sahugani's One Piece Review 479

sahugani · Nov 18, 2007

Sahugani’s One Piece Review 479

The wrath of Nami will soon be upon them

Yatta!!! I’m back to doing One Piece reviews first. I know this is a bit late and I wasn’t really able to get in replies to comments on my last one but I’ve gotten a bit behind in a few areas and I think I’m finally getting things tied up. Anyways, I don’t think there’s really much else to say this week. The pics in this review come from the MangaShare Edited Manga and the title pic is a piece by AnnouncerGuy over at DeviantArt so head on over there to view her gallery.

Allies Arrive

I feel bad for Zoro

After Luffy has moved the fight with Oz out of the courtyard, his new fan-club comes in to clean up the mess. While still in awe of the strength he is currently wielding, the shadowless masses who have entrusted their hope to him do what they can to help by moving the unconscious Strawhat crew to safety. Unfortunately, their tattered appearance makes them look somewhat like zombies to Usopp and Nami, so it seems a bit suspicious to be moving the Strawhats. One thing I liked is that the new friends refer to the crew as their hope rather than just Luffy. Even though Luffy is the one they put their efforts toward strengthening and they do make a bit of a jibe at the fact that the crew is all unconscious, they still recognize that the crew as a whole is their savior. We have seen how fast and effective their information network is, so they know the efforts of the Strawhats quite well and it was the defeat of Moria’s three subordinates that led the group to once again have hope. Anyways, while moving the pirates, Lola mentions to be careful in moving the three without shadows, which I find to be a little redundant as the ones carrying them also have no shadows and thus share the same fate regardless.

Disbelief

Don't worry, you've died once already

After watching the shadowless masses do what they can to aid the Strawhat crew, the scene shifts to their zombie counterparts bearing their shadows. As loyal followers of Moria, they cannot believe that anyone could toss Oz around like Luffy is currently doing. To further their disbelief, the news reaches them that Moria is fighting in combination with Oz, meaning that both their Shichibukai master and his greatest creation are on the losing side of a fight with a single pirate. Due to their loyalty and the power they have witnessed from both Moria and Oz, they go into a bit of denial. They can’t really think for themselves, so they still put their trust in the one to whom they have sworn loyalty.

Explanations Due

I wonder which Lola Nami likes better

As Luffy’s duel with Thriller Bark’s powerhouses continues, Usopp and Nami have arrived on the bottom floor and have gotten an explanation of the situation from Lola. There doesn’t seem to be any unconscious members of Lola’s party, so it looks like they were able to convince the remaining Strawhats that they were not zombies pretty quickly. Had Zoro, Sanji, or Franky been among the conscious crewmembers, this would surely not be the case. As Nami has actually made friends with Lola’s zombie counterpart, it was likely pretty easy to be understanding in the situation. However, this means that in order for this Lola to get her shadow back, the other Lola who Nami has bonded with will have to be purified and die, which is a bit of a sad thought. They also make the odd move of apologizing to Usopp and Nami for giving this strength to Luffy without the crew’s knowledge. They have put every bit of faith they have in Luffy as evidenced by the fact that they are still out there. Nightmare Luffy only has a few more minutes to fight and after that there should be only about 10 minutes before the sun rises. As I doubt the sunrise can be predicted that accurately, there is always the chance that it could come a bit early. Add to that the fact that all the destruction on the island lately diminishes the available shade and there is major reason for concern for anyone without a shadow. Despite this huge risk to themselves by standing in this open courtyard when the sunrise is this close, the faith they have in Luffy’s victory overcomes their fear and they would risk evaporation to witness the moment of Luffy’s victory in all its glory.

The Beating Continues

Moria must have one hell of a headache

With the chapter’s words out of the way, the story turns to the main event, Luffy beating Oz’s ass to kingdom come. After his earlier tosses and body slams, he is now hurling him around and spinning the giant around by his hair before launching him directly into the Mast Mansion. Even without using his own Gomu Gomu techniques, his current form has enough strength to surpass that of Oz and enough speed and mobility to make the entire island an effective battlefield. Despite the fact that the shadows within him should be giving him techniques rather than simple power boosts, his new skill set has become an amalgam of various others and techniques that are similar in nature have merged to a stronger nameless form. That is the true strength behind Nightmare Luffy. As we have seen many times in shonen series, many people come up with techniques that push their bodies to the limit to obtain incredible strength. These abilities grant incredible power but at the expense of the user’s health or some other flaw. When multiple shadows are put in a person, especially a living person with thoughts of their own, rather than obtaining the exact skills of the shadows’ original owners, the skill sets are merged on an unconscious level. We saw this with the first shadow Luffy absorbed as he used the sword attack unconsciously without naming it as opposed to zombies like Oz or Ryuuma who could recite the attack names. When the skill sets merge, the techniques that are similar in nature merge as well and adapt to overcome the flaws of their original forms. If others have abilities with the same type of effect as Luffy’s Gear 2 or the strength Zoro obtains on the brink of death, Nightmare Luffy unconsciously applies that type of strength to his own body. The details of how one such ability works merges with the others and they amplify each other and in combination with Luffy’s already high stamina and elastic body, this allows him to access these insane power boosts without bearing their negative effects.

Moria’s Involvement

Haha. i dare you to try

Though it is only used for one attack, I’m sure many of you were pleased to see Luffy finally make use of the gigantic katana on his back. As Oz attempts to use Luffy’s Gomu Gomu no Bullet, Luffy counters with a leaping sword slash across Oz’s torso. After this latest failure to hit the pirate captain, Moria deems Oz useless and decides he’s going to have to fight for himself. While this thought is quickly cut short by Luffy’s fist, it is worthy of some analysis. First of all, he doesn’t seem to have realized that Luffy has absorbed shadows to gain this form. While I have previously said that due to Moria’s intimate study of his devil fruit powers, he had to have known about this effect, I am not so sure anymore due to the nature of his own personality. He is a person who prefers to pass work to others. He doesn’t like to act on his own and prefers that others do his bidding. If he had studied the ability to enhance living beings with the use of extracted shadows, it would go against his personality. As he prefers to sit back and let others work, I doubt he’d be interested in a way to make himself more suited for combat. He would also avoid this research for use on subordinates as making living beings stronger makes them more capable of rebelling while using shadows on corpses alone merely makes useful subordinates. Back to the present fight. He also says that he will have to fight for himself and will need to leave the cockpit. This makes me wonder what he could really do in this type of situation. Even Oz cannot restrain Luffy using brute force and he has lost Perona to subdue him, so how exactly can he hope to win? We may never really know.

Rubber Nightmare

Nigtmare Luffy, God of Destruction

As Moria decides to get involved directly, Luffy finally starts to take things seriously and begins to use his own Gomu Gomu attacks enhanced by his new form. Starting with his classic pistol, he quickly lands a blow to Moria’s face and thus to Oz’s gut as well. He realizes he doesn’t have much time left, so he is going all out. As he prepares his twisted balloon to propel himself toward the enemy, Oz prepares a Gomu Gomu no Stomp to counter, though it is quickly deflected by a mere punch from Luffy. The fact the Oz was even able to use a rubber attack means that Moria was still conscious and in control despite the powered up punch to the face from before. However, that doesn’t last long as Luffy quickly makes his final strike in the form of his most powerful technique, Gomu Gomu no Storm. Short of the fact that in its use against both Crocodile and Oz, it caused a much greater amount of destruction, I have always been somewhat fuzzy on the difference from Gomu Gomu no Gatling. From what I can see, in Storm, he always propels himself with the twisted balloon first, which grants him both a starting velocity to increase the momentum of his strikes as well as a spinning in midair, which gives the punches rotational energy somewhat similar to the increase in power gained by Gomu Gomu no Rifle though not to the same extent as the fist itself is not spinning at the same speed. Anyways, although I was REALLY hoping for this fight to be finished off with Gear 3, I guess that is just too predictable an ending for Oda. In order for a finishing blow to be spectacular, it should be completely unexpected. As many of us have already visualized an ending in which Luffy’s giant fist is matched against Oz’s, it would have taken some of the surprise out of the win if Oda had indeed used that.

Resolution

And David finally whoops Goliath's ass

As both Luffy and Oz fall to earth, the shadows in Luffy begin to leak out and he is reduced to his normal form though passed out. From the looks of it, he also managed to beat Oz and Moria. However, this does not mean the issues of the arc are resolved. First of all, there is the matter of Oz’s right arm. Chopper made a big deal out of the wound there and its importance was further shown as Sanji and Zoro continued to attack it. At first it was assumed that the continued attack on this spot would be the key to defeating Oz in the end. However, as Oz, Moria, and Luffy are now unconscious, that does not seem to be the case. Given that Oz is a zombie, there is still a chance that he might get up, but without Luffy, I think that would only end in a revived Zoro and Sanji knocking him back down and force feeding salt. There may still be some secret hidden within that arm. There could have been some factor that caused Oz to get the wound in the first place and is the reason he was stranded on a winter island and left to die of frostbite. After Chopper examines the wound, they may find some artifact of great importance that is likely related to Gold Roger’s journey. I would not doubt that the Pirate King had in his travels come across the giant corpse and hidden some message in the frostbitten flesh.

The other major unresolved issue is the retrieval of the shadows. Though there is a frame of a number of shadows rising from Thriller Bark, this is most likely just the ones inside Luffy. Unless their owners willingly let their shadows stay in Lola’s collection, the ones Luffy absorbed must have been ones Lola could not return them to and thus many were likely cast from the island by Moria. Even though Moria is now beaten, the shadows are not automatically returning. Add the comment that they can now get their shadows back and we are led to believe that the process is not supposed to be automatic. Beating Moria simply means that there is no one to keep them from going around the island to purify the zombies. I expected the battle to go on past the point of Luffy’s shadows leaving due to the fact that there is another ten minutes before sunrise after that and I thought dramatic timing wouldn’t allow the fight to be that short. However, it seems that the suspense of that last ten minutes is not for finishing the fight but for purifying the zombies before the sun rises and evaporates the shadowless owners. Robins was being held onto by Moria personally, so hers will likely return now that he is unconscious and can no longer grasp it. However, they will need to get a lot more salt to purify Oz and they still need to find Jigoroh and Dogpen within ten minutes. Technically, they could simply move everyone into shade, but that is less interesting. Despite the need, the task seems impossible though due to the size of the island and the fact that the only conscious Strawhats are Usopp and Nami. There is one ray of hope I can see though. Due to Oz’s tampering with the rudder, they are in rough seas (and I’m guessing closer to the entrance to the Undersea Kingdom), so there is the possibility of a gigantic wave crashing on the island. Though logically this would kill our allies, manga physics won’t allow that but it would effectively purify a whole island of zombies pretty effectively.

Overall

While I expected this fight to be drawn out one or two more chapters, I am actually quite pleased with how it ended. It was a battle chapter, so at the start, I doubted I’d be able to write much analysis, but as it was the final chapter of the fight, it highlighted for me which loose ends have been tied up and which are still left open, which I think is critical to how the final chapters of the arc itself will unfold. Once again I tip my hat to Oda.

Absolutio · Nov 28, 2007