Manga: Chapter 637 (SPOILERS)

SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!

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Summary
Dr. Kureha opens up a medical center at the old castle in Drum Kingdom. (Cover Story)

Luffy and Hody battle it out in the plaza.

Noah looms over Fishman Island and threatens to pop its’ bubble.

Luffy and Hody board Noah in an attempt to stop Decken.

Thoughts

The chapter starts off with a continuation of Luffy’s battle with Hody. The battle is pretty much one sided as Hody cannot seem to land an effective attack and Luffy fires off one 'Armored’ attack after another.

The fight is more or less, what I expected to see. I figured that Hody’s Fishman Karate would just bounce off Luffy even after his transformation. Hody may have trained with the Neptunian Army but it doesn't mean he is especially superhuman in his talents. There is a reason why Hody has been depending on a pill to make him stronger after all. Luffy is basically hitting Hody with one Gear 2nd based, or 'Armored’ attack after another, but it seems like Hody can endure the assault. I guess that the Evil Drugs strengthened all aspects of Hody’s body thus making him far more durable. That is good because Hody is going to need any blessing he can get.

Then we cut to the arrival of the mountainous Noah. Has somebody said that this ship was the place where fishmen lived and utilized as an orphanage? How many orphans does Fishman Island produce a year if they need a giant ship to house them? No wonder you get nutcases like Arlong and Hody from that place!

I noticed a similarity between Decken and Hody. Both men do not care about their fellow crew members. Decken seems to be willing to let Wadatsumi die along with all the people on the island. Earlier in the arc we saw Hody use one of his crew members as a human shield. Both of these villains seem to have no problem with sacrificing their own crew members for their overall goal. Wadatsumi does not seem to desire martyrdom, and I bet that fishman Hody used as a fishman shield did not want to die for his captain either.

Finally, the man of the hour is here. I surely didn't expect Decken to be on Noah as it slowly makes its’ way to crush Shirahoshi. Does Decken plan to jump off Noah before it falls on top of Shirahoshi and destroy Fishman Island? The guy looks to be safe from drowning since Jimbei mentioned that Noah is filled with water. My guess is that Decken is on top of the ship because I don't see an air bubble around him.

The surprise of the chapter was Shirahoshi floating in front of Noah in an attempt to keep the giant ship from making impact with Fishman Island. This little princess is willing to sacrifice her life to make sure that her people are safe. This seems like a common trait among princesses within the One Piece world. (Disney Princesses eat your heart out!) Shirahoshi took a knife in the shoulder too. I am not sure how much it hurts her since she is a big mermaid but it didn't look like a paper cut.

Shirahoshi's actions seem to be work, as Noah is guided away from the island. Now only time can tell if this will be enough to save the island. I hope this will make Luffy stop calling Shirahoshi 'Weakyhoshi'. Standing in front of a giant ship that is going to crush you to death does not seem like something a weak person would do.

Lastly, this chapter ends with Luffy and Hody jumping onto Noah. Both of them have their own reasons for boarding Noah. Hody wants to attack Decken for 'betraying' him. Luffy wants to keep Shirahoshi safe, or does he? To tell the truth I do not know why Luffy wants to go up there. Does he want to continue his fight with Hody, confront Decken, protect Shirahoshi, or a combination of all three? I just know that we are going to get an awesome fight between Decken, Hody and Luffy on top of Noah. Meanwhile, the crew is going to start facing off against the elite of Hody's gang/army.

This chapter was exciting from beginning to end.  All of this must have taken place within a time period of ten minutes or less for these characters. It will be interesting to see how the anime may lengthen their depiction of the events within this chapter. Next week's chapter should be exciting; because we are likely to see more important fights slowly form as Luffy runs around on Noah searching for Decken. I wonder how much more of a threat Hody will be now that he is in the water.

If this were a fight between animal spirits, then we could see this as: Monkey Vs Great White Shark Vs Catfish.

Until next time true believers!


Written by: Mikey
Edited by: Dsaftler