At times I think it’s unfortunate that when I got into One Piece for the first time, it was so after listening in on some of my friends talking about it repeatedly. Without them I would have likely not discovered anime for a while, or maybe not at all, but it also resulted in spoilers for several big moments. Because of this, I was aware that Kuma would show up on this island and teleport Zoro away, as happens at the very end of this volume. But how did we get from Luffy punching a Celestial Dragon to Kuma teleporting Zoro away? Let’s have a good look at One Piece volume 52.
Before things really kick off we learn a few interesting things. For starters, Rayleigh has a strange power called Haki that allows him to knock out all the people in the building that don’t have a strong enough will. He’s even a little bit impressed with Kid and Law’s entourages for not getting knocked out by his power. We’ve already seen Shanks use this power on Whitebeard’s ship during their little chat and it knocked out a lot of seasoned pirates. Although I do believe Shanks’ Haki is on another level compared to even the strongest pirates out there. Rayleigh helps Caimie escape by taking off her bindings and they all get ready to escape. We see a furious Sengoku and a laid-back Kizaru who decide to head over to Sabaody to personally deal with all of this. Then finally, we see Disco, the person in charge of the slave auction, make a call to his employer, Doflamingo. He tells us that the era of human trading is long over and it’s now all about ‘smiles.’ I guess we’ll have to wait to find out what that means. With all that out of the way, the three crews leave the auction. Kid says he’ll clean up the mess and implies the other two captains are weak which understandably angers them. These three do not get along. They head outside and we see the powers of the two supernovas. Law has a power that allows him to create rooms in which he can manipulate things freely, slicing people up without hurting them and swapping places of things at will. Kid’s power is a bit more straightforward but no less impressive. He’s a magnetic man, able to repel and attract anything that’s metal, turning the weapons that the soldiers aim at them into a giant arm to punch things with. Yet somehow compared to these two weird folks, Luffy is still the weird one. They dispatch the grunt soldiers pretty easily and each go their separate way. While Luffy and his crew go back to Shakky’s bar, Law and Kid face off with Bartholomew Kuma.
This is where we learn that Roger was never actually captured by the navy. Instead, he gave himself in when he was dying of a terminal illness. He wanted to go out in a way that inspired the next generation and he sure managed to do so. He disbanded his crew a year before his execution. They all went separate directions including Crocus, Shanks and Buggy. Most of them came to Loguetown to watch the execution of their former captain and friend and saw his fantastic speech. This means that there are many pirates still roaming the world that know the secrets of the void century as well as what the treasure on Raftel truly is. Rayleigh explains that the information about the void century as they know it isn’t useful. He tells Robin that it’s more valuable for her and the Straw Hats to create their own interpretation upon learning about it than for him to tell them about it here and now. I’m curious what the deeper meaning to this ends up being, but it could just be that Oda didn’t want to have Rayleigh spoil the story at this point in the manga. Not every plot point needs to be airtight after all. Usopp stupidly asks after the One Piece treasure and Luffy promptly gets him to shut up. I don’t blame Usopp, chasing the world over for a treasure you’re not even certain exists can be difficult at times and if the answer is right in front of you it’s not a stretch to at least ask for some confirmation of its existence. Either way, Rayleigh and Shakky approve of Luffy’s unwillingness to get spoiled and Rayleigh gets started on coating their ship. It’ll take him three days during which the Straw Hats will split up and run around the island to take some heat off of Rayleigh. Right as they’re about to do so, Bartholomew Kuma shows up once more. Seemingly having defeated Kid and Law without so much as a scratch.
Before that, Kuma and Kizaru team up to deal with several of the other Supernovas. X-Drake – referred to as Rear Admiral Drake by Kizaru – fights with the mad monk Urouge, Scratchman Apoo and Basil Hawkins against the scary duo but they don’t seem to be faring well. Drake has a mythical zoan that lets him turn into a dinosaur, Urouge bulks up, Apoo’s body can be turned into instruments and Hawkins turns into some sort of straw monster, transferring damage he takes to other people in some sort of voodoo way. They get their asses handed to them. Elsewhere we see a reveal of Bonney’s power, which is aging and de-aging people as well as Capone Bege’s power, which is turning his own body into a large fort. They seem to be fighting to get off the island as quickly as possible, which is likely the smart play.
Returning to the Straw Hats, they face off against Kuma once more, this time as the whole team is standing and they seem to be doing much better than on Thriller Bark. Zoro does remark that Kuma is behaving strangely and we’re about to find out why. When they take him out, they see a mark on his body that says Px-4. Before they have time to process what is going on, another Px shows up alongside Sentoumaru, a navy soldier that works with Kizaru and seemingly someone with sumo powers. They quickly start causing trouble for the Straw Hats and as if things aren’t bad enough, Kizaru also shows up here, seemingly having taken care of the other pirates.
The fight goes south fast until Rayleigh shows up to take on Kizaru, the latter remarking that he’s a scary man from a bygone age. Things finally seem to be turning around when suddenly the real Kuma shows up, teleporting Zoro away. Kuma’s actions in One Piece have historically been strange and raised a lot of questions. He’s a super fascinating character that we’ll see a lot more of in the future of this story and without spoiling anything, reading through Sabaody once more knowing what is to come makes this arc far better than it already was. The tension is great, the actions of some of the characters involved make much more sense and I can’t wait to read next week’s volume. This also means that it’s likely that Kid and Law weren’t defeated by Kuma, since the robot that showed up at Luffy’s place was a different model. I’ve gone a bit long with this post, but so much is happening. Zoro is now gone, and we don’t know what his fate is. I can’t imagine how tense it would have been to read these chapters as they came out, even now they’re stressful and I already know what is to come. I hope you’re still enjoying this series, leave a like if you are, and as always thank you so much for reading!
Opal Kaharis 