In this volume Robin takes more of the stage, Luffy has his standard...well, I guess foreplay with the arc's boss before the proper section of the main battle between them. The rest of the team keeps everyone else alive from an immediate threat in the meanwhile--after all, Luffy can't be present during these type of crises. That's not how this world works. And Luffy can't have a boss battle until after everyone else saves the day a few times--so the reader is never under the delusion that Luffy is the truest and only hero, and everyone else really is just as important. Luffy is just a trump card. Ah, good stuff in this part of the story. ( )

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Title: Hope!!
Series: One Piece #22
Arc: Baroque Works #11
Author: Eiichiro Oda
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga
Pages: 188
Words: 8K

Synopsis:

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

"1"

"The Leaders"

"4:15 p.m."

"Hope!!"

"Water Luffy"

"Nico Robin"

"The Royal Mausoleum"

"Crocodile-ish"

"Red"

"The Sand-Sand Band's Secret Fort"

Despite his agents' defeats, Crocodile is still confident that his plans to take over the kingdom are nearing fruition. With Alabasta embroiled in a civil war of his own design, Crocodile needs only to destroy both warring parties in one fell swoop to take control of the country. Knowing that a cannon is the most practical way of fulfilling this purpose, Nefertari Vivi and the Straw Hat Pirates try to find its hiding place before it is too late. Meanwhile, Crocodile searches for Pluton, forcing King Cobra to lead him and Nico Robin to an ancient stone called a Ponegliff underneath the castle. But when Nico Robin says the Ponegliff has no information on the Plulton, Crocodile tries to kill her and escape before his cannon is fired. Monkey D. Luffy, having recovered and learned from their previous encounter, engages Crocodile in battle.

My Thoughts:

Now, with LESS Vivi. Oh thank goodness. She and Sir Crocodile have a little dialogue back and forth and I actually found myself agreeing with him simply because I disliked Vivi so much. Ughh, I don't like being in that position.

Everybody is pretty much kung-fu fighting everybody else and the Navy gets involved helping the Straw Hats pirates and the Loyalists and the Rebels try to reconcile all the while the forces of Baroque Works are causing chaos and destruction AND there is supposed to be a bomb that goes off at 4:30pm which will leave a crater 3miles wide.

Luffy ends up fighting Sir Crocodile AGAIN while everybody else looks for the bomb or the mechanism to set it off. We get a smidgeon of back story on Nico Robin, the infamous Ms All Sunday who while being Sir Crocodiles #1 helper has also helped the Straw Hats in previous volumes. The following picture pretty much sums up the kerfluffle between Crocodile and Luffy.

The volume ends with Luffy and Crocodile having their final showdown and about 30seconds before the big bomb goes off. Oh no, the suspense is KILLING me. Hohohoho....

★★★★☆ ( )