Post — Aaron Ngo

Major Spoilers are included in this thought piece. Please read with caution.

November 11, 2020 to November 17, 2020

2 Sagas

5 Manga Story Arc Reviews

7 Days

187 Chapters

(Chapters 303 to 489)

Hello everyone,

I have finished my third week with Big Daddy One Piece. I didn’t double my speed like I did during Week #2—only being able to read 187 chapters—but I am progressing faster than Week #1. At this point, I have decided to do these “The Reading Journey – So Far Thought Pieces” once a week until I reach the latest chapter. Since I’m already close to the halfway point—500—and it’s not even Thanksgiving yet, I truly do believe I can make it to 1,000 chapters by the end of 2020. Honestly, I’m questioning if the 1000th chapter will be out or not by the time I catch up. At time of writing, there are currently 996 chapters out on VIZ manga’s site. Anyway, here are my general thoughts—non-spoiler to the best of my ability—on the Water 7 and Thriller Bark Sagas.

One sentence summary: Written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda, the series follows Monkey D. Luffy traveling to the Grand Line—with his pirate crew—in search of the world’s ultimate treasure called “One Piece” in order to become the King of Pirates.

Water 7 Saga

After the events of the Sky Island Saga, Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates have landed back on the sea, ready for their next adventure. The Saga kicked off with a “Prologue” type arc, where Luffy and the others play against Foxy the Pirate, the leader of the Foxy Pirates in Davy Back Fights—a pirates’ game that puts crewmates on the line. I found this arc okay-ish and incredibly Anti-Black when they introduced Afro Luffy.

Apparently, Usopp explained that afros will give Luffy great primal power because “Blacks are Champs” or “Afros are Champs” depending on the translation. I found this whole situation Anti-Black because of that quote, and how Luffy is sort-of a monkey, and that just doesn’t look good overall. Reading the final fight scene between Luffy and Foxy was uncomfortable as a result, but I also liked the arc for making Nami useful and less of a hyper sexualized damsel in distress. So, let’s just stick with “okay-ish”.

The “Water 7 Arc” of the Water 7 Saga was the most perfect arc of One Piece I had read so far, and its unofficial part two “Enies Lobby Arc” was also a great follow-up arc that ended the story about CP9 and the World Government. Since week #1 taught me about pursuing impossible dreams and week #2 taught me about saving one’s country and how to do so by honoring the ancestors, week #3 is about the government oppressing people and censoring history. Why is One Piece teaching me so many things at such relevant times?

During the week I read this, a lot of Republicans in the United States were making it very clear—in the aftermath of Trump’s decisive defeat in the 2020 presidential election—that their way of doing politics goes hand-in-hand with political corruption. Some have even admitted that their politics will never work without corruption, choosing to undermine our democracy rather than enforce it. So, reading One Piece and the way the fictional World Government works felt appropriate.

The World Government was seen here and there throughout One Piece—mostly through the Marines—but this arc gave us a deeper insight into how corrupt they are through their stances on absolute justice, suppression of history made clear through Nico Robin’s tragic background, and the selfish motives of their high-ranking officials. When Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates declared war on the World Government—by attacking their flag—to save Nico Robin from the Gates of Justice at Enies Lobby, that was an inspiring scene because it was a reminder to keep fighting for the sake of others even if the whole damn world is your enemy!

The theme of Nakama also factored into the Saga when Usopp and Nico Robin temporarily left the Straw Hat Pirates. Usopp left the crew over a heated disagreement with Captain Luffy about Going Merry, their pirate ship. After learning Going Merry’s life was practically over, Usopp refused to get a new ship because Going Merry was their Nakama too. This was also one of the rare moments when Luffy acted like a real Captain by making this not-so-easy decision, and this caused Usopp to be kicked out of the crew for most of the Water 7 Saga. Nico Robin also left the crew to protect them from the World Government, choosing to die as a martyr in order to protect their lives.

Reading Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates overcome the impossible odds—fighting for what’s right—and rebuild their Nakama is something I needed to experience in 2020. Along with Nico Robin and Usopp rejoining the team, Franky—a cyborg shipwright—and their new pirate ship Thousand Sunny had also come onboard for fun adventures!

The “Post-Enies Lobby Arc”—the Epilogue arc of the Saga—was also fantastic on the plot developments in addition to delivering great payoffs regarding Luffy’s family, the Marines, and checking in with everyone’s hometowns when all Straw Hats had officially gained bounties on their heads. The cliffhanger with Ace and Blackbeard was probably my absolute favorite moment in the entire manga series so far. I’m hyped for Luffy and Blackbeard to eventually clash.

Thriller Bark Saga

Unfortunately, Thriller Bark Saga didn’t follow up on the Ace and Blackbeard cliffhanger until the end of this Saga. This was a short Saga—the shortest one—compared to the other Sagas though because it only consisted of one arc—also called Thriller Bark. This whole adventure was a horror-driven story, with zombies and ghosts running all over the place trying to steal everyone’s shadows.

While everyone had a role to play in this arc, Nami’s character arc was pure fan-serviced again. She was targeted by one of the zombie general villains who fell in lust with her beauty and wanted to marry her. The villain had the ability to turn invisible, so he stalked her in the bathroom, sexually assaulted her while showering, kidnapped her in the middle of a fight scene, drugged her to sleep and made her wear a wedding dress, then he tried to kiss her while she was asleep to seal the deal.

I did really enjoy how Nami eventually woke up and saved herself from the forced wedding with Lola’s help—a zombie-hog obsessively in love with the villain similar to how the villain was in lust with Nami. The growing friendship between Lola and Nami was really sweet though after they resolved the misunderstanding of Nami “stealing” her man. The “women supporting women” character dynamic also led the pirates off to their next adventure, with Lola advising the pirates to meet her mother using a special piece of paper.

We also met newcomer Brooke, a living skeleton with an unexpected connection to Laboon—the big whale from the “Reverse Mountain Arc”. Brooke is also a musician swordsman who died and came back to life, wanting to fulfill his promise to reunite with Laboon someday. Luffy really wanted Brooke to join and become their Nakama because he wanted a musician on board since the beginning of the series. Brooke is okay so far; his tendency to make skull jokes is fine, but I do wish he’d stop asking Nami what kind of panties she’s wearing. The sexual harassment disguised as sex jokes wasn’t working with me.

Normally, those storytelling tropes would be dealbreakers for me, but I made a promise to catch up with Big Daddy One Piece, and reporting these inappropriate moments of this amazing story seems like the right thing to do for those wanting to hop on the ongoing One Piece train. Y’all should know what you’re getting into.

Overall, this was a productive Week #3. I’m excited to dive into the Summit War Saga next and seeing how the massive story continues toward the “New World”. Thank you so much Oda for such a great story so far, even if we don’t see eye to eye on certain things. Thank you everyone else for reading this thought piece. I’ll see you all next week!

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