Don Krieg's evil pirate armada attempts to hijack the oceangoing restaurant Baratie, but the pirate cooks put up a fierce resistance until Krieg reveals one of the greatest secret weapons in his arsenal--Invincible Pearl! When sous chef Sanji steps into the fray, it turns out that he and Chef Zeff have some unfinished business concerning the loss of the latter's leg! Will their differences come between them or make the Baratie stronger? Either way, unfortunately for Luffy, it turns out that Don Krieg harbors an even deadlier weapon--Gin, the very man whose life Sanji once saved with a square meal!
Eiichiro Oda (尾田栄一郎, Oda Eiichirō) is a Japanese manga artist, best known as the creator of the manga and anime One Piece.
As a child, Oda was inspired by Akira Toriyama's works and aspired to become a manga artist. He recalls that his interest in pirates was probably sparked by the popular TV animation series titled Vicky the Viking. He submitted a character named Pandaman for Yudetamago's classic wrestling manga Kinnikuman. Pandaman was not only used in a chapter of the manga but would later return as a recurring cameo character in Oda's own works.
Please also see: 尾田荣一郎 (Chinese, simplified) 尾田榮一郎 (Chinese, traditional)
Finished this yesterday before the comic, but didn't feel like writing a review, and now my recollection will probably make this bad anyway.
I loved the Sanji/Zeff origin story, I remembered it vaguely, and it was close to what I remembered. I don't think Sanji owes Zeff anything, they were in that situation because of Zeff, but at the same time, you can't deny the selflessness of Zeff's act.
Be unique or get out of town, and One Piece is nothing if not unique, the weapon Gin used was unique, the pearl guy was unique and funny and eccentric, Don Krieg is a scumbag, with unique weapons, and people like him will persist throughout the story, people who are not unnaturally strong, or have a weird devil fruit power, but have an arsenal of weapons that they can launch from their armor, to the point of there being cyborgs like one of Luffy's future teammates.
Because every story we could have told was already written, someone giving up food and eating his own leg or hand to survive a desolate island waiting for a ship? you can bet your ass that happened in real life, someone refusing to kill another man because he fed him when he was at the pit of despair? You can bet that happened, all these stories happened before, and were retold numerous times, you need a unique setting and unique characters and unique powers to make them worth listening to again.
I am sure every writer thinks they are making something new never heard of before, but the reality is very different, and what matters is that your own mind is coming up with these stories, not that you are mimicking them from somewhere else. And the result will feel as original as the first person who came up with them.
Update: I wanted to say this before I forget it, I don't like the crowd reactions, they are depriving the readers from having their own reactions, and that's why the best moments in this series so far have been the origin stories, because there is not a stupid crowd of weaklings mouth dropping or saying something at everything that's happening. I am not sure when will this stop if ever, but I am unwilling to reduce stars because of it too, I am sure those kinds of panels give the artist much needed rest to do panels that matter, I would think that his assistants are the one who draw them not him.
Early One Piece was a bit spotty and uneven in quality, before Oda could finally hit his stride, and I think this volume is where the bad stuff solidifies. You've got a whole three things here that I don't much like.
Sanji kicks a whole lot of ass at first, but then his streak is broken when his boss and surrogate father gets taken hostage, with a gun on his head. From here on, Sanji doesn't feel like he can do anything other than get thrashed about, lest Zeff is shot. And I never liked this sort of a thing - it's a cheap move for a lot of drama, rarely if never unveiling the rather ephemeral and desperate nature of it, the way it all relies on total lack of rational thought.
If Gin did pull the trigger, where would it leave him? His gang would lose a hostage, and Sanji would now be even more pissed-off and could probably beat them all single-handed. It gets really tense, but there's never enough substance there for me to get behind it.
As for Gin, a lot is made up about what kind of a merciless killer he is, a demonic murderer with no compassion or conscience, butchering all in his path. A real bastard. This is all we're told. And yet what are we shown? Ever since he first showed up, he's been characterized as a pretty decent fellow, friendly and rational and reasonably cool-headed. He gets along well with both Luffy and Sanji. He saves them from the desperate situation above, makes rather weak excuses about his reasons to fight Sanji, yet in the end is unable to go through with it.
You can see the dissonance here - the deep contrast between things we're told, and things we see on the screen. It's not completely without good characterization and conflict, though, since Gin's still made up to be intensely loyal to his captain, and this is something that comes through very well and creates some trouble for everyone... but on the whole it's rather poorly constructed and leads to me not liking him nearly as much as I otherwise would have.
And finally, there's Krieg's gas attack. Hyped up as the ultimate weapon, an inescapable death that can render even small towns devoid of life. Very much like the Buggy Ball, or Kuro's Shakushi attack, from the prior arcs - and just like those superweapons, it completely fails to live up to the hype. It catches precisely one guy, and by the end of the arc he seems mostly all right again (he says something about how he might still die, but you know no one's buying it).
It's where I first got really sick of the author's habit of never letting anyone die, and just how badly this mucks up with the story's tension and mood. I remember dropping the story for a while at this point back in the day. Which is a bit of a shame, because from here on things improve significantly on that front: maybe Oda starts to figure out how to do these things properly, or maybe I just got more to his wavelength and it stopped bothering me, or maybe a bit of both. Regardless, I would go on to enjoy the story a lot more after this. You will too, if this is the kind that bothers you.
And even here at its worst, the good fight choreography and humor and character moments ensure that One Piece could never go below three stars for me. Kudos for that.
This entire thing is fighting the pirate admiral dude from last volume over this floating restaurant on the ocean. And it doesn't get resolved.... this is some Dragonball-Z mess right here. Still really fun.
We also get Sanji's backstory, which is interesting.
The battle against Don Krieg and his army continues in this volume but doesn't reach an ultimatum. It's a bit disappointing that the volume is collected this way but at least the whole segment is packed with a lot of action and a substantial amount of backstory for our man Sanji.
There's an unprecedented level of subtle gore in this volume that is slid into the story without emphasis that is quite astonishing but not bad in any way. It makes me wonder if it reduced the gravitas of the thing to please a younger audience or if it sort of mishandled the substance? Either way, it was still pretty cool to see how far this series can go so early in the run.
I love the art in this manga, how skilled and expressive it is. That will certainly continue as long as One Piece does, for me. This particular arc is getting over-long, though. We've gotten the backstory of how Zeff and Sanji met (including an over-the-top self-sacrifice), and so we know what the personal stakes are for both of them. Unfortunately, their opponents aren't anywhere near as interesting. Gin is only marginally less boring than Don Krieg (he uses tonfa-like batons to fight, and is DK's second-in-command, that's it), and I don't think it was necessary to focus on him to the extent we have been in the latter parts of this volume. (edit to add: and I forgot Pearl even existed moments after I finished the book, and only remembered him when someone else mentioned him in their review. That's how memorable that character was.) The second over-the-top self-sacrifice in this volume had no impact whatsoever, aside from letting us know that .
Let's be done with this and move on to Arlong Park!
Continúa la batalla con Don Krieg, vimos la historia de Sanji y Zeff, siempre me ya parecido fuerte jajaj en el anime lo censuran. Pero si Luffy tiene razón una deuda así no se paga dando la vida por algo o alguien.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Sanji can we honestly e date? you’re so beautiful. You always make me laugh, you always make me smile. You literally make me want to become a better person… I really enjoy every moment we spend together. My time has no value unless its spent with you. I tell everyone of my irls how awesome you are. Thank you for being you. Whenever you need someone to be there for you, know that i’ll always be right there by your side. I love you so much. I don’t think you ever realize how amazing you are sometimes. Life isn’t as fun when you’re not around. You are truly stunning. I want you to be my soulmate. I love the way you smile, your eyes are absolutely gorgeous. If I had a star for everytime you crossed my mind i could make the entire galaxy. Your personality is as pretty as you are and thats saying something. I love you, please date me. I am not even calling it e dating anymore because I know we will meet soon enough heart OK I ADMIT IT I LOVE YOU OK i hecking love you and it breaks my heart when i see you play with someone else or anyone commenting in your profile i just want to be your girlfriend and put a heart in my profile linking to your profile and have a walltext of you commenting cute things i want to play video games talk in discord all night and watch a movie together but you just seem so uninsterested in me it hecking kills me and i cant take it anymore i want to remove you but i care too much about you so please i’m begging you to eaither love me back or remove me and never contact me again it hurts so much to say this because i need you by my side but if you dont love me then i want you to leave because seeing your icon in my friendlist would kill me everyday of my pathetic life.
Me encanta cómo Oda dota de personalidad y furia al mar con sus trazos y el capítulo "Viejo de mierda" (el que le da el nombre al volumen en la edición que tengo) es sencillamente mi favorito en el manga hasta ahora. Un pequeñísimo cambio hizo que la versión del anime no me llegara tanto.
I decided to read One Piece for the first time and document my experience on YouTube, starting with the entire East Blue saga: https://youtu.be/T_3DySjyRjk
The battle for the restaurant continues! Sanji's got some moves! Backstory for Sanji and the chief cook. Gin is stronger than he looks (and he has to make some tough decisions), Luffy tries to help out and I just love seeing his attacks and that he knows when to step in and when to leave the battle to the ones battling. Don Krieg is EH. Pearl was eh, though I do like that he can do both shields and fire. Oh, and I liked the Q&A's, also liked those in previous volumes and happy to see them continue with them. Those chapter images are quite fun, see how another crew is doing + some relaxing moments for our crew. I hope that in the next volume the arc is over though so we can get to other things. I would like a change of scenery. Oh yes, and the whole crap this and crap that just didn't work for me. It just felt like a kid wrote it.
Didn't really care much for the plot of this one. It seemed to drag out much more than necessary. I don't remember liking it too much on the show but I like it even less here. I like the overall plot of Sanji defending the ship but it just felt way too dragged out. I did like the back story on the Chef who saved Sanji, though.
Setting & World-Building
Same as the previous book so nothing new.
Characters & Development
Sanji and Gin were really the only ones to show any development. Aside from Luffy, the rest of the characters aren't even present.
Character Relationships
I liked the backstory explaining the relationship between Sanji and the main chef.
Writing & Voice
Same writing as before, though this one had too much fighting action for my liking.
Climax & Ending
The climax and to be continued ending were good.
Illustrations
The illustrations felt a little sloppy compared to previous books but it might also be because there was so much fighting action going on that sometimes it was hard to tell what was going on.
Overall, I'd give it 2 stars. It was OK. Probably not one I will bother buying as aside from Sanji's backstory and Gin's realization, not a lot happens minus back and forth fighting and threats.
One Piece might be the only franchise that I desperately try to love. I love pirates, I love the aesthetics of the series and I find all the characters fun. It's actually quite comforting reading it AND YET I can't love it. It's so "ok" for me, not bad, not the worst, just an ok time.
In this one we learn Sanji's back story and it was the highlight of the volume. The rest is your typical anime/manga pissing contest. Exchanging big words, big dreams, bla bla bla, until someone makes a super-move and then say a few more words and then the next super-move. As I said it's fun, I like it, but to me it's not special yet.
Пиратския манга епос „One Piece” е на път да отпразнува своя 20ти юбилей, така че всички вие, сухоземни плъхове, по-добре се пригответе! „Книжни Криле” кацат високо на мачтата и продължават ревюто на поредицата! Прочетете ревюто на "Книжни Криле":
The fight continues. ... and excuse me but I have a very clear memory of Zeff cutting his leg off because it gets stuck while he's trying to save Sanji. Now I learn he cut if off to eat so that Sanji wouldn't starve!?!? Oda.... Ugh the Invisible Pearl character is boring and pathetic. I legit could do without him. Can't even say who really defeated him because it was a little bit of everyone. Luffy, Sanji and Gin. Gin totally has Sanji beat, but Sanji won out because of their honor.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Lo mejor del tomo: Sanji. Su pasado es emotivo, tiene su momento cumbre dando pataditas...
Lo peor: los villanos pueden llegar a ser un poco cargantes. A veces incluso cuesta "diferenciarlos" más allá de su dibujo con respecto a los anteriores.
Lo más divertido: Los paneles de Luffy metidos entre medias de la acción con cara de estar prestando atención y maquinando mentalmente porque la realidad no se ajusta a sus deseos y planes xDDDDD
3.5/5 Sanji's backstory is the highlight of this volume. I'll be honest Don Krieg isn't my favorite villain but he does have a decent fight with Luffy which is what I'm really waiting to get too. Pearl wasn't all that intimidating and "Demon Man" might be the corniest nickname for a guy that is the furthest thing from one. Volume 8 should be fun though
I absolutely loved Sanji's and Zeff's backstory. It is very different from the whole sequence I've been reading so far and it is an absolutely refreshing change. Simply cannot wait to see what transpires further.