In One Piece Season 2: Sixth Voyage, the Alabasta arc is coming to a close.  They have fought dinosaurs, bounty hunters, a criminal organization and an evil king.  The crew has encountered dragons, whales the size of skyscrapers, killer bunnies and other assortments of the strange and wonderful.  The crew has survived disease, the blistering cold, sweltering desert and are in the middle of a civil war – all to return Nefertari Vivi to her home in Alubarna and stop Crocodile from finishing his plans to destroy her home and country.

Highlights
This volume ends the fight between the Baroques Works and Straw Hats in such a glorious way.  We have Nami going toe to toe with Miss Doublefinger – I think it is one of the funniest fights that I have seen.  Not only because Nami is a normal human being fighting against a woman with Devil Fruit powers, but because Nami's new weapon is such a joke at first. It ends up being one of the funnier fights the whole volume.  Then we are witness to Zoro's fight with Mr. 1.  This was impressive because of Mr.1's ability to turn any part of his body into blades with skin as tough as steel.  This was a great fight, one full of over the top destruction of the surrounding buildings and a very hilarious use of improvised weaponry that I have come to expect from this show.  It isn't every day you see a building used as a weapon not once, but twice. We are even shown just a hint of a power Zoro is close to achieving.

But what about Vivi and her confrontation with Crocodile, you ask?  Well, we see just how sick and twisted Crocodile is.  He not only refuses to give a fight, but his power means he can and will dry you out, literally leaving you a withered husk.  With the return of Luffy, things get really good.  We see both the true extent of Crocodile's powers and that Luffy is able to pick up on strengths and weaknesses of his opponents very fast.  Not only is the fight great to watch, but there are some good jokes at the beginning.

Overall
I loved this volume.  The humor, action and drama were at that great blend where everyone will enjoy it.  I was laughing nearly the whole time when Nami was trying to use her new Clima-Tact weapon.  As an item that could be called a joke, it was used very effectively during the fight.  All the fights were fantastic and it was enjoyable watching them all.

From the dramatic angle, I loved how nicely this arc wrapped up.  I will admit that though Vivi's pleas felt a bit humorous, I still couldn't deny the drama that was there.  You could honestly believe that she was going mad trying to stop the fighting amongst her people and there was nothing she could do alone.  Something that bugged me when I was watching this was the lack of drama from two characters seemingly coming back, even though they were close to an explosion.  And not once was it acknowledged that they were alive, not even a surprised look and explanation.  I feel that it was a poor choice not to acknowledge that they were alive.  

Musically, I thought the volume was great.  It is not every day that I get to listen to classical music while watching a guy made of sand get beaten by a man made of rubber.  There was a certain beauty to it that is hard to describe.

ComicsOnline gives One Piece Season 2: Sixth Voyage 3.5 out of 5 feasts.

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