Captain M Entertainment

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

What a crazy chapter to leave things on going into a break. Volume 105 is building to its conclusion soon and I’m absolutely buzzing about it. The cover story alone is huge, confirming Kuzan’s status as a full fledged Blackbeard Pirate. I’m willing to believe it too, at this stage. Theories have flown for years about him possibly being a double agent or building up his own agenda for his own sake of justice, but it’s hard to imagine any justification for putting a resource as big as Pudding in Blackbeard’s hands unless you’re all in for his endgame.

I’m pleasantly surprised to see more of Blackbeard and Law fighting right out of the gate. Giving Law’s crew a chance to shine is especially good, they were long overdue for a moment. Having them be underwater specialists goes a bit of a way to justify their lack of big moments on Onigashima but it still would have been nice to see a snippet of them taking out some fodder with surprise attacks from the castle moat or in the bathhouse or something. Better late then never though, and their quick, stealthy operation to hit the raft ship from underwater while the captains clash above gives us a good idea of how this crew usually works together. All that said, it took me a moment to work out what Law was actually doing on the first spread that was so different from his normal operations. I think it’s that he generated his Room around Blackbeard, Doc and Stronger instead of around himself and was able to use his amputation moves without personally going inside it. It’s definitely a step up in threat level from the unawakened version, which you could keep relatively safe from by staying away from the user.

Pretty funny having Doc ask directly if Stronger is dead and then continue assuming he is even after Stronger actually responds to that first question.

I like the different philosophies at play among the high level combatants in the world. Kaido thought that Haki conquered all, but Blackbeard clearly thinks differently. Law has no compunction about exploiting the common weakness of Blackbeard’s specialised crew, which might be part of why he had such a ruthless reputation at his introduction.

Pudding showing up in the actual chapter is super interesting. I don’t think we’ve ever had a cover story play into the main plot so immediately and directly. She still looks pretty scuffed up, so either they’ve been treating her roughly or the Tottoland invasion happened closer to the present than I was picturing. The timeline issues thicken. Oda plays Big Mom’s status close to his chest. Honestly, I think she is dead, but it’s not clear if Pudding was captured before something like that could be confirmed via Vivre Card.

I’m not going to pat myself on the back for calling the idea of the future version SBS asks being canonised by Bonney’s fruit because honestly it was low-hanging fruit, but I still love seeing it. Curious that Luffy looks at his bad future counterpart instead of the good one. I suppose he’s only on the good track after he becomes King of the Pirates, right?

Jinbe’s summary of Kuma’s life is curious in its contrast to what we’ve been shown previously. Neither the childhood Kuma from the SBS or Bonney’s flashback from last chapter showed him in the royal regalia of Jinbe’s mental image, in fact he looked quite poor. I think we’ve got a bit more still to learn about Kuma’s life and the way the World Government (presumably) massaged his image into that of a tyrant to discredit his opposition to them. All that alongside the deal made to give up his life and be a cyborg, which Oda is hinting will be relevant soon. Bonney may think he was coerced or tricked into doing it, but after seeing the way Kuma made the long term play in separating the Straw Hats at Sabaody and was able to work with Vegapunk to have his final mission to protect the Sunny programmed in, I think we’ll find Kuma submitted to in some way serve a greater good.

And then there’s the special people comment. Oda doesn’t draw Kuma with any distinct skin tone, and he lacks anything like wings (as does Bonney), so what is it that makes his race special? It would have to be an ability of some kind, or a symbolic heritage being passed down (maybe in the form of a unique, secret special initial, if I really want to take a shot in the dark.)

Bonney getting a lightsaber is a really fun development. Hope she gets at least one decent fight with it.

We get a little more Egghead worldbuilding as the crew are carried up to the lab, and it’s still cool and vibrant and interesting. Good attention to detail having Franky setting foot on sky island clouds for the first time.

I would say it’s a shame to have Zoro and Brook sidelined so soon, but when have the characters who remain on the ship ever been totally left out of the plot? Short of Zoro sleeping through Gaimon’s chapter in the series’ first year and Franky spending most of Punk Hazard bringing the ship around the island, the stay-behind group always gets drawn in one way or another. The only real loss is not getting new outfits for them alongside the rest.

And speaking of, they’re an interesting lot. It’s a tiny personal thing, but I appreciate the levers on the boots being given an actual function. After mistaking them for number 6-related design elements during the whole Atlas number mixup it feels like closure to have Oda telling me what they’re for. For the rest of it, they certainly fit the mood of the arc, but are a little mixed to my personal aesthetic tastes. Is Sanji’s top a Hawaiian shirt with a hood? What a fashion statement! I like Usopp’s jacket, but the full length bodysuit looks a little too featureless on him. Needs a seam or some more creases to break it up. (Lilith’s design has a similar issue and an equally cool jacket). Franky looks great in his visor and the clockwork key in his head is fun. Will it turn out to be a hat, or his new hairstyle?

And then there’s Nami and Robin in pure fanservice mode. Nami’s getup has a hood, a high neck and a plush looking trim on some of the edges, making it look suited for the island’s natural winter climate, until you look at the bare arms and legs. But hey, Sanji’s shirt has a similar contradiction, so maybe it’s intentional. Kinda fits with the setting being a winter island with tropical air conditioning, right? I love Robin’s jacket and its chunky arms but is that a goddamn suspender bikini bottom underneath? The future’s fashion is wild. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find the looks cool, regardless of their practicality.

Interesting that everyone has an earpiece with an antenna now. Are we going to have the crew be more in-contact than ever, even during the split-up portions of this arc? Oh no, Zoro’s going to be one of the only ones without one. Was his guard the ship choice just a play to get him wandering the island with no one to guide him?

Is it just me, or has Oda been leaning hard on the fanservice lately? Black Maria fighting topless, Robin’s ultimate move coming out naked despite her other full body clones having clothes, the post-battle bathhouse scene, Bonney wringing out her shirt, and now her, Robin and Nami all set up to spend the coming arc casually pantsless. The ass-emphasising camera angle in Bonney’s last panel this chapter also stands out. Oda’s never skimped on drawing female characters in a way that appeals to him and playing with suggestive outfits. We’ve had one-off bath scenes in a couple of past arcs too. But I can’t recall him using this much nudity over so many characters in such a short amount of time. I don’t want to sound like some horrible puritan who thinks artists shouldn’t draw things they’re attracted to just to enjoy looking at them, or that they shouldn’t write societies with looser nudity taboos than the real world, or that readers can’t enjoy it when they do or anything dumb like that – all those things can work or fall flat based on execution and consistency of tone – I’m just making an observation that things seem a little hornier around here than they used to be.

You probably shouldn’t try to get away with calling a leotard combat gear though. Not fooling anyone with that one, Oda.

The final scene puts Vegapunk in league with the Revolutionaries, which is a really cool development that makes a lot of sense in hindsight, given the Kuma stuff. If this has come out, it explains Cipher Pol’s sudden decision to kill the scientists as well. I’m not expecting this to be a full on Revolutionaries arc, just due to Dragon being on the other side of the world, but all new details are welcome. I’m most interested to see where Vegapunk’s personal politics end up sitting, given how much harm he’s helped the World Government cause. It’s hard to picture him as a full-on Revolutionary, but I got a sense of familiarity from his exchange with Dragon, so it doesn’t feel like this is a new association.

I’m having a fantastic time in this new arc and hope to see things heat up further as we go into the final few chapters of this volume after the break.

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

Oda explored the idea of cutting away to global events during an ongoing arc using Wano’s intermissions but even those were made distinct and separate from the arc surrounding them. For the final saga, he takes it further. Any scene break could lead to anywhere in the world and any kind of event. The rule of saving these things for the post-battle portion no longer applies. We’re in unexplored territory.

And on that topic, the cover story is showing some pretty extreme relevance to current events this time around, strongly suggesting another piece of Blackbeard’s plans. Usually these things take years to come back around. A shame for the anime-onlies, not being able to see that extra layer unfold, unless something changes by the time the series gets to here. Anyway, I was a big denier of the two figures who showed up at Chocolate Town being from the Blackbeard Pirates, but I have been proven sorely mistaken. Even last week I was thinking that Kuzan, not being an official member of the crew, might be acting on some other agenda. But there’s no mistaking the intent behind Pudding’s kidnapping. At some point I want to try and pin down the timeline of all of Blackbeard’s recent moves relative to current events. The part where said he would go claim something during Wano’s first intermission was around day four of the Reverie, which by my reckoning should be long after when this cover story is taking place. I have a gut feeling that it’s going to be hard to make events fully line up. Blackbeard making a move on Tottoland is something the Marines should have mentioned during the Reverie arc if it happened in that timeframe. The crew seems to have moved around a lot in a relatively short amount of time as well, but given Van Auger’s new fruit, that might be a feature instead of a bug.

Getting into the actual chapter, I like the new outfits for Luffy’s group (despite the questionable practicality of Bonney’s ‘combat gear’ and I’m looking forward to seeing how the lab actually functions, with the locals appearing from nowhere and Atlas’s job seemingly being to cause chaos. How does that fit into the science? The Recycollie is a great addition as well. And it makes sense for the lab to be harsh on thieves, given what we learned from Lilith about their funding.

Something about the sequence of panels where the Pacifista spots Luffy and charges had me thinking on my first look that the he’d run in the opposite direction instead of charging. The camera breaks the 180 degree rule of staging, making for a slightly awkward sequence on the first look. The action that follows is pretty cool though. I love the panel of Luffy and Jinbe making cool landings while Chopper just faceplants.

It’s interesting that Luffy is so confident the Kuma here is just a Pacifista. Of course, we know he’s right and the real one is with the Revolutionaries, but can he sense something about the copy that gives it away? Maybe this is a sign that Luffy’s Observation Haki is that much better than Bonney’s, or maybe she was (understandably) just too overwhelmed with emotion to reach out rationally with her senses.

Hard cut to Law in battle with the Blackbeard Pirates, which is honestly and truly the last thing I expected to see in this chapter. I would have put money on Law not showing up til the post-arc section at least, or there even being years before his next appearance. It really feels like Blackbeard is disrupting the status quo here, moving around and hunting down fan favourite characters personally in a way the other high level adversaries, even the pirate-hunting Marines, never really get to. The man is dangerous and he could be anywhere. The endgame really does feel close when you’ve got the presumed final boss mobilising like this.

Fem Law sure is something. So thanks to the Seraphim being childlike versions of the Warlords, we’re seeing the ‘draw so and so as a kid’ SBS asks being gradually canonised, now we get one of the gender ones too. I have to wonder if Bonney’s powers will be used to put the aged-up versions of different characters from recent volumes in the manga as well. It’s great how Oda can weave these things into the story. Personally, I’m not bothered by the Feminization Disease, at least for being what it is. This is a series where hormonal manipulation can result in on-the-spot sex changes, giant heads and bodies rewired to unpoison themselves. Plenty of real world diseases throw the body’s hormones out of balance. It’s not out of line for someone with a disease fruit to be able to do this kind of thing.

Where I do take issue is it being kind of a boring way to use such a high-potential fruit. Maybe Oda just didn’t want to repeat the grim, zombie-like progression of mummy and ice oni viruses from the last arc, but it still doesn’t feel like a power being used to its maximum potential.

Actually, all the Blackbeard Pirates’ new powers have this issue. Burgess has a strength related power? Given how strong humans in this world can get through training alone, I have to ask what the point of that is. Think of the iceberg Jozu through, or Garp’s iron ball weapon. Law’s powers were able to levitate a mountain far larger than what Burgess lifts here all the way back at Punk Hazard. Burgess needs an attack with at least the gravitas of the (allegedly) Emperor-felling King Punch (which was done fruitless by Elizabello) to justify a power like that. A warping fruit? Either Kuma or Law’s powers offer similar benefits with far more utility. And a pegasus zoan given to a horse? Come on, that’s just a flight fruit with nothing else to offer. Give it to a human they might get horse stamina, deadly hooves or powerful back leg kicks, but Stronger should have already had all of that. All he gets is the wings. These are strange choices, truly.

Part of me wants to have faith that there’s a plan for these underwhelming reveals, that the crew has min-maxed in some way around their basic powers. A sniper with a warping power and a doctor who can make diseases feel like decent starting points. Another part thinks Oda may have pinned down the powers he wanted the final pirate enemies to have early on and hasn’t changed them as the other fruits shown got crazier and crazier. I lean toward the positive interpretation. One Piece so rarely lets me down.

Despite his recent feats, I’m not seeing much chance of Law coming out on top of this one. He probably won’t die, as One Piece characters rarely do, but he’s not winning. He’s probably not getting away with his Poneglyph rubbings either. This plus the Pudding bit from the cover really give off the feeling of Blackbeard’s plans coming together, really making him a rival for the home stretch. The only question is, has he glimpsed that missing final Poneglpyph already, or will there be a race to reach it?

Despite its short length, this was another incredibly compelling chapter that’s likely to turn out pivotal for the final act of the story. As always, strongly looking forward to the next chapter and all the unknown territories it could sail into.

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

Don’t take this as too much of a detriment to the Wano arc, but chapter 1062 is one of the most exciting and enjoyable One Piece releases I’ve seen in years. Oda is clearly having the time of his life being free from the confines of Wano and Onigashima to design new characters and environments in a whole other style. The weaponised sea beasts and children’s toyboy sci fi world they live in are the kind of thing that have been exculsive to altered reality of colour spreads for so much of the series’ run, but can now be unleashed in actual panels. Even the cover story provides a huge and intriging development in the probable presence of Kuzan in Tottoland a few weeks ago. Germa’s Emotionless Excursion had been fun enough so far, but now I’m all in.

Franky’s wide-eyed enthusiasm at Vegapunk’s arrival is wonderful to see. The opening scene as a whole is great, both for deepening the Vegapunk mystery, giving us these increadible sea beasts, and giving some credit to the crew’s increasingly fearsome reputation. I love seeing Zoro and Robin recognised for the high level threats they are, especially when you can look back over the scene and see how ready for action they look even before it’s mentioned. But what, I wonder, is Zoro planning to demand of Vegapunk? Is it just to let them go and/or take them to Luffy’s group, or does he have something more specific in mind? I can’t think of anytime he’d shown an interest in technology previously, so could it have something to do with him being the Strawhat who interacted the most with Kuma back in the day? Or maybe something he picked up during the timeskip or in the offscreen portion of Wano’s epilogue. Most likely, it’s him just taking control of the situation.

But the real meat of the chapter is obviously what Luffy’s group gets up to. What can you even say about this scene. It’s gorgeously drawn, it’s funny, it’s creative, it doesn’t look like anything else coming out in the shonen world right now. I might have liked to see more from Jinbe throughout, but Bonney’s chemistry with Luffy and Chopper more than makes up for it.

I’d love for volume 105 to have a cover that draws on the spread of the island’s interior, like an updated version of what volume 83 did for Whole Cake Island’s environment. We’re about in the middle of this volume now, but I’d also be willing to go all in on “Adventure in the Land of Science” as the book’s title.

And then there’s the man of the hour, Vegapunk. Everything about this scientist raises more questions. Even working out how to refer to them is difficult. The fact that two out of six bodies drawn so far lean feminine might have suggested they were a woman all along, but Robin’s dialogue suggests Vegapunk is known (or at least presumed) to the world at large to be a man. While Lilith tries to act like an enemy, the larger story seems to be positioning them as an ally to the crew in the long term (and despite all the World Government atrocities their technology has enabled). Atlas even manages to drop some interesting philosophical arguments about the subjectiveness of reality. I’m really digging the number of levels this character is operating on.

Oh, and design-wise, I could take or leave Lilith as a standard Oda pretty girl design, but the Astro Boy vibes coming off of Atlas (hey didn’t old mate Atom actually have a character called Atlas too?) are top notch.

But what’s with the name and number discrepancy between the chapter and the explanation? I thought this would be one of those things like the recent bounty where a typo in the print release was fixed up for digital editions, but there it remains. Weird. A volume edition correction is a long way away. So maybe Oda’s actually setting something up here, some kind of Vega-clone switcharoo. I’ll be keeping an eye on this one.

Finally, there’s Cipher Pol. I’m curious to see what the World Government’s reasons for cutting ties with Vegapunk are. We’ve known for a long time that they didn’t start out working for the Government, that their research was only assimilated after the arrest of MADS, so is it just that time is up on the deal they made then? Or did they discover something they shouldn’t have? Gone rogue? Or just outlived their usefulness? The World Government is pulling out stops it never has before and is showing an uncharacteristic willingness to upset the status quo in this post-Reverie world. All this said, I’m not convinced that Lucci is going to be the final boss of this arc. I’m curious to see how far he’s come since Ennies Lobby, but I can’t think of any reason to bet on him in a rematch. Only Stussy is untested, but she alone isn’t enough to carry an arc’s endgame battle.

The Seraphim might have been a candidate, but Lucci talks about the Kuma one like it’s somehow malfunctioning. Curious too that it looks so much older than the Hancock and Mihawk ones did. Like Kuma to the Pacifistas, he must be a prototype, or at least the first production model of the Seraphim. But that would mean these things can actually age and grow and mature, which is seemingly unlike their first-generation counterparts.

There’s a lot of lore and information to come in this arc, about Vegapunk, about the Seraphim, and about Devil Fruits and secrets of the world. I’m getting the vibe of something a little like Zou, a short arc with a ton of exposition and no real traditional final boss fight. Wherever it goes, this arc already has me in love with its setting and fascinated by its main supporting character in just a couple of chapters. I’m so excited to see where it all goes next.

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

Ah man, that new arc feeling. It’s been a long time, but Oda keeps the hot streak of the last few chapters going. The chapter starts with one of the most memorable spreads in possibly the whole series’ history. That shark coming up from below is a pure artistic flex on Oda’s part, absolutely stunning.

After things got dense and heavy and serious in the later stages of Wano, you can fell Oda’s having a great time doing a lower-stakes but more off the wall action sequence. From the shark’s design to the Sunny’s new gadgets to the mecha at the end, the man is back doing the things he loves most, and the passion shows. There’s not much to analyse here, it’s just fun action. Love seeing Jinbe show off his utility as well.

The new Marine character designs for G-14 are really cool, and it’s nice seeing Tashigi and the Punk Hazard kids again after all this time. Hopefully Tashigi gets a bit more to do this arc instead of being sidelined again. The Koby issue raises a lot of questions about where things are going next. Will the crew get caught up in this rescue mission, or is this just a tease and we’re in for a decent stay on Egghead? I also think the balloons flying over the base in the establishing shot are curious. Are they just for the children’s benefit (they do seem to have build a replica Biscuits Room with clouds and hills painted on the walls and rainbows over the doorways), or is there more to how these Marines operate?

Stephen did a pretty graceful job with the bit about Fullalead’s name. I wonder if the choice to adapt it the way he did would have been different if an actual use of a bee metaphor that ties into the Japanese name had been closer to the island’s introduction.

Bonney and Luffy are instantly a great pair, I’m looking forward to seeing how they interact going forward. I wouldn’t want Oda to try and make her another Law this late in the series, but she’s got a lot of potential as an Egghead arc character. The fact that she came alone suggests that she’s on a personal mission, and given her apparent ties to Kuma and his ties to Vegapunk, there’s a few ways that could go, all of them interesting.

I don’t believe for one second that the girl from the end of the chapter is the real Vegapunk. Or at least, the original Vegapunk. We’ve seen and heard too much that this doesn’t line up with, unless it’s an outright retcon of Oda’s previous depictions of him.

The “PUNK 02” on her bodysuit stands out. I wonder if all Vegapunk creations are collected under one naming scheme, like the Battle Franky line. The shark has a 3 on it, the mech a 12. Punk Hazard’s big dragon was designated 13 in its Vivre Card. Although, he was responsible for the Pacifistas, which obviously have their own PX numbering, and the mech has a “Vegaforce” label none of the others have had, so it could be that animal robots, dragons, mechs and whatever the girl is are all individual lines with multiple iterations.

I was on team Elbaf for the next arc. I’ll definitely be a little upset if Oda can’t find time in the series’ final years to visit it outside of flashbacks, so the idea of landing something else and setting up a further distraction via Koby has me worried. But that doesn’t seem to matter as much actually reading the chapter and getting caught up in Vegapunk speculation and crazy robot designs and Luffy’s back and forth with Bonney. Say what you will about the past year or so of Wano fatigue, but the magic is clearly still here.

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

While I think it’s a fun novelty to redraw an older colour spread with the full crew (and that it came out great in this case) I hope it’s not an idea Oda gets too attached to I want to keep seeing new settings and activities for this kind of art, not too many retreads. Oh, but speaking of past colour spreads – and this may be a reach – but does Jinbe’s blue tricorn remind anyone of the 20th anniversary colour spread that he missed being a part of? He’d need a new kimono, but that hat would fit right in with what everyone else was wearing then.

Oda will likely never outright confirm that the crew is full. Debates over each island’s new crew candidate drive way too much engagement for the series to ever fully give them up, but this chapter has me feeling stronger than ever that we’re all done. Yamato was the last big tease and he came up short. We see the infamous barrel is occupied. There’s the whole thing with Luffy’s dream I’ll talk about later. And then there’s the colour spread. It wouldn’t make sense to start redoing old spreads to update the crew in them if there was just going to be another recruit in a year or two. I also can’t help noticing Chopper’s shirt outlining him as “No 6.” Debates have raged over whether Luffy saying in the first chapter he wanted a crew of ten included himself or not. Chopper is only number six if Luffy is number one, giving us a full ten as things are. No matter what is teased with the new arrival from the chapter’s last page, I won’t be convinced of any candidate until they’re joining Jinbe on the spreads.

Most of this chapter has a great relaxed atmosphere with crew interactions during some well-deserved downtime. And it’s rare to see the whole group discussing events from the paper so directly. All of the different reactions and opinions were a lot of fun.

I’m glad we get some clarification on the Revolutionary army’s politics from Robin. Even if the answer is that they don’t really have a political position as much as an anti-World Government one. I can respect aiming only for the head of the snake and ensuring focused progress by committing to a single target, but it does feel shortsighted of them to be so outraged about an attack on anyone other than a World Noble. There is plenty of evidence of regular monarchies abusing their power throughout One Piece’s world, with a pertinent current plot thread being the common people rising up against their cruel rulers. What will the Revolutionaries do after unseating Imu and ousting the Celestial Dragons? Rest on their laurels, or move down the chain of authority and properly break apart the systems that enabled the world’s Wapols and Sekis. How many King Cobras must the monarchy create to make one King Doflamingo worth looking the other way from? But I guess a lot of that is me bringing my own opinions into it.

I’m not sure who I support between Luffy and Zoro on the Vivi issue. I respect Luffy being so willing to put his adventure on hold for a friend rather than looking the other way (like a certain samurai did). There are things happening in the world that the crew’s firepower could go a long way in ensuring a good outcome for. But Zoro is right that they wouldn’t be any help in Alabasta and the odds would be against them at New Marineford. Without knowing exactly where they need to go and what actions would help, they could either get in a lot of trouble for nothing, or end up doing more harm than good.

There’s also a likelihood that dropping everything to return to a nation they visited once at the first sign of trouble could expose the crew’s friends to attacks and hostage situations to draw them in. Being too jumpy about this kind of thing exposes a weak point.

That said, I’m not sure how well the argument about Ace holds up, given how things were actually going for Ace at the time… But it’s nice that Zoro has so much faith in Vivi’s strength, even after so long apart.

Brook never hearing about issues with Alabasta’s leadership is worth noting because he probably means from back before he died, giving the Nefeltaris a strong track record. You have to wonder if he actually knows about the civil war his crew got involved in there.

Oda is such a tease, having Robin mention other familiar names in the paper (I have to guess involved in events even us readers don’t know of yet) and Luffy rejecting it all. I love Luffy, but he and I are very different. Give me more news if he doesn’t want it. I wanna knooooooooow!

Luffy telling the crew his dream is a big moment, but there’s not much to say about it. I’m not going to pretend I can Sherlock Holmes the right answer out of the crew’s reactions and I think anyone claiming we do have enough information to solve it definitively is selling snake oil (or maybe their Youtube channel). But it’s a nice scene, and I’m very interested to see what Oda eventually does with this plot point. And this happening now has big implications for the final crew – this hint could have been dropped at any time, but Oda saved it for after Jinbe was aboard. It’s hard to imagine anyone new being added having not heard this (even if they might have found out vial other sources).

I’ll be interested to what Oda does with Caribou after this. He mentioned not being able to hear very well, so he might conveniently have missed it to keep this a symbolic crew only thing. But maybe he’ll leak Luffy’s ultimate goal to the world, for better or worse…

It’s surprising to me that the last Poneglyph is considered the one lost to time with no clues. You would think the one on Zou, in a hidden alcove that the allegedly-cannibalistic locals would guard on pain of death and show only to their closest allies, would be more of a mystery to the outside world. Roger wouldn’t have blabbed about it, so odds are it hasn’t been seen by anyone besides him and the pirate-mink-samurai-ninja alliance in even longer than this fourth one, the trail for which goes cold only 20-something years ago at Fishman Island.

Sabo’s sequence is where things get really interesting. I have so many questions that I know I’ll be waiting a long time for answers to. Is the World Government worried that info about Imu and the Empty Throne being overheard by the Marines’ surveillance division and the Revolutionaries, or are they confident the propaganda they push will be enough to get it all dismissed as Revolutionary lies. Might be a bad play, given how their news manipulator, Morgans, has gone rogue.

I like the detail of Seki threatening impalements. He’s got that vampire look, and we all know about the overlap between Vlad the Impaler and Dracula.

Seeing a whole island destroyed in an instant is pretty shocking, and marks a genuine escalation of One Piece’s power scale. Where the likes of Dragon Ball went fast enough to have planet busters by volume 30, One Piece has done remarkably well sticking with the ceiling it set with Mihawk’s introduction in basically year one. Abilities that could potentially destroy an island, not just depopulate its surface, have been few and far between, and have always seemed like it would still take the user significant time and effort to actually sink a whole landmass. It was, of course, inevitable that things would reach this point by the endgame, but it’s still something else to see it actually happening.

I don’t think Sabo is dead, and I’m skeptical that Oda would slay the number of characters confirmed to reside on Lulusia (six by the wiki’s count) so casually. But how is he going to execute the escape? That explosion seems to go a decent way out to sea as well as covering the whole island. Interestingly, the island doesn’t seem to have been targeted because of Sabo’s presence. So are the other seven kingdoms also in a state of active revolt about to be nuked as well? Or perhaps they already have been.

The final scene is a cool bit of Grand Line chaos, the likes of which we haven’t seen in a bit. And we get Jewelry Bonney! I’m looking forward to seeing what she has to share about the Reverie and the history of the world. This girl’s had too many odd reactions to different things (Whitebeard’s death and Kuma’s enslavement) not to have some lore bombs to drop.

We’re on a decently long run of great, exciting chapters here that really make it feel like the world is moving and the endgame is getting in gear. Can’t wait to see what comes next as things continue ramping up!

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

This was another truly great chapter full of really surprising character interactions and some big, intriguing lore developments. It’s strange though, despite the curtains falling two chapters ago, most of these latest chapters has felt more like the post-battle global update and tying up of loose ends than it has the building up of an actual new arc. In my mind, the Wano saga already includes the Reverie as something as a prologue before the first curtain, so maybe the current chapters can be an epilogue after the final one.

(The apparent reintroduction of the crew for a jumping-in point in the last chapter is the one thing that doesn’t totally fit this line of thinking, but that’s what you get trying to break an ongoing story trying to balance appeal to longterm readers with accessibility for new ones – there aren’t always clean breaks that make the starts and ends of arcs fully contained.)

I thought we were done talking about Yamato for a while, but once again I get what I want in the strangest way possible. First he doesn’t join, but the justification is weak and the character arc non-existent. Now, we see the character arc, but it’s wedged in awkwardly long after the fact. And that’s a shame because in a vacuum, I really like the scene. Yamato choosing not to abandon Wano and wanting to put it ahead of his own desire to adventure is exactly the kind of acknowledgement of Oden’s failings I’ve been hoping for. Like Momo waiting for the opportune moment to open the country instead of doing it right away, Yamato can honour his legacy and will without following his exact footsteps.

So I got what I wanted. And future rereads of Wano’s endings are going to go down smoothing knowing what’s coming. But I don’t think the way Oda went about it has paid off. The shock value of the fakeout wasn’t worth the awkward way he had to circle back to the real reasoning, at least in my mind. I wouldn’t have done it this way, in any case.

Marco departing for Sphinx makes me feel like it’s not the Strawhats’ next destination. His goodbye to Luffy, passing on Ace’s pride in him, has the vibe of an exit from the story, at least until the final battle.

Hancock’s flashback here gave me actual Marineford vibes from the sheer chaos of the battle and the amount of big names we see going head to head and showing enormous feats of strength. Even more exciting is that the big names here are characters we know far more personally than most of the Marineford heavy hitters. I don’t think anyone had a three-way battle between Hancock, Koby and Blackbeard on their One Piece bingo cards. It really is something else to see.

The Seraphim are a development I absolutely love. It feels like things that were hinted at for years are finally coming together. Bloodline element research, cloning, autonomous pirate-hunting androids with knock-off devil fruit powers, the gigantification of children, research on Lunarians, the power of the Seven Warlords – all these precedents set across so many shady scientist characters come together to make the Seraphim a logical extension of the existing plot.

And the questions that remain about how these things were set up are even more intriguing. When and how were the Warlords’ bloodline elements collected? Was it done discretely or was it part of the signup? Are samples taken from prisoners in Impel Down as well. Because of Borsalino’s laser, we know high level Navy guys aren’t above making donations, so who else from that group was used? Is Blackbeard on file? We know Vegapunk was able to replicate Kaido’s fruit from his bloodline elements, so presumably he would be able to see any of the Warlords’ fruits in their genetics too, but does that mean he was able to replicate them as well? What are the limits on collecting bloodline elements from corpses? I think it would be smart to make them unable to clone Roger or Ace, for example, but maybe if Rocks’ corpse had been preserved similar Oars’, it could be a fun way to bring him into the story. Whatever Oda has planned, I’m completely on board for the ride.

It stands out to me that Blackbeard instantly recognises the Lunarian traits in the Seraphim. That’s some pretty hush-hush stuff with big historical implications. What does he know?

And speaking of the Seraphim/Lunarian thing, hopefully they retain the tradeoff between durability and speed established in Zoro and King’s fight. Despite all the time spent setting that aspect of the Lunarian race and having Zoro work it out, I didn’t feel like it went anywhere at the time. But if it was laying the groundwork for future Seraphim battles, that’s a lot more interesting.

As fun as his arrival is (and terrifying, with the conversation between Vasco and Devon), I do have to wonder about Blackbeard’s actual plan. Hancock’s fruit has the potential to be incredibly broken in the right hands, but did he really not know he doesn’t have those? He could maybe give it to Maki or Tori, the girls he was hanging with in the first Wano intermission (given that the Vivre Card databook canonised them as members of the crew), they seem cute enough to get a little use out of it. Or maybe, given how easily Hancock would be able to take out two of his officers and so many others, he just wanted to take a powerful fruit out of the hands of any potential rivals. There’s no shortage of next stops for someone who wants to take nigh-unstoppable fruits off the board. Too bad for Sugar in that case.

Rocky Port gets more and more interesting with each mention. We know Law “masterminded” it, but now we’re hearing Blackbeard was involved too. Would Blackbeard consider Law someone who helped him out like he does Koby, or were they on opposite sides of whatever happened? Imagine Blackbeard reaches out to Law for an alliance because of their connection. How’s that for a crackpot teamup for the final stage of the story?

Shakuyaku’s reveal is one of those great ones that fits right into place as soon as it’s mentioned, even though I never saw it guessed. Yeah, we were told the previous empresses died, but it’s such an easy leap of logic to say they faked their deaths to chase love (rather than abdicating and risking Kuja unhappy with the new regime coming to find them and try to drag them back or some other similar issue) that I have a hard time seeing that as a contradiction at all.

Koby’s kidnapping is a very exciting development. Is Blackbeard just planning to sell him to Buggy for the bounty? It would be a good way to start actually showing what the Marines are worth to Cross Guild. But he seemed amicable to him over the way Rocky Port played out. Maybe Blackbeard is trying to recruit a man on the inside or ally with elements of the Navy in some other way for his own plans (not that Koby is likely to play along) or just manipulate the World Government with a hostage.

Oda has been absolutely on a roll since the curtains closed on Wano. I’m looking forward to more of these kinds of unpredictable vignettes of the world at large for at least another chapter before we circle back to Koby or Sabo’s big cliffhangers. I couple of weeks ago, I was disappointed that Oda was being slow setting up the next destination. Now, I just want more of exactly what we’re getting here.

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

This chapter was a breath of fresh air after the rough place the last one ended. I might be overthinking things, but I’d go as far as saying it feels like a soft reset for series after the crazy continuity creep of Wano. To one extent or another, every new arc takes the series and its cast back to basics, but after four years of Wano, to effect is all the more pronounced. I think also about Oda’s recent comment welcoming people who start reading from the latest chapters, and the liklihood of this being the first chapter of a new volume. It’s a great time to bring new readers in with a reintroduction of the core crew and a showcase of their dynamics and relationships.

It also feels a little like an appeal to older readers, the ones who say post-timeskip has been bogged down with too much focus on side characters, giving them exactly what they want with just the Strawhats and a group of fan-favourite legacy villains from the series’ early years in focus.

Whatever the motive, all this makes for a real crowd-pleaser of a chapter that I loved reading. If I’m ever not excited for a bounty reveal chapter, I’m not excited for One Piece. It’s such classic content.

Jinbe’s addition to the crew is great. I love the way he buys completely into the hype surrounding the other crew members and does it with a totally straight, respectful face. He just straight up thinks so highly of these people that something like Nami displaying Conqueror’s Haki just makes sense to him. Despite the similarities, his version reads very differently to Luffy and Chopper believing Usopp’s lies, or the kind of enthusiastic fanboy hyperbole we would have got if someone like Bartolomeo or Yamato had come aboard. The big guy’s a great fit.

The actual figures on the bounty posters don’t mean that much to me in terms of analysis or power scaling or deciding characters’ worth, but they still tickle that ‘number goes up’ part of the brain, and manage to feel like a celebration of these characters’ accomplishments. Zoro and Sanji’s fight is a highlight, but I’m very interested in what happened with Franky’s photo. Seems like a hard mistake to make, especially considering the Sunny was hidden outside and not a factor in the Onigashima battle. This feels like a future plot point building, but it could just as easily be written off as a gag in the next chapter.

Cross Guild is just as fun as its first reveal suggested, and makes a great way to bring all these classic characters back to relevance for the final act of the story. I wouldn’t say the mix of misunderstandings and being propped up as a figurehead that got Buggy where is are particularly surprising, but they’re still tremendously fun to watch play out.

The last scene with the Revolutionaries really makes me realise how much we still don’t know about this group. It seems strange for Dragon to be so against the murder of an influential World Government king. Does he have insider knowledge that Cobra is one of the good ones? Is he privy to some lore about the Nefeltari family’s connections to ancient secrets, like the Poneglyph they were keeping hidden in their crypts? Or is the coup, when it comes, to be nonviolent? Dragon has been a presence in the story for so long I’m really looking forward to seeing what he’s all about. Hopefully the next chapter picks up Sabo’s call where it leaves off and gives us some more to work with.

The only complaint I could possibly level at this chapter is there being no hint at all of the next destination, and that one’s completely up to my own impatience. It’s a fantastic starting point for the final saga and I can’t wait to see what’s next. There’s even the digital version of volume 103 and the colour version of volume 99 coming out at the end of the week to soften the blow of the break. I’m happy to be a One Piece fan right now.

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

It’s over! And I hate to say it, but the final chapter is definitely one of Wano’s weakest. There definitely seem to be a few things missing from this post-battle portion of the arc, and whether that’s because of Film Red, a desire to finish things off in volume 104 (bold to end a volume with a chapter called “The End” when the series is still ongoing), or just because Oda was ready to move on I can’t say. If we look at other big arcs, Dressrosa took 10 chapters to wrap up following Doflamingo’s ultimate defeat. The Water Seven Saga lasted a full 14 chapters from the last hit on Rob Lucci. Wano, longer than both of those arcs by a significant margin, is given just 8 chapters from Kaido’s fall. My ultimate impression of the arc is positive – I did a full reread of it during the month break and there’s some incredibly strong material throughout – but this was a rough way to end it.

Before we even get to the obvious talking points of Yamato and the Kurozumis, there have been some truly strange omissions in this last portion of the arc that should have been easy point scoring for Oda. Not things that break the story by their absence, but still bizarre to not do. The dawn, for example. I know the references to dawns are a long-term thing being built up, not literally the break of day after the battle, but the symbolism of showing the latter as a step toward the former is such an obvious moment. Jinbe’s welcome too – it doesn’t need to be spelled out that the party of the last few chapters is as much his welcome as it is a celebration of Wano’s freedom, but again, showing the toast from his abandoned first welcome being picked back up and completed would have cost literally nothing and earned so much goodwill from the fanbase that the mind boggles it not being done. Zoro and Ryuma’s grave too I guess, but that one I can see being saved for a flashback to go with his next-arc powerup. I can see it getting old trying to do the sheer number of goodbyes there could have been to say, from Hyogoro to Marco to Carrot and to everyone else a crewmate had a significant interaction with, but if this is to be the final chapter, at least those three characters should have had a panel to show what kind of lives they were settling into now that the fighting’s done. We don’t need these things, but they would have given enough fans enough happiness that their exclusion is baffling.

I’ll suck it up though. Wano is obviously important to the series’ endgame, and we’ll definitely be going back to it in the next couple of years. The story isn’t over yet. Just because some of the arc’s characters weren’t given their closure at this seemingly-opportune moment it doesn’t mean it’ll never happen.

That was a pretty negative opening, and there’s more criticism to come, but let’s take a break and look at the stuff that works here. The three captains bickering and challenging each other as they set sail is beautiful wonderful and entertaining. The real star of the chapter, however, has to be Momo. It’s great attention to detail that he has to run to the coast – his ability to fly has been built up in this arc as an emblem of bravery and adulthood, so for him to lose it in this moment of weakness, when his doubts about the future are overwhelming him, is right in line with that. I felt for the kid when he broke down crying near the end. Of course it was never about Luffy snubbing him by leaving without saying goodbye, he’s just pretty reasonably scared. Even when he tried to take on Aramaki himself, there was the knowledge that Luffy and co were still there, just out of sight, as backup. It’s setting in for real now that Wano will be on its own. Anyone would be anxious in his shoes, let alone an eight year old forced to grow up way too fast.

I’m a big fan of Luffy leaving the flag, an offer to sail together again, and calling Momo a little brother as a way to resolve the scene. It sells the bond they’ve made since Punk Hazard and lets Luffy protect Wano in a way without limiting his or their independence. It’s also pretty funny that Momo now has a little sister that’s (chronologically) older than him and a big brother who’s (biologically) younger than him.

And now we go from the pure positives to something I have mixed feelings about: Yamato. I was never fully on board with Yamato as part of the crew. It didn’t feel right. He should have at least been built up from the start of Wano rather than the start of Onigashima regardless of where he was going to end up. The way he shot from non-existent to essential over the course of a couple of volumes and started dominating Jump covers and merch ahead of characters with far greater legacies never sat right with me. And it’s not that I dislike his character in a vacuum, he’s interesting and entertaining and has a compelling backstory and connections to the lore, but going from nowhere to everywhere that quick gave me kind of a Poochie vibe.

So yeah, I’m happy he’s not joining the crew. The main characters we have now have been established over such a long period of time that an addition as hurried as Yamato could only have felt out of place, and the time it would have taken to properly let him settle in and find a place in the character dynamics would have been at odds with the story accelerating into its endgame.

But that means I got the Yamato ending I was hoping for. Why am I building this up as a partial complaint then?

Because this ending – the right one for the larger story – genuinely doesn’t feel like the end of the story Oda’s been telling for the past couple of years. As someone who didn’t want Yamato sticking around, I was looking for reasons for his story to change course, I loved Jinbe saying “that’s the captain’s decision,” and was hoping for anything else to suggest his mentality changing. But after the Aramaki fight, even I was making my peace with Yamato’s presence. As much as I wanted this, it’s too sudden of a swerve to feel like the story naturally built up to it.

Now, there wasn’t nothing in the story leading to Yamato staying behind. As much as he liked to tell us he would be going to sea, what we were shown from his actions and Oda’s framing of events was a far quicker partnership and deeper bond with Momo than any of the Strawhats. I also think staying in Wano makes more sense for the Oden shtick than it initially seemed. Oden may have felt stifled when he was confined to Wano, but Yamato has spent 20 years confined to just Onigashima. The outside world to him is as much Wano as it is anywhere else. It’s genuinely a good idea of him to get to know the country of the man he idolises firsthand, not just through a journal. And it does give the nation a bit of extra insurance while Momo finds his feet and organises his defences. Oden’s flaws – his selfishness and gullibility – were instrumental in Kaido and Orochi’s rise to power, particularly when the former drove him to abandon the country and his responsibilities to pursue adventure twice, so it would be powerful for the self-proclaimed new Kozuki Oden to learn from the first and do right where he failed.

Buuuuut I wish all those factors had led to a more gradual and visible shifting of Yamato’s mentality over time. At the very least, Yamato should have been allowed to participate in the Aramaki fight, rather than framing it as something Momo was doing in part to show him he could be free. Just a single panel of suggestion that he’d reconsidered some stuff during his vigil over Luffy and Zoro would have gone a long way.

I kind of wish I’d saved my reread for after the final curtain now. I really want to review Yamato’s scenes to see if there’s any more build-up for his actual ending I can see with the benefit of hindsight, but it’s way too soon after just doing it during the break.

And then there’s the goddamn Kurozumi thing. Yikes, this is a bad one. Even with the Oden panel there to make it as clear as possible it’s meant to parallel him joking that his name destined him to boil, it feels wrong. Some people online have definitely taken it a bit far and made it seem worse than it actually is, acting like Hiyori is some kind of genocide-advocating nazi, which she absolutely is not. Making generalisations about a bloodline, especially one that every (known) living member of which has been a complete and willful bastard, isn’t the same as generalising about a race. I wouldn’t blink twice at some kind of “they’re all dickheads who can go burn for all I care” blanket statement about, say, the Trump family, for example, but something about the portrayal here still manages to feel at odds with the series’ philosophies up to this point.

The Kurozumi family persecution was always an odd lingering thread in the Wano mythos. Initially, I was interested in Oda’s portrayal of the Wano in Oden’s flashback as flawed, exhibiting xenophobia, poverty, organised crime bosses with political influence and a whole lawless state in Kuri. And, of course, the vigilante mob that terrorised the disenfranchised Kurozumis. It seemed like an obvious point to demonstrate change in the rebuilt nation. Would Momo as shogun implement some kind of social change so the embers of resentment would never again be fanned into a fire? Would it be made clear that Higurashi and Orochi exaggerated what had been done by a small, unsanctioned minority of the population and projected that hatred onto the whole country? We aren’t sticking aroung long enough to see what Momo is going to change as a ruler (at least it was made clear that he wasn’t planning to follow his father blindly) but the play feels like a poor start to me.

It’s also a missed opportunity that Raizo wasn’t handsomed up and allowed to be popular by Aramaki’s attack, but that’s small potatoes compared to the last thing.

And that’s it. The final shot of Momo and his retainers as a group and the curtains sliding closed sure are satisfying to see after all this time. I’m glad to be moving on from it. It’s been a wild ride, but I want to see a new setting and new story build up.

I want to drop a review of the arc as a whole in the Wano thread soon, but the summary here is that it was an arc of tremendous highs and abyssal lows. Act One and the first half of Act Three have some of the series’ strongest material, but Act Two and the latter half of Act Three, while definitely having their moments, were bloated and muddled and showcased some of Oda’s greatest flaws as a writer. A few major fights not quite hitting home and the epilogue not quite sticking the landing are going to leave a bad taste in the fanbase’s mouth for a while, but I think new readers who catch up from here and don’t have to wait for the story to inch forward week by week will have a much kinder perspective. The broader opinion on Wano will soften as time goes on, but it’s never going to be the best of One Piece’s big battle arcs.

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

Wano and the pirate alliance both really are ending, huh? It’s truly an era of One Piece wrapping up before our eyes, and what an era it’s been. This chapter finally takes us back to the Germa cover story, after close to two months between breaks and colour spreads. I assume Caesar’s going to save the siblings, with an outside chance of Pekoms (and slim odds of Pedro if Oda wants to burn even more goodwill surrounding character deaths. Looks like Oda forgot to ink in Katakuri’s knee spike also.

This is a pretty chill chapter overall, with a lot of standing around and talking. It definitely feels like a send-off for the Wano group giving Kin the chance to settle down with his wife, letting the leaders of Wano take back their roles as retainers, and wrapping up the Sukiyaki reveal (though it’s a bit strange that he was so certain he wouldn’t reveal his identity to Momo and Hiyori two chapters ago, just to do it now). I really enjoyed Kin being the only one not to have figured it out, that was hilarious.

Carrot being named the new leader of Zou feels a tad off to me. I can kinda see the in-universe justification – if previously isolated kingdoms like Zou and Wano are going to be making contact with the world in new ways it does make sense to appoint people who’ve actually experienced travel and dealt with forgeiners to positions of authority, but Carrot is just so young and never really demonstrated any desire to rule or aptitude for leadership, nor was she being groomed for the position. Our other young ruler of recent chapters, Momo, was clearly shown with some training and a desire to live up to the shogunate’s legacy before he ascended to the throne. It almost feels like something done to appease the crowd that voted her to the top of the WT100 poll than it does a planned end of her character arc.

That’s all assuming she agrees and sticks with it anyway, but there doesn’t seem to be time for anything else. Well, I look forward to seeing her leading the minks during the final war.

It’s a classic Luffy moment to just not give a shit about Pluton so casually. I still want to see it though. He and I have very different priorities. I wonder if Franky’s disappointed to be leaving without seeing in person what those old blueprints could create, but maybe he’s just a good enough shipwright that he can visualise it just fine from the documents without having to see anything else.

Shinobu getting de-aged and starting to dress in the same ninja outfit Kin gave Nami instead of her old practical one that Nami had been initially expecting is pretty funny, and I’m a big fan of Tama becoming her apprentice. Great place to leave the character at, and you can just imagine the potential of her ability to enhance her ninja skills on the job.

Going back to Log Poses and actually making the three domes on the New World version relevant is a breath of fresh air after being in Wano so long. I’m a big fan of heavily serialised stories, but even I have to admit I’m pretty excited to have no concrete idea of the next destination (even if there is a pretty narrow shortlist this late in the story). What’s curious about this page is the knowledge that Wano isn’t even halfway through the New World, if a northward course is still considered a forward movement.

Buggy’s new organisation is such a great development. The idea to put bounties on Marines is such a power move, and the presence of Mihawk and Crocodile just raises more and more questions about how this setup came to be. I’m so excited to see more of this group. I wonder if they picked up any of the other former warlords? What really gets me going is that Buggy and Mihawk were both characters from the first year of the series’ run. Well, give or take a week for Mihawk, but they’ve both been around a long time. One was a throwaway, comdic starter villain for the main character, the other was our first preview of the world’s strength ceiling. Can you imagine telling someone reading Mihawk’s introduction in 1998 that in 24 real-world years that guy would be working for Buggy? Twenty-five years, and these supporting characters from the first year are still relevant.

Kid getting a copy of the Lode Poneglyph is something I certainly didn’t expect, alongside the revelation that he got a copy of Big Mom’s in his attack on her territory. Man, if Luffy and co had known Big Mom’s commanders were just sailing around with copies, they might have saved a bit of trouble getting all the way into her treasury to copy it directly. I wonder how many Poneglyph rubbings have made their way around the world’s black markets, and how many fakes there would have to be, considering how hard it would be to certify the real ones. I wonder if Kid was allowed a copy of Zou’s Lode Poneglyph too. We didn’t see Law make his copy of that one, or have Big Mom’s one shared with him but it’s a safe bet he’s got it. Luffy would be willing to share in the spirit of competition, giving us three captains at 75% of the way to Laugh Tale. How exciting!

The chapter also reminds us of an yet unknown player – Caribou’s mysterious contact – and introduces a new one – Kid’s burned man, who Law and Robin seem familiar with.

It really does seem like the next chapter is going to be Wano’s last. Departures are set, a final emotional goodbye for Momo and Kin are being set up, as is whatever the hell the plan for Yamato is going to be. Next chapter is going to be a damn big one. I’m sure no matter what happens it’s going to break a few hearts, but there’s just so much to look forward to after those Wano curtains draw closed a final time.

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

It’s weird to think that this is the third colour spread we’ve gotten in a row, and the second of that group to just be a promo for a spinoff project. Having the spread just be Oda’s Film Red poster that was revealed at minimum weeks ago is kind of a letdown though. I shouldn’t be surprised, given that the Film Gold and Stampede posters got the same treatment, but I feel like them showing up as colour spreads was their actual first reveal, lettimg them be a tad more exciting.

This chapter cuts back and forth between two sequences – the conclusion of Aramaki’s fight on the surface, and the lore deep dive further below.

Aramaki’s bit is definitely the weaker of the two, and not just because I’m biased toward learning the world’s secrets and history over seeing fights. The big narrative takeaway of Momo telling Yamato to stand down and let the defenders of Wano prove they’ll be alright on their own is seriously undercut by them having minimum success and being saved by Shanks. It’s probably a factor that all the Scabbards are likely still not at 100% after the Kaido fight, and Momo’s mid-battle level up makes the outcome without Shanks’ interference far from certain, but it still feels a tad messy. I hope we get a little bit of follow-up in the next chapter or two, as least showing how the Wano locals plan to learn from this encounter.

Cool of Oda to show in no uncertain terms that Aramaki’s fruit has some actual Logia defensive properties. He may have used the word ‘logia’ in his self-description last week, but up until this point his powers seemed far more paramecia. It’s a unique logia, feeling more regenerative (like Marco) than fluid, but I’m willing to accept it as one.

Shanks at the end shows us a very new application for Conqueror’s Haki. In every other use I can think of, the lightning that signifies the Colour of the Supreme King has just sparked randomly off, more aesthetic than functional. Shanks’ haki seems to arc directly toward and over Aramaki from a great distance. There’s a ton of little things here that get my mind racing. How are we meant to read the way it splits these panels here? Have Aramaki and Shanks met, and if not, how did he know from the Haki who was there. Hell, he identifies the whole Red Haired crew, even though it’s only Shanks’s Haki being blasted out. Aramaki’s reactions make it seem like Shanks really is talking to him directly purely through his Haki.

Oda’s showing us here how much we have to learn about Conqueror’s Haki and its uses, leaving Luffy some room to develop a little further over the final saga. I’m glad to see it – simply using Conqueror’s like Armament would have been a pretty underwhelming last Haki revelation.

I’m not reading Aramaki’s retreat as any kind of a loss of face. Marineford’s whole defence force including three Admirals and five Warlords, plus Blackbeard’s newly bolstered crew all declined to fight Shanks. However you slice the powerscaling, Aramaki has less firepower than that enormous force, and since he disobeyed orders to pick a fight in a hostile nation, he’s got no hope of calling for reinforcements. Retreat is a smart option, especially after Momo proved his dragon form was being underestimated.

Regardless of if the issue of Wano’s self-defence gets brought up again, the final scene of Luffy, Zoro, Sanji and Jinbe watching over the battle, just in case they had to step in, is a really nice end to this sequence.

The meat of the chapter, at least to me, is the journey underground and the revelation that there’s a whole other Wano at the bottom of the huge basin the country is situated upon. That is such a cool recontextualisation, that everything we’ve seen so far, this huge, diverse and well-developed nation, is all a plateau halfway up the mountain that seemed to tower over it. This is One Piece worldbuilding at its absolute finest! The wording that the walls sprung up is interesting, implying that the people of Wano didn’t build them or choose to have them built, and are thus excused from being called stupid for the lack of irrigation leading to the flooding. It makes the most sense if a certain elephant, or perhaps a dim but well-meaning ancient giant like Oars built them up on the hasty or misinterpreted words of a well-meaning outsider. Or maybe they did have irrigation initially, but debris after an unexpectedly heavy rainfall plugged the system and created a domino effect of flooding that couldn’t be undone…

Personally, I like the Zunesha angle. We all wondered a little why the great beast showed up only to leave so anticlimactically when Momo decided to leave the borders as they were for now. Well now we know – Zunesha wanting to be there for the country’s opening and not feeling needed if that wasn’t happened was completely literal. It was likely planning to pull down the wall itself as soon as Momo gave the order.

While it makes sense to keep the World Government out a little longer and save the unleashing of Pluton for the final battle, I can’t help imagining the version of the Wano Arc where Zunesha smashed the wall open, drained the sea and revealed Old Wano all at once during the climax of the battle. Man that would have been a lot to take in at once!

The idea that Pluton is hidden even further down is a strange one. Kaido’s crew, having sent Jack down, would have found the legendary battleship if it were just moored somewhere and sucked underwater by its own anchorage during the flooding. Sukiyaki is also quite confident that unleashing it would be easy after the walls came down – that even after 800 years it would require no repairs or upkeep (good, since Wano isn’t known for its shipwrights). But I also feel like Pluton couldn’t be anything too mystical, and certainly not anything alive and literally sleeping; having blueprints for it passed down through generations wouldn’t make sense otherwise.

One thing worth remembering is that Wano was described as a country of gold in the past, but we haven’t seen much evidence of that in the present. Could it be that the Atlantisian Old Wano was the one with the rich gold seams, and they simply didn’t reach high enough up Mount Fuji to be mined the same way by the present generation. And could ancient gold mines be the justification for Pluton being hidden further below?

In typical fashion, every answer here raises two new questions, the start of a rabbit hole of connecting threads that we might not come back to for years. These parts, truly, are my favourite bits of One Piece. It’s bizarre thinking that we might be getting complete and final answers after being strung along for so many years. I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself if there aren’t One Piece lore mysteries to wonder on. We’re definitely near the end of Wano now – only a handful of things left that either need to be done or would feel like a real missed opportunity to leave without looking at. That and the crewmate debate. I’m not the biggest fan of Yamato joining up, but Momo’s bits this week are evidence stacking up against me. But we’ll cross that bridge if and when we come to it.