Manga: No New Chapter This Week (SPOILERS) (EDIT)

SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!

Where to buy One Piece in the US? Viz is the way to go!

So unless you weren't paying attention last week, there is no new One Piece chapter this week. Still this is a good breaking point for the manga anyways. The last time One Piece took a week off, we saw Luffy save Ace from a death on the gallows. Since then a lot has happen. It just been one epic thing after epic thing after another.

Still this arc has clearly changed the One Piece world. I know a lot of people been saying that but it is one of the few things that is clear in this story. The world just lost a major power with the death of Whitebeard. The Marines's resources have been cut down with the fact that Marineford's HQ building in shambles. A new threat in the form of Blackbeard is rising.

Then to hit closer to home, Luffy just lost his big brother Ace. If anything we will see this first (assuming that the kid wakes up in next week's chapter) seeing that our main character has been shocked to the core on seeing Ace dying in his arms.

Right now we are standing at the end of an arc (or so I think) where a lot of big things has happen. We witness the first real time deaths in the series. We are at the top of the mountain and we can see everything around us. The sight is magnificent. Now we need to go down that mountain and walk by everything to take in the sights at a closer distance. I am not saying this as in story wise because we are far from an ending in One Piece. I am saying this as an observer.

Even though I complained about how long this arc has been due to all of the epicness that was in it, I have really enjoyed it. We got a lot of things from this arc and the only place to go from here is down then up. Some sort of 'normal' has to be returned so we can take a deep breath and I think last chapter was a good start. We didn't get some big reveal about anything, we just got Shanks being awesome as he walked around and talked to Sengoku, Blackbeard and Marco. Maybe a bit lackluster way to end the war but it was nice and simple. We shouldn't be expecting huge epic things every week or we will get bored really fast. It happen at least once during this arc where we had an epic chapter one week then we had a chapter that we all thought was going to be epic to be kind of lame. I don't want that to happen again anytime soon. The epicness will come back again but for now we need to slow down a bit and see what is going on.

I remember talking to somebody cosplaying as Naruto during Anime Matsuri who is a One Piece fan too. We talked about pirates and ninjas (that kind of conversation). I mention the latest One Piece chapter and how powerful pirates must be if a single man like Shanks can just stop a whole war without blood being spilled. If Shanks can demand such respect between Marines and his fellow pirates, then what kind of power does Shanks has? Just something to think about if I haven't brought that up enough last week.

My idea for this post was to just list the opinions of others about the Marineford arc from what I got on Twitter, Facebook and email. That didn't really happen as much as I hoped. Still I list what I  got and I'll be happy with that.

Move over Scott Pilgrim. One Piece is the TRUE Epic of Epic Epicness... and there can never be enough Tashigi

-Tashigi from Twitter

I like this one. Marineford really left an epic feeling in everybody I am sure. It also gave us a look at some of our favorite characters that we haven't seen in a long time. It is always cool to see other characters since each person in One Piece is unique. I admit that they could have gotten more screentime but it was still cool to see people like Tashigi again. I wish I could list the epic that has happen in this arc but really that is too much and I felt like I did a good job in the paragraphs above.

I dnt think Normal is the right term, the situation is still not stable, epicness is yet to come my friend.. #OnePiece 

KoRnpedo from Twitter

I mention on Twitter that after Marineford things should return to 'normal', whatever that means in One Piece. Still that is true, things are not stable on both sides of the world as mention before. The New World is going to be very unstable which is where the Straw Hats are  going to go if we ever get to Fishman Island. Still it is going to be a crazy ride and I am sure that we going to get even bigger things before even touching Fishman Island. 


Still come on epicness, bring it on. We are ready.


Not really but let pretend that we are.


So the biggest and most epic arc in One Piece has ended (or so we think). So what is next? Maybe Luffy waking up? Time skip? Death of everybody at Marineford?


The 'Time Skip' is something that has gotten really popular due to something said by Oda in Colorwalk 4 and I can see it happening. It will be an easy way to see the Straw Hats get back to Luffy. We also have Luffy who is knocked out due to everything that has happen to him. So I think it would take some time for him to recover even under Law's treatment. Luffy was out for three days after fighting Crocodile so expect longer recovery time for this. I don't really want a time skip  but if it happens then I'll will be okay with it. We have to trust Oda that he has some idea in what he is doing and that been working so far in this series. 


We have witness the end of a build up that we have been watching since Drum Island. We saw bits and pieces of Blackbeard during the Drum Island arc. We met Ace during Alabasta. Saw some of Whitebeard sprinkle in a bit in the story. Things reached a peak during Ace and Blackbeard's fight. Finally we hit an explosion at Marineford. So what now? We will maybe see a good direction of this 'now' most likely next week. Maybe a few chapters to see how the rest of the StrawHats are doing? Maybe we will see what has happen to Luffy a few months after the events of Marineford? I would prefer the second one but for sure we will be in a new part of the story.


Feel free to voice your thoughts, opinions or rants on the Marineford arc in the comments. 


Till next week.

EDIT: Okay, in this post I mention that Oda said something about a 'Time Skip' in Colorwalk 4. I am sorry but I was mistaken in that statement. That was secondhand information that I heard which was an April Fools joke. Still the idea of a time skip is still popular due to hints being dropped in other things. So maybe we can see this happening.