Hey all, Sam here.
Well, here’s a review that was supposed to be up last year and just ended up sitting in the drafts folder for WAY too long. I had planned to review one volume a week until I had reviewed the 12 volumes covering the first season of the live-action adaptation coming to Netflix…and obviously I went into a blogging hiatus and that did not happen.
Since I do want to get back to doing Manga Monday posts, I guess it’s time to circle back around to a number of the manga that I read last year and try to piece together a review. So…I guess I should say that I will possibly be talking about not just the manga, but also the anime and the live-action show, because I was honestly reading and watching them all at basically the same time. It was a “One Piece” overdose, but at least it was a fun time.
Let’s get started.
Captain Kuro of the Black Cat Pirates was the most feared evil genius on the high seas…until he vanished. Most people believe he’s dead, but only his crew knows the truth: Captain Kuro has been laying low in a small seaside village, posing as a mild-mannered butler until the time for pillage is just right. Now that time has come, and the ruthless Black Cat Pirates are about to attack…
Unless, of course, Monkey D.Luffy can stop them! All Luffy has on his side are the sword-wielding first mate, Zolo; his thieving navigator, Nami; Usopp, a local kid with a knack for telling lies; and his own bizarre rubber-limbed powers. If these four amateur pirates want to stop the entire Black Cat crew, they’ll have to come up with a pretty slick plan…
My Thoughts
Rating: 4 stars
Do you know what really sucks about binge-reading a bunch of volumes of manga one after the other? I don’t pause in between volumes to jot down any notes or thoughts or feelings about them. So then when I finally get around to writing up a review for the blog months later, I’m often extremely vague about my commentary…or I go look up other reviews on sites like Goodreads and use some of the more detailed reviews to refresh my memory of the events in that particular volume.
At least for this discussion of One Piece, not only have I seen the events of this volume by reading it and by watching the anime episodes, but I also watched the live-action twice…so perhaps I’m not quite as vague with this particular franchise.
I think this particular story is what really drew me in to the Straw Hat Crew….maybe because this is where the recruiting truly begins. Like, Luffy met Zolo/Zoro and Nami at the very beginning, so while they were recruited into Luffy’s crew, it doesn’t feel the same as the recruitment for folks like Usopp or Sanji…..it’s not a spoiler to say that, is it? I mean, the series has been out for almost 30 years now. Wow. Yeah, I looked it up and it said on Goodreads that Volume 4 was first published in August 1998….so, I don’t think we can really call something that happened 26 years ago a spoiler at this point.
This volume did have some funny parts as both Luffy and Zolo/Zoro are directionally challenged and get lost a bit. You know, this does make me wonder…when in the manga does the switch from Zolo to Zoro happen…or does it ever happen? Anyway.
Overall, this volume gives us a pretty decent look into the Black Cat Pirates, and you know there’s going to be an epic (for this stage in the manga anyway) fight coming. I already know that the fights get more big and crazy as the series progresses because of a need to make them bigger and better, and with the protagonists and enemies getting more and more powerful, and having more and more ridiculous abilities.
I am not reading this series for any sense of realism. I am reading it purely for the whimsy and the entertaining escapism.
All right. That is all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.
Free State of Geek 