Manga: Chapter 645, 646, and 647 (SPOILERS)

SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!

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Introduction:

I have been editing this site since August and I have yet to contribute an article of my own.  Though I am running late, I’d like to give you my review of the last three serialized chapters of One Piece. One Piece up to this point has been a wonderful Odyssey through the imagination of Eiichiro Oda. I have found it to be an inspirational work of fiction since I’ve discovered it in the later months of 2007. It has remained a constant reminder to me that friendship and adventure will always exist in this world.

        I cannot give an entirely unbiased review of this work of fiction as a whole, but I can take it apart and reevaluate my feelings about each particular chapter as an individual work of  art. With two chapters having been released since I came upon this assignment, I decided to analyze the three together over common themes. The common theme that is most obvious to me is that the Straw Hat Crew has overwhelmed their previous super humanity for bolder abilities required in the New World.

My Review, Recapitulation, and Analysis:

                The 645^th issued chapter of One Piece, leading directly from the last panel of the previous chapter, featured a climatic and very apparent conclusion to the fight between our protagonist, the pirate Monkey D. Luffy and the villainous zealot Hody Jones.  With his upper body wounded and temporarily rendered incapacitated by Luffy’s Gomu Gomu no Red Hawk, Hody flies into the bubble now surrounding Noah and crashes into the upper deck. Having sustained what appear to be severe internal injuries, Hody throws up the steroids he had been taking and attempts to shove them back down his throat.

            This was depicted in a long number of panels without sustained conversation.  The pictures of the wild eyed Hody losing control over his body are at once well crafted, startling, frightening, and emboldening.   The lack of dialogue forces the reader to contemplate the simultaneous nature of the actions we see and the very incredible danger the characters have found themselves in. It all ends as Hody desperately throws sharks made of water at Luffy, and Luffy prepares the inspiration for my poem entitled Elephant Gun : the Gomu Gomu no Elephant Gun.

Elephant Gun

Massive like a magnum

In one hand

An elephant gun shoots

Hits it's prey

Like a brick-wall explosion destroying the innards

Of the animal that bears its name

More than easily it could

Put a man to sleep

Quicker than a rear naked choke

And worse than a right cross to the jaw

They say a .44 Magnum could blow a man's

Head clean off his body.

After Hody’s final pronouncement, and trust me he has been completely crippled and defeated. If he can’t control his bodily functions, then what can he offer Luffy? The Noah ark is the only decent challenge Luffy faces right now. With Hody defeated, Luffy’s challenge is to redirect or destroy a ship the size of an island. With the destruction of such a mass, Luffy would conceivably display a feat of strength equal to Whitebeard or a deity in scale.

The feats and abilities of Whitebeard provide a high water mark that Luffy must reach, not only in terms of strength and leadership, but also in heroism over friendship.  Some Fishmen and probably some readers are reminded of similar display of friendship by Whitebeard. Luffy’s Elephant Gatling Gun certainly reaches for the godlike scale of power attained and displayed by Whitebeard.  Luffy however is not equal to Whitebeard yet, and the Deus ex Machina like appearance of sea monsters/sea kings brought by his and Shirahoshi’s shared determination underscores that reality.

                  Luffy’s conquest of Hody and Hody’s goals were reproved by the genuine overwhelming victory of his comrades in arms. All of these easy victories for the Straw Hat Pirates are genuinely surprising to the reader familiar with their history, though they make sense from a thematic context. The thematic context is the genuine impregnability of the New World, and the need to conquer all that has come before it. By surpassing their challenges with remarkable ease, the Straw Hats each prove their invaluable power, resourcefulness, and endless potential that earns them their place on the crew.

         Brook, the wildest card in the Straw Hat Pack, displayed a chilling cut that would put Aokiji to shame. Usopp expertly controlled Daruma, and manipulated him into an impacted cerebrum. Franky, even in use of a cumbersome robot figure that may be more trouble than it is worth, is able to fry the agile Giant Squid man Ikaros Much with laser-like precision. Chopper shows impressive control over his most monstrous form with his excessive thrashing of Dosun. Sanji and Jinbe make use of water and fire to knock out the Onyuudou. Finally, Zoro received no injury or poisoning in his defeat of Hyouzou, using an enhanced Onigiri from Purgatory to incapacitate him.

                 Though there has been very little to discuss about the women of the crew, their recorded acts and the acts of the rest of the crew more than suffice as displays of unfathomable might. Jinbe is likely to join the crew whatever any misgivings one may have, and he is already at a level of superhuman ability that few in the One Piece world can reckon with. If the crew can be compared to him such that he would best serve them as a member and not as a captain, then they have past the first test with honors. 

                  The real question I have now is whether all truly is well in the Kyojin Kingdom. Will the Deus ex Machina fail and lead to the destruction of Fishman Island? Are the celebrations going to continue for days, or are they premature? Caribou, for example, may simply be left behind as an unintended consequence of the Straw Hats’ departure or he may become a greater danger then any reader could have expected. Madam Sharley's predictions continue to loom over our collective heads

              This arc has displayed situations where the Straw Hats have been threatened on multiple fronts, and were expected to rise to the occasion. Either the Straw Hats are truly ready to leave Fishman Island and Caribou represents either a background nuisance, or they must steel themselves for further tests under the Red Line.  I just hope to watch and wait with bated breath, just as Madam Sharley instructs the fish children to watch and judge humanity for themselves at Gyoncorde Plaza.

All the best,

Dsaftler.