Manga: Chapter 654 (SPOILERS)

SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!

Don't be shock if reading One Piece on Shonen Jump Alpha is great!

Summary
Lola's crew has arrived at Water 7 and they are drinking at Mozu and Kiwi’s bar.

The Straw Hat crew continues their trip to the surface.

The Thousand Sunny gets caught in a Whitestrom.

A gam of island whales assist the Straw Hats and brings them into the raging seas of The New World.

Thoughts 
It is great to learn the whereabouts of Lola and her crew after the events at Thriller Bark. Oda left their story open when we last saw them. I was worried that they had fallen victim to the mysterious entity residing in the Florian Triangle. Now they are at Water 7 talking to Mozu and Kiwi. It would be interesting to hear what they say about Franky.

What’s also of note is that Kiwi and Mozu are dressing in a more conservative manner than they used to.

Speaking of fan-service, Nami surely provided some during this chapter. We got nearly clear sight of her in the nude while two of the boys were watching. Nami has always had a fair amount of fan-service based moments. You may remember one of them at Thriller Bark. The problem that I fear arising is that this will reduce Nami’s powerful character to “cheesecake fan-service.”

The reason I bring this up is that in the last arc, Nami didn't have an individualized battle, and she was left to fight fodder while others had more individualized fights. It doesn't help that Nami returned from the Time-skip wearing only a pair of jeans and a bikini top. Now that she has had a change of clothes, it looks to be the same thing, and I’m still worried. I am already following one series where it treats their female lead solely as a sex object and I don't want to see that in One Piece. I hope that this upcoming arc will treat Nami better and give her character more room to develop.

It was funny, however to see Brook and Sanji getting shocked by a Weather Ball that Nami produced.

If anything you can always depend on Nami to keep the boys well-behaved because if she doesn't then they do stupid things as you saw in this chapter.

This chapter displayed a lot of the personality of the men of the ship doing stupid things to provoke expressions on Sunny's masthead. It is great to see those things in a One Piece chapter. It is these types of chapters that allow you to enjoy the crew at the best. There was no action or anything but you can feel how natural everybody is acting on the ship.

Laaaabbbboooonnnnn! 

It would be an amazing coincidence if these island whales were related to Laboon. It is interesting that they all have scars on their heads much like Laboon. It looks as if they have been ramming into something as well. Makes you wonder why. They must have lost young Laboon over fifty years ago and spent years trying to reunite with Laboon. Now maybe they roam the world looking for their lost family member with their hopes running on fumes. Perhaps they will one day reunite with Laboon because the Straw Hats renew their hope because of this chance encounter.

The island whales were amazing to see. They all look like Laboon so it is hard to not think about the whale like Brook did. Thus we see Brook play the perfect song, “Bink’s Sake,” as this pseudo reunion tugs at our heartstrings and brings us into The New World.

The seas may be painted red and the sky may be tempestuous, but The Straw Hats are finally in The New World. This chapter was enjoyable to the very end as we saw The Straw Hats interact with each other and the environment around them. Things look dangerous but at least we made it here with a happy song in our hearts.

Until next time true believers!