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.