One Piece Vol. 38: Rocketman!!
- ISBN
- 9781421534541
- Publisher
- VIZ Media
- English release
- Pages
- 208
- Chapters
- 358–367
- Anime
- Season 8: Water Seven ep. 229–263
The Water Seven half of this arc closes here and the rescue begins, and it is not a clean place to stop. Chapters 358 to 367 put Robin, Franky and Usopp on a sea train bound for Enies Lobby, the government's judicial island, and everyone else on a second train behind it, through the flood the arc has been counting down to since Vol. 35. The city story genuinely ends in this book. The rescue it hands over does not: the next volume only gets the crew to the island. A reader stopping here stops with two trains on the same track and nothing settled, which is the worst available place in the run. Nothing here falls outside season 8, which stops at chapter 377. Viz prints it at 208 pages for $11.99.
Spoilers — why this volume matters. Tap to reveal.
Robin's reason is the reveal, and it reframes everything since Vol. 34: she went with the government to buy the crew's survival, having been told they would be destroyed otherwise, so the arc's problem stops being a rescue and becomes an argument about whether she is allowed to want to live. Everything else is logistics done well. Sanji boards the train alone and works forward through it, and the second train, the one the volume is named after, runs through the Aqua Laguna unimpeded. It is launched by people under no obligation to the Straw Hats at all: Galley-La's loyal workers, Franky's friends, and whoever chapter 364, 'Kokoro', is named for. The book closes on chapter 367, 'Sniper King', a title that answers the duel in Vol. 35 without undoing it. As an arc edge this is a hinge and not a stop: the city is finished, the island has not been reached, and the crew is mid-journey on the last page.
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Links on this page are affiliate links, which cost you nothing extra. They never influence what appears on this site or what the commentary says about it.