benelori
August 26, 2010, 10:42 AM
Hello Mangahelpers and One Piece fans! It’s great to be here after long planning and thinking about whether I should stick my(actually Orochimaru’s) ugly face here.:D For those who don't know me, I review Naruto as well, and I thought One Piece reviews could work, too, since I read it, I like it, reviews are rare here, and in the end…why not? Especially since we’re before a probably major change.
Please try to bare with me, I’m a noob at One Piece, well I kinda don’t know the story as detailed as I know Naruto. But before we get rollin’ let’s have a round of applause for the guys at Binktopia, who were kind enough to provide the chapter for us this week as well.
http://a.imageshack.us/img137/213/op01f.png
The title is a bunch of numbers and letters:blink, which at first sight don’t have any meaning, especially since 3D is crossed out, so even if there was a meaning that part doesn’t hold any.
And even at second sight, there’s no real change, but that’s the entire point about it. Luffy pulled a stunt after he recovered a bit, and he announced the beginning of the new world, by ringing those bells and by showing no hesitation of infiltrating a Marine facility. That was a message for the entire world, but all that was meant to cover up the real message, which is 2Y.
http://a.imageshack.us/img820/5915/op011.png
As said a little earlier, the original message was covered by another one, which was destined for the whole world, pirates and marines as well. We can see that on the cover there are the two most influential pirates ever in recorded history, Gol D Roger, and Edward Newgate. This cover is symbolic as it represents the past ages, but it emphasizes on the legacy they left as well.
Roger was the one that created the golden age of piracy, by letting the world know that his treasure exists and the One Piece is out there. Whitebeard was the one that broke the balance of powers in the world and left both World Government and the pirate world in disarray.
His death served as a beginning to the march towards the New World.
It’s really great to see them again, and I’m looking forward to the moment where I can put Luffy there as well. He would fit in just perfectly, cuz I would put him before Roger, because Whitebeard was great, but not as great as Roger, but Luffy will surpass both, so in reverse order of their height. But the journey is long…
http://a.imageshack.us/img839/5506/op02.png
…and indeed the crew of the Strawhat Pirates realized this as well. As we saw most members last chapter as they got their own masters and fields where they could improve, the last ones remaining are Zoro and Luffy.
Zoro is shown in a very humiliating and not Zoro-like position, as he begs Mihawk for guidance and training. This is very surprising, because Zoro is the representation of the samurai philosophy in the manga as I noticed throughout the story. Even if the humiliation is considerable, Mihawk notes that this attitude is for someone else, which is indeed an interpretation of the master-servant loyalty of the samurai way.
Let’s see how we got here though. Zoro as the rest of the crew were sent flying after they attacked the Tenryuubito and since then they are struggling for survival. Seeing Luffy’s message every member decided to stay where they are and improve themselves, in order to grow strong enough to face the dangers of the New World.
The 2Y as Zoro explains us means that they would meet after two years, not 3 days as it was before. That was the meaning of the message and it also meant that getting stronger is a requirement for them to be able to face each other.
Considering what Mihawk said earlier the picture is getting clearer, but let’s not forget something here…
http://a.imageshack.us/img72/8830/op04.png
Training to be stronger also means to aim to defeat the strongest and Zoro’s goal is Mihawk one of the remaining Shichibukai. This is a part of the tough journey I mentioned earlier, as the power of the Shichibukai is one of the main forces that will oppose them in the upcoming adventure.
The gaze, the determination, speaks to us about the strong bond of friendship all these people share. This bond ties them together even when they are apart from each other, and thanks to that, they understand each other and act like a real team.
But this team has a center, which has the power of keeping all these people together…
http://a.imageshack.us/img441/8397/op1011.png
…Captain Luffy, who has the power of D in him, whatever that means:blink. As captain his duty of getting stronger is more important than everybody else, and he is taken in as an apprentice by the legendary Silvers Rayleigh, who served on the Pirate King’s ship as first mate, which meant that he was the right hand of Roger.
But before we continue, let us take a break to admire the landscape that is presented to us. This is what makes One Piece epic, despite the many critics concerning the art. Oda has a fascinating style of manipulating foreground and background. His style can sometimes make us feel that he is overreacting, but in fact he just brings to reader what’s important and shows it in that fashion.
This time it’s a landscape like many others, fascinating and a jewel of Oda’s imagination. The rich environment makes the reader more drawn to the adventure side of the story, and just the adventure, not the characters or plot, or whatever. Just the adventure, and by drawing something like this, it truly feels that the word epic is the one and only word for the feeling the readers get.
Captain Luffy had little upgrades in the firepower of his moves. He just pumped up his gears, but that meant taking his body to its limits, and he invented new moves and implemented them in different situations. So what could he possibly develop now that his Devil Fruit given powers are fully utilized? Well obviously a power not related to his GomuGomu ability…Haki.
Haki was shown quite a few times during the manga, and it had all sorts of enhancing effects everything culminating with the Sovereign’s Haki, which displays control over people’s actions.
Rayleight is one of the few pirates that can use Haki very effectively and can use all the differen variations of it. Serving for the Pirate King must’ve been really hard, so of course he had to be very powerful to be alive in these days.
He begins his explanation, by mentioning the first two types of Haki that are used especially in combat: Color of Observation and Color of Armaments. The first one as the name says enhances observation and has the effects that Coby displayed after the battle at Marine HQ, and that means sensing and predicting enemy movements. This type was known as Mantra so it’s not the first time we meet it, and Luffy remembers it as well.
The second enhances combat, and it stands for a thin layer of armor. Amazons have their arrows imbued in this type of Haki that’s why they have such power of destruction. The most important feat though is that it can injure even a Logia type DF user, which is great advantage as the most powerful enemies have that kind of power. This has been also seen againt Akainu and Kizaru, so it’s not a surprise, but Oda uses this moment to show Luffy’s next fights, so this explanation also serves as foreshadowing:Aokiji and Smoker.
http://a.imageshack.us/img829/4880/op1617.png
The last type is Sovereign Haki or the Color of the Conquerer, which cannot be trained as control over this power is won by personal growth and evolution of ones spirit. With that Rayleigh ends the explanation and knocks out the beast that had been trying to attack him, showing what kind of effect does this last type have on the weak minded.
With that the introduction has been dealt with, all that awaits is the training itself. Rayleigh promises that it won’t be an easy training, but fortunately Luffy is not the type to back off from challenges, especially when it involves surviving on the island, basically a great adventure that will be make his friends envious:p.
http://a.imageshack.us/img267/332/op19.png
Quick summary/Opinions
As expected from Oda the flow of the story is smooth there are no bumps, but the plot development is quite insignificant. These last chapters were just a setup for this training arc, and for the reunion, so even if the plot didn’t advance much, the pace was steady and calm.
There weren’t individual character developments either, each character was shown to have earned their master’s trust and that they will receive training, though the bond they share is impressive, even more since they are acting like a team even when there are worlds between them.
A valuable element of the story is the humor, which this time it focuses around Luffy and his unique and sometimes childish/innocent attitude. It has great effect in relaxing the story, and building it up steadily towards a twist.
The art…I’m personally not a fan of Oda’s art, but my mark doesn’t reflect my personal tastesm it’s more like I can recognize which panels pages are brilliant in comparison to others, but I’m pleasantly surprised whenever I see a new character design or a beautiful landscape.
All in all, the chapter is a solid 8/10, because nothing much happens, but considering that this is transition period of the story it’s actually quite a high mark.
Predictions/Want to happen
I want to see the training arc. I don’t really care about the effects of a timeskip or what timeskip did to other mangas etc….I love training arcs, end of story, but unfortunately this 4 week break kinda looks like a timeskip. But who knows, hy hopes are high even if I know that Oda has a steady pace of the story and kinda cuts out things and prefers to show them in middle of the action.
This is it. Thank you for following my thoughts on the chapter, my observations, though I doubt I said something new and spectacular. I feel I was a bit clumsy with this review, so I really need to get my knowledge of the story upgraded, so that next time I could show off with a better review.
Oh yeah…if you have any special recommendations about what to add to the review, maybe other sections, pics etc…well basically I welcome all suggestions and critics, as they are helping me to improve. Enjoy the chapter, the review, and feel free to discuss it right here at benelori’s One Piece review!:cool
Mata ne!
http://a.imageshack.us/img405/1302/op191.png
Please try to bare with me, I’m a noob at One Piece, well I kinda don’t know the story as detailed as I know Naruto. But before we get rollin’ let’s have a round of applause for the guys at Binktopia, who were kind enough to provide the chapter for us this week as well.
http://a.imageshack.us/img137/213/op01f.png
The title is a bunch of numbers and letters:blink, which at first sight don’t have any meaning, especially since 3D is crossed out, so even if there was a meaning that part doesn’t hold any.
And even at second sight, there’s no real change, but that’s the entire point about it. Luffy pulled a stunt after he recovered a bit, and he announced the beginning of the new world, by ringing those bells and by showing no hesitation of infiltrating a Marine facility. That was a message for the entire world, but all that was meant to cover up the real message, which is 2Y.
http://a.imageshack.us/img820/5915/op011.png
As said a little earlier, the original message was covered by another one, which was destined for the whole world, pirates and marines as well. We can see that on the cover there are the two most influential pirates ever in recorded history, Gol D Roger, and Edward Newgate. This cover is symbolic as it represents the past ages, but it emphasizes on the legacy they left as well.
Roger was the one that created the golden age of piracy, by letting the world know that his treasure exists and the One Piece is out there. Whitebeard was the one that broke the balance of powers in the world and left both World Government and the pirate world in disarray.
His death served as a beginning to the march towards the New World.
It’s really great to see them again, and I’m looking forward to the moment where I can put Luffy there as well. He would fit in just perfectly, cuz I would put him before Roger, because Whitebeard was great, but not as great as Roger, but Luffy will surpass both, so in reverse order of their height. But the journey is long…
http://a.imageshack.us/img839/5506/op02.png
…and indeed the crew of the Strawhat Pirates realized this as well. As we saw most members last chapter as they got their own masters and fields where they could improve, the last ones remaining are Zoro and Luffy.
Zoro is shown in a very humiliating and not Zoro-like position, as he begs Mihawk for guidance and training. This is very surprising, because Zoro is the representation of the samurai philosophy in the manga as I noticed throughout the story. Even if the humiliation is considerable, Mihawk notes that this attitude is for someone else, which is indeed an interpretation of the master-servant loyalty of the samurai way.
Let’s see how we got here though. Zoro as the rest of the crew were sent flying after they attacked the Tenryuubito and since then they are struggling for survival. Seeing Luffy’s message every member decided to stay where they are and improve themselves, in order to grow strong enough to face the dangers of the New World.
The 2Y as Zoro explains us means that they would meet after two years, not 3 days as it was before. That was the meaning of the message and it also meant that getting stronger is a requirement for them to be able to face each other.
Considering what Mihawk said earlier the picture is getting clearer, but let’s not forget something here…
http://a.imageshack.us/img72/8830/op04.png
Training to be stronger also means to aim to defeat the strongest and Zoro’s goal is Mihawk one of the remaining Shichibukai. This is a part of the tough journey I mentioned earlier, as the power of the Shichibukai is one of the main forces that will oppose them in the upcoming adventure.
The gaze, the determination, speaks to us about the strong bond of friendship all these people share. This bond ties them together even when they are apart from each other, and thanks to that, they understand each other and act like a real team.
But this team has a center, which has the power of keeping all these people together…
http://a.imageshack.us/img441/8397/op1011.png
…Captain Luffy, who has the power of D in him, whatever that means:blink. As captain his duty of getting stronger is more important than everybody else, and he is taken in as an apprentice by the legendary Silvers Rayleigh, who served on the Pirate King’s ship as first mate, which meant that he was the right hand of Roger.
But before we continue, let us take a break to admire the landscape that is presented to us. This is what makes One Piece epic, despite the many critics concerning the art. Oda has a fascinating style of manipulating foreground and background. His style can sometimes make us feel that he is overreacting, but in fact he just brings to reader what’s important and shows it in that fashion.
This time it’s a landscape like many others, fascinating and a jewel of Oda’s imagination. The rich environment makes the reader more drawn to the adventure side of the story, and just the adventure, not the characters or plot, or whatever. Just the adventure, and by drawing something like this, it truly feels that the word epic is the one and only word for the feeling the readers get.
Captain Luffy had little upgrades in the firepower of his moves. He just pumped up his gears, but that meant taking his body to its limits, and he invented new moves and implemented them in different situations. So what could he possibly develop now that his Devil Fruit given powers are fully utilized? Well obviously a power not related to his GomuGomu ability…Haki.
Haki was shown quite a few times during the manga, and it had all sorts of enhancing effects everything culminating with the Sovereign’s Haki, which displays control over people’s actions.
Rayleight is one of the few pirates that can use Haki very effectively and can use all the differen variations of it. Serving for the Pirate King must’ve been really hard, so of course he had to be very powerful to be alive in these days.
He begins his explanation, by mentioning the first two types of Haki that are used especially in combat: Color of Observation and Color of Armaments. The first one as the name says enhances observation and has the effects that Coby displayed after the battle at Marine HQ, and that means sensing and predicting enemy movements. This type was known as Mantra so it’s not the first time we meet it, and Luffy remembers it as well.
The second enhances combat, and it stands for a thin layer of armor. Amazons have their arrows imbued in this type of Haki that’s why they have such power of destruction. The most important feat though is that it can injure even a Logia type DF user, which is great advantage as the most powerful enemies have that kind of power. This has been also seen againt Akainu and Kizaru, so it’s not a surprise, but Oda uses this moment to show Luffy’s next fights, so this explanation also serves as foreshadowing:Aokiji and Smoker.
http://a.imageshack.us/img829/4880/op1617.png
The last type is Sovereign Haki or the Color of the Conquerer, which cannot be trained as control over this power is won by personal growth and evolution of ones spirit. With that Rayleigh ends the explanation and knocks out the beast that had been trying to attack him, showing what kind of effect does this last type have on the weak minded.
With that the introduction has been dealt with, all that awaits is the training itself. Rayleigh promises that it won’t be an easy training, but fortunately Luffy is not the type to back off from challenges, especially when it involves surviving on the island, basically a great adventure that will be make his friends envious:p.
http://a.imageshack.us/img267/332/op19.png
Quick summary/Opinions
As expected from Oda the flow of the story is smooth there are no bumps, but the plot development is quite insignificant. These last chapters were just a setup for this training arc, and for the reunion, so even if the plot didn’t advance much, the pace was steady and calm.
There weren’t individual character developments either, each character was shown to have earned their master’s trust and that they will receive training, though the bond they share is impressive, even more since they are acting like a team even when there are worlds between them.
A valuable element of the story is the humor, which this time it focuses around Luffy and his unique and sometimes childish/innocent attitude. It has great effect in relaxing the story, and building it up steadily towards a twist.
The art…I’m personally not a fan of Oda’s art, but my mark doesn’t reflect my personal tastesm it’s more like I can recognize which panels pages are brilliant in comparison to others, but I’m pleasantly surprised whenever I see a new character design or a beautiful landscape.
All in all, the chapter is a solid 8/10, because nothing much happens, but considering that this is transition period of the story it’s actually quite a high mark.
Predictions/Want to happen
I want to see the training arc. I don’t really care about the effects of a timeskip or what timeskip did to other mangas etc….I love training arcs, end of story, but unfortunately this 4 week break kinda looks like a timeskip. But who knows, hy hopes are high even if I know that Oda has a steady pace of the story and kinda cuts out things and prefers to show them in middle of the action.
This is it. Thank you for following my thoughts on the chapter, my observations, though I doubt I said something new and spectacular. I feel I was a bit clumsy with this review, so I really need to get my knowledge of the story upgraded, so that next time I could show off with a better review.
Oh yeah…if you have any special recommendations about what to add to the review, maybe other sections, pics etc…well basically I welcome all suggestions and critics, as they are helping me to improve. Enjoy the chapter, the review, and feel free to discuss it right here at benelori’s One Piece review!:cool
Mata ne!
http://a.imageshack.us/img405/1302/op191.png