One Piece Review - Alabasta
Today has been frustrating. I sat down, wrote like 750 words and just got to landing in Alabasta, only for my power to shut off for just long enough for all that work to be deleted forever. Then my wi-fi went in and out for the next 20 minutes, leaving this the 10th time I’ve written this introduction because I’m too stubborn to just write this in a word doc with auto-save. But internet has been consistent for a bit, so hopefully 12th time’s the charm. Because of that original setback, I am going to speedrun my review of the arcs before actually landing in Alabasta because I don’t want to write those all again. I’ll return to the longer review with the main meat of Alabasta.
Reverse Mountain- Good whale, good start. Log Poses are a very clever story element.
Whisky Peak- Entertaining overall, really starting the story of this saga. Nico Robin, the best Strawhat, is introduced.
Little Garden- I like Dorry and Brogy, Don’t care for the Baroque Works fight, ends very good though.
Drum Island- Didn’t care about Wapol, arc is carried by Chopper and Kureha carry my interest, which is enough to see it positively overall.
Finally we reach Alabasta proper. We get a short time with Ace, which is always welcome before we get some, as always, fantastic world building as the Strawhats travel deeper into the desert kingdom. Crocodile is a great villain, playing groups against each other and is notably different from Arlong, the last big villain. He obviously plans and schemes, wanting more than just physical power. This leads to our main fighters getting captured, rescued when Sanji continues being helpful in this arc but its not enough to make me like him. The fight with Luffy and Crocodile is pretty good, crocodile’s ability to not only become sand and attack with it, but also dehydrating people is pretty unique. As usual, our MC fails in their first fight, but he’s saved by the GOAT Nico Robin. With the war starting and the rebels and Baroque Works attacking, we get some good fights (except for Sanji) Zoro destroying some personal mental blocks through his. We get more of Crocodile’s style of business with one of his guys instigating the war even after a white flag as been raised. This leads into Luffy using some tactics to try and fight Crocodile again, soaking him with water to solidify his form before hitting him. Luffy doesn’t win here, which helps make the story feel that much more pressing, but finding Crocodile’s weakness makes victory seem possible. After some time-critical drama and a friend’s sacrifice, we get to the final battle between Luffy and Crocodile. Luffy goes full metal and uses his own blood to solidify Crocodile to hit him. Its a good battle, some give and take with the suspense of Luffy being poisoned. Eventually Luffy beats Crocodile with a grand set piece. The battle finally ends with the rain falling with Crocodile, symbolizing the end of trouble and a new age for Alabasta. While we say a heartfelt goodbye (for now) to Vivi, we also have an exciting introduction, having Luffy save her life when she wanted to die, the GOAT Nico Robin joins the strawhats. Our crew gets some growth and acheivments of their own, Nami’s new staff, Zoro’s first bounty, and Luffy knocked Crocodile out of his warlord seat.
Lets see where the story goes from here, as its only gotten better so far!
