One Piece Volume Four Review
A Brief Review of Volume Four of Eiichiro Oda's One Piece
The entirety of volume four is a continuation of the Usopp storyline that began in the second half of volume three. It is up to The Straw Hats and Usopp Pirates to join forces to thwart the nefarious Black Cat Pirates from executing the nefarious plans they have devised for the small island community known as Syrup village. Failure means that the ill Kaya will be killed and her family’s fortune absconded by Kuro, a deadly pirate who posed as her caretaker for years.
One of my criticisms of the prior volume was that the Straw Hats had very little to do once they reached Syrup Village. Our heroes were overshadowed by Usopp’s Pirates, Kaya, and the Black Cat Pirates. It was Usopp’s story through and through and the Straw Hats should have been utilized in a manner that weaved them into the schemes of Usopp.
Oda rectified that flaw in volume four by having the Straw Hats and Usopp team up for the shared goal of stopping Kuro’s years long scheme. The two groups working together made for a better story by giving everybody purpose. There is not a single character who ends up getting pushed to the background this time around. When the battles begin, each character has their own mission that adds to the larger narrative surrounding Kuro’s hopes of stealing Kaya’s wealth.
There is still one slight issue that Oda deftly manages. Luffy and his crew are not yet on the grand line, but Luffy’s devil fruit powers make him significantly stronger than just about everybody that he encounters. A protagonist easily dispatching every single opponent that they encounter does not make for a compelling story. Oda works around this by using Luffy’s eagerness to battle for comedic effort. He wanted to fight so badly that he just started running, never thinking about where he was headed, and ends up at the wrong location. Believing that his leader knows what he is doing, Zoro follows up. With the two strongest fighters temporarily removed from battle, Nami and Usopp have to devise clever ways to delay the raiding pirates and summon their own courage.
Volume Four ends up being another collection that features tons of fighting. One Piece is a battle manga that is meant to feature tons of combat, but my issue is that the plot slows down way too often to focus on the fighting. Fighting can be fun, but a well told story is always better. The extensive fighting often ends up hampering the pace of the series as well, because the battles end up dragging on well after you want them to wrap up. Nevertheless, Volume four is a significant improvement upon two and three because there is absolutely no Buggy this time around, a character that I absolutely loathed with all of my heart.
