Chapter 404 discussion (spoilers)
 

Title: Franky vs Fukurou

First page shows Luffy running through the tunnel, and he reverts to normal size (I assume he's not using Gear 3 anymore). btw, that door wasn't like "blown off the hinges", the door itself was ripped apart - and it looks like a few meters thick. That was some punch!

Second page: Further down the tunnel, Spandam is somewhat worried about the huge sound - Lucci thinks it was probably a pirate knocking the door down. Spandam thinks that's impossible, and besides they couldn't have found it but Lucci says he saw a girl and her pet trailing them - he didn't kill them because he didn't get any orders. By the look on his face, I think he wanted to be followed (really wants to kill Luffy or something I guess).

Next few pages are Franky vs Fukurou, with Fukurou mostly dodging. However, when Franky calls him a "first rate coward", they get into a punching contest, and end up in the large food storage room. There's a huge fridge.

Then Chopper gets knocked in through the wall, and laments taking the Rumble Ball too early (it's already worn out). Chopper manages to shut Kumadori in the fridge though. Which annoys Franky since he wants some cola. Anyway, Chopper gets Franky some drinks...

But Chopper gave him some vegatable juice and Franky's hair becomes like an onion and he becomes super weak. Then Chopper throws Franky some bottled ice tea and Franky sits down on a chair to relax. Chopper thinks these effects are cool (and has stars in his eyes) and obviously wants to try some other drinks, but Franky has gotten rather pissed off with the "gorilla". Chopper throws him some real cola.

But it looks a bit late as Fukurou gets Franky with a Rangyaku. A view from outside the tower shows it going all dark and lightning flashing. Franky stands up and with one "strong hammer" delivers a massive blow to Fukurou, sending him flying through the walls. Franky, looking kinda evil, apologies for his weak punches from earlier.


Great chapter!

i havent been reading the last like 10 chapters of One Piece, i started to rerad with the new chapter... and the one of the previous week... but what happened to Zoro ?

Just go read the last 10 chapters and find out, silly. :p

man, this is becoming the best arc of OP thus far. chapter after chapter, we are being treated to things only oda could come up with. if anyone who doesn't want franky on team strawhats before, this chapter should change their mind. :heh:

first the luffy thing. i'm still confused about gear 3. it can really go both ways. one way to look at it is that its him going chibi, and when he's not using it, his body reverts back like kari-no-sugata said. on the other hand, it's still possible that chibi is the side-effect after using gear 3, which we still haven't seen in an actual panel yet. curious. i can't wait to see the truth of gear 3, but man do i want to see the rest of the strawhats or the enemies see luffy in chibi form. that would insure some humorous moments.

now to the meat of the story. fukurou is an idiot. with all those rokushiki moves at his disposal, he allowed franky to intimidate into a fist fight? but the actual fight is a joy to watch. franky pulling at fukurou's zipper mouth and pure boxing blows. sweet. the best part about the fight is no doubt the transformations. looks like we have another chopper on our hands. think of the possibilities with so many drinks out there. can you say sake? :heh:

kind of a short fight. if fukurou is indeed down and out (what a weak cp9 member he turned out to be), i can definitely see franky down and rest a bit, not being able to help chopper. the reason being, from the looks of it, he took a straight rankyuku to his back by fukurou. since that part of him is all normal and weakpoint. i can see him go down.

with seeing luffy running in chibi form to franky's onion head to kumadori being locked in the fridge, this chapter is a BIG WINNER :heh:

Bear in mind that even before getting a re-charge, Franky's punches were hurting Fukurou - Franky's punches are iron, while Tekkai is trying to immitate iron. After a re-charge, Franky is WAY stronger. Still, yeah, for an assassin's group, Fukurou is rather dumb to be provoked into a fist fight. I wouldn't say he's particularly weak though - he's certainly not the weakest in CP9.

Franky is kicking ass thats for sure. I can't wait to see more if his fight-and see him reveal any new moves.

the reason i say he's weak is because the guy was having trouble against a low-fuel franky. i'm not saying franky is weak or anything, but for a statured cp9, i expected more. compared to other cp9 members like blueno, or even nero. remember that guy? he was giving franky's tons of trouble. then there's blueno, who was whipping out superhuman moves left and right with percision, and he's only 10-20 dourikis higher than furukou. now, yes we can't really say for sure what dourikis really implied, but from the looks of it, its at least some kind of power level. furukou just seemed sluggishly slow.

indeed franky's punches are tekken punches, and i'm happy to see a brawler type on the strawhats, if indeed he becomes a formal member. hope he does, because he's awesome. if he is as strong as he's depicting, he could even challenge sanji as the third strongest on the team. :twitch:

Agreed.
Well, Fukurou did say he was using a move even greater than a simple Shigan.
Hella agreed.

Also, that look on Lucchi's face where it's clear he allowed them to be followed was priceless. Though of course the Popeye connection is practically screaming in your face when it comes to this chap.

i didn't watch much popeye when i was little, so what is the connection? i remember that he ate spinach to get stronger, but did different foods affect him?
anyway, how long does it take for chopper to eat another rumble ball? i don't think i've ever seen him eat more than one in a fight or an arc.
who else thinks that the new climatact can create windstorms? i think it'll be a lot less comical than the previous model.

The connection is that they both have strangely shaped arms where the area between the ankle and elbow are buffed up while the place between the elbow and shoulder are skinny. Also, both being tough guys and getting incredibly strong after consuming a certain substance.

oh, right. yeah franky reminded me more of ace ventura pet detective than anything else.

The hairstyle is kind of alike. Though Ace's sideburns aren't usable as weapons.:D

very good point. :twitch: it kinda reminded me of an ultra-man character called 7.
but on another note, the chapter really left me wanting more. the only thing i didn't get was how chopper got kumadori into the fridge. i keep looking at the pages, but can't see what he did. i understand it's a big ass fridge, but i wish someone could clear it up.

Well, first it seems that Chopper held open the door to shield himself from Kumadori's attack then he shoves at the door forcing it against Kumadori making Kumadori end up in the fridge and closes the door at around the same moment. In short, it was a block him, shove him, and close.

ah, i see. that seems to make sense. i hope that kumadori gets out though. it'd be kinda boring and dissapointing if oda skipped a fight with chopper. i bet the next fight is gonna be kalifa vs nami and a little bit of zoro/usopp vs kaku/jyabura. i wanna see how they play out.

It depends though if Chopper really has anything new to show much less Kumadori having anything to show off. It would be the first time a character never really had a duel for an arc. I remember for Skypiea that Sanji and Ussop never really got to took part in man to man duels.