One Piece 44

[sara_tanaquil]

This is no doubt full of typos and I don't even know what all, but I am so far behind, I just need to get it out and keep moving. ^_^;;

Enies Lobby draws to a close, post-Enies Lobby awaits.

Comments

[mangaroo]

...and I sobbed reading the end of your summary last night. Eventually I may gain enough emotional control to say something coherent about earlier events (yay!Usopp), but mostly this volume was a lot of shounen fighting and the very sad thing.

[sara_tanaquil]

mostly this volume was a lot of shounen fighting and the very sad thing

Agreed! I was surprised at how hard I found it to get through summarizing this. Just KNOWING that the sad thing was coming was such a disincentive. :-(

But I already started re-reading volume 45 and I had forgotten just how much awesome is in there, so yay for being past the sad thing, at least.

... Getting through Marineford is going to be FUN. ^_^;;;

[miaruma]

UGLY CRYING. UGH EVEN READING IT. Whyyyyy. It's like Oda had us all at YAY ROBIN IS SAVED, THEY'RE ON THE GOING MERRY, EVERYTHING IS PERFECT \o/, and then punched us in the groin so we're blubbering messes on the floor.

This is one of the most powerful moments of the whole manga. Because we've all had that one thing that we've loved to abandon, and one day it broke and no amount of fixing could make it whole again :(.

Oh Merry. *pours one out* here's to you, the first (and hopefully only) literal ship to make me cry even years after I know what happens.

[sara_tanaquil]

t's like Oda had us all at YAY ROBIN IS SAVED, THEY'RE ON THE GOING MERRY, EVERYTHING IS PERFECT \o/, and then punched us in the groin so we're blubbering messes on the floor.

This. WHY must he twist the knife for maximum agony?

[Marineford]He did the exact same thing with Ace's death, that sick, sick bastard.

[wednesday_10_00]

[maybe-spoiler]
wednesday_10_00 said it well: this was when we should have understood that in Oda's world, characters CAN die in the present.

I said that? Wow, I don't remember at all. Who knew I was so smart?


That end scene will never not make me cry. Oh, Merry. ;_;

[sara_tanaquil]

I said that? Wow, I don't remember at all. Who knew I was so smart?

I think it was in a previous spoiler-protected comment thread somewhere! Can't remember where now though.

[wednesday_10_00]

[Marineford]
I found it (thanks, gmail) in the comments to volume 24, but what I said was more "I guess this was the first case of death in the present" and less "this should have told us that death in the present was possible." Splitting hairs, maybe, I wouldn't expect anyone to think the "death" of a ship would indicate events to come.

[lego_joker]

The reference to a "Bake-neko" is a reference to a classic monster from Japanese mythology - so-called "ghost cats" apparently come from cats who have lived to 13 years old, upon which point they gain a whole ass-load of dark demonic powers, symbolized by their tails suddenly splitting into two.

I've few words for the epicness that is the rest of this arc. I will say that I remember one specific moment the anime writers added, where one of Lucci's stray Rankyaku's effortlessly took out three marine captains that kept dodging everything Usopp/Sogeking threw at them.

BTW, I don't think that the vice-admiral who shot his own man is Momonga (Momonga is the one with the huge mohawk, and he's somewhat nicer). According to the wiki, that guy is named Onigumo ("Demon Spider". How... appropriate, given *spoiler*).

[sara_tanaquil]

Oh, thank you for both of those! Those were some of the things I was meaning to go back and check, but I started to feel like if I didn't post this, I was never going to do it.

I had a feeling I was fuzzy on the names of the various admirals that we're supposed to recognize later on. Will have to go in and fix that at some point.

Ha, that would be a nice touch. I generally enjoy the fights far more in anime, assuming that they don't drag them out with a lot of filler; I have a hard time following the dynamics of the fight in manga form.

(My previous cat Ptolemy lived to well beyond 13, but he didn't gain any demonic powers. He just got REALLY fat.)

[wednesday_10_00]

Wednesday is demonically cute!

(No really, I swear she's getting cuter as she gets older.)

[printfogey]

This is my favourite volume of the series - not only has it some of the best Usopp moments IMO, but there's also great moments for everybody - love how everyone is needed to make their escape, for instance (okay, everyone but poor Chopper; but he's still very present, gets to react and comment - and as you point out, he hears Merry early and well).

To Luffy's horror, Usopp tries to lure Lucci ("Hey! Monster Cat!") to fight HIM.

I loved the anime addition here (according to subtitles): "You worthless kitten!" I don't know if Usopp has ever been braver. At least, I've always taken it that he knows full well Lucci would probably kill him in seconds... but even if he is a bit more hopeful/deluded than I think, he has to still know it's an extremely dangerous challenge to make. He's betting everything on getting Luffy to move again.

[I really love that arguably the weakest of them is the only one who can get Luffy moving again.]It really shows how much of Luffy's strength comes from the crew. In Water 7, after Usopp had left and they

[sara_tanaquil]

Please share, because I don't think I know it!

The title of Ch. 430 is (in quotes) 降りそそぐ追想の淡雪. Viz translates as "A light snow of reminiscence falls."

I don't actually know what the quotation is from (I just tried to wiki and google it with no luck - found nothing but a lot of OP episode discussions that didn't discuss the title, as far as my limited translation skills could determine), but I pretty much assume that when something shows up in One Piece with a bunch of kanji/vocabulary I can't make heads or tails of that vaguely refers to seasons/natural beauty/etc, it must be classical. Especially with the quote marks. Anyone know the origin?

More responses later when it's not late at night! (For me.)

[printfogey]

Amending my comment since I can't edit it - I completely forgot Chopper regained his strength before Luffy did, so he did take part in that final escape after all - he pulled the whipstaff, as usual! /o/