NO! LUFFY!

321 came out from arlongpark early this morning and i would have been a disgrace if i had not downloaded it immediately.

luffy lost. in less than a chapter. that's a spoiler.

aokiji is hella crazy, the killer move that luffy used against crocodile, GOMU GOMU NO STORM, didn't do shit to aokiji, and instead luffy got frozen by aokiji's ICE TIME.









i bow down completely to eiichiro oda. on my knees. i have never read such a great manga; no doubt one piece will be a masterpiece, an epic equivalent to homer's iliad and virgil's aeneid. keep this in mind: one day, one piece will be read by many people worldwide and oda will be regarded as one of the world's greatest storyteller.

have you ever read those manga where the hero always wins, or if it seems impossible for him to win, he then transforms into some crazy shit that is just impossible? well, if you ever come across one, you know that's one manga to avoid, because it just doesn't make sense. the main character who started out as nothing, supernaturally making his way to the top by beating the people who are stronger than him, and he just never lost a fight. if you read tenjou tenge, you'll know what i'm talking about.

one piece suits my definition of a perfect storyline. every main character has their own ability, which is LIMITED. like luffy is limited to gomu gomu no mi, and obviously gomu gomu no mi is not the strongest akuma no mi. consider also the fact that it's a paramaeica type akuma no mi, which by itself practically stands no chance against logia type. luffy managed to defeat crocodile, who has suna suna no mi, a logia type fruit, by adding water to his gomu gomu. this is realistic, and even though luffy is the main character, he did not just simply win against crocodile, who was one of the shichibukai. luffy almost died in the first fight, until saved by nico robin and pell. then he came up with the idea of using water but again, LOST in the second fight. he did win in the third fight, but even this one, he almost died. i think the whole part of alabasta arc where luffy was fighting crocodile can total up to a volume by itself (if combined). be mindful that crocodile is arguably the weakest of all the shichibukai; his bounty is only 81M beri, compare that to donflamingo (340M beri) and bartholomew bear (296M beri), let alone mihawk (unknown bounty) who beat the crap out of zorro with a miniscule knife, and jinbei who we've never seen so far.

aokiji, who is one of the three supreme admirals of the marines, is definitely stronger than crocodile. the way it's presented in the story so far, the shichibukai (seven gods of pirates) is equivalent to the three supreme admirals plus the dai buddha, who is above the admirals. if it took luffy about 9-12 chapters to beat corocodile, with him losing twice along the way, it only makes sense for luffy to be defeated by aokiji. also, he just recovered from a fight with foxy. if luffy then wins against aokiji, then i'm afraid one piece is just going to turn out like tenjou tenge. but oda's a genius. not only he made luffy lost, he created a bunch of crap that shows how the straw hat crew isn't perfect, and how luffy is still weak if compared to a supreme admiral. besides, where's the whole fun if the storyline would be just for luffy to beat all seven shichibukai, blackbeard pirates, three supreme admirals, and dai buddha, then getting the one piece? it'll be plain boring; no storyline, just fighting. aokiji defeated luffy in less than a chapter, and he did not even show any emotions nor facial expressions when fighting luffy. it's like "no sweat. you're just like a bug." this shows how limited luffy's capabilities are. if he ends up beating the crap out of aokiji sometimes in the future chapter, it's gonna be one hell of a long arc.

this is by far the best chapter i've read in one piece. not only the weakness of luffy is exposed, but also the weakness of the crew. usopp got easily irritated after seeing robin got frozen, and the crew's three main fighters lost in one strike. then there's the conflict between usopp and sanji; usopp started yelling at sanji for leaving luffy alone to fight aokiji, but sanji defends himself saying that it's the captain's order. they get into a fight that usually occurs between crewmates when a crisis befalls them. and this one is obviously a huge crisis because aokiji completely made them look inferior, in a very short period of time also.





irrationality takes over people when things get really intense, no matter how wise they are. and this makes sense, because otherwise they would be completely perfect beings, which has been depicted often in many manga. flaws and weaknesses build up a character much faster than perfection and strength, and oda understands that more than anyone else.

as much as a laker fan is amazed at the game last night, it's still incomparable to my amazement with this one crazy japanese mofo, eiichiro oda.