How do you fight against someone who is able to make solid, unbreakable cracker soldiers? Well, the solution is quite simple really. You just make them wet and then keep eating them. You see, Luffy’s gear four takes a lot of energy, but if he can continuously refuel with cookies, then that solves the problem. This is how Luffy ends up defeating Cracker. Nami uses her weather powers to create rain and make the crackers soggy and after Luffy has eaten enough he uses his elasticity to launch Cracker into his own soldiers that have not been made soggy, knocking him out pretty efficiently. And just in time, because Sanji seems to be headed towards the castle.
Speaking of Sanji, we get to see a bit more of his backstory. He was part of a project by Vinsmoke Judge to create super soldiers through his own children. All of his siblings grew up strong without emotions, having a powerful exoskeleton, but it seems like Sanji was a failure. We also learn that Reiju wasn’t a total success either as she seems to have retained emotions. She cares for Sanji to a degree and although she would never show this publicly, she does help him out when she can.
Sanji in the meantime is a loving young boy who wants to be a cook. He cooks meals for his mother who seems to be quite sickly and also kept away from the palace. How heartless can you get, Judge. Either way, after enough failure on Sanji’s part, his father decides to finally lock him up and pretend he died in an accident. As he spends his days locked up in the cellar, a moment to escape finally arrives and Reiju helps him get out. When he comes across his father on the way out, he’s not stopped. He’s only asked to never reveal his real parents and to not have anything to do with them anymore. What a load of bullcrap from the parent who came running back for him recently.
After Luffy and Nami make their way out of the seducing woods, Luffy and Sanji clash. Luffy refuses to hit back and claims he cannot become the king of the pirates without Sanji. Sanji is still pretending to hate the Straw Hats so they don’t get hurt. You’ve got to know that this isn’t going to work on Luffy by now, but he’s not the smartest. After beating the crap out of Luffy, with Luffy saying he will not leave from this spot, he makes his way to Big Mom.
Luffy and Nami get captured not long after, due to Big Mom sending an entire army after them. They get locked into a book where Big Mom keeps all of her rare animals and people. This is an ability of her son Mont D’or. Things are looking fairly dire. Luffy and Nami have been caught in a book while Chopper and Carrot have been apprehended inside of Bruleé’s mirror world. The only ones still running around are Pedro and Brook who are having their own little side adventure heist in which Pedro is being a distraction so that Brook can steal the road poneglyph. Such a cool sidestory, but they seem to be in quite a bit of trouble as well. One of the three sweet commanders, Smoothie, is there to guard the poneglyphs after all. We also get the name of the remaining commander, Katakuri, but we do not get to see him. Also, Snack gets named, who has already been defeated before the Straw Hats came here.
Sanji and Pudding seem to be getting along though. We get a little bit more insight into Pudding. She seems to be a fan of her big sister Lola, who tried to escape a marriage as well but ended up being stuck on Thriller Bark for a while. She seems to have a lot of empathy for Sanji and this seems to comfort the cook. He might not be too unhappy staying here if it allows his friends to continue traveling without being murdered by big mom and her crew. It does seem like Pudding is planning something though, because the last thing we see of her before this volume comes to an end is her whispering something into Luffy’s ear after proclaiming that she’s not planning to actually go through with the wedding. Things are looking dire, but there are also things still in motion. Brook and Pedro still walk free and Jinbe is also still in the mix. Things can happen, but they do need to happen fast. If I’m not mistaken, we should see some big moves in the next volume and I can’t wait to leave this early part of the arc behind me as it isn’t my favorite part. I’m honestly just glad that Cracker is down as that fight bored me so much even the first time around.
Opal Kaharis 