One Piece Volume 8 Review
A Brief Review of Volume 8 of Eiichiro Oda's One Piece
Volume 8 of One Piece finally wraps up the Baratie story that began all the way back in volume 5. Captain Krieg is finally defeated, Sanji has joined the crew, and The Baratie can serve customers for years to come. Now that Luffy has the cook that he yearned for, he can focus on retrieving his ship and navigator. Based on a lead from Zoro’s old friends, the Straw Hats head towards the Conomi Islands, the base of operations of the notorious Arlong Pirates. On the Conomi Islands the Arlong Pirates live in luxury at their palace, Arlong Park. It is here that they search to retrieve Nami.
As I stated in my last review, I was eagerly anticipating the end of the Baratie story. It was clear from the start that there wasn’t much to the Baratie and it should have ended much sooner. We all knew that it was going to end with Sanji joining the crew. His continuous declarations to the contrary meant nothing when the story demanded his presence, never any and all anticipation that the story-arc was attempting to build. Far too much time was wasted for something that was a forgone conclusion. Seeing the Baratie story come to a conclusion was a huge sigh of relief because it meant that the story would finally begin to advance again.
Luckily, Arlong Park is a much better story from the jump. Arlong has bribed a corrupt marine official. As long as he continues to hand over money to the official, he can continue to extort the people of Conomi Islands. Years of his abuse have left the inhabitants to depressed and hopeless. Worst of all, Nami appears to be complicit in the suffer of the people of her hometown. From the moment the crew lands we are inundated with various points of interest; it was the complete opposite of a boring restaurant in the sea.
Despite being only three chapters long, Arlong Park moves the plot along after it stalled at the Baratie. I was glad that there was only minimal action and the chapters were devoted to plot and characters. We got new revelations about Nami’s past, we learn how about The Marines, and we get to see exciting new species that exist in Luffy’s world.
I’m excited to see what else the Arlong Pirates have to offer in volume 9. They are vastly different from anybody else that the Straw Hats have fought, and they thrive in Luffy’s biggest weakness: water. It will be interesting to see how Luffy will fight enemies who can swim, but more interesting is how Nami ties into everything going on with the Arlong Pirates.
