One Piece, Vol. 45

The Straw Hat pirates have won the battle and returned with their allies to Water Seven, but the story hasn't finished yet. The loss of the Merry Go/Going Merry leaves the crew stranded. Matters with Usopp have yet to be resolved. And now Vice-Admiral Garp has arrived on the island, and with him comes a whole new set of revelations for the One Piece reader. I would bet money that at some point during the production of Water Seven, either Oda or one of his editors took a look at the ballooning scope of the arc and decided that it was time to cut to the chase and start putting more pieces of the overall mythology in place. Whatever the case may be, this volume is *packed* with revelations and surprises like they're being churned off an assembly line. In fact a lot of the recent volumes have felt like this - there's a more focused effort to involve the Straw Hats with the events of the greater One Piece World, and it's appreciated. There's *a lot* to spoil and a lot that will shock first-time readers. Without giving too much away - Shanks finally meets up with Whitebeard (ya know, the meeting setup back in One Piece, Vol. 25), Ace finally catches up to the traitorous Blackbeard, old friends re-appear, and Luffy learns more of his family lineage. Not to mention the new wanted posters are revealed (if you've been collecting the One Piece speed-up stickers, you know what the new bounties are), the Straw Hats obtain a new ship, and the much-needed position of shipwright is finally filled (three guesses as to who joins). I can probably stop the review right there, as if that doesn't entice One Piece readers to grab this, I don't know what will. I must mention a translation quirk though, one of the few real disappointments I've had in the recent volumes. A quick scene with Dragon labels him as the "World's Worst Criminal." Does anybody else find that a bit odd? If I called someone the "world's worst friend," that's nothing to brag about. A better translation should probably have been "The World's Greatest Criminal" or "World's Most Dangerous Criminal." You be the judge. That aside, it's another must- have game-changing volume. Stay tuned for Thriller Bark.