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

Last volume was sort of a low ebb for the Straw Hat Pirates, but this one’s not particularly sparkling either. The entire city is out to get them, Galley-La is trying to kill them, and worst of all, Robin returns and it looks like the rumors about her being the assassin are true.

I had forgotten, when this volume first came out in Japan back in 2005, how much distrust still existed towards Robin in the fandom. There were a whole lot of people who were convinced that Oda had tricked us again, and that she was going to turn out to be one of the arc’s Big Bads (Spoiler: she isn’t). Admittedly, fandom was helped along in this by Oda himself, who does a very nice job of making Robin’s motivations murky and suspicious. Zoro points out how she was first working against them, and tries to remain the voice of reason even as Luffy, Nami and Chopper want to believe in Robin.

The one exception to Oda making Robin looks bad and menacing is towards the end of the scene where she tells Sanji and Chopper she’s leaving the crew, where she thanks them and notes that she doesn’t deserve it. In my review of last volume I noted that most of Usopp’s issues stem from his low self-worth. Let’s just say that in the Straw Hat crew, Usopp runs a very faint Number Two behind Robin in the ‘self-hatred’ category. We’ll see a lot more of this in future volumes.

(Speaking of which, I felt so bad for Usopp when I saw the character list at the start of the volume! Poor guy, he’s not even listed as part of the crew now. (Robin will also change starting with 37, but she just gets greyed out, not moved entirely.)

Much of this volume is devoted to action and intrigue, and we get several cool-looking fights. The Straw Hats are generally not very good at convincing Galley-La of their innocence, and their attempts to get in to see the wounded Iceberg are confounded by another secret group, which Robin is a part of, attempting to do the same thing.

It has to be said that the secret identities of CP9 are not particularly surprising, but then they weren’t meant to be. We only knew the group was around for about 3 chapters before they appeared, and the big surprise is that they *are* secret identities, rather than four different people that we’d never seen before who happen to work for the government. (That said, the reveal is really well handled, especially seeing the pigeon just going ‘coo coo’ while Lucci does all the talking.)

And we get a big old cliffhanger as well, as the confrontation between CP9 and Iceberg is interrupted on one side by Luffy and Paulie busting through a wall, and on the other by Zoro, Nami and Chopper entering, more sensibly, through a door. Well, OK, they entered by breaking the door down. Slightly more sensibly. What will happen next? Stay tuned!

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

This volume is fantastic, but also heartbreaking in many ways. Things begin to fall apart here, and much of the manga seems to be devoted to systematically destroying Usopp. He gets beaten to a pulp multiple times, called weak and feeble (and it’s implied that therefore his friends are the same), forced to deal with the fact that the Going Merry has to be abandoned, and finally quitting the crew in a haze of rage and self-loathing.

Usopp’s always had it rough, especially over here in North America. Several of my friends simply hate him, calling him the weak crybaby. (They don’t like Chopper either, but he gets a pass as he’s not human.) In a fandom that keeps talking about how guys with awesome strength can beat up on other guys with awesome strength, Usopp’s clever fights, tricks, and constant need to deal with honest to goodness fear rub some people the wrong way. Of course, Oda knows exactly what he’s doing. Usopp’s drive to overcome his weaknesses is his entire plotline (Oda has said point blank that Usopp will always be the weakest crew member), and that’s what makes this volume so hard to read.

Not that he doesn’t get in some badass moments in his fight with Luffy over the Going Merry. Usopp is smart, and knows Luffy and his powers very well. Using his sharpshooting skills, some tricks, and a few dials from Skypeia, he manages to get in a few major blows on Luffy (which puts him ahead of a lot of the villains). Of course, Luffy is Luffy and Usopp is Usopp, so the outcome is not in doubt. Usopp gets curb stomped.

Robin also has a major role in this volume, which is especially interesting as she doesn’t actually appear in it. The crew is continuing to search for her, but all that becomes academic when Iceberg is shot, and he reveals that she was the culprit. This makes everyone suspect the entire Straw Hat crew, meaning that things are about to get much, much worse in Vol. 36. Indeed, the manga ends with Kaku, Paulie, Rob Lucci and Lulu showing up to kick some Straw Hat Pirate Ass, and looking really pissed off.

And of course we meet Franky. Oda loves to draw goofy characters, and Franky, a cyborg who looks like a cross between Frankenstein and Popeye, fits the bill perfectly. He dresses in only a speedo and Hawaiian shirt, he has blue hair gelled up high on his forehead, and he’s accompanied by two identical twin sisters who wear their hair in giant square afros. Never let it be said Oda can’t bring the goofy, especially when it comes to his character design. (I also loved the running gag of Lulu’s cowlick, which migrates all over his head and which he’s constantly trying to push down.)

Overall, though, this was a serious, melancholy volume. And the next one won’t be much easier, as Robin returns and we find out who’s really behind all of this.

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.