-To share a dream is an intimate connection.
-If we take away something from someone, even if it was their choice, we may feel indebted to them to fulfill their dreams. If we are indebted, we sometimes fail to realize that, to lose our life for their dream will never fill that debt. And worse, to indebt yourself to the wrong person could lead to an easy betrayal.
-Kindness goes a long way. It forms a debt that we long to return. ( )

This is the continuation of Sanji's arc, including his backstory. I say this because it has been a while since I've read these and the way these volumes are organized and the summary that comes with them make it hard to pin point which events land in which volumes--and sometimes the review you gave fort the previous volume fits the next. I love the East Blue arcs in general and how the crew comes together, especially when Sanji is serious and not being a womanizing dolt, and he's definitely showing his good side here. ( )

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Title: The Crap-Geezer
Series: One Piece #7
Arc: East Blue Part 7
Author: Eiichiro Oda
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga
Pages: 200
Words: 8K

Synopsis:

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

"Pearl"

"Jungle Blood"

"I Refuse"

"If You Have a Dream"

"Crap-Geezer"

"Sanji's Debt"

"Resolution"

"The Demon"

"MH5"

Luffy and the cooks defend the restaurant until Gin takes the one-legged head chef Zeff hostage, hoping to resolve the situation without Sanji's death. Fearing for Zeff's life, Sanji stops fighting but does not surrender the ship to the pirates. In a flashback, a young Sanji and Zeff (a renowned pirate) are shipwrecked. Zeff gives Sanji a small bundle of food and sends him to the other side of the island to keep watch, while Zeff keeps a much larger bundle for himself. Weeks later, a famished Sanji returns to take the pirate's food only to discover that the bundle contains nothing but gold and that Zeff has devoured his own leg. In the present, Gin realizes that he cannot save Sanji's life because he is hell-bent on protecting Zeff's restaurant. Instead, Gin decides to kill Sanji with his own hands. When the time comes, he cannot do it and begs Krieg to leave the restaurant alone. Outraged at Gin's disobedience, Krieg uses poison gas against his right-hand man.

My Thoughts:

Another thoroughly enjoyable romp with Luffy and Co. This volume mainly focuses on Sanji, the cook on the Floating Restaurant ship who Luffy wants as his own cook. We get his backstory about how he came to know Zeff the Pirate Cook and why he's so loyal to him despite fighting with him all the time.

And despite Dracule beating the snot out of the pirates previously, Don Kreig and Crew show Luffy just why they were the scourge of East Blue. Luffy talks big and does his best to take Kreig down but each time Kreig prevents his attempts. You know Luffy is going to eventually win but it is impossible to figure out HOW he's going to win.

The volume ends on a sappy note with one of the pirates giving up his gas mask to save Sanji's life because Sanji gave him food when he was starving. Thankfully that wasn't dwelt on very much, or my eyes might have rolled out of my head.

In the previous volume, and then this one, the little pictures between chapters were following Buggy the Clown and his Pirate Crew from the second volume. They are actually telling a mini-story, one picture at a time instead of just being funny pictures of Luffy & Co. Whether this mini-story will ever tie into the main story I don't know, but I do like what Oda is trying to accomplish here.

★★★★☆