The Straw Hat Pirates decide to take a visit of the ominous Punk Hazard Island and now they must join forces with the pirate Trafalgar Law and the Marines to take on the crazed scientist, Caesar Clown! Another action-packed 68th volume of “One Piece: New World”!
Image courtesy of © 1997 Eiichiro Oda. All Rights Reserved.
MANGA TITLE: One Piece: New World Volume 68
STORY AND ART BY: Eiichiro Oda (尾田 æ „ä¸€éƒŽ)
FIRST PUBLISHED IN JAPAN: Shueisha, Inc.
PUBLISHED IN USA BY: VIZ Media, LLC
RATED: T for Older Teen
Available on September 3, 2013
As the adventures continue on Punk Hazard, Luffy decides to strike up an alliance with Trafalgar Law. But can he convince the rest of the Straw Hats to go along with it? And will this new team be formidable enough to take down Caesar Clown?
The Straw Hat Pirates along with the Navy are now in the New World in Fish Man Island. Having reached an ominous island known as Punk Hazard that is half volcanic and half ice.
As the Straw Hat Pirates are separated, they discover an immortal samurai who has been sliced up and is looking for his other body parts, giant children who have been experimented in a lab and are hooked on certain drugs and to make matters worse, they run into one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, Trafalgar Law.
And Trafalgar has used his power to switch bodies, so now Nami is in Sanji’s body, Sanji in Nami’s body, Franky and Tony have also switched bodies but also Smoker and Tashigi of the Navy Grand Line.
But now the group now has to take on the crazed and wanted-government scientist, Master Caesar Clown.
What happens when the group takes on the terrifying Caesar Clown? Find out in “One Piece: New World” Vol. 68!
What is “One Piece”?
“ONE PIECE†is a popular anime series based on the popular manga series serialized in Shonen Jump by Eiichiro Oda. Suffice to say, “ONE PIECE†is the highest selling manga for Weekly Shonen Jump and its popularity has extended to various anime (via the TV series, OVA and films) and video games in America and also worldwide. The series is so popular, the episode count currently in Japan is over 540 episodes, one of the longest running anime series in Japan.
“ONE PIECE†is an adventure anime about a young man named Monkey D. Luffy who gained enormous strength (and stretching abilities) after eating a magical demon fruit. He eventually teams up with a group of pirates and have the name “The Straw Hatsâ€. Luffy’s driven to one day obtain the most sought out treasure known as “One Piece†and eventually become the King of the Pirates.
So far in “One Piece: New World”, after the death of his older brother Ace, Luffy has since vowed to get stronger and learn more fighting moves. But in order to do that, he had to commit himself to training for two years. And now, the group have reunited in order to get to the New World.
But the New World may be a bit of a challenge since its literally in the bottom of ocean. The first half features The Straw Hats who are being chased by other pirates in order to get down to the ocean floor, while the second half features the Straw Hat Pirates reuniting with the mermaid Camie and being taken to Fish-Man Island. Unfortunately, The Straw Hats have come at the wrong moment as the antagonist Mer-Men known as Hody and Vander Decken have joined forces to crush Neptunes army and bring ruin to the Kingdom of Ryugu.
As the Straw Hats were ambushed by Captain Hody Jones and his New Fish-Man Pirates, Hody has planned for the destruction of the Ryugu Kingdom and to eliminate anyone who tries to make peace with humankind.
Princess Shirahoshi and her brothers want peace and try to make their stand against them. And to come to their aid are the Straw Hat Pirates!
In volume 67 of “One Piece: New World”, the adventures of the Straw Hat Pirates takes them to an ominous island. Pursued by the Navy led by Smoker, the group end up in an island that appears to have volcanoes and ice mountains. But when the group are split up and separated between the front and backside of the island, what will they find?
Meanwhile, as the Navy pursues the Straw Hat Pirates, the come upon one of the most notorious pirates out there…Trafalgar Law! And the fight ends quickly as Trafalgar Law shows his great power and switches the bodies of various Straw Hat Pirates including the Navy.
In volume 68, the group realize that Trafalgar Law is not the enemy but something bad is taking place in the island of Punk Hazard, experiments on children and also an immortal samurai named Foxfire Kin’emon. With Sanji and Nami wanting to help these individuals, they run into trouble when a big black poisonous blob starts to show up in the middle of the sea.
Meanwhile for Luffy, Trafalgar Law and others, they must take on Master Caesar Clown, Dr. Vegapunk’s former colleague and an authority on weapons of mass-murder who is wanted by the government. But can they beat Caesar Clown?
The Straw Hat Pirates consists of:
Monkey D. Luffy – A 17-year-old guy who is the captain of the Straw Hat Pirates and dreams to be a pirate king by getting his hands on the “ONE PIECE†artifact. When he was young, he accidentally ate a devil fruit which made his body rubbery and can stretch and blow up. An airhead of sorts, loves to eat but always believes and fights for his friends.
Roronoa Zoro – A 19-year-old skilled swordsman. A skilled and very strong fighter. Wants to be the greatest swordsman in the world.
Nami – The navigator of the group. The main female crew member and really good at weapons.
Usopp – A 17-year-old marksman. A talented inventor and artistic. Known by his long nose, his marksmanship with slingshots and weapons are great.
Sanji – The chef of the crew. A skilled fighter that uses only kicks in battle and is passionate towards Nami.
Tony Tony Chopper – A reindeer with a blue nose. Ate a devil fruit known as human-human fruit which makes him human in someways but keeping his reindeer look. Able to speak to humans, walk upright and also able to have transformations to become a huge beast. But his talent is his medical skills as he was trained by the Doctrine to become a doctor. Has very low self-confidence because he had been treated badly not only by his kind but also by humans and has not really had a friend but the Doctor and Doctrine.
Nico Robin – The former Vice President of Baroque Works who became a member of Straw Hat Pirates despite some of the crew not trusting her since she was a former enemy. Has the ability to use her body parts and project them elsewhere and other mysterious abilities not yet known.
Franky (aka Cutty Flam) – A cyborg who can rebuild his body using pieces of metal and his dream is to build a ship and become its shipwright and sail to the end of the world.
Brook (aka “Dead Bones”) – A musician and a skeleton who was resurrected by the Revive-Revive Fruit. An excellent musician and fencer.
Smoker the White Hunter – A Marine officer stationed at the G-5 base who is in pursuit of Monkey D. Luffy.
Trafalgar Law – The captain and doctor of the Heart Pirates and one of the eleven pirates known as part of “The Eleven Supernovas”. Law is also looking for One Piece! But what is he doing in Punk Hazard Island?
Tashigi – A Marine Officer serving under Vice Admiral Smoker.
Caesar Clown – A former colleague of Vegapunk and the main antagonist. An expert in chemical weapons of mass destruction and a demented scientist operating on innocent people.
As one adventure underwater ends, a new adventure begins and this time, things become much more intense and ominous as the Straw Hat Pirates land in Punk Hazard Island.
With the Straw Hat Pirates divided, Sanji and Nami (who have switched bodies thanks to Trafalgar’s powers) along with Zoro, Usopp and Brook try to help the samurai known as Foxfire Kin’emon retrieve his torso and put him back together.
Meanwhile, Luffy, Nico Robin, Trafalgar Law and Smoker and Tashigi (who have switched bodies thanks to Trafalgar) see Caesar Clown decimating the marines and the pirates and now they must take on the crazed scientist. But will they be able to?
All hell breaks loose in Punk Hazard, while big black poisonous blobs start showing up throughout the island and the sea.  What is Caesar Clown up to?
All this and more in the latest 68th volume of “One Piece: New World”!
An action-packed volume that features intense battles but probably one of the most elaborate and chaotic scenes I have seen in the pages of One Piece.
As always, Eiichiro Oda’s pages are like a smorgasbord of artwork. He manages to fill every scene with characters and sometimes plenty of destruction or beauty. He puts so much into his artwork for his manga series and that’s just one of the reasons why people love his work. Also, with each major chapter conclusion, he answers mail from his fans with humor!
Overall, I’m quite pleased that we are now getting into a more deeper, darker and action-packed storyline with this Punk Hazard arc. Not only do you have the Straw Hat Pirates but you have the Marines, Trafalgar Law, Caesar Clown and others that have yet to make a presence. I could tell already that this arc is going to be exciting and full of action and I can’t wait for the next volume!
“One Piece: New World Volume 68” by Eiichiro Oda is recommended!