Created by Eiichiro Oda. Written by Jun Esaka. Illustrated by Sayaka Suwa. Released in Japan by Jump Books. Released in North America by Viz Media. Translated by Stephen Paul.
Given the extreme shortness of the book, and my struggles with the first volume, I was a bit worried I would have even less to say about this one. But it’s honestly not that bad! You could argue that Shanks takes over Uta’s story the way that Koza took over Vivi’s, but unlike Vivi’s story Uta is present and correct throughout, so I think it’s fine. It’s also, with one obvious exception that the author can’t do much about, a bit better at showing off these are cool, admirable characters who are not the type to go nuts over a man or to trip while running and break a heel. (The exception is Boa Hancock, and it’s not a surprise that I find that story the weakest, but that’s Oda’s fault, not the author’s.) Even the last story, which is about Nami getting upset about a tiny zit on her face, is sympathetic towards her love of her own beauty and how she uses it.
As with the previous book, there are five short stories. 1) On the island of Amazons, one of their number who had been missing for two years returns, heavily pregnant. Now she has to be interrogated by Hancock… but does not realize what has happened to Hancock in the interim; 2) Smoker and Tashigi’s boat needs repairs, so they land on a tiny island which is beset by small-time pirates. Meanwhile, Tashigi befriends a young girl who wants to become a swordswoman, but who doesn’t like Tashigi’s self-deprecation; 3) The four non-Sanji siblings commandeer a ship, but forget to have a cook on board. Aside from Reiju, the POV character, they all try to cook and then give up. Once they get to their destination, Reiju learns how hard cooking can be; 4) Shanks and an Uta who is about 3-4 years old go ashore when she can’t sleep, and end up going on a shopping spree, where Shanks tries to tell Uta what “peas and tancrillity” is without telling her too much about himself; 5) As noted above, Nami finds a pimple and gets upset, and the others try to help her out.
The Hancock story relies on Hancock being a) horny and b) dumb as a rock, so I wasn’t a fan. The Tashigi story is much better. Her tiny charge is happy to learn from Tashigi till she admits she’s much weaker than other swordsmen out there, whereupon the kid is like “oh, well, you suck then”. After getting captured (natch), Tashigi is able to show that while she can’t take on the sword powerhouses of the series, she’s still really strong in general. It also has her, again, reflecting on what the navy is supposed to do. The Reiju story is the most character driven of the four, being entirely an excuse to remind us that she’s the nice one of the siblings and also the only one who is vaguely sensible. Shanks and Uta’s story requires you to have seen the Red movie, but really, who picks up a One Piece novel and hasn’t seen Red? (Stop looking at me like that.) The Nami story shows that, even though it’s about something like a pimple, everyone knows that her appearance is important to her and no one really makes fun of her at all except to note they can barely see it. And Robin is 100% in her corner.
So a definite must for One Piece fans, and for casuals who know the series, pick up a copy of Red as well.
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