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

Heyyy the whole crew’s back together! I expected this to be more of a moment, probably something revealed at the end of a chapter with a colour spread, but maybe Oda’s saving that for when they have Jinbe in tow. The new outfits look spectacular as well, with the choice to dress up Zeus as well being a highlight. We’re at the start of a new volume with this chapter (nice that it came out alongside the reveal of the previous volume’s finished cover), so it wouldn’t shock me to see a straw hats cover with all these new outfits on show. I could see it as a parallel to volume 64’s cover maybe.

And speaking of being back together, the big trio of Luffy, Law and Kidd are fight side by side and trying to show off and outdo each other yet again, and I love it. Luffy and Law side by side was great fun on Dressrosa, and throwing the even more volatile and competitive Kid in the mix can only make things better. I’m keen to see more of old Jaggy as the battles in Wano build to their conclusion. Also nice to see that Kidd as Heat and Wire by his side again. Aside from Law and Bege, the crews of the Supernovas often seem to slip into non-existence before the overwhelming charisma of their captains, so it’s good to see a couple of them acknowledged.

There’s a lot going on in the back half of the chapter to resolve the series of shocking cliffhangers set up before the flashback. Some of it works, some of it feels a little contrived but one amazing piece of trademark Oda humour brings it all together. The weakest part is the explanation of the Sunny’s survival. Like, it’s not a plot hole or any kind of contradiction, but “oh the Sunny was never really in danger to begin with” is underwhelming. Especially considering a destroyed Sunny fakeout has been done better fairly recently.

The rest works a bit better. Spare ships? Well Oda made a big point of having Franky say he was building extras just in case, so that works. Bridge attacks timed wrong? Orochi being sheltered isn’t the best explanation, but if you look back to chapter 959, you can see the samurai looking back at the bridge as it’s destroyed, not toward it. That’s some neat foreshadowing! Did anyone catch it at the time? I would have liked a hint of the ships being hidden in the spread of the Shogun’s procession as well, but you can’t win them all. Probably would have been too obvious anyway.

The Japanese linguistics, symbolism and everything else behind the port/warf switcheroo are all stupidly overcomplicated in a really fun way. From what I’ve seen, even in the original Japanese it’s a train of thought that can only barely be followed. It’s almost a send-up of the crazy “I know you know I know” plays and counterplays of something like Death Note, and it’s perfectly topped off by the fact that Kinemon did it all completely by accident. Oda excels at writing moronic characters who fail upward. He doesn’t just make them funny, he makes their blunders important to the plot without the upward momentum that comes from them feeling cheap. It’s one of those little things that One Piece does really well that you rarely even see attempted anywhere else.

Oh, and even though it’s very talky (and how are they all hearing each other from so far apart on the sea in a storm?), I’m glad Oda managed to resolve all the cliffhangers and betrayals without going back into flashbacks. The story is at a point where it needs forward momentum, and this keeps it going just fine.

Finally, there is some spectacular art in this chapter. The way Wano’s seas are drawn is always a treat, but we also have two whole fleets of really detailed ships (the narrow middle panel of page 15 with the ships mostly silhouetted, shown from behind is striking but easily lost in all the stuff going on around it. The three captains look great as they fly into action. There’s a ton of different Beasts Pirates who’re all distinct and expressive, and the amount of detail in that final spread with all the samurai and yakuza ships speaks for itself. Not to mention the detail in Kin’s expression in the final panel. This one was a real treat.