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

When we last left our heroes, they were back on the Grand Line being challenged to a Davy Back Fight. The fight comes in 3 parts, and they choose teams ahead of time. So we have Robin, Nami, and Usopp; Zoro, Sanji, and Chopper; and Luffy by himself. What’s more, the team that wins gets to choose a crewmember of the team that loses for their own crew. This is why the fights are so bad – crews end up decimated if they lose.

This volume is really just an excuse to show that our crew are very strong and talented at what they do. Usopp comes up with science on the fly, Nami navigates through treacherous waters, and Robin uses her body part powers to keep things going. Unfortunately, the Foxy crew cheat openly (they even note cheating is perfectly fine in the rules), and due to his own Devil Fruit Powers, the Foxy team wins the first race.

Unfortunately for team 2, they decide to take Chopper for their crew, as he’s cute and a doctor and basically a talking reindeer. Chopper is horrified, and Zoro and Sanji now have to work on their own against Foxy’s team, three huge guys who outweigh them and outsize them by several orders of magnitude. However, the fun of these few chapters comes from watching the glorious bitching and sniping that Zoro and Sanji fling at each other. They may be fellow crew members, but they make a big deal of being unable to stand each other, and the result is comedy gold.

We also get my favorite moment of the whole volume in this battle, which is set up to be a soccer hybrid. Just like soccer, there are fouls and red cards, and the referee is blatantly favoring Fozy’s team. So much so that Sanji pummels him to the ground. Near unconsciousness, he reaches for his red card to remove Sanji from the game, when he finds his cards and whistle gone! Cut to Nami, tongue sticking out, flashing the cards and whistle. “It’s an old habit.” A nice reminder of Nami’s thieving ways.

Sanji and Zoro win, of course, and Chopper is rescued. This leads to the final game, which is Foxy vs. Luffy. But not just any Luffy… AFRO LUFFY! I have to admit, I was waiting for this volume just so I could see how Viz would handle the awkward dialogue. They did an excellent job of it, playing up the ‘champion’ part of the boxing being why Luffy needs the afro (the original had Luffy getting the mysterious strength of a black person, in case you’re curious). Needless to say, Afro Luffy is hysterically funny, especially when all the other characters start crediting the Afro with making him stronger (except Nami, our voice of reason as always).

However, Foxy turns out to be less of a pushover than we thought, and due to a combination of his devil fruit and dirty tricks, manages to beat Luffy to near-death? Is this the end for Straw-Hat Luffy? (Well, no, it’s not. Come on, Foxy is a jobber. But you’ll have to wait for Vol. 34 to see what happens.)

Despite the extra expense, I’m glad Viz is catching up with One Piece. Especially as starting with 34 we head into Water 7 and Enies Lobby, my favorite arc of the series to date.

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

And so we wrap up Skypeia, with the final battle between Luffy and Eneru. Luffy wins, of course, using the huge lump of gold Eneru fastened on his right fist against him, and finally ringing the Golden Bell that had been waiting centuries to be heard. One of Oda’s better montages has everyone’s reaction to hearing the bell, ending with Luffy and Nami peacefully relaxing on a cloud after all the furor.

So in the end, Eneru is defeated! And so he’s captured and imp… no, wait, he’s not. So he’s killed? Nope. No death here. His dreams are crushed, then? Well, to a degree, but really, Eneru’s Skypeia story ends with him relaunching his ark and headed to Endless Varse… which turns out to be the Moon! Wow, what an awesome dream! In Japan, Eneru is consistently the most popular main villain in character polls, and Oda must love him too, as he really gets very little retribution for all of this.

So everyone lives happily ever after. Even Conis’s dad turned out to be Not So Dead. And there’s a giant party, which is drawn in loving detail. One Piece may have angst and shonen fights, but it’s also well known for people just having fun, and the joy expressed in this art is simply magical.

We also get a notable first (and so far, only) here: Luffy & co. actually stealing treasure for themselves! My god, you’d think they were pirates or something! Admittedly, the Skypeians turned out to be perfectly happy with them taking it, and in fact were prepared to give even more, but hey.

And there’s a nice mention of Robin’s plot here, as she finds another poneglyph that turns out to be the secret location of a Weapon of Mass Destruction (not what she’s after), but also has a scribbled note from Gold Roger on the side of the stone, noting that he is ‘guiding the document to its end’. Of course, this gives Robin an additional reason to travel with Luffy and friends to the end of the Grand Line, beyond simply “Because I’m mysterious like that.”

And so they leave Skypeia and head back down to actual sea, courtesy an Octopus Drop that must rival most amusement park rides. They have little time to relax, though, as they run into a pirate ship with the crew lying around and listless. They soon find out why: all the important crew members, including the captain, were taken by Foxy the Silver Fox in a Davy Back Fight!

…all right, I will admit, it’s hard to get all happy and bouncy about the Davy Back Fight arc. Foxy is clearly meant to be a minor comedic change of pace villain after the volumes of Eneru. Still, on we go to Volume 33. As always, recommended.

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

Well, it’s been a couple of volumes of huge epic fights, so it’s about time for a breather. As Luffy and Nami get ready to take on Eneru once more, most of this volume is devoted to a huge flashback.

At least we do see that Conis has succeeded in getting the Skypeians to evacuate, and just in time, as the cloud island is getting vaporized by Eneru. Wyper wakes up to see everything around him being destroyed, and starts to recall the legends of his boyhood.

This leads us into the real tale of Norland from 400 years ago, and how he became known as a liar. Naturally, Norland is pure awesome – this is One Piece, after all. The story of Norland is a classic one of Science vs. Superstition, as he arrives to stop the island’s sacrificing of virgins and shows them that they can cure the blights of their country through modern medicine. Unfortunately, the blights of the country turn out to be fixable by destroying ancient holy trees, which doesn’t go over well.

We also get the backstory of the golden bell, and the promise made to hear it ringing out. Sadly, things go as expected. The island ends up being blown into Skypeia via the Knock-Up Stream, and Norland is executed for his pains. It’s a sad story where a scientist and a warrior reach out to become great friends, but circumstance forces them apart.

Now we want Luffy to find that bell more than ever, and sure enough he’s climbing a giant beanstalk despite having tons of gold still attached to his right arm. Luckily, Nami arrives with her waver, and after hearing about his determination to show Norland’s descendants that he wasn’t wrong, agrees to help him reach Eneru.

How much you like this volume will depend on how much you can tolerate flashbacks taking up most of it. It deepened the Skypeia story, however, and sets up the giant Luffy/Eneru Round 2 that’s coming up. Recommended.