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

At last, we get the first fight between Luffy and Eneru. Of course, this being One Piece, Eneru wins, but that just means Luffy has to come back and beat him EVEN HARDER.

The volume begins with Eneru having taken out everyone except Zoro and Wyper, and they don’t last long against Eneru’s lightning abilities and his giant power of resurrecting himself. That just leaves Nami, who decides that discretion is the better part of valor and asks to join Eneru on his mighty crusade to the world of dreams. Eneru is not fooled, but decides that followers who are terrified of him work better, so takes her on his flying ark.

Meanwhile, back down on the sky island proper, Conis is actually managing to be successful at evacuating everyone. One of the best parts of the volume is where she denounces Eneru and isn’t zapped (as he’s far too busy getting ready to put his final plan into effect). She’s really gained in strength after meeting the Straw Hats, and I admire her devotion to her people even after the death of her father.

Then Luffy shows up, and we get the first battle. This is alternately badass and hilarious. I loved the bit where Nami tries to warn Luffy about fighting him, and he tosses her his hat, telling her that she’s a crew member of the Future King of the Pirates, so stop whining. This, by the way, leads to a later part of the manga where Nami gains the strength to denounce Eneru, and admits that all of her hopes and dreams are useless if she has no one to share them with. (I don’t canonically want any romantic pairings in One Piece. That said, I love Luffy/Nami.)

As for the fight itself, Eneru can use his electrical wavelengths to read Luffy’s moves, so things don’t go so well. Luffy’s attempts to clear his mind are hysterical. Then, of course, there’s that page. You know the one I mean. Page 82. Eneru and Nami have just figured out that Luffy, being made of rubber, is completely immune to Eneru’s electrical attacks. Eneru’s reaction to this is a look of such comedic shock that words cannot describe it. (I’ve always felt it was Oda’s shout-out to Bobobobo-Bobobo, a manga running in Jump at the same time, which uses those expressions about every page. Later in Thriller Bark, we’ll get another variation, as Bobobobo-Bobobo was ending in the magazine that week.)

Of course, this being only Round 1, Eneru wins, and attaches Luffy’s arm to a giant mound of gold, throwing him off the ark. He’s about to take out Nami as well, but luckily Sanji and Usopp have finally woken up, and come to her rescue. Well, attempt it at least. Sanji gets to be cool, Usopp gets to flail a bit, but ultimately everyone ends up back down on the ground. Then Eneru starts calling down lightning on the entire world.

To be continued! Exciting, huh?

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

We’re still deep into fighting mode here in Skypeia, meaning we’re not gonna get a huge amount of plot and characterization. We do get some nice exceptions, though. And this being One Piece, the action scenes actually have action in them, as opposed to 18 pages of two character staring at each other glaring fiercely.

We pick up with the second half of Robin’s fight against Yama, a huge bulky jerk who’s Eneru’s Number Two. Unfortunately for him, he decides to start destroying some priceless ruins. He quickly learns that one should never piss off an archaeologist. Chopper isn’t as lucky, as he gets taken out fairly quickly by another of the Four Vassals. Well, they can’t all be as dumb as Gedatsu.

As I’ve noted earlier, this is sort of, broadly, a tournament arc. Characters fight other characters, one wins, and they move on to fight the next one up. But it’s not done as a tournament, but instead as a giant free-for-all race, which makes it work much better. And that still leaves time for things like the hysterical realization of what Luffy’s ‘cave’ really is.

I had forgotten how much Nami grows in this arc. It’s set up in this volume, which shows us just how utterly terrified she is by what’s going on around her. With Usopp unconscious, she’s the last ‘normal’ one, and she knows it. And she’s confronted with someone like Eneru, casually taking out her friends, who she knows are miles ahead of her in terms of ability. It’s always nice to see Oda remind us how not everyone in the crew is a badass superpowered monster (Usopp usually fills this role, and he’ll get the bulk of it in the next arc, Water Seven.)

It helps that Eneru really is pretty incredible, even for a One Piece villain. He casually fries Raki, noting that ‘all lambs are equal in his eyes’, and later does the exact same thing with Robin. (He gets the best line of the volume when Zoro points out, angrily, that Robin is a woman. “…I know. I saw.”) It makes a refreshing change from the ‘stay back while I fight him’ mode shonen often gets into with its female characters.

And then, at the end, Eneru is defeated… only he CANNOT DIE. You fools, who thought you could defeat him! And we finally find out what his plans are, and they’re pretty much ‘destroy Skypeia. Whatever can our heroes do? We’ll find out in the next Volume. Still one of the best manga out there.

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

Well, it was bound to happen eventually. Having finished the setup, and gotten as much mileage out of wacky things happening and occasional dollops of exposition as is possible, we’re now into shonen fight mode. One Piece may be a cut above, but it’s still a Jump manga. Which means fights, fights, fights.

One Piece has never quite done what is termed a “tournament” arc, where various badasses fight each other and are picked off till only the hero and rival/villain are left. We’ll see an attempt at one after this arc, with Foxy the Silver Fox and his crew, but Skypeia also comes vaguely near this. Eneru basically states there’s 81 people battling in the forest, and by the end of 3 hours 5 will be left. So it’s a classic ‘see who dies’ plot. Or, this being One Piece, ‘see who gets knocked unconscious but is later fine’.

We do get some very interesting fights. Impact dials are explained here, and Nami gets a wonderful moment using them (whenever Nami sticks her tongue out at you, and you’re an enemy, watch out). Comedy comes to the fore with Chopper’s fight, with Gedatsu being one of Oda’s classic insanely stupid villains. The man is almost perfect: He has silly hair, he thinks his speeches rather than saying them out loud, he rolls his eyes so far up into his head that he can’t see… a minion made for One Piece, really. And it’s nice to see Chopper gain some confidence by beating a goon.

Of the other fights, Luffy’s gets cut off before it really gets going, as he falls into what appears to be a mysterious hole filled with treasure. Robin is rather annoyed to be facing a bunch of destructive jerks who have no issues with smashing the ancient ruins around them. Zoro, being Zoro, gets the “I respect you as an enemy but must fight you now” duel. And Sanji and Usopp get curb stomped by Eneru, in the standard ‘show how powerful our villain is’ moment. It serves to absolutely terrify Nami, something that will come up a little later on. Note also that Eneru can survive a spear right through his head. Yikes.

Oh yes, and the Wapol cover arc finishes. Who would have thought that he’d end up like that? Then again, this is a shonen manga, so anyone can be redeemed, theoretically.

So it’s 2 hours after Eneru made his prediction, and the 81 people is winnowed down to 25. What can possibly happen next? Well, we’ll have to wait till February, when the Skypeia arc will wrap up with the next 5 volumes.