One Piece 770 Review: Minor Characters Get Taken Out

One Piece Chapter 770: The Lance of Elbaf

I have been talking about how One Piece could take a break from the Doflamingo/Law conflict and focus a bit on the other fights, but these aren't really the fights that I expected. It's still entertaining and it's nice to see a couple more minor characters get taken out of the way to give way for the more interesting ones. I feel that pacing's gone relatively haywire as far as fight matchups go in this arc, which is a bit of a shame.

We get the Jinbei cover story where Jinbei apparently discovers a bunch of crates or some shit. Don't care.

We get a bit of a recap on the Bellamy/Luffy situation where Luffy tries to talk Bellamy down from fighting him, reminding Bellamy that Doflamingo betrayed him. And then Bellamy just does this spring-punch loaded with Armament Haki that sends Luffy doubling over, coughing blood. Man, everybody be doing Armament Haki these days. Sadly that's the only bit between Luffy and Bellamy which we see this chapter, and I wished we got a bit more of them.

We then get a bit more of the Zoro-vs-Pica fight, another one I'm interested to see and has been stagnating for quite a while now. Pica grows a smaller version of his body compared to the initial giant statue and punches Zoro down near the other people in the plateau, but Zoro cuts through that not-so-giant statue with ease. Pica starts moving away from Zoro yet again... it's been like the third time this happens, I think.

Suddenly we're interrupted by 'Admiral's Dignity: Align' from Orlombus, and the Doflamingo Parents randomly line up. Is it a devil fruit power, or is Orlombus' voice just so awesome? Regardless, Orlumbus literally goes bowling with the random goons that have lined up, who apparently are chasing Zoro (and pose no threat, really). Orlumbus introduces himself to Zoro and, really, he's like the least interesting of the Coliseum characters in play at the moment. Why do we have him?

Pica's face shows up in the plateau wall, and it's another giant thing, and he laughs... which is apparently a hilarious laugh rendered even moreso by his high-pitched voice (which is kind of lost in the manga format, but whatever). Zoro mocks it, and Pica goes berserk, creating these 'Charstone' spikes that do even more damage to the random Doflamingo goons running around. Zoro wants to chop Pica up and I wish they actually fight instead of just keep moving locations.

Sadly we cut away to Dellinger suddenly showing up and getting pissed off at Pica, but Ideo the Destruction Cannon just jumps up and explode-punches Dellinger in the face. Meanwhile, Baby 5 is facing off against Sai and apparently she mis-interprets some double entrende sounding things from Sai as him needing her, and her character quirk kicks in and she basically falls for Sai... okay, that bit is actually pretty funny.

Meanwhile, Machvise, the least interesting amongst Doflamingo's people, gets ready to attack again. Below him, Hajrudin, who got taken out last chapter, goes all 'is this the pride of an Elbaf warrior' and all that stuff, and rises up with BURNING JUSTICE as Machvise does a million tonnes body press thing, apparently aiming for Zoro (still not a threat). Hajrudin summons enough spirit to just lurch out and deliver a gigantic uppercut to the superheavy Machvise and send him toppling up where he apparently gets cut up by the Birdcage. But this breaks every bone in Hajrudin's arm and somehow knocks off one of his teeth. That's two minor characters taken out... one of which has been taken out last chapter already.

Why can't this be about more important characters? Why did the likes of Hajrudin and Orlumbus, who aren't interesting in the slightest, get a spotlight? It could've been the more interesting, established members of the Coliseum gang like Don Chinjao or Cavendish or Bartolomeo taking out one of these minor Doflamingo executives like Machvise, but no. And really, does anyone care about these Z-list characters? Some of the Coliseum group are interesting, but not Ideo or Hajrudin or Orlumbus, who are one-trick ponies even when they get things to do. And especially when there are far more interesting fights all over the battlefield we could be seeing. Doflamingo vs Law, Luffy vs Bellamy, Zoro vs Pica, Kyros vs Diamante... Franky vs Senor Pink, sort of... but no, we get Hajrudin. Sigh.