One Piece Vol. 53: Natural Born King
- ISBN
- 9781421534695
- Publisher
- VIZ Media
- English release
- Pages
- 216
- Chapters
- 513–522
- Anime
- Season 11: Sabaody Archipelago ep. 382–407; Season 12: Amazon Lily ep. 408–421
Chapters 513 to 522, and the book where the anime boundary lands on its first chapter rather than anywhere convenient. Season 11 runs from chapter 490 to chapter 513, so it ends where this volume begins, and its last two episodes, 406 and 407, adapt nothing from the manga. Season 12 opens at chapter 514, the second chapter here. A viewer arriving from Sabaody has already seen one chapter of this book and has nine waiting behind it. What is in those nine is Luffy on his own, on an island where men are not permitted to land, with the crew scattered by Kuma and out of reach. Box Set 3 holds volumes 47 to 70 at $254.99, against $287.76 for the twenty-four singles.
Spoilers — why this volume matters. Tap to reveal.
The first chapter finishes the defeat that organizes the next eight books: Kuma takes each Straw Hat in turn, and the crew does not stand together again until Vol. 61. Everything after it is Luffy alone, which the series has not tried at this length. Amazon Lily is played mostly for comedy: Boa Hancock turns his new friends to stone and sentences him to be executed, then falls in love with him when he asks only that they be released. It ends with the news that Portgas D. Ace lost his fight with Blackbeard and is to be executed by the World Government, and with Luffy asking Hancock to take him to Impel Down. That request, rather than the war it leads to, is the decision the next seven volumes are built on. Chapter 519 gives the book its English title.
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