Volume 55 has us travel into the very depths of Impel Down before starting our ascent back up the impenetrable prison. Luffy, Bon Clay, Galdino & Buggy are still making their way through the prison, with Luffy getting distracted by food. This causes him to run in the direction of Magellan, the poisonous prison warden. Magellan is incredibly powerful due to the dangerous nature of his devil fruit. His entire body is made out of poison, which also immediately explains his explosive diarrhea. He fights Luffy and it’s not even a competition. Luffy doesn’t have proper access to Haki at this point in the story and punching someone made out of deadly poisons and venoms is not going to end well for anyone. After a fight during which Luffy tries his very best but ultimately comes up short, he gets defeated by Magellan, the latter dumping his dying body in the freezing hell of Floor 5. In the meantime, Bon Clay, Galdino and Buggy have run away from the danger, which seems like a betrayal, but was obviously the correct choice. Why fight the strongest warden in the building head on if you can just try to outrun him instead. But Bon Clay feels guilty about leaving Luffy behind, so after tricking the Vice-warden and stealing his identity he makes his way back down to the fifth floor to find Luffy. In the meantime, Buggy and Galdino are causing havoc on the upper floors, freeing prisoners left and right to orchestrate a massive prison break. Their hope is to be able to escape in all of the chaos they’re creating.
Moving back to Bon Clay and Luffy, we find them in the middle of the freezing hell, with hungry wolves circling around them, closing in. Bon Clay is determined to find Iva, the old king of the Kamabakka Queendom. Iva is supposed to be here, but according to the logs and other prisoners he vanished years ago in a strange phenomenon, alongside many others. Unexplained disappearances could be prison escapes, I wonder if these things get reported to people outside of the prison itself. Probably not, I’m guessing this place is as corrupt as the people locked up in it. After an intense fight during which both Bon Clay and Luffy pass out, the former Baroque Works officer wakes up in what looks more like heaven than a prison. It turns out Iva, Emporio Ivankov, has created a New Kamabakka kingdom for prisoners where they live in a hidden passage between floor 5 and 6. Ivankov is a high ranking officer in the revolutionary army alongside Luffy’s dad. Ivankov has also given Luffy a hormone treatment that could save his life, but will reduce his lifespan. Bon Clay, as well as the New Kamabakka kingdom people all cheer on Luffy until he finally recovers.
This arc, where Ivankov talks about gender being fluid, and everyone just needing to be happy in their own skin, while wielding hormone powers that can change the gender of someone’s body at will, is incredibly progressive for its time. This volume was released over 15 years ago, mind you. I was still transphobic back then, that’s how long ago it was.
Man or woman or both, be whatever you want to be. I’ve already shattered the borders of gender, we all have!
Maybe the revolutionary army is kind of based? I’m sure that won’t become a recurring theme as this manga continues. Either way, we learn that a prisoner with the power to dig tunnels created this extra floor and Iva has been leading a secondary revolutionary army here for when Dragon finally makes his move in the outside world. When Luffy lets slip that he’s Dragon’s son, Ivankov is convinced he needs to help Luffy out. So with Inazuma, who has the power to wield scissors and the rest of his New Kama Land citizens, they make their way to the very bottom of the prison to start the biggest prison break in the history of Impel Down.
Down in the deepest floor, they learn that Ace has already been moved. We learn that Shanks and Kaido are fighting in the new world while Whitebeard is still missing, likely preparing for war. Things are heating up, but now that we missed Ace by a few minutes, the team needs a new plan. And the new plan involves one of the Seven Warlords. Make that two. Down at the bottom of hell they find both Jinbe, a fishman pirate that was Ace’s cellmate as well as the former leader of Baroque Works, Sir Crocodile. Although Luffy still hates him, his power is far too useful to let him rot in a cell so they collect him to their team. While Inazuma, Bon Clay and Iva discuss what to do next, the dream team of Luffy, Crocodile and Jinbe heads upstairs.
Speaking of Crocodile, Iva knows a secret about him from his youth and it’s been a fun fan theory for many years that Iva once used his hormone powers on Crocodile and that the ruthless warlord was actually assigned female at birth. This is only a theory as of now, but looking at this chapter again, I don’t think it’s a bad theory, I would probably bet money on it being true. What is a bit more crazy is the added theory that Crocodile is actually Luffy’s mother. I love me some Crocomom theories, but I don’t think that one is quite it.
Last but not least, I noticed that some of the cover pages in this volume – although not telling a cover story or being canon – have the animals and weird creatures in them that we see in the anime openings that play during this arc. I believe that’s mainly opening 12, the very upbeat one where they’re all chilling on a giant turtle. That’s a cool little detail.
Next week we’ll read the conclusion of this epic prison break that seems to be growing in scale. With a large number of prisoners being released at this point, chaos will surely ensue. And deep down in the basement are also some very dangerous criminals still locked up, including former warden Shiryu. Things are about to get messy and I for one can’t wait to see what happens next.
Opal Kaharis 