One Piece Vol. 39: Scramble
- ISBN
- 9781421534558
- Publisher
- VIZ Media
- English release
- Pages
- 208
- Chapters
- 368–377
- Anime
- Season 8: Water Seven ep. 229–263; Season 9: Enies Lobby ep. 264–336
Chapters 368 to 377, and the volume in which the anime's eighth season ends. The train fight fills the first half, the second half puts the crew at the gates of Enies Lobby, and the series changes what it is fighting: up to here the Straw Hats have taken on pirates, island tyrants and one self-appointed god, and from the last chapter here they are taking on the World Government on ground it built. Season 9 starts before this book ends, and its episode 265 takes its title from chapter 377, the last chapter here, so a viewer who has finished season 8 should finish this book before Vol. 40. 208 pages, $11.99 at list.
Spoilers — why this volume matters. Tap to reveal.
This is where the series picks its permanent opponent. The conflicts before Enies Lobby have been local, each of them contained on one island and answered by beating one person, the self-appointed god of Skypiea included. What begins at the end of this book is directed at the World Government as an institution, on a judicial island it built for the purpose, and the fight is with a system rather than with a landlord. Robin refuses to be rescued when they reach her, which is the point the arc keeps making: the crew is not recovering a possession, it is arguing with somebody who has decided she is not worth what she costs. Chapter 373 is titled 'Necessary Evil' and chapter 371 is 'The Honorable Captain T-Bone', and the two together are the arc's thesis printed on a contents page. Viz shipped this stretch of the run five volumes a month, and this one landed on 6 April 2010 with four others rather than by itself.
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