The One Piece Heroines book series is a unique offering. These anthologies zero in on the ladies of Eiichiro Oda’s long-running series. But in most cases, they’re not building on the greater lore of the world. Rather, these slice-of-life tales tell us more about the girls: who they are, what they value, and what they think about when no one else is around. Volume 1 showed Nami shopping for a new pair of shoes, Robin deciphering a tablet, Vivi getting crushed on, and Perona enjoying some rare wine.

What stories will Volume 2 of the One Piece spinoff offer? In addition to a new story about Tashigi and some girl-time with Nami and Robin, this new volume offers some interesting tales. From hilarious misunderstandings to childhood memories, this is what you’ll find:



Boa Hancock

One of our top three stories in the new One Piece Heroines is all about the stunning Snake Princess. It’s the first story in the new book and, frankly, our favorite if we’re judging solely on humor. Because while miscommunication for drama is quickly played out, miscommunication for comedy is fantastic.

In this new story, Boa discovers that Dahlia, a member of the Kuja Tribe, has had a baby. She wishes to learn more about such familial situations, and her loyal subject explains. Through the same scene played out from two points of view, Boa comes to a number of mistaken conclusions… one concerning her relationship with Luffy! It’s an adorable, low-stakes story, and we love to see Boa being this cute and flustered.



Vinsmoke Reiju

While her brother Sanji sails with the Straw Hats, Reiju remains with the other brothers… none of whom can cook. The third story in this One Piece Heroines volume sees them trying regardless, while Reiju thinks back fondly on her brother in between failed attempts at bread baking and egg cracking.

Reiju may not be successful at helping her brothers make a meal, but that ultimately doesn’t matter. They get a feast regardless, and she even gets to show off some of her abilities! It’s an adorable story that serves as both counterpoint and background to Sanji’s, and it’s paired with some hilarious pictures of the brothers attempting to work in the kitchen.



Uta

Great news, Uta fans: there’s more of her in One Piece Heroines! Her story is a blast from the past, featuring the superpowered songstress as a little kid in the care of Shanks. The two go ashore to see a festival late at night. And while there are some moments of tension as the locals recognize Shanks from his wanted poster, it’s mostly a sweet father-daughter outing. (Very sweet, as Shanks lets her have juice and cotton candy past her bedtime!)

While all the art in this book is great, thanks to illustrator Sayaka Suwa, the art that accompanies this story is especially cute. There are lots of moments of Shanks and little Uta just enjoying life. Whether blowing bubbles or eating cotton candy, they’re having a surprisingly normal time. And we also get to hear about some of Uta’s early musical aspirations, too!

Arc Review

This volume contains little vignettes of Boa, Tashigi, Reiju, and Uta. It also has a small bonus chapter of Nami and Robin. As a One Piece fan, I found the glimpses of characters and their interactions to be intriguing. I especially enjoyed Reiju's story because it gave us more of a glimpse into her feelings and emotions surrounding her family and Sanji, something that was only hinted at in her appearance in the main One Piece manga.

I do think each story will be dependent upon how much the reader cares for the main character. For example, not a lot happens in either Boa or Reiju's stories, but because I was more invested in what Reiju thought, I enjoyed her story and not so much Boa's.

Stylistically, I liked that art of the characters was interspersed with the text, but I wish there had been more art to better showcase scenes.

Thank you Viz Media and Netgalley for the Arc!

If you love the women of One Piece, and do not mind that these stories rely on the same sexist tropes and lack of understanding of women that the anime and manga have, then by all means read this boo. You will enjoy your time with love-lorn Boa Hancock and Navy officer Tashigi, and the rest of the stories here.

if, however, you love the women of One Piece and hoped to read them written well as if they were real people, navigating their own lives without needed to define themselves as the part of lives of the men around them...then maybe give this a miss.

These stories are the literary equivalent of One Piece figurines - the men are strong and muscular and dumb and the women are smart, strong and have gigantic chests that would be painful if they were real. Every description of them is focused on physical aspects, while even Tashigi needs to have Smoker rescue her.

It's a pretty good collection for the 13 year old boy it's written for.

Thanks to Viz Media and NetGalley for the ARC.

To start this review, I want to emphasize that I adore the “One Piece” franchise. The story is an epic of, well, epic proportions. Very few could keep a series constantly moving and feeling fresh, but every chapter Oda has published continues to add more layers to this expansive world.

Yet, every moment of the series has felt purposeful. Sure, there have been moments where the saga wasn’t the most engaging, but everything felt like it had a purpose. The world was fleshed out. The characters were explored. The plot was given a natural segue into the next act.

But throughout this book, I couldn’t identify a single reason for telling these stories.

I won’t go into too much depth, to avoid ruining the stories themselves, but I will try to give my general thoughts for each short story.

1. Boa Hancock- It is a shame that this story was the first in the collection, as I believe it is one of the worst. This story is incredibly tedious to read, as it centers around a conversation between two individuals, but instead of reading through this mundane meeting once, we are forced to read the exact same conversation again, in order to hear the internal thoughts of both characters. Not only is the concept tedious, but it is somewhat belittling to the reader. The intent in replaying the conversation seems to be to provide humor by knowing the other participant’s perspective, but as a reader, I could already understand what was happening below the surface. I did not need to be told outright.
2. Captain Tashigi- Slightly better than the previous, if only because we weren’t forced to endure it two separate times. Similarly to the last story, the highlighted character is not developed at all, but thankfully, it doesn’t betray the character either.
3. Vinsmoke Reiju- By my estimation, while this story may not insult the reader as much as Hancock’s, it is instead an insult to Oda’s well crafted characters. While the story is through Reiju’s eyes, much of the plot focuses on all of the Vinsmoke siblings (sans Sanji), and while Reiju seems to act in-character, the siblings seem to be entirely redefined to fit a plot line that would be more suited for a children’s book.
4. Uta- Despite having numerous grievances with the past stories, this one was alright. Uta’s thoughts and dialogue sound far too old for her age in the story, and Shanks is too “sweet” to be believable for his character, but I can suspend my disbelief enough to see this as a charming way to flesh out the relationship between these two characters. From the collection, this is the one story I can truly recommend.
5. Bonus Story- This story is fine. Nothing of note.

Sadly, on top of the pointlessness and mischaracterization, the writing present in this collection is so stiff and bland that it falls victim to breaking the number one rule that every high school teacher has said at least once- “Show, don’t tell.” Likely, some of this is due to the translation between Japanese and English, but I have read numerous works translated from other languages and found beautiful prose provided by meticulous translation. That is not the case with this work.

I wish I could be more positive about this work, as I was truly excited for the opportunity to read it, but outside of the Uta story, I failed to find anything of substance.