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Title: Davy Back Fight
Series: One Piece #33
Arc: Water Seven #2
Author: Eiichiro Oda
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga
Pages: 227
Words: 10K
Luffy and his Straw Hats run into another pirate gang and end up playing three rounds of Davy Back Fight. The winner of each round can pick a crew member from the loser’s crew and make them part of the winner’s crew. The captain of the other pirates ate the slow-slow fruit and can shoot slow-beams that make people hit by it slow down. Fights ensue and poor Chopper (the reindeer doctor) gets passed back and forth like a bag of peanuts. The final fight comes down to Luffy and Captain Foxy. It’s a boxing match between pirate captains who both have gum-gum powers. Of course the volume ends before a winner emerges.
I must say, this was just over the top silly and I loved it. Captain Foxy isn’t a psychopathic killer, but more of a bumbling ne’erdowell who cheats outrageously every chance he gets.
I also noticed the length. At 227 pages, it “felt” long compared to the single issue comics I have been reading for the last couple of months. I think 200 pages is pretty optimal, as I didn’t have this same feeling with Fullmetal Alchemist #1, which clocked in just under 190 pages. I guess I’ve lost my manga edge and it will take a little bit to sharpen me back up 😀
Now, I mentioned over the top silly and I think the following picture exemplifies that: (remember to read the panels from right to left)
Luffy is wearing an afro wig because Usopp tells him it will make his punches more powerful. That idea is played with for the rest of the fight and random pirates will ask “did the Afro make him more powerful?” in all seriousness. There were a couple of pages I was considering, but the above seemed to be the best one to get it all together in one page. And come on, how can you not laugh at at? Hahahahahahaaha 😀
★★★✬☆
Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road 
What are gum-gum powers?
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They are powers conferred to the user by eating various gum-gum fruits.
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Was it so long because they ate the slow slow fruit? Is that the same as the gum gum fruit? Did they meet Jacob Two-Two?
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The slow-slow fruit is a specific devil fruit. I just realized I messed up my terms. It should have been “devil fruit” and not gum gum fruit. Gum gum fruit is also a specific devil fruit and it is what makes Luffy able to stretch like rubber.
I don’t think Jacob tutu shows up.
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Ah, that makes perfect sense. Does it have its own Magic card?
Jacob Two-Two is a real (fictional) character. But I don’t know if he’s very well known outside of these parts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Two-Two
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Well, considering that magic now has a string of products called “Universes Beyond” where they adapt other franchises to the magic game mechanics (they have a Warhammer 40k version, Lord of the Rings is on the way. They’ve done the Walking Dead and Street Fighter too), it wouldn’t surprise me one bit to see something like that happen 😦
I have never heard of him. I’m guessing he’s a hidden canadian gem…
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Are Devil fruits a good thing then?
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I would say so. They give out powers and the only drawback appears to be that you can’t swim anymore and sink like a stone. Not much of a drawback if you ask me (even if you want to be a pirate).
Not sure why the manga-ka decided to call them devil fruits though. That has a definite bad connotation and so far, I’m just not seeing any downsides…
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I love that page you chose to show. Would you agree it pretty much sums up the bonkers-ness and crazy fun that Manga can deliver?
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So far, for the 33 volumes I’ve read for One Piece, this picture really sums up the manga-ka’s attitude towards it all 😀
And I am loving it, hahahahaa.
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No wonder it is officially the best selling manga of all time. After a quick check, One Piece is listed as having sold approx. “516.6 million tankobon volumes.” And that doesn’t include all the chapter published in Weekly Shonen Jump!
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Those are some impressive numbers!
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This filler story wasn’t exactly what I wanted after that long arc but I think this must’ve worked better for you because you coincidentally also went on a break hahah
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Yeah, this stuff is hitting my funny bone again. And I was struggling before.
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I’d have started reading this manga if I knew it had an ending… As it is, I’m willing to wait! 😉
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Well, I only found out it had an “proposed” ending very recently, so we’ll see what actually happens. By the time I get there though, it had BETTER be done though 🙂
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Hi there ^^ (And a happy new year – I guess as long it’s still January I can say that without it’s kinda weird)
So, you are back with One Piece now, that’s great!
I read much of your other reviews and posts, too, but I really never knew what I could write there…
And cannot read your FMA reviews, unfortunately, since I want to read it someday and don’t want to know the story before that.
However, long before, I was pretty curious what you will say to this volume – or better this arc – since it is pretty controversial in the community if it is a good or a very bad plot.
Well, after all, this is the only storyline in this manga series I really dislike, because there are some aspects in the concept of the Davy Back Fight, that doesn’t make much sense in my opinion. Hm.
Complaining about something doesn’t make sense in a series like One Piece is kind of paradox…
Well, but I guess, I found this arc funny when I watched it the first time in anime. Back then I thought this was an anime-original filler and the short arc before that (which is actually the anime-original filler) would be find in the manga.
But yes, the picture you chose is really funny. And silly. I like how we find this kind of humor through the whole series.
So, I guess, you will read One Piece and FMA alternately?
~ Misaki
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Yep, until january 31, I am a-okay with happy new years 😀
No worries about commenting. Commenting should be a function of fun and comfort and I’d rather you just comment on the manga posts if that’s where you are comfortable 🙂
One of the good things about not being part of the anime community any more is that I am not swayed by hype or negatism and can make up my own mind about stuff in stories. That’s not a slam on the community, but it is just how it goes.
As for stuff making sense, yeah, i pretty much tossed my brain for this arc because the other pirates are cheating like crazy but they are the ones making the calls. Why weren’t the straw hats rotating through as ref’s too? Sadly, this kind of thing happens enough in real life that I’ve just come to accept it in entertainment.
But that afro was pure genius for comedic value, that’s for sure 😀
I will be reading one volume of each each month. I thought about trying to do more, but life has been extremely stressful and rough this month (I’ll be talking about that at the end of the month) and so I’m pretty much winging everything.
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Hi there ^^
Okay, good to know then. Some people around me feel strange when they say that around January 10th or something like that…
Well, I’m also not in the anime and manga community online (using social media is something I never got used to). What I tell about the community are just things I notice when I make a deeper research for something in One Piece. ^^”
But yes, I agree, being part of the community would end for me in being influenced by hypes or – worse for me – shitstorms. I’m happy with being outside the community and just talking with my friends about the newest chapters.
Yes, that is one point that is kinda strange in this arc. The most unlogical aspect of this arc is for me that it goes very contrary to the image of pirates that this manga shows. I mean: If you get your crew members by cheating in a game that are no pirates you can rely to in a worst case scenario. If something happens they would more likely to abandon the crew than if they had joined voluntarily.
And when I remember right, this is the only crew in the series which works that disfunctional. In every other crew – even the evil enemy crews – the members follow the captain for more or less good reasons but they never were forced to join the crew.
Okay, so you have a total of two mangas each month… good to know then ^^
And hen I calculate how many months this will take by now, I’m sure the series will end before you catch up… xD
~ Misaki
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I am hoping in march to increase to two of each series. I’d like to make wednesdays my manga day, just like thursday is my comics day now. Mainly because I’ve done those same calculations and maaaaaaaaaan, I’d like to get through things little quicker, hahahaha 😀
But it is all going to depend on how February goes and how mrs b is doing.
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