One Piece volumes 31-45

One Piece Volumes 31-45 by Eiichiro Oda, 3209 pages 15 books


Previously I had only focused on blogging about this series every ten books. But I realized that this tended to be mid story arc and really complicated the blog posts. So I am trying something new and blogging about one complete story arc called Water Seven.

Water Seven is an island famous for it shipwrights. It is here that the best ships get built, which is fortunate as the Going Merry is nearing the end of its usability. Luffy and his crew also realize that then need to find a competent carpenter to sail with them.

The Water Seven story arc reveals a lot of the back story behind Robin Nico and we get to see who Luffy's dad and grandpa are. In this arc we also see both crew members leaving and crew member(s) added. There is of course lots of fighting and action that is a must for all of these books.

I will have to be vague here to not give away any spoilers, so this might not entirely make sense. The one thing I am not sure I like, though it depends on how it is going to be used, is the featuring of new powers in the group.  These powers seem like evolutions of their previous skills. The reason I don't like this is because previously the members to the crew got by on teamwork and their perseverance. This ability to evolve into a stronger fighter seems like a cop out to allow more one on one fights and to permit stronger bad guys. I am not saying however that it is completely unfounded. The crew have been fighting since they began their journey and it does make sense that they should develop new skills for the new tougher people they are going to meet on the Grand Line, but it makes them lose some of that innocence or loveablity the crew has.

Either way I will keep reading to see what happens, the next arc is called Thriller Bark and I think I remember something about them heading for the underwater paradise of Fish-Man island...