Monday, April 22, 2024

Book Review: One Piece, Vol 11: The Meanest Man in the East by Eiichira Oda

 

One Piece, Vol 11: The Meanest Man in the East     


Author: Eiichiro Oda

Publisher: Viz Media

American release date: July 5, 2006

Format/Genre/Length: Paperback/Manga/Action & Adventure/192 pages

Overall Personal Rating: ★★★★★

 

Luffy is still battling Arlong. He’s finding the Fishman hard to defeat! Breaking his teeth does no good because sharks just grow new ones! The fight carries inside his headquarters, into the chart room. And this is where Arlong makes his mistake when he talks about using Nami for her cartography skills. Incensed at the idea that Arlong has been using his friend, Luffy goes berserk and destroys Arlong park! At just that moment, the crooked Marines arrive. When they learn of Arlong’s defeat, the leader, Captain Nezumi, attempts to take all the gold for himself, but nobody is having that and they deliver to him the smackdown of his life! The disgruntled Captain Nezumi informs the navy of the existence of a dangerous pirate and his four henchmen, and a bounty is placed on Luffy’s head –higher than that of most other pirates!

Luffy and the others have celebrated their victory with the villagers, and now it’s time to go. But where is Nami?  Sanji is horrified to think she might not be coming, but she is, of course. She just has one more thing to do.  Back on the high seas once more, headed toward the Grand Line, Luffy is delighted to discover that he has a price on his head. He feels as though he’s really arrived now and been officially recognized as a pirate. The others tell him that isn’t really good, especially such a high bounty, because it puts a target on their back! People will be coming after them now, strictly for the money.

As they pass by a particular island, Nami informs them that this where the infamous pirate Gold Rogers was executed, in a town called Roguetown. Would Luffy like to go there? Of course he would! Once ashore, the crew scatters to do their own thing. Nami looks for clothes she doesn’t intend to buy, and Zolo needs swords. He goes to a shop that sells them, but when the owners finds out how little he has to spend on two swords, he isn’t very enthusiastic about his presence… until he notices the sword Zolo carries and tries to cheat him out of it. Luckily, a knowledgeable young lady who happens to be in the shop gives Zolo much needed advice and helps him search for two swords in his price range. Wait, is he actually going to take the cursed sword?

Oh oh, Luffy is in trouble when a couple of unexpected blasts from his past show up on the island and he finds himself on the same execution stand where Gold Rogers met his end.  On top of everything else, Nami says that a huge storm is on the way and it’s going to hit the island!

Finally, we see the end of the evil Arlong (or at least I presume so). I love the way Luffy stands up for people, especially the ones he cares about. For one so young, he is very mature in ways, but very immature in others. I loved the scene between Mihawk and Shanks. If you watch the live anime, you’ll see that the actor playing Mihawk got him to a tee! If you haven’t watched it yet, you should, it’s great! I sure didn’t expect to see those two return and I would never have recognized one of them if she hadn’t mentioned her name.  It turns out that Zolo’s new friend works for the naval captain, Smoker. This can’t be good, can it?

Another great volume of One Piece, looking forward to the next!

 

 

 

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