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First review ever so feel free to point out anything you think I need to improve on.
(Credit to Mangastream/Binktopia for the scans)
Chapter 607: 10,000 Meters Under the Sea
A special note here is the cover page, which once again rocks (this week's is of Franky racing against a horse with his own 'mecha-horse). I've been enjoying the cover pages lately, Oda's idea to use requests from readers was pretty cool...not sure if it's been done before.
Anyway, the title too is noteworthy, and seems to be a nod to the classic "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" by Jules Verne, which many members already pointed out even before this chapter. Just a sidenote, I was curious as to how deep 20,000 Leagues was compared to 10,000 Meters, so did some research. I was disappointed to learn that '20,000 Leagues' in this case actually referred to the distance they travelled rather than the depth they went...though, being 2.7 times the circumference of the Earth (according to wikipedia), 20,000 Leagues is still more than 10,000 Meters in that respect.
Anyway, back to the chapter (sort of). I've been looking forward to this arc for a long time (as have a lot of other members), and the featuring of all the OP deep sea 'features' was interesting. We start off with one such feature, the eruption of a deep sea volcano. The following spread is interesting to me because of the immense scale they convey. In it we have the Sunny carried by the Kraken, followed by the Dutchman carried by those two creatures...the Sunny looks tiny next to everything else.
Those Sea Kings look like normal fish next to the Kraken...
We've never had a proper size comparison between the Sunny and a typical Marine Battleship, but we know for sure that a Battleship can carry Giants, and I'm going to guess that the Dutchman is bigger than one of those. On top of that, you have these huge sea creatures dwarfing the Dutchman in size...I got lost a while back trying to figure out how big they are but I can't help but wonder how San Juan Wolf compares to that Umibouzu or whatever. Maybe they're even the same species? I didn't see any fins on SJW though. Who knows?
The next spread manages to top it all, though, with the eruption of the underwater volcano, which dwarfs even the Kraken.
Scary Stuff.
Anyway, the SHs get out of the situation alive, and Usopp gets to showcase another one of his Midoriboshi techniques, more proof of how much he's improved. One thing I noticed is that a sniper like Usopp is especially useful underwater, where they have the coating to worry about: Usopp's 'bullets' are small enough to pass through without breaking the bubble, unlike Zoro's techniques for example.
On a sidenote, the Kraken doesn't have a beak like octopi and squids do.
A few pages later, the SHs find themselves at Fishman Island, finally. I'll pause here for a second, because this is a momentous...moment, for lack of a better word. Oda's mentioned Fishman Island as an eventual location since 2002 (trying to find the source here), and after Enies Lobby (2007) we thought we'd finally get there next. Three detours and three years later, here we are, a journey that was ~8 years in the making. Oda really likes to take his time, lol.
Unlike us readers, however, the SHs have only about half a page to celebrate (and slip in another Sanji gag) before an offscreen voice calls the Kraken back, to join him and his gang of similarly-sized sea creatures (do they still count as Sea Kings? They're so big, maybe Sea Emperor would be a better name).
Beware the power of the (Sea) Giraffe!
The voice is quickly revealed to be some guy called Hammond, who affiliates himself with the New Fishman Pirates.
I missed those goofy laughs...
The two tattoos are what caught my attention. The first one is familiar, the symbol of the Arlong Pirates, and the second one on Hammond's side seems to be the emblem of the New Fishman Pirates. The presence of the Arlong symbol is interesting -- I'd assumed that Arlong was just some guy that went off to make his own crew, but it seems that his influence back at Fishman Island must have been pretty great, that others are still wearing his symbol two years later. No doubt we'll find out later just who exactly Arlong was at Fishman Island.
I'm going to go on another (short) tangent here. One of the guys sitting behind Hammond seems to be an Octopus Fishman, but different from Hatchan or Octopako (theFishbitch Fishwoman from Hatchan's Cover Story). Rather than having eight arms, the guy has eight tentacle-legs, which leads me to wonder if he's a different sub-species from Hatchan and Octopako.
Does it count as cannibalism if an Octopus Fishman eats takoyaki?
Anyway, Hammond offers for the SHs to join them, and Luffy refuses, in true Luffy fashion, which takes us to Chapter 608.
Chapter 608: Paradise Under the Sea
This cover is probably my favorite. Brook and his Afro-Poodles are in the true spirit of One Piece wackiness.
Anyway, this chapter starts off where the last left us, which was Luffy refusing Hammond's offer. He orders the Sea Lion to attack them, but of course they Coup de Burst out of the way. A somewhat tense moment as they run out of air is punctuated by another Sanji gag.
The SHs make it in just fine, but the double-layered bubble throws them off, separating the crew and their ship from each other. From the outside, Hammond and his cohorts comment on the craziness of that maneuver, and decide to report back to their boss at "Noah"...wherever that is. We get a namedrop of the "Neptune Army", more on that later.
Luffy, Usopp, Sanji, and Chopper have made it as a group, and meet up once again with Caimie, who, despite 'maturing', is still the Caimie we knew from SA, as she does her usual face gag thing.
We're then introduced to the Killifish Quintuplets (how do those tubes keep them in the air?), and then the rest of the Mermaids in the area. Sanji, of course, is overwhelmed at the sight (not blaming him, though), and it looks like it'll be fun and games, for a while at least. We're treated to a couple of panels showing that Caribou, in his barrel, has arrived as well...and the next page shows Hammond reporting back to Noah
(and also reveals that Noah is somewhere in the Fishman District).
Oda's keeping up his pace well, and Fishman Island is still looking pretty good so far. I can't wait for the action to start...Oda's already set up several plot points that will come back later. First is that shark from Chapter 605:
Second is Van Der Dekken and his crew. Third is Caribou (and maybe his crew as well).
From what's been given so far, I predict that Fishman Island is probably in the middle of some sort of struggle, with the New Fishman Pirates and the Neptune Army against each other. Maybe they're gangs? Anyway, Van Der Dekken is going to come back later somehow, or the SHs will go to them...depending on whether the entire arc takes place in FI. Caribou is also probably going to cause trouble once the Mermaids let him go...maybe he'll kill a few? This would also give the New Fishman Pirates (more of) a reason to go after the SHs, for bringing in a human menace. Finally, we'll also eventually get more of Arlong's backstory, and there's always the anticipated return of Jimbei and Hatchan (and Pappug).
(Credit to Mangastream/Binktopia for the scans)
Chapter 607: 10,000 Meters Under the Sea
A special note here is the cover page, which once again rocks (this week's is of Franky racing against a horse with his own 'mecha-horse). I've been enjoying the cover pages lately, Oda's idea to use requests from readers was pretty cool...not sure if it's been done before.
Anyway, the title too is noteworthy, and seems to be a nod to the classic "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" by Jules Verne, which many members already pointed out even before this chapter. Just a sidenote, I was curious as to how deep 20,000 Leagues was compared to 10,000 Meters, so did some research. I was disappointed to learn that '20,000 Leagues' in this case actually referred to the distance they travelled rather than the depth they went...though, being 2.7 times the circumference of the Earth (according to wikipedia), 20,000 Leagues is still more than 10,000 Meters in that respect.
Anyway, back to the chapter (sort of). I've been looking forward to this arc for a long time (as have a lot of other members), and the featuring of all the OP deep sea 'features' was interesting. We start off with one such feature, the eruption of a deep sea volcano. The following spread is interesting to me because of the immense scale they convey. In it we have the Sunny carried by the Kraken, followed by the Dutchman carried by those two creatures...the Sunny looks tiny next to everything else.
Those Sea Kings look like normal fish next to the Kraken...
We've never had a proper size comparison between the Sunny and a typical Marine Battleship, but we know for sure that a Battleship can carry Giants, and I'm going to guess that the Dutchman is bigger than one of those. On top of that, you have these huge sea creatures dwarfing the Dutchman in size...I got lost a while back trying to figure out how big they are but I can't help but wonder how San Juan Wolf compares to that Umibouzu or whatever. Maybe they're even the same species? I didn't see any fins on SJW though. Who knows?
The next spread manages to top it all, though, with the eruption of the underwater volcano, which dwarfs even the Kraken.
Scary Stuff.
Anyway, the SHs get out of the situation alive, and Usopp gets to showcase another one of his Midoriboshi techniques, more proof of how much he's improved. One thing I noticed is that a sniper like Usopp is especially useful underwater, where they have the coating to worry about: Usopp's 'bullets' are small enough to pass through without breaking the bubble, unlike Zoro's techniques for example.
On a sidenote, the Kraken doesn't have a beak like octopi and squids do.
A few pages later, the SHs find themselves at Fishman Island, finally. I'll pause here for a second, because this is a momentous...moment, for lack of a better word. Oda's mentioned Fishman Island as an eventual location since 2002 (trying to find the source here), and after Enies Lobby (2007) we thought we'd finally get there next. Three detours and three years later, here we are, a journey that was ~8 years in the making. Oda really likes to take his time, lol.
Unlike us readers, however, the SHs have only about half a page to celebrate (and slip in another Sanji gag) before an offscreen voice calls the Kraken back, to join him and his gang of similarly-sized sea creatures (do they still count as Sea Kings? They're so big, maybe Sea Emperor would be a better name).
Beware the power of the (Sea) Giraffe!
The voice is quickly revealed to be some guy called Hammond, who affiliates himself with the New Fishman Pirates.
I missed those goofy laughs...
The two tattoos are what caught my attention. The first one is familiar, the symbol of the Arlong Pirates, and the second one on Hammond's side seems to be the emblem of the New Fishman Pirates. The presence of the Arlong symbol is interesting -- I'd assumed that Arlong was just some guy that went off to make his own crew, but it seems that his influence back at Fishman Island must have been pretty great, that others are still wearing his symbol two years later. No doubt we'll find out later just who exactly Arlong was at Fishman Island.
I'm going to go on another (short) tangent here. One of the guys sitting behind Hammond seems to be an Octopus Fishman, but different from Hatchan or Octopako (the
Does it count as cannibalism if an Octopus Fishman eats takoyaki?
Anyway, Hammond offers for the SHs to join them, and Luffy refuses, in true Luffy fashion, which takes us to Chapter 608.
Chapter 608: Paradise Under the Sea
This cover is probably my favorite. Brook and his Afro-Poodles are in the true spirit of One Piece wackiness.
Anyway, this chapter starts off where the last left us, which was Luffy refusing Hammond's offer. He orders the Sea Lion to attack them, but of course they Coup de Burst out of the way. A somewhat tense moment as they run out of air is punctuated by another Sanji gag.
The SHs make it in just fine, but the double-layered bubble throws them off, separating the crew and their ship from each other. From the outside, Hammond and his cohorts comment on the craziness of that maneuver, and decide to report back to their boss at "Noah"...wherever that is. We get a namedrop of the "Neptune Army", more on that later.
Luffy, Usopp, Sanji, and Chopper have made it as a group, and meet up once again with Caimie, who, despite 'maturing', is still the Caimie we knew from SA, as she does her usual face gag thing.
We're then introduced to the Killifish Quintuplets (how do those tubes keep them in the air?), and then the rest of the Mermaids in the area. Sanji, of course, is overwhelmed at the sight (not blaming him, though), and it looks like it'll be fun and games, for a while at least. We're treated to a couple of panels showing that Caribou, in his barrel, has arrived as well...and the next page shows Hammond reporting back to Noah
(and also reveals that Noah is somewhere in the Fishman District).
Opinions/Predictions
Oda's keeping up his pace well, and Fishman Island is still looking pretty good so far. I can't wait for the action to start...Oda's already set up several plot points that will come back later. First is that shark from Chapter 605:
Second is Van Der Dekken and his crew. Third is Caribou (and maybe his crew as well).
From what's been given so far, I predict that Fishman Island is probably in the middle of some sort of struggle, with the New Fishman Pirates and the Neptune Army against each other. Maybe they're gangs? Anyway, Van Der Dekken is going to come back later somehow, or the SHs will go to them...depending on whether the entire arc takes place in FI. Caribou is also probably going to cause trouble once the Mermaids let him go...maybe he'll kill a few? This would also give the New Fishman Pirates (more of) a reason to go after the SHs, for bringing in a human menace. Finally, we'll also eventually get more of Arlong's backstory, and there's always the anticipated return of Jimbei and Hatchan (and Pappug).
