One Piece By Piece

There are many, many chapters of One Piece. Join me for a look at every one of them.

[deepmagician]

Can't wait for more Baratie!!! Four chapters in one day was a great way to start the weekend!!!

Well thank you! I was considering scheduling them so they'd be spread over the week, but I have no concept of self-restraint.

I'm also excited for Baratie, since I think it's where the story really begins moving, plus I'm a fan of a certain cook...

[deepmagician]

Chapter 42: Yosaku and Johnny

And now we begin a brand new arc! The Baratie Arc! Let’s see if we find out what that could mean in this chapter. But first, the cover story.

Buggy’s terrible trap failed, and he got eaten- but he tastes awful, and once more is sent blasting off again. Wonder where the rest of him is? Did his crew take it when they were running?

Remember back in chapter 33′s cover page, when we saw Nami and Zoro’s personal Jolly Roger’s? It’s finally time to reveal Luffy’s one!

And it’s awful. Yeah, Luffy’s got no artistic abilities at all. The rest of the crew are baffled, and Usopp volunteers to try and improve the flag.

He draws his own personal flag instead. This marks the beginning of a series staple: Usopp is usually the comic relief of the crew, due to his boastfulness and self-aggrandisement, funny faces, and pushes to replace Luffy as captain. There’s definitely more to him, and other crew members can be the punchline, but it’s often Usopp.

Usopp’s actually kind of a dab hand with a brush, and makes Luffy’s concept look pretty nice. With that, the Going Merry is flying the Straw Hat’s Jolly Roger! I’ve been waiting for this moment, when they properly come together under this flag- now I can say the Straw Hats, which is what they come to be known as. The Straw Hat Pirates. People sometimes call them the Mugiwara Pirates, too, but that’s just the Japanese word for Straw Hat. Also, it’s the icon of this blog series, of course. What else could possibly fit?

After putting up all their new branding, the Straw Hats (yes!) are tired, but Luffy decides to test the cannons. He completely misses a rock in the ocean, and so Usopp takes a turn.

Usopp’s aim is sharp, honed by his slingshot use, and so Luffy declares his role on the ship to officially be Sharpshooter, or Sniper. With Luffy as the captain, Zoro as the... swordsman?/first mate, and Nami as the navigator, they’re looking alright as a crew, but they all agree that there’s important roles on a ship that need to be filled.

Luffy wants a musician! It’s a running gag, it’ll come up again. But who’s this brandishing a sword?

Check out the cool guy with the face tattoo (it’s the character for ‘sea’). He’s busting up the deck, saying he’ll murder the lot of them and accusing the Straw Hats of trying to murder his partner. Alright, chill out, man.

After he’s promptly slammed into a wall by Luffy, Zoro comes out and recognises the guy as Johnny. Johnny calls Zoro his brother, and tells him that Yosaku is dying.

Oh, that’s why he thinks they tried to kill him: because they almost did. Johnny and Yosaku are pirate bounty hunters, just like how Zoro used to be, which is how they’re acquainted. Johnny thinks that Yosaku is going to die from whatever he’s going through, and so Nami calls him stupid and gets the boys to squeeze her some limes from the galley. Yosaku, in the grand piratical tradition, is simply suffering from scurvy, and needs them limes juices to help him.

Nami’s right to yell at them. Luffy we know has but a single brain cell, but I expected better from Usopp. 

There we go, a proper introduction. Look at these hard dudes. Yosaku’s headpiece-thing just makes me think about Naruto headbands... also, is Johnny the first character with a watch? Apparently, real wrist watches were first created in 1868, but who knows what the tech level of One Piece is at.

Deciding that this incident foreshadows the importance of a ship having a cook to take care of nutrition, Luffy declares they gotta get a cook.

Luffy’s thinking about in terms of having tasty food, of course, but still. Anyway, Johnny adorably has to put his hand up and get permission from Zoro to speak, apparently. He knows where there’s cooks around here- there’s an ocean-going restaurant not too far away.

Hmmm. Taking the Straw Hats closer to the Grand Line is their eventual goal, but there’s sure to be competition. Plus, who’s this Hawk-Eye Zoro’s apparently been hunting? That’s an odd face Zoro makes on hearing about him. Anyway, that’s the next step of the journey, and the first chapter of this arc done!

Even though we’re near the end of volume 5, this is the first chapter with SBS- there was some concept art after the last couple. In this SBS, Oda... reveals Ben Beckman and Lucky Roux’s names. Like I did in the last chapter. Should’ve been more patient.

Phew, four chapters in one day. That’s the most I’ve done before, but I really wanted to get Syrup Village done and started on the next arc. Still got that stuff taking up a lot of time for at least a couple of weeks, but I’ll try and get some more chapters done when I can. I’m just getting more excited as we move on and the Straw Hat Crew grows, you know?

[deepmagician]

Chapter 41: To The Sea

This is a nice cover, featuring a good look at young Luffy, Shanks, and his Red Hair Pirates. Now that we finally found out the name of one of the crew members, being Yasopp there in the corner, let’s have a look at the other names that haven’t been told to us yet.

The big guy eating the meat, who shot one of Higuma’s men back in chapter 1, is Lucky Roux. I remember it being Lucky Roo, but apparently all official sources after the first translation go with Roux. Roux is an ingredient, and he certainly likes food, so that seems to check out. The man with the cigarette and rifle behind Luffy is Ben Beckman, who took out all the rest of Higuma’s men single-handedly in chapter 1. He’s Shank’s first mate.

And that’s it. None of the rest of them have been named. Hard luck, but also maybe they should’ve done anything and maybe they’d deserve it.

So Luffy seems to be recovering well from his injury, as he almost eats an entire fish skeleton. He’s just sucking plates into his mouth whole, I guess. Zoro implies that he could’ve eaten the skeleton better, and Nami reminds them that they’re crazy people. So all is well with Luffy and friends, but it’s about to be better.

Kaya shows up looking better than ever, now that her mean ol’ butler Klahadore isn’t abusing her trust any more. And she’s got a ship? Anything’s an upgrade from two small boats. Meanwhile, Usopp’s finished packing up his life, having moved literally everything that’s not furniture into his backpack.

Turns out this makes his bag comically large, and he breaks the front wall of his little house and rolls down a hill in the process of leaving.

Life is great, he says with double exclamation marks. Definitely no brain damage from the roll or being crushed here! Usopp’s as durable as Zoro and Luffy, turns out.

Ah, and here she is! Complete with thematic sheep figurehead. birds for scale, and Merry’s personal Jolly Roger on the mast, it’s the ship Kaya’s giving to Luffy: The Going Merry! 

...Oh? The Viz translation calls it the Merry Go? Nah, I’m ignoring that one like I did with the Nyabans. Going Merry is the name of the boat, and if you said Merry Go I and other One Piece fans would be pretty confused.

Merry says he thought Luffy would be taller as he explains some traits of the ship, which he designed himself. It’s true that heights tend to be pretty exaggerated in One Piece- Luffy’s 5′7″, and Shanks is 6′6″ and not even the tallest of his crew. Kuro was 6′9″!

The ship is a type called a Caravel, apparently a sort of faster, lighter sailing ship from the 15th century. It was favoured by merchants due to speed and manoeuvrability. Seeing as Luffy’s shown no desire for a huge crew like the Black Cats, this should be perfect for them.

Usopp rolls in for his comedy approach- does he stick the landing?

Perfectly! I love his long nose sticking out between their feet, it’s a good gag. Usopp promises Kaya that he’ll return one day with better stories than ever- and they’ll all be true.

Why? says Luffy? Why would Usopp act like they might cross paths one day? Because they’re going to be sharing a path- Usopp is of course going to join the crew!

This chapter came out May 25th 1998, almost 23 years ago. Of course people reading these recaps 100% knew Usopp would join the crew, along with any future member’s identity. Still, imagine what it would be like for people reading this as it originally came out, the excitement of a new crew member joinging the main cast. A joyous occasion.

As the Going Merry sails off into the horizon, the Children Formally Known As The Usopp Pirates watch and wonder what they’re gonna do now. As well, Kaya and Merry watch from their own cliff, and Kaya confesses that she did want Usopp to stay. Merry decides to tell her a story about Usopp in response.

Yes, every crew member has a tragic backstory. Usopp’s father left to be a pirate, and shortly after his mother died, so he had to take care of himself. As she lay sick in bed, young Usopp burst in, yelling that his father’s ship had returned to take them away once she was well again.

Usopp was desperately scrabbling for any hope, and as his mother weakened, his lies and wishes and dreams were where he found them. Yes, he shouted every day that a pirate ship was coming, but he secretly wished it would really happen, so that he could see his father again and have a family.

It’s legitimately a sad story, but it inspires Kaya to carry on Usopp’s strength of heart.

As the children take up Usopp’s mantle, Kaya declares that she’s going to become a doctor. Syrup Village is in good hands.

And with that, the arc is over. Kuro is defeated, Usopp has joined Luffy’s crew, and they finally have a proper ship. There’s still so much ahead for us, though- let’s see where we’re going!

[deepmagician]

Chapter 40: Usopp’s Pirate Crew

In today’s installment of the cover story, Buggy is outsmarted by a large bird.

He’s so proud of his pitfall trap, look at that grin. This gives me big Tom and Jerry, Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote, Spy vs Spy energy, what with his trap being defused right away with no effort.

For those who thought Kuro might not be down yet, his glasses are finally off. No more adjusting, just Luffy next to his enemy’s body in silence. The Black Cat Pirates cheer for him, crying out for his name.

Luffy reminds us all: He’s gonna be King of the Pirates! You know, we got some worldbuilding earlier, but not about pirates. Is being the King, like, a formal position? Would Luffy have to do royal things? Seeing as the previous king, Gold Roger, was executed by the Marines, probably not official actually.

Kuro is YEETed hilariously back to his crew, and they flee with their wounded, never to come back to this village again. Wait, but what about Django? He’s off in the woods.

Luffy collapses into Nami’s arms, finally reacting to that hit he took at the beginning of last chapter. Luffy continues to make Nami react with “...”, and Nami continues to talk dirt about pirates at every opportunity.

Meanwhile, Usopp get the story straight with Kaya and the kids. While it’s true that he’d be a hero if the village knew about what he’d done for them, Usopp knows that they wouldn’t believe it. Plus, this out-of-the-way village would have their peace of mind ruined if they knew how close they’d come to being wiped out by catboys. And so, Kaya and the Usopp Pirates agree that this will stay a secret. What a good guy Usopp is.

Isn’t the liar man coming today? Makes Usopp sound like a postman or milkman, showing up every day to bring lies to your door. We see the townsfolk, same as we did the two times Usopp ran through shouting, and turns out that he’s almost cherished as a daily event. He wakes people up on time, gives everyone a bit of colour and fun to start the day, and in general is a part of life. Aw. 

Hey, what’s Usopp talking about here?

And Kaya has a request too? Oda’s building us up to something. At least Merry’s looking OK. Plus he’s come around on Usopp, after literally shooting him with a gun yesterday.

Usopp is becoming a real pirate. Luffy telling him about how Yasopp was living, and then battling to protect what he cared about has pushed him to take a big step in his life and follow his dreams.

Hey, these panels aren’t surrounded by blackness, this isn’t a real flashback! Maybe that rule only applies to villains? But wait, Luffy’s story about Yasopp had the blackness. We need more data.

Usopp tells the boys to follow their dreams without him.

Oda loves to draw people doing big embarrassing snotty wet crys, and this is a primo example, with four people breaking down on one spread page. Farewell, Syrup Village. Keep Usopp in your hearts, lads.

[deepmagician]

Chapter 39: For Whom The Bell Tolls

How’s Buggy doing?

Oh, OK. Pretty badly.

We pick up where we left off, with Kuro attacking literally everything (but especially his own crew) and Luffy being upset about that. How can you fight someone so fast? Well, Luffy did spend ten years training himself to be a pirate. There’s a puff of dust and clanking as Kuro’s blades strike a cliff behind Luffy.

Yeah, Luffy just took a big slash from Kuro, but it let him catch the villain and slam him out of the berserk mode.

On getting his attack interrupted, Kuro goes right into his old tactics he used against Kaya: gaslighting Luffy into taking the blame. When will we see Kuro gatekeep and girlboss? Luffy’s completely confident in himself, however, and shuts the attempt down. Kuro declares that, ok, he’s going back to slaughtering now, thanks.

OK, this is neat- Luffy just latches on to Kuro, coiling his rubber limbs around him. This is the first time Luffy’s done it, but his rubber constitution means that he can coil around someone and really trap them. I’d like to see Kuro get out of this submission hold, but before we see how he responds we go back to Django, Kaya, and the Usopp Pirates in the forest.

After Django keeps kicking the snot out of them, Kaya continues to display her huge guts by threatening to sacrifice herself for the kids. Django hastily accepts her conditions, and she writes a will leaving everything to Klahadore.

Django promises that the children won’t be harmed any more, and Kaya is relieved in her final moments. But wait, what’s that noise?

It’s Usopp! And he’s steering Zoro by slapping his wounds, like spurs on a horse. The only problem is that Django is literally holding Kaya and has a weapon to her throat, and Zoro can’t sword over a distance like that. Fortunately, the Usopp Pirates are there to attack Django from behind to give Zoro time to drop Usopp and dash in, but it’s not enough.

Sash man? Like you’re one to judge someone for their outfit, Django. 

Zoro was just clearing the shot for sniper Usopp. He pulls back his slingshot, and-

we’re back to Luffy.

RERK

He’s abusing Kuro’s face with his own face, and Luffy can chew through metal so Kuro’s face is getting the worst of it. The catboys realise that, hey, if Kuro wins he’s going to kill us all, right? And so they start cheering for Luffy to kill Kuro instead. Luffy’s not doing it for them, though, and he lets them know.

Kuro screams that his plan cannot fail, as Luffy winds up another new attack: Gum-Gum Bell.

DOUBLE K.O.

Django and Kuro are both completely wrecked. Farewell, Glasses Adjust Count. We hardly knew ye.

FINAL GLASSES ADJUST COUNT FOR THE CHAPTER: 1

FINAL ADJUST COUNT OVERALL: 43

[deepmagician]

Look forward to updates whenever you have the time!!! Take care!!

Aw, thank you! It's messages like this that remind me that I'm not just doing this for myself, that people really are looking and appreciating these recaps. Thinking I might try and do up a number of posts over the weekend and schedule them to go out over the week- haven't done it before, so we'll see how it goes.

[deepmagician]

Chapter 38: Pirate Crew

Luffy’s laid Kuro low with a small boulder. The scheming pirate stands up, with only five claws remaining. He’s looking a little worse for wear, guys.

Despite the constant disdain, the catboys still have Kuro’s back. They’re getting it, slowly. I’d like to call special attention to the li’l fella in the corner, there. Reminds me of something Akira Toriyama would draw. Kuro says he’s gonna deal with everyone, including Django. Speaking of Django...

Seems he’s having a tough time. Simply don’t open your eyes (and also be someone he needs to hypnotise, otherwise he’s got those chakrams), and you’ll be totally fine. Kaya’s a tough nut. Django goes to pry her eyes open, and the Usopp Pirates jump on him!

Some real Home Alone tier fighting here, as they put pepper in Django’s eyes and WHAK him in the djong. The kids were only pretending to be hypnotised, since, you know, Django showed his gimmick off to them the second they met the first time. The literal children try and sustain their assault against the literal murdering pirate to protect Kaya.

Django yeets the child immediately and without remorse, which, honestly? Fair enough. This happens to have a positive side effect besides hilarity, as Zoro and Usopp, still running in the forest, hear the shouts of the kids and run in their direction. Good, but they better be fast. Back at the beach, various funny-looking catboys plead with Kuro. C’mon, the plan can still succeed, right?

Yes, since he had the initial idea three years ago, murdering his entire crew was a part of his plan. Cold. Also, his glasses are looking a little crooked, he’s bleeding, and his hair’s out of place? Kuro’s losing all his calm and coolness right now. Check the forehead vein.

For someone who actively led a life of piracy and commanded a crew of pirates, Kuro sure loathes every aspect of pirates. Seems he mostly led his men through fear, which isn’t hard to gather from the way he’s acted and how they keep fearing him murdering them all. Luffy isn’t having this attitude, however, saying that Kuro could never hope to beat Usopp. Kuro scoffs, but Luffy has a complete handle on him now.

Luffy thinks Kuro’s less of a pirate than Usopp, reads his movement, and serves a savage backfist. Kuro has finally had it. Time for his ultimate technique.

Upon seeing this stance, the Black Cats all panic. Surely he isn’t about to do... that? They swear they’ll never tell anyone the truth about him as long as they live and all beg for Kuro not to slaughter them.

This technique is called shakushi in Japanese, which translates literally to ‘Scoop Death’. Also, there’s apparently like three layers of pun here that I don’t want to go into, but part of it is a reference to a figure of speech that means ‘absolutely everything’. That’s relevant.

All is quiet for a second. Nami finally reappears, having being looting the Black Cat’s ship (called the Bezan Black, incidentally- bezan is a Persian word, so it fits the cat theme). Suddenly, a catboy is cut down. Kuro is nowhere to be seen, though. What’s happening?

Out-Of-The-Bag Attack is a top-speed slaughtering tool. Everyone within the range is being hit, including Luffy and random parts of the cliffs. Because of the blind and indiscriminate nature of the attack, even though Luffy is tagged by Kuro, they happen to only be minor cuts, while catboys are being murdered en masse.

This callous and bloodthirsty behaviour finally got to Luffy. He’s mad now! You know, at his own behest, instead of being hypnotised into it. We’re coming up to the end of this arc. Wonder how high the Adjust Counter will go?

FINAL GLASSES ADJUST COUNT FOR THE CHAPTER: 1

42 TOTAL

[deepmagician]

Chapter 37: Captain Kuro, of The Thousand Plans

Today’s cover returns us to the freaky little disembodied Buggy. Having managed to get to land, Buggy tries to eat the first living thing he sees. How far he’s fallen.

TIme for the pirate captains to really begin their battle. Luffy prepares a tremendous dropkick to the face, but Kuro deals with his rubber powers better than anyone else has yet and slings him to the ground. While Luffy keeps up the offensive, Kuro’s speed lets him react to Luffy’s unusual attacks in time, as he dodges a Gum-Gum Whip and Pistol.

Aw man, that’s so cool. What a flex from Kuro, not only avoiding the Pistol but standing on it? Then he runs up Luffy’s arm and kicks him directly in the face with his stripy shoes to handily inflict both insult and injury. The catboys cheer- hooray for Kuro, they shout!

RAARR

Kuro’s plan all along has been to kill off the Kuro persona and become Klahadore, so the crew all shouting his name and cheering is kind of counterproductive. Love all their hand-raising flailing there.

You know, he kind of hates his crew? That’s probably he’s fine with murdering them and why he forces every member to become a catboy. It amuses him. TIme for a flashback to three years ago, and the last day he was Kuro...

The traditional One Piece method of showing a flashback, the panels being surrounded by black. I bet the people who print this manga dread flashbacks. We see Captain Kuro and Django as they looked three years ago. OK, Django may look strange now, but at least he upgraded from the wifebeater.

Kuro’s tired of piracy and being chased by marines, and he’s become filled with ennui. This is the moment he comes up with the first phase of his plan that’s culminating today. I wonder if he knew about Syrup Village at this stage? Regardless, a boat is put down and Kuro goes over to the Marine ship by himself. His crew waits and notices that the cannon fire has stopped, so they go over to check it out.

The crescent moon. The blood-stained swords. The raised claws. What a cool panel.

It’s a shame that younger Siam and Butchie are on the same page. Spoils the effect a little. (According to the wiki, they aren’t even real brothers? They met while serving Kuro and just decided to... be like that?)  Kuro adjusts his glasses and prepares to execute his latest plan. He notices a Marine is still breathing, and stomps on his face.

Surprise! It’s Axe-Hand Morgan! This is how he got his metal jaw, his axe hand, and presumably the prestige to become a Captain. Bet you never thought he’d come back, huh?

Not a single one of Kuro’s plans that we’ve seen so far would work without Django there to hypnotise everyone. For someone he’s contemptful of, Kuro kinda leans on him. Anyway, Django sets up Morgan to believe this random Black Cat with a passing resemblance to Kuro is the real Kuro, and the catboy to believe he’s guilty of this massacre. Before we continue, an aside about Japanese names and translations, like I tend to do, and this one’s elaborate.

This unlucky patsy who’s picked to be executed as Kuro is named Nugire Yainu, and he was the Black Cat’s shipwright. His name is an anagram of nureginu iya, which translates to ‘I do not like a false charge’. As always, Oda names everyone, and with characters this minor, who only appear for a single panel, there’s often comical names given to them, like this extremely ironic one. How do you translate this? Viz tried their hardest, and came up with Snott Mee. About the right level there, I feel. This concludes the translation portion of this entry.

Back in the present day, Kuro declares that his plans ‘never go off course’, and lunges at Luffy! If only Zoro was there, to intercept the swords. However, Luffy makes do.

Straight hauling a chunk of rock out of the ground to catch the claws was pretty smart of Luffy. Next, he yanks the boulder sideways, snapping all five of those blades, and then?

He just hits Kuro with the rock so hard he’s flipped upside down. You know, this human, not a rubber man like Luffy. Kuro’s lucky people in shonen tend to be pretty durable, because a normal man would be paste right now. WIth the momentum in Luffy’s favour, how will Kuro respond next time?

FINAL GLASSES ADJUST COUNT FOR THE CHAPTER: 3

41 TOTAL

A quick meta note, at the end of an already lengthy entry. Readers may have noticed that there was a longer than usual gap between the last entry and this one. I’ve had something come up that’s taking up a lot of my time, so I haven’t had much opportunity to write these recaps. It’s currently unclear how much longer this is going to take, so for the next number of weeks, updates may slow down in frequency. Don’t worry, it’s for a good reason. Anyway, cheers, and thanks for reading!

[deepmagician]

About spit out my drink at the the Zoro catboy interaction section. Really well played!!

Cheers! I start calling the Black Cats catboys as a bit, and suddenly Oda gives me a gift of this perfect panel to cap it off. A beautiful piece of serendipity.

[deepmagician]

Chapter 36: After Them!

The very next cover continues the Buggy side story. Mohji (carrying Richie? Impressive.) and Cabaji, looking pretty sorry for themselves after their final defeats, are being run out of Orange Town. Chou-Chou is even getting some hits in. Also, is there anything sadder than a guy fleeing on a unicycle?

In the chapter main, the Usopp Pirates run through the woods with Kaya. They can’t see Django, so they’re pretty sure they’ve lost him.

Those chakram have some serious edges to them, turns out. Yeah, they’re gonna need some backup sooner rather than later.

Included this panel because it makes me laugh. You know, the guy who moonwalks everywhere, hypnotises himself, and attempts to murder children using chakrams, he may not be normal and on the level? His catchphrase is even ‘I’m not strange’, which is definitely the sign of a huge weirdo.

Back at the beach, Kuro’s taunting Usopp and the others about how Django’s killing Kaya and the Usopp Pirates about now. Incensed and still determined to save everyone, Usopp struggles to his feet and goes to follow them. Butchie lunges for him, but Zoro’s there to intercept.

Zoro forces the catboy to the ground, calls him a very bad kitty, and tells him to beg. You know, it’s getting to write sentences like that that make it all worth it.

Unfortunately, despite his grit, Usopp can’t chase Django, he’s too hurt. Kuro laughs disturbingly in a very cursed panel. Usopp shrugs it off, he only wants to protect his friends. As Butchie continues to brawl with Zoro, the rest of the Black Cats laugh at Usopp as well, until Luffy throws a large boulder the size of a small boulder at them.

He’s deadly serious about Usopp and his dream to the extent that he gets some real lemon-sucking faces out of the cats. Now this is a reference a from a bit down the track, seeing as this is the first chapter of volume 5, but in volume 57′s SBS, Oda recounts that he got a call from his grandma admonishing him for using words like ‘kill’, and that it doesn’t so much fit Luffy and friends’ image. As it is, this may be the only time when Luffy seriously threatens to kill someone. Early installment weirdness, as they say.

Once again, Zoro is given a full page panel as he slashes down an opponent. Kuro’s the only real threat left, now. Zoro picks up Usopp to guide him and gives chase after Django.

Dynamic! Luffyshows that tree what for, since Kuro’s so good at dodging. The fight between two captains begins now.

We get some back and forth action, Luffy and Kuro dodging each other’s attacks and Luffy showing off Gum-Gum Spear, a weird new double leg thrust move. Before he begins to fight seriously, Kuro has a question for Luffy: why?

Luffy is cocky, and so is Kuro. Gonna be a good fight, here. Also, Zoro’s famed navigational abilities are coming into play in the forest. I don’t feel good for the Usopp Pirates and Kaya’s chances.

Especially as Django found them before the chapter could end.

Long post this chapter, lots of fighting and eventful all round. And yet, only one glasses adjust? Kuro’s losing his touch after his lenses got shattered.

FINAL GLASSES ADJUST COUNT FOR THE CHAPTER: 1

38 TOTAL

[deepmagician]

Chapter 35: The Steep Slope

The fourth volume of One Piece, covering from chapters 27-35, introduced a couple of features that show up going forward. The SBS, then Usopp’s Gallery Pirates, and then this chapter has another new recurring feature: canon cover pictures!

While so far cover pictures have been fun drawings of the characters in various situations, often doing something with animals, this one fills us in on what’s been happening with Buggy after Luffy launched him, sans most of his body, out of Orange Town and into the distance.There’s more cover pages that continue his adventures in future; in fact, they form a sort of mini-side-arc all of their own, called Buggy’s Crew Adventure Chronicles. Here, we see that Buggy managed to get a raft, which is lucky as he’s a Devil Fruit user and can’t swim, and is paddling for his life from some big fangly fish. It’s fine, he’s a villain. We don’t care how much he suffers.

Back with the main storyline, Kuro’s down but not out. He lies there thinking as Luffy prepares to beat everyone up further, and the catboys panic. Suddenly, a new bunch of people appear?

The Usopp Pirates are here, and they’re kicking Kuro while he’s down. How embarrassing. Usopp yells at them to run away, that they’re out of their depth. He should know, so is he.

Ooh, he’s going to be mad about that. Silently, he walks past Usopp (kicking him in the ribs for good measure) and confronts Luffy. Kuro knows about Devil Fruit, and Luffy confirms that he ate one and is a Gum-Gum man.

We know Luffy is immune to bullets and cannonballs, and he took that chakram to the head pretty well. Against Kuro’s claws, I don’t know how his body would hold up. That’s why he keeps Zoro around, as he’s built up a resistance to swords over time. Speaking of Zoro, he steps into Django’s path to protect Kaya and the kids. Django wastes no time in sending the hypno-buffed Butchie back after Zoro.

The remaining Nyaban brother cracked the ground even before he got the buff, so he’s got some serious power going on now. Oda even draws him a bit cooler- see that panel with the fangs and claws? Not showing his face so we forget how silly he looks. How will Zoro fare?

Classic face kick. This attack isn’t named, but it totally should be. He’s not really worried about Butchie any more, since he already beat the catboy once. Usopp knows that the kids and Kaya aren’t safe, but he’s in no condition to even stand.

He plays the psychology card, calling the children men and giving them an honourable way to leave. Zoro even comments on it approvingly. See, the swordsman is smart enough to spot tactics like that. Don’t know about Luffy, though.

Usopp also snipes Django as he’s about to murder them kids, probably correctly reasoning that they’d take a large razor disc to the back of the dome worse than Luffy. Still, that only stopped one attack- Django goes to follow the escapees into the trees. Now Kuro and Butchie are blocking the heroes’ way up the path, so they can’t follow Kaya and save her. How do our brave warriors respond?

Zero concern about being able to do this. 

Hey, where was Nami this chapter? I know she’s hurt, but she didn’t even appear in a background at all. Checking the wiki, this is the first time since her introduction she hasn’t appeared, so I’m not the only one to notice. The arc continues along, and into volume 5 of... One Piece!

FINAL GLASSES ADJUST COUNT FOR THE CHAPTER: 2

37 TOTAL

[deepmagician]

Chapter 34: A Humble Servant

Luffy wakes from a nice hypnosis-induced nap when Nami stomps directly on his face in her heeled boot. He’s pretty ungrateful, there’s people who’d pay good berries for that. It doesn’t help that he immediately takes a full-speed chakram to the back of the skull. At least he saved Nami from it?

Also, he shrugs it off and pulls the blade out of his head with a SWUK. ‘That hurt! That really hurt!’ Yeah, no shit, Luffy. Still kind of confused, he’s mostly angry at Nami about all this until he sees she’s bleeding, and she sincerely tells him this is a fight they have to win.

TA-DAH!! SAME OLD NAMI. Excellent sound effects, here. Kuro reminds his crew there’s less than three minutes until he begins his massacre, but before everyone can get to fighting a certain someone shows up.

Sick girl Kaya has managed to hobble all the way to the North Beach, and she wants this all to stop. Kuro’s not pretending to be Klahadore at all, being cold and dismissive of her. She apologises to Usopp, seeing how hurt he is for the sake of the village.

She makes Kuro as generous an offer as he could hope for. His whole plan revolved around Kaya leaving everything to him in a will, so why not just get it now and willingly?

But it’s not enough. Man, that panel there is the only happy face he’s made since he revealed himself as Kuro. This whole scheme is something of a pirate’s retirement plan, hence his pretending to be dead and establishing a new life. Kaya sees now that there’s no reasoning with the villain, and pulls out Merry’s pistol.

Kuro remains level in the face of a quivering gun, and gets back to the psychological manipulation. He’s a bad guy, remember, and doesn’t care who knows it any more.

Kaya’s been through a lot, yesterday and today, and this cruelty is more than she can stand. She drops the gun, and Usopp rushes Kuro in a furious state. Yeah, you show him!

Kuro, still in peak condition, dodges no problem. Usopp might be in a wee spot of bother, with a bloodthirsty maniac with a grudge and a lot of sharp edges directly behind him...

But then in flies a Gum-Gum Pistol, completely lamping Kuro outta nowhere! Look at those motion lines, he got wrecked by that punch. That’s right, Luffy’s here, and he’s ready to get back to the vicious beatings!

Now this SBS is the final one of the volume, and so Oda doesn’t really answer questions here. Instead, he announces another feature for upcoming volumes: Usopp’s Gallery Pirates. Essentially, a fanart showcase! How nice. We’ll see those in future, then.

FINAL GLASSES ADJUST COUNT FOR THE CHAPTER: 2

35 TOTAL

[deepmagician]

Chapter 33: The Creeping Cat

Ah, this cover’s kind of significant!

So pirates have their flags, flying the Jolly Roger skull-and-crossbones. In One Piece, crews usually have a personalised one. We saw the Black Cat Pirate’s one a few chapters ago, and back in Chapter One we saw Shanks and his Red Hair Pirates Jolly Roger:

You know, that’s probably where Oda got the inspiration for the name Gold Roger? Anyway, this cover image shows us Zoro and Nami’s personal Jolly Rogers, on their planes. Zoro has his bandana and three swords, and Nami’s has a cheeky wink and tongue out, and her bandana. You know, her signature piece of clothing, that striped bandana?... As for Luffy’s, well, we’ll get to that. Or just look at the logo of this blog.

Kuro is not happy. He had a plan and was in disguise for three years to pull it off, and now his crew is late? They’re in trouble. In previous chapters, they talked up how he would even kill members of his own crew.

The Nyaban Brothers promptly decide to mutiny against Kuro. He’s been a butler for three years, what sort of a threat could he still be? They rush with claws outstretched...

And Kuro’s already moved. His crew gasps- he did a Pussyfoot Maneuver! In the original Japanese, the technique is called Nuki Ashi, meaning Stealth Foot. Gotta stay with the theme here, in the translation. Also, this is our first glimpse of Kuro’s weapons, the ones he used to maim Merry. Gloves with a sword on each finger- extremely Krueger-esque. The Nyabans wheel around, but before they can get a grip on Kuro’s position, he’s moved again.

God he’s cool. Everyone’s shocked at Kuro’s speed and technique, Django explaining that his speed and stealth is such that he could kill fifty assassins without being detected.

And we finally get the explanation for his signature glasses-adjusting action! Kuro may be the villain of a very early arc in One Piece, one that doesn’t last for that long, but he’s got such style and flair I was easily able to remember this habit when I got back to this point. Kuro has an ultimatum: if the heroes aren’t taken care of within five minutes, he’s killing all the catboys with his own hands. The Nyabans turn back to Zoro, but as everyone’s distracted by Kuro, Nami finds an opening to kick Zoro’s swords back to him. Time for a new Three-Sword Style move.

Tiger Hunt! The Japanese name, Tora Gari, is of course a pun, this time on a kind of Mohican haircut? Sure. Zoro takes both Nyabans out with one move. Check out those arm veins! Zoro gestures to Kuro- he’s next.

He’s not intimidated in any way. Zoro’s attack didn’t even defeat Butchie entirely, turns out. His bulk saved him, and he gets Django to hypnotise him up to the next tier. That’s gonna be scary for Zoro. Once again, however, Nami takes advantage of Django looking the other way and sprints off to Luffy. Django manages to huck his razor chakram at her, though.

And that’s another cliffhanger. These action sequences, they keep you waiting!

In this SBS, Oda presents a tidbit about Devil Fruits. He’s heard there’s over 100, and there’s also a ‘certain location’ crawling with Devil Fruit users. We’ll get there, don’t worry.

FINAL GLASSES ADJUST COUNT FOR THE CHAPTER: 3

33 TOTAL

[deepmagician]

Chapter 32: Cruel Fortune

Oh, it turns out my guess at the end of last chapter was completely off.

Siam ditches Zoro’s swords right away. Disrespecting swords is a surefire way to get on Zoro’s bad side.

He barely has time to do a final cat pun before Zoro slices him almost in half and runs to retrieve his tossed blades. Guess it’s Butchie’s turn?

Or it would have been if it wasn’t another gambit- to contrast with Butchie’s roundness, Siam’s super skinny and the slash only took out the midriff of his shirt. He pins Zoro to the ground and Butchie comes charging in with pun after pun. Cat Strike, Cat-A-Pult...

The Nyabans don’t need Django’s hypnosis to start busting up the terrain. While Zoro managed to evade with brute strength, that stomp’s bad news. The catboys don’t give him a chance to recover and get more swords, and start an assault tag-team they call the ‘Pussywillow March’. No comment.

Zoro’s defending, but only just. No chance to break away or strike back. Fortunately, he’s got a friendly sniper on his side!

Or he would have, if he hadn't've deliberately shifted himself into the path of Usopp’s shot? Zoro tanks the slingshot pellet right in his shoulder, giving the Nyabans an opening.

ZORO SWORD INJURY COUNT: 3

Been 16 chapters since we had one of those. Zoro’s been slacking. Anyway, he doesn’t want the Nyaban Brothers going after Usopp and Nami, since he knows they won’t really stand a chance, so he took the shot to save them. Nami decides that since Usopp’s in rough shape from being hit in the back of the head with a stone axe and also he was shot yesterday, it’s up to her to retrieve Zoro’s swords for him.

Oh dear, Django’s pulled out an actual weapon: a razor chakram. A disc weapon to match his hypnotism pendulum, I guess. With Luffy asleep, Zoro pinned down, and Nami and Usopp hurt, it’s looking real bad for the heroes.

Wait, something’s appeared that’s got the catboys shivering. What could stop these fierce feline freaks?

Oh. Kuro’s finally arrived, and he’s LIVID. Out of the frying pan...

FINAL GLASSES ADJUST COUNT FOR THE CHAPTER: 1

30 TOTAL

[deepmagician]

Chapter 31: Truth

Finally, after all those chapters with various forms of lie in the title, we reach the truth.

Kaya’s having nightmares after the trauma of Usopp coming to abduct her, and wakes sweaty and upset. She goes to find her main comfort in life, her rock, her support: her faithful butler Klahadore. When entering his room she finds the corpse of her other servant, Kaya is put into a bit of a state.

Fortunately, Merry was tougher than he looked, and survived Kuro’s vicious attack. Phew. He confirms that Klahadore, he of the scary shiny anime glasses, really is an evil pirate and Usopp wasn’t fibbing at all.

Usopp, redeemed! Kaya’s distraught at how Usopp was treated, what with Merry literally shooting him. Remember, all that sniping he’s been doing against the Black Cat Pirates, he’s been doing it the day after catching a bullet in his arm. She and Merry make up their minds: if Klahadore is doing all this for her estate, it’s worth giving it up to him to save everyone.

She may have a non-specific anime disease, but Kaya’s still got some guts. Good for her. As she heads out, she’s seen by the Usopp Pirates, who think their captain was acting weird yesterday and suspect pirates really are going to attack. This is a team-up for the ages: three kids with no displayed fighting ability, and one young woman who’s breathing heavily and sweating as she shuffles along. Hopefully Luffy and friends will have the pirates cleaned up before they reach the beach.

While Django and the remaining conscious catboys seem to have a lot of faith in the Nyaban Brothers here, it doesn’t change that they look like huge weirdo losers. For real, these guys suck. Ah well, part of the charm of One Piece is the extremely varied character designs. For every slick ice-cold villain like Kuro, there’s a completely bizarro dude like Butchie and Siam.

Also, along with not looking cool, they’re huge Usopp-ish cowards? They’re not fighters, they’re guards! They just guard things, not go out and battle! Siam does follow Django’s orders and charges at Zoro, but he’s flailing wildly and crying as he does it. How embarrassing.

Or so it seems- Siam’s cowardice is a feint, and Zoro barely blocks his slash in time. If he’d been hit, that would definitely have been added to the Zoro’s Sword Injuries count. Yes, Siam’s not actually a scaredy-cat. Pun not mine, that’s what Siam actually says. The catboys are laying it on a little thick.

Butchie’s even got another groaner ready. Oy. Anyway, Zoro’s down to one-third his regular sword level after the first strike of the fight. Siam calls him ‘me bucko’, to add insult to injury. Now I don’t remember how this fight turns out, but I will point out that Zoro lost 2001 matches with his two-sword style against Kuina’s one-sword style, so I’m pretty sure he has an idea about how you’re supposed to fight with a single sword. We’ll see how it goes next time.

[deepmagician]

Really enjoying your recaps! About to catch up in the anime so it's nice to go back to the beginning! Looking forward to more!!

Oh, thank you so much! I'm doing it for two reasons, to help myself appreciate One Piece more, and to potentially help other people do the same. It's so gratifying to see that anyone has followed this series, and even better to get a message like this. For real, you've made my day. Sorry entries are a little inconsistent when they go up, but it's because I post them when I do them and have no concept of a buffer, so c'est la vie.

[deepmagician]

Chapter 30: Backfire

OK, this cover’s pretty good too. Super Robot Luffy, Zoro, and Nami? You can even see that Robot Luffy’s limbs have a concertina shape to them, so they’d stretch too. Nice. And sixteen and a half years before Mecha-Naruto ever existed, too. Oda did it first!

Back at the mansion, Kuro is FURIOUS. Or perhaps... FURR-ious??? Ahem. Anyway, he goes off to check on the plan, ready to kill anyone who’s slowing it down, whether on his side or not. Side note: in the next chapter’s SBS, a reader asked what those poop shapes on Kuro’s jacket represent. Oda simply responds: it is poop. Alright then.

Luffy and Zoro wiped out all the Black Cats in an instant, so they go on with bickering with their teammates. Django’s not worried, maybe because he didn’t get punched or sworded like the rest of his side.

Also, as long as Django’s there, his team have the power of his hypnotism on their side! Nami’s a skeptic, Zoro remains taciturn, and Luffy and Usopp are kind of confused about the whole deal.

Turns out the hypnotism is super legit, actually! One of the freshly rejuvenated pirates punches a cliff, causing it to crack and crumble. This may be bad news- now the catboys are all superstrong and in a beserk rage! Luffy and Zoro are going to have to go all out to defeat them.

Hey, remember how last SBS had Oda call Luffy stupid? Turns out Luffy’s pretty susceptible to hypnosis, and so now he’s all buffed up as well. This isn’t gonna go well for Django and his gang-o.

ORA! Luffy pulls out a new move, the Gum-Gum Gatling. Between his Devil Fruit power, his extensive off-screen training, and this new hypnotism buff, they didn’t stand a chance, and the catboys are blown away. Not stopping there, Luffy runs down to their ship in his blind rage.

Luffy begins to physically dismantle the Black Cat. Even the figurehead has a sweatdrop. The pirates may be fueled by the same buff as Luffy right now, but they’re not getting in his way; they haven’t got nearly that level of crazy strength. Django goes for the hypnotism again to stop Luffy, but it’s not entirely successful.

Yeah, Luffy’s asleep and beneath the figurehead, but now their ship’s in no condition to sail, plus the heavy ship part fell among the Black Cats and knocked them around again. Kuro’s gonna be so mad when he sees this, he’ll probably adjust his glasses. Multiple times, even. Might even kill some people.

OK, there’s a few more Black Cats who’re still ready to go: the Meowban Brothers. Hmm, I prefer the non-VIZ translation for them, leaving them as the Nyaban Brothers, but I’m comitted to VIZ so what’m I gonna do. Guess we’ll see what they do next time. Pretty sure it will be in some way cat-related, though. They seem to be Django’s last hope to take out Zoro, Usopp, and Nami before Kuro arrives, since Django hasn’t shown any fighting aptitude at all.

Speaking of Kuro, he’s on his way to the beach, spotted by Onion. What’s he got in that bag of his?

Today’s SBS has a question: why hasn’t Luffy killed any of his enemies? Oda’s answer speaks to the themes of One Piece, I think. It’s to do with beliefs and ideals, and personal freedom: people in this pirate era live by their beliefs, and by defeating them, Luffy shatters their beliefs. The victory and defeat is about more than each other’s lives, it’s about your way of life. Also, he confirms that Morgan wasn’t killed, but thrown in the brig by his former men. Good to know.

FINAL GLASSES ADJUST COUNT FOR THE CHAPTER: 3

29 TOTAL