usopp the brave warrior of the sea

arlongpark is still down, but yanime has the raw for 331.

captain panda has done the summary for 331, since stephen's host seems to be down due to bandwidth limit.

this chapter is another one i would rate 10 out of 10. oda-sama is again showing his mastery in storytelling by giving a twist that none of the readers could predict. apparently all the franky conflict was just a build-up to the inner-conflict between luffy and usopp about the fate of the going meri. so basically GM is not repairable because the keel is broken. the ship will have to be rebuilt, but even so, it won't be the same ship anymore. luffy didn't take the news quite well at first, and insisted that the shipwrights should just patch up GM so the crew can leave. but iceburg's words "i am disgusted, and you call yourself a captain?" hits the right spot and luffy starts to see that getting a new ship does not mean abandoning the old crewmate, but the old crewmate has its limit, and instead of grieving, they should bid it farewell with pride and express gratitude on the service it has loyally offered this whole time. usopp, however, is taking this news really hard. his shock is doubled with the disappointment that comes from the realization that he has no superhuman strength like luffy zoro or sanji.

in 331, oda-sama gives this crew the hardest trial of all: conflict between crewmates. throughout all 330 chapters, we see that the mugiwara kaizokudan always agrees on a decision, or has a little bickering but always manages to come up with a consensus that everyone agrees on. but now oda-sama seems to be playing a little soap-opera to get one piece out of the usual centered-around-fighting-only manga like dragonball. luffy already understands that he has to give up going meri for the better, and this doesn't mean leaving a friend behind, but usopp persists on not leaving the going meri, maybe there is more motive than just going meri being a crewmember? maybe because it is a gift from kaya? either way, luffy and usopp get into a big fight, up to the point where luffy makes an ultimatum that if usopp cannot accept the decision then usopp can just leave the crew, because he is in no position to judge how bad the damages of the going meri are. usopp, still persistent, then decides to leave the crew. not only that, but usopp wants going meri to be with him, and since GM still currently belongs to luffy, he challenges luffy to a duel.

truly, there has never been a manga in which the ending of the chapters leave the readers contemplating for a week about what will happen next. not even naruto. i get over the contemplating stage for naruto after a day or two. this one i will keep wondering until next friday.

i bow to the greatness of oda-sama. one piece is so going to be a literary masterpiece greater than homer's iliad and odyssey. or even virgil's aeneid. one day the students in revelle college, ucsd, will be reading hundreds of one piece volumes in their humanities class. wait, let me rephrase that: one day ucsd humanities department will have classes that study oda's masterpiece ONE PIECE. 5 quarters, GE requirement, must be taken for letter grade.

and i will be in front of the class, teaching with a big big smile.