Were we premature talking about 28 years with the last chapter? Because this week’s colour spread feels a lot more like an anniversary celebration piece than the previous one. The parallels with Roger’s crew. The whole gang together in Luffy’s backpack. It cuts a lot closer to the core of the story than last chapter’s fantasy piece that while beautiful, could have gone with any chapter.

And we get a Pokemon-collab Jump cover too. I’ve seen a lot of ‘what would his Pokemon team be’ type posts and Luffy and Pikachu is an uncommon pairing. I wonder how much say Oda really got in which one to draw – it would make sense if the Pokemon Company wanted their mascot as front and centre as possible, while everyone else seemed to go with more obscure favourites. If I’m honest, I feel kinda let down that this collab happened when it did. I’m not reading anything else in the magazine at the minute. I’m not invested enough in these characters and the artists behind them to see what they pick and and how they draw them. Wish this could have been a couple of years ago, but that’s just me and my media diet, not a real knock on the quality of the piece.

The flashback takes a surprising detour this week. Harald and Rocks were both logical extensions of a story about Loki. And Roger, sure, only one more degree of separation there as Rocks’ rival. We sorta have to visit him every time we wander through his heyday, and I imagine with the end so close Oda doesn’t want to run our of chances to explore him. But old-gen Kuja pirates? Sure, let’s just get everyone in this thing.

I could take or leave Gloriosa basically just repeating Hancock’s shtick, but having Shaky acting as a more popular internal rival brings a welcome change to the dynamic. And speaking of differences, after all the series-wide parallels and comparisons between Roger and Luffy, it’s cool seeing a side of Roger here that contrasts our captain. Not only does Luffy not experience the kind of attraction we see from Roger here, let alone to a great enough degree to throw a fight over it, he’s not the type to attack another crew to purposely win a crew member from them in battle. He’ll go the distance to recruit someone he’s interested in, but nothing he’s done has ever come off like this. And that little love web of Gloriosa, Shaky, Roger and Rayleigh is also something Oda wouldn’t write Strawhats going through. It definitely gets you thinking of what else might have changed across generations.

Switching back to Elbaph, Harald falls a parenting rung in my estimation that isn’t just about being absent and ignorant. He should be right there at Ida’s side telling the longboat captain off for hesitating to help. Who cares if Loki did something dumb first, he’s literally a child!

And Ida continues to rise. She could easily resent Loki as a symbol of the romance she couldn’t continue with Harald. He’s not her son to spark the protective instinct when he nearly drowns. Child or not, Loki acts like a little shit to her in this scene. It would be easy to understand her not liking him. But she still leaps to his defence, and even offers to take him in afterwards. What a genuinely wholesome figure. God, she can’t possibly survive a One Piece flashback, can she?

Switching to Rocks, this Silver Axe guy gets a pretty big introduction for a character I’d otherwise assume was a one-off for hype-building (even considering he’s been mentioned once before). Those X-mark glasses are a pretty cool design element though. I wouldn’t say no to someday learning more about this guy.

I also enjoy seeing that the big skull on Fullalead seems to be a deliberate creation of Rocks’. That’s a pretty bombastic move. And learning it was seen as fish-shaped before that intervention. I can’t unsee Oda’s fish-head avatar in the old version now. And while this last scene seems to mostly be fanservice cameos of old gen big names, it ties some threads between a bunch of noteworthy thumbtacks on our conspiracy theory board. What two Devil Fruits are Rocks after? How does the long lost Galleila crew play into it? (Should we be reading into the ‘they ain’t comin’ back to life’ comment?) Is it just respect for Harald’s strength and boldness that makes Rocks defensive of him, or is there a deeper reason Elbaph needs to be allied with rather than conquered? (And what does that mean about Imu’s ongoing conquest attempt?) Again and again, why is Elbaph so important to everyone?

Thematically, the two fruits have to be the Dark Dark and Gum Gum, right? This feels like as good a time as any to talk more seriously about the possibility that Loki never ate the forbidden Devil Fruit at all, and it was just presumed he did after it disappeared the same day everyone else in the castle died.

Two weeks ago, I wouldn’t have put money down on this flashback revisiting God Valley, but now it’s looking a lot more possible. And if you want to tie it back to what this story was originally about, we might see the World Government extract some info from a defeated and dying Rocks after the battle there, cluing them into the things he learned about Elbaph’s importance and prompting them to reach out to Harald and start making ties to find out what the king of giants is really sitting on. That would be my guess.

Whatever happens, this expanded focus on the big names of the old gen rather than the short tease I’d expected has left me very excited to see what’s coming up next.