 Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review, your source for everything one piece. Last week on the Arc Review, we hit up the half-burning, half-freezing island of Punk Hazard, and this week we are strapping in for a long, long adventure on the island of Dressroser. Dressroser is the 27th arc in the series, consisting of 102 manga chapters and an absolutely inconceivable 118 anime episodes. This arc is long, longer than many entire series, but we'll get to the problems with length later. Dressroser carries over from the events of Punk Hazard, using the previous arc as a springboard to begin an immediate conflict with one of the seven Warlords of the Sea, Don Quixote or Flamingo. And you know that is really all I need to go into this arc super, super hyped. But before I start to zero in on individual characters, I need to discuss the arc in a broad sense, otherwise I feel like it's very easy to get lost and engulfed in the beast that is Dressroser. Dressroser is arguably the most ambitious arc ever attempted by Oda to this point. The sheer amount of story he has thrown into a single arc is almost absurd, and I use the word thrown instead of crammed, because a term like crammed would imply that the story was stuffed into a chapter count that simply couldn't contain it. However, in this case, Oda takes his time, allowing every character plot point and fight to be done justice. Which is admirable, but it does come with the side effect of bloating the arc past the 100 chapter mark, which in publication terms is over two years of real time, which is just insanity, considering that the entire meat of the arc is meant to take place over a single day of one piece world time. What that means is we as readers are stuck in the same location at the same time of day for two years. There's not a lot of visual variance to be had, and that contributes greatly to a term fans coined at the time called Dressroser fatigue. So as with most arcs where the location can't possibly pull its weight, it falls to the shoulders of the characters to really engage us. And thankfully we have some pretty spectacular individuals in this arc. Dolflamingo was one of those villains who had been brewing in the background ever since the end of the alabaster arc, and it was clear that he was in an entirely different league of any antagonist the straw hats had previously faced. As a villain, I'd say he succeeded wonderfully for the most part, and a lot of credit towards that goes to how well he was fleshed out as a character. Dolflamingo is a man we get to know very, very well, through the current events of the arc, as well as Trafalgar Law's flashback, and hey, Dolflamingo even gets a flashback of his own. So we really do get his full journey from childhood to modern-day Warlord of the Sea. Knowing the suffering this man went through as a child does make him somewhat sympathetic, I think, or maybe not sympathetic, but it makes his actions understandable in some weird twisted way. He is still very much in the wrong due to his core beliefs sustained from being born a celestial dragon, but at the same time I also find it quite hard to blame him for his ideologies that were implanted into him at a formative age. In any case, what results from this is a very compelling villain who I both love and hate in perfect balance. He's actually one of my personal favorite villains in One Piece, as well as storytelling in general, but with that said, Mr. Flamingo is certainly not beyond criticism from the perspective of writing. I would argue that the extreme level of arrogance he displays does not quite match the wider breadth of his character. I mean, yes, I get why he's arrogant due to the whole celestial dragon thing, but at the same time Dolflamingo is meant to be a hardened, wise, and kingpin figure of the entire One Piece underworld. And I just don't believe that he ever could have risen to such status, given his string of arrogant mistakes made during this arc. But all in all, I find that to be a minor flaw in what is otherwise an unforgettable character. The description of unforgettable also very much applies to our extended cast of villains for the arc, the Donkey Hote family. I really can't stress enough just how much I love this group of antagonists. They all have super cool and crazy designs with gripping absurd character quirks, and somehow, despite the fact that they all stand out in their own way, they also form a very functional and believable family. I'd like to give a special shout out to Senor Pink. In one short chapter, he went from being the stupid baby dressing guy to one of the more incredible characters in the series through one hell of a heartbreaking flashback. The Donkey Hote family was such a huge part in keeping me invested during this arc, and I don't think they often get the credit they deserve because they had the mammoth task of providing an antagonistic balance to all of our protagonists during the arc who numbered far beyond our usual band of straw hats. I will say that this credit does not necessarily extend to the executive offices, though. You'd think that these guys being Dolflamingo's most trusted agents would be crazy powerful or wonderfully compelling, just like Dolflamingo himself, but honestly, each and every one of them fell completely flat to me. The only one who had any sort of decent presence to me was Pika, but even then, he was still kind of underwhelming. But moving back into the story, in Dress Rosa, there are a few easily identifiable spots where the arc really gets bogged down, the first of which being the Corridor Colosseum. Now, one piece had never done a tournament-style story to this point, but typically, when a Shona Manga adopts this format, it ends up taking an awfully long time and often becomes an entire arc of its own. And I think that one piece gets dangerously close to considering this portion of the story an arc of its own, a small arc, but an arc nonetheless. Corridor Colosseum bombards us with new characters at a pace that not even one piece is accustomed to, and many of them become very important to the story as the arc progresses. In fact, even the incidental individuals have their part to play in the eventual chaos of Dress Rosa. Now, while this was all playing out in real time, I'll admit that I was very annoyed. I loved meeting new characters in the series, but this was simply too much. With that said, I do think that these characters paid off brilliantly at the business end of the arc, so I'm really conflicted. But I have to admit, all of the work put into them during the Colosseum allows essential moments like size defeat of Lao Ji to land hard. But it could only hit us like that because the time had been spent to flesh out size character, and more importantly, Don Qinjiao's story as well. I say more importantly because as a result of the Colosseum match between Luffy and Qinjiao, size defeat if his grandfather means significantly more because we've been exposed to Qinjiao's strength through a direct conflict with Luffy as well as a flashback featuring Garp. This also adds some emotional connection between Sigh and Luffy via the conduit of their grandparents. Furthermore, all of this culminates in Sigh becoming a founding member of the Straw Hat Grand Fleet, an act that would seem completely hollow had we not dedicated the appropriate time to his character. And Sigh is just one example of that. The same applies to most of the Grand Fleet members, but I won't go into them all individually because my god, I would just be here for far too long. But while we're on the Grand Fleet, I'd like to say that their formation was a huge highlight of the arc for me. Firstly, knowing that there was a greater meaning to these individuals we'd been following for two years was a relief, but it was also a massive step forward in regards to Luffy becoming the pirate king even if he didn't really want his own fleet. Up until now the thought of his small crew eventually taking on a yonko was very much a fantasy, but this piece falling into place did a lot to turn that into a viable future, and now I can't wait to see this force of characters appear in the story once again. But in conclusion that was a really long-winded way of saying yes, the Colosseum bogged down the story, but it was entirely worth it for the outcome. And I think that goes a long way to describing Dressrosa in general. Now we have many, many more characters to talk about. I guess we should look at Lore though as he is the catalyst behind why we are on the island in the first place. I liked Lore a lot less during Dressrosa than I did during Ponk Hazard because all he really does is get beaten up, like a lot. And yeah, he has some cool moments like slicing up Dolph Lamingo with a gamma knife and pulling off the phenomenal combo attack with Luffy, but all in all he was a bit of a sad presence. And there was only so much I could care about what was happening to him because after a while so many terrible things happened to Lore that I just became desensitized to it, especially by the time his arm was cut off. It was a lot like watching Dragon Ball Z where the only characters who ever lose limbs in combat are the ones able to regrow them, like Piccolo or Cell. And you know here we are and it just so happens that the only person to lose a limb just so happens to have the magical power to plunk it back on. And that really ruined any potential impact that action had. I will say that Lore's flashback was masterfully done as most flashbacks in the series are. I think it also helps that Oda didn't have to start from scratch and was able to incorporate the already captivating Don Quixote family heavily into it. Then of course there's Rosinante and I really don't know what to say about him except he is another example of your typical flashback role model type character, brilliantly designed and heartbreaking story. A plus for Oda as usual there. But to continue piling onto the cast of characters he dressed Rosa Arxes the return of an entity that nobody ever really doubted was alive, Sabo. And sadly I don't have a lot of great things to say about Sabo. To me his existence within the modern day story completely erases any impact that Ace's death had on the series. I mean it's as if Luffy just went to the pound and got a new older brother. I mean he has a cool enough design but he really is just a weaker version of Ace to me, weaker in terms of character not in terms of strength I don't want to get into that argument. And his very existence just opens up far too many potential plot holes. One of which was immediately filled by Oda which is why Sabo was not present at Marineford. It wasn't filled very well though. I've always found Amnesia to be one of the biggest cop-outs of convenience in all of storytelling and I mean to Oda's credit this is the first time in almost two decades of creating a world that he resorted to it but he pulled it nonetheless. And as a result I can't help but feel like it was lazy storytelling. Although the much larger unexplained issue I have is how Ace never found out that Sabo was alive. I mean he is the second in command of the revolutionary army. His name would be known all over the world just like dragons. But a character like Luffy yeah you might be able to get away with it because he's just so ignorant of the world at large but Ace was serving at the pinnacle of piracy. There is no way that he would not have stumbled upon Sabo's name. And it's not just Ace who would have known either because Garp certainly would have been informed of Sabo's existence as well as Robin who spent two years with Sabo and just didn't tell Luffy he was alive because of reasons. I just think that Sabo being alive does more to hinder an otherwise very tightly planned story. But that said this is an arc review of Dress Rosa and Sabo did indeed add to the arc quite positively by representing another faction the revolutionaries and contributing to the chaos on the island. He did also have a pretty damn cool fight with Fujitora but at the same time I think these actions could have been completed by a brand new character who doesn't destroy the fabric of the story. But actually going back to Fujitora there here is a character I am very much a fan of. The presence of an admiral during the entirety of this arc very effectively raised the stakes of the story because in addition to two of the seven warlords the revolutionaries the blackbeard pirates the big mom pirates and even Kaido by association the marines were now heavily involved in Dress Rosa. Plus like all admirals Fujitora turned out to be an amazing powerhouse as well as a fascinating character in his own right aligning himself far more with the interest of the readers than any admiral thus far. Another big plus for the Dress Rosa arc is the action. The fights in Dress Rosa are some of the most well choreographed scene in the series to this point with special mention needing to go to Zoro versus Pika due to its sheer creativity in handling a situation whereby one party Zoro was clearly far stronger and more skilled than the other. However Odi used Pika's devil fruit ability to show us a grand spectacle every panel of which was a feast for the eyes. Then of course there's also the main event of Luffy activating gear fourth for the first time and it's hard to explain just how mind-blowing this was when Luffy first stated those words in the manga. Given that everything post-time skip seemed heavily focused on Haki I personally wasn't even considering new gears as a possibility. Very very full it should be in retrospect but it did allow me to have the most over-the-top reaction to a chapter I think I've ever had and take special note that this was a reaction to Luffy's announcement of gear four as the first actual sighting of the technique was a bit uh what in the fuck is that? It took me an awfully long time to get used to this form because let's be real it's just not that aesthetically pleasing upon first viewing but I was sold on gear fourth quite quickly because it really went a long way to crafting a brilliant fight against Orflamingo. In fact the only real disappointing aspect of fights during this arc come in the forms of characters who didn't receive one and I'm primarily thinking about Robin here. In an arc where matchups were made for characters like Psy, Cavendish and my god even Lio I think it's a bit weak that Robin was the only straw hat who did not receive a proper conflict to overcome. Even Usopp had his time to shine albeit in a non-traditional way. Robin didn't even get that. Her main role was dumbed down to protecting Rebekah another character who didn't receive any form of justice done to her and just to go on the Rebekah tangent a bit more she was a weak nami clone whose purpose was to give Kuros the drive to be awesome rather than to exercise any form of awesomeness herself. What I really would have loved is for the battle against Diamante to have been Robin, Rebekah and Kuros versus Diamante rather than placing Robin and Rebekah there just to have them do nothing which pretty much sums up what Rebekah's story ended up being a bit of a nothing character. The time Oda invested into telling her quote unquote story simply wasn't worth it and contributed to bogging down an already incredibly dense arc and you can say the same for most of the royal family as well. I think that these are probably the weakest group of protagonistic monarchs that we've ever encountered during an arc and that's pretty ridiculous because they received more time to develop themselves than any other with the sole exception of Vivi of course. To illustrate when I wrote my first draft of this arc review I forgot about King Riku and Viola entirely which is ridiculous considering how important they are supposed to be to the story instead they're just forgettable. Now that might be because they are easily overshadowed by the presence of so many amazing characters during the arc and I would like to say that Riku's flashback featuring him involuntarily slaughtering his own people was legitimately heartbreaking but when I think back on Riku and Viola I have no feelings whatsoever they may as well not exist. But going back to flashbacks that brings up another topic of discussion about flashbacks in general. Tres Rosa has an awful lot of flashbacks for characters such as Lord, Dolph Lamingo, Rebekah, Riku, Kiros, Don Chin-Jow and even Senior Pink. This isn't even taking into consideration the couple of short panel flashbacks that we received in many cases such as for Baby Five and most of these are crucial for the story that Oda was weaving but some are arguably unessential yes Senior Pink I'm looking at you. I loved your story but I would never go so far as to say that including it was integral for Tres Rosa. However what this series of flashbacks does achieve is weaving a dense web of characters the likes of which we have never seen in a one-piece arc before which generally has one or maybe two focal flashback points and as much time as they took it had the effect of making me feel like I was experiencing a truly lived in world full of characters with depth and that was so important for an arc like Tres Rosa which lives and dies on characters alone. Speaking of characters have some more. I'm over 3,000 words into this script and I haven't even considered Bellamy yet. He's a fairly minor part of the arc but a huge highlight for me personally. It's an incredible tribute to Oda's ability in the realm of storytelling that within one chapter of being reintroduced Bellamy went from being one of the most despicable characters in the entire series to someone who the fan base almost universally loves and Oda didn't have to do that. Bellamy just could have vanished into obscurity like Don Krieg or Captain Kura but instead he was brought back and redeemed and I love that because it helps tie the fabric of one piece together by connecting arcs and allowing for long-term character development of everyone in the world. Speaking of minor characters another weak point of the arc has to be the presence of the Ton Tata tribe. I don't like these guys especially Man Cherry and it mainly has to do with their design. They just don't do it for me and as a result every time they appeared I tuned out almost immediately and even to this day it is mildly annoying to me that they are part of the grand fleet. In contrast we also had Bartolomeo, character whose design really put me off at first but a lot of work was put into his character during Dressrosa and he became a very cool presence for me and there are just so many more characters I'm not even going to get to. I mean for god's sake even Gats became a crucial character during the arc. The staggering amount of characters and story to be told makes Dressrosa read more like a detailed fantasy novel than it does a manga which is to be applauded. I think that with this arc Oda really pushed the medium of manga to its limits and yeah it wasn't perfect but it was still amazing. As a whole Dressrosa is a phenomenal arc and the only reason why it doesn't get more praise is because it happens to be a part of One Piece, a series filled with exceptional storytelling at an impossibly high standard. It does not deserve the level of hate it receives within the fanbase. Although yeah I can understand the frustration of going through this event for over two years of real time. The kind of complaints I don't understand are the people who claim that Dressrosa is simply an alabaster clone because I mean how? The only similarity is that we have a royal family and a warlord of the sea involved. These arcs are entirely different in every other respect. Dressrosa isn't a clone of anything in fact it's a groundbreaking evolution of One Piece as we know it. Although the less said about the anime the better. Dressrosa is quite possibly the darkest period the anime has ever known but at its roots Dressrosa is a brilliant arc no matter how long it took to complete. A very worthy and satisfying entry into the series but that pretty much does it for Dressrosa. Next week we will be moving away from the land of passion and finding ourselves amongst the Ming tribe on the living island of Gov'zo. If you enjoyed this video then feel free to like, favorite or subscribe and if you are in any way keen on supporting this independent channel then please do check out my Patreon, Discord server or Twitter the links to which are in the handy description below. Finally please do comment with your thoughts on the Dressrosa This has been the Grand Line Review and I'll see you next time.