Ah, Water 7. In my humble opinion, no arc in One Piece has surpassed it before or since.
This might be the one and only time in One Piece that genuine mystery forms an arc's backbone - coupled with the urban atmosphere of Water 7 (an atmosphere that rarely appears in the series, which generally seems to prefer more untamed, wilderness-filled environments) - it actually gives the whole shebang a Private Eye novel sort of feel. It also flirts heavily with the ideas of betrayal and conspiracy - after a while, you start to wonder, is there anyone in the great Water Metropolis that you can really trust? These themes don't pop up a whole lot (at least not to any meaningful degree) elsewhere in One Piece, so their presence here is most welcome - not just to provide deeper insights into the characters, but also to instill a very disquieting atmosphere. Note also that most of the action takes place at night, which is also rare for any One Piece arc.
As a long-time Detective Conan fan (okay, I've started to cool on it recently, but still), an even-longer time Batman fan, and a recent Sherlock Holmes fan, I approve.
I kinda felt that the thing lost steam once it got to Enies Lobby, since by then it just turned into a big batch of DBZ-style one-on-one fights with the requisite emotional outbursts. Realistically, I know that it couldn't be kept up forever, that eventually all the mysteries had to be brought to light (this is a Shonen manga, after all), but eh. A guy can dream.
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Date: 2014-02-11 07:03 am (UTC)This might be the one and only time in One Piece that genuine mystery forms an arc's backbone - coupled with the urban atmosphere of Water 7 (an atmosphere that rarely appears in the series, which generally seems to prefer more untamed, wilderness-filled environments) - it actually gives the whole shebang a Private Eye novel sort of feel. It also flirts heavily with the ideas of betrayal and conspiracy - after a while, you start to wonder, is there anyone in the great Water Metropolis that you can really trust? These themes don't pop up a whole lot (at least not to any meaningful degree) elsewhere in One Piece, so their presence here is most welcome - not just to provide deeper insights into the characters, but also to instill a very disquieting atmosphere. Note also that most of the action takes place at night, which is also rare for any One Piece arc.
As a long-time Detective Conan fan (okay, I've started to cool on it recently, but still), an even-longer time Batman fan, and a recent Sherlock Holmes fan, I approve.
I kinda felt that the thing lost steam once it got to Enies Lobby, since by then it just turned into a big batch of DBZ-style one-on-one fights with the requisite emotional outbursts. Realistically, I know that it couldn't be kept up forever, that eventually all the mysteries had to be brought to light (this is a Shonen manga, after all), but eh. A guy can dream.