One Piece 798 Review: Luffy Mega Punch & Law's Closure

One Piece, Chapter 798: Heart

It's still a relatively m'eh chapter that's obviously prolonging things. And I'm truly of the opinion that the Rebecca stuff last chapter really could've been combined with the whole 'post-war recovery' chapters or, well, this one. Honestly throughout the Dressrosa arc the manga's really making liberal use of the many new characters to create large montages of Luffy's allies doing stuff... and we really don't need so many montages, especially when it's not developing any of their characterizations. And honestly the whole "Kyros wants to leave Rebecca behind because it's better for her this way" is really so forced that a shorter scene with them just hanging out together all reconciled and shit would be far, far more effective.

A good four pages are wasted just showing the Tontatta fucking shit up -- Leo stitches a bunch of ships together, other Tontatta are stealing stuff from the Marines, Mansherry's actually using her donation drive thing to distract a bunch of troops... which is yet even more padding. Any reason that these actions by the Tontatta couldn't have been collapsed into a single montage with the gladiators last chapter? No, not really. Most of the main fighters -- Bartolomeo, Cavendish, Sai and all those dudes -- are just trying to stave off Fujitora behind Bartolomeo's barrier and Fujitora's just taking his own sweet time walking because, well, none of these mooks are really a threat.

Meanwhile, one of the more interesting encounters this chapter is Sengoku apparently seeking out and finding Law just to talk to him and get some closure. We get a bit of a redundant flashback of Rocinante reporting to Sengoku about Law's existence... we didn't need an entire page for that, if we hadn't already gotten confirmation that Sengoku knows about Law and Rocinante (I can't be bothered to look back to confirm). Sengoku apparently raised Rocinante up like a son and we get another more effective flashback of Sengoku just crying his eyes out when he saw Rocinante's corpse in Minion Island.

Sengoku kind of confronts Law about it, and Law tells Sengoku about how he's been planning to bring down Doflamingo for years just to get revenge, and we get a couple of nice little cryptic hints about "D." And Sengoku knows what's up, though he isn't keen on divulging it to Law or us readers. Sengoku notes how there is no way Rocinante knew Law was a D, and it isn't some destiny or fate or whatever and basically tells Law that, yes, Rocinante loved him. Sengoku then kind of just buggers off with the excuse that he's no longer an active officer and basically tells Law to live his life free, for Rocinante's sake. Great closure for Law -- why couldn't this gotten the entire chapter if we had to have padding instead of Rebecca? Though I guess it's just at the right length not to drag on for too long.

We get three entire pages showing Fujitora levitating an entire city's worth of debris into the air and while, again, obvious padding... it's still pretty fucking awesome. We get the Marines basically in shock and retreating because, well, no one needs reinforcements when you've got freaking Fujitora in your way -- again it emphasizes just how the Marine Admirals are on a whole different level. We get another needless page of everyone reacting "fuck we're doomed" which is all unnecessary because come on, that splash page speaks more than reaction shots.

Law arrives, and when Bartolomeo spies his Luffy-senpai running up, they all wisely begin a mass retreat before Fujitora literally brings down a rain of destruction on them. Luffy, however, runs up to Fujitora, asks the gambling man if he remembers him... and just shouts out loud "Imma punch your face!" And, well, he does exactly that, doing a gigantic Elephant Pistol straight onto Fujitora and holy crap never has punching an unsuspecting blind man looked so damn badass and awesome.

Bartolomeo and Sai are so shocked their eyes and teeth pop out (I'm surprised Bartolomeo didn't die of an orgasm right there) and Luffy proclaims that while he probably can't defeat an Admiral, he's fucking tired of running away like he did two years ago so he doesn't give a fuck. Admiral, Marine, Yonko, he's going to be the King of Pirates and he's going to beat the fuck out of everyone.

So yeah, at least chapter 799 is going to be a fucking entertaining padding before the big event at 800. I don't really rate Luffy's chances that highly, not unless Zoro, Law and everyone else pitches in to bring down Fujitora. I also have a feeling that this is going to be interrupted. Sabo, perhaps? Blackbeard? Kaido? The Kid Alliance? But whatever the case, next chapter it looks like we're getting Luffy fighting against Fujitora. He's wounded after fighting Doflamingo, and to be fair I do think Fujitora's going to try to go easy on Luffy for the sake of Dressrosa (though he's also all about justice so hey), but, well, it's going to be fucking interesting to see him at least try and put up a fight.

One Piece 797 Review: Basically What Was Expected

One Piece, Chapter 797: Rebecca

 

So, One Piece… yeah, I don’t really have much to say about this chapter compared to Bleach and Toriko. I certainly think it’s relatively weak… but unlike the Fairy Tail chapter last week, it at least progressed the plot and showed some things that needed to be shown. I still think going through the gladiatorial allies one by one and showing how they’re fucking up the marines’ attempts and hounding down the Straw Hats is obvious padding, though.

Basically Luffy, as expected, goes off to kidnap Rebecca and get her to talk to Kyros and have a father-daughter moment. It’s all dramatic and stuff and relatively well done, but really this should’ve happened right after the fight with Diamante instead of doing it now where we’re all excited for other things and the whole Kyros-Rebecca story has more or less been dealt with. There’s also a bit of that nice ‘oh noes evil pirates’ vibe when everyone else just gets absolutely gobsmacked that Luffy has kidnapped the princess – kind of like the reverse of Skypiea where the Straw Hats were actually stealing something while the villagers are trying to make nice with them. But eh, it’s hardly enough content to justify an entire chapter… or maybe it would be, if it was placed properly in this arc.

The chapter ends with Fujitora coming in to smash Bartolomeo’s little attempts to hold back the marines, while Luffy is just running. I don’t expect anything to really happen until 799 and 800, so I’m assuming next chapter will more or less be just filler.

One Piece 796 Review: Fujitora Rolls A Die

One Piece, Chapter 796: Soldier-san's Decision

After the gigantic explosive last chapter, this one is... well, like Bleach, just okay. Nothing too exciting. The manga seems to want to pad things out for a BIG 800th chapter, and I honestly don't think it's a right move considering just how poorly the Dressrosa Arc has suffered, and how shoehorned some of the minor characters are and how half the main cast is, y'know, completely out of focus for the past year.

Anyway, the chapter starts off with the return of Sengoku -- now demoted to an inspector -- who doesn't have a goddamn care in the world, and Tsuru, who confronts Fujitora. Who apparently isn't actively trying to stop his men from arresting Luffy, and actually has been leaving it to chance and the roll of a die -- anything other than one and Fujitora will stay his hand. And it has been that way for the last couple of days. Sengoku, like me, finds this ridiculously funny.

We get Mansherry (a prime example of a character who got too much screentime to herself whilst not having an interesting personality nor accomplishing anything much) whose Dande-heal-ions apparently work by donations of strength from strong people like Fujitora and Sengoku. And we've got Riku just talking with Elizabello about... stuff. And Rebecca, all dolled up like a princess, also gets some info-dump about how she's supposed to rule now -- the rules of succession apparently prefer Rebecca, who's Riku's grand-daughter from Riku's first daughter, instead of Viola, Riku's younger daughter... okay, then?

And apparently news has been spread about how Rebecca's father is some prince who... well, it's basically Kyros and Scarlett's story, but with Kyros replaced with a nameless prince from some obscure kingdom. It's something that slightly disturbs Rebecca, and pisses Luffy -- who's beat up and recovering and eating and sleeping at the same time -- off. Kyros is apparently the one who spreads the rumours, though considering how Luffy is, he's probably going to go wild and run around town going all HEY GUYSE KYROS IS REBECCA'S PAPA which is going to be mushy and fillery and completely un-needded because seriously guys... Kyros and Rebecca are cool but do we need all these extra screentime for them? Their story's done. It's stretched out as long as it is.

Bartolomeo shows up, informing Luffy about new developments... and hilariously nearly gets blinded by the fact that all five Straw Hats are in the same room as him. Bartolomeo is fun. I wouldn't mind spending more time on him.

Fujitora, Sengoku and Tsuru are apparently storming Dressrosa to arrest the pirates, with Fujitora ignoring whatever protests Riku would make. Law visibly reacts at the mention of Sengoku, no doubt because of Sengoku's involvement in the whole Rocinante thing. But apparently the Samurai are just waiting for Luffy to recover and have something planned. Bartolomeo and the Tontatta are keeping an eye out on the marines, and Bartolomeo, awesome dude that he is, has apparently already prepared a ship and stationed some of their allies -- Sai, Cavendish, Hajrudin and one other dude with a sword I don't especially recognize -- to help out.

Bellamy wakes up and just acts confused why everyone lets him live -- Law's snarky comeback is marvellous -- but I'm sure he joins the others in running for it. Of course, Luffy stays behind to generally be the one cog that fucks up the plan for some 'unfinished business'. It would be cool if he stays behind to fight Fujitora just for the hell of it, but I bet this is going to involve the Kyros and Rebecca mushy stuff which won't be cool. Thankfully it's probably going to be stretched out for another month only, upon which we won't have to deal with the Riku family anymore.

Maybe Rebecca will actually be the next Straw Hat? I don't find her anywhere as interesting as any of the other Straw Hats when they were first introduced, though, and that includes the relatively one-note Brook. Eh. We'll see.