One Piece: Thriller Bark Saga (Vols. 46–50)

In the Florian Triangle, the crew meets Brook, a shadowless skeleton musician, and is soon captured by Thriller Bark, a ship the size of an island. Its owner is Gecko Moria, a Warlord who steals shadows to bring to life a zombie army. Luffy, Zoro and Sanji lose their shadows and race the clock: anyone without a shadow turns to dust in sunlight. Luffy fills his body with a hundred borrowed shadows, becomes Nightmare Luffy and beats Moria just as dawn breaks. The shadows go back to their owners. Then Bartholomew Kuma, another Warlord, arrives to wipe out the crew. Zoro agrees to take all of Luffy's pain himself and afterwards says nothing happened. Brook joins the crew, set on seeing the whale Laboon again.

1. SetupThe promise to Laboon

   Brook, the skeleton musician, is tied to Laboon, the whale from the start of the Grand Line: his crew was the one that promised to come back to her.

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2. Behind the scenesHorror on the high seas

   Thriller Bark has just 48 chapters (442–489), the shortest saga of Part 1. Oda packed the island with zombies, ghosts and a Frankenstein-style mad scientist.

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3. SetupAnother Warlord

   Gecko Moria is the second Warlord the crew fights head-on, after Crocodile. And Bartholomew Kuma, another member of the group, shows up at the end.

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4. Behind the scenesNothing happened

   The scene where a blood-soaked Zoro says 'nothing happened' after facing Kuma is one of the most quoted moments in the whole manga.

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