One Piece Volume 26 cover image is courtesy of barnesandnoble.com.

Rated “T” for Teen

Monkey D. Luffy wanted to be a pirate ever since he was a child.  However, the enchanted “Devil Fruit” gave Luffy the ability to stretch like rubber, while taking away his ability to swim.  Undeterred, Luffy set out to sea and enlisted a motley crew: Zolo the master swordsman; Nami the treasure-hunting thief; Usopp, the lying sharpshooter; Sanji the high-kicking chef; Chopper, the walkin’ talkin’ reindeer doctor; and newcomer, Nico Robin.  Together, they travel on their ship, the Merry Go, searching for the legendary treasure known as “One Piece.”

In One Piece, Vol. 26 (entitled Adventure on Kami’s Island), the crew finally makes it to the legendary ocean in the sky, but this new world is not the angelic paradise they expected.  This strange place is filled with even stranger creatures and beings, and there’s also a toll for entering the kingdom of Skypiea.  When they unknowingly start breaking Skypiea laws and violating sacred places, the crew incurs the wrath of Kami Eneru.

THE LOWDOWN:  Starting this month, VIZ Media is accelerating the publication of One Piece, with five new volumes published each month into June 2010.  In fact five volumes (24-28), the first five volumes of the Skypiea storyline, will be published January 5th.  This is similar to what VIZ Media did with Naruto in 2009.

Volume 25 of One Piece was quite exciting, as the reader got to follow as the crew of Merry Go finished its obstacle-filled mission on the island of Jaya and then began the perilous journey to the “Knock Up Stream” that would take Merry Go into the clouds to Sky Island.  After all the page-turning excitement generated previously, Vol. 26 is something of a letdown.  The art by creator Eiichiro Oda, which is like a blending of Jack Cole’s Plastic Man comic book stories and Neat Stuff-era Peter Bagge, remains a joy to behold, if for no other reason than its inventiveness.  In spite of imaginatively designed places and things, this time around, One Piece’s manic energy ebbs.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Young readers who like the Pirates of the Caribbean movies will almost certainly like One Piece.

B