Not much happens in this volume. It's just Luffy coming of age into a badass. I always felt like this was his first battle that he truly had to dig deep and appreciate what type of challenges he was going to have to go through to reach his dream. In Luffy terms, this is the first step to growing up--not that Luffy will be "grown up" by any definition other than one directly tied to his own pattern and path. The team leaves Alabasta to start a new chapter that will, frankly (haha, Frank'y), will have a lot of elements setting up the rest of the series. East Blue arcs were a preamble and Crocodile's arcs were a transition period. The real story starts at the end of the horizon set in this volume. ( )

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Title: Vivi's Adventure
Series: One Piece #23
Arc: Baroque Works #12
Author: Eiichiro Oda
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga
Pages: 229
Words: 10K

Synopsis:

From Wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_One_Piece_chapters_(187_388)

"Ignition"

"Nightmare"

"Guardian Spirit"

"I Will Defeat You"

"Zero"

"King"

"Some Justice"

"V.I.P."

"Strategy to Escape the Sand Kingdom"

"Last Waltz"

"Vivi's Adventure"

The cannon is hidden in the clock tower overlooking the capital city, and the Straw Hat Pirates frantically try to reach it before it is fired. In the final moments the cannon is stopped, Luffy finally defeats Crocodile, and uses the last of his energy to save King Cobra and Nico Robin. Most importantly, it begins to rain, ending the civil war and the drought that caused it. Crocodile and his agents are arrested, and the Straw Hats collapse. Alabasta tends to their wounds and celebrates them as heroes. But as pirates, they are criminals, and are forced to flee the country in secret to avoid arrest. Bon Clay distracts the Marines to allow the Straw Hats to say farewell to Vivi, and they set sail for their next adventure.

My Thoughts:

Alabasta is saved and more importantly, Vivi stays behind as the princess so the crew (and by that I mean me) don't have to deal with her any more. Thank goodness.

★★★✬☆ ( )

The conclusion to the Alabasta story arc and the Baroque Works saga.

It was when I first finished reading the conclusion to this arc and saga way back when, that I realized just how this series could be one of epic proportions. Instead of just a series of random slapstick event of the week, One Piece gave us definite proof that a shonen series could be of fun adventure and great travails. It was with this, that One Piece soon became one of the most popular comic properties (both anime and manga wise) of Japan.

Let the good time roll, and next stop: Skypiea. ( )