- Entertaining lies can even help someone form hopes and dreams. Lies that are meant to hurt others are dishonorable. (kinda already said in vol. 3)
-"... in that era, everyone uses their lives to fight for their dreams. For an enemy, when their dream is shattered, it is the same as losing a fight, and as painful as death. I believe, for a pirate not to kill an enemy, it's giving them a 2nd chance to fight for their dreams." (this was in the Q&A, not even part of the story)
-A crew always sticks together! They get shit done!
-Guts will take you a long way! ( )

One Piece is like a video game. There's multiple enemies and they all have their unique traits that force the protagonists to strategize. But then we add chaos. Someone is incapacitated, someone who normally doesn't fight has to fight, another enemy appears, everyone is stretched thin, new people overcome their fears and join, some environmental situation presses everything against the clock. Then, of course, something silly happens--so silly you don't even recognize as a deus ex machina until you reflect on it later, and even later realize it wasn't because in addition to aiding the hero it aided another situation that was bad for the hero. This is One Piece, and this is the Black Cat Pirate fight. ( )

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Title: Black Cat Pirates
Series: One Piece #4
Arc: East Blue Part 4
Author: Eiichiro Oda
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga
Pages: 211
Words: 8K

Synopsis:

From Wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_One_Piece_chapters_(1_186)

Chapter List:

"True Lies"

"Crescent Moon"

"Uphill Battle"

"Backfire"

"Truth"

"Cruel Fortune"

"The Creeping Cat"

"A Humble Servant"

"The Steep Slope"

Usopp fails to convince the villagers of the impending pirate invasion, but when he decides to prevent the raiding party from reaching them he is joined by the Straw Hat Pirates. They spend the night in preparation, planning to stop the Black Cat Pirates on the coast. However, they pick the wrong side of the village to protect; when they realize their mistake, they have to hurry to reach the other coast. The fight goes well, although they are unprepared and greatly outnumbered. Kuro, angered by the raiding party's delay, appears on the battlefield; so does Kaya, in a futile attempt to negotiate a compromise.

My Thoughts:

Oh I enjoyed this. Luffy's a stoner if there ever was one, without actually being a stoner. He's dumb but not stupid and can be quite intelligent when he chooses to be. He also typifies the Ideal of One Man against the World, and winning. I really like that ideal and I suspect it is a big part of why this manga appeals to me. Plus, the humor is just absolutely whacko and right up my alley. Much like the comments section on 4 or 5 blogs I'm involved with, you just never know where the manga-ka Oda is going to go but when he does, I laugh out loud.

This was on the track of being a 5star read because it was so light and fluffy and funny. The the sick girl Kaya got involved. There was some serious eye rolling happening on my part when she tries to appeal to Kuro, her butler slash pirate captain, and his “better nature”. There was also multiples “Question & Answer” pages which really disrupted the flow of the story. While they were between chapters, they were inane enough that it made me wonder if the manga-ka made them up, because if they were real questions, then the questioners were outright pathetic.

Finally, I just don't care for the character Usopp. I don't like his character and I don't like his artwork. The “big lipped” look has never appealed to me and kind of makes me cringe. I remember my first introduction to that style of character was from the Tenchi in Tokyo anime and I've never yet gotten to like it.

The pictures between chapters continue to amuse me greatly. This one is Luffy, Zorro and Nami “mecha”nized and stomping through Tokyo. Where does Oda come up with these ideas? I have no idea but I am loving every second of it :-D

★★★★☆ ( )

Usopp, Nami, Zorro og Ruffy forsvarer landsbyen mod Kaptajn Django og Black Cat banden. Usopp er skiftevis fej og modig. Django hypnotiserer sin bande til at have superkræfter efter at de er besejrede i første omgang. Han kommer dog også til at hypnotisere Ruffy og så får hele banden virkelig bank. Miss Kaya opdager at Beauregard er en pirat og at hun har gjort Usopp uret. Hun dukker op midt i opgøret mellem Ruffy, Zorro, Usopp og hans lille drengebande Løg, Paprika og Gulerod på den ene side og Django, Black og Samson og Siam Mjav på den anden side.

Godt tænkt og skrevet mangategneserie ( )