We were introduced to Hachi’s seafloor walk in the previous volume, but I do believe this is the first mention we’ve seen of the fashion brand Crimin. As Hachi continues his journey on the seafloor he also comes across the mermaid Caimie and the starfish Pappagu. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t believe we see a mention of either of these three until much, much later in the anime. And when I say much later I mean close to 7 or 8 years later. Either way, they’re not relevant to the current saga we’re going through, so let’s move on from the cover pages and get to the meat of the story.
The first of three big fights we go through in this volume is the one between Sanji and Mr. 2 Bon Kurei. They each fight with their legs and they go back and forth quite a bit. Bon Kurei is shown to be a bit of a goof throughout this manga and he continues this trend here by falling for some simple tricks that Sanji uses, like telling him he has something on his face. Bon Kurei is such an interesting character to me since he’s clearly aware of the terrible organization he’s a part of, but in a lot of the way he acts he doesn’t seem like a bad person. He does end up getting beaten by Sanji pretty handily.
Which brings us to Nami. Nami probably fights one of her hardest opponents in the entire manga here. Not that she doesn’t end up fighting more powerful opponents later on, but Ms. Doublefinger should be on the same level as Daz Bones, who almost defeats Zoro a few streets over. Nami has gotten her clima tact from Usopp at this point but she’s never actually seen the chance to use it. This weapon is wacky in how it works, but I like the logic behind it. Nami using the weather as a weapon makes sense for a navigator. Ms. Doublefinger uses her devil fruit to create deadly spikes all over her body but she’s mainly defeated here by not taking Nami seriously enough. That or her body is so out of whack she couldn’t walk properly, seriously Oda, that’s not how a human body looks and you know it. We move on to the last remaining underling of Baroque Works.
Daz Bones and Zoro are fighting each other and Zoro is very clearly losing. We get a scene where Zoro reminisces on his past and learns about how some sword fighters can cut steel yet also not cut a leaf. Zoro learns this power by being brought to the brink and uses it to defeat Daz Bones. Part of me wonders if this power is an early view into Haki, before Oda really developed this power that we get to see a lot of later on in the manga. Either way, the fight ends with a straw hat victory and now all that’s left are Nico Robin and Crocodile. Oh, and a rebel army that’s storming the capital city.
Speaking of which, Koza is going to try and talk to Cobra one last time while Vivi is also headed to the palace. She is brought to Chaka who listens to her orders with full faith. Unfortunately things are already too late as both Nico Robin and Crocodile have infiltrated the palace with a tied up Cobra there as well. They reveal their hand as they are looking for the ancient weapon Pluton as well as the Poneglyph, strange stones that detail history. We’ll get more into those later on. For now, our princess is in the right castle but things aren’t looking good. More importantly, there’s a threat of a bomb being thrown in the center of town, completely demolishing everything and revealing whatever is hiding below the palace grounds.
This volume really sets up the stakes for the remainder of this arc which I do believe concludes either the next volume or the one after. We’re 10 parts into the Baroque Works saga yet it feels like the arc is flying by rapidly. I love the fast pace of these arcs and I’m curious about the arc after this one which – in my mind – is very slow. Let’s hope I was wrong on that.
But that’s my thoughts on volume 21 of One Piece, let me know if I missed anything of importance. And as always, thanks for reading.
Opal Kaharis 