Last week we moved quickly towards the big clash between Luffy and Enel. With almost everyone being down for the count and Usopp and Sanji having pulled off a risky rescue mission, Luffy and Nami make their way back up the beanstalk to go to the Maxim. Luffy being made out of rubber makes him a natural enemy to Enel, and perhaps the only one in the world who is naturally strong against the self proclaimed lightning god. Enel of course doesn’t know about some of the other monsters roaming the seas, but that’s not helpful right now. This cover shows some different figures though. We see Sanji, Luffy and Chopper reading Noland’s story. Behind them are Noland, the snake and Kalgara. This is the volume where we get the history of Jaya and Skypiea. As Skypiea is getting blasted to bits by Enel’s lightning in a scene reminiscent of Hunter x Hunter’s Yorknew arc where Chrollo overlooks an orchestra of violence, a young Wyper hears a story about his ancestors. Let’s dive into it.
There are many points at which reading One Piece makes me emotional. One such stories the story of Shandora. Four hundred years ago, Montblanc Noland, a famed botanist and explorer, led a crew of sailors onto the Grand Line and managed to make their way to Shandora. The Shandrians were a tribe of barbarians compared to Noland’s scientific mind, but the man wanted to help them out. The island was suffering from a dangerous and deadly disease that was long curable in the more advanced world. Noland waltzes in on a sacrificial ritual and kills the island’s snake god. Kalgara, the village’s strongest warrior, allows Noland one day to actually find a cure on the island. Noland does so with a lot of problems on his way. The island shakes and part of it gets loosened up by an earthquake, causing the explorer to get stuck. After finally convincing Kalgara that he’s doing the right thing, Kalgara kills the snake’s child, that’s about to attack the two. The two go back to the village, stop the sacrifice of Kalgara’s daughter to the gods, and cure the sick people of disease. They’re then shown to the Shandora, the city of gold. There’s a golden bell that rings to tell their ancestors that Shandora is still there. Noland and his crew are told to bring as much gold as they want, if they just leave the bell and the poneglyph below it where it is.
Noland and crew then explore the entire island and cut down the trees that are sick, unknowingly cutting down the important trees that the villagers’ dead spirits have moved into. The villagers are furious until it’s explained by Noland’s doctor that they were only doing what needed to be done. The bell is rung as Noland sails away and Kalgara yells after them that they should return, which Noland plans to do. Unfortunately, this is where the story takes a tragic turn. Noland comes back five years ago with the kings’ men, only to find the village, and a large chunk of the island to be gone. It turns out that the island was struck by the knock-up stream a year before Noland’s return and the entire village was shot up into the sky where the Shandrians were beset upon by the angel folk. Kalgara died before they ever learned about Noland’s tragic end. Ever since that day, the Shandrians have been trying to get their stolen homeland back. Displacement of native populations is obviously something that’s very common in our own history. There’s a high likelihood that this story is based on what us Europeans did to Native Americans when we took over the place. Learning about the horrors that took place in our past is ultimately depressing. These people just wanted to live peacefully in their homeland, but greedy outside forces decided that being a bit wealthier was more important than the lives and culture of other people. As we’ve established in both Drum Kingdom and Arabasta, Oda has a lot to say about the way the world works. To quote my favorite comedian, Bo Burnham:
Genocide the natives, say you got to it first, that’s how the world works.
That paints a pretty clear picture of how Oda feels about these things. We’ll get more into his appreciation of socialism later on in this story, but we’ve now had three arcs in a row where big problems from our own world are shown off in a more fantastical way, the most fantastical aspect being that there’s a happy ending. That’s depressing. But you’re probably here for One Piece and not politics, so let’s go back to the present time and continue the story.
Back in the present day, Enel is destroying everything in the sky. Angel island is gone, and with it it seems like the White Berets have perished too. Kami’s temple was destroyed and the Shandrian’s home is gone. Even the giant beanstalk wasn’t safe once Enel found the golden bell. The only people capable of stopping him now are Luffy and Nami. It’s always been so cool to see how even in the face of pandemonium there’s not a shred of doubt in both Nami and Zoro that Luffy will keep his promises. So Zoro and Wyper set out to make the beanstalk fall in the direction of the arc, so that Luffy can face Enel one last time. We also get a short preview of the next volume, in which Enel releases a 200 million volt attack. Fun fact, I did some googling and found that any current over 50 volts could potentially kill a person. I know this is a shonen manga in a fantasy world, but Oda really could have stuck to lower voltages and still make his villain incredibly deadly. We’re getting our conclusion to this wonderful arc next volume and I can’t wait. Both because this story is much better than I remember and because I know what’s coming next and I’m incredibly excited. As always, I hope you enjoyed this little recap of One Piece and thank you for reading!
Opal Kaharis 