sahugani's One Piece Review 464-466

sahugani · Aug 4, 2007

Sahugani’s One Piece Review 464 – 466

Snazzy

Well here we go again on another triple review. Sorry I was unable to get any reviewing done last week or the week before, but circumstances made it difficult to get them out in a timely manner. Anyways, I am so thrilled to return to the wonderful world of reviewing and these past few chapters were a doozy. I’m also doing my One Piece review first this week, but I’m not sure the habit will stick. The pics for this review come from OPHQ scans for chapters 464 & 465 and from Mangashare for chapter 466. Oda has blessed us with a color spread so for this week, my title pic will be an Oda original. In honor of the fight that spans the length of this mega-review, I’m also including a tribute AMV created by my favorite AMV maker, JuniZorofan. So I present to you her latest work, Usopp Drop, which I have watched way too many times lately.

464: Sanji’s Dream

Hidden Weapons

is the ammo invisible too? how?

As the chapter starts, Absalom is first seen in the same crushed position Sanji put him in last chapter. Sanji once again starts to address his second feud with the beast man, but before he can finish, Absalom pulls out his dead man’s hands again. To this, Sanji simply tells Absalom to remove the bazookas from his arm, which shocks everybody. He once again puts the safety of Nami above all else and tells Absalom to remove them to prevent collateral damage to the white goddess in the pews. Despite the fact that Sanji guessed exactly what was behind the dead man’s hands, Absalom still denies to himself that his opponent truly knows. After blasting away some of the seats, Sanji gets up close and disarms Absalom’s left hand, making a bazooka appear out of thin air. The secret of his dead man’s hands was kept from even his zombie soldiers as they are shocked by the revelation. Absalom was able to manipulate Perona’s wild zombies through fear, so it makes sense that he would keep his power a mystery to rule his own soldier and general zombies the same way.

The Source of His Power

technically the right one is still usable

After revealing the bazookas strapped to Absalom’s arms, Sanji reveals that he knows how the zombie commander was able to hide the large weapons. The technique was that of the suke suke no mi, which grants its user the ability to turn himself and anything he touches invisible. The dead man’s hand technique was simply using the invisible bazookas and making it look like a telekinetic blast. Absalom’s style is unique among the commanders on Thriller Bark in that he is the only one that actually fights his own battles. Moria uses his shadow as a doppelganger, Perona crushes her opponent’s spirit with ghosts, and Hogback simply recruits his creations to protect him. However, he does fit this pattern loosely as his invisibility removes him from vulnerability most of the time.

Sanji’s Crushed Dream

FINALLY!!! This question is answered

Upon confirming his suspicion that Absalom takes his power from the suke suke no mi, Sanji explains the nature of his second grudge. As a child reading about devil fruits, he disliked the idea of becoming a hammer and so for the most part decided that he wouldn’t want one. However, he did find interest in one fruit, the suke suke no mi, and would have accepted becoming a hammer if it would allow him the power of invisibility. Since each devil fruit is unique, the fact that Absalom bears its power forever negates the chances that Sanji might one day eat it. I’ll save the perversion of this dream for the next section as that one bit of under the radar information is critical. There has long been a question of whether or not any two identical devil fruits existed in the One Piece world. As we know there are picture books detailing the appearance and powers of many of them, it was easy to assume that there must be. How else would the writers know the powers of the fruits they are looking at and after finding them, wouldn’t they usually be put to use? According to this new information, the devil fruits truly are unique. If you consider that a devil fruit is worth 100 million beli compared to the mere 20 million Zoro’s best sword, the Wado Ichimonji, is worth, it is logical that the fruits were worth more as property than for being put to use. Most of these fruits were discovered and catalogued with the help of DF scientists like Begabanks (I forget what name version is generally accepted) to determine their powers without actually using them on a person. After this, they were passed around as valuables between the wealthy and found their way into the hands of pirates and marines after the start of the great pirate age. Upon this event, both sides saw more value in using the power of the fruits than in pawning them off for money. Anyways, let’s get back to Sanji.

Lost Composure

Sanji i thought you were better than this

As Sanji begins to explain why the suke suke no mi was so important to him, we see his true nature emerge. No matter what kind of noble reasoning he tries to think of as a cover, he cannot stop himself from thinking of peeking in a women’s bath. We realize now that this battle is more a battle of two perverts than of perversion vs. chivalry. Here we thought that Sanji was going to punish Absalom for being ungentlemanly, but instead we see that he’s simply living out one of our cook’s fantasies and he is jealous. Despite this plummet from the status of a noble cause, we are also told that due to Sanji’s perverted thoughts, he has long imagined every single use for the fruit and so cannot be fooled by Absalom in any way. We see now why Oda has given Sanji the first final fight despite the high rank of both competitors. Usually, the status of these two as top fighters for their teams would cause their fight to be held after Usopp, Chopper, and Robin’s fights. However, Sanji’s preconceived idea of what he was up against gave him an unbeatable edge and his victory here is less important to his development than those of the other Strawhats (except that we now see him as an even bigger pervert). After Absalom hypocritically mocks Sanji for being a pervert, he is once again on the receiving end of Sanji’s kick and he reveals another power.

The Animal

...kinky

In addition to his devil fruit, Absalom reveals the true extent of his existence as a beast man. Thanks to Hogback’s surgical skills, Absalom has been granted the jaw of a lion, the skin of an elephant, and 300 kilograms of condensed muscle from a bear and gorilla. He considers this his greatest power rather than his invisibility and so far it has served him well. However, the physical abilities that the surgeries have granted him do not add up to that of Sanji’s last opponent, Jyabura. The CP9 rokushiki master used tekkai, which more than matched the toughness of elephant skin. His trained body in addition to his wolf devil fruit also gave him as much if not more strength than Absalom currently has. In combination with his other rokushiki abilities, Jyabura was superior to Sanji’s new opponent in every aspect of his physical capabilities. As Sanji was able to do a lot of damage to Jyabura even before unleashing the diable jambe, Absalom is a walk in the park when it comes to direct combat. This is one of the very few disappointments I have had in the series as this fight is way too easy for Sanji.

Protect the Maiden

Nami better be appreciative

Sanji doesn’t care about Absalom’s enhancements and continues to kick right through them. The beast man realizes how outmatched he is in physical power and once again resorts to his invisibility. This time though, he goes for Nami. Sanji recalls Usopp’s description of Nami’s abduction and holds her to keep Absalom from taking her. His opponent makes use of this distraction to land a number of invisible punches, kicks and stabs to Sanji’s torso. Not wanting to let Nami’s white dress be stained with blood, he holds her above his head while he is barraged. Even though this fight has classified Sanji as a worse pervert than we had previously believed, this moment also shows us a new level of chivalry. He has seen Nami at her most beautiful to match a goddess in his eyes. His life is not worth cheapening the beauty that emanates from her at that moment.

Abandoning Ambition

...sigh

Sanji has finally come to terms with the fact that the suke suke no mi is no longer within his grasp. After seeing how underhandedly Absalom uses the fruit’s power, he no decides that it is no longer worth it. He has to let go of his dream and move on with his life. Even if he isn’t aided by the power of the fruit, he will peek on his own. As Absalom steps toward him, the sound of the footstep alerts Sanji to his opponent’s location. After pinning him down in a tight grip, Sanji unleashes a series of rapid kicks comparable to Luffy’s gatling attack, which blasts Absalom to the wall in a self shaped crater. With this, the battle is done and Sanji still can’t get the women’s bath out of his head. This fight was truly unique for the general practices of the series so far. It defied a number of conventional aspects of Sanji’s other fights. As I’ve stated earlier, Sanji’s fights generally take place later on as he is the third strongest Strawhat and thus his fights are generally on a larger scale than anyone but Zoro and Luffy. Also, Absalom is the first major opponent of Sanji who did not use some specified style of kenpo. In regards to Nami, the fact that she never woke up and fought back marks a backwards jump in her role as a fighter. Like Usopp, Nami has been growing as the series progressed and she proved to herself and others that she can fight on her own without needing to be protected. For her to suddenly revert to a damsel in distress role was sad to me.

Fear

Now that the fight has started, i can't imagine anyone but Usopp fighting her

Coming out of Sanji’s fight, the story turns to Usopp’s duel with Perona, if it can really be called that. Perona knows that she could take out any other Strawhat effortlessly, but can’t do that until Usopp is taken care of. Usopp similarly realizes that he could take out Perona easily, but can’t do that until the zombies protecting her are taken care of. With that in mind, Perona is running from Usopp, who is in turn being chased by Bearsy. When the teddy bear reaches Usopp, we realize that the stuffed animal zombie is not as weak and useless as previously imagined. In an attempt to save his mistreating master, he summons incredible strength and shatters the stone floor with each punch Usopp dodges. Finally a stroke of genius strikes Usopp and he sets up a wall of fire with a fireball and oil. As the zombies fear fire, Bearsy has finally stopped his persuit. I’m surprised Usopp didn’t think of this before. In combat with zombies, he has always been the most capable of beating them out of anyone in the crew (in addition to being the only one immune to ghosts). Both Usopp and Franky have extremely powerful fire attacks at their disposal which both drive away the zombies and throw them into a panic. In addition to this, Usopp’s ranged attacks combined with salt bullets allow him to purify most zombies with less effort than any other Strawhat. However, it just wouldn’t be Usopp if he wasn’t constantly questioning his own strength and ability, so I’m not really bothered.

A New Trick

Sugee!!!

After scaring off Perona’s bodyguard, Usopp gets a little full of himself and continues to pursue the Ghost Princess, only to find her suspended in midair outside the window along with her ghosts. Usopp is amazed and can’t control his shock. Technically, this shouldn’t matter to him as he is a ranged fighter anyways, but as with any new application of devil fruit abilities, there is always a bit of disbelief as people witness phenomena that should be physically impossible. At this point many of us can (and did) guess what Perona did, but we can’t expect Usopp to look at things so logically at this point in time. As this matter is better explained in the other chapters, I’ll leave this section fairly short.

465: The Pirate Usopp Versus Princess Perona

Hidden Entrance

The pirates dug a hole to find another hole

The story of Enel’s lunar expedition continues finally. After disposing of both the space pirates and the adorable robots, Enel descends into the pirates’ excavation hole and discovers the entrance to a cave. The course of his adventures here seem to contradict the normal direction the ambition of his character has previously led him. Up until now, he has defeated the people that walk around him and exploited the lands that he walked on in order to reach a higher plateau. This time, he has defeated the people on the surface and gone down instead of up. He has always searched the sky for a doorway to his happiness and now apparently has found one by simply looking down.

Kabuto’s Secrets

i'm still trying to figure out how he applies the extra dials through the prongs

From her new midair perch, Perona shows absolutely no fear, which is an extreme change from her demeanor when Usopp was chasing her not too long beforehand. She even makes light of her previous surprise and terror that Usopp was immune to her ghosts’ negativity. Usopp notes how strange this sudden confidence is and is confused. She and her ghosts share a thumbs-up moment before Usopp gets fed up and explains how much trouble she is still in. He points out that as he is a marksman, flight will offer her no protection from attack. He also finally reveals the secrets behind Kabuto’s powers. Using a breath dial in the sling’s pouch, he dramatically increases the speed of his ammunition. He can also utilize various other dials that I assume are somehow applied through each of the five prongs of the weapon (notice on the diagram how each prong has a different (though still indistinct) explanation). His ammunition is now not limited to what he can prepare beforehand and has far greater diversity than before. Unlike when he created the clima-tact, Usopp was fully conscious of the incredible weapon he was assembling when he created Kabuto and I personally love it.

Big Girl

does she realize she's wearing a skirt?

After Usopp finishes his long-winded and supposedly intimidating explanation of how Perona should bow before the might of Kabuto, he realizes that his opponent has disappeared and reappeared behind him in a giant form. Flight and size changing abilities should not be applicable to a devil fruit user with the mere ability of creating negative ghosts. Abilities such as those should only be seen in logias, paramecias with those exact abilities only, and in the case of flight a select few zoans. Regardless of this, Usopp attempts to attack but she shrinks to normal size to avoid it. Even though he keeps missing, at least we see the power of his upgraded exploding star attacks. My question is what dial power would actually increase the power of an explosion. The flame dial is obviously used for the firebird star, but I doubt it could be used to increase flames after the star has left the slingshot. My only explanation is that using dials, he is able to produce better quality gunpowder (or possibly a higher grade explosive) while preparing his ammunition.

Phaser’s Bluff

Anyone watch Heroes?

Now that Usopp’s confidence is broken as he can’t get his attacks to connect, Perona reveals a new power. She phases her hands right through Usopp and clutches his heart. This is the ultimate power of people with phasing abilities (the ability to move through solid matter). Theoretically, if a person can phase through another person’s body, she can selectively allow her hands to solidify inside and cause inane damage to the other person’s internal organs. This type of technique has been used by phasers in other media and is currently threatening Usopp’s heart. However, Perona reveals that it was all a bluff as unlike a true phaser, she cannot solidify herself to hold physical form. The true damage caused to Usopp was by his own fear as he tricked himself into believing that he could feel his heart being crushed. After regaining his composure, he watches in disbelief as Perona reveals that as she has no physical form, she can walk through any wall and all of his attacks will go right through her.

One Way Fight

How does she do that?

Up until Perona started revealing her various new abilities, Usopp had full confidence that he could beat her as none of her attacks could hurt him. Now that she has revealed that his attacks on her are equally as useless, it seems like a draw is inevitable. However, the Ghost Princess reveals that even with her lack of a physical form, she can still damage Usopp using little exploding ghosts. The tables have turned in the opposite direction and Usopp is once again in fear of his life. As she continues to barrage him with exploding ghosts and Bearsy returns to bash him with powerful blows, Usopp questions his reason for accepting his fight. When the fight started, he was excited to have the chance to save his nakama. He has long held an inferiority complex that he is always being saved by his stronger allies and was thrilled that for once he had found an enemy that only he had the power to beat. He liked that feeling and it led him to be overconfident in his ability to win. Now that the fight has turned on its head, he is now the one that is powerless to attack and she is the one who can hurt him. He fears that all of the courage he displayed in front of his nakama when he accepted this challenge will become meaningless.

Hero’s Return

Why isn't the song playing?

In this utter depression, Usopp calls for help from the one person available to him, Sogeking. As his alter-ego, Usopp quickly disposes of Bearsy by pulling the mask and shoving salt into his mouth. Even though technically, Usop is fully aware that he is only putting on a mask, the meaning of the Sogeking persona is very important to him. When he created the Sogeking identity, he tried to idealize the ultimate superhero in his mind. As Sogeking, he was able to face terrors that he could not as Usopp such as taking on Jyabura, saving Robin, and even facing Luffy after the incident. By putting on Sogeking’s mask, he forces himself to think, “What would a brave hero do?” Even if he still feels the fear he felt as Usopp, asking that question of himself makes him realize that he can’t afford to give up. With that new courage, he starts to think objectively. While that new focus does initially lead him to run away as usual, he starts to piece together the clues within Perona’s abilities to realize the key to beat her.

Behind the Wall

that's definately not the natural state of rest

Following a final attack from Perona’s mini-ghosts, Usopp’s mask falls off and he announces that he knows how to win. Just like Usopp at the beginning of the chapter, Perona assumes that nothing has changed and she still has the advantage, so she disregards his threat. He fires shots at a doorway ahead of him and blasts down the wall while Perona returns to an expression of fear. Out of the smoke, we see the unconscious body of Perona sitting on her bed. Usopp announces that it is her real body and all of her abilities become clear.

466: Conclusion to the Duel

Beneath the Craters

Yet more people who could inexplicably breathe on the moon

Apparently the cave Enel had found in the previous chapter hid an underground city that seemed to be the ruins of a lunar civilization. While we still have yet to see Enel’s reaction to this huge discovery, it fits well into my previous ideas of Enel’s personality and desires. If it pleases him as I think it will, then it proves the folly of his ways. Up until now, he has looked above him for greater wonders and denied anything below his feet as unworthy. Now that he has found something so wonderful underground, it may give him some level of appreciation for history and what existed before him. Through this he might find some humanity. The city also interests me due to Oda’s habit of bringing in people and ideas from the cover-arcs to the main story. This underground lunar city may have some significance with the untold history Robin is searching for. I really hope so at least.

Revealing Secrets

In Your Face!!!

Now that Usopp has revealed that Perona’s real body is sitting on the bed, he explains his logic. He reasoned that as the ghosts had many of the powers Perona had displayed in the last chapter, that Perona was also simply a ghost. Since she was initially afraid of Usopp, but suddenly gained confidence after he had stopped Bearsy with fire, she had used that event as a distraction to hide in her room and release a look-alike ghost who was immune to damage and could hurt him to take her place. Even though she is somewhat impressed by Usopp’s intelligent deduction, Perona reveals that she is no mere look-alike ghost. She is in all actuality the real spirit of Perona and is simply detached from her body. This explained how none of her other ghosts were this intelligent and why she didn’t simply create a number of ghost clones to confuse Usopp.

Forever a Ghost

i could make a dirty joke, but i think i'm better than that

Now that he know the true nature of Perona’s spirit and body, Usopp threatens to destroy her body so that she is forever a mere spirit or possibly destroy both in the process. In a very rare event, Usopp apparently misses. Perona uses this small delay as Usopp prepares another shot to both return to her body and unleash a gigantic exploding ghost on her opponent. Only after she returns to her body does she realize that Usopp had this all planned out. As we all know the quality of Usopp’s marksmanship, it was clear from the start that he intentionally missed his first shot. That first shot was full of a sticky substance to lock Perona’s real body down to the bed. The second shot that he started to prepare was just to make Perona panic and return her spirit to her real body, thus locking both parts down together. Though I doubt he initially planned on being trapped inside a huge exploding ghost, he improvises and absorbs the full force of the explosion with an impact dial. Perona is suddenly forced to realize that once again, she is on the side of the fight that can do no damage while her opponent is in full control.

Bearsy’s Replacement

Thats for putting a moustache on a hippo

When one of her wild zombies comes to avenge Bearsy, she regains some hope as Usopp should still be overpowered in strength by a hippo. This does not pan out though as Usopp unleashes the force of the impact absorbed explosion on the zombie to defeat Perona’s only hope of victory. Usopp’s use of the impact dial as well as other dials puts him on a new class of marksmanship than any other including his father and Van Auger. Their skill comes from direct accuracy with their shots that as of the Strawhats’ trip to Jaya, Usopp had not yet matched. Now that he has Kabuto and more experience, he very well could be at or near that level of accuracy now. In addition to this, the fact that he uses such a range of ammunition allows him to surpass his father in application of his skills. The impact dial more than anything else allows him to fight up close, which is the weakness of most marksmen. In the case of Yasopp and Van Auger however, they are likely trained enough to avoid damage in close combat and easily return themselves to a safe firing distance without harm.

Victory by Empty Threats

Did anyone else know fear caused frothing at the mouth?

Even though his arm was in pain from using the impact dial, Usopp manages to continue the final steps of his plan to beat Perona. He fires his ultimate “sparkling darkness star,” which is in all actuality a bunch of cockroaches. Usopp has seen time and time again how much Perona hates things that are not cute. While he was within Bearsy, he heard her dream of turning the people of the world into cute zombies. This along with her appearance as a little girl with fairy tale dreams was a very good clue that she despises anything creepy-crawly. This attack basically causes Perona to become stressed out to the max her mind will allow just like Perona had done to Usopp when she gripped his heart. While she is in this pitiful state, Usopp pulls a 10 ton hammer from thin air. While under normal circumstances, she most likely would have quickly realized that the hammer was a trick, the panic caused by the roaches makes her blind to all logical thought. Usopp swings the hammer down on her and it pops on her crown, revealing it to be a balloon. The immense fear of death in Perona caused her to lose consciousness and even froth at the mouth. Usopp then reveals that not only was the hammer fake, but so were the roaches. He had won by simply scaring her into losing all hope. While she was used to making people lose hope and then defeating their weakened selves with zombies, Usopp took the same idea to an extreme and was able to break her spirit to a greater extreme than she had ever been able to cause to others.

Zoro’s Fall

Zoro always has the worst injuries

I was somewhat surprised to see Zoro’s fight come next. In nearly every single major fight, Zoro’s duel has been the last one shown before Luffy’s. I expected to see Chopper and Robin’s fight with Hogback, Cindry, Dogpen, and Jigoroh. Since Zoro’s fight is before them and is looking incredible itself, I have extremely high hopes for the quality of that fight. The first image we have of Zoro’s fight is him flying through the wall and falling apparently unconscious. Ryuuma stands above him on the roof and apparently on fire while Franky and Brooke look on in amazement. Brooke admits that Ryuuma must not have taken their fight seriously at all as this is a completely new level of destruction. One thing to note about Zoro’s fall is that he is only using one sword. It looks like Sandai Kitetsu may have been knocked away from him beforehand. I used to think that Zoro would try to complete his santouryuu set in order to beat Ryuuma and so he would borrow Brooke’s sword. I now have a new theory that he will attempt this fight using only Wado Ichimonji or possibly dealing the final blow with the remains of his broken Yubashiri. I like the second idea as it kind of symbolizes one of his swords passing its spot at Zoro’s side to another.

Five Minutes Earlier

Battles cannot be faught until enough insults have been thrown

After witnessing Zoro’s present defeat, we see a brief flashback to the start of the duel five minutes earlier. Zoro is trash-talking Ryuuma while Brooke becomes nervous that Zoro is digging his own grave. Ryuuma questions why Zoro carries three blades, a question which actually carries two meanings and Zoro picks the wrong one. He assumed that Ryuuma meant to ask why Zoro carries three swords but has only drawn two. He answers that the third is broken but will carry it with him till he takes the zombie’s Shuusui. What Ryuuma really intended by his question was to mock Zoro for using more than one sword. As with all Zoro’s fights, there is a deep meaning related to his growth as a swordsman within each victory and Ryuuma’s dislike of those who use more than one blade epitomizes the meaning of this fight. As I have said many times in the past, the meaning of this fight to Zoro is that it is the first time other than against Mihawk that he is facing a man whose skill is pure swordsmanship. Ryuuma has taken this idea to an extreme by only considering single sword fighters as swordsmen and all others are unworthy of the title. This opinion makes sense as much of the swordsman’s power comes from a deep connection and understanding between him and his blade. Those who have one sword are capable of making that bond as the man and sword have only each other to rely on. In Ryuuma’s opinion, multiple sword users have swords as mere tools to cut and win against other fighters and if they lose one sword, they have no shame in replacing it. This is the main reason for my previous theory on how Zoro will fight using only Wado Ichimonji and later Yubashiri. By using only Wado Ichimonji, we see him fight with the sword that he bears the greatest spiritual connection to and thus matches the connection Ryuuma bears with Shuusui. By using Yubashiri to deal the final blow though, Zoro proves that he is not a mere imitation swordsman who would abandon a broken blade for another. If this comes true I get full bragging rights.

New Level of Power

Brooke has the best facial expressions, but he doesn't have a face

Even though he only has two swords, Zoro starts the fight. Both warriors can sense the skill of the other and are tingling with excitement. Neither has felt this sensation for quite a while and both are eager to indulge it. With the exception of Zoro’s duels with Kuina and Mihawk (and I guess Mr. 1), both fighters have up till now only fought for others. Ryuuma has defeated many warriors for Moria and Hogback’s experiments. Zoro has fought to save his friends. This is one of those rare opportunities to fight simply for the sake of testing one’s own strength and is applicable to both swordsmen. When the first clash hits, the force of the blades opposing each other is so great that it pulls a long overdue joke out of Brooke. After the swords release, Ryuuma unleashes a piercing attack that Brooke recognizes by name, but not the effect. Although Zoro dodges it, it causes what seems to be a gun blast and blows a hole in a distant wall. The attack seems to be a piercing version of CP9’s rankyaku slashing attack or a more powerful version of Lucci’s flying shigan. It is a blade to start out with though instead of a leg or finger, so the effect is much more powerful. It seems that though he uses Brooke’s techniques, the body he was granted allows him to take those same techniques to an unimaginable level. It was said before that by combining a strong shadow with a strong body, an even more powerful warrior is formed and it looks like Ryuuma is the epitome of that. As his body is that of a dragon-slaying samurai, he can put much more power behind his attacks than Brooke could.

Overall

Whew!!! Over 9 full pages at 12 pt in Microsoft word and I am finally done. These past few chapters were incredible, especially 466. Sanji pretty much destroyed Absalom, but his fight was not as interesting as Usopp’s duel with Perona. While Sanji’s fight labeled him as a bigger pervert and put Nami back into the role of damsel in distress, Usopp was forced to show exactly how much he has grown since joining the Strawhats and even since rejoining them. And that is not to mention the awesomess of Zoro’s fight finally starting. It is giving me chills just thinking about it. Furthermore, since Oda is saving Chopper for last, I can’t even imagine how he will make that fight surpass the epic nature of Zoro’s preceding it. I love this series so much right now.

zoidvibe · Aug 5, 2007