Welcome to This Week in Shonen Jump, our weekly check in on Viz’s various Shonen Jump series. Viz has recently changed their release format, but our format will mostly remain the same. We will still review the newest chapters of one title a week, now with even more options at our disposal. The big change for our readers is that, even without a Shonen Jump subscription, you can read these most recent chapters for free at Viz.com or using their app.
This week, Zach checks in with “One Piece.” If you have thoughts on this or any other current Shonen Jump titles, please let us know in the comments!
One Piece – Chapter 1044: Warrior of Liberation
Written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda
Translated by Stephen Paul
Lettered by Vanessa Satone
Reviewed by Zach Wilkerson
So, this isn’t going to be a “review” (sorry Brian). Applying a number rating to a single chapter of “One Piece” is a Sisyphean task that I don’t care to engage in. What I will do, however, is talk at length about this mind boggling chapter of a long running series that continues to leave me giddy, perplexed and, dare I say, joyful. There will be spoilers, so if you haven’t read the chapter and care about that, go read it!
The previous chapter ended on a hell of a cliffhanger, with Luffy’s seeming demise giving way to the return of the mythic “Joy Boy,” an enigmatic figure teased hundreds of chapters ago in the ‘Fishman Island’ arc. Oda wastes no time in dropping revelation after revelation regarding the nature of Luffy and his Gum Gum Fruit, changing our entire understanding of the character and his abilities as we’ve known them for 1000+ chapters. It’s a bold move and an astounding payoff for threads that date back to at least the ‘Skypiea’ arc, if not earlier.
Oda, like any long-term storyteller, makes adjustments and tweaks to the plot as time goes on, circumstances change, and new ideas flourish. The retcon of the Gum Gum Fruit as a Zoan Type Human Human Fruit, however, feels like something Oda may have planned from the very beginning. The change may seem drastic, but I argue that it serves as a logical culmination and elevation of every aspect of Luffy that Oda has presented thus far. While not strictly just a “Rubber Man” any longer, Luffy is now the platonic ideal of a rubber man. Here, Luffy takes on the full personification of unbridled freedom, free from even the shackles of natural laws and physics.
This is a lot of flowery language and dancing around to say that Luffy is now even more of a cartoon character than he has ever been. As his devil fruit awakens and he enters Gear 5, Oda draws Luffy with a rubber hose animation quality akin to 1930’s cartoons. Luffy’s eyes bug out from his head like Tex Avery, his muscles bulge like Popeye and he single handedly bashses Kaido around a la Bamm-Bamm. These cartoon influences have always been on display in “One Piece,” but here Oda wears them on his sleeve. Luffy, enemy of the gods, embodiment of freedom, future Pirate King, is a cartoon in a universe full of cartoon characters, and honestly, that whips.
While it could easily be overshadowed by mythical revelations and climactic battles, the best sequence in this chapter involves the final confrontation between Kozuki Hiyori and Orochi. We’ve spent over a hundred chapters learning about the tragic story of the Kozuki clan at the hands of Orochi and Kaido and while Luffy rages against Kaido, Hiyori exacts her own revenge in a smaller but arguably more satisfying sequence. In a rousing and empowering speech, Hiyori reveals herself to Orochi as the villain is immolated by the wasted spirit of Kanjuro. It’s a bleak, dismal end for the sniveling character and well deserved end to Hiyori’s suffering.
While the ‘Wano’ arc has been among the most exciting and complex in all of the “One Piece,” it has begun to wear out its welcome. Chapters like this one inject a much needed sense of urgency and resolution, as we move closer to a climax in this saga. This chapter also proves that Oda has many surprises in store, even this late in the story.
Final Verdict: Gear 5 out of 5 – “One Piece” is still the best and this chapter exemplifies that.
