It’s time for volume 51! We’re properly into the Sabaody arc now, but let’s look at the cover story first before we begin. This cover story follows the CP9 fighters who have to run from the government in fear of being taken down as failures. They make their way to safety and work as entertainers to get the money needed for medical procedures. I hope Rob Lucci was insured.
Picking up where we left off, the gang finds themselves heading to Duval’s base, just outside of the Sabaody Archipelago. There we finally see Hachi who has been tied up by Duval and his cronies. Hachi hearing the Straw Hat name gets – understandably – worried about his future. As a matter of fact, he tries to disguise himself with ink but it doesn’t do much for him as Luffy quickly proclaims he won’t save him. After some convincing by Nami who seems to think Hachi wasn’t all that bad compared to the others, Luffy gets convinced to help him because he’s a good guy. Definitely not because Hachi makes Takoyaki now. The gang springs Duval’s trap and a brawl breaks out. We get a great gag where Luffy steals a flying fish only for them all to dive and Brook and Chopper to dive in to save him. Nami and Franky then have to save the three devil fruit users, which we also have as a gag in the 11th opening of the anime. After some fighting Duval’s face is revealed and we learn why he’s chasing after the Straw Hats. Remember how Sanji’s wanted poster doesn’t really look like him? Well the bad drawing looks exactly like Duval. He got his entire life uprooted due to a bad drawing, poor guy. I can understand his anger but Sanji is not impressed.
Does anyone remember that Tiktok trend a little while ago that for my own sanity I will assume was just a joke? The one where people took a hammer to their jaw to change their bone structure and look more handsome? I wonder if they got the idea from Sanji kicking Duval into shape. Either way, everything gets resolved surprisingly easily and the gang gets to eat Hachi’s famous Takoyaki.
With Hachi saved they make their way to Sabaody Archipelago, a fascinating place made out of numerous mangroves. This place actually consists of three locations. At the top of the Red Line is the holy land of Marijoas, where the nobles live. On the water is Sabaody Archipelago, the last stop before the New World and 30.000 feet below sea level (10 kilometers) is Fishman Island, our next stop. Sabaody is a fantastic place with shops, theme parks and bubbles that float around and can be turned into bikes. On the flipside of that there’s bounty hunters, slavers and World Nobles who are all a danger to Luffy and the crew. They aren’t all that worried though and split up to go have fun. Hachi and Caimie come along, but pretend to be humans for reasons that’ll become clear later but probably aren’t all that hard to guess at this point. Groves number 1 through 29 are lawless land and everything above is more organized. Shakky’s bar, the crew’s destination, is on Grove 13. Unfortunately Rayleigh, the specialist that Hachi mentioned, isn’t in right now. These two are former pirates with Shakky having been chased by Garp in the past and Rayleigh being so notorious he can’t even walk through a normal town. Shakky also reveals something interesting that we’re about to go into; there are 11 pirates in Sabaody Archipelago with a bounty higher than 100 million. Excluding Luffy and Zoro that leaves 9 other Supernovas, rookie pirates with high potential.
First we meet the mafia inspired pirate Capone Bege, who is getting annoyed at another person eating there. A woman named Jewelry Bonney, who is sitting on the table and eating without any manners like a child. On the next page we’re introduced to Basil Hawkins who is going through his Evanescence phase. Right outside are Eustass Kid and Scratchman Apoo, who are getting into a fight. Kid is the one pirate with a higher bounty than Luffy, sitting at 315 billion. Elsewhere on the island, Drake breaks up a fight between Urouge and Killer, the latter being Kid’s underling. Drake is a former navy soldier and Urouge is some sort of monk. And last but not least is everyone’s favorite Surgeon of Death: Trafalgar Law. He’s voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya so you know he’s extra cool.
Having introduced all the important players of the arc, we start moving into the big conflict. With racism still very much alive in Sabaody, it was only a matter of time before Caimie would be caught and sold off to an auction. At the auction, everyone seems to gather including Law and Kid. It turns out the coating specialist, Dark King Rayleigh, is also there as one of the people being sold. He finally introduces us to the concept of Haki. We’re not quite told what it does yet, but it seems like it allows people to knock others out with just their presence. Luffy did something similar to Duval’s bull earlier in this volume. And to add surprises on top of surprises, Rayleigh is the former right hand man of the pirate king himself, Gol D. Roger.
With the auction in full effect, Nami suggests to the crew that they’ll just have to buy back Caimie to avoid a disaster. They can’t risk hurting a Celestial Dragon, it would call far too much attention to them. So they go in with all their money, ready to bid and win Caimie back. Then disaster strikes as Saint Charlos offers a whopping 500 million for Caimie. No one can outbid him and it looks like it’s all over. Right then, Luffy and Zoro come crashing into the building. Luffy sees Caimie and immediately walks over to save her, with Hachi stopping him, revealing his extra arms in the process. Charlos shoots Hachi which results in Luffy getting angry. He calmly walks up the stairs, past Hachi, and punches the color out of Saint Charlos. This scene is amazing in the anime by the way, Luffy literally punches the color out of the show. We end the volume here. I love that there’s some interesting foreshadowing here. Some of which I won’t talk about all that much because they would be big spoilers, but it does give me more confidence that Oda planned a lot of this story ahead of time. I can’t wait to keep reading.
Before I leave you all for the day, let’s take a quick moment to mention the bonus manga that came with this third box set. I’m talking about the little cross-over manga that includes two stories. One has the cast of Dragon Ball in it and is called Cross Epoch. In this short chapter, the Straw Hats each get matched with a character from the Dragon Ball universe and they all converge at a big feast hosted by Shenlong. It’s cute but nothing more than that. The same goes for the other story, The Taste of the Devil Fruit. This sees characters from Toriko cook up a meal with the Straw Hats to try out what Devil Fruit tastes like when prepared properly. When they have their meal, it tastes amazing and they only learn afterwards that it wasn’t a Devil Fruit but a pile of feces. So if you didn’t buy the box set, you didn’t really miss much. The art is nice though, no qualms with that part of it.
Opal Kaharis 