One Piece Vol 24

[sara_tanaquil]

Running late because I had company over the weekend.

Moving into the Skypiea arc by way of Jaya. I thought I remembered vol 24 being kind of boring, but a lot more happens here than I thought.

Comments

[wednesday_10_00]

Hee, in the foreground, you can see Chopper and Luffy playing with Robin's "hands."

The panel of Luffy and Chopper leaning to follow the hand is so adorable. <3

Re-reading this scene was really significant for me. Even though I knew ahead of time (merchandise spoilers, lol) that Robin would join the crew, I was still kind of mistrustful and suspicious and thus didn't like her for a long time.

[Enies Lobby]I think it's not until you get to know her (and her story) that you realize how sincere she is in goofing off with everyone and enjoying their company. From a storytelling perspective, I get why she was portrayed so ambiguously at first, but in retrospect it makes me sad that I doubted her. (I'm sorry, Robin!)

Also, Luffy's Chopper impression will never not be funny. XD

Luffy has been rescued from drowning

lol. Somebody should count the number of times this happens.

[Enies Lobby, I think?]Bonus points for Chopper jumping in to save him. XD

Japanese is saruveiji.

*groans* I can't believe I missed that!

[Water 7]
every time Merry's battered condition is mentioned for

[sara_tanaquil]

[Enies Lobby all the way, baby]
I was still kind of mistrustful and suspicious and thus didn't like her for a long time.

I know! I spent so much time when she first joined the crew going "We're supposed to like her, WHY, again?" I think half the reason Skypiea irritated me so much was that I just wanted some answers to the Robin conundrum, and Skypiea wasn't delivering. (Although, from a narrative perspective, I totally understand now why Skypiea is where it is. The crew had to have a chance to bond with Robin for who she is in a space where the World Government couldn't possibly reach them.)

Now I can read these scenes with an appreciation for all the glimpses of "real Robin" that make her awesome (aw, Robin). And yet, I can still see all the elements that make her appear to be more ambivalent/negative. It's amazing that Oda was able to keep that dynamic up for as long as he did and make it work.

You know, maybe Merry is the real first exception to the "nobody dies in the present" rule. T_T

Too true. T___T

[wednesday_10_00]

[Enies Lobby]
It's amazing that Oda was able to keep that dynamic up for as long as he did and make it work.

Yes. I also think it's really impressive the way Robin didn't really do anything to prove her loyalty during Skypeia, and yet by the end, she seemed like a fully integrated member of the crew, so it seems totally natural when they're all ready to do whatever it takes to defend her from Aokiji, and are completely shocked when it seems like she's betrayed them in Water 7. Dude, she was your enemy when you met and then only hung around with you for a couple weeks! But that's how the Strawhats roll, haha.

(Where's my Robin icon??)

[sara_tanaquil]

Were they really only in Skypiea for a couple of weeks? Dear god, it seemed SO much longer. ^_^;;

I also need more Robin icons.

[printfogey]

Luffy: "Three sword style."
Usopp: "Wait, Luffy, that's not an insult."
Luffy: "Four sword style."
Usopp: "You just added more swords! Look, how about nattou. You could say 'You stink like nattou'..."

I don't think I'll ever stop laughing at this one, either.

I remember being exasperated with everyone but Zoro dropping their suspicions against Robin so quickly, even if I had to concede that Luffy did have a point with "she's not a bad guy", given what we saw in Alabasta.

That image of the galleon dropping out of the sky is so breathtaking and majestic. Sheer adventure-love. And also a game-changing moment, I would say.

Something appears that terrifies even the bravest members of the crew. (Hee, even the giant sea turtle is petrified.)

The horizon is dominated by enormous silhouttes of winged figures holding javelins.

This was a great moment too! Wonderfully done.

Some other things I really like about this volume is that little scene with Usopp, Chopper and Sanji (I'm not sure if Usopp told Sanji about Kaya that many times; I

[rallamajoop]

Yontouryu has got to be one of my favourite Luffy lines ever, and it's only better for Usopp and his ongoing, futile attempts to make his captain make sense. XD (Zoro could only dream of figuring out a way to hold yet another sword.) This whole episode is some of One Piece at its best - important plot and character reactions in the wake of a major arc, and side-splittingly funny at the same time. The crew's reactions to losing Vivi plus Robin's appearance right afterwards had me semi-seriously declaring Zoro "The one Straw Hat who's just not into women at all." [Post Skypeia]All jokes aside though, I love that despite being the last member Robin couldn't win over, Zoro's the first to step up to her defence when Aokiji shows up just before Water 7. Whatever doubts he might have still had about her, she was nakama by then, and her place on the crew was no-one else's business. :3

[Punk Hazard]Good point on the similarity between Doflamingo's and Law's symbols - I never spotted that before. It's not so close that it's obvious they've got to be related, but in

[mangaroo]

I could just cry. I have been working on a line-by-line response to this over the past 10 hours, but I never saved. Then I did something funky on my trackpad and Firefox seized my whole processor and wouldn't let go. I had to force a reboot. I was at the pie-guy/aitsura passage, and I don't have the energy to write it all again. ;_; So here are my off-the-cuff responses, all out of order:

I loved the cute character moments in this volume, especially Chopper and Luffy playing with being played with by Robin's hands. (And that's saying a lot, since I find Robin's power uber-creepy.) Chopper's little feet go clopclopclop when he pounds them on the deck laughing. Also, Chopper and Usopp going into defense mode when faced with Nami's rage over being ridiculed in Mock Town. (Her blush in the bar made her look so young

[sara_tanaquil]

Nooooo! I am very sad, because I would have loved to see your line-by-line commentary... and it just sucks to have all your thoughts vanish into the ether like that.

But now I can ask the question I've been dying to ask, but couldn't because of spoiler fear: when did your recognize that Miss All Sunday was Robin, and/or that she would be a future crew member? Did you recognize her right away, from seeing group pictures or whatever?

For me it was around episode 115 in the anime (I think this would have been vol 21 in the manga), when the opening animation started including Robin as a regular crew member. I remember turning to gnine and saying "SHE'S going to join the crew?" It took me a very long time to learn to like/trust Robin. (I adore Robin, if you haven't noticed. Apart from the awesomeness that is Robin in general, how could I not love the ship's archaeologist?)

Robin's power IS creepy. I think I remember reading somewhere that Oda had to tune it down a bit because it was scaring the kiddies.

This really wasn't like Shanks in

[mangaroo]

it just sucks to have all your thoughts vanish into the ether like that.This, exactly. And in the moment it happens, it just seems like too much effort to try to remember them all and jot them down in the same cheerful tone in which they were originally conceived

[sara_tanaquil]

Aw, I'm sorry about the spoilers in the comments. I should have done something to protect against that (screened the comments, or something).

I like the ambiguous way she joined the crew, though it's possible Oda won't follow up on it.

Oh, he'll follow up on it. It just takes a while. A LONG while. ^__^

One of my line-by-line comments was that Robin's dream (finding the True History) would be the closest to my own. I can't imagine anyone will join the crew with more knowledge-and-lit based aspirations.

Aw! This is totally true, and probably a big part of the reason I love her. (But only part.) I look forward to your continuing thoughts on her, because I think the gradual shift in her characterization and how she's meant to be read by the audience was very much designed by Oda as an intentional part of her character development. (As opposed to Nami, say, where I think it was supposed to be more evident from the beginning that she was a fundamentally sympathetic character who just happened to have an ambiguous backstory.)

Also,