This text was originally written for Arlong Park forums’ discussion thread.

Holy shit there’s a map of Wano. I’ve been waiting so long. Interesting how broken up it all is. I wonder if we’ll learn it’s all connected underwater like Long Ring Long Land, or if the different climates mentioned infer that it’s an archipelago of separate islands. Possibly separate islands moved together by a certain ancient giant…

We also don’t really know yet how large Wano is meant to be. It’s implied the journey between Okobore and Udon is far, but the Northern Graveyard is apparently a close and easy spot to escape to after the chaos at the palace, and that map definitely isn’t to scale, so who knows how it all really lines up.

As for the chapter overall. It was short, but the map alone makes up for it. The Sunach thing is… strange. I wonder where all that’s going. But it does hint at what was expected for a while: Koshiro is of Wanonian (Wanoese?) descent. Possibly his family left before all the unpleasantness with Orochi and Kaido, or fled from it. We know this Sunach line hasn’t been used before in One Piece, but does anyone have the raw Japanese text of it to do some searching with? I’d like to see if maybe it was used in the old Monsters oneshot somewhere, making it a Ryuma related thing. Kiku doesn’t seem to think that Sunach is inherently a bad thing, just not something Momonosuke, as a young lord, should be saying, which is interesting.

The rest of the crew mainly take some time to cool down and debrief. It’s good in the long haul, since the story seem to be about to get hectic again, but can make an already short chapter right before a break feel slightly impotent. Still, Robin’s hypercompetence was hilarious. Does she even have to ask if they should worry about the little girl they left back at what I understand to be a brothel though? It should be obvious she’s not!

Nami might be in for a rude shock if they do go on that bathhouse trip; what will the locals say about her tattoo?

The way I see it, this has tow outcomes. The first, she gets turned away and Sanji’s infiltration mission ends in disappointment. Second, she gets drafted into the yakuza because of the assumptions they make. They would be looking for another pretty girl to take in, what with their oiran just being slain. Too bad for Robin, after all that time she spent getting into the role, even if her cover was blown anyway. They can trade places!

I wonder if Oda means to show Komurasaki’s funeral. Closed casket, I assume, to hide how obviously faked her death was.

Luffy in the prison was mostly a setup scene, but I love, love, the scorpion guy’s design. I hope he gets a name and at least a little skimish with Luffy before he bites the dust next week. The old dude being someone important from the good old days is likely to be a big thing in the future, but we just don’t have enough info on the old Hyogoro for it to really have an impact immediately. Just more of an “oh, cool,” development. Queen arriving, Big Mom coming, Kid possibly hanging around, still looking for the handcuff keys, I think the next few chapters will have a lot of fun scenes in the prison.

And that’s basically the chapter in a nutshell. Setup. Lots of little things to make you excited for bigger things later. A breather that feels slow reading weekly, but will be a vital change of pace when reading the collected volumes. It’s a good chapter technically, because it does what it needs to, but it’s not exciting in the way the last few were.