On My Shelves: One Piece– The Third Piece!

I continue my review of the immense and intricate shonen anime One Piece, following the sometimes "Idiot Hero" Monkey D. Luffy and his peculiar crew – swordsman Rorona Zoro, navigator Nami, combat cook Sanji, medic Chopper, sharpshooter Usopp, archaeologist Nico Robin, and musician Brook – in their united yet individual quests across the hazardous sea called the Grand Line.

To recap important points about our heroes and the world of One Piece: Some years back, the so-called Pirate King, Gol D. Roger (usually called Gold Roger) was executed by the World Government, but before he died, revealed that his had left all of his treasure, including the legendary "One Piece", at "that place" – a statement almost everyone believes to mean at the last island at the end of the Grand Line. This ushered in an era of treasure seekers and those preying upon them and others, both groups generally called "pirates" regardless of their actual morals (or lack thereof); such independent operators are generally against the World Government's law.

Besides the utterly bizarre nature of the world itself (with varied species of humans and nonhumans interacting in various ways), another key element of the world of One Piece is the existence of superhuman abilities of various types; the most common source of these abilities (though not the ONLY source) is for the wielder to have eaten a "Devil's Fruit"; these fruits grant the eater various powers ranging from the barely useful (the "Human-Human" fruit, which allows the user to turn into a human; this is sorta-useful for an intelligent animal) to the godlike (Enel or Eneru had the power to control, direct, and even become electricity in all its forms).

In exchange for this power, any eater of the Devil's Fruit also becomes what non-Devil Fruit users call derisively "an anchor"; they are utterly unable to swim, and in fact use all their powers and virtually all ability to move when immersed in water over their knees. There is also a stone called kairoseki or seastone which has the same effect, basically Kryptonite to these people.

Luffy's crew has several such: Luffy himself, who ate the Gum-Gum or Rubber Fruit, so he has become a "rubberman" – he can stretch and twist his body like rubber, rather like superheroes Mr. Fantastic and Elastic Man or Elastigirl. Chopper, whose normal form is that of a reindeer, ate the Human-Human fruit. Nico Robin has the power to make duplicates of her arms grow from any surface in view, which turns out to be a much more frightening power than one might think.

When last we left Our Heroes, they had just gained a new friend (nakama is the word most often used) in the person of "All-Bones" Brook, a musician who had eaten a fruit that ensured his resurrection from death… but his soul had been lost in a mystic fog for decades, meaning that by the time it found his body, the body was decayed to nothing but a pile of bones. Despite that, Brook was revived… but not regenerated, so he's a walking, talking skeleton.

The crew then discovers that Brook carries with him another curse; some monstrous being stole his shadow, which might be able to be used to control him, and has also made him vulnerable to sunlight; if he steps into sunlight he will burn up like a classical vampire.

This enemy turns out to be in control of a truly gargantuan ship called "Thriller Bark" (yes, the reference is undoubtedly to the Michael Jackson song), the size of a moderately large island, which is covered with what appear to be horror monsters of every description – zombies, vampires, chimeras, etc. As Brook has joined their crew, the Straw Hats are bound to try to confront this enemy and retrieve his shadow; Brook tries to dissuade them, as he doesn't want them endangered, but this of course doesn't work. Luffy loves a good fight.

Things are entirely not as they seem, however. The "zombies" are other unfortunates whose shadows have been stolen, and the other monsters are creations of the real controllers of Thriller Bark – a group called the Mysterious Four, led by Shichibukai Gekko Moriah, a monstrously inhuman being about twenty feet tall whose Devil Fruit power gives him control of shadows – which includes the ability to steal someone's shadow and use it as a motive force in a zombie, due to the association of "shadow" with souls and the persons that the shadow is connected to. He's also able to control shadows directly, making his own shadow into a duplicate of himself with multiple abilities; the Shadow Fruit's power is very flexible and quite formidable.

The other members of the Mysterious Four are Dr. Hogback, a semi-human mad-scientist type whose researches into life, cures, and immortality have been bent by his obsession with a particular woman and the desire to bring her back to life; General Absalom, a human being enhanced with animal "upgrades" by Hogback into a sort of tiger-man, who also has the power of the Invisibility Devil Fruit; and Ghost Princess Perona, a Gothic Loli-appearing girl with the power of the Ghost Fruit, which allows her to control ghosts to produce a number of effects of depression, fear, and even destruction.

The Straw Hats initially fare well enough in their confrontation with the inhabitants of Thriller Bark, until Gekko Moriah reveals himself and strips several of their number of their shadows. As a zombie's power is directly dependent on the power of the original, this gives Moriah several very powerful new zombie servants, including being able to revive a gargantuan demon-zombie named "Oars" using Luffy's shadow. At first it appears that after a very short period the shadows forget their original masters and become nothing more than servants of Moriah, but eventually it becomes clear that there is always a trace of the original that can sometimes be reached at crucial moments.

This long-running sequence once more brings out more of the character and capabilities of the Straw Hats. Notable is Usopp's battle against Perona, whose emotion-twisting powers turn out to be useless against him because he actually has such a low opinion of himself that it is literally impossible for her to attack his ego. During this battle Usopp not only demonstrates more initiative and brilliant improvisation, but also possibly the fact that his "Sogeking" persona is more than just an act; Sogeking talks to him at a crucial moment and gives him the impetus he needs to succeed.

There are some side plots that were less endearing; the Japanese tendency for rather sexist comedy got considerably more play here with a subplot involving Absalom, Nami, and Sanji.

Nonetheless, the overall arc was very exciting and well-done, and climaxes with the entirety of the Straw Hats against Moriah and Oars, and finally against Moriah having absorbed all the shadows he could to turn himself into an immense monster. Luffy finally defeats him, but is crippled.

And then another Shichibukai, Bartholomew Kuma, appears, having been told to eliminate all witnesses to this second defeat of one of the Shichibukai … including, of course, the Straw Hats. But Zoro challenges Kuma, and offers to give up his life to protect the others; Kuma accepts, if Zoro can survive taking all of the pain and injury that Luffy has suffered throughout the battle. He can offer this challenge because Kuma's Devil's Fruit power allows him to move or push things, including metaphysical things such as pain and injury, from one point to another, and he simply takes all of Luffy's and transfers it to Zoro – in a single instant.

Zoro survives, to Kuma's astonishment, and Kuma keeps his word, leaving them alive… to find their next adventure…

 

Overall, this arc not only defined the characters of the Straw Hats more (including giving us a good idea of the character of their latest addition, Brook) but also defined more of the world itself, something crucial as we move towards one of the most important, and traumatic, story arcs in One Piece: the Summit War.