Manga: Chapter 601 (SPOILERS!)

SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!

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SuperNeku: Things are starting to come full circle as the Marines are swarming the Sabaody Archipelago, imposter are still lurking the bubbly island and the new and improved Straw Hats are about to be fully reunited with one another.

We start out this week's installment of Awesome Piece with one of the Flying Fish Riders rushing Brook to the Sunny back at Grove 42. I must say, Brook has some of the most loyal fans ever to protect him from the Marines. Its breaks mah heart. Unfortunately that's the last we see of Brook this week so I guess his reunion shall be next week.

Mikey-san: The Brook moment was really good and I liked it. Though I wish that we saw what Brook was able to do since he mention in the last chapter that 'his music now has 'power'" but I guess that is for another moment. It seems as if Brook's music was at least able to move his fans to not only defend him but riot against the armed Marines. haha Very cunning there Brook and almost underhanded to use your fans like that but surely you did it out of love and not spite. Clearly we need more of Brook seeing that we saw very little of him before the StrawHats' separation.

Me Sanji, you Jane.

SuperNeku: We go to Grove 41 where Sanji and Zoro are talking with Franky via Transponder Snail reminding them that they all meet up at the beach at Grove 42. Sanji and Zoro bicker as usual and notice a commotion on another part of the island. At Grove 46 the fake Luffy is rallying the troops until the Marines show up to apprehend them all. Fake Luffy tries to get  Caribou and Coribou to take a Marine soldier hostage to get through freely but the bloodthirsty Caribou ignores that order since the soldier lied about calling for back up and Caribou shoots him dead instead. Both sides prepare to clash against each other and even after all this, the real Luffy still doesn't know whats going on. Suddenly, Pacifistas arrive and blast the pirates around them and target fake Luffy mistaking him for the real one. As Captain Doughty is down the pirates flee in terror even the cowardly imposter runs, but gets stopped in his tracks by Sentomaru. But unlike most people, Sentomaru isn't an idiot and thankfully crushes fake Luffy who turns out to be a random shmoe called "Three-Tongued" Demalo Black with a bounty of 26 million berries....LAME. Demalo's underlings flee as the other pirates are pissed for being tricked by a fake Luffy. The real Luffy eventually gets it and gets targeted by a Pacifista.

Luffy reveals himself as he dodges the attack and the pirates are terrified, even the imposters foam at the mouth! The Pacifista prepare for another attack when Luffy begins to use Gear Second and then...

FRIGGIN OWNED

Luffy manages to take down the Pacifista in one hit by using his Haki with Gear Second...and then I just weep with joy. Luffy manages to run into Zoro and Sanji as he starts running away. The other Pacifista is about to attack when Sanji and Zoro annihilate it with a single kick and a single slash...there is so much awesome waiting to happen in terms of fights, it makes me so happy! As Zoro and Sanji run away, Luffy spots Rayleigh (complete with a dopey smile on his face) and shouts his name out. The pirates are now super shocked their eyes are about to pop out of their sockets.

Mikey-san: Now this one of the things that we been wanting for a long while. A good test of how powerful some members of the crew have became and really just some plain good action. I do want to see how much everything has changed in the last two years but after all the build up in the last few chapters I kind of want to see a little bit of action from our guys and girls. Some Pacifista beating action seems to be just what the doctor order. Luffy not only seem to have gain a new bounty of four million, which most likely came from his involvement in the Sabaody Incident from two years ago but the raiding of both Impel Down and Marineford, but also has gain new found power with haki. Then there are Zoro and Sanji who seem to have clearly grew in power seeing how they easily took down the Pacifista. Though take a close look at the image below.

Notice Sanji's leg? It looks as if he activated Diable Jambe to take on that Pacifista. We saw no spinning or anything so that must mean that Sanji must have found a way to heat up his leg really fast. The details are not very clear but he seem to have broken the neck of that Pacifista with little trouble compare to how much he had two years ago doing the feat. Then again Oda may have been rushed due to having a chapter with less pages and couldn't draw that in. Though very cool to see.

One thing I do want to bring up is Gear Two. Luffy didn't do his signature pose for Gear Second. Also he said Gear Two. Now I am not sure if this is a new technique that Luffy develop due to him adding Haki to Second Gear or just scanlators being lazy. Still thanks to ZeroXOmega from Twitter, he told me that Oda writes it as 'Gear 2' but Luffy says it as 'Gear Second'. So it seems like the scanlators being lazy or forgetful due to the rush that they put themselves in. Still for those who were wondering or confuse why Luffy said 'Gear 2', no Luffy didn't make a new technique (as far as we know).

Another thing that kind of makes me a bit upset was how easy the Pacifistas were taken out. Just hit punch from Luffy, Zoro and Sanji to take them down. It is great to compare to how much trouble it took to knock out one from two years ago but kind of sad to see that the Pacifistas have no become fodder after all the destruction they caused two years ago. It was bound to happen eventually and they still causing normal pirates trouble though I was hoping to see this build up or something.

Still welcome back Luffy. Nice to see you and your crew again in full force.

SuperNeku: Rayleigh praises Luffy for enhancing his strength greatly and our chapter ends with Luffy once again proclaiming that he shall become the King of the Pirates and Rayleigh even starts to cry, I swear I had the same expression when I saw the great demonstration of Luffy's, Sanji's and Zoro's new strengths. 

By the way, Luffy's proclamation at the end is no coincidence as the chapter is called "Romance Dawn for the New World" and thats exactly what Luffy did at the end of the original "Romance Dawn" a whole 600 chapters ago. 

So join us next time when hopefully all the Straw Hats shall reunite with each other and get ready to set sail!