I didn’t post much in the past few days because I was very sick and I still am, but I still couldn’t stop reading, since just lying in bed is boring, but I also wanted to review this book while it’s still fresh in my mind.
On to the review.
Since none of the libraries that are close to where I live don’t have any volumes of this series between 5 and thirty something, and the book stores only have volume 1 and the latest few volumes, I ended up reading scans online, it’s uncomfortable to read any book on an electronic, but I have no other choice, at least it’s convenient and faster.
Release date: July 6, 2005 (July 1, 2001 in Japan)
Publisher: Viz Media
Format: Online (what I’ve explained above)
Type: Manga (in most cases these are read from right-to-left)
Age Group: 13+
Pages: 200
Source for Synopsis: Goodreads
Challenge: (personal) 2012 Reading Challenge, The 50 Book Pledge
Series
As a child, Monkey D. Luffy dreamed of becoming the 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 Now Luffy, with the help of a motley collection of pirate wannabes, is setting off in search of the “One Piece,” said to be the greatest treasure in the world
Volume 7
Don Krieg’s evil pirate armada attempts to hijack the oceangoing restaurant Baratie, but the pirate-cooks put up a fierce resistance–until Krieg reveals one of the greatest secret weapons in his arsenal: Invincible Pearl.
Some Quotes
I forgot to write down quotes when I started reading them, and since I read these chapters online, I don’t feel like going back and skimming for good quotes.
Review
Gore: It’s hard for me to be too sure: there is a lot of blood, but I don’t think what happens in this volume is considered gore, correct me if I’m wrong, I can’t think properly right now.
Magic: Yes, kind of (I count the devil fruits as magic, since it gives those individuals who eat them, different kinds of powers)
Romance: No (This one’s kind of hard to say, since it’s a fighting manga, of course that doesn’t mean that there can’t be any romance in it, although there is none in this series so far, except Sanji flirting with Nami, but that was in volume 5 or 6, I wonder if there will be any romance).
Action: 5 stars
Pacing: 4 stars
Plot: 5 stars
Drawings/Art: 3.5 stars
Warning, Spoilers
Most of this volume focuses on the restaurant workers fight against the Don Krieg pirates.
This volume starts off with where the last one left off, right after Sanji surprised the enemy and Luffy by kicking that weird ship (don’t remember what they called it in the last chapter or if they called it anything). The Don Krieg pirates are still bragging about being so strong and ruling East Blue. The fight against Don Krieg and his crew still continues. Then a weird looking guy named Pearl (from Krieg’s side) appears, bragging about his iron wall. Then Sanji surprises the enemy again by kicking five guys all at once. He then talks about why he only fights with his feet, saying that he can’t risk his hands since he’s a cook.
Sanji just started fighting Pearl, when Don Krieg hits Luffy with his weapon (I forget what that thing is called) and he falls and hits the side of Pearl’s face by accident, causing Pearl’s nose to bleed, because of that, Krieg’s crew starts panicking, while Luffy and the others are wondering why there’s such a big commotion over a little bloody nose. Pearl keeps yelling, “I’m in danger,” over and over, and then he lights a fire with his body somehow (something he learned wen he used to live in the jungle, what a weird and abnormal ability). Then he throws fire everywhere, the only one brave enough to get close to Pearl in order to fight him and stop him is none other then…Sanji.
Then, Gin uses the owner Zeff as a hostage to get Sanji to stop fighting. Pearl hits Sanji and he doesn’t dodge it because he doesn’t want the old man Zeff to die, Luffy gets mad and is about to punch Pearl, but Sanji tells him not to, since the old man would die if they do anything to the enemy. Sanji explains that he can’t leave the ship because this all Zeff has left. Then there’s a flashback about how Sanji met Zeff and how Zeff lost his leg nine years ago. (if you want to know what happened, then read it and find out yourself), it’s so sweet and sad what Zeff did for Sanji just because they both have the same dream and even though he just met him a little while ago. In the present, the fight continues.
Gin surprises everyone by attacking Pearl, then he says that he will kill Sanji himself.
Luffy calls the Don Krieg pirates weak, they get mad and then they start bragging about being “…the strongest pirate crew in all of East Blue,” again, and the Luffy says,
“Weren’t you guys just the biggest pirate crew?”
Lol, I just love it when he says things that makes him get on other peoples nerves and that he’s not afraid to speak his mind. He always has to make a bad situation worse for himself.
After that, Don Krieg says that he’ll fight Luffy. While Luffy’s kind of fighting him (since I’m sure that the real fight between them hasn’t started yet), Sanji’s fighting Gin while still wounded from Pearl’s attacks, Gin is about to kill him, but he can’t because he saved his life, he shows that even bad people like them can have some good in them, this of course infuriates Don Krieg and he wants to kill Gin because of that.
This volume ends with Gin getting poisoned by Don Krieg’s poison gas.
I thought Luffy wasn’t afraid of death, but it looked like he was really afraid when he couldn’t find a gas mask for himself.
Don Krieg is such a coward, hiding behind his armour and dirty methods of fighting, plus, what kind of pirate uses poison gas to fight?
Overall, I’m enjoying this series more and more with every volume, it’s still not one of my most favourites like it is with many other people, although maybe that’s because I’m still in the beginning and or because I just enjoy other types of mangas more.
The fighting scenes just get more intense, crazier, and deadlier in every island/arc, like in many other books and tv shows.
Although, some of the fight scenes were kind of hard to understand what was going on because of the way they were drawn.
If you want to read more reviews about this book, go to Goodreads and read the reviews in the comment section or go to other websites.
I rated this book: 4 stars, I couldn’t decide if I should rate this book 4 or 4.5 stars.
If you read this book, then tell me what you thought about it and or the series. Tell me in the comments section.
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3 comments
soaringwings
March 27, 2012 at 11:00 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
This is my least favourite part of the manga. I felt the fight with Don Krieg was way too drawn out. I almost dropped the manga around here because I felt it got too boring. Thankfully the next part featuring Logue Town is some of the best. :3
nazish0151
March 27, 2012 at 3:23 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Really? I actually liked some of these parts, although I agree with you that the fight with Don Krieg did get a little boring. Actually, the next part is the Arlong arc, I searched the list of One Piece chapters on google last week.
That’s like the fights in the Hueco Mundo arc in the Bleach manga, as much as I love fighting scenes, I don’t like too much of the same fight(s) because then all of the fights start to look the same. The same thing in Naruto, after the 4th Ninja World War (I think that’s what it’s called, I don’t remember exactly) starts, I liked it, but after it kept dragging on, I started getting bored of it, so I temporarily stopped reading the Naruto manga because of that. I might read it again once it starts becoming more interesting.
The list of chapters on wikipedia also have a little blurb of what each volume is about, if I skip some of the chapters after Luffy leaves to go after Nami to the part where Nami’s sister tells them about Nami’s past, would I miss anything too important?
soaringwings
March 27, 2012 at 4:31 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Ah, your right. For some odd reason I got Arlong and Don Krieg mixed up and thought Arlong happened before. (u__u) I found Arlong arc to be alright, but Logue Town was much more interesting because quite a few interesting things happen there.
For me it’s not so much the amount of fights, but who is fighting. If it’s somebody I don’t care for, I start to easily get irritated when the fight starts to drag on too long. I didn’t mind Hueco Mundo. I think the only fight that started getting on my nerves was the fight with #8 and that was because he started annoying me with his solution to everything (and hence it felt like the fight was not progressing at all). I didn’t much like him either or Kurotsuchi (or Nel’s two friends). I read quite a bit of battle manga and most of them I am pretty tolerate when it comes to fights. The only ones that “bothered” me were early One Piece, and Flame of Recca (currently reading) and for both of those I wasn’t too drawn into the fights or the story, so I guess my problem is that if I don’t care about the characters, I get easily bored with the fights. xD
Hm. You would miss a bit of mischief by Ussop and some interaction between Zoro and Nami and also the townspeople rising up and Nami’s gold. Yeah, there is a bit in there, so I don’t recommend skipping it. That and this bit with Arlong actually has future plot significance. Also the Arlong arc is pretty good compared to Don Krieg and Captain Kuro (those two are like the weakest arcs in my opinion). :3