The mini mystery of the last couple of chapters will be a footnote in One Piece’s run – likely to be resolved in a matter of minutes by all future readers as the answer isn’t even going to be broken up between volumes – but it’s a great show of Oda’s willingness to keep arcs starting in fun and novel ways. It almost would have been too comfortable for the crew to land normally on Elbaf, flanked by powerful warriors, Luffy maybe even welcomed as a messiah. I can see that kind of event tempting a storyteller. Yes, it’s low stakes, but you’d get to tour the island, dump exposition and ease into conflict at whatever pace you want. While the justification is ultimately contrived, the choice to do this at all unbalances the characters and the audience from the sense of security the last arc’s ending might have left them with.

Shinobu is unexepectedly fat again on the cover. I was critical at the end of Wano of the way Aramaki’s draining revitalised her while only shriveling Raizo, but you know what, I can roll with her having a yo-yo diet body type as a gag. That said, the fact that she was still skinny and in the capital listening to Vegapunk’s broadcast in chapter 1115 raises some questions about the cover story’s timeline.

One thing I’m not as hot on is the Strawhats killing Rodo’s pets. I know, they aren’t heroes and there’s a strong case to be made for self-defence, but wow, you would think Oda would find a way to write around that uncomfortable idea. That poor rabbit must have had no idea what hit it.

And in contrast to the above, Luffy shows a whole lot more remorse about breaking the block town than he does about eating the guy’s bunny, but I enjoyed the joke of the cat not caring one bit about smashing straight through.

This is a great chapter for Nami. Actually, this whole mystery mini arc has been good for her, with hilarious new expressions and good moments to showcase her skills, from memorising the blueprint to dropping massive lightning bombs on Rodo. Usopp gives a hint of the power he’ll be able to show in the future after he builds up his confidence with the sheer size of that bomb grass explosion, but with Luffy still being needed to knock down the wall behind him it’s clear we’ll have to wait for the character development to happen before he’s allowed to notch real wins.

As for Rodo himself, an otaku role-playing a god is a unique villain angle, especially for One Piece. But it works well for making the reader hope for his downfall – the laughter over the death of his pet for the sake of “character development,” the dehumanisation of his captives, and the skeevy attitude toward Nami make that thunderbolt at the end richly deserved. I wonder if he’s a sacrifice to make the opening mini-arc work, or if there’s more to come. I can’t imagine him as the ultimate villain of Elbaf. Certainly we’ll have to turn back and see him again at some point to recover the Sunny and Luffy’s hat that was presumably taken when their clothes were changed.

I said above that the means of setting up this conflict were contrived, and I mean it. Muginn’s goes crazily out of scale to be able to steal the ship, and this Sleeping Mists are something that comes fully out of nowhere to advance the plot. It does cover the bases of how and why and the reason not even the non-drinkers are talking about what happened, but come on. This is a small enough part of the story that I don’t think anyone will remember this as a major flaw, but it stands as a minor missed opportunity that it couldn’t come together better. Oh well.

And what a tease to end on, Luffy’s reaction instead of the reveal. One more week of wondering. At least there’s no break. I think there’s slim odds it won’t be Elbaf after this chapter’s reveals. While Road is surprised to see the Strawhats, the way he talks about their journey doesn’t imply a different destination to where he is. And the fact that the cell was designed to hold giants means that they’re commonly found in the place we’re at. Could all still be a misdirect for a small, offshore facility or closely neighbouring island I guess, but I like the idea of the next chapter opening onto a lavish spread of the Elbaf environment. Well, wherever it goes, I’ll be here.