ONE PIECE, VOL. 38
VIZ MEDIA
CARTOONIST: Eiichiro Oda
TRANSLATION: Taylor Engel, HC Language Solutions Inc.
ENGLISH ADAPTATION: Megan Bates
LETTERS: HudsonYards
ISBN: 978-1-4215-3454-1; paperback (March 2010); Rated “T” for Teen
208pp, 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.
As a child, Monkey D. Luffy dreamed of becoming King of the Pirates. The enchanted “Devil Fruit” gave him the ability to stretch like rubber, but it also took away his ability to swim. Undeterred, Luffy set out to sea and gradually enlisted a motley crew known as the “Straw Hats.” Zolo the master swordsman; Nami the treasure-hunting thief; Usopp, the lying sharpshooter; Sanji the high-kicking chef; Chopper, the walkin’ talkin’ reindeer doctor; and secretive archeologist, Nico Robin join Luffy and sail the oceans on the Merry Go. Their goal is the legendary treasure known as “One Piece.”
The Straw Hats arrived in The City of Water on the island of Water Seven in hopes of getting Galley-La, the famed shipwrights of Water Seven, to fix the Merry Go, which was much in need of repairs. They got only bad news. The shipwrights told them that the Merry Go was beyond repair, which eventually led to Usopp leaving the crew. Then, the Straw Hats were accused of trying to assassinate the city’s Mayor Iceberg, who is also the leader of Galley-La. The real assassins are members of the Navy’s covert agency, CP9, and Nico Robin is apparently one of them.
As One Piece, Vol. 38 (Chapter 358 to 367; entitled “Rocketman!!”) begins, the Straw Hats are scattered about the island. CP9 agents are also close to retrieving the blueprints to Pluton, a destructive ancient weapon, and they need Nico Robin to decipher them. They leave Water Seven on the miraculous Sea Train. Luffy and his new found allies are soon right behind them in the Rocketman. Meanwhile, the dreaded tidal wave, Aqua Laguna, bears down on them.
THE LOWDOWN: Reading like a manga version of a Roland Emmerich movie, One Piece also races through the streets and back alleys of The City of Water like a spy thriller. Readers of shonen manga (comics for teen boys) want action, and One Piece always delivers.
The meticulously drawn art, which seems to capture every line on everyone and everything and every background detail brings this to vivid life. No American comic book for young readers is drawn with this attention to detail and such craftsmanship, nor is any one written with such complicated and intricately plotted action scenes. One Piece is in a league of its own.
POSSIBLE AUDIENCE: Readers of good comics will want the “Shonen Jump” title, One Piece.
A
8 out of 10
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
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