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

It has to be said, Oda is perfectly fine with repeating himself provided that it makes a good story. And as long as we’re still highly entertained, I think that’s fine. Certainly the Usopp sections of this volume were my favorite part, even if their basic shape felt a little familiar. We see Usopp in over his head, talking about how he’s a hero while having no idea what to do. We see him attempting to run away, only to return because of his guilty conscience. and we see his “victory”, as it’s a truly grotesque face that makes miniboss Sugar pass out and save the day – not unlike what happened with Perona in Thriller Bark. But of course this is how Usopp grows stronger, and I expect big things from him soon. He’s not allowed to start beating up bad guys or anything, due to Oda’s desire to always have that basic ‘type’ on the crew, so you need moments like this.

Meanwhile, you absolutely need Sugar to pass out, because the danger has been ramped up as Robin was turned into a toy. It actually happens so casually amidst the chaos that it’s a surprise when we see her Raggedy Anne body, and we see her desperation as she realizes that her fate is totally in Usopp’s hands now, even if he doesn’t remember her. The concept of the toys in general, and who they used to be, is a grotesque sort of horror even for Oda, and it’s almost a relief when we finally learn what we’ve suspected for some time now, which is that the Tin Soldier who’s tried to protect Rebecca is in fact her father. As I said, the beats may be similar to other storylines, but they’re good beats.

On the lighter side, Oda has occasionally done mild shout-outs to other Jump artists in the past – I’m thinking of the big giant ‘shock faces’ he’s used from Enel on down, which are a straight rip of Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo – and so I have to think that the minor villain whose minions go on about him being too hardboiled is a reference to Gintama, which sadly I think most readers will miss given its cancellation here in North America. Other than that, though, there’s not a lot of room for humor in this volume. Things are turning even more deadly than before, and our mystery savior who’s helping Luffy by taking his place in the arena can’t even stop to reveal who he really is (we all know who he really is, but let me keep up the pretense.)

This is not a perfect volume – Scarlet’s backstory was rather sexist, something Oda’s at least made attempts to avoid in the past, even though he’s been backsliding a lot lately. And of course, being in the middle of 11 chapters that are just ‘a giant fight happens’, the plot moves forward only incrementally. Still, now that Usopp has scared the bejabbers out of Sugar, we should start to see things get cleared up. Unless of course it leads to even wider chaos. But this is One Piece, what are the chances of that happening?

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

I’ve talked about the disparate chaos going on in this One Piece storyline for a couple of volumes now, and while it doesn’t decrease in this new volume there seems to be a purpose behind it. The Tontatta Army states its intended objective – turn all the toys back into humans, give everyone their memory back – and then point out they realize this could lead to an outcome even worse than what they have, but they want to leave that up to the people – a sort of controlled, directed chaos. That type of chaos is seem throughout here, as we get a lot of explanations about what’s been going on, both here and through the series.

It’s not just order vs. Chaos either – the reveal that the old king of Dressrosa is still alive allows the series to contrast his rule of peace with Doflamingo’s suppressive, violence-led style. Like Crocodile, he comes into the kingdom as its supposed savior, having first set up the circumstances where he can do so. He talks about the heritage of his ancestors, but I’m not sure he actually cares about that, and a more telling speech is seen when he’s yelling at the melee fighters who tried to run away during their match, saying that taking a hit and getting bloody was better than any act of cowardice. It’s not just chaos, Doflamingo loves brutality.

We get a little more revealed about the past of One Piece’s universe, in what for Oda is a giant block of exposition, as the disgraced fighters bring each other up to date. I’m not particularly surprised that it ends up having royalty and aristocracy as the villains – the cruel rule of the powerful over the oppressed has been one of this series’ top themes, with Alabasta being such an exception that they actually had to single it out here as being different so as not to paint Vivi and company with the same brush as the others. In addition to that, there’s a strong anti-terror message here in seeing the reaction of everyone to the King’s demand for ransom money – pacifism is a noble intent, but unless one realizes that there’s a limit to it, it may lead to an even bigger tragedy, because people can be bastards.

Through all this, we have the ongoing adventures of our heroes. Sanji gets a few moments to try to look cool, which I would enjoy more if they weren’t so telegraphed and obvious. Nami has an inspiring speech used as a comedic undercut, which made me facepalm, but she redeems herself a bit with a better rousing speech towards the end. As for Luffy, he mostly spends this volume just watching everyone, but we do get a dramatic revelation as a cliffhanger. It’s presented as a mystery (indeed, Viz’s ‘next volume’ blurb has us wonder who the mystery stranger is), but anyone who recalls the flashbacks to Luffy’s childhood will have guessed it by now. It’s nice to see confirmed what most already expected.

So after as much exposition as I think we’re going to get, I expect Vol. 75 to be a series of giant fights. Should be fun. One Piece: Still Excellent.

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

When I reviewed the last volume, I said that there was a bit too much going on for me to get a handle on all of it, and that goes double for this volume, which rarely stays on one character for longer than a few pages. As such, I think it’s time to bring out the bullet point review style, which I haven’t done in some time.

— So we get to see Sanji’s reputation as a loser who is easily manipulated by women, but this is undercut a great deal by having him actually be right about her needing help, of course. Sigh. One day I’d like to see a pretty girl who isn’t swayed by Sanji’s annoying chivalry. (Well, one can argue Nami and Robin perform this function…)
— I like the reveal that Donflamingo had the press send a retraction on this quitting the Warlords 12 hours later, right after all his enemies would have taken the bait. It’s quite clever. I also like that Law, given an easy chance, still respects Luffy enough to not take it, and proclaims that they are equal allies.
— Naturally, Usopp playing the hero is getting him into all sorts of trouble, as now he has to lead a Tontatta army to rescue their missing princess (who is apparently a horrible person, but is one of them, so must be rescued). Meanwhile, Robin is resting after using up her one big surprised face last volume, so she’s mostly stoic here.
— Nami, Chopper, and Brook get very little to do, but I have to admit that Oda still knows how to use fruit powers to his advantage. The Picasso fruit allows him to try styles for the characters that are both horrifying and hilarious.
— As I suspected last volume, the big reveal about the toys is that they were once people – and, tragically, they remember this, but the people who they were connected to (wives, children) do not. This is incredibly sad if you think about it, especially as it’s been going on for years. I wonder how this will fall out once the Straw Hat Pirates save the day?
— Much of Luffy’s fight in the ring is taken up by a bunch of seemingly awesome fighters who get taken out by a slew of other even more awesome fighters, as in most tournament arcs. I did like the Ideon ref. The one to note here is Chin Jao, who, as per One Piece tradition, has a backstory both extraordinarily sad and extraordinarily stupid at the same time. (Seriously, without his head being pointy, nothing can happen? He’s that much of a can opener?) That said, in the end it’s Luffy punching the grudge out of him.
—And then there’s Rebecca, who has an even more tragic backstory, which resembles Nami and Robin’s a bit too much for my liking. She’s going out their to kick ass, but I have a sinking feeling that she’s going to need saving. There was much discussion when she appeared that she might join the crew, but her tragic past flashback is only a few pages, so chances aren’t good. We shall see.

Oda is still doing what he does best, and tehre are some very clever twists in this volume. One Piece fans should be quite satisfied.