Hello readers, I’ve been a bit of a chaotic mess lately and I’m currently also ill. Thanks for being patient with me and my lack of uploads, more posts are coming soon.
Although there was a chapter recap last week, I’ve taken the last three weeks off from reading and writing these posts. I spent all my energy on NaNoWriMo and didn’t do much reading at all. Picking things back up, I read a volume of Eden’s Zero before reading this and it was pretty good. If you Fairy Tail but think the writing was a bit weak, then Eden’s Zero might be a better alternative. It’s far from amazing, but it’s fun and that’s really what Mashima’s writing style is all about. Anyway, I’m getting distracted, let’s go back to the spooky island of Thriller Bark, which will probably be the last arc we’re covering this year. Yohohohoho!
Thriller Bark is not one of my favorite arcs. It’s wedged in between Sabaody and Enies Lobby, which are both very memorable and fun. It does set up some fun things for the future, and has its cool moments, but the setup part – which is what this volume covers – is not all that interesting. So instead of spending a ton of time going over every single thing that happens, let’s go over the highlights.
Brook, the skeleton gentleman, has lost his soul to Gecko Moria, the ruler of this island. He is fighting to get it back from the corpse of samurai Ryuma who originally hails from Wano Country in the New World. He’s been stuck here ever since but the reason he’s still working hard is because he made a promise to his friend, Laboon, to return one day. We’ve already met Laboon, it’s the whale that was attacking the red line way at the start of the Grand Line saga. So that gives the crew more motivation to help Brook. On top of Brook’s shadow being lost, Luffy, Sanji and Zoro also lose their shadows with Luffy’s shadow being stored inside a giant, Oars. Brook explains that the shadows can be released by pouring salt into the zombies’ mouth. The gang now has a clear goal and a good overview of the situation.
Speaking of an overview of the situation, there are four generals amongst the army. There’s Perona, the goth girl who commands ghosts through her devil fruit and wants a cut and submissive army. Then there’s Hogback, the doctor that stitches up these zombies that Chopper used to look up to. There’s also Ryuma, the zombie that has Brook’s shadow and is a former powerful samurai. Finally there’s Absalom, a strange lion man who can go invisible due to his devil fruit. A warthog named Lola wants to marry him while Absalom is busy sexually assaulting Nami. Not the greatest character out there.
There we have it, the set-up for this arc is all ready. Next volume(s) should be a bit more fun, there’s some interesting shenanigans coming up. I’m keeping it short as I do have a bit of writing fatigue from November and I appreciate your time here. Thanks for reading.
Opal Kaharis 