The Everlasting One Piece Readalong: Vols. 46-48
Welcome back to the Everlasting One Piece Readalong! On July 19, 1997, the series was unleashed on the world to bring us fun, hilarious pirate adventures. A very happy 20th anniversary to One Piece: here’s to many more years of the Straw Hats exploring the Grand Line and making new friends everywhere they go. If you’ve been looking for a great manga with excellent friendships, politics, mysteries, and action, it may be right up your alley. Start here! Our readalong uses the big omnibus editions; previous columns can be found in the project tag.
Volumes 46-48 Overview
A new adventure, a new crew mate, and…a second new crew mate? Luffy meets someone new and invites them on board against the wishes of the rest of the group and without knowing anything about him! Instead of Fishman Island, the Straw Hats arrive at Thriller Bark…or does Thriller Bark find them? It’s their biggest fight yet as they face down another dangerous pirate and his massive crew full of zombies and ghosts!
The Adventure Continues!
Last time we left Ace facing off against Blackbeard and his fearsome new Devil Fruit power after he ate the Dark Dark fruit. But there’s more to Blackbeard’s power than simply controlling gravity and destroying everything in his path. His new powers also allow him to suppress the powers of any other Devil Fruit user if he can touch them.
Ace is no slouch as a fighter, though, and holds his own against Blackbeard. Blackbeard is determined that he will be Pirate King and asks Ace to join him, but Ace has other plans for Pirate King—his own captain, Whitebeard, whose crew Blackbeard defected from. The massive duel rages on, and it’s unclear who wins the battle, Blackbeard or Ace, but the power they wield will inevitably have far-reaching consequences…
Elsewhere on the Grand Line, the Straw Hats sail along, enjoying their new ship when they come across a floating barrel. They fish it out of the ocean because it has the words “treasure” on it, thinking it’s food stores or alcohol, but when they open it up a flare bursts out and explodes above their heads—they’ve alerted whoever left the barrel to their location! They hurry to get away as fast as they can, but get trapped in a terrible storm. Once it clears, the fog is so thick it’s impossible to see where they are. Kokoro told them about an area of the sea between Water Seven and Fishman Island called the Florian Triangle where ships vanished, and that’s probably where they are. Everyone riles Usopp up with scary stories…except almost immediately they’re overtaken by a decrepit ship, crewed by a sentient skeleton!
Luffy, Nami, and Sanji go to check out the ship once it passes and their shock is gone, but they’re greeted almost immediately by the same skeleton they saw before. It’s Brook, who is very much alive even though he’s a skeleton, very good at puns, and also apparently into sexual harassment of women, as he almost immediately asks to see Nami’s underwear. Sanji and Nami have a lot of questions, but Luffy is charmed and brushes their concerns aside and ask Brook, without missing a beat, to join his crew. Brook accepts as Sanji and Nami stare on in horror.
Luffy returns to the ship with his current crew members and his brand new crew member, Brook, and freaks the rest of the Straw Hats out. He stays for dinner, at which point they learn that Brook is a talking skeleton because he ate a Devil Fruit.
Devil Fruit Alert!
Brook ate the Revive Revive fruit, which did nothing except make him unable to swim when he was alive. But when he and his crew were killed by pirates, his spirit tried to return to his body but couldn’t find it. By the time Brooks spirit caught up with Brook’s body, he had wasted away into a skeleton!
Back to the Action
Brook has other problems, too, and so he tells Luffy he’s honored by the offer but he can’t join his crew because he has no shadow. Brook’s shadow was stolen by someone, and until he gets it back he can’t appear in direct sunlight or he’ll disintegrate. Brook is still so happy to have found people who were friendly; he’s been pretty lonely for a very long time.
Luffy still wants Brook to join his crew, especially when he also finds out Brook is a musician. But Brook won’t give out the name of the person who took his shadow because he’s so powerful and Brook refuses to send the Straw Hats to their deaths. Unfortunately, the person who took Brook’s shadow has already found them.
While the Straw Hats and Brook had dinner, the floating ghost island, Thriller Bark, found the Thousand Sunny and captured it! A ghost peeps inside the ship and scares everyone, especially Brook. The rumors about the Florian Triangle that Kokoro shared with the Straw Hats seem way more plausible now. Brook realizes that the Straw Hats must’ve opened a barrel floating in the ocean—that led Thriller Bark right to them!
Brook thanks Luffy for his hospitality, warns them to leave immediately and not put down anchor for any reason, and then heads toward the looming castle on the search, apparently, for the person who stole his shadow. We can forgive Brook for not understanding that his warning would be a massive temptation for Luffy. After all, they just met.
Robin figures out that the whole floating island must have a wall around it, and their ship and Brook’s ship floated in through the open gate of the island, which closed after them. Even after Brook’s warning Luffy decides to go ashore. Franky debuts a secret he’s been keeping about the Thousand Sunny: a mini-Going Merry for shore trips! It’s a tiny replica and Usopp, Nami, and Chopper climb in to go for a ride before Luffy and the others use it to head to the island. But everything goes wrong quickly: the Mini-Merry vanishes in the fog and then an invisible force attacks the remaining Straw Hats, dropping the anchor and tossing the Straw Hats—even Robin—around. The water is also getting choppy, taking them farther and farther away from the Mini-Merry’s last location.
Nami, Chopper and Usopp are fine; they just ran into the shore line and dropped down into a deep, empty moat. They’re not alone, though: a cerberus is keeping them company! They race out of the empty moat over tons of bones and up to sea level to hide from the cerberus in a tree. But the surprises aren’t done: someone greets them in their hiding spot! It’s Hildon, and he tells them the island is dangerous and offers to take them by carriage to see Dr. Hogback. Chopper immediately goes from terrified to excited.
Hildon welcomes them inside his carriage and they head off to the mansion where they can safely wait for their friends and Chopper can meet Dr. Hogback, who is famous in medical circles. He vanished suddenly and has never reappeared, so he’s almost like a legend. But outside, things are not what they seem: Hildon’s companions are strange, and when Nami looks outside the carriage, she sees a lion—with a man’s face! When Chopper and Usopp check, they see a forest full of beasts! They’re convinced something is going on even as Hildon tells them the fog is playing tricks on them. But Nami is adamant they go back to shore, so Hildon goes to tell the driver.
They wait for ten minutes, only to discover that their driver and Hildon have vanished and left them in the middle of a cemetery that’s crawling with zombies! Hildon flies away and leaves them to the mercy of the zombie horde, and they only escape due to their speed at running and the zombie horde’s lack of endurance.
They finally reach the mansion but no one seems to be home until they go deeper into the courtyard. Then Cindry appears, invites Nami and Chopper in, but throws plates at Usopp (she hates plates). She’s stopped by none other than Dr. Hogback, who allows the whole group in. Chopper is delighted by Dr. Hogback, who retreated to the island to study the effects of death and resurrection, since his study was shunned in the outside world. He’s very impressed they survived the island because of its dangers; he chose the island to study the zombies themselves. Chopper wants to see his lab, but Dr. Hogback gets seriously scary when refusing. He also gets cagey when they ask about Brook, too, but he invites them to stay overnight, anyway.
As Nami showers the zombie dust off, Usopp and Chopper keep watch while Nami explains they’re going to leave as soon as possible because Dr. Hogback was definitely lying. She’s sure, based on the look of the mansion, that there’s no way Hogback isn’t involved with the zombies. Her plotting is cut off, though, when she’s attacked by an invisible man who talks about making her his bride! Usopp and Chopper rush to help, but the man escapes out the window, barely avoiding Usopp’s Exploding Star. He had been spying all her the whole time, probably, and worse, knew her plan about escape…
Luffy’s group washed up, along with Brook’s ship and the Mini-Merry, into a giant spiderweb in front of a beckoning entrance. They leave the ship behind and end up back where Nami, Usopp, and Chopper started, heading down the stairs into the moat. They even meet the cerberus! Luffy tames the cerberus—if beating it up and forcing it to be his friend counts as tames—but the other Straw Hats notice that the cerberus seems to be a combination of other animals. There’s plenty of weird creatures to be seen as they explore, and Luffy keeps trying to invite all of them to join his crew.
Elsewhere on the island, Dr. Hogback is lecturing Absalom, the invisible person from Nami’s shower, about sneaking around. They’re all excited about the high bounties the Straw Hats have, so Dr. Hogback tells the mysterious Absalom to focus and do his best to catch them. Their intentions for the Straw Hats aren’t yet clear…
Too bad for Nami, Usopp, and Chopper, because they’re in the belly of the beast. As they try to find an exit, they run into Hildon, who tries to claim he had only stepped away for a moment instead of abandoning them. Nami’s tired of the lies and assurances that they’re safe; she’s getting out of there. And finally all her paranoia is validated because the whole room comes alive—even the furniture and decorations are zombies! They only escape by accidentally triggering a secret door in the fireplace, whisking them away from the attacking zombie decor, but directly to the path of Dr. Hogback’s lab where he refused to let anyone go in no uncertain terms. They find refuge in a weird room full of paintings of Cindry.
They snoop around a bit, only to discover that Cindry isn’t only a servant, or even a little bit alive. She used to be an actress and died ten years before in a freak accident, suggesting that the whole room is a murder wall someone created. Chopper is convinced that Dr. Hogback is still doing research and has succeeded in solving the mystery of death. Nami gets distracted from dead people and zombies by what she thinks are treasure chests, but really they’re just full of monsters, sending the whole trio on the run again.
Outside, Luffy’s group is attacked by ghosts that can drain a person’s optimism and then Luffy picks a fight with a whole cemetery full of zombies that end up cowed and eager to not tick anyone else off. After they leave, another zombie approaches and compliments their strength and asks them to help get his shadow back. Like Brook, his shadow, and apparently many others, are missing. But the person taking the shadows isn’t a pushover: it’s Gecko Moria, whose name Robin immediately recognizes. He’s one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea!
Not much is known about Gecko Moria, but because of him tons of victims wander around, shadowless and unable to leave because they’ll perish forever if touched by the sun. The zombie begs Luffy to help, and Luffy says they planned to take on whoever was stealing shadows, anyway, so maybe the he’ll be saved in the process, too. The zombie also gives them handy information about their location: Thriller Bark. It’s not an island, but a ship so large that a village has grown up around the center; its flag takes up the whole sky when standing on what is, effectively, its deck. This means that Gecko Moria fights other pirates on his own home turf and gives himself a huge advantage.
Inside the mansion, Nami, Usopp, and Chopper, having accidentally discovered Dr. Hogback’s lab, stumble on him making a brand new zombie. They’re hiding, waiting for the zombie to be created when someone very much like Brook—but not Brook—busts them, revealing their presence to Dr. Hogback. Dr. Hogback is angry but not overly concerned, since something called the Night Hunt is about to begin. Around the island, Moria himself is awakening, Absalom is raising his zombie army and generals, and a new player, Ghost Princess Perona, is returning to her physical form.
Nami is furious about Dr. Hogback’s experiments, and finally Chopper begins to doubt his idol, too. Dr. Hogback isn’t worried about them, though: he has them easily defeated by Samurai Ryuma, a skeleton that acts and speaks a lot like Brook—but Brook isn’t this cruel. He takes out Nami’s group with one blow.
Luffy’s group is close, though—they break into the mansion to find the same room where the zombie decor attacked Nami, Usopp, and Chopper, and they fare much better than their teammates in subduing the room to find out the location of their friends. The zombies, having failed to physically cow Luffy’s group, try to scare him by making Sanji vanish, and when that doesn’t work because Luffy’s confidence in Sanji is so high, with tales of Gecko Moria. Luffy isn’t having it—he’ll bust up Moria’s whole ship if his friends are hurt. They leave the beaten zombie decor behind expect for a mounted pig head, and go deeper into the mansion.
Absalom continues waking up the zombies for the Night Hunt. He directs them to track down the pirates and capture them. Nami’s group was already captured; they wake up in a coffin that was being transported to a huge building behind the mansion. While they try to decide whether to go forward or back, a huge crowd of zombies surround them—they’re in Perona’s territory and there’s no way to get away. The zombies attack, but one penguin and dog hybrid zombie stops the group from hurting Nami and he sounds…mysteriously like Sanji?
Luffy’s group is wandering around the mansion, and is quickly losing members, because now Zoro has vanished as well. The zombie pig head won’t cough up any useful information, either. They enter a massive room that will eventually lead them outside, but they’re attacked by a huge number of zombie generals and the way back blocked off as the pig head escapes. The generals are armored and mostly impervious to many of their attacks, but they agree to fight their way through to the other side. While fighting, Luffy comes across Jiguro, a swordsman who died years ago and was brought back to life yet…still sounds a lot like Zoro?
Robin and Franky make it outside, but Luffy doesn’t. He gets captured! Before they can go after him, a giant zombie spider cuts off their way forward—the Straw Hats are well and truly separated now!
Also, it’s for sure now; Sanj and Zoro were both taken and somehow now they’re zombies. They still sort of act like themselves, but in a very weird way. And now Luffy is gone, too! Nami’s group barely escape from Perona’s zombies and Absalom’s attempt to kidnap Nami for his bride, and Robin and Franky are surrounded by zombies and a giant spider elsewhere. But Franky has a few tricks up his sleeve, and he explodes the walkway they’re on. Robin uses the coolest skill of her Devil Fruit so far to make herself wings out of hands, and they make it across to the next building while all the zombies fall below. Also falling from the sky, out of nowhere, and crashing into the ground: Brook!
It seems like Robin and Franky might be home free, but the zombie spider is tough. They put up a good fight but the spider and his spider minions are too fast and there’s too many of them, so they trap both Franky and Robin in their webs. It seems dire, except Brook crawls out of the crater he landed in and greets Robin and Franky like old friends. Then, in one slash, he takes out the giant zombie spider. Brook has serious sword skills!
After he subdues the zombie spider, he does something mysterious and a black mass erupts from the spider’s mouth and vanishes into the sky. He then explains to Franky and Robin that none of the zombies on the island are people brought back from the dead. Instead, Dr. Hogback is creating bodies by acquiring bodies and splicing them together. Then Moria uses his power to animate them!
Devil Fruit Alert!
Moria ate the Shadow Shadow fruit, which allows him to take people’s shadows and insert them into other bodies. By capturing the shadows of powerful people, he can benefit from the strength of the person in a body that obeys easily.
Back to the Action!
Brook shares that he happened to end up on Thriller Bark once, and saw Moria working. His shadow was also taken, too, which is why he can’t leave the Florian Triangle.
Elsewhere, Nami’s group has managed to evade Absalom and Perona by hiding inside Kumacy, Perona’s zombie bear minion. Perona doesn’t let Kumacy talk much, so it’s not actually terrible hiding place. They overhear the news that Luffy has been captured, and Moria wants them to assemble so zombie 900 can be debuted!
When Perona, Hogback, and Absalom arrive, we finally formally meet Gecko Moria. They also they also take Nami’s group with them inside Kumacy, unaware that they have spies tagging along. Inside Kumacy, Nami’s group can see that Luffy is trapped, and they learn that Sanji and Zoro have already been captured, too! All their strongest fighters are under Moira’s control. Luffy tries to get away, but he’s outnumbered. Moria takes his shadow from him and Luffy collapses!
Brook explains to Franky and Robin that once a shadow is removed, the original owner can’t be killed or the zombie the shadow is powering will be killed. So the Thriller Bark crew will put the bodies of their victims back on their ships and let them go to discourage them coming back to fight for their shadows. He tells them it’s best if they return to their ship so they don’t also have their shadows taken and can help their friends. Brook also shares the secret of how he separated the spider zombie from the shadow it was using: salt. Because the shadows are inserted into the zombies using a Devil Fruit power, salt reacts like sea stone does to Devil Fruit users and severs the bond.
Last time on the island, Brook couldn’t get his shadow back. Brook is determined that this time, he’s not going to run away from the person that has his shadow. He’s going to fight and return his shadow to its proper place no matter what, because there’s a promise he has to keep. Before Franky and Robin leave to return to the ship, though, Franky has one last question, the answer to which sends him to immediate tears. This is good foreshadowing and a big hint to pull out the tissues immediately.
Moria orders Luffy’s body returned to his ship and he and Hogback take Luffy’s shadow into a massive freezer. They’ve been plotting for years to bring a certain infamous giant back to life in order to control his immense power, and with Luffy’s shadow they’ll become unstoppable: Oars!
From inside Kumacy, Nami’s group watches on in horror as Moria jams Luffy’s shadow into the giant and it slowly comes to life. When it’s full awake, it demands meat, and Nami screams, giving up their hiding location. They immediately run away, deciding to head back to the ship since that’s where Luffy’s body will be, and also Sanji’s, since now everything weird is starting to make sense. Chopper is seriously ticked off, though, because Dr. Hogback isn’t trying to help people at all—he’s just using them!
They don’t get far before Absalom attacks and takes Nami away to become his bride. Usopp and Chopper are left to fight a horde of zombies and are only saved at the last minute by Franky and Robin, who are making their way around purifying zombies with the salt Brook provided. Even though they rescue Usopp and Chopper, Absalom is long gone with Nami in tow.
Oars, now powered by Luffy’s shadow, is eating the Thriller Bark crew out of house and home, and he’s not as obedient as the other zombies yet. After he eats, he busts out of his freezer; he expected to stretch, but didn’t, meaning that Luffy’s Devil Fruit powers didn’t come with his shadow. All Oars has is his massive body and strength, but those aren’t too shabby!
Brook, wandering around Thriller Bark, finally finds the zombie that has his shadow, Kyuma. Brook and Kyuma met once before, when Brook came to Thriller Bark to find his shadow five years previously, and lost his duel with Kyuma in the most humiliating way possible. Because Kyuma can’t live without Brook’s shadow, he let Brook go, but now Brook is back and prepared to face Kyuma for real: he’s not leaving without his shadow!
Back at the Thousand Sunny, the remaining Straw Hats find Luffy, Sanji, and Zoro unconscious. When they wake them up, Luffy is furious that the zombies stole all his meat, and Sanji is furious that Nami was kidnapped and is being forced to marry someone else. They regroup and Franky and Robin share how to take out all the zombies. Then Franky also shares the reason that Brook wants his shadow back; he and his crew made a promise to meet a friend when he left for the Grand Line, and then they all died and never got to go back. It’s been at least fifty years and he’s not certain Laboon will even still be there, waiting.
Remember Laboon? Time to break out those tissues I mentioned earlier. We met him when the Straw Hats started their adventure on the Grand Line. The pirates that Laboon agreed to wait for —it was Brook’s own crew! Brook is the only one left to fulfill the promise. Luffy is even more determined that Brook will join his crew: he’s a talking skeleton (most important), a musician, and also he needs to be able to see Laboon again like he promised. So now on top of getting their own shadows back, rescuing Nami, and punching a lot of zombies, they have to help Brook! The Straw Hats work best with a solid, actionable goal, and there’s nothing more actionable than friendship.
As the Straw Hats begin their counterattack on Thriller Bark, Brook engages in a duel with Kyuma. Kyuma is still very tough, but Brook made a promise to return to Laboon. He’s going to keep his promise for sure.
The Straw Hats arm themselves with salt and agree they need to focus on getting Nami back, helping Brook, and Luffy is going to find Moria, because he remembers being told that if Moria is defeated all the shadows will be automatically freed, which will solve several problems at once.
They make their way forward, but their progress makes Hildon alert Moria, Hogback, and Perona that the zombies are terrified of the pirates now because Brook taught them how to purify with salt. Absalom is missing in action because he’s holding a wedding, even though Nami is still unconscious (what a creep). Perona sends her negative ghosts after them, and they don’t have a way to fight back against them, so they’re on the run.
Oars is running amok, and Luffy’s spirit is so strong that his shadow gives Oars all Luffy’s desires: for food and the dream to be Pirate King. Since Gecko Moria also wants to be the Pirate King, it seems like there might be an issue unless Oars falls into like line the other zombies. As Oars makes his way around Thriller Bark, he lands on the very path forward that the Straw Hats are using. Zoro, Franky, Sanji, and Usopp come face to face with a very boisterous giant! Lucky for them, Oars doesn’t even notice they’re next to him. He’s got Luffy’s attention span and his fighting skills, though, which combined with his size makes him a problem. They continue on but run into Perona, who attacks them with her negative ghosts.
Devil Fruit Alert
Perona ate the Hollow Hollow fruit, which allows her to control ghosts and also use them herself to travel and spy and cause mischief. Her negative ghosts are her speciality.
Back to the Action!
Zoro, Sanji, and Franky are undone by the negative ghosts. Usopp seems to be, but he’s just pretending! He launches a brand new salt star and purifies several zombies at once. Usopp is immune to Perona’s attack because he’s already negative and down on himself.
Usopp takes on Perona while the others go ahead. Usopp’s negativity is so powerful it can even make the negative ghosts themselves feel bad, and through them, Perona. Sanji goes to find Nami and Franky and Zoro eventually find Brook, being brutally beaten by Kyuma. Zoro steps in and challenges Kyuma in Brook’s place, and promises to make Kyuma’s sword his own.
Absalom is going through with his sham marriage to Nami, with bonus sexual harassment, but can’t seal the deal because the ship is going wild. Oars is steering himself and causing all sorts of problems. When the zombie generals try to stop him, he takes them all out, and in theory, he’s on their side!
When Luffy finds Moria, it becomes clear: when zombies are freshly born with shadows, the original owner of the shadow is very strong. Since Luffy’s personality is stronger than most, it’s no surprise his zombie is similar. But Luffy doesn’t care about that; he’s there to take Moria out. Unfortunately, he can’t break through Moria’s shadow guard. Moria mocks Luffy for being over-confident, but then Luffy uses a different tack and attacks Moria from underneath and lands a hit!
Absalom’s wedding day isn’t going very well; Sanji finally finds the venue and rescues Nami from being married against her will while unconscious. Then Sanji unleashes a massive attack on Absalom. They took Sanji’s shadow, but because his bounty wasn’t as high they didn’t consider him dangerous. Absalom quickly learns how wrong they were, because Sanji gives no quarter at all. Absalom isn’t out of the fight yet; he still has his powers of invisibility!
Devil Fruit Alert!
Absalom ate the Clear Clear fruit to gain his powers of invisibility. He can use them in battle, but his primary use of them seems to be sexually harassing women.
Back to the Action!
Absalom’s Devil Fruit power is a good skill, but it turns out that’s one of the things making Sanji so mad. Once upon a time Sanji read about all the Devil Fruits, and the only one he wanted was the fruit that could make him invisible—so he could do the same thing that Absalom does! This section is both the grossest and one of the most hilarious chapter of the whole arc because of the comic timing and the art. Sanji’s bitterness over losing the Devil Fruit he wanted to Absalom plus him peeping on Nami in the shower is too much for Sanji to handle. Absalom, even with his Hogback-built body and Devil Fruit skills, is kicked into submission!
While Sanji is beating Absalom up, Usopp is dealing with Perona, who is very tricky. Usopp is doing well until he loses sight of her, and then she’s suddenly on the offensive and he can barely keep up. He rallies by putting on his Sniper King mask for extra confidence, and managed to salt Kumacy, releasing the shadow trapped inside the zombie. It takes him a lot of abuse from Perona, but he finally realizes why she went from so scared of him to overly confident: he’s not fighting her real body!
He finds her body in her room and launches an attack, but Perona is faster and makes it back to her body quickly. But Usopp’s a strategic thinker, and the attack that he launched at Perona’s body was actually a sticky star! With Perona trapped, Usopp unleashes a cockroach star attack and then fakes her out with a giant fake hammer. Usopp wins!
Back with the swordsman, Zoro’s fight against Kyuma is epic. Franky and Brook believe that Zoro and Kyuma’s skill is evenly matched. But neither of them are swordsman on Zoro’s level. A notable detail about this battle is that Zoro never puts on his bandana: he completes the fight with Kyuma without it, which is more evidence that although Kyuma was a opponent, Zoro was never in any danger of losing. The more extreme danger was him breaking another sword. After he wins, using one-sword style, Kyuma hands over his sword to Zoro and releases Brook’s shadow. One part of the mission is complete!
In the mansion, Chopper and Robin are taking on Dr. Hogback, but they’re being stymied by the zombie versions of Sanji and Zoro. Chopper is furious at Dr. Hogback for perverting what it means to be a doctor. He tells Dr. Hogback he doesn’t even consider him a doctor anymore because he’s not bringing anyone back to life, only creating puppets for his own pleasure and empowerment. Chopper is adamant: that’s not life at all. He tries to capture Cindry and give her salt, but Sanji’s zombie and Jigoro attack. Sadly for Hogback, he chose the wrong zombies to pair together, because these particular zombies remember just enough of their previous lives to recall they don’t like each other that much. They start fighting each other instead of Chopper and Robin! To add to Hogback’s bad luck, Robin tricks Hogback into ordering them to throw themselves out of the room.
Meanwhile, Cindry can’t move. Chopper speculates that maybe there is some will in the body of the person who died, but there’s no way to measure that kind of thing even with years of study. Unfortunately, everyone’s current project is derailed when Moria checks in on Oars. Luffy’s shadow is fully integrated and Oars is now loyal to Moria. Moria immediately sends him after the Straw Hats by pasting their wanted posters to his arm. In the bedlam, the Straw Hats get thrown around, Hogback gets stepped on by Oars (but he kind of deserved it), and poor Nami gets kidnapped by Absalom again, who found his second wind.
But the Straw Hats can’t worry about Nami right now, because Oars declares himself their enemy and starts attacking. He’s fast and agile despite his size, and he brushes off all their attacks. Even when they appeal to Luffy’s shadow, Oars is fully under Moria’s control now!
Takeaways
With Luffy’s shadow powering Oars, and Luffy unable to challenge Moria to a one on one fight, the Straw Hats are in a bind. This is one of the first fights where strength is important, but even more so than that, strategy and teamwork. The team has the ability to make it work, but their opponent is huge and deadly.
In better developments, Laboon and Brooke’s shared backstory is extremely touching, and a great example of how One Piece self-references in creative ways that enrich both the story and the characters. Watching the Straw Hats easily rally around Brook is one of the best parts of Thriller Bark. Plus, Zoro won a new sword!
Next Time
Will Luffy be able to convince Brook to join his crew? Will Nami ever wake up and sock Absalom in the nose for trying to marry her while unconscious? How will Luffy defeat Moria?
We’ll be reading Volumes 49, 50, and 51 to discover how the Straw Hats save Luffy. Don’t miss it!