Google blocked you guys. Your ads have malware. Might want to check that out.

Baby Laboon is cute enough to awwwwwww over for hours. hugs him

This flashback… soooo sad. Brooke is the hopes and dreams of ALL his crew now, and the honor of his first captain too. That's a big enough dream to match any of the Straw Hats, IMHO. Welcome, Brooke. You fit right in, you amazing bony freak. ^_^

But 50 years ago... that's pre-Roger The Pirate King's era. Hmmm. How does this really fit in with the structure we've been used to up to now, Oda you sly dog? [With the launching of the Great Pirate Era supposedly coming about with Roger's DEATH and all] Brooke's REALLY old. He may be a treasure trove of info on the development of politics and such in the Grand Line (if he ever quits with the skeleton jokes and talks seriously with Robin that is).

And I suspect Yorki's disease might be something very like what Nami had… an insect-borne disease. Isn't Dr. Kureha plenty old enough to have known the Rumba's? I wonder if her bitterness (and extra violence) over Nami taking her infection so lightly could be the remnants of her trying to stamp that disease out with other doctors on the Grand Line?

Ah. Anyway. Exceptional chapter. (Now get back to Zoro!! Waaaaah!!)

@TakinawaTonfa:

#5: What about DVD releases? Will they be the TV version, or uncut?
Answer: Uncut DVD's are on the way. By uncut, they mean completely unedited or altered. All of the violence, blood, and cigarettes can be seen in full glory on DVD's. Due to issues with the DVD distribution rights of the 4kids dub, the Funi DVD's will be released to the public in 13-episode volumes for $49.99, starting at Japanese episode 144, **and will be released in a time period ranging from November of this year to February 2008.**The TV version will never see a DVD release, ever.

Okay. It's November 2007 already. Amazon has zilch on anything except the 4Kids crap vol 12, and Rightstuf has nada on their pre-order page too. Funi doesn't even have a real website for OP yet… O_o;;

So.... does ANYONE know when Funi's first set of uncut DVDs is actually going to be released? crosses fingers that its for xmas time I don't care that it's halfway through the series, I want my Straw Hat Pirates uncut now!

Been leeching and lurking for a while now… many, many grateful thanks to tenny and the fxdm guys for the Japanese raws. bows low Keep my week sane, they do.

Whoa. WTF… Kuma's huge. Maybe he's of giant stock? Half giant? Yowza. Oda gets weird on relative body sizes all the time but… man...

And if the Straw Hat's were going for just one throw of Odz... pwned! Woot!

Glorious chapter~! Luffy not being able to move. Sanji rescuing everyone! Usopp rallying everyone again! The Frankies and Galley-La safe! (GO PAULIE!) Merry!!! Oda, you're brilliant!!

Which character said ships couldn't heal themselves and get stronger like people can way back at the beginning of Water 7? But what if… Merry is like Pinocchio and is a 'real little boy' now? If the Straw Hat's determination and love rubbed off enough... Merry (via the Kalublautermann) could be a real member of the crew now too.

Which means... maybe no carpenter needs to join at all... oi... that might start a few arguments here, eh? snickers

What the heck was Sanji up to? Ahhh… have to wait for the translation...

Thanks for the gorgeous work on the Poll. That had to be a hell of a lot of work! You guys have just kicked Null out of my favorite scanlator spot (plus, you guys are faster!). Thanks again!!

Okay, board noob here, so sorry if it's been mentioned before… (I couldn't find it... but didn't look in every thread.) but does anyone else see a connection between Water 7's huge fountain and Ennies Lobby's huge waterfall? It's not a Knock-up Stream, but it could be something like it -- the water has to go somewhere even in Oda's world. (Gods know what the underlying geology of the Grand Line is like anyway... freakish is a mild way to put it.)

I'm thinking the easiest way for the Straw Hats to deal with Buster Call is to run from it.

I'm not sure beating Buster Call is the kind of closure Robin needs. Unless everyone surviving it is considered beating it... but it might be for her, given how convinced she is that most won't. And given that we saw Luffy take on several thousand average Marines already... he might be able to hold off a few of the ships, but likely not all. He's only one guy. Running is their best option. Where and how has always been the sticky point here... I'm not in favor of them going through the Gate of Justice. That would appear to put them at Marine HQ way too soon (but Oda could still pull a fast one). The Straw Hats aren't ready to bring down the World Government yet - Luffy just declared war on it. It's gotta sink in for everyone. (Plus he needs to fight/face more Shichibukai first -- traitor pirates tick him off.)

However, they do now have 50+ Franky Family dismantlers and the Galley-La carpenters sitting around unsupervised for the next 30 minutes... they might be able to throw something together in the way of an escape vessel.

I'm also hoping Smoker's close enough on Luffy's tail to get caught up in the Buster Call... and once he gets there, refuses to kill Marines just 'because'. Randomly destroying a Marine installation certainly wouldn't seem to fit with Smoker's idea of Justice. And it would make for some choice tension and division in the Marine ranks, eh? There's a whole fleet of men willing to follow someone like Smoker just waiting to be rescued from Ennies Lobby that way...

I have to wonder about Aokiji's motives, given that he gave the Golden Den Den Mushi to a complete loser wimp like Spandam in the first place... why?