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A review by justinlikescomicbooks
One Piece, Vol. 57: Paramount War by Eiichiro Oda
4.5
I'm starting to get a really bad feeling considering how sappy these Ace flashbacks are getting...
I really missed Luffy at the beginning of this volume, when he's stuck on a ship up above the fight. I love the world and mythology of One Piece, but I really need my stretchy monkey boy at the middle. After all, what is the point of booting all the Straw Hats to the other side of the world if not a firm statement to the reader that this is Luffy's story, and no one else's? Which makes it a little jarring to go straight into a Luffy-less marathon of myth-building and lore-dropping. Thankfully, he's only a drop of the sky away, and it's really cool to see him interact with all these powerful pirates who've been teased for 500+ issues. Once Luffy gets there, there's a really, really satisfying, sustained sense of payoff; you can feel Oda completely redefining what the comic is.
Up till now, the "Mythology Episodes" of One Piece, AKA the arcs that feel like they drive the overall story forward, are just about the Straw Hats conquering a super-duper hard boss who was terrorizing a land. Alabasta and W7/Enies Lobby both felt like large-scale, grand adventures that really pushed One Piece into the next phase. But this is something completely different: Luffy feels entirely outpowered by every person in every direction; Oda is providing a very generous glimpse into where he sees this story going. You can just imagine a much, much more powerful versions of Franky blowing the breaks off squadrons in a major war like this, or Brook dancing across the battlefield. And the joy comes from seeing Luffy rise to the occasion: our protagonist belongs here, and though he doesn't boast the same training, he may just be the most dangerous man in the bay.
It feels like the last 500 chapters all meant something, like everything was leading to this; and on the flipside, you see all these seeds planted for the next 500 as well. Great change of pace to keep things fresh, and an even better understanding of the gravitas required to do something like this. The man was simply cooking.
I really missed Luffy at the beginning of this volume, when he's stuck on a ship up above the fight. I love the world and mythology of One Piece, but I really need my stretchy monkey boy at the middle. After all, what is the point of booting all the Straw Hats to the other side of the world if not a firm statement to the reader that this is Luffy's story, and no one else's? Which makes it a little jarring to go straight into a Luffy-less marathon of myth-building and lore-dropping. Thankfully, he's only a drop of the sky away, and it's really cool to see him interact with all these powerful pirates who've been teased for 500+ issues. Once Luffy gets there, there's a really, really satisfying, sustained sense of payoff; you can feel Oda completely redefining what the comic is.
Up till now, the "Mythology Episodes" of One Piece, AKA the arcs that feel like they drive the overall story forward, are just about the Straw Hats conquering a super-duper hard boss who was terrorizing a land. Alabasta and W7/Enies Lobby both felt like large-scale, grand adventures that really pushed One Piece into the next phase. But this is something completely different: Luffy feels entirely outpowered by every person in every direction; Oda is providing a very generous glimpse into where he sees this story going. You can just imagine a much, much more powerful versions of Franky blowing the breaks off squadrons in a major war like this, or Brook dancing across the battlefield. And the joy comes from seeing Luffy rise to the occasion: our protagonist belongs here, and though he doesn't boast the same training, he may just be the most dangerous man in the bay.
It feels like the last 500 chapters all meant something, like everything was leading to this; and on the flipside, you see all these seeds planted for the next 500 as well. Great change of pace to keep things fresh, and an even better understanding of the gravitas required to do something like this. The man was simply cooking.