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If there’s one thing I’ve come to expect from One Piece, it would be the many unforeseen turns of event that Oda-sensei keeps throwing at us. That’s quite unusual for the supposedly cookie-cutter shounen genre and I’ll be the first to acknowledge I didn’t expect to see such a huge presence of the marine forces at Dressrosa. Not only do we have the introduction of Marine Admiral Fujitora (Isshou) in this chapter, it seems like the World Government’s highest-ranked intelligence unit, CP-AIGIS0 is present in the kingdom as well. The revealed identity of the blind man is an interesting twist and I was almost certain he would turn out to be Kyros, the legendary gladiator of Corrida Coliseum. Fleet Admiral Akainu (Murderer!) first mentioned the name, Fujitora back in Chapter 700 and he seemed confident enough to entrust Isshou with the important task of reining in Luffy and Traflagar Law. Just how powerful Fujitora is remains an unknown, but I have no doubt the eventual confrontation between the Supernovas and the high-level marines will prove to be immensely amusing.
We were literally all over the map this week in terms of the chapter’s narrative. The abandoned iron bridge that connects Dressrosa to Green Bit in particular, sticks out to me as something worth highlighting. It begs the question of why Trafalgar chose Green Bit as the location to hand over Caesar when the uninhabited island is clearly inaccessible to the common people. I’m sure the Shichibukai still has a trick or two up his sleeve but it looks like his crusade to destroy the SMILE factory might not be as easy as he has hoped. The ill-fated encounter with the CP-0 sparked my interest as well and without a doubt, the bad blood between Cipher Pol and the Straw Hat’s Devil Child has not been completely forgotten. I’ll say this up front – Nico Robin is my favorite character in One Piece. She’s wonderful in so many aspects – smart, sultry and ridiculously hot, just to name a few. But what makes her stands out the most is the profundity that she displayed in her character development during the CP9 Saga. The moment when she shouted “I want to live” remains the most epic scene in One Piece and no matter how many times I’ve re-watched it, the sheer emotional buildup of that instant never fails to make my tears well up.
It looks like the story will be shifting back to the coliseum next week and we got a glimpse of just how terrifyingly powerful the super rookie Bartholomeo is. Beating a Marine Vice Admiral into a pulp without breaking a sweat? That’s how you put on a show. I’m hard-pressed to see anyone else aside from Luffy or Rebecca, whom many suspect could be a new addition to the Straw Hat crew, acquiring the Mera Mera no Mi’s power. But no question, the Straw Hat captain is going to have his hands full in the next few chapters as we figure out the true extent of his opponent’s abilities.
I love one piece. “Get to a new island, find the strongest people on it, beat them to a pulp, have a large rowdy party at the end with lots of meat and booze”. Its like valhalla… with cannons.You really have admire how fast the Straw Hat crew can get stuck in the absolute worst possible situation within 12 secs of getting to a new island.
Cant wait to see all these plot threads come together at the end.
I don’t think they’re stuck. At least, not yet 😡
“While making a checklist of our enemies is imperative… Shouldn’t counting the number of people who need protecting be our top priority?” -Marine Admiral Fujitora (Isshou)
I like this guy more and more already.
Indeed, he’s a man of honor, who MIGHT have a gambling problem as well 😡
I feel like Fujitora is implying that the people need to be protected from HIM cause look at that shocked Marine’s face. :O
Either way, he is awesome & I like him already.
Better off quoting mangarule’s translations next time. Mangastream’s has been pretty wonky.
These last two chapters were crazy good. Can’t wait for the big mess that is about to happen.
if theres 1 thing i like its the disguises they use not only are they funny im amazed they work.(especialy laws mustachio for the winz.)
I don’t think a stache would work for Robin 😛
I guess white beard crew won’t be making an appearance, seeing how none of them appeared so far. Perhaps they will appear at the end to help Luffy out of a pinch.
The appearance of CP-0 makes me think there will be another Poneglyph seen in the arc
Who knows, It’s still too early to call! We’re only at the 7th chapter of the Dressrosa arc. Anything can happen 😉
In terms of shonen, definitely expect the unexpected when it comes to One Piece. I love arcs like these where it’s basically a convergence of various parties. For One Piece, it definitely continues that infinitely expanding universe motif, despite how far well we are into the story. Oddly enough, even with so many intermingling forces, our main cast seem to be getting more personal coverage than they did in preceding arcs (especially in comparison to Fishman Island). Robin is one of my more favored characters so I love side-focus on her, but I’m actually really interested in what this Fairy Zoro is chasing exactly is. We have the Doflamingo family (now renounced of any government affiliation), CP-AIGIS0, an admiral and his forces, the StrawHatxHeart alliance, Blackbeard’s first commander, a to be revealed samurai, and a plethora of rookies and combatants after Ace’s Mera Mera no Mi. This chaotic diplomacy ensures some epic showdowns. And I get the feeling that Oda is only getting started.
Oda’s definitely just getting started and I have a feeling the White Beard crew could make an appearance as well. Robin hasn’t received any proper character development since the time skip and I’m hoping we’ll see some in this arc.
If it is to be any of them, I can’t really imagine it being anyone other than Marco. Oda would be breaching the boundaries of too much epic at that point, almost. There’s still the possibility of a new Straw Hat up in the air too. Oda has been teasing us on this matter for so long and although Jinbe technically agreed, I’m sure everyone is as eager as I am to have an official acceptance/initiation that we can rejoice over. This arc has the potential to supersede Punk Hazard, and Punk Hazard was extraordinary.
Good point, perhaps we will see Robin’s character dev. this arc
Subplots, lots of them, the chapter.
There’s a typo. “I want to live”*, not want the live.
So we get a VA who gets introduced, then killed off in the same chapter..okay…really like how the stories are branching out for the various crew members…don’t really care for Sanji and Violet though, unless Oda can pull some twists along the way.
Will be interesting to see who that was on board the Thousand Sunny. A foe from their past seems more likely.
Thanks. Have updated the text.
I’m very interested to see what’s going on with Sanji’s subplot. I wonder who’s the person Violet wants him to kill. My guess is Cavendish.
Maybe Dofla. Everyone want his head nowadays. The Marines, the Strawhats, Law, Baby 5, Rebecca
Do you think Flamingo can take down Fujitora if they ever clash in the future? It’s a big possibility that they might meet up soon.
Hard to tell. We still have no idea what their true abilities are 😡
Oda.. Since the first chapter of Dressrosa arc, he keeps on making the involved parties and subplots grow larger and larger on scale.
I wonder how this arc will be concluded. It’s strange since it’s just the beginning of the arc, yet I already curious about how these many subplots will converge into one straight line..
To be honest, it’s not my preferred story-telling technique, but somehow Oda seems to make it work and that’s good news 😉
old bridge to Green bit, CP-0 and Robin, smell like Blank Century to me.
the moment when robin says she wants to live is also my favorite moment in one piece, it has such a powerful emotional impact (sadly watching that bit also reminded me of how low the anime has fallen these days in terms of translating the impact of the manga)
well, this was a pretty hectic chapter I can’t stand the pressure of all that anticipation of what is going to happen on the different sides of the current story line, I’m particularly curious to see what is going to happen with zorro. It’s gonna be awesome when they all reunite
I know right. It’s Robin and the Straw Hat Crew at their best 😉
I haven’t been following the anime for years now but I do watch the movies, so you guys can expect a blog post on One Piece Film Z when it becomes available :3
yea definetly do a write up on that because it would be interesting to see what you think about the one piece movies when they are produced and designed by Oda. There’s definetly a different feel to them when Oda is involved and Film Z definetly carries that sense of polish. I would like to see Oda take it a step further and take more risks with the one piece movies like maybe make them a little longer or create a story on an epic and emotionally gripping scale that breaks the shounen mold and truly makes it a memorable animated movie (there were small hints of breaking the mold in film Z)
Finally a marine that has enough morals to take into account civilian casualties
One Piece is so far from cookie-cutter it’s not even funny, and always has been. How in the world did you come to believe it’s supposedly cookie-cutter?
Apologies, it was an awkward sentence and I can see why you misunderstood what I said.
Have made some changes to the text to avoid confusion. I was actually referring to the genre. Thanks for pointing that out.
As much as i liked the content of this week’s chapter, the narrative was all over the place and it was a mess to decipher. Either way cant wait to see luffy thrown down with this bartholomeo since we havent got to see what limits luffy can be pushed to post-time skip.
Admiral Fujitora must get along well with Captain T-Bone. Both have that special sense of justice, protecting people over punishing criminals, which is a stark contrast with the bloodthirsty Fleet Admiral Akainu.
I feel as if he’s Kuzan’s spiritual successor in the admiral position, just less lazy.
Wow…so many plot twist,really what exactly Oda planning
Momo living the life lol
Am I wrong in thinking that the new admiral doesn’t possess a devil fruit ability? Because if so, that would be an interesting twist, we’ve only see logia types hold the position before. Goes to show how much the world can change in two years…however confusing it might be that the new admiral played no role in the war.
This ability that was shown in earlier chapters is already listed as a devil fruit for whatever reason that may be. It would certainly be interesting, but it’s hard to believe that technique could be accomplished by haki. Seems very much like a gravity-type devil fruit ability.
Thought it would mean hell for Luffy and the gang later on…a Gravity type fruit would be awesome!
listed as a devil fruit on One Piece wikia*
hahaha nami is like that kid personal prostitute!
I love Robin, but hate her new design every since the time skip. Which funny because she looks awesome anytime she’s in disguise, like this chapter and the Caesar arc. I hope Oda change her design back.
It was ok.
Oda really needs to give Nami something to do besides showing her chest and punching the male Straw Hats for any reason.
true we see much of her action lately apart from that and she is a great character
my favorite moment in one piece still to this day is way back during the arlong arc where nami is angrily stabbing her arm and luffy stops her. The pure rage nami felt in that scene was so unsettling and unforgettable. Not to mention when luffy consoles her by putting his hat on her head, to which he cherishes more than his life; the icing on the cake; yea definetly my favorite moment in all of one piece. The bond between Luffy and Nami (all shipping aside) is one of the things i really like about the series. Romance or not (to which at the moment Oda has said that he does not wish to focus on any romance at this point in time).
Luffy and Nami have always had this really close friendship and Oda makes that apparent. Luffy will go through hell for his crewmates, but with Nami, it always seemed like when despair came knocking at the door, he would always feel the need to console her like the many instances he gives her his hat when the chips look like their down (like when he was climbing the ice mountain to get to Kureha’s mansion or in his fight with enel), and if i remember correctly, nami is the only one he gives his hat for her to wear..i could be wrong though. I would really like to see more of their close bond post time skip as the chapters go by.
yeah both of those scenes were amazing.
Arlong was such an evil bastard. speaking of evil bastards, u can’t forget Crocodile. My fav scene is when Robin is explaining to Koza how Croc mind ***** him. Koza starts running to tell everyone what happened and Vivi tackles him and is like. ur in shock and u need to calm the **** down. And Koza looks into Vivi’s eyes and and realizes what kinda person she is.
Then theirs the scene where Vivi is screaming to be heard and then theirs Crocodile’s evil *** laugh.
Also, One Pice has some of the best filler episodes i’ve ever seen.
The fireworks episdoes where Usopp stops the rain. Classic
just talking about it made me have to watch that Koza scene again. Robin was pretty evil back then as well.
“You seem confused, Koza. I can understand. Just imagine the worst possible scenario and compare.”
I vaguely remembering Robin donning the Straw Hat before, although I may just be confusing it with her cowboy hat from the Arabasta arc or for some filler content. I definitely feel like she has held/retrieved the hat for Luffy though. In any case, great reflections.
Yep, they were on Merry, and Robin rode up on a turtle. then she used her power on Luffy to fling the hat from his head to her. Luffy was pissed. it was right before Giant/Dino Island.
I also think luffy gave her the hat after he saved her from cp9. not to sure though.
yea there was that time Robin took the hat from luffy and put it on her head just to mess with him back when they first met her, but aside from that luffy has not voluntarily put his hat on anyone but nami so far (as far as canon goes).
Luffy gave Usopp his hat during the Davy Back Fight. Canon.
Oda has also already disparaged the notion of romance between the crew. He didn’t just say he wished not to focus on it, he straight up dismissed it.
You’re free to ship whoever/whatever you want, but don’t pretend it’s anything more than voluntarily observed.
Which is precisely why I said shipping and romance aside…my statement was not about trying to pretend that something that isn’t there being there but rather elaborate on the close bond between luffy and nami and as I stated before…nami has been da only.one that luffy has put his hat on…yea he gave his hat to.usopp to hold but it wasn’t out of an act to console him. Whether oda wants or doesnt want romance between the crewmates is irrelevant; the bond is wat matrs to me
i wonder why nobody mentioned the new robot-like character who defeated that mud-scum in the cover pages.
I’ve seen him before but i can’t remeber where. I think he was in Robin’s 2 year arc unless i’m mistaken.
That’s “Iron Boy” Scotch. He’s a part of Kaido’s crew. I think he fought X Drake when X entered the New World.
onepiece has the same simple and enjoyable yet realistic develpoment like in a BD call Asterix and Obelix , 1. Crew are badass 2. Travel to different islands + country and discover new danger / friend and nature 3. Caught up in a fight fast enough
4.Have the law keeper running after them = Marine (or Roman soldier)
5.Have a good story for each arc
6.always end an arc with hell of a party
These Marines are crazy. *tap tap tap*