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

After fighting a monstrous boar and being exiled from his hometown, Kozuki Oden must travel across the land to find a cure for his curse and see with eyes unclouded by hate… wait no, wrong story, that’s not right. Pack it up.

Denjiro is easily the most intriguing character of the flashback so far. There are plenty ideas of who he could be in the present floating around, but I can’t see anything concretely connecting him to anyone we’ve seen. I think it’s likely he could be the Witching Hour Boy or someone else we haven’t seen the face of yet, and his prominence so early in the flashback will allow him to catch up to the rest of the Scabbards in characterisation, given he’s been introduced so late. And it’ll surely be a relevant part of the story to come when Oda explains why he’s been in hiding for so long.

I wonder what colour young Kinemon’s hair is gonna turn out to be, just as a thought. Given what we’ve seen of Wano so far it could be basically any colour, a real wildcard. Did his hair turn black as he got older, or did he dye it after coming to the future to keep make the ruse of being Momo’s father more believable?

I feel a little bad for the Mountain God here. It was just trying to protect its (very cute) baby, and that horizontal bisection feels like an absolutely brutal way to die. (The use of a ladder to get people out of its belly in the background of the next page is great attention to detail though.) Oden really doesn’t hold anything back, does he? Him taking the blame for Kinemon’s actions was interesting. Not sure whether to read it as a mercy, as he has clout to spare and can take the heat when Kin might not be able to, or just another way to get all the attention and stir up trouble. Probably a little of both.

And then Orochi is introduced. Hard to say if his life has actually been as rough as his grubby appearance would suggest or if he’s just a sycophant sucking up to power in hopes of stealing some even this early. I think the latter. He stands in stark contrast to Oden. Oden acts brash and obnoxious, but ultimately stands tall and walks free and powerful, mildly shunned but secretly admired, while Orochi goes out of his way to be useful and cooperative, but ends up rolling in the dirt, being confined to servitude, and is instantly mistrusted. It’s absolutely tragic to know he’s going to come out ahead by the end of the flashback.

With only two chapters likely left for volume 95, Oda’s going to have to pick up the pace to find a big development to end it on. I don’t think we’re going to get two more chapters of individual Scabbard intros, things are going to start to accelerate towards Oden’s time as a pirate starting from the next chapter.