A lot has happened in a very short time. Well, a very short time in the world of One Piece, that is. When we look at how much time it took in the real world, it actually wasn’t a short time at all. A little more than 300 chapters have taken place in the new world which is around 7 years or so in the real world (quick estimation). We’ve gone from the crew coming back together to the crew facing beef with two out of the four emperors of the sea. But how did we get to this point? Let’s go over the highlights.
Our first stop after leaving Sabaody behind was Fishman Island. Although most of the arc wasn’t particularly interesting for the overarching plot of One Piece, we did solve racism, so that was pretty cool. Two things stand out as having long lasting effects from this arc. We found one of the three ancient weapons: Poseidon. It turns out that the princess of Fishman Island, Shirahoshi, is actually the living version of the ancient weapon and she can communicate with the giant sea creatures and control them. We learned about the ancient weapons for the first time all the way back in Alabasta and there should be three of them. We also had our first run-in with the Big Mom pirates and Luffy declared that Fishman Island would now be his domain instead of hers. This will have big consequences later on and has definitely put Luffy on the radar of some very powerful people.
From Fishman Island we moved on to the strange island of fire and ice that is Punk Hazard. We meet some very important characters during this arc which are about to become very relevant in Wano. We meet Kin’emon and Momonosuke, who both are from the country of Wano. We also meet an old friend, Trafalgar Law, who offers an alliance to Luffy with the end goal of taking down Kaido, one of the four emperors. The first step on this list is dealing with Caesar Clown, the weapons manufacturer for Doflamingo, who is in turn the underworld broker that closely works with Kaido. One step at a time. With CC secured, the gang heads to Dressrosa to deal with the next step on the ladder, the warlord Doflamingo.
Dressrosa is an arc in which a lot of things happen that are very important for the larger story of One Piece. For starters, we learn that Law is also someone who carries the will of D, just like Luffy. We also find out that Luffy’s other brother Sabo is still alive and now manages to take possession of Ace’s old devil fruit. During this arc another one of the Straw Hats – Usopp – awakens a form of haki when he has to deal with Sugar. We also defeat the warlord Doflamingo as our last step before Kaido. To complete the picture, we meet Fujitora, a new admiral that is replacing the vacancies left by Akainu and Aokiji. He is a blind old man who can summon meteors with his devil fruit power.
But probably the most important part of this arc is the fact that Luffy has managed to gain the loyalty of several different groups, causing the Straw Hat Fleet to be born. Several of the pirates who he saved during their time in Dressrosa now sail under his banner and have promised to come to their aid when it’s needed. Oda has long hinted at a final war that would make Marineford look small in comparison, so I’m hoping we get something like that towards the end of the story. During all this chaos, something happens to the second half of the crew and they end up sailing ahead to Zou, where the minks live.
Zou – as its name hints – is a giant walking elephant. On top of the elephant is a city where the minks live. Minks are humanoid looking animals – like Bepo from Law’s crew – and they’ve just been badly attacked by Jack, one of Kaido’s headliners. Jack was looking for the ninja Raizo, but the minks claimed he wasn’t there. It’s here that we learn about the road poneglyphs in the room where Raizo was hiding. There are four road poneglyphs and we know that some are in the possession of the emperors of the sea while some are still missing. We also find out that Sanji has been taken by Gang Bege, another one of the worst generation and seemingly someone who is now working for Big Mom. Sanji’s last name is Vinsmoke and he’s an actual prince. He’s gone to finish up business, but Luffy won’t stand for this. With Nami, Chopper and Brook in tow – as well as the minks Carrot and Pedro – they head towards Big Mom’s territory of Whole Cake Island.
And that of course brings us to the most recent arc we’ve discussed, Whole Cake Island. Because it’s been so recent, I’m going to keep this summary to a minimum and mainly focus on the aspects of the story that are important to Wano. This arc really shows us how incredibly dangerous these emperors are. Big Mom is known by that name due to the disturbing amount of children she has, many of which are powerhouses on their own. Snack was taken out prior and Cracker gets taken out by Luffy for being a slur. Smoothie is terrifying but doesn’t play a huge role in this arc and then there’s Katakuri who is an absolute monster and an incredible character. Their fight allows Luffy to level up his haki to the next level. We also meet the underworld emperors including Morgans who is in charge of the news and has an entire empire built on knowledge and spreading the truth or lies. The arc ends with the tragic death of Pedro while the rest of the gang only barely escapes with Sanji as well as a copy of the road poneglyph that Big Mom holds. The emperor herself is far from being defeated though and it seems like she’s not done with our crew. With her looming over the crew, they rush to Wano where they aim to meet up with the rest of the crew. And that’s where we are right now. I’ll do another summary after Wano since it also includes the Reverie as an arc and both arcs have some incredibly important pieces of lore. I hope you enjoyed this little recap and I hope to see you all here again next week to start our adventure in the land of the samurai. Thanks for reading
Opal Kaharis 