One piece vol 9 by eiichiro oda

Nami continues to be torn between Arlong’s crew, her love for her village, and the fleeting loyalty she still has for Luffy and his crew. In another epic flashback, we see Nami as a child with her stepsister and their adoptive mother, who was once a pirate soldier who rescued the two young babies and decided to raise them on the island. Bellemére didn’t have much for them and scraped by as a tangerine farmer until the fateful day when Arlong’s fish-men crew raided the town and demanded a toll for every person in it. Arlong discovered young Nami’s gift for drawing maps, and she enters a fool’s deal with the pirate to buy her village from him while drawing navigational maps in his service.

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This flashback sequence and finding out Nami's past was some of the most emotionally charged and interesting scenes of the story so far. Oda has built up all of the character's backstories and put thought into each one, but the payoff of waiting so many volumes to learn about Nami was worth it, and the care put into telling Nami's story is evident. She was absent for a few volumes while the bit with the restaurant was going on, but this makes up for it. Her story also makes Arlong seem like a bigger bad guy than Don Krieg, so it's good that Oda is able to find ways for each new baddie to outdo the last one.

Sara's Rating: 9/10
​Suitability Level: Grades 7-12

Publisher: VIZ Media
Publication Date: October 10, 2005
ISBN: 9781421500751 (Paperback)

Reviews of previous volumes in this series: vol 1, vol 2, vol 3, vol 4, vol 5, vol 6, vol 7, vol 8

​Tags: Rating: 9/10, Suitability: Middle School, Suitability: High School, Manga, Action Adventure, Humor, ​VIZ Media