One Piece Vol. 4: The Black Cat Pirates
- ISBN
- 9781591163374
- Publisher
- VIZ Media
- English release
- Pages
- 208
- Chapters
- 27–35
- Anime
- Season 1: East Blue ep. 1–61
Chapters 27 to 35, and the first arc in One Piece whose villain is running a scheme rather than a raid. Kuro's Black Cat Pirates are coming for Usopp's village, the villagers do not believe a word he says, and the Straw Hats spend the night preparing a defense on the coast. The register changes here. Buggy wanted a treasure and had a devil fruit; Kuro took a post as a butler in order to have a sick heiress killed for her estate, and the crew on the beach is carrying out an instruction. 208 pages, and the first chapter is titled 'True Lies'. Season 1 of the anime covers chapters 1 to 100, so all of it is adapted. By our arithmetic on the chapter ranges the Omnibus Edition puts this volume at the front of book 2; Viz names contents for book 1 only.
Spoilers — why this volume matters. Tap to reveal.
The volume spends its length on a mistake. The crew fortifies the wrong side of the village, realizes it, and has to run the length of the place to reach the coast the raid is actually landing on, then fights outnumbered and out of position. That is a long way from the captain-against-captain duels of the first three books, and it is the first time the series makes competence rather than power the thing in doubt. Kuro comes down to the beach himself because his crew is late, and Kaya arrives to offer him a settlement, which fails. Chapter 31 is titled 'Truth' and chapter 32 'Cruel Fortune'. Nothing is resolved here: the fight with Kuro runs into Vol. 5, and the reason the arc exists at all, which is that the crew needs a ship and Usopp needs somewhere to go, is paid off there rather than in this book.
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