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

First of all, a brief note regarding scanlations. As has become apparently to anyone reading these reviews, there are certain titles that I review with a little bit of ironic foreshadowing, knowing what will come after. The primary suspects being One Piece, Negima, Hayate the Combat Butler, and Skip Beat. Do I read the scanlations the week they come out, you ask?

Yep. I do. There’s no way I’m waiting a year and a half for Del Rey to catch up with Negima in Japan, especially when it’s at such an exciting point in the story. However, I buy them the moment they’re available in North America too. There’s not one scanlated series I follow regularly here that I don’t also buy if it becomes available in North America. And what’s more, I’ll never link to a scanlation site, even if I’m discussing something that’s not currently licensed.

I bring all this up merely to note that it’s very hard to read One Piece 34 fresh, without all my foreknowledge of what’s going to come. So, even though my reviews tend to spoil anyway (you should know this already), I will do my best to avoid giving away the major plot twists coming up in this, One Piece’s longest arc to date: Water Seven.

Well, first we have to finish up the Davy Back Fight. Luffy wins. Luffy actually wins in a very clever way (clever for Oda and for Luffy), using the silly afro as a plot point. And, having briefly humiliated the Foxy Pirates, our crew are on their way to more merry adventures! …Well, except they have to deal with a tall, eccentric Navy Admiral first, who’s interested in Nico Robin. Aokiji’s first appearance is a startling combination of laughable humor and terrifying threat, and it’s notable that he gets a reaction of pure fear from Robin, of all people.

After Aokiji curb stomps Luffy (well, maybe he was still tired after the Davy Back Fight…), the crew recover and head off to Water 7, where they plan to find a shipwright. As with the start of Skypeia, this means quite a lot of worldbuilding, as we meet the new island’s denizens and see how they’re wacky and lovable and yet still fighting for their dreams. Highlights include Luffy and Nami’s negotiations to tuirn Skypeian gold into actual cash, Iceberg’s hot secretary (who apparently regards simple welshing as sexual harrassment), and the cool yet goofy shipwrights, one of whom has a nose that rivals Usopp’s, and another of whom communicates through the pigeon on his shoulder.

However, we definitely get a sense that this arc is not going to be all fun and games. There’s implications that the Government has a base very close to here. And Robin is blindsided by someone muttering “I’m with CP9” to her. It’s notable throughout the volume that Robin is incredibly worried and stressed, as personified by the fake smiles she puts on when everyone asks if she’s all right. And we still don’t know about her past…

A good setup volume, and Oda’s habit of putting little name placards next to important new characters helps the reader to keep track of people they need to. (For example, Kaku, Lucci, and Paulie get placards, so are more important than the rest of the shipwrights.) In a series this big, that’s a good thing.

Action, humor, and a hint of intrigue – along with a rare example of Luffy getting utterly crushed. That’s what you get in this One Piece. Recommended.