Oh, Sanji, what are you doing? What are you doing? You were supposed to be the chivalric white knight that respects women and protects them from the worse types! Your lechery and amorousness were meant to be endearingly lighthearted and with some limits to them, not genuinely threatening! No good. This one trait's been gradually dominating his character, and in this volume - in his battle with Absalom - it tips over into becoming old news... yet even from here it continues on and on and still shows no signs of the author growing tired of it.
Good thing the rest of the volume's got no complaints. The last two ones were largely spent on figuring out what was going on with this place, running away from fights, getting spooked, and getting beaten... but now we know exactly what's about and what's at stake, and the counterattack begins. A great charge right at the start as the heroes get serious. Luffy has his first encounter with the Warlord villain... who, instead of beating the shit out of him and leaving him for dead like the last guy, just runs away. What a craven lazy git. Yet he still manages to be pretty threatening when he tries to.
At the opposite end, Zoro has a great fight, and Usopp gets one of his best moments period. Usopp could use more highlight in the post-timeskip, to be honest. Chopper finds himself at the center of surprisingly strongly-tugged heartstrings, a great speech about the value of life and what a great scumbag Hogback is. Franky doesn't get to fight, but he does get a great gag, so it's all good.
And then there's Oars. Right there on the cover, ending the volume about to kick the whole crew's collective asses. A real cliffhanger.
The arc continues solid, if not great.