One Piece Vol 27

[sara_tanaquil]

I find I'm able to appreciate the development of the Skypiea/Shandia plot much better this time through. The first time I read this arc, I think I was just hopelessly confused.

Enel and his agents remain tedious, alas.

Comments

[rallamajoop]

Huh, is it really not until this volume that we first hear 'Paramecia' named out loud? I had it in my head that it was way earlier. (Probably what I get for spending so much time poking through the One Piece Wiki while I was still watching the series for the first time and spoiling myself rotten.)

[sara_tanaquil]

I believe it is the first time, because I've been waiting for it to come up. (If I missed something, somebody please alert me!) Zoan-types were identified way back when we met Dalton and Chopper, and have been called out several times since, but not the other two types. As far as I'm aware, [Spoiler (click to open)]logia fruits still have not been identified by name as a class, even though we've seen three in action (Smoker, Ace and Crocodile) and Crocodile pretty much explained how his power worked.

It is crazy how slowly Oda lets the essential concepts of the One Piece world slip through into the story. I love it. <3

[rallamajoop]

It is crazy how slowly Oda lets the essential concepts of the One Piece world slip through into the story. I love it. <3

Yeeeessssssss, me too. There are times when things get info-dumpy all of a sudden (his attempts at physics, log poses, etc), but mostly it's fairly natural how things come up. Sometimes he'll even flat out refuse to explain stuff to us, like when Usopp wanted an explanation for how the hell a gun could eat a Devil Fruit, and Ms Merry Xmas declined to explain anything whatsoever. XD Heck, the series had been going 10+ years and we still don't have answers for half the big questions he keeps hinting at regarding how Devil Fruit really work/what they are/where they come from/how they're identified/etc, despite all promises that we'll get the answers eventually.

You are dead right that Paramythia makes far more sense, but I think by now I'm too used to hearing it as 'Paramecia' to do anything else.

[printfogey]

I keep forgetting this - did we ever find out [spoiler for the rest of Skypiea and also for Water 7]who saved Chopper, Gan Fall and Pierre from drowning? It wasn't Merry, was it?

The dancing wolves are adorable. I don't know much about wildlife, but I have heard that wild animals often do enjoy campfires, not automatically fearing them as the myth says - plus they're quite funny in a random way.

But I also love the whole scene with the cooking (Luffy's boredom <333), the insistence on a campfire and then the pre-Treasure Hunt celebration. Nice respite from the fighting and the terrors, a cozy, homely sense of Strawhat togetherness - and also a time for explanations, plans and pleasant anticipation, all the while being aware of named and nameless dangers around them. Oda carries off the atmosphere there very well - at least, it works that way for me.

(Interesting that he immediately identifies the danger Luffy presents as the overturning of settled ideas and assumptions. In his own way, Wiper is a traditionalist.)

Very astute point.

[sara_tanaquil]

It was the huge southbirds that saved Chopper and the others (Chopper explains this during the info-exchange scene), apparently because they revere Gan Fall as the former kami.

Totally agreed on liking the respite between adventures. We get all too few glimpses of all the Strawhats being able to interact in circumstances of (almost?) complete peace, and it's so much fun to watch them relax. (Even though the dancing wolves still freak me out.)

[mangaroo]

Until the day he died, Norland never stopped lying.Norland's story makes me cry. I am always moved by the honest man unjustly accused. And the contrast between the happy smiley face in the storybook and Cricket's account of his real last days...*bawl

[sara_tanaquil]

Norland's story makes me cry.

Me too. ;_;

I recommend you lay in a store of tissues. In fact, I recommend that in general, but having read this far into One Piece, I guess you already know that.

I love secret treasure maps and split islands and...maps. I love them.

One of my all time favorite maps is in volume 28. ^_^

But, yes. The maps just get increasingly elaborate and hilarious with every succeeding arc. The illustrations! Oda should have made a living drawing medieval maps.

the problem is these aren't my neighbors with their cushy lifestyles who would probably participate in a lot of injustice to preserve themselves and their possessionsI can see where you're coming from, although it doesn't bother me as much. One significant factor might not only be fear for one's own comfortable life (not to mention life and limb), but also an instinctive tendency to submit to authority, no matter how abusive. Pagaya's shock and distress on learning that the Strawhats are "criminals" is symptomatic here, I think. Both he and Conis have