Chapter 552: Ace and Whitebeard

 

Well, war is on! Finally! Of course, the fighting didn’t really start yet, only one attack was made, but there is really no going back now. Whitebeard having a fruit power has made many groan, wanting more pirates who are strong without the added abilities, but I disagree with this sentiment. I can understand why having almost every strong pirate be lucky enough to have found and eaten a useful fruit seems unrealistic to the point of silliness, but I’m willing to suspend my disbelief in the face of so much awesome. Things like “haki” have been done before, as have characters with superhuman strength, speed or power attained simply from training. The idea of fruit powers, though, are completely unique to One Piece, and Oda’s creativity, not just in designing them but designing their uses and users, is one of the best parts of the series. Sure, it’s cool when you have a character like Shanks who has eaten no fruit and stands among the best; it adds additional mystery to his power and speaks volumes about his abilities. But can anything he do really be as cool as punching holes in the air to cause tsunami? And it’s not like Whitebeard would be a pushover without his fruit – his ability to punch the logia Ace is still a mystery that ranks with Shanks’ fruit-less top tier position. We can take comfort in the fact that with Whitebeard, unlike Shanks, no matter what explanation there is for those questions, the answer to what else he can do is confirmed to be amazing.

 

It is very telling when Oda seems to have difficulty containing the events of the story in panels despite his mastery of the format. Looking at the fourth and fifth pages is a visual overdose – not only do we get more incredible shots of the Marine base, Whitebeard’s crew and a couple of key reaction shots, Oda manages to fit in our first glimpse at the most powerful man seen in the series so far in action. Certain other popular shonen I know of would have felt no qualms about stretching that truly blockbuster moment of Whitebeard’s first attack into a chapter or more, but Oda has other priorities and manages to both show the significance and power of the attack while not letting up the feeling of absolute chaos and franticness.

 

He drops this chaos quickly, though, changing gears in the only way the story will allow at the moment, with the flashback. I had seen an Ace flashback coming for a while now, but I couldn’t imagine that it would be so short and yet so complete and eventful. Instead of toying with readers by asking more questions of Ace’s past and history, Oda has begun to answer them rapid-fire: Luffy’s understanding of their parentage, how Ace fought Jinbei, how Whitebeard met Ace and how Ace came to join his crew. It was dramatic, inspirational and emotionally rollicking, and the impression given by the end is that Ace’s story is just about as interesting as Luffy’s. The way Ace’s desires twist from power, to settling his father’s rivalry(?), to maintaining his new father’s name comes off as realistic as it had been if it was developing for 10 years in parallel. And, knowing Oda, maybe it has.

 

So, having been given that whirlwind tour of Ace’s life, Oda lines up his forces yet again, now seemingly fully prepared to start the battle. It’s pretty amazing that for three chapters now, it always looked like war would start on the very next one, and yet what actually does happen does not disappoint or reduce the suspense – indeed, my excitement only increases every time! So, even though the flashback has been done, and Oda has practically fired the starter’s pistol in the closing narrations, but I could still see there being yet another story to tell. That being, of course, the beloved main cast, or at least the adopted new main cast of the last arc, who have resigned to a few panels each chapter lately.  The words of the Elder Nyon seem to becoming more and more true; Luffy seems outclassed by all the combatants present, and what he can achieve seems to be shrinking more and more. Besides which, he may find himself too occupied with restraining Crocodile and Mr. 1, who will likely target Whitebeard immediately. More and more sides keep getting added to this war, and all the conflicting motives, obligations and moralities seem to be flowing into a sublimely tuned chaos. All of the conflicts that will arise and all the ramifications of what will transpire may seem to be random and simply for action’s sake, but this is not the real world where things can be unfair or pointless, and like Oda’s other stories, I foresee this all working out in some brilliant way that makes the current chapters seem prophetic and even more genius.

 

What can we really predict from this war? Not much, but we can wait happily knowing that we are about to witness something that is near unmatched in shonen history in scope. So many characters that are simply awesome – more getting revealed every chapter, I mean, Marco seems like a really cool guy – are about to wage war on each other, and the best part is how it is both immediate and exciting and surely to be the seed of major events down the line, just like Ace and Blackbeard’s now legendary battle. One final question I have, though: really, who are the bad guys here? Whitebeard seems like a compassionate person, generally good, but he fought with Shanks, who is even more clearly a good character. And the Marines, cruel as they may be, may want war for a reason that we do not understand yet. What about the Shichibukai who simply participate for their own profit? Such moral ambiguity makes the battle even more suspenseful, as the classic predictions of shonen conflicts cannot be made. Right now, I am happy to say, I have no idea who will win this war, which really is incredible. I wish it would start already, but if the buildup keeps producing chapters like these, chapters where an entire other major character is explained in detail in the middle of the most powerful attack seen thus far in the story, I wouldn’t mind a wait.

 

*****