In One Piece Season 2: Fifth Voyage, the battle for Alabasta has begun! Luffy and his friends have been spending all this time traveling through just the outer edges of the Grand Line, battling not only the heat but the agents of Baroque Works.
Highlights
The news that they have been going the wrong way to try and stop the impending rebellion has hit hard. After confronting Vivi about her plan, and by confronting I mean punches her, Luffy gets her to accept that some losses are needed and confronts Crocodile himself in the town of Rainbase. Meanwhile, as the crew makes their way to Rainbase, the Baroque Works Agents finally meet their boss. With this meeting, Mr.3 returns and through him Crocodile learns that not only are the Straw Hats still alive, but that Mr.3 hadn’t even contacted him way back on Little Garden. After running into Rainbase for water, Luffy and Usopp run into the Marine Commander Smoker in a funny scene that has him complaining while they stand there for nearly half a minute.
The news that they have been going the wrong way to try and stop the impending rebellion has hit hard. After confronting Vivi about her plan, and by confronting I mean punches her, Luffy gets her to accept that some losses are needed and confronts Crocodile himself in the town of Rainbase. Meanwhile, as the crew makes their way to Rainbase, the Baroque Works Agents finally meet their boss. With this meeting, Mr.3 returns and through him Crocodile learns that not only are the Straw Hats still alive, but that Mr.3 hadn’t even contacted him way back on Little Garden. After running into Rainbase for water, Luffy and Usopp run into the Marine Commander Smoker in a funny scene that has him complaining while they stand there for nearly half a minute.
On the run from both Marines and Baroque Works Millions, all of the Straw Hats but Sanji, Chopper, and Vivi get captured in such a way that points out just how straightforward, and stupid Luffy can be. This gets pointed out, in fact, only after they all have been captured. Here we learn Crocodile’s plan: overthrow King Cobra and take Alabasta as his own. Does seem a bit clichéd, but for Crocodile, it works. When Vivi finally gets everyone out of the cage, the Straw Hats make way for Alubarna, in an attempt to stop the ensuing rebellion. With Luffy confronting Crocodile, we see just how hard he is to fight. With this turn of events, we have a couple of callbacks that are just funny to watch, both of them going as far back as the start of the last volume.
With the remaining group finally making it to Alubarna, they split up and each confronts members of the Baroque Works. Sanji fighting against Mr.2, Zoro and Nami fighting against Mr.1 and Miss Doublefinger, well it's more Zoro wanting to fight them but they walk past him to take out Nami first, and in a great fight we have Usopp and Chopper fighting against Mr.4 and Miss Merry Christmas.
Overall
This was a very enjoyable volume. Not only was the humor great, but the fights between the Straw Hats and Baroque Works Officer Agents were superb. Along with the aforementioned callbacks, we were introduced to four new Devil Fruits: the Sand-Sand Fruit, the Mutt-Mutt Fruit Dachshund Type, the Mole-Mole Fruit, and the Tweet-Tweet Fruit Falcon Type. These had some very interesting uses in fights, and the Sand-Sand Fruit is just horrific when you see just what it can do.
This was a very enjoyable volume. Not only was the humor great, but the fights between the Straw Hats and Baroque Works Officer Agents were superb. Along with the aforementioned callbacks, we were introduced to four new Devil Fruits: the Sand-Sand Fruit, the Mutt-Mutt Fruit Dachshund Type, the Mole-Mole Fruit, and the Tweet-Tweet Fruit Falcon Type. These had some very interesting uses in fights, and the Sand-Sand Fruit is just horrific when you see just what it can do.
Even if you are not a fan of One Piece this is a must see. Not only because it is a continuation of a great story. But the over the top nature of this show is something you can’t forget watching. For example, a squad of seven ducks the size of ostriches gallantly running across the horizon to the aid of our heroes sounds strange. Because it is, yet here it is par for the course.
ComicsOnline gives One Piece: Season 2 Fifth Voyage 4 out of 5 bananagators.
