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

The colour spread truly does look nice, but it’s the second one in a row that’s promoing some collaboration. I really don’t like the idea of the colour spreads just becoming the One Piece ad space. Interesting that everyone is in their classic Fishman Island outfits except Usopp and Chopper. Usopp’s shirt is new, and the numbers of Chopper’s top weren’t there before. It’s probably meaningless, but it’s interesting that it happened regardless.

I was worried about the pacing for this chapter given how little there seemed left to cover before Oden’s death, but it turned out to be a pretty satisfying read. There were a couple of odd things though. The spreading of the news across the land was a weird point, given we’d just been shown Orochi’s guys hemming in all the citizens that heard. How quickly did it get to someone with the authority to send a news arrow out? Given how much of a hold Orochi seems to have on the capital, would there be anyone around willing to send out such damaging news? You almost could have had a whole scene of one loyalist trying to send the message while that one mystery bowman who keeps killing citizens who question Orochi tries to shoot him down first. Similarly, Oden keeping his swords in prison and being able to meet with Toki to hand them over. It’s not the end of the world for it to have happened, but one scene showing how Orochi’s forces tried and failed to stop it would make things feel a lot more thought through. Oda might not have had room, but hey, maybe as anime filler. Hint hint, Toei.

Also, a little translation thing, it feels like the pivotal line would have flown better if the order was reversed (ie “I was born to boil! Because my name is…” “…Oden!”) because that would be a more natural thing for the citizens to cry out as he died. It’s a shame Stephen was forced to commit to one version of the wording four years ago without the full context. There’s really no way we’re going to get a totally ideal translation for One Piece unless it’s started after the series ends. Oda does this to us too often. Also, what was Denjiro trying to say before Raizo stopped him? Not sure I’m following from the start of the line. Not sure if that was Oda’s intent or just how it’s been worded in English here.

Despite everything, I think the pivotal moments of Oden stepping into the pot and first lifting the Scabbards over his head had more of an impact than his actual death. Still, Oda did a really great job of showing him deteriorate over the course of the chapter, with his hair losing his shape, his posture starting to slouch, the blood and rendering, and a subtle screentone to show his body turning red. It’s painful to look at.

I don’t have strong feelings about the prophesised figure the same way a lot of other seem to. One Piece has always been about inherited will in a lot of ways, and it’s obvious that Luffy will eventually be learning and taking on the will of Joyboy. So far, inheriting the will of another has always been something done by choice because of similar ideals, not because it was destined or because someone was a reincarnation of someone else. Luffy is no more a reincarnation of Joyboy now than he was a reincarnation of Roger back when we thought it was only the late Pirate King he was taking on the will of. Of course, this may change when we learn what exactly made Joyboy so sure it would be exactly 800 years before a successor appeared, and that may put more of a reincarnation/destiny spin on things, but like, I’m not going to get mad about that before it’s actually confirmed.

I wonder if there’s going to be more to Cat and Dog’s fight than what we’ve seen here. It’s a good starting point, especially considering the victory Cat was bragging about is going to be stolen from them, but I want to see how it escalates to how they were at the start of Zou.

I was ready to take Raizo’s flashback panel as an error/mistranslation, what with Oden calling him by name in their apparent first meeting. I had to reread chapter 962 to remember the snippet of backstory he was given there, that he used to be part of the Kozuki family’s ninjas and that Oden did recognise him from that. So many little things to keep track of through this arc. Luckily Oda’s memory is better than mine.

Loved the panel tearing away as Toki ripped up the message on the last page, as well as the scraps of it overlapping the following panels. It’s a nice, unexpected touch of the kind Oda doesn’t usually go for.

What I’m not sure about is that last narration box. It strongly suggests the flashback is over, but it’s extremely rare for them to end bang on the last page of a chapter like this. Usually Oda tends to transition from past to present in the middle of a chapter, often over the course of a page or two with the black background fading out. And it seems like there’s a lot left to cover here! Particularly Momo and Kaido’s meeting and the exact circumstances and wording of Toki’s prophecy. Maybe the suggestion is meant to read as the flashback accelerating over the next chapter to go toward the present, given that a lot of these later events have already been discussed at length. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be happy to see Luffy again if we are flashing forward, but I’ll believe it when it happens. And if we actually are going back right away, I’ll be expecting more flashback later on. Maybe when Kaido and Momo come face to face at Onigashima that’ll be the trigger for the last section of this story. Just seems weird to break it up that way after committing so hard to telling the whole story in this one block here.

A good chapter overall, even if the last one really stole the show for raw impact, and I’m concerned about the choice to go back to the present so abruptly, if that is what’s happening on the last page, but we’ll see where we’re at this time next week.