Apparently the chapter hasn’t really been finished and it was published with some pages in rough draft? I don’t know anything more about it. Anyway, what did you all though of it?
Also the chapter deserves a CW for
CW
mention of SA
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spoilers also CW:SA
Gonna be honest I don’t think Ginny’s story was handled very well in this one. It’s a character we barely known for two chapters, and then we learn she got SA’d and died shortly after. Kuma’s backstory was very good until now but this kinda falls into the old “Using sexual violence against a female love interest to fuel the tragedy” of a male character trope, apart from being an extremely dark aspect of slavery even One Piece avoided until now. Maybe I’m wrong, I’ve seen wildly polarising takes on this chapter but it did left me with a bad tast personally
CW
i personally found it very impactful, but that’s in the context of this just slowly peeling back over time how monstrous the celestial dragons actually are. it does feel like oda’s rushing though. i also feel that it helps that ginny is pretty explicitly not kuma’s partner, and so this lacks the general “ownership of women” aspect that is usually centered in the “sexual violence fuels tragedy for a male character” trope. that said, it’s not particularly progressive either since ginny gets off-screened. also bonney being 12 is WILD
Spoiler
Yea, that means she was 10 years old pre-timeskip right? That’s a insane age to be a pirate captain, especially one of the “worst generation”
spoiler
yup exactly. really cool to see ginny’s childhood friends be two of her crewmates though.
cw
I think the editors had Oda rewrite the chapter honestly, I don’t like speculating on Oda’s health but it would make a lot of sense if he was trying to find the right balance of tone.
Bonney being 12 is wild but I think it’s Oda’s thematic style of having children be forced to act as adults or have their childhood or innocence taken away (most characters in 1p are this thematic archetype)
cw
i could buy that honestly. it would make a ton of sense to have trouble finding a right way to get this story down. it’s easy to forget that it’s still theoretically targeted for kids since it’s been in print for my entire life.
CW SA
female love interest
Honestly I’m in the camp of that Kuma would have never married or had kids with Ginny ever. We see his insecurity regarding his buccanner status and past trauma. Kuma loves Ginny but can’t bring himself to love her in a posessive way (esp. with the whole marriage proposal by Ginny)
extremely dark aspect of slavery
I think Oda is trying to show another tragedy of Kuma’s life as Kuma doesn’t see his own life as something valuable. On a subconcious level, he is still enslaved to his abusers’ (WG) narrative of servitude and inferiority. Kuma did not let himself be selfish which in a way is what sets him apart from Luffy (or the Nika who he worships) whose self interest protects him and those around him. It’s to say that Luffy is free while Kuma is not and that informs their lives.
On a side note the allusions to rape/SA were already made with the Boa sisters and the introduction of the CDs in sabody park.
For the brutality of the chapter, I think Oda does well in juxtaposing the successes of the now Freedom Fighters to the inner despair of Kuma and co. It’s the acknowledgement that revolution is brutal and that behind the triumph is real people who’ve lost nearly everything.
We also get to see Kuma showcase his powers more and more. He doesn’t hesitate anymore and is willing to demonstrate how dangerous the paw paw fruit can be.
But I think the bonny part of the chapter was the highlight. Kuma’s highest moment in life was taking care of Bonny and not just his immense power.
I think the fact that we got the unfinished manuscript also made the chapter more unsettling from the outset.
Still have complicated thoughts tho.
CW
That’s a very good writeup and it does change my mind on some level.
I agree that saying ginny is “Kuma’s love interest” was a misstep on my original comment, and that their relationship is more nuanced than that.
On a side note the allusions to rape/SA were already made with the Boa sisters and the introduction of the CDs in sabody park.
So I don’t remember now since it’s been a long while since I’ve read them, but until now the notion of SA of slaves by the celestial dragons was mostly a “heavy implication” thing - we see them act extremely gross and possessive towards women, and see the trauma inflicted upon their victims. This fits OP’s brand of a manga geared mostly towards children, that ocasionally deals with very dark themes. This chapter however leaves no doubt; Ginny got pregnant while she was enslaved and then she was discarded, and that’s why I believe this chapter is very brutal even among the other chapters showing the violence of slavery.
For the brutality of the chapter, I think Oda does well in juxtaposing the successes of the now Freedom Fighters to the inner despair of Kuma and co. It’s the acknowledgement that revolution is brutal and that behind the triumph is real people who’ve lost nearly everything.
That’s a good way to put it. All in all, I’m loving how this arc is giving a lot of exposition to the Revolutionary Army in general and Kuma in specific
The unfinished drafts made it look like Kuma’s psyche struggling as it goes deeper into the darker side of his past. It gave the chapter a very raw feel and made the flashback have a greater impact as a result to me.
The sidestory with Ginny was especially brutal in just how realistic it is. For some reason this backstory was the first in One Piece to make me stop reading and look away for a few seconds.
Kaido had a very pathetic flashback and Kuma seems to be more than making it up.
I really agree, especially about the art style. I’ve had some mixed feelings about the direction the art style started to take in Wano. Sometimes it worked for me, but other times it just felt a bit wobbly and rushed. Here, the actually unfinished work makes the story feel more intense and uncompromising, especially given the subject matter. I wouldn’t mind if Oda leaned into this style a bit more, though I doubt that’ll happen. It is always incredible that One Piece can handle so many drastically different tones so well and I’m not sure that anything approaching this style would be workable for the majority of the story.
CW: SA, CSA
It’s been a while since I read Amazon Lily, but the differences in how Oda handled allusions to SA in Boa Hancock’s arc are kind of interesting (though I do think they make sense, at least narratively). Boa Hancock is probably my favorite Medusa allusion in fiction. I love how Boa refuses to compromise until Buffy earns her trust and I really liked that she was the one that got to tell her own story. This isn’t really possible in Ginny’s case so it makes some narrative sense that her story was told from Kuma’s perspective. I do appreciate that she freed herself, I think that factor helps to establish her agency as a character for me. I’m also glad that Oda focused the rest of the chapter on Kuma and Bonney’s relationship, rather than exploiting the tragedy of Ginny’s enslavement and death.
I’ve reread this chapter a few times and I think it’s actually really nice in a bittersweet way. The end to Ginny’s story was tragic, but it brought Kuma and Bonney together and they’re such a wonderful family.
timeline shit
So from the timing, this means Bonney is about 12 in the current day, which means she became a Supernova at age 10 when Kuma promised she’d be better.
Would also like to give thanks to Oda for finally fulfilling my request of 3 chapters in a row. I’m good now, sorry for the inconvenience
