Tuesday, July 21, 2009

One Piece chapter review: 550


(Scanlations by Binktopia. Image by me & paint.net)


Chapter 550: Marine Headquarters

 

Well, it’s only fair – Oda spent a chapter hyping up the strength of the breakout crew, now we the other force is being shown off. Of course, the more significant event of this chapter is the big plot twist at the end, but that shouldn’t sideline some of the other interesting things the chapter showed. Things like the unveiling of Akainu would be headlining on any other week. And, while it could be well argued that we didn’t really learn that much or progress in the story at all aside from the final revelation, I feel this chapter has a lot of foreshadowing and interesting things if you look for them.

 

First off, maybe this has been obvious for others, but I had never really thought about Oda creating the various seas with themes or real-world environments in mind. I had always figured that it was sort of an island by island theme, and while that is probably true for the most part, this chapter really suggests a unique overarching atmosphere to each one. The most interesting part is that these atmospheres hold up for the most part with all the examples we’ve been given of each region thus far. While I don’t think this will ever have an effect on the storyline or that we’ll ever see too much of the other seas aside from a couple islands or events, it is a nice touch that makes the world of One Piece all the more real. I am curious about the scene in the West Blue, however – for a group of pirates that might just appear in one scene, they have pretty interesting character designs. And that wanted poster on the wall in one panel, who could it be for? With any other artist, these things could be ruled out as just flair, but you never know what will be important in One Piece.

 

This chapter is full of things like that, seemingly insignificant details that may mean a whole lot at some point. Like, the Marine’s families all being evacuated. Oda seems reluctant to bring the morality of fighting against people who have family lives and are good people on some levels. That’s why I think he went to such effort to make the Impel Down guard fodder so faceless and unexplained. So for Oda to make reference to the family of the party who are essentially the villains of the arc makes me think that there might be more moral grayness than I anticipated and/or there will be a situation where the Marines’ families have a role in the story. Doflamingo has already been shown as a completely ruthless man who has no qualms about innocent victims, I can easily see him using things like that to his advantage somehow.

 

In fact, I don’t think I’m alone in saying that I have no idea what Doflamingo will do during this war, something he shares, although in the most extreme case, with the rest of the Shichibukai. They all have their own motives and plans, and, like the escape party, only find themselves momentarily united by an immediate common goal. All of them probably have the means and the desire to profit immensely from the coming actions. I’m not one for predictions, but here’s how I think they’ll play out: Boa obviously will make protecting Luffy her number one priority, but she would have no qualms fighting Whitebeard’s pirates either, making her a bit of a wild card. Mihawk seems to value his Shichibukai status too much to disagree with the Marines, but I think his honor will prevent him from attacking Luffy or other people he respects. Doflamingo I feel will take the first opportunity to get as far away from the fight as he can and will protect himself above all other things. I don’t think this just because it fits with what we’ve seen in his personality, but because I think Oda will be saving the majority of his powers and plans for a future arc, and will therefore downplay his significance now. Moria will definitely be gunning for Luffy and revenge, but I think, without his army, he won’t be able to do too much compared to his peers. I’ll happily be proven wrong about this, though. Kuma, although most loyal to the Marines, has shown benevolence to Luffy in the past, in his own way. I have difficulty think that he’ll be totally ruthless. The Shichibukai seem to have some sort of reluctance in common, each of them unwilling to fight certain people or for certain reasons. Knowing that they are all powerful and unique characters, Oda has wisely made them unpredictable elements of the war, rather than its stars, letting himself save their real debuts for a later time.

 

This may be true for many of the Marines shown here. Oda has too many characters that have been hyped up for so long all in one place to let them all expend themselves at once. Initially I had predicted this war to be a series of one on one, fully explored fights where both parties use all their abilities and a definite conclusion is reached. Of course, minor fighting between fodder characters on both sides would surround these fights, but would not be the focal point. I had expected it to be like Alabasta, where, by the end of the arc, all the fighters on both sides had a major battle. This seems to be less and less likely, in fact, I think this war might not really contain that much fighting at all. There remains very few characters who look like they will be a major fighter in the coming war, an almost paradoxical statement when you consider how many more battle-ready Marines were just introduced.

 

Think about it in terms of storytelling, though, and it looks more evident that a lot of these Marines will make, at most, a minimal display to drum up more anticipation for when they will really fight. Oda definitely isn’t going to cram together cumulative fight scenes for all the major Marines he has introduced here, it would be a waste of character. He’s going about this the smart way, though, and introducing excuses for them to not go all out. Even the Admirals, some of the most powerful and loyal Marines, may not go full out on the various rescue teams. I think that their own conflicting viewpoints might lead to a Zoro/Sanji style argument, and we all know how little gets done after that. We may not know too much about Akainu, but I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to think that he approves of neither Kizaru’s laidback attitude nor Aokiji’s forgiving nature. Although they may co-operate professionally under most circumstances, this coming war will push them to the brink of what they each find acceptable, and I feel they will have some very different answers.

 

The main reason I think this entire arc of Marineford will end without too many major fights is Whitebeard himself. As it stands, the number of notable and strong Marines far outweighs the number of strong people in the escape party – they need more people to fight. Shanks and Kaidou are tied up, and I highly doubt the last Yonkou will be a factor for awhile – it seems Whitebeard, the Marines, and the escape party will be the only parties battling. That seems to add up; with Whitebeard’s division commanders, the number of notable fighters is even for pairings on both sides. But Whitebeard hasn’t shown up yet, despite sinking patrol ships and reportedly being on the move. I think his plan is more of a lightning strike operation, he isn’t really as interested in war as the Marines (or the readers) are. He just wants to get Ace and get out, which is why I think he’ll wait until the last second before launching some sort of unbelievable attack that ignores pretty much all of the Marines’ defenses. I have no idea about the logistics of such an attack, but the logic is sound. It is both disappointing and sensible simultaneously. I love how Oda’s characters aren’t just one-track and aren’t only concerned with fighting, and I love how we’re getting all these cool hints at characters who will be important later, but geez, they’re all so cool that I wouldn’t mind if he went the route of Bleach and just had solid fighting for a few months. Bleach has been fighting the same fight for what, a year and a half now? I’m going to try avoid bashing other manga in these reviews as much as I can, so I’ll assume that Bleach being horrible lately is obvious to anyone familiar with it, but I do commend Kubo on one thing: he’s giving his fans the fights I can only assume they want. Me, I find almost all of his characters annoying and pointless, and his fights even more tedious and uninspired, but he isn’t going halfway on them. He spends as many weeks as he feels he needs to on each character’s fight, no matter how lame and boring it makes the manga itself, then he brings back other characters for no reason other than he wanted to show them fighting, too. It’s a silly level of fanservice, but geez, if I want to see what would happen if Ace fought Aokiji, and geez, Oda’s silly “logic” and “restraint” are never going to let me see that.

 

Oda has emulated one bit of Kubo’s style, though: the plot twist. Like many of those in Bleach, Ace’s new father contradicts earlier bits of story, explains very little, and seems implausible, random and arbitrary. I count it as one of the few legitimate plot twists in One Piece because, right up until the very last line, you are being led to believe that Sengoku is talking about Dragon, which corresponds to Ace’s earlier talk with Garp, and he and Luffy being brothers and all. But Roger being his father does answer a few questions, like why Shanks had such an interest in Luffy’s island and was so protective of Ace when he went to find Blackbeard. I don’t actually think this is going to be anywhere near as bad as Kubo’s TWEESTS, I believe that Oda will have a reasonable explanation for everything that needs addressing because of this. He’s already sorted out the time issues and yet again shown the amazing power of the Will of D. in one eloquent maneuver. I’m sure the confusing conversation with Garp and the matter of his actual relationship or lack thereof with Luffy will be resolved in short order too.

 

So what could possibly be next? I have no confidence in saying; if you had asked me last week what to predict, I never would have thought something like this in a million years. Obviously Ace being Roger’s son is a very big deal, but there’s more pressing concerns at the moment, so I don’t see how they can very well elaborate on it, what with the escape party knocking on the door. The only route I can see taking is the flashback, which I am a bit leery of, but we’ve been getting awesome chapters with lots of climaxes back to back for awhile now, I guess it’s time for a bit of downtime.

 

****

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