One Piece’s tournament in Dressrosa’s Corrida Colosseum added memorable cast members, highlighted Sabo and made waves that will impact future arcs.
Many post-timeskip arcs in One Piece suffer from total lengths that detract from the overall experience for weekly readers and viewers. For example, the “Dressrosa” arc is an infamously long day in the One Piece story whose charm got diluted by perceived story bloating. However, the story beats shine brighter now that the arc has concluded.
Dressrosa’s grand tournament for Ace’s fruit suffered greatly from the week-to-week approach as it introduced dozens of characters, contained lots of goofy battles and seemed too separated from the main narrative to deal with Doflamingo. Those combatants’ likability and the festivity of Corrida Colosseum become evident upon second glance. This tournament utilizes many of the core shonen themes found in similar tournament arcs while standing out due to core differences from these storylines.
The Corrida Fighters Drastically Expanded the Cast for Future Arcs
Tournaments serve as a solid setting to introduce a bunch of new characters. Since Oda is already a master of expanding the One Piece cast at every new island, this tournament led to many introductions on top of separate story arc-based introductions not tied to the Colosseum. While these introductions seemed excessive and unnecessary, they provided an excellent payoff. In addition, certain characters became highly memorable through ridiculous actions, including Bartolomeo, Cavendish and Chinjao.
Letting certain newly-introduced named characters trounce other tough-looking named characters gave them weight. When the fighters united with Luffy against the Donquixote Pirates, this character weight was further flushed out. This payoff shone when these individuals formed the Straw Hat Grand Fleet, and Luffy benefited from this Fleet late in the story. Through solid introductions during the “Dressrosa” arc, the Fleet members could contribute to the final conflicts without excessive exposition.
A Display of Haki and Fantastically Weird Abilities
As with any strong tournament, the competitors showed exhilarating displays of power. Seeing Haki on full display helped ground the power while establishing a distinctive difference in Haki capabilities. Don Chinjao and Sai are impressive armament Haki users, topping the pack of arena fighters, yet they still needed to catch up to Luffy’s growing skills.
Haki became more normalized through stronger competitors, while many exhibited unique skills and Devil Fruit abilities. Elizabello II’s King Punch supposedly has the impressive ability to knock out a Yonko if charged up enough, establishing that there are rare super-powerful abilities outside the realm of Haki and Devil Fruit. Cavendish’s impressive power growth got even weirder upon falling into a narcoleptic trance where an alternate identity, Hakuba, took over. Hakuba fights differently, with an aggressive bloodlust, and looks like a monstrous version of Cavendish. There were multitudes of other abilities on display, all adding to the impressive depths and mysteries of One Piece’s world.
The Tournament Ace’s Devil Fruit Broke the Mold
Where the tournament is typically the main part of a story arc, highlighting the central cast and main villains for the arc, the fights in Corrida Colosseum were only a small piece of the “Dressrosa” arc where the only Straw Hat to participate was Luffy. Entering the tournament alone gave Luffy a chance to shine without the filter of his crewmates. Instead, he awkwardly bungled about, trying to hide his identity and keep his eye on the prize.
The more aware participants quickly realized his identity and reacted accordingly. However, at the twilight hour, Sabo replaced Luffy and went back to pursuing Doflamingo. Sabo won the tournament and emboldened his place as one of the three brothers by eating Ace’s fruit and partially inheriting his will. The tournament was about minor arc characters and Sabo more than any Straw Hat. Meanwhile, the member of the Donquixote Pirates fighting in the finals ended up slipping out to antagonize other characters.
The tournament in Dressrosa exemplified the tropes of tournament arcs, introducing a large swathe of characters, expanding the world by mentioning new countries and displaying wild abilities from all ends of the spectrum. On the other hand, it bucked so many trends by only including Luffy, who skipped out before the finals. Oda also took advantage of this chaos to bring Sabo to the forefront and endear him to fans, which will continue to pay off in future arcs. Where most tournaments are about resolving issues with enemies, this was a story of new friendships and family reunions. Oda wrote a fun and unique tournament by embracing core tropes and foregoing others.
