ONE PIECE, VOL. 53
VIZ MEDIA
CARTOONIST: Eiichiro Oda
TRANSLATION: Taylor Engel, HC Language Solutions Inc.
ENGLISH ADAPTATION: Lance Caselman
LETTERS: HudsonYards
ISBN: 978-1-4215-3469-5; paperback (June 2010); Rated “T” for Teen
216pp, B&W, $9.99 US, $12.99 CAN, £6.99 UK
One Piece is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. It has been serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine since July 1997. VIZ Media has been publishing an English-language edition of the manga as a paperback graphic novel series, beginning in September 2003, under its “Shonen Jump” imprint.
Monkey D. Luffy dreams of becoming King of the Pirates. Even after the enchanted “Devil Fruit” gave him the ability to stretch like rubber while taking away his ability to swim, Luffy was undeterred. He set out to sea and gradually enlisted a motley crew: Zolo the master swordsman; Nami the treasure-hunting thief; Usopp, the lying sharpshooter; Sanji the high-kicking chef; Chopper, the walkin’ talkin’ reindeer doctor; the secretive archeologist, Nico Robin; shipwright and cyborg, Franky; and skeleton warrior with an afro, Brook. Known as the “Straw Hats,” these pirates sail the oceans on their new vessel, Thousand Sunny. Their goal is the legendary treasure known as “One Piece.”
As One Piece, Vol. 53 (Chapters 513 to 522; entitled “Natural Born King”) begins, the Straw Hats rumble with Bartholomew Kuma, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. “Tyrant” Kuma smacks them around using his bare paw, which erases them. They are not really being erased, however; this is Kuma’s teleportation power, which sends victims of his smack down to unknown locations. Luffy finds himself on the island of Amazon Lily, an island where men are not allowed on pain of death!
THE LOWDOWN: One of the most imaginative manga being offered to the North American market, One Piece takes readers from one exotic locale to another – each one populated by a menagerie of creatures, people, and creature people who almost defy imagination. Yet this all comes from the imagination of Eiichiro Oda. The art is drawn in such detail that very little of the page is left without something drawn on it. Vol. 53 isn’t one of the better volumes, but it really picks up when Luffy fights the Gorgon sisters.
POSSIBLE AUDIENCE: Readers looking for wacky “Shonen Jump” fun will find it in One Piece.
B+
7 out of 10
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
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