The 100 Million Berry Man (One Piece #25) ★★★✬☆

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: The 100 Million Berry Man
Series: One Piece #25
Arc: Skypiea #2
Author: Eiichiro Oda
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga
Pages: 208
Words: 9K

Synopsis:

From Wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_One_Piece_chapters_(187_388)

"Noland the Liar"

"Mont Blanc Cricket, the Last Boss of the Monkey Mountain Allied Force"

"Let's Eat"

"Pursue the South Bird!"

"Bellamy the Hyena"

"The 100 Million Berry Man"

"The World's Greatest Power"

"Please Remember"

"The Knock Up Stream"

"The Ship Sails to the Sky"

The Straw Hats meet with Mont Blanc Cricket, a descendant of the first person to discover Skypiea. Though Skypiea is widely believed to be a myth, and Cricket's ancestor was a liar, he searches for evidence that can confirm Skypiea's existence. Over the years he has come to believe that Skypiea, once a part of Jaya, was launched into a cloud by a powerful upward current of water. If the Straw Hats want to reach Skypiea they will need to ride that same current, but must first locate a special bird that will help them find their way. While Luffy and company go searching for the bird, Bellamy attacks and robs Cricket in an attempt to crush his dreams of finding Skypiea. Enraged to learn this, after returning with the bird, Luffy seeks out and defeats Bellamy to recover Cricket's belongings. Cricket thanks him, and the Straw Hats leave to ride the current to Skypiea.

My Thoughts:

This was pretty good. Luffy suddenly is overpoweringly strong and pretty much beats the stuffing out of Bellamy with one punch. I have to admit, it felt like the manga-ka wanted to move on and the quickest way was to have Bellamy simply defeated. Thankfully, so much else was going that it didn't drag the volume down.

The whole sky stream to Skypiea was quite engaging. It was funny seeing the crew trying to find the South Bird and I must admit, the manga-ka really manages to balance the serious with the utterly ridiculous. How he does it so perfectly, without one overpowering the other is beyond me but I never feel like a scene is ever too serious or too ridiculous. (I know, I know, we're talking about pirates on an imaginary world with super powers but still, you know...)

Overall, this series continues to keep me entertained volume after volume. It is impressive and I can see why this has kept on going and going in Japan. This is one series I would unreservedly recommend with the caveat that this genre might not work for everyone.

★★★✬☆

• All My "One Piece" Reviews