So it’s been a while since I’ve talked about manga on here. That’s because I’ve only been reading One Piece… yes I am behind on a lot of manga… but I’m up to date on One Piece! Also I was writing my manga stuff on my other blog giftruremeshablog.wordpress.com but it didn’t match the theme of that blog so I moved it back here.

I tend to read One Piece chapters in bulk, so five at a time as the cliff hangers get to me so it helps me to do it in fives or tens. I try to only let five chapters pile up because when I let ten pile up I get nervous that I’ve missed too much.

So let’s start I have a lot to talk about.

Lin Lin, her kind persona lasted only a little while. It’s a shame. Big Mom is back. But seeing her kind persona left me curious. Can we get some clear answers on what happened to her? I mean what killed her innocence? Did she realise what she’d done and lose it? I mean what snapped her personality? What turned her cold? I’m very curious.

Moving on my love for Luffy continues to grow. The thing I love about him the most is his optimism. First he sees being trapped in a prison as a chance to train and then in the recent chapters when the prisoners were depressed and told them how their spirit has been crushed to oblivion Luffy was like “Miss me with that bullshit”. He refuses to be negative and to let life beat him down, when life tries he beats it back. And he’s not just positive for himself, he lifts up others with his positivity. The only time he fell into depression was when Ace died but we don’t talk about that time (too emotional man). So yeah I love Luffy. Stay tuned for when I cosplay as him.

Then another person to give the prisoners hope was Momonosuke. In that moment I realised just how much weight they are putting on his shoulders. I mean, that is a heavy burden and he’s still so little. Child rulers always get me feeling like that but even more so with Momonosuke because he’s got to drag his country out of the dumb Kaido put it in. At least he has help though.

Last time I did an update on my YouTube channel I talked about Killer and Kidd. I’m glad to report they are free and out for BLOOOOOD. I don’t blame them to be honest. They did Killer dirty. Honestly I’m liking Kidd and Killer. Still want to know where the rest of his crew is but we’ll find out soon… right?

(By the way if you know the answers to my questions because you read updates straight away don’t answer me. I’ll catch up soon don’t worry.)

Ooh on a light note I have a new favourite laugh (kappa ppa ppa)! And it’s from the long awaited character Kawamatsu one of the nine red sheaths. I have been awaiting his reveal and I was not disappointed. He’s adorable and a sword fighting badass. I’ve been needing a sword fighting fix and I feel like I’m being blessed with this arc.

Also get you a friend like Raizo. Man came through.

Oh and something unexpected that happened was finding out that Kikunojo is a man but a woman at heart so he identifies as a woman. It was a plot twist that had me going back to see if I’d missed essential clues. Also I didn’t think Oda was progressive in that way to be inclusion of transgender narratives but from that chapter we can see that he is.

Now Ashura, his story got to me. He was one of those who was left behind. He kept the hope and he kept his men for ten years but they struggled! And they came to the conclusion that they’d rather die fighting than let the rulers break them. I just, he really tried. He really waited but seeing that must have broken him.

I’m glad they went back to him and bridged the gap because it would have been very easy to write Ashura as a one dimensional character but Oda gave him such depth and I’m glad for it.

It is hard to maintain hope in the face of such adversity. It is hard to maintain hope for twenty years, heck even five years. I feel like this is something that applies to real life too, at least I’ve experienced it. When things are going wrong it can be very hard to keep the faith, the hope. It’s a battle.

I love that One Piece always gets me thinking and that the story lines delve deep. To be honest it’s something I love about manga in general.

On another note can you believe One Piece has been around for twenty four years? I can’t. It’s almost as old as me. I haven’t read it since its beginning obviously as I was a baby but I’m here to the end. I wonder when Oda will finish it. I feel like we’re nearing the finish line but at the same time not. There is a lot that needs to happen before the story is finished.

I’ll see you next soon with my thoughts on the next five chapters!