One Piece Vol. 35: Captain
- ISBN
- 9781421534510
- Publisher
- VIZ Media
- English release
- Pages
- 192
- Chapters
- 328–336
- Anime
- Season 8: Water Seven ep. 229–263
Chapters 328 to 336, the book where the crew fights itself, and the book that introduces the storm the rest of the arc keeps time by. The Going Merry has been declared beyond saving, Luffy accepts the verdict and Usopp does not, and the volume is titled 'Captain' for what that disagreement turns into. Around it, an annual flood called the Aqua Laguna is announced as due, the owner of the city's shipyard is attacked, and Robin is named as the suspect. The storm is not weather: chapter 363, three volumes later, is named after it, and every deadline in the arc is set by it. The anime's eighth season covers chapters 321 to 377, so a viewer has been through this. It runs 192 pages and lists at $11.99.
Spoilers — why this volume matters. Tap to reveal.
Usopp challenges Luffy for the captaincy, loses, and leaves the crew, and the series refuses to write it as a misunderstanding. Both men are right: the Merry cannot be sailed, and the Merry is the ship that carried Usopp off his own island and the only one the crew has ever had, and Oda stages the duel so that winning it costs Luffy more than conceding would have. Nothing is patched up here. The other arrival is structural rather than human. The Aqua Laguna is introduced as an annual event with a date on it, and from this point the arc runs on a clock: the frame-up of Robin, the search for her and the escape all happen against a flood that is coming whether anyone is ready or not. Water Seven turns on the Straw Hats in the same volume, and the accusation against Robin is not entirely false, which is the part that makes the arc work. At 192 pages this is the shortest of the six books from Vol. 34 to Vol. 39.
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