivi’s dialogue, it seems it has something to do with a picture, so maybe it really is a new bounty. Oddly enough, Crocodile’s actually going to the New World, and doesn’t seem to be just disappearing out of the story anytime soon. See, that’s the good thing about Oda. Despite all the things haters can bitch and moan about One Piece, you can’t deny that he ever forgets characters. Character follow up should not be a hard thing to do, but if you take a look at the other big competitors (Naruto and Bleach), they just can’t seem to remember any of their supporting cast.
Surprisingly, Buggy has a lot of mystery surrounding him. Recently, the most interesting thing about him, or rather Luffy’s, was Captain John’s “Treasure Mark”. I read up on what it was and apparently Luffy picked it up from John’s corpse himself near the end of the Thriller Bark arc. You would think something trivial like this wouldn’t be part of the story, but that’s just what makes OP interesting (sigh, I feel like an OP whore). Anyway, the cliffhanger with the letter from the government must be that he’s become a Shichibukai. I’m totally joking too, but if that were to really happen (seeing how Moria’s “dead” and Buggy’s apparently REALLY strong to the government), I would laugh my ass off. Remember when I said Buggy’s a rather hilarious character since he’s constantly being pushed into crap that he accidentally creates? Well, this is it.
the Shichibukai Buggy!… it sounds too wrong.
indeed… it sure does. ^_^
my beautiful Vivi!
Off a corpse? In my family-friendly One Piece? NO WAI!
Well, joking aside, if my memories serve me right, Luffy picked that up when he and the others chanced upon that load of treasure that Perona had left in their ship.
Anyway, I think One Piece: Strong World is out right out…with subs too! I’m watching it right. Can’t wait to read your impressions about it!
Yeah, I won’t be writing up a post about that until my summer quarter’s over.
Yeah, not corpses. Luffy got the treasure mark from a pile of loot Nami had collected at the end of the Thriller Bark arc.
See here: http://www.onemanga.com/One_Piece/486/05/
As for the anime, this wiki has a page about it:
http://www.animevice.com/captain-johns-treasure-mark/21-574/
So I’m guessing Luffy took Margarett up on her offer of new clothes? :p
People bitch about One Piece? Most of the hate I see is directed towards Naruto and Bleach, using One Piece as the example of a good shonen series.
Croc, Mr.1 and Dragon looked awesome this chapter, though I’m hoping One Piece is done with reaction shots and gets back to plot progression soon.
I’m sure lots of people have been busy watching Strong World today, too!
Yeah, you know, the typical “weird art, never ending Shounen, generic, and etc.” As far as I know, the prime bitching is at the “weird art”, which strangely I don’t see FairyTail getting heat for, even though it’s pretty much the same style
(he was Oda’s apprentice after all).Personally, I find people who have something to complain about OP just can’t appreciate what Shounen was intended to be. There’s really nothing to complain about in OP, especially since it’s not a Seinen. People just like lumping OP together with other series that are apparently giving the Shounen genre a bad name. Oh well you know? Their loss.
The most common complaint I get ’round here is that it’s “too kiddy,” which really just means that they haven’t read much. One Piece isn’t exactly high-class adult reading material, but it’s a shounen series that really knows how to hit you where it hurts, whether you’re fighting back manly tears or debating whether to buy a plane ticket to Japan to strangle the author for a cliffhanger. That’s saying a lot for what’s supposed to be a kids’-demographic comic.
Mishima was never Oga’s apprentice, it’s just a rumor. Both of them stated that it’s not true.
Their art is similar because both of them is inspired after Dragon Ball. Actually, the art only seemes the same at first, but after reading couple of chapters, it’s clear that the art style is quite different.
Yup, Strong World was great! 😀
I just finished watching Strong World. So very awesome! Kiiragi, your gonna post on it right?
I dind’t watch Strong World yet, because I’m waiting for the official BD release. The DVD rips that came out are just leaked versions, without the new, rewrited scenes that will be in the official version.
omg, Buggy as Shichibukai would be totally hilarious.
the Shichibukai standard would be brought waaaaayyy down because of him.
please don’t make that come true!
CAPTAIN BUGGY!!!!
is now…
SHICHIBUKAI BUGGY!!!!
Doesn’t have the same flow, but who cares? Long live Captain Buggy!
Bleach forgets Characters? Just about every single character of high to low to no significance has appeared in the Arrancar arcs. There are only like 7 Characters left that we haven’t seen yet.
Bleach “forgets” characters by putting them off mid battle and then “forgetting” about them until dozens of chapters later. Remember Kenpachi and Byakuya? ..Yeah, they haven’t been shown for over 30 chapters. I mean, I wouldn’t say nothing if they actually finished their battle, but if I’m not mistaken, they never finished.
To be fair, Oda spent around 350 chapters before showing Buggy, Crocodile, Bon Clay again. Who knows when we’ll see Lucci and Kaku again. So, 30 chapters without a couple of characters is no big deal really. Of course, compared to Bleach, One Piece has probably 3 times more characters, so it is impossible to keep track of all of them. Personally, I think Oda is doing a really good job handling this huge cast.
Well that’s just unfair. Their arcs ended, whereas Bleach and Naruto have characters that are just plain forgotten compared to their previous involvements. Bleach, I’ve already explained. Naruto? Tons of characters from part one got completely shafted throughout the second part, focusing almost completely on Sasuke and Naruto. 30 chapters is a gigantic deal when you leave stuff half finished. What kind of story is it to end mid battle, then never follow up for 30 chapters? Aren’t you just straining your readers with unnecessary suspense? It’s not even hard to fix either, Kubo could’ve easily put in a page, or hell ONE OR TWO panels, which isn’t even asking much, to show what’s “going on” over there with their fight. But nah, never happens.
And for what reason would Oda need to keep bringing up past islands with past characters? There’s just absolutely none, especially compared to the other series. No one EXPECTS the characters to be brought up again. Who’s going to ask in a later arc, “hmm, I wonder what Enel’s doing right now?” No one, because his story ended, and unless Oda decides to bring him back to the story to further other character’s development, that’s just how it’s going to be. The only reason past characters appeared anyway was because of the setting of an entire arc, “Impel Down”. Are you telling me you’re going to ask Oda for more character remembrance in order to somehow balance what the other series couldn’t do at all? But even though I say that, he STILL cycles through the important character’s reactions every time something universal happens with the crew. I’m not trying to worship the guy, but he just so happens to know how to write stories without forgetting loose ends.
Well…it took a while to find out what happened to all the Supernovas fighting Kizaru. Law was basically fighting a Pacifista at one point and the next time we see him 30-or-so chapters later in the Great War! Also, it took us all of Thriller Bark to find out what exactly happened with Ace and Blackbeard. I’m sure that in a story as long as One Piece with as many characters I can find other examples, but that’s not my purpose here. I also like One Piece much better than Naruto and Bleach but I’m far from thinking it is so far above them. Like all shounen series, those three share the same flaws (if it is even a flaw to sometimes “forget” about a certain character). Like you, I also get upset when people ridicule One Piece for its kiddy style, but I also cannot stand people needlessly bashing Naruto and Bleach, when from a broader perspective the three series are very similar to each other.
I’m actually pretty surprised that most other series haven’t picked up on Oda’s brilliant cover stories. With just a few cover pages and mere sentences of text, Oda can create interesting mini-arcs with “forgotten” characters.
I think the epic scale of the series helps it as well. We know OP is supposed to be at least 1000 chapters (with the Whitebeard War as the confirmed halfway point), so we know that Oda has time to “remember” any characters that are still relevant to the plot; Bleach and Naruto are clearly approaching an huge climax, but both series seem desperate to stave it off with training arcs and empty plot twists. There’s also the fact that One Piece tends to have decent progress in each chapter, as opposed to Bleach in particular. Bleach’s War are was about 90 chapters, and it’s impact on the plot was minimal; One Piece’s war arc was 40 at most and totally changed the power dynamic of Luffy’s world.
All that said, I do like Naruto quite a bit more than Bleach. The latter has just lost any sense of direction and Kubo constantly, and annoyingly, manages to make 5 pages worth of story into a 20 page chapter.
@Darklord
You obviously like OP better than the other two for the same reasons I do, and you admit there’s issues with all three of them. I agree, OP is not without flaws if you really want to play the devil’s advocate, but it at least does the basic things that a good story needs right. Naruto and Bleach just screw that up somewhere in the middle, and in the case of Bleach, never found its way back. I don’t know if you’re implying that I’m one of those people needlessly bashing these two series, but I rarely point out comparisons for the sake of flaming. I’m just annoyed sometimes at the directions those authors take their series in. Whatever the case, I’m going to avoid it completely from now on, just for the sake of to each their own.
don’t forget the battle between kensei and Wonderweiss
Bleach also forgets characters by leaving them behind on the power scale with absolutely no chance of catching up, which means they aren’t going to do anything important in the series’ major action scenes.
also you can’t forget the cover pages of each chapters.
If you actually follow the one piece cover page, you see previous characters reappear all the time.
Man the highlight of this teaser chapter had to be sanji surrounded by Transvestites lol. How he had to admit that the wanted poster was his and Ivankov didn’t believe him made me laugh for like 10 minutes. In terms of the “big news” I am stumped, I just hope he didn’t just “challenge the world government” again in a funky costume. He has done that like four times.
I thought it was already explained why the bridge is beeing built oO
IIRC its only beeing built to keep the prisoners/slaves occupied, nothing more.
Well when Robin asked this chapter, the guy responded with, “Whether or not there is a reason, the number of human sacrifices is not lessening.” I doubt they would reveal the reason earlier and cover it up later.
I LOVE IT! last chapter tease plus now a SECOND tease!
I thought the article in the newspaper explained that Luffy was Dragon’s son, and that was supposed to be the surprise (because I thought it wasn’t widely known). I guess I was wrong.
We haven’t seen the entire Main Crew for a whole year, and now that Oda decided to make up for it by showing them, along with a bonus Vivi, suddenly he is now the genius of being able to show every single character ever from the “supporting cast” of OP ever?
What the hell, Kiragi?
Were you curious if the fanbase would do a cirklejerk on it regardless that the claim was downright retarded?
When I was talking about the “supporting cast”, I meant Crocodile, Buggy, and yes, even Vivi. You knew why the crew wasn’t shown for an entire year, and that is why that is okay. You knew they weren’t “forgotten” because Luffy was the focus, and the war was underway. Not only that, but they were shown in the cover page often, showing what’s happening with them. Crocodile and Buggy however, are follow ups that other authors just don’t seem to do nowadays. Vivi was even a better surprise.
So no, I’m not curious if the fanbase would do a circlejerk on it. Compared to the comments Bleach and Naruto get, I’d be surprised if any form of a circlejerk happened on a OP post. I’m not an idiot, and I’m certainly not blinded by bias. I spend my time writing posts for a reason, not throwing together some half assed “fan” post. Don’t think I would’ve gotten through the application process if I did now would I?
Well, yea, I’m certain, but it still seemed pretty wierd. There are more that 200 characters in One Piece and not much more of them gets screen time usually than how much gets in the other two as I saw. I read all three, while Bleach is known for characters suddenly disappearng for a very long time (Kensei, Yammi), that’s mainly thanks to the authors wierd jumping around writing style, but still old seemingly forgotten characters turn up all the time, even if they have little to no plot revelance (Hanatarou in HM arc, now Ichigo’s highschool friends). Naruto’s characters turn up all the time in flashbacks. Therefore I don’t really see the general diffence. And I would not consider Buggy a rarely appearing character. You know what would be a real “long time no see”? Captain Kuro, or anyone from Water7.
Okay, I think people are misunderstanding what I meant when I said Oda doesn’t “forget” characters. What I meant was characters that are in current arcs, the arc ends, and Oda follows up with some “epilogue”.
What I didn’t mean is random characters from old arcs suddenly “appearing” again. People seem to be confusing that since old characters like Crocodile and Mr. 3 are appearing again, other characters that were “missed” should appear too. But that would just be characters appearing without reason. Impel Down was the sole reason old characters reappeared, and that’s it.
The reason that style works for Oda is because he is mimicking a very popular form of media where after one ends, the next 1 can be completely disjointed, and it will still work. Its called a book.
One piece is if harry potter released like 20 pages a week. Not complaining about it, just saying finish an arc, and the character’s can be forgotten thing works. each “arc” of one piece is literally its own novel.
Where bleach would be like the novel series a song of ice and fire, where the end of each book is an arbitrary cut off point and the story just keep going and going(<—this avoids bleach's excessive characters by killing like every1 though.).
I feel like Buggy is going to get a power up soon once he realizes that he has a strong Haki so I am hoping that he does become Shichibukai.
To me, I don’t think its a bounty increase with the reactions we got from Crocodile, Buggy, and Iva. From the looks of it, it has to be something no one expected Luffy to do after all that has happened so far. Even his nakama were shocked from what he did. “What did he do?” Now that is the million dollar question.
I still believe in what I said a few weeks earlier with him “conquering” Amazon Lily and claiming it as his territory. It makes complete(or some) sense and help remedies some problems that might happen. Adding on what I said then:
– With Whitebeard dead, all his territory that were his are gone now. There’s now people vying for his lost land and utter chaos now that “Whitebeard’s Wrath” is no longer a factor to keep people in check. If Luffy starts to take over territory, his name might help protect people and help bring some “order” back into the New World.
– He ends up protecting Amazon Lily and Hancock. Lets face it, the Marines are going to wonder how Luffy broke into Impel Down and released so many prisoners in the first place. Question will be asked. “When could he have broken in?”, “What distracted us in the first place from detecting a guy sneaking in here?”. “Wait, why did Hancock want to visit Impel Down again?” I don’t think it would take too long for them to put two and two together. And if its somehow known that Hancock was sheltering Luffy after the battle? Oh boy that won’t be good. So if worsts comes to worsts, how could they make it where helping Luffy wasn’t their intention in the first place? By showing him taking over the island. Wouldn’t Hancock and Amazon Lily ultimately get sympathy and make it easier for them to make up excuses on why Luffy was there in the first place and so on and so on.
General Problems with this theory:
– Is his name that big for him to pull off such a thing? Sure, taking over Amazon Lily and “defeating” Hancock will for sure make him more famous. But does he strike that same type fear Whitebeard did where his name was all that was needed to protect an island?
– It doesnt really fit the image we have for Luffy to do this in the first place.
– Does he even want to do any of the things I listed?
To me this one is the biggest problem with the theory. He even said it himself that he doesn’t want to conquer anything. He just wants to be free. To have the freedom that was denied to Sabo and live his life without any regrets.
Actually, isn’t the biggest problem with your theory the fact that everyone’s trying to hide Luffy from the government right now? No one knows where Luffy is except for the ones that are with him, and even only Rayleigh knew because he guessed from what Kuma told him. A newspaper describing that Luffy has conquered Amazon Lily would completely defeat this purpose. The news must be something that the WG has crafted, or some news extracted from the war. Or you know, a new bounty.
Buggy as a Shichibukai now I’ve seen all.
Robin and the Revolutionary Army: This is really no surprise in my opinion. This is something that everyone was already imagining a long time, since that cloak with the liberating army’s character where he was arrested. It was nice to see Robin with that smile on his face, glad to have a crew in which to return. For a character who has a past so dark it is a joy to see her with that smile. I was a little perplexed when the soldier says they are looking to make Robin more than 10 years. Wow! But nobody had touched it was in the crew of Luffy? Why is not there tried before? Kinda strange to me that information. As regards the statement of the island of Robin, here is the call to my favorite mistake in One Piece, the story of the century lost poneglyhs hide. So Dragon also wants to know about it? Really?
Sanji and Ivankov: Ha! One of the greatest moments of agony for the fans. All Munco afraid of turning a Sanji Okami. But apparently, it will not happen, we can be relieved. I would find it very strange Oda change the character’s personality at this point in history, but I expected that at least now Sanji could fight with women, does Ivan will not give aid to the boy that weakness? I loved the jokes in this piece of history. The pictures of posters, then underneath, it was hilarious. And the cook nervous about this whole situation is and assume that that is not your poster or even play in the account and does not count, were great. And the character is still soft spot, took a broth of Ivankov. Does the anime will show a little fight? In the end, Ivankov Sanji will help to find the crew, I’m sure.
The call for Dragon: Wow! Dragon’s new? That makes me a little worried about the direction of the manga. Actually I liked the old formula to see the troupe going from island to island and each island had a different saga with characters Specially created for it. The manga is out of this format have a good time and gives the impression that this chapter with Dragon finally planning to move, I am in doubt when the manga will have a moment of calm in the old fashioned, because the directions we’re going, it seems that a new war or battle is to be created, and with the Revolutionary Government, with the crew of Straw Hat involved in everything. But the only different is that this time, Luffy will not participate without soil, but the whole crew should get involved. So some have to be linked indirectly to the Dragon.
Oda liked it even had time to create the Den Den Mushi Psychic. Ha! This author has every idea. As for his conversation with Ivankov, still can not deduce much. Legal mention the Kuma, I’m coming down and speak more than Dragon’s identity was finally revealed to the world, but beyond that, I could not deduce much that has not already said.
Durval, Sunny and Kuma: Begins hilarious, but tight ends! Durval flashing is still laughing. Good to know that Sunny is protected and the care of friends in Sabaody. Camie and Haccho again indicating the Isle of Triton? Cacilda! I want to see this island! But Kuma appearing there, I know not, do not think the character is an ally, like many here, I believe the Vegapunk have done something with the Kuma and that will give ZICO Sabaody in this situation. Cursed archipelago where only gave confusion since the troupe arrived. Marinford too near, is not a place I would return if given the option. Does the island have a greater importance for the future? I mean, more than they already had.
Vivi and Caru: Man I miss those two characters. So wanted to solve Vivi from Arabasta temporarily only to find the crew again. When it happened to separation of the group was considering this would happen at some point in history, but now I see no more need. But still I would like. Is it really impossible that what is happening? Was too fond of jokes Caru.
Crocodile and Mr. 1: More plans for one of the villains defeated the manga. I do not know what else to expect from the Crocodile. After his weakness was exposed, do not think he is any significant threat. It would be like bringing back the Arlong. At least a mention of him to be going to the new world, may also indicate that the manga is finally going there. I am also more relaxed knowing that he will no longer bother to Arabasta or Vivi. Mr. E 1 is an enigmatic character, Oda has not done anything with him in Impel Down and nor Marinford and Zoro mentions something about it when they first met in Arabasta, about him being famous and stuff, I know no, it would be interesting if at some point, Mr. Crocodile kill the one and gain fame. The problem is he does not defeat the most Zoro, therefore, is to get stronger still? What is the real Mr. 1?
Buggy, crew, and Mr. Alvina 3: Moment of happiness to many here see the cast of villains muddled series. I’m still silly as Oda gave so much importance to these guys. Laughed too at that time the chapter, even funnier is to see the Lion thinking about a kind of food to each table. Ha! And then? Buggy as Shichibukai? I was also thinking about it, but it seems so obvious. And it would be strange to have the Navy Shichibukai a pirate crew Roger? I suspect that it might not be that or a trap for anything. The funny thing is the bat who delivered the letter. Reminded of Moria, mentioned in the previous chapter. Could something related to the character? Alias, I was glad to see Mr. March, now “San” (three in Japanese), now part of the group’s buggy, the two other characters combined.
And finally, the big question of the chapter, what the hell did Luffy? What’s in a newspaper? We honestly do not think has something else that is related to the reward of it. It is interesting to see how each character in this chapter reacted in a way. Some were surprised, others frightened, until Robin found it funny, the Crocodile used the plural to describe what is on paper. You can not know. It’s amazing how this thing Oda can create suspense, despite the tips, yet the chances of getting caught is even greater. Putz. I do not know what to think. Ruffy changed the look, destroyed something, said something? What the fuck he did?
sir………………….I read ur wall’O’text……AND I SALUTE YOUR ENTHUSIASM *salutes screen*!!! man, if i could write reports like u write posts, school woulda been a lot easier fo me. but yeah..a lot going on, kinda wish i had the same endurance that i had with FMA to wait a few months and then Gorge on a bunch of new stuff.
are you going to keep blogging high school of the dead???