Aces-Adventures
- Storyline
- Ace's Adventures (Short-Term Cover Series, No. 4: Escapee)
- Cast
- Ace
- Status
- ongoing
A short-term cover-story series tracking Ace post-Drum Island. Pre-loads the Ace-vs-Blackbeard hunt sub-plot that pays off chapters later. The serial is explicitly labeled Short-Term Cover Series, No. 4 at its formal opening — a counted-serial format Oda uses for compact 5-10 chapter cover arcs.
Per-chapter log
- Ch. 177 — Pre-serial title splash (cowboy-Ace and his horse): Ace seated on a tree stump in cowboy-hat-and-pukka-bead-necklace composition, with a tall lanky horse beside him also wearing the wide-brim hat. First Ace cover-art-style chapter title splash since the Ch. 159 brotherhood canonization — wandering-rōnin-with-his-horse register. Pre-loads the Ace cover-narrative sub-arc.
- Ch. 182 — Short-Term Cover Series, No. 4: “ESCAPEE” (formal serial start): a tall twin-balloon-domed Marine warship (MARINE / MAR signage on hull, sail-rigging fully extended) sails an open sea; a tiny silhouetted figure climbs the rigging mid-mast (presumed Ace). First chapter of the new short-term Ace cover-series. Pre-installs the Ace-pursues-Blackbeard-via-Marine-warship sub-plot.
Notes
- Cover-arc still ongoing at the Ch. 190 cutoff. Ace-vs-Blackbeard pursuit that culminates in Banaro Island (Ch. 440) and the entire Marineford War. The cover-arc is the series’ first sustained Ace-offstage tracking — load-bearing for the Whitebeard saga.
- Continuation found: this same Ace Blackbeard-manhunt serial resumes — re-titled and re-numbered from Vol. 1 — as Aces-Great-Search-for-Blackbeard on the Ch. 0273–0277 title pages (Vols 2→5: dine-and-dash, gathering info, the wrong “Dr. Blackbeard”, thrown in the river). Same B-plot, later title phase; the dedicated note carries the full seed-payoff hook (Ace → Banaro → Marineford).
- Serial CONCLUDED: the Aces-Great-Search-for-Blackbeard phase ran continuously through Vol. 28 (Ch. 303) and ended at its FINAL VOLUME, “In the Name of Pirates,” on Ch. 305 — Ace fails to catch Blackbeard but vows to keep hunting him. The on-cover manhunt is now complete; its main-canon payoff (Banaro → Marineford) remains forward / uncaptured.