Hello readers, I’ve been a bit of a chaotic mess lately and I’m currently also ill. Thanks for being patient with me and my lack of uploads, more posts are coming soon.

Although there was a chapter recap last week, I’ve taken the last three weeks off from reading and writing these posts. I spent all my energy on NaNoWriMo and didn’t do much reading at all. Picking things back up, I read a volume of Eden’s Zero before reading this and it was pretty good. If you Fairy Tail but think the writing was a bit weak, then Eden’s Zero might be a better alternative. It’s far from amazing, but it’s fun and that’s really what Mashima’s writing style is all about. Anyway, I’m getting distracted, let’s go back to the spooky island of Thriller Bark, which will probably be the last arc we’re covering this year. Yohohohoho!

Thriller Bark is not one of my favorite arcs. It’s wedged in between Sabaody and Enies Lobby, which are both very memorable and fun. It does set up some fun things for the future, and has its cool moments, but the setup part – which is what this volume covers – is not all that interesting. So instead of spending a ton of time going over every single thing that happens, let’s go over the highlights.

Brook, the skeleton gentleman, has lost his soul to Gecko Moria, the ruler of this island. He is fighting to get it back from the corpse of samurai Ryuma who originally hails from Wano Country in the New World. He’s been stuck here ever since but the reason he’s still working hard is because he made a promise to his friend, Laboon, to return one day. We’ve already met Laboon, it’s the whale that was attacking the red line way at the start of the Grand Line saga. So that gives the crew more motivation to help Brook. On top of Brook’s shadow being lost, Luffy, Sanji and Zoro also lose their shadows with Luffy’s shadow being stored inside a giant, Oars. Brook explains that the shadows can be released by pouring salt into the zombies’ mouth. The gang now has a clear goal and a good overview of the situation.

Speaking of an overview of the situation, there are four generals amongst the army. There’s Perona, the goth girl who commands ghosts through her devil fruit and wants a cut and submissive army. Then there’s Hogback, the doctor that stitches up these zombies that Chopper used to look up to. There’s also Ryuma, the zombie that has Brook’s shadow and is a former powerful samurai. Finally there’s Absalom, a strange lion man who can go invisible due to his devil fruit. A warthog named Lola wants to marry him while Absalom is busy sexually assaulting Nami. Not the greatest character out there.

There we have it, the set-up for this arc is all ready. Next volume(s) should be a bit more fun, there’s some interesting shenanigans coming up. I’m keeping it short as I do have a bit of writing fatigue from November and I appreciate your time here. Thanks for reading.

It’s going to be a hell of a year for this challenge.
If you’re new here, NaNoWriMo is a yearly challenge to write 50,000 words of a story without constantly going back to edit things. The goal is to get a draft done. I’ve used this challenge to write the first drafts for both volumes of The Hesitant Hero and I’m currently attempting to do the same for volume 3. The latest version of volume 2 looked vastly different from what I wrote as a draft, but several characters, moments and ideas made it in. That’s kind of the point, get a good idea of what the story should be like, or find out if certain ideas don’t work out.

I’ll be updating here regularly for those who are curious as other posts will be kept to a minimum. Writing 50,000 words and then writing even more on the side is a bit much. That’s why these posts might be super short, but we’ll manage. I also went a week without any good sleep due to stress causing my muscles to hurt when I lay down. On top of that I’ve started taking antidepressants for the first time in over 10 years, so I’m just a walking mess of a person right now. So what is volume 3 going to be like? Well, I’ve written the first three chapters so far. I want to focus on three things with this volume in particular.

The first thing I want to do – which I think might be obvious – is finish up the current storylines. Our heroes want to find out what happened to their friends and figure out what is going on with the crown prince’s sudden disappearance. These two things need to be resolved and I think a third installment is a good moment to do so. That way I can work on the next story I have been figuring out after this without things getting too chaotic.

The second thing I really want to do in this volume is delve into the history of Marsolin. Marsolin will be the main setting for this story and I want to take my time and properly develop a city. That means a lot of the details will be a complete mess in the first draft and will have to take some work fixing up when I finish the draft and go back to do the first round of editing. That’s part of the fun though.

The third thing I want to do is set up some of the more long term storylines. There is still a prophetic reason why Mana was summoned to this world after all and putting aside if she’s up to the task or even willing to save the kingdom, the looming threat is still going to be there. I want to start developing some of the first signs of this. That’s not to say the current arc isn’t important to the longer story, but I’ve so far been withholding most details to keep a little bit of suspense. I want Mana and Cobal to start figuring out what is really happening in this volume so that they can start aiming for a proper goal.

And of course I have more ideas than just these, but I shouldn’t get too crazy with it. I am curious what they’re going to learn about spending all this time in a town of art and learning. I’m sure it will be a fruitful stay for the party and they’ll learn a lot of interesting skills.
But all of that will only happen if I have enough energy to write and since I haven’t started on today’s chunk of words yet I’m going to leave it at this and get to work. Thanks for reading!

Oda’s question corner that regularly gets featured is always interesting. I highly recommend you to read through them while you read these volumes, there’s much more interesting stuff going on there than you might think. For example, we learn the entire backstory of the gruff carpenter that gave some food to Usopp while the Aqua Laguna was fast approaching. We also get a funny interaction with a French reader and Oda mentions that he hopes the reader sees his answer in this question corner in like 2 years, because France is about 10 volumes behind Japan. Imagine reading a new One Piece volume and seeing your question from 2 years earlier answered, that would be pretty cool.

Speaking of pretty cool, the Baroque Works cover story ends in this volume and I’m glad it does. It’s not a particularly interesting cover story and although these stories tend to be more lighthearted than normal, I just never cared for most of the characters involved in this particular one. The one big takeaway we get from this cover story by the time it ends is that Mr. 3 Galdino, Mr 2 Bon Kurei, Mr 1 Daz Bones and the former warlord Crocodile are all transferred Impel Down, the navy prison that’s linked in a triangle with Marineford and Enies Lobby. That last one is where we are right now, in case you forgot, so let’s dive into the Straw Hats’ antics.

The Galley-La Foremen and the members of the Franky Family are quickly being abandoned as the navy soldiers all flee the island. Luckily Paulie was able to manipulate his ropes so once there’s a moment they all get untied and make a run for it together with Oimo and Kashi, the two giants that have allied with them due to Usopp’s diplomatic skills. They’re trying to find a way to get out, but it’s hard to leave the island the way it is right now. They also worry about the crew and Franky.

Throughout Enies Lobby, several fights take place. Nami deals with Kalifa by using her weather abilities through her new clima tact. Usopp has done a great job dealing with it and through cleverness and actual impressive fighting prowess Nami wins the fight. As much as she’s one of the weaker straw hats, once you start thinking about the kind of opponents she defeats throughout the series she becomes pretty impressive. Even at this point in the story she’s defeated one of the strongest officers in the Baroque Works organization as well as a CP9 agent who is basically a super human. A relatively dumb one, but a superhuman nonetheless. After defeating Kalifa she brings the key over to Zoro and Usopp who are still tied together.

Converging in the same area are most of the Straw Hats. Chopper and Franky show up and through some ingenuity of Nami and Franky they manage to blast the doctor without self control into the water, thus deactivating his powers. Franky then dives in to save him from drowning and things seem to be alright for now. While everyone is distracted by this, Nami frees Usopp and Zoro. Usopp gets hurt badly by Jabra before Sanji comes in to save the day. Zoro fights Kaku and unlocks his Asura form in which he has three heads and six arms. Sanji fights Jabra and shows off his Diable Jambe, his ability to turn his leg into a molten leg that gives off immense heat. They each deal with their opponent and every key has been retrieved. The only CP9 members left standing at this point are Spandam and Rob Lucci.

Speaking of Rob Lucci, Luffy has gone after him, chasing the bastard down and confronting him in a storage room on the way to where Robin and Spandam are. The two clash while Franky runs on ahead. Luffy activates his Gear Second and Lucci shows off his devil fruit.

Lastly, all the remaining Straw Hats are slowly making their way towards where Robin is. Franky is the first person to get there but he’s too late to help Robin and gets blown up by a trap mine. Things seem pretty bad for a moment when Usopp steps up and saves the day in a big way. He snipes Spandam from all the way across the map. Better put that in his montage with some dubstep to accompany it. With Spandam down, Robin seizes the moment and runs the other way at full speed. Several marines shoot at her but Franky blocks the shots. Things are finally looking a little bit more winnable and seeing Robin finally accepting life in this arc has been so heartwarming to see, I’m really rooting for her. She is easily my favorite character in this series. But we aren’t in the clear yet. Rob Lucci still needs to be dealt with and on the bridge it’s only Franky and Robin vs. the world. And not to mention on top of all of that, a buster call is still coming this way. We’ll see how things progress in the next chapter, but although the odds are improving, they’re definitely not in the Straw Hats’ favor yet. Thanks for reading.

Woodland creature I
Scurrying through the foliage was a small form. Not much bigger than a human hand when rolled up into a ball but large enough to make an impact when speeding through the underbrush. Fluffy cheeks and a bushy tail accompanying a lean body that darted from branch to branch. There was an energy in the forest this morning that wasn’t normally here. Something was different and even the rodents could feel it. Our squirrel friend made his way to his burrow. Leaving behind the morning’s bounty he hesitated, not sure if he should go back out there with this weird energy all around. Eventually the feeling seemed to pass and our little furry fellow felt safe enough to go out for another round of food gathering. Back to the clearing, that’s where the bounty was. You had to be careful though since you were out in the open. But he knew very well how to be out of there quicker than anyone could touch him. He’d been doing this for a very long time. He’d learned how to compensate for his missing eye too. A mistake when he was younger. The clearing smelled different, something was still wrong. Staring out the underbrush were his two beady eyes, trying to see what was different. Sitting in a small crater at the center of this clearing was something. It looked like a big rock. A shiny rock. He’d never seen anything like it. Before he could decide what he should do a sudden ringing sound blew through the area, making his hairs stand up. A crack appeared in the big shiny rock but our furry little friend had already run the other way with his tail between his legs. He wasn’t about to lose his good eye too.

“Come in, come in, goodness me it’s late.” The elderly man that opened the door for Liari and Charlotte ushered them into his cozy living room. They walked through a beautiful village built into the large trees that grew in this part of the forest. Liari had heard about Larania before but she’d never seen it before. The houses were all alight with small lanterns, some so small that Liari wasn’t even sure how they worked. The door of Elder Grahm’s house was like an entrance into a fairy tail home. The inside was covered in beautifully carved wooden walls that seemed both natural and intricately designed at the same time. The furniture looked like it was carved out of the tree and was still part of it, as it blended into the floor. There were carpets of all sorts of colors and fabrics making their feet feel all warm after they took their shoes off. The walls were lined with small outcroppings that held beautiful and wonderfully fragrant plants and herbs, all kept meticulously without a single bad leaf to be found. Sleeping in front of a small stone hearth was a cat with several young kittens. The cat looked up once at the strangers entering her household and then immediately went back to sleep.
“Make yourselves at home while I get you some tea but if you wouldn’t mind not making too much noise, my husband is already asleep.” Elder Grahm smiled, the wrinkles in his face even more visible than earlier, before turning around and making his way to the kitchen.
“This place is beautiful,” Liari said to Charlotte, looking around at all the small little details. There was a statue of a strange bird carved out of marble standing on the table they were sitting next to. The pillows they sat down on had all sorts of herb designs stitched into them. The ceiling was lined with lots of small lights, similar to the ones outside. They all shone in slightly different colors due to the colored glass encasing them. There was a large window on one side of the house that you could hear the little bit of rain that made its way through the canopy softly land upon, giving that sound that Liari found so pleasant back at home. There was a painting on the wall of two elven men standing next to each other, both awkwardly smiling. It was a beautiful oil painting but it did look quite old. The cups that were already on the table – three of them – were mostly empty but each looked very different. There was a very dainty porcelain cup, an iron mug and a wooden stein. There were some papers on a desk in the corner of the room with a lantern that was about to go out. There was a beautiful feather next to a glass inkwell lined with gold. Liari could spot little details for the rest of the evening and still not get bored but eventually elder Grahm came back with their tea. He sat the cups down in front of them and took his place on the opposite side of the table. “I’m sure you’re tired from the long trek and your bones are cold from the rain. This will rejuvenate you and warm you right back up. It’s homegrown tea so you know it’s good.” He smiled.
“Thank you,” Liari said. “I don’t believe I’ve introduced myself yet.”
“I know who you are, child. We met when you were just a little baby. You couldn’t even walk yet. But to be polite, my name is Elder Grahm, I’m the leader of Larania and have been for centuries.”
“A pleasure to meet you, Elder Grahm. My name is Liari Foxire, I’m one of the keepers of the Foxire Library.”
“And we’ve already met,” Charlotte said. “Thanks again for your help back then.”
Elder Grahm’s face went a bit more stern. “What you did was very dangerous and stupid, I hope you realize that.”
Charlotte nodded and looked at the floor. “I know.”
“Good, as long as we learn from our mistakes then they’re not really mistakes at all.” He smiled. “Anyway, I am curious why the two of you are here today.”
“We’re on our way to K’tapur. We plan to go to the Astrianara Academy.”
“That’s quite a journey ahead of you. Why are you going all the way there when you have a fantastic library back the way you came from?”
Liari’s expression turned solemn. “Fesquera has passed away. He told us in a letter that if we wanted to learn more about him, that’s the best place to start looking.”
“I see.” Elder Grahm stared ahead for a moment. “He was getting older, but I expected him to be around until after I died. A real shame, I’m sorry to hear that.”
Liari just nodded politely. She didn’t really have much to say, she was still very much in the process of working through her own feelings. Some time had passed since the confusion all started, but not enough.
“K’tapur you said though, are you sure that’s safe?” Elder Grahm looked at Charlotte specifically.
Charlotte nodded. “I know it’s risky, but we’re mainly just passing through. We’ll try and keep a low profile wherever we can.” She paused. “Maybe I should cut my hair short.”
Grahm smiled. “I’m sure I can get that arranged for you, that’s not a bad idea.”

The tea that Elder Grahm served had a pleasant aroma. Liari hadn’t really had anything like it before. She was still a little bit lost in her own thoughts when Grahm asked. “How are you planning to get a ship to the Arcane Archipelago?”
Liari looked at Charlotte expectantly. They hadn’t really talked about the logistics of their journey yet but Liari assumed that Charlotte would have some idea.
“I’m not sure yet. I know some people I can rely on, and one of them lives between here and K’tapur. I’m hoping to exchange some old favors.”
Grahm frowned. “Are you sure you can trust this person after everything that’s been going on lately?”
Charlotte hesitated for a second before nodding. “Milgrad has no reason to do anything to oppose me, his connection with me is relatively unknown and if I know him well enough he’s more likely to want me indebted to him than doing something stupid.” Charlotte smiles a painful smile. “I considered other options as well but that level of trust unfortunately wasn’t quite there.”
“I see.” Elder Grahm put his now empty cup down on the little table. “As long as you’ve thought about it enough I’m not going to question you any further. I hope your judgment is right, that is all.”
“We’ll find out soon enough.”
Grahm turned his attention to Liari. “You’re completely new to all of this, aren’t you?”
Liari nodded. “This is the furthest I’ve ever been from the library,” she said proudly.
“Well I think it was something that was going to happen one day and it probably doesn’t hurt to see a bit more of the world. It’s not good for everyone to stay in the same place their entire life.”
Liari thought about this for a while. “I do think I’m going to miss the library a lot though. And Mirana. And.” She stopped.
Grahm smiled. “I know you will and that’s okay. Sometimes we have to leave things behind but that doesn’t mean we can’t go back to them. Maybe it takes a while before we get the chance, but you never know.” He leaned on the small table with one hand and hoisted himself up. “It’s quite late already and I wouldn’t be surprised if the two of you are tired from your journey. Stefin cooked dinner today and I think there might be some leftovers. I’ll bring you to the guest room and then I’ll go check to see if there’s a late dinner for the two of you.”
The two women followed Elder Grahm to a curved hallway and into the guestroom. It was a meager room. There were three beds, two storage chests and above one of the beds was a painting of a forest river. “It’s not much but I hope it’s more comfortable than the forest floor.” Grahm said.
“Of course,” Charlotte replied, “we are grateful for your hospitality.”
Liari figured that Charlotte might have already stayed in this room on her way to the library once. They put their packs on the ground and got ready for bed. Grahm came back a little while later with a plate of bread and some soup. “Here’s something to warm you up before you go to bed.” He smiled. “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight Grahm,” the two responded.
They ate by the light of two small candles. They didn’t talk much and not more than an hour after Grahm said goodnight, both of them were fast asleep in the comfortable beds. 

The next morning Liari awoke to the smell of fresh herbs and soup. Where last night’s dinner had been a little bit underwhelming – although she would never complain about something given for free on short notice – this meal was decidedly more wonderful. There was a plate with mushrooms and onion with bread soaked in some sort of garlic sauce next to it. In a big bowl was a thin soup with all sorts of vegetables and some spices in them. All in all it was a better meal than she had in a while. Not like the food at the library was bad or anything, but it was often the same, healthy and simple. This meal was decidedly less healthy, looking at the amount of oil that was dripping from the freshly baked bread. Grahm and his husband headed out the moment Charlotte and Liari had woken up, since they had things to do in town. They left the two on their own, and after breakfast they decided to head out as well and have a look at what Larania’s shops had to offer. This morning’s weather was particularly nice in a string of alternating bad weather, and the sun broke through the clouds to warm up the air a little bit. It was still cold, but much more pleasant. After descending the wooden staircase that led down from the mayor’s home to the leaf covered forest floor the two walked a little bit until they reached the town square. At the center was a large fountain depicting a small bird flying up into the air. Some moss covered the fountain here and there and water slowly poured from the bird’s beak into the basin below. The gray stone looked old but well kept. A number of stores bordered the town center. Because they slept in late, everyone else in the small village seemed to be up and about and it was surprisingly bustling for how small of a village Larania was. Liari and Charlotte walked into a small shop that was close by where they walked in from. Like most buildings in this town, it was mainly made from wood and if you didn’t pay close attention it seemed like it grew out of the ground as opposed to being built there. All the buildings blended in really well with the environment, although they were most certainly built by people. The inside of the store was cozy albeit a bit cramped. Behind a small counter stood a young elven woman, probably not much older than Charlotte and Liari were. She smiled brightly at them. “Some unfamiliar faces, what can I do for you?”
Liari smiled back. “I’m Liari and this is Charlotte, we’re passing through here.”
She had a puzzled look. “Not many people pass through here, where are you from if I may ask?”
“From the Foxire library.” Liari said. “The library in the Celeran Canopy,” she added when the woman didn’t seem to know what she meant.
The shopkeep looked at Charlotte who just sighed. “There’s a library deeper in the forest where she grew up. Don’t think about it too much. I’m originally from K’tapur myself, I’ve already come through here once.”
“I see. And where are you headed then, if you’re coming from the forest itself?”
“Currently we’re headed to K’tapur.”
“So back home then?” The woman asked.
“In a sense,” Charlotte said. “How long have you had this shop here?” She was trying to change the subject of the conversation.
“Oh, I inherited this store from my father when he wanted to leave town and see the world.” She smiled. “And when he came back from his journey he said I ran it better than he ever did so he retired.”
Charlotte smiled. “That’s a big compliment then.”
“That or he just didn’t want to work anymore.” They both laughed.
“I really like this one,” Liari said. While Charlotte and the shopkeep talked, Liari had been browsing the jewelry on display and now she stood with a bracelet in her hand. It was a silver bracelet with delicate looking links of metal. Hanging from one of the links was a green gemstone that was brilliantly cut.
“You have a good eye for these things.” The shopkeep walked over to her and carefully put it around Liari’s wrist. “It suits you.”
Liari smiled. “Thank you.” She held her arm up and watched as the light that peeked into the window reflected on the gemstone. It seemed almost magical in the morning light although that was probably just the trickery of great craftsmanship.
“How much for this bracelet?”
“This is a very well crafted piece, made by my father himself. I can sell it to you for four gold pieces.”
Liari looked at Charlotte who chuckled. “You have no idea if that’s a good price, do you?”
Liari shook her head. “Not really, no.”
Charlotte took out a pouch and pulled out some coins. “Consider it a gift from me to you,” she said as she paid for the bracelet.
“You don’t have to,” Liari said, but Charlotte shushed her.
“You’re not the one who makes the decision here.” She smiled at the shopkeeper. “Pleasure doing business.”
“You as well,” the woman said, putting the coins away in a drawer.
Liari looked at her new bracelet with awe, it was beautiful. She barely noticed that Charlotte slowly ushered her out of the store until the cold wind hit. 

“Isn’t that the elder?” Liari asked, pointing at two figures talking a little ways away from the central square.
“I believe so,” Charlotte replied as they walked closer. They were headed that way anyway and when they got closer, Elder Grahm noticed them and motioned them to come over.
“Good morning, how are you liking our humble little village?” he asked.
“It’s pleasant here.” Charlotte said.
“I got new jewelry,” Liari said with a bright smile. She showed the bracelet to elder Grahm.
“That looks like Wesser’s work if I’m not mistaken,” he said.
“I bought it at the jeweler here, is he her father?”
Grahm nodded. “That would be him.” He turned to the man he was talking to. “Charlotte and Liari, this here is Shiraq, one of our town guards.”
Shiraq gave a polite nod. His black hair was tightly bound into a ponytail and his skin was a lot more tan than most of the elves they’d seen walking through town. He was wearing similar garb to the guard they encountered when they arrived last night, although his looked more worn, as if he’d been working hard. Despite that, it did look like everything on him was taken care of very well and none of the important straps looked old. On his hip was a shortsword and strung across his back was a shortbow as well as a small quiver. He looked more like a ranger than a town guard. “Shiraq here has been working hard to investigate some strange noises from the nearby forest, we were wondering if you came across anything weird on your way here.”
Liari looked at Charlotte. “I don’t think we came across anything weird that causes strange noises. All we really came across was that old fortune teller.”
“Old fortune teller?” Grahm asked.
“Yeah, an older gentleman in a small hut, he had me look into a crystal ball and made me see strange things. He was a bit odd, but ultimately nice.”
Charlotte sighed. “He made me uncomfortable, I don’t know why but he creeped me out.”
“Where did you come across this hut?” Shiraq asked, his voice snappy and stern.
Liari and Charlotte recounted the rough location to the two men who exchanged a look. “I’m familiar with the general area you’re talking about, but I can’t remember there being a hut or a person there at all.” He looked at Grahm who shrugged. “I don’t go out there that often these days, but I do think if there was someone living in the area I would be aware of it. This is concerning to say the least.”
“Should I go and investigate?” He asked.
Grahm nodded. “Charlotte, Liari, would you perhaps accompany Shiraq? I hate to ask this of you, but if you’re not in too much of a hurry, could you point him towards what you saw? I’d hate to have someone that’s possibly dangerous nearby.”
“We’re not in a hurry per se,” Charlotte said before pausing to think about it for a little bit. “Fine, I think we can do that. As long as all you want from us is to travel there and then back. We owe you for taking care of us after all.”
Shiraq nodded. “Then we’ll leave in an hour, I’ll see you on the outskirts of town where you came in from.” And with that he quickly walked off to get ready.
“A man of few words,” Charlotte commented.
Elder Grahm smiled. “He’s the solitary type, he works well on his own and although he’s far from unkind, he doesn’t do well with strangers. But you’ll warm up to him quickly, don’t worry.”
He looked off into the distance. “If you kids go back to my home and talk to Stephin, I’m sure he’ll get you some food and some supplies. It’s only a short journey from this strange hut to here, correct?”
“If we depart shortly we should get there tomorrow morning at the latest. Especially if Shiraq is good at finding his way through the forest, that’ll make it easier. We spent a lot of time finding paths and ways to get to where we needed to be.”
“Well, with how good Shiraq is at his job, don’t be surprised if you can get there today then. He knows these forests by heart.” Grahm’s expression went a bit darker. “Which is why it’s extra peculiar that you came across something unfamiliar to him. Be careful out there.”
Liari and Charlotte both nodded.
“Well, good luck, and tell Stephin I’ll be back before dinner.” With that, elder Grahm walked off into a nearby store.

Liari had not met Stephin yet, but she understood from Charlotte that he was a very reserved man. He wore a dark gray tunic and matching pants and had a bushy mustache. He greeted Liari and Charlotte at the door and let them in. “So you’re leaving with Shiraq then, he’s a quick scout, so good luck keeping up with him. I suggest you pack light and leave most of your stuff here with us.”
Liari nodded. “That’s not a bad idea.”
“I will make you some quick dinner, I also think I have some more rainproof coats that I can lend you.” They sat down in the living room while STephin walked off.
“They’re both very different people,” Liari remarked.
“What do you mean?” Charlotte asked.
“Well, they’re married right? I thought most married people would be very similar in personality. Rimah and Miroc have very similar personalities.”
Charlotte smiled. “Some people who get married are very similar and they find love in those similarities and shared traits. But other people complement each other’s weak spots. For example, my father was a very kind man, and didn’t really enjoy hurting people. My mother on the other hand could be incredibly cold when important decisions needed to be made. My father would often say that even though he was the emperor, she was the one who truly ruled the empire. So it doesn’t surprise me that they’re different. They probably have a bunch of things in common that aren’t very obvious.”
Liari listened intently and nodded along. Relationships were not very natural to her. She loved the people at the library like family, but she never had a proper family like in stories. She also hadn’t fallen in love yet, there simply weren’t enough people at the library. And when she finally learned who her father was, it was too late to start having a familial bond with him. It saddened her, but it also fascinated her to see how other people had relationships. And now that they were leaving the library, she would meet many more people that would probably confuse her. That scared her, but it also made her excited. How much would she learn in the outside world that she would never be able to read about in books? As she was pondering this question, Stephin returned with a couple of bundles. “These clothes are made from very strong material. They should keep you warm in the rain and if you’re a little bit careful they shouldn’t tear all too quickly. I’ve also included enough food to make it through a day or two. It’s mostly dried food, so it’ll keep well if you don’t get it too wet.”
“Thank you very much,” Charlotte said.
“Be careful, Shiraq knows what he’s doing, so you should be fine, but from what you’re telling me there are strange things afoot and that worries me. With Fesquera no longer being around, these woods have lost a long standing protection that was implied with his existence. Everyone in the region knew not to mess with the librarian and his people.”
This sombered Liari. “Should I be worried for Miranda?”
Stephin shook his head. “The library is probably well protected even after Fesquera’s passing, but the forest surrounding it is a different story. Stay close to Shiraq and listen to what he says.”
Charlotte nodded. “We’ll make sure to be careful. Besides, we made it all the way here without a guard with us, so doing part of the same trip with someone alongside us should be fine.”
Stephin smiled. “I’m sure you’re right, I’m just being extra careful.”
After dropping off everything they didn’t need in the guest room and making sure they were packed, they made their way to the edge of town to meet up with Shiraq.

Last week we made it to the end of the East Blue Saga and entered the Grand Line. I remember thinking that we had to be in the endgame now, when I watched them traverse the reverse mountain for the first time. Then immediately we’re introduced to a large organization with assassins? How can this not be close to the climax of the story? Well, not quite, but we know that now. We’re continuing our journey on Whiskey Peak where Zoro is being a one man army.

Mr. 5 and Ms. Valentine are sent over to fix the failure of their coworkers. Or that’s what they think. Instead they’re here to deal with Vivi and Igaram, who are secretly members of the royal kingdom of Arabasta. The leader of Baroque Works has found out about them and they are aware who the leader of this organization is. This is a problem for him, so he’s ready to dispose of them. I’ve got to give some respect for Mr. 9 who went “there’s no I in team” and gave it his all. In desperation they ask the straw hats for help and of course they’re willing. For a billion berries, that is. We’ll learn quickly enough that Nami never changes.

“Can he really be that dense?” Oh poor, poor Vivi, you have no idea. Luffy is furious that Zoro cut up his new friends and without the proper context is about to fight his crew member. You can accuse Luffy of many things, but clever isn’t one of them. Also, Mr. 5’s power is very similar to that of Katsuki Bakugou in My Hero. I wonder if Bakugo exploding his boogers would have been an alternative plot point? Missed opportunities. Either way, they’re fodder, right after Igaram explained that numbers five and up are especially powerful. The kilo-kilo fruit is definitely interesting. We have multiple stories with gravity powers, Eden’s Zero being a good example, but making the power so specific is kind of cool. I like how limited a lot of the early devil fruit powers are. They’re still creative later on, but I feel like they’re getting more and more crazy in the kind of things they can do where I do kind of raise an eyebrow. But we’re not talking about that right now. Luffy and Zoro quickly deal with them and Luffy proves that contrary to Sanji, he has no issues punching a woman’s lights out.

And there we go, the reveal of the leader of Baroque Works: Sir Crocodile of the Seven Warlords. Alongside Jinbe and Mihawk we now know three of their identities. He’s the first one that’s going to pose a roadblock to the crew though. The otter has drawn their faces and there’s nowhere to run now. Luffy and Zoro are excited about this though, Sanji and Usopp are still blissfully unaware. I forgot how hype the ending of this island was though. Igaram gets blown to pieces and Vivi bites her lip to not cry out. What a trooper. Luffy now takes things personally because “he liked that guy.” I’ve always appreciated Luffy’s sense of morality. It’s far from warped, like Gon from Hunter x Hunter, but it’s also not led by laws and sensible norms. He helps those he wants to help and does what he wants. But throughout it he’s not a bad guy. Just don’t cross him or hurt someone he likes. Then you’ll get a thousand chapters worth of pain.

THERE SHE IS!!! I’m sorry, but to me, and I’m sure several others, Miss All Sunday – or Nico Robin – is the original step on me character. She’s so cool in everything she does. She’s the one who killed Igaram and then shows up on the crew’s ship for a quick hello. She doesn’t have to finish the job though, since the log pose has been set to Little Garden, which is apparently a dangerous place to be. So she leaves on her turtle mount – I’m guessing it’s from a limited event or something – and we don’t see her again for a while. 

The crew then reached Little Garden without issue and quickly realizes it’s called that since its inhabitants are all massive. We meet Dorry and Broggy, two giants who have been settling a dispute for the past 100 years. Usopp is impressed by their conviction but things don’t keep going well. The ale that they gave to them blows up and they rightfully get the blame for it. Luffy steps up to defend his friends though. He knows they didn’t mess with the ale, but who else can it be? I guess we’ll have to find out in the next volume.

In the meantime, Koby and Helmeppo are still on their personal improvement arc. They’ve been taken under the wing of Vice Admiral Garp and they’re doing chores and working out. Good for them. I think the anime has warped my perception of this story a lot. In my head this story took forever to get through but reading it again and looking at the episode list, the early arcs aren’t as long as I thought they were. The newer arcs though, don’t get me started on them. I was worried some of the story would drag, but so far I’ve enjoyed every second of the manga, including the arcs I don’t remember extremely fondly. The latest two big arcs have been +/0 100 episodes for one and over 140 for the current one. These arcs are long if they take 40 episodes, so things have definitely changed. And I wouldn’t say for the better. The same is true for the manga, but I think it has much better pacing than the anime, which saves the fact that it’s too long to keep up with. Either way, that’s my thoughts and as usual I can’t wait for next week. Thanks for reading.

Today on the chopping block is Volume 11. According to the spine of the volumes, this is the last volume of the East Blue saga. There’s a little bit more time we spend in East Blue in the upcoming volume, but it’s also the start of the next saga, which is pretty exciting. I think I’ve mentioned it before, maybe in last week’s post, but in my head this arc went on for longer than it actually did. The fact that we go from Arlong Park to almost entering the Grand Line in the span of one volume feels unreal, but let’s read through it to see if it makes more sense afterwards.

Now I’m going to put a warning in here. The final paragraph of this post will contain some big spoilers for recent arcs. If you’re not fully up to date on the manga, I suggest you skip that paragraph completely.

With that out of the way, let’s dive into this week’s volume. For starters, the cover stories in this volume we’re continuing the story of Coby and Helmeppo. They’re bringing Axe Hand Morgan to Garp’s ship. Garp gets ambushed by the man and he takes Helmeppo hostage. Coby does his best to save his friend but things aren’t looking great. We don’t get an end to this story yet, but we’ll find out soon enough I’m sure.

Let’s tidy up Arlong Park, shall we? Luffy and Arlong fight for a bit, with Luffy stealing some of Arlong’s teeth for himself. It’s very fitting of Luffy’s character, but I thought it kind of took away from the seriousness of the fight. With some of the scenes after the fight being comedic in nature, I don’t think that was necessary and it did interrupt the flow a bit. The next scene took place in Nami’s old cartographer’s room where Luffy realizes this place must be like a prison to Nami. It’s such a powerful statement of him to destroy the room for her so she can finally be free of the chains that bind her. And with a powerful statement and a more powerful kick we end Arlong Park. It’s not said explicitly, but the rat navy captain takes away Arlong and his men and they go to prison. 

The same guy calls up the navy to say that Straw Hat Luffy needs to get a bounty on his head. The first bounty out of many that the crew gets throughout the years. His bounty is higher than any of the other big names in East Blue, but that’s not difficult. East Blue is considered to be the weakest of the four seas, and Luffy is probably the strongest captain to come from this area in a long time. What’s arguably the most interesting part about this whole bounty are the next two things:
First, we learn that Mihawk and Shanks know each other. Mihawk tells Shanks about the bounty on a boy whose name sounds familiar since Shanks has mentioned him before. They’re such good friends.
Second, we get some news that isn’t particularly relevant to most of the story, but it’s really the first mention of big events outside of what the crew does. Nami reads in the paper that there’s a coup d’etat in a country called Vira. We learn later in the story who was responsible for this coup, so I’ll update you all on that when we get there. 

After we complete Arlong Park, the crew sails to Rogue Town (Loguetown) where Gol D. Roger, king of the pirates, was executed all those years ago. It’s fun to see the crew go shopping and goof around for a little bit. We meet Tashigi and Smoker, two mainstay figures in the navy who actually seem to be good people. That’s fairly rare amongst the navy, as we’ll learn throughout the story. They’re a very corrupt, fascist organization. It’s almost like One Piece is just a way for Oda to do social commentary. But we see some old faces here again. It turns out the cover stories of Alvida and Buggy weren’t there for no reason. We see them again with an attempt to kill Luffy. He gets saved by a higher power though and ultimately survives the attack. That’s where we leave the volume off. If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it and if you did, leave a like. There’ll be another paragraph down below which contains massive spoilers. Read at your own risk!

There are major spoilers below this image. Final warning.

Are we all good on that? Excellent. It’s nothing super important for the post, but I did think it would be interesting to include it. Zoro and Sanji ask if a higher power just saved Luffy. One Piece dives into many topics, but I believe religion isn’t a big topic. Sengoku turns into a giant Buddha, but it’s not really explored in such a way. Enel starts his own cult on Sky Island but it’s once again less a religion and more of a cult. The biggest mention we’ve had of gods so far is Luffy himself. As has been revealed in a recent chapter, he is Joy Boy, also known as the Sun God Nika. So the fact that Zoro and Sanji refer to a higher power in this moment is pretty neat. In reality though, we’ll find out in the next volume that Dragon has been messing with the weather to give Luffy a proper send-off. I can’t wait to close out East Blue and get started on the next big arc. We’re about to meet some characters that are very important to the story in Laboon and Arabasta, as well as get more crew members. This should be fun!

It’s 2023!

And you know what that means! It’s time to have a look back at the previous year and talk about all the anime that came out that we enjoyed. It’s a good moment to look back at the opening themes of some of your favorites and even remember shows you might have forgotten about a little bit. I didn’t watch nearly as many shows as some other years but it was still very hard for me to make a top 10. Even as of writing this introduction I’m looking at the list and I’m probably going to adjust some of the shows’ place on the list. This is a top 10 of my favorite shows so genres I particularly enjoy will be higher up than they might be on other people’s lists. The ranking is fairly loose and in a week from now I might think that the order should be different, but at least these shows are the 10 that I think everyone should watch. So without further ado, let’s have a look at the list, starting with number 10. 

10. Lycoris Recoil

Without a doubt, hearing an opening theme performed by ClariS brings me back several years in life to when they were a lot more common. At least in my experience they were. Their bubblegum style of music can be grating at times but when it works, it works incredibly well. Lycoris Recoil tells the story of a young woman named Chisato. She works as a sort of stealth force peacekeeper while using a small cafe as a cover. Her organization is part of a much bigger organization of young women who all fight crime behind the scenes. The world is at peace and crime rates are the lowest they’ve ever been. Of course, a perfect world doesn’t exist and problems are bubbling below the surface. Chisato and her partner Takina get embroiled in a large-scale terror attack led by a man who brings up a decent argument for his anger towards society. In the midst of this chaos, Chisato’s heart implant is nearing its best by date and tensions start heating up. This show is a joy to watch from start to finish and is carried by its character writing. There is also a very interesting villain towards the end of the story but I’ll leave that to its own blogpost in the future. This show competed with several of the honorable mentions for this number 10 spot, but it won out in the end, go give it a watch.

9. My Dress-up Darling

This cute little show about cosplay aired at the start of the year and I had almost forgotten it even aired this year. Time has been weird ever since 2020, so I can be forgiven for thinking it was a show from 2021, right? Marin is a Gyaru, one of the popular girls, who loves to cosplay as a hobby. She’s not very good at creating costumes though. That’s where Wakana comes in. A bit of a loner who loves making traditional dolls and sewing the clothes for these dolls. The perfect target for Marin to convert to her cosplay hobby. The two set out to make cosplays for Marin and a bunch of fun and early onset romance ensues. Marin steals the show in this anime and although Wakana is a functional character on his own, her positivity and endless love for her hobby is what makes this show as great as it is. I believe it’s getting a sequel this year, so if you haven’t checked it out yet, please do so. Some of the shows on my top 10 are definitely not for everyone, but this one I think will entertain a large majority of anime fans for sure.

8. Call of the Night

What if the vampire that Araragi encountered that one fateful night wasn’t a gorgeous yet violent psychopath but instead a socially inept young woman. Yamori Ko explores that possibility. Being fed up with middle school life, bored by what’s going on around him, he decides to step outside his house one night and quickly becomes enamored by the atmosphere he finds himself surrounded in. Life moves at a different pace at night and he feels much more at home. He then encounters Nazuna, a young vampire, who shows him around with the goal of sucking his blood. Instead of being scared of the vampire, Ko embraces the idea of becoming a permanent resident of the night. Unfortunately for Ko, to become a vampire himself he would have to first fall in love with the vampire that sucks his blood. As a young teenager, love isn’t something he’s all that familiar with but he’s determined to make it work. I’ll be honest, the first few episodes of Call of the Night serve as a perfectly fine introduction to the setting and show off the gorgeous color palette that the show works with, but it does get a little bit boring. It’s not until several of the other characters are introduced where the show really picks up. Call of the Night is weird and nonsensical yet also vibrant and compelling. And to wrap it all in a nice little package, the opening and ending themes for this anime are ‘Daten’ and ‘Yofukashi no Uta’ by the band Creepy Nuts. The title of the manga in Japanese is Yofukashi no Uta and it was actually named after the song with permission from Creepy Nuts. Using it as the ending to the anime is the perfect full circle we love to see in creative projects like this.

7. Chainsaw Man

I’ve been watching anime for over a decade now, closing in on 15 years in total. That’s almost half my life. In my time watching, there have been very few shows that have been hyped up as much as Chainsaw Man has. A problem with hyping up a show too much is that it sets expectations far too high. If I expect a fun show and it turns out to be a great show, then that’s very cool. If I expect the single best show to have ever been created and instead get just a great show, then that can really hamper your enjoyment of a show. Chainsaw Man for me suffers from this problem a lot. For those of you who didn’t get to watch it, Chainsaw Man tells the story of Denji, who fuses with his pet demon to become a literal chainsaw man. He starts working for a governmental organization that deals with dangerous demon extermination and the story moves from there. Denji, as well as the other major characters in this show, is completely insane. His only goal is to just vibe and maybe cop a feel on the women around him. Morals mean nothing to him and the same can be said for some of the other characters. The animation in this show is great, with the CG being good quality although still jarring when it cuts from animation to CG and back. The characters are fun and the story is completely unpredictable which is definitely fun at times. It’s whacky and over the top but also very real at times with Aki being my favorite character. The latter half of the show is definitely a lot better than the first half and I found myself really enjoying every episode. But even within the season it was airing there were several anime I was looking forward to more each week. A very good show that’s probably already been recommended  to you many times. Also, like many of the previous and upcoming entries, has a fantastic opening theme by the extremely talented Kenshi Yonezu.

6. Police in a Pod

This is one of two shows on this list that I think might surprise people. I don’t believe it was particularly popular while it was airing. Police in a Pod tells the story of a young policewoman working with her much more jaded senior. They work at a local police office and do everything from small things to much more serious police work. What makes this series so great to me is the immense tonal shift it can have without ever feeling unbelievable. Some episodes will feature very light material and sometimes even midway through an episode will it suddenly shift to something much more serious. While dealing with the serious issue of sexual assault they’ll manage to make you laugh about how the officers will portray the assault in their attempts to gather insight without ever taking away from the seriousness of the issue at hand. For an anime, this show feels incredibly real and it shows that the author has experience working as a police officer. I can think of more hype shows than this one easily, but none of them have stuck in my mind as much as this one has. Not what you should watch to wind down per se, but a well crafted story that feels very real.

5. Ya boy Kongming

Contrary to number six on this list, Ya boy Kongming definitely enjoyed the popularity it deserved as it was airing. The opening theme by Queendom is easily one of my favorite opening themes of all time. The vibrant animation helps but the track is just amazing. Check it out here because words can’t really do it justice if I’m honest. It follows Chinese advisor Kongming as he gets transported from his deathbed to the middle of a Tokyo nightlife scene. There he meets Eiko, a young woman who is performing at a local bar. Entranced by her voice, he decides to become her strategist and make her famous. The story follows the two as they use his brilliant mind to help her become a star. The music is good, the characters are fun and the strategies are extremely unconventional which makes them fun. The best way to describe this show is to say that a premise this stupid has no right to be this good.

4. Spy x Family

In early 2020 I added a little known manga to my wishlist that was starting to become popular. I never got to buying it though and by the time I considered it again, I’d heard there was an anime in the making. So instead I waited for the anime to air with high hopes. And boy did it deliver. Spy x Family tells the story of the Forger family. Loid Forger, not his real name, is a spy trying to get close to a political leader of the opposing country in a cold war type scenario. To get closer to his target he wants to have a child that makes contact with Desmond’s (the target) child. But he doesn’t have any children. This is where he adopts Anya, a young mind reader from a failed project who is currently in an orphanage. When the two apply for the prestigious school, Eden’s College, they quickly realize that they need both parents so they go and search for a mother figure. This is where they find Yor Briar, who is desperately trying to find a husband as well. Why? Because people are starting to ask questions about her lifestyle and she’s trying to avoid them finding out she’s a coldblooded assassin. Yor is voiced by the wonderful Saori Hayami whose voice I could listen to all day, so that’s a big bonus as well.
The story follows their shenanigans and as of the first two cours has been fun from start to finish. Both openings and endings are fantastic with the second opening Souvenir by Bump of Chicken being one of my favorite Japanese songs to come out of 2022. Everything on this list comes highly recommended, but this one is just such good fun that everyone should give it a try at least once. But I’m sure most of you already have, it was highly popular.

3. Summertime Rendering

I wasn’t quite sure which show to put in second place and which show to put in third place. Recency bias won out in the end which is why Summertime Rendering is in the third spot and not the second spot, but just know that it was a hard call to make. Shinpei returns to the island he grew up on after his childhood friend Ushio passed away in a drowning accident. Very quickly after he reaches the island he experiences a feeling of deja vu. As time goes on, mysteries stack up and there is something brewing on the island that is more dangerous than it seems.
Summertime Rendering is here to deliver a compelling action/mystery story that hits all the right notes. The action is cool, the mystery is compelling and the characters are well written. Never does it overstay its welcome, never does it bore you and it has a satisfying conclusion. If I had one complaint about this anime is that it had to end after only 24 episodes. But that does also mean that it covered the entire story from start to finish with nothing being too rushed or stretched out. What an absolute joy of an anime.

2. Bibliophile Princess

I will immediately admit that this show probably isn’t for everyone. Bibliophile princess tells the story of Eliana Bernstein, betrothed to Prince Christopher. She’s named the Mushikaburi-hime by the people of the palace because the only reason she’s engaged to the prince is so she has free access to the royal archives. She loves books more than anything in the world and doesn’t have much interest in the people around her. At least that’s how it seems on the surface. The reality is that Eliana has long since fallen for the charming prince, even if she herself hasn’t fully realized it yet. But when the series starts, the prince seems to be interested in another woman. Not only that, things around her start going wrong. The prince has less time to spend with her, a ladder breaks and she’s no longer allowed in the library for the time being. Whenever she wants to help or be involved with something she’s more or less brushed off to the side and things are starting to look pretty bad for her. Is it finally time for the prince to get bored with her and find a new fiance? The show follows the romance between the two and watches as Eliana grows as a character until she can show her worth to everyone around her. Of course, some people were already well aware of how smart and wise she was. The romantic aspect of the story just warms my heart and this show is a total guilty pleasure. I enjoyed every single second that I was watching it and I’m really sad it’s over. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem like there is an English manga available, at least not a physical edition, so we’ll have to wait on that.

1. Ranking of Kings

Where I had to think a lot to figure out most of this list, I never for a second had to worry about which show I would put at rank 1. Before any of these shows even started, before the year even started, the best anime was already decided. Since it hadn’t finished airing yet, I couldn’t include it in my list for 2021, but that set the bar extremely high for this year and unfortunately, in my opinion, no show cleared the bar. And that’s why in the number one spot we have the fantasy anime Ranking of Kings. Bojji is a young prince who can neither hear nor talk. Not only that, he’s also incredibly weak. When his father dies and his younger brother becomes the next king he goes on an adventure. The world of Ousama Ranking looks like a fairy tale and the characters are fun, although a lot of them might be a bit one dimensional. What really ties this show together is the music. The openings, endings and OST are all fantastic and I discovered two great artists, Yama & King Gnu, through this anime. Kage is also voiced by the wonderfully talented and endlessly funny Sungwon Cho (ProZD) which is just a fun tidbit to add. I’ve already talked about this show here so I won’t ramble on forever, but it does seem only fitting that Ranking of Kings is the king of this ranking. (I’m funny like that).

0. Honorable Mentions

I whittled down my list of ten from an initial 22 shows, but after being left with 15 shows it was really hard to bring it down even further. I’ll quickly talk about the five remaining shows that didn’t quite make the list but are worth your time. For starters, the sequels to Komi-San and Made in Abyss were both great. I really want to buy the Komi-San manga at some point and those of you who followed along with my weekly episode recaps for Made in Abyss know that I’ve already read the manga for that one. I think the anime really improved the interesting but chaotic story the manga told and the music by Kevin Penkin was fantastic, as it always is. I saw on twitter the other day that he’s been working on the main theme for Final Fantasy. That’s pretty cool. 

That leaves me with three more shows that were in the running for top ten. First up is Heroines run the show. This one is probably in the same category as Bibliophile Princess where it’s a guilty pleasure to me. I never understood idle shows but watching it from the perspective of their young manager and classmate. She doesn’t much care for idols but slowly warms up to the two guys as the season carries on.

Sabikui Bisco is a fantastic fantasy show about archers that shoot mushrooms that cause a strange disease called rust. At the start it’s as simple as that, there’s giant mechs, villages led by children, a secret police and a badass woman on a motorcycle. As the story unfolds we learn that not everything is as it initially seems and the characters really start to grow on you. Not much more to say then just go watch it. Gives me Dorehedoro vibes in how odd of a show it is, but it’s very different in many other aspects. Both have mushrooms. I don’t know what that means, but I’m sure there’s a deeper meaning to it.

Now last but certainly not least, Love after world domination! Well, technically it’s least since it’s the lowest on this list, but don’t let that fool you into thinking it’s not a good show. Fudo is the red power ranger, I mean gelato and Desumi is part of the evil organization. They’re constantly fighting each other trying to respectively harm and protect the peace. What no one knows is that on the side, the two leaders of their squads are dating. Both characters in this show are extremely likable in my opinion. Their romance is adorable and the hijinx they get up to managed to brighten my day every week. If the premise sounds even a little bit fun to you, then I highly recommend you give it a watch.

And that’s my roundup of last year’s anime. I’m sure there are shows I missed that maybe should be here. I still need to watch the cyberpunk anime, just to name an example. Is there anything you think should be on this list? Feel free to leave a comment. I think 2022 was a pretty good year for anime and I’m excited to see what 2023 will bring us. On that note, as of writing this the first few anime of the season just dropped so I’m going to be watching those now. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!