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Title: Hiruluk’s Cherry Blossoms
Series: One Piece #17
Arc: Baroque Works #6
Author: Eiichiro Oda
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga
Pages: 207
Words: 9K
| Synopsis: |
From Wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_One_Piece_chapters_(1_186)
“Battle to Defend the Kingdom”
“Frauds”
“Unbreakable”
“Rumble!!”
“Royal Drum Crown 7-Shot Tin Tyrant Cannon”
“The Skies of Drum”
“Full Moon”
“Hiruluk’s Cherry Blossoms”
“To Alabasta”
“Sir Crocodile, the Pirate”
Luffy, Sanji and Chopper fight Wapol and his henchmen, Chess and Kuromarimo. Wapol uses his devil-fruit power to become a cannon-armed house and fuses his men into the two-headed, four-armed Chessmarimo. Sanji’s back aches, keeping him from fighting. Chopper takes a drug he calls Rumble Ball, and defeats Chessmarimo. Wapol sneaks into the castle and chases Nami. Luffy catches up to them as Wapol attempts to open the weapon storage. Unable to do so because Nami has taken his key, Wapol retreats to his cannon at the top of the castle. The cannon does not work, and Luffy sends him flying off the island. Luffy tries to persuade Chopper to join the crew, and the reindeer finally agrees. With a doctor aboard, the crew continues its journey to Alabasta.
| My Thoughts: |
Another solid entry in this manga series. I feel like I’ve really made the right choice in making One Piece my #MangaMonday destination.
Part of my enjoyment is that the manga-ka believes in his characters and as such, not only invites us the readers to believe in them, but drags us along kicking and screaming, MAKING us believe in them. Which is completely necessary, for if you read these with a jaundiced and jaded view, you’ll see nothing but manipulative emotional panels, pointless powerups and insane craziness. Oda realizes that for this to work, the reader must be involved willingly in the suspension of belief. He also realizes that he has to give his readers a good story to grease the wheels of unbelief, so to speak. It’s a bit of give and take and I think you have to come to this series expecting to do some “giving”. If you can’t do that, I am not sure this series would work for you.
This volume wraps up the Snow Island story arc and the Alabasta arc can begin in earnest. I am hoping Princess Vivi can start being a contributing member now, as so far she’s really pretty useless in terms of skill set. I don’t necessarily want her to be an overpowered fighting machine, but Nami isn’t but her skill as a thief and navigator offset that completely. As a character, Vivi has some growth to do if she’s going to be interesting in the long term.
Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road 
How come it says this is the Baroque Works story arc and you call it Snow Island? Are they the same thing? I have a hard time imagining what Baroque Works might refer to. Why is it called One Piece anyway?
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Going backwards here:
1) One Piece is the ultimate treasure that allows a pirate to be King of the Pirates. That’s all we readers know at this point
2)Baroque Works is a secret agency made up of powerful people who are being led by one of the 7 Pirate Captains. Not sure exactly what their end goal is.
3) There are story arcs within story arcs. You have the biggest and broadest story arc of Luffi trying to find the One Piece and become King of the Pirates. Under that you have the story arcs like EastBlue or Baroque Works. Which deal with a large story about a villain or an area of the world. Then under those you have the story arcs that deal with the immediate, like Snow Island. Confused yet? 🙂
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Ah, it’s just boxes inside boxes inside boxes.
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Exactly. Or circles really, perhaps even ovals if we’re feeling generous….
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Wish I had a devil-fruit power. 😉
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Me too!
I get up some mornings and just wish that type of thing were even a possibility 🙂
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Is it a reindeer? I couldn’t tell if it was just a hat with antlers…
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He’s a reindeer that ate the man-man fruit. So he can transform into a humanoid.
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No further questions. the prosecution rests.
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And you are judged guilty.
Sentence: Watch a movie every day, no matter how bad, and be forced to review it for clowns who will do nothing but make fun of you.
ohhhhhhh snaaaaap! 😉
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You’re definitely going to get more out of Princess Vivi in the upcoming stories, that’s for sure! Even with what comes, I wasn’t that too enamoured by what she brought to the table…
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Well poop. I figured she’d be involved since we’re dealing with Alabasta but I was hoping it would be a small part.
I don’t mind spoilers, so I have to know, does she stick with the crew after the Baroque Works cycle finishes or can I look forward to leaving her behind in Alabasta?
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As far as I know, you’ll only be done with her after the whole Arabasta Saga, which seemed to go on forever from my experience hahah I was quite glad when I got through that whole story arc…
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Well, I am girding up my loins then. I guess one has to suffer for the stories they love 😦
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I look forward to seeing how you fare with the upcoming story arc. It has its ups and down for me but I think the pacing needed to be cranked up a bit more for me; I was quickly drifted away by other manga I was reading at the time hahah
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