By Eiichiro Oda. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Viz.

The cover to this volume of One Piece is very telling, given that this volume ends one arc and begins another. In the foreground, we have Luffy, Jimbei and Shirahoshi, but new events are creeping in in the background, with Big Mom’s pirates one the right and Smoker and Tashigi on the left. Things are in a state of flux, and we aren’t quite sure where the manga is headed next. (That is, if we’re reading the manga only by volumes, Most North American readers can now read Shonen Jump weekly on Viz’s site, where Punk Hazard has just finished. Viz seems content to have the volumes be about a year behind the weekly chapters.)

Hody Jones having been defeated at the end of the last volume (and his comeuppance is highly amusing, and makes for a good capper to the “drugs are bad” plotline he and his mates had), all that’s left is to stop the ark crashing into the island and sinking it. Which is done, with the help of some ancient and powerful sea monsters who are mostly there to be mysterious. Then there’s the standard “we’ve won, let’s have a party” finale, which always gives us a nice two-page spread.

Most of what’s interesting about this volume, though, is the backstory we don’t really see. Robin has discovered the true nature of Shirahoshi, and it’s quite surprising. (And makes me wonder about Alabasta, which told of the location of another one of those ancient weapons – man, if it turns out to be Vivi, I’ll be highly amused.) Jimbei tells us that Akainu and Aokiji fought to see who would be leader of the Marines. It’s not a big surprise that Akainu wins, but Aokiji then resigning might lead to more surprises down the road. Oda sometimes compresses manga stories for time, and I suspect this is a battle he wanted to show but just never got a chance to. And of course this means the Marines are still after them, with Smoker and Tashigi, both now promoted, hot on their trail.

Speaking of Tashigi, the Marines seem to be treating her as they did Hina, which is to say half-awesome Captain and half sexpot. Hina, like Nami and Robin, didn’t really give a rat’s ass what they said. But Tashigi is obviously bothered by the sexism, and calls it out. Of course, I doubt very much this will stop it. Oda’s less sexist than some other Jump authors, but it creeps in here and there (look at how he draws most of the women now vs. 10 years ago), and I think Tashigi drawing attention to it just makes it more obvious. But hey, I’m glad to see her back regardless.

The Straw-Hat crew, meanwhile, leave Fishman Island to travel to, naturally, the most dangerous place Luffy can find (this is after going through a deathtrap waterspout with the help of some whales who aren’t Laboon, but could be his parents). There’s some lovely art here, and I like that, while the spout itself terrifies the designated crew members who get scared (Nami, Usopp, and Chopper), the terrifying visage of the New World just makes everyone happy. Well, happy till they reach Punk Hazard, with its ravaged landscape, fire-breathing dragons, and bottom halves of samurai. Oh, and half the crew already captured. Never let it be said that Oda paces things slowly.

If you love One Piece, you’ll love this. If not, this is absolutely not the perfect place to start – go back and read the early volumes.

By Eiichiro Oda. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Viz.

I warn you in advance, this is another One Piece volume consisting primarily of one big fight, with many tiny little fights interspersed therein. Luckily, One Piece is dense enough that there’s still stuff to talk about even if the plot is mostly ‘Luffy hits the villain until he wins’.

One reason that the non-Luffy battles are so inconsequential is this is the big opportunity for Oda to show off how far his cast had improved in the two-year gap before the Fishman Island arc. There are some supposedly impressive mimi-bosses, but it’s notable that the only one who makes a really strong impression is the silliest, Zeo. It’s no coincidence that Zeo faces off against Brook, one of the silliest Straw Hat Pirates. He really is fantastically funny, and helps to liven up what might otherwise simply be a long stretch of battle. Usopp, too, has leveled up, and being who he is, gets to lampshade it. He doesn’t have to use fake balloon hammers or Sogeking anymore, he’s not tough enough to take on these bad guys with ease. Even Chopper has leveled up, coming to terms with his monster form and thus becoming able to control it.

The ongoing Fishman Island plot has been about racism, and this volume is no exception. It notes that Hody’s Fishman Uber Alles attitude may be stronger and angrier, but it’s also more hollow – he has no actual experience with what the Fishmen went through, but has merely grown up surrounded by a culture of hate. That’s not something easily changed, not even with a petition or really good thoughts. It has become, as the translation explicitly states, a holy war, and Neptune’s sons finally ask Luffy to do something that they cannot – wreck the entire island, reduce their past culture, with all its hatred, to smithereens.

This, of course, would fit the prophecy while not immediately spelling doom for everyone. Which is good, as this is also a good volume for seeing the good side of Fishman Island, and of One Piece heroes in general. You can always tell a character that Oda likes (even if they may be a villain) by their tendency not to give up even under the face of the worst adversity. Even the children watching the battle refuse to evacuate. And there’s a difference between this sort of strength and obsession, which is what we see from Hody and Vander Decken, who are perfectly happy with taking out countless innocents as long as they achieve their goals.

That said, I will admit to being a bit exhausted by this arc. It looks like it’s going to wrap up soon, for which I am thankful. I also wish we could have seen Nami and Robin do a bit more, but I can’t have everything. At least Sanji wasn’t too big an idiot this time. Next volume we wrap things up here and set off on a new adventure in the New World. Will we add a new crewman as well? I doubt it, but you never know with Luffy…

By Eiichiro Oda. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Viz.

The Fishman Island arc, considering that we spent such a long time waiting for it to finally arrive, has been n unfortunate mixed bag so far. And that doesn’t really change with this volume, as while there are a lot of cool things going on, some good dialogue and humor, and some interesting bad guys, for once I wish that Oda would try pacing a little more like Bleach and let things slow down a bit.

The Straw Hat Pirates (plus Jimbei) are on the cover of this particular volume, and they do all get to show off their respective skills, in Oda’s standard shonen “see how I have grown stronger!” montage. Indeed, Zoro is captured and put into a cage (along with Usopp and Brook), but you get the sense that he barely treats it as something more than a minor inconvenience – he’s faced off against worse than this. Robin, meanwhile, can seemingly not only duplicate body parts but also herself now (let’s see Usopp try to imitate that!), and Nami gets to steal something for the first time in what seems like forever.

Speaking of Nami, given that we were at Fishman Island we were always going to touch on her past at some point. After the long flashback, Jimbei apologizes to her for not stopping Arlong, but this is an older, more mature Nami, and she can mourn the past while still looking forward to the future, and realizes that she’s met her crew and had grand adventures because of all this as well. It’s very heartwarming (as the rest of the cast seems to note, as several tear up in a “this is so heartwarming!!!” moment).

You would think Oda would have his hands full dealing with the prejudice moral that’s running through this arc, but apparently that wasn’t quite enough, so we also have some drug abuse going on, with the bad guys taking the Fishman equivalent of stimulants to keep going. As for the bad guys themselves, we meet Hody’s four lieutenants here, who are basically all variations on ‘goofy Fish guy Oda thought up to be funny’. There’s the one who adds sound effects to his sentences, the one whose camouflage is so good he gets run over, and the Drunken Master, just for a nice Hong Kong reference. Like Vander Decken, they are there to be bad guys you want to see beaten down but also enjoy reading about.

And so we finally start getting into the big fight about 2/3 through this book. It took longer than I thought – Luffy’s brief battle with Jimbei was particularly pointless filler but it’s here at last. So I’m hoping for some really good fights to take my mind off the fact that this arc is, for Oda, pretty mediocre. I mean, it’s still worth picking up – this is One Piece, and I don’t think Oda is capable of making anything not entertaining – but it’s not as fulfilling as what has come before it.