One Piece: East Blue Saga: “Baratie Arc” (Chapters 42 through 68) Manga Review

Major Spoilers are included in this manga review. Please read with caution.

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.

On October 30, 2020, I started reading One Piece’s “Baratie Arc”—the fourth story arc in the Blue East Saga—and finished on November 1, 2020. This arc had everything with plot, setting, characters, tragic backgrounds, great comedic moments, and awesome fight scenes.

I have been shedding a good amount of tears the first five days reading this massive ongoing manga, but this arc had me super emotional for Sanji and Owner Zeff. There was also an excellent foreshadow moment with Nami, which gave us a good hint on what the next arc will be about. I’m looking forward to getting to know her better.

Even Zoro had a moment confronting Dracule Mihawk—the one holding the title of the “World’s Greatest Swordsman”. Honestly, seeing the vast difference between their power levels during the one-sided fight scene had me terrified for what’s to come on the Grand Line, and how the slow build-up is honestly necessary before Luffy and his incomplete pirate crew even attempt to head over there.

Zoro’s emotional resolve to never lose again made me shed tears for him, and how Mihawk acknowledges Zoro to keep training so they can fight again someday was amazing. Zoro is easily becoming one of my favorite characters when it comes to his resolve to obtain that title for the sake of his dead friend, but I still hate that they fridged her—she could’ve been an amazing support character or a future antagonist. It’s such a damn shame.

Sanji, the newest recruit, is a cook with the most tragic backstory introduced so far. As a child, he was shipwrecked with Owner Zeff—at the time, an active pirate—on a small rock, where they were stranded together for several months. They lived on opposite sides of that rock and barely spoke to each other for most of that time. We also learned the true origin story of how Owner Zeff lost his leg—having been forced to amputate and eat it so he wouldn’t starve because he gave all the food to Sanji. After this, Sanji felt indebted to Owner Zeff and worked with him at their ship restaurant called the Baratie.

As a result of this gratitude, Sanji initially refuses to join with Luffy, a recurring trope at this point, as all the previous members initially refused too—but after the events of this arc, Sanji relents to pursue his dream—Owner Zeff’s original pirate dream—for the “All Blue” hidden somewhere at the Grand Line. I’m so excited for Luffy and his pirate crew to hit the Grand Line at some point.

The character—and villain of the arc—Don Kreig also represented how dangerous the Grand Line truly is. This villain had an entire fleet of pirates, he was known as the “strongest in the East Blue”, possessed rare weaponry, but he still failed—and on the first day out there! However, Luffy still smiled and declared he’d find a way. That’s my boy!

Luffy’s fight scene with Don Kreig was honestly pretty good—action sequence and artwork. How Luffy kept jumping from driftwood to driftwood while dodging Don Kreig’s cannonball attacks without falling into the war was superb. I hadn’t talked much about the artwork, but I do love the character designs especially Luffy’s.

Luffy’s “main protagonist” moments whenever he declared he would become King of the Pirates were classic—the originator of the “classic”—and epically drawn. Not a real fan of Luffy’s role in the story—idiot who cares only about meat—but I do love his great design and simple-minded determination to a certain extent. There are times when he’s kind-of a distraction to the other interesting things going on, but I guess that’s something I have to get used to—I’ve heard Luffy doesn’t change all that much throughout the series either when it comes to his simple-mindedness. I won’t weigh in on that yet until I’m further into the story.

Overall, I’m having a great time reading Big Daddy One Piece. I’m honestly surprised at how well I’m receiving this manga. I would recommend those who are hesitant to jump on board with me—I have a feeling the story will pick up once Luffy has his whole crew officially together. Thanks for reading this manga review, everyone! Let’s keep it reading with the “Arlong Park Arc” next!