We got to take a little bit of a breather last week when things calmed down a bit after Sabaody Archipelago ended. We learned that the Straw Hats – although separated – were probably fine. Kuma’s ability doesn’t kill people or make them vanish, he just sends them to another place. Luffy was sent to Boa Hancock’s island of Amazon Lily, where men are not allowed and the beautiful pirate empress is in charge. He learns that his brother is going to be executed soon and with that knowledge decides to make a detour to Impel Down, the underwater prison where his brother is currently being held. With the help of Hancock he sneaks onto Momonga’s navy ship and is allowed free passage to the impenetrable prison where Garp is currently meeting with Ace.
But let’s talk about two different things first before we dive into the start of Luffy’s new adventure, one without his crew. The cover stories about CP9 have been going on for a while now, and they come to an end in this volume. The members of CP9 have been on the run from the navy since their failure at Enies Lobby. Rob Lucci was so hurt that the rest of the crew had to gather up money to pay for his treatment. Eventually they manage to do so through doing relatively normal jobs for what is basically a bunch of assassins. They heal everyone back up to full and with the ominous message that “they’ll be back” like Arnold, they disappear into the sunset. Well, after getting rid of Spandam and his dad, of course, for being a duo of idiots.
Then we take a second detour, but this time we look at where the remainder of the Straw Hat crew was sent to. We start with Nami, who finds herself on a sky island that studies the weather called Weatheria. Not the most creative name, but it is very fitting I suppose. Franky is on the island of Baldimore, which is the former home of a certain genius scientist. It’s very cold here and he’s still in his speedo. Next up is Sanji who was sent to an island of women as well. Unfortunately for him, it seems like this island mainly has drag queens on it, and Sanji is not quite ready to accept that yet. As much as I found this to be a progressive addition to the story at the time, in hindsight it probably hasn’t aged amazingly, but it’s not just a simple gag at the expense of trans people and drag queens either, it’s a bit deeper than that, but we’ll get more into that as this arc progresses. Usopp is on an island full of monsters with a strange knight that is very powerful and Brook finds himself in the middle of a summoning ritual where the sacrifice – who probably thought was going to die – will promptly show him her underwear. Not the best running gag in the series, that one. Nico Robin finds herself in Tequila Wolf, which is the base for a bridge building project that has been underway for 700 years. Prisoners get sent to this labor camp to help build a bridge from one island to another. She is currently being treated as one of their prisoners. Chopper is about to be stew on an island where birds rule and finally Zoro has been sent to the same gloomy island where Kuma sent Perona to at the tail end of Thriller Bark. Despite their differences, she does seem to have patched him up a bit. That was a lot, but let’s go back to the story at hand now, we’ll talk more in depth about the Straw Hats and their individual journeys later on.
Something I didn’t quite register at the time, and I’m not sure if Oda did this on purpose or not. He probably did, he is known for being pretty left leaning and progressive after all. Boa Hancock’s beauty is something she weaponizes, but she also struggles with it. Her calling the navy’s comments about her beauty isn’t her being a mean woman, like teenage me thought, but it’s her getting sick and tired of all the sexual harassment she constantly has to endure. Her beauty is not a reason for people to talk about her like that, and her turning them into stone – although excessive – is relatively warranted. Having said that, she also definitely weaponizes this beauty like I said, but I feel like she would be stupid not to do so. Weaponize your trauma folks!
Inside of Impel Down we meet a familiar face. Although his crew might have turned back on him after learning about how dangerous the Calm belt can be, Buggy the clown himself has not given up on getting out of prison. He’s escaped his cell and is running around on the first floor, trying to avoid the Blugori, the gorilla jailers. Luffy meets up with him and together they make their way down several floors, for better or worse. The break-in/escape plan of both parties goes poorly for the most part, but we do get joined by two more prisoners. Mr. 3 whose name is Galdino and Mr. 2 who goes by Bon Clay. Galdino is on Buggy’s side, with the two desperately trying to get out and setting prisoners free along the way to cause a distraction. Bon Clay is on Luffy’s side, the two having become friends at the end of the Arabasta arc when Bon Clay and his crew sacrificed themselves so that the Straw Hats could get away safely. We learn that Bon Clay is trying to find someone, a mysterious person known as Iva. Iva is the Queen of Kamabakka Kingdom, the island where Sanji currently resides. He’s somewhere here in the depths of Impel Down.
Meanwhile Hancock is making her way down the prison as well to have a meeting with Ace. We learn about several of the important people in the prison here. Hannyabal is the vice-warden and he works under Magellan, a poison man who is the warden of Impel Down. Saldeath is an impish looking fellow who commands the Blugori and Sadie is a sadistic woman (who’d have guessed) that employs several powerful zoan beasts. Boa is accompanied to the depths of Impel Down where she has a short meeting with Ace during which she tells him that Luffy is here to break him out. Ace shares this information with his cellmate, the final of the Seven Warlords: Jinbe. Jinbe is a shark fishman and he’s staunchly opposed to the upcoming war, which is why he is in prison right now. We also spot a few more familiar faces in this prison, mainly Crocodile and Daz Bones (Mr. 1). We learned that they were in prison during the cover story that showed us the aftermath of Arabasta, and it’s cool to see them again. Things are really heating up as our four unlucky prisoners are making their way down the deepest and most dangerous prison in the world. There’s not much time left until Ace’s execution and we also learn that the Whitebeard pirates have vanished, likely planning a rescue operation of sorts. There’s more movement in the New World that worries Sengoku and the navy, so things might be truly heating up soon. We’ll continue this jailbreak next week, I’ve already talked for much too long I think. One small detail I didn’t mention yet is that Kizaru was really angry after Sabaody ended in a failure and went on a rampage resulting in 400 new prisoners. I wonder what got him so mad. Anyway, as usual, thanks for reading!
Opal Kaharis 