One Piece Graphic Novel Volume 83 cover image

Monkey D. Luffy once ate the enchanted “Devil Fruit” and gained the ability to stretch like rubber, but lost the ability to swim.  Undeterred, Luffy set out to sea and, in time, became known as “Straw Hat” (because of his straw hat).  Gradually, he enlisted a motley crew, and Luffy and company became known as the “Straw Hat pirates.”  The Straw Hats sail the high seas aboard their ship, the Thousand Sunny, searching for the legendary treasure known as “One Piece.”  And Luffy still wants to be the “King of the Pirates”

As One Piece, Vol. 83 (entitled Emperor of the Sea, Charlotte Linlin; Chapters 828 to 838) opens, the Straw Hat wedding day nears.  WTF!!  Straw Hat pirate Sanji is being forced to marry Charlotte Pudding, the 35th daughter of Charlotte Linlin, a.k.a. “Big Mom,” the captain of the “Big Mom Pirates.”  The Straw Hats infiltrate Big Mom's fortress, "Whole Cake Island."  But on the southwest coast of Whole Cake Island is “the Seducing Woods,” a place from which Luffy, Nami, Tony Tony Chopper, and their new ally, Carrot, may never leave.

THE LOWDOWN:  The One Piece manga seems to roll ever on with new characters, places, plots, and concepts.  Creator Eiichiro Oda is probably the most imaginative and inventive comics creator working today in the entire world.

One Piece Graphic Novel Volume 83 moves the action onto Whole Cake Island, scene of the wedding that must never be, but must be.  I am enjoying the trap that is “The Seducing Woods,” and Luffy and company are in genuine peril.  Big Mom is a real-deal villainess who is ruthless to the extreme.  Plus, I think readers will enjoy seeing Sanji's no-good family and getting a little backstory.  As always, One Piece remains one of the most imaginative manga we have.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Readers looking for the ultimate pirate manga/comic book will find it in the Shonen Jump title, One Piece.

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8 out of 10