One Piece 2 by Eiichiro Oda: B

From the back cover:
As a kid, Monkey D. Luffy vowed to become King of the Pirates and find the legendary treasure called the “One Piece.” The enchanted Gum-Gum fruit has given Luffy the power to stretch like rubber—and his new crewmate, the infamous pirate hunter Roronoa Zolo, strikes fear into the hearts of other buccaneers! But what chance does one rubber guy stand against Nami, a thief so tough she specializes in robbing pirates… or Captain Buggy, a fiendish pirate lord whose weird, clownish appearance conceals even weirder powers? It’s pirate vs. pirate in the second swashbuckling volume of One Piece!

Review:
I don’t know about the rest of you, but sometimes I just get a major hankering for some shounen. One Piece satisfies this requirement admirably, offering wacky villains, inexplicably absorbing combat scenes, unsinkable optimism, and a strong sense of camaraderie.

Luffy and friends must face off against Captain Buggy who, along with his crew, is terrorizing a port town. Buggy has eaten another of the devil fruits (Luffy at the Gum-Gum fruit, which gives him the ability to stretch like rubber), which lets various bits of his body fly off and attack of their own volition. It actually reminds me of something out of Tezuka, to see a cartoony disembodied arm fly over and stab someone. Buggy also has some bizarre lieutenants, including a furry guy with the ability to control animals and a sword-swallowing acrobat who has a plethora of attacks based on circus tricks.

Yes, it’s silly, but it’s a great deal of fun. There are also heartwarming things that make me like the characters, like the way they avenge a dog whose deceased master’s shop gets destroyed. Lest one thing they’re soft, however, they also do manly things like slice their own wounds to prove their toughness or something. I’m not sure what all that was about.