One Piece Volumes 49-50 - Thriller Bark Arc Finale

I'll admit, I'm not a big fan of One Piece by any means, but I do read it and I even enjoy it occasionally. Yesterday I just caught up to the end of the Thriller Bark arc with the latest chapter, 488, in the 50th volume (quite a milestone huh?). Well, guess what - I'm happy to say that this time, I thoroughly enjoyed an One Piece story arc all the way from the beginning to the very end! So have no worries, I certainly won't be too hard on Eiichiro Oda in my quick impressions here.

I'm going to assume you all already know what's gone on beforehand so I won't go too much into the earlier chapters. So I'm going to start with volume 49, which opens with the gigantic, insanely powerful Oz's final confrontation with Luffy's bloodied and determined crew. Minus, of course, Nami, who had just beaten her would-be bridegroom Absalom with the hippo-zombie Lola's help, and also missing is the captain of the Strawhat Crew himself, Luffy, who's typically been tricked by Moira's shadow into having ran off into the distance. Though both would naturally still eventually contribute to Oz's eventual defeat in the end with their typical dramatic flourish. Finally, keep in mind that since my thoughts here will essentially cover the span of two volumes, I'll probably miss discussing some interesting details here and there. So for even more in-depth thoughts on each chapter, make sure to visit Sahugani's reviews at Mangahelpers.

Well, I won't go into too many details regarding how Luffy's crew stood their ground against Oz - there's far too many scenes that involved them performing all sorts of combinations of attacks. Let's just say that Eiichiro Oda must not have been very satisfied with Final Fantasy: Advent Children! Either that or he was ridiculously inspired by it. You know the part where Cloud and all his teammates combine in order to take Bahamut down for once and all? Well, that was nothing compared to all the chaotic teamwork on display during this entire battle!

Nearly every two members of the crew must have somehow teamed up to perform some sort of ingenious combination to strike a blow at Oz - take, for instance, Franky with Chopper with their quick stairs-building technique and the "Super Fra-pper Gong," Chopper and Sanji with the "Armee L'Air Kokutei Rodeo Shoot," Zoro and Sanji with their building-tossing "Santouryuu Daibutsugiri" and "Jenga Hou," Usopp and Franky with their "Super Hinotori-Boshi" and the ill-advised "Iron Man Comet," and so on. Even the newcomer, skeletal musician Brooke, merrily got into the act by also teaming up with Usopp, Robin, and Nami in an united single attack, the "Raikotsuken" (Thunder Bone Blade).

You get the idea. The funniest thing was that the warm-up to all this craziness was sort of a parody of what was to come: the infamous, Power Rangers-like "Tactics Fifteen," which was the one strategy that Robin wanted nothing to do with. (I don't blame her either, it was pretty ridiculous looking!) Either way, all the One Piece video developers are going to have plenty to work with as far as combination attacks after this one, for sure.

Of course, once 'Nightmare Luffy' entered the picture, the drama went up another notch, as usual whenever the little would-be Pirate King comes to the rescue.

How do you fight the power of the Kage Kage no Mi? Well, as you could possibly fight fire with fire, in this case you fight shadows with shadows. And that's exactly what Luffy became - a powerhouse infused with the souls of all the shadows Moira's created in the Florian Triangle.

Thanks to Captain 'Proposal' Lola, the original owner of the hippo-zombie's soul, and her crew, Luffy was able enter the battle with Oz being able to more than hold his own weight. After a few powerful knockdowns, the ten minutes required to keep the shadows within himself passed, and morning was almost in sight. However, Luffy and his crew, now completely reunited, was able to finish Oz off with a strategic attack using the strength of each crewmate: Zoro's swords, Usopp's accuracy, Sanji's kick, Chopper's strength (not to mention his knowledge of human anatomy), Franky's craftsmanship, Robin's unique power, and Nami's Clima Tact. And for the occasion, Luffy also depended on his Gear Two mode, as well. In the end, Oz's spine was completely shattered, and he fell, completely defeated. The bigger they are, the harder they fall...

With the threat of Oz ended, another loomed, however, which severely challenged the crew's resolve. The Shichibukai Gekko Moira himself had absorbed all the shadows of his underlings to become even greater and a thousand-fold more powerful than Nightmare Luffy ever was.

Not surprisingly enough, though, while he had enough power to crack the island in half, the over-bloated Moira lacked the agility to sufficiently avoid Luffy's wild punches. In the end, I think Moria proved to be the most unimpressive opponent Luffy had ever fought, especially after he failed to use his most potent weapon: simply out-tricking Luffy. But as Zoro said, in this case, Moria was only stalling for time until the sunset, I suppose. So, it's all understandable. Lucky thing that the crumbling tower just happened to fall on Moira himself, essentially ending the fight.

But what's this? ANOTHER threat of annihilation? Yes! While I normally would have groaned at such an obvious case of a prolonged battle, in this case I actually cheered. Since Bartholemew Kuma had already appeared on the ship, and made it obvious his intentions that the honor of the Shichibukai not be besmirched any longer by the actions of the Strawhat Crew, it was clear that he wasn't there to be a friend. Also, I found him infinitely better as an antagonist than Moira could ever hope to be, despite his own reign of terror on the seas. (Blame it on Oda's character design there; I thought Moira looked like a cross-breed of Disney's Ursula from The Little Mermaid and Hades from Hercules, and I didn't exactly like him all that much for that reason. Kuma, on the other hand, had more of a fresh character feel to him.)

Kuma's ability was interesting. I'm still wondering how exactly he got rid of Perona, though. Did he just "repel" her to where she wanted to be? How would he even know where to send her? And he has a 'warping' power as well - not unlike Rob Lucci. That's going to make him a seriously frustrating enemy for Luffy at a later point in the story, no doubt.

To boot, he was also a death ray-belching cyborg, much like Franky, but even more powerful as he was apparently designed by the greatest intellect in the world, a "Doctor Vegapunk." Apparently a homage to Dragonballz and Dr. Gero and the androids there, but I won't hold it against Oda too much I suppose, considering Kishimoto Masashi also has homages to DBZ in his own series.

Of course, the one thing I most liked about Kuma's appearance was how it led to quite possibly one of the most powerful scenes in the series, which just happened to showcase my favorite character in the whole series...

I mean, c'mon. How can anybody not love Zoro after this scene? He's one tough bastard. Taking on the added burden of Luffy's pain to his own, all to save the crew and to send Kuma away.

What a beautiful scene. Zoro certainly deserves to be Luffy's first mate, he's more than proved that here. And I'm definitely glad Sanji didn't hog the scene instead, I don't like him as much. >.>

(Besides, being knocked out unconscious by Zoro that easily, Sanji wasn't up for the challenge anyway, eh! All talk, nothing else... >.> Not to mention Sanji put Nami in deadly danger by shouting up to her on the rooftops! Pffft. Zoro for me anytime.)

That leaves one more thing we've yet to cover. Brooke.

Okay, I'll admit it. I already loved Brooke, but I had no idea that his own flashbacks would move me nearly to tears. Watching his crewmates fall dead one by one, while they're all in the middle of partying, that's got to have been so tough for him.

And Laboon was a mightily cute little whale, I have to admit!

Overall, I only have very few bones to pick with the arc (still waiting for Brooke to use that pun!). One being that Luffy's crewmates being knocked down by Oz and having their shadows stolen by Moira doesn't have nearly the dramatic impact it should have anymore, considering that they just keep getting back up to fight again. Wile E. Coyote has nothing on these guys - throw them in a canyon, they'd probably all survive that, too. >.>

I mean, Chopper was saying Oz's biggest weakness was that he didn't experience the pain he was going through while they were all attacking his right arm. Well, Luffy's crew also seemed zombie-ish themselves too, they didn't look like they were slowed down by their own agony, either!

Still, putting that aside, I did enjoy the arc very, very much. It was rift with comedy, drama, more fun villains, and a lot of action that made good sense. In the end we were treated to a very emotional scene and the addition of what I'm sure will be a very fine member to the crew. Good stuff. Good move, too, to make up for the new character I actually didn't like much either, Franky. More of this, Mr. Eiichiro Oda, and you might just yet make me a devoted fan, too.