An explosive climax for this latest arc!
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Eiichiro Oda
Translation: Stephen Paul
What They Say
As a child, Monkey D. Luffy dreamed of becoming King of the Pirates. But his life changed when he accidentally gained the power to stretch like rubber…at the cost of never being able to swim again! Years, later, Luffy sets off in search of the “One Piece,” said to be the greatest treasure in the world… The battle for Dressrosa continues as the Straw Hat pirates face off against the Doflamingo family. As Luffy’s crew starts taking control of the fight, Doflamingo will have to join the battle himself. Can Luffy finally defeat this powerful warlord of the sea?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Thanks to his new power, Luffy seems to have Doflamingo on the ropes, but just before he can land the finishing blow his Bounce-man runs out! This leaves our heroes in a hell of a bad situation, as Luffy is left defenseless while Doflamingo gets back on his feet, and even Burgess tries to jump in capitalize on the situation by killing our hero while he’s down. But thanks to the announcer from the Coliseum, Gyats, it’s relayed to everyone else around that Luffy needs 10 minutes to recover his Haki and take down Doflamingo, bringing things to an end. This gives us the basic setup for this time around, and it’s a rather interesting and exciting one. Thanks to the scenario, it ends up coming down more to the extended cast to bring things to a happy close rather than Luffy himself, as they desperately struggle to earn that little bit of time.
Starting things off, we get a look at Sabo taking on Burgess, which makes for a great showing of his new abilities. One of the other key pushes comes from Zolo and several others trying to physically push back the Birdcage, which is important as it turns out it’ll finish closing before the time limit is reached. And furthermore Mansherry uses her powers to give everyone a temporary boost, allowing a great number of people to push themselves past their limits in order to get to safety. This all adds up to a really powerful desperate struggle to survive, which is accentuated by great moments such as when the birdcage gets temporarily stopped, or Gyats making himself Doflamingo’s target to prevent him from causing Rebecca to kill Viola. Which actually makes for the big turning point, as when Doflamingo tries to carry through after sweeping aside the announcer, Luffy makes his triumphant reentrance. This is followed by one final massive stage in the battle, and when Luffy lands that final punch, the excitement felt by the characters just jumps off the page.
Finally, the rest of the volume is spent wrapping things up. Sabo finishes things up with Burgess in a rather nice fashion, Riku is forced back onto the throne by tearful pleas to do so, and we see the effect on both the government and the underworld. And though it’s nothing too in-depth, we do get a look at Sabo’s past, and as you’d expect this little chapter is packed with emotions. Finally, we end on a peek at what’s coming next, including an amazing first look at the frequently mentioned Kaido, King of the Beasts. And we’re introduced to him by the fact that he’s straight up unkillable even by his own hand, leading to one hell of a way to show that off to the audience.
In Summary
With this volume we get the final climax of the arc, and it most certainly doesn’t disappoint. There’s actually a bit of a swerve before the finale of the big fight, but rather than proving frustrating this instead leads to some absolutely palpable tension and some great moments for the side characters in particular. And once it’s over we do indeed get that bombastic last hit, which manages all the impact that you’d want. Heck, even the aftermath is great this time around, not only doing what you’d expect in allowing for all your usual partying and fallout, but also giving a nice little look into Sabo as well as an incredibly powerful cliffhanger. There’s really nothing to fault here, and it does everything you could want in bringing a great arc to a close, making for one of the best volumes this beloved series has had.
Content Grade: A+
Art Grade: A
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: August 2nd, 2016
MSRP: $9.99