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

This time I kinda like Jaimini’s interpretation of the chapter title more than the official one, but it sounds like that was a hard one to adapt, and Jaimini’s pun doesn’t feel quite like it would fit with Viz’s usual style.

Hyori got a lot more likable, if a little less interesting through the chapter (come on Oda, let a woman besides Hancock be heroic but also still not a nice person), but her scenes provided good explanations for the lingering questions the reveal left hanging. Why she revealed herself to Zoro, how she lived and why she didn’t go to the future are all satisfactorily explained. All we need now is how she escaped the capital and what Kyoshiro’s alignment truly is. What I did really like was Zoro’s characterisation through the scene. He’s got the right amount of coolness and competence while also making it obvious why he’s not the captain despite these traits.

I liked how the prisoners in that short scene are mostly background characters from earlier in the arc. Good sense of continuity. I bet they’ll all be named in an SBS or a Vivre Card later on. I want to learn more about the bonsai-head dude. Where I think this is going now is that Act Two of Wano will build towards two simultaneous prison breaks for its climax, although that’s probably only going to be just getting started (if it goes that far) by the time Volume 93 ends.

Back to Luffy’s prison and another Kawamatsu tease. I liked the idea of him being an otter mink more than the kappa theory it looks like we’re getting. Could there be a happy medium? Feels unlikely, but I can hope. I really enjoyed Luffy’s use of future sight during the action bit, and picking up Hyo like Yoda at the end. The new Haki lore is surprising. I’d been certain things like the art seeming to depict the admirals’ barrier and the elephant bouncing off Rayleigh’s hand were just quirks of Haki’s visual depiction not being fully pinned down yet, but I’m totally wrong, it was all lore! And we get apparent confirmation for the theory that Zoro awakened his Haki in Alabasta. I wonder if comment will ever be passed on Luffy finding the real Galdino via “instincts” or the idea he might have used a little subconscious Haki to back up the thin layer of blood he used to fight Crocodile that final time. Even if nothing is ever confirmed directly, having this one instance acknowledged speaks volumes for them.

Luffy infers that better Haki could be the way to penetrate Kaido’s scales, indicating his invulnerability has something to do with his devil fruit powers (sorry, I need a bit more evidence before I’ll consider the could be his base form), which is a little odd, since it seemed logical that the things making Kaido and Linlin invincible were the same. As much as I generally dislike training arcs, I think it’s good Oda decided to use a mentor character this time around rather than having Luffy learn by fighting an initially impossible matchup twice in a row. Hopefully Linlin’s imminent arrival will keep the training session from going on too long.

Another decent lore/transition chapter, but I’m looking forward to the action ramping up soon.