Guess we're getting a smash-cut to Wano after all… I was really hoping for a couple more chapters out of the Reverie. Maybe Oda will try running the two arcs in parallel for a few chapters, but it's probably best not to get my hopes up.
I know the hype for the Wano arc's been building for a long time and that not everyone is into "Politics and Princesses", but I honestly believe that what's currently happening (and/or is about to happen) at the Reverie is, in the long run going to be even more consequential than the fight against Kaidou. While a lot of people compare Wano to Marineford due to the large number of people and factions converging there, in terms of narrative role I honestly think it's closer to Alabasta: fighting the villain's underlings over the course of a few arcs, then culminating in a massive showdown with the big bad himself - it's just not as obvious given that the new "Mr. 3" was freaking Doflamingo.
By contrast, what we've seen of the Reverie feels, to me, like Ace butting heads with Blackbeard - an event which went on to shape the entire story from then on, even if its ramifications weren't immediately apparent. I know we don't need to see everything right now, and that plenty of open questions can be answered later, but I wanted to see things start going into motion on that end, instead of jumping away right as they get to a tipping point and getting the details in bits and pieces through newspaper articles and flashbacks down the road.
Anyway, that's enough whining from me about the Reverie arc being put on the backburner, because despite my grousing, I HAVE actually been looking forward to the start of Wano quite a bit.
Glad to see that Nekomamushi found Marco fairly quickly, though given his past with Whitebeard, I imagine he had a good idea where to look. Didn't expect Marco's "Flames of Rebirth" to be something that could be used on others, but it's good to hear that it has limits in that regard as well - making him a secondary Mansherry would be a bit too much and also bring up the question of why that ability wasn't on display at Marineford, but if it's more on the level of speeding up someone's recovery rather than an full instant heal or regeneration in the way it works for Marco himself, I think that's a reasonable trade-off. Sorry to see he won't be coming along, but it's understandable if he's expecting Weevil to bust in at some point and start wrecking the last "treasure" Whitebeard left behind.
Very curious that Whitebeard and Bucking were on the same ship roughly 40 years back... Makes me wonder if that's tied to the whole "Rox" thing, because the time period is right. That would suggest the possibility that Newgate and Linlin, (and perhaps a young Kaidou?) all got their start in the same group/crew. Someone also mentioned that this was the time period when Shakky was active as well, so that plot thread is building up very rapidly...
To Wano itself, it is very, VERY nice to finally get to see the "Swordhats" again. I love the respective disguises and aliases they've adopted while trying to lay low. I wonder if Robin...sorry "Orobi" (figure makers are going to have a field day with that image) is actually planning to infiltrate the Shogun's manor/castle with the dancer/geisha routine (presumably to try to find the location of the Poneglyph, or maybe even bust out her old assassination skills and take a crack at the Shogun himself), or whether that is simply what her teacher is assuming.
And I think everyone knew full well that "Zorojuro" would never be able to keep out of trouble. I'm amazed he lasted as long as he did...I was half expecting the first thing we saw of Wano to be the Swordhats, Kinemon, and Law running from a burning city while chewing out Zoro for getting into a fight.