Man, this is a strong contender for chapter of the year, and this is the year that started with "Roger's Adventure," just going to show much hype there is behind it. I'm gonna put my prediction down that this is the first chapter of volume 98. Oda prefers to leave off a volume with a few things unanswered and a particularly surprising last page to get the readers back in for the next one, and I think the Yamato reveal combined with the lingering mysteries of the New Onigashima project and the uncertainty of whether the Scabbards will make it in time fits his style better than having those things revealed and answered and the comparatively less memorable final page of Luffy and Yamato running. But it's not like a he's never ended a volume in an odd or unconventional-seeming point either, so it could go either way.
The colour spread is nice, but weirdly understated for an anniversary one. Interesting character choice as well. It's a pretty strong indication of who the stars of the show are going to be in this arc. The Jinbei tease just keeps on going though. When he finally does show up in one of these it'd better be something special, damn it!
Hey is it just me, or does the pirate on the far right of the group Kanjuro confronts the scabbards with look a bit like Coribou? Seriously, it's the same weapon and everything.
Of course, in the cover story it was only Caribou who was taken away by Drake, but Coribou could easily have come on yet another rescue mission, been beaten, dyed his hair and assimilated into Kaido's crew in exchange for his captain's life, in another Kid/Killer situation. I'll see you guys in the volume 98 SBS.
I love Kiku getting a spotlight moment to take on Kanjuro (and that one panel near the end suggests we'll flash back to this scene again a little later, so that's good) but I'm not totally wowed by her speech about her katana's wounds not vanishing in the afterlife. It feels a little…
…which is absolutely not a good image to invoke. It might have flowed a bit better with the foreshadowing of the "lingering snow" interpretation of her epithet, but even it still has me going "what does that even mean?"
I still want to see more from Yamato before I decide where I stand with him. He's strong and proactive enough to be imposing, but we're seeing this week just how naive and sheltered his enthusiasm is, and how transparent the amount of effort his putting into the Oden shtick is. I want to see where this is going and how the two sides are going to be balanced going forward. That said, I loved the panels of him and Luffy peeking through the ceiling, with the little detail of the crack growing slowly throughout the chapter. That was fun.
Despite the outright request to join, at this stage I don't see Yamato as crewmate material. He only wants to do it because Oden did it, and we're seeing here that as much as he loves Oden, it's not natural for him to act like him. He's not free like Oden was. He's not making his own choices like Oden did, just blindly following Oden's logic. He looks at Luffy and rates him on a scale from "more Oden" to "less Oden." Yamato is out here learning to game "what character are you" personality quizzes until he gets Oden, not realising that Oden isn't even in the possibly results because taking a "what character are you" personality quiz isn't something Oden would ever do because he doesn't need to be another character. The most logical character arc for Yamato seems to me that it would be learning to act as his own man (or his own woman, if he decides the male gender doesn't have much appeal without Oden's identity; it's cool to take some time working these things out and experimenting with how you want to be seen) and breaking away from Oden's story to forge his own path. And I think that'll probably lead him away from joining Luffy. But we'll see.
I'm a big fan of Olin's entrance with the army of yokai. It's great how the depiction of her power adapts to the setting, going from the Silly Symphonies look in Tottoland to traditional spirits here. As much as I think this'll be her last arc in the spotlight, I would love to see this in more different locations. I'm not as big a fan as how the battle over Zeus was handled. I'm usually okay with some offscreening for minor skirmishes, especially this late in the story, but I feel we could have gone one more panel here. I'm not even sure where Nami and Carrot are meant to be in that little panel of them. Is Olin dropping them behind her as she enters? Robin's panel suggests so, but it definitely could have been conveyed better.
All the talk of Ancient Weapons and the One Piece suggests the two Emperors here have some solid info on where and what they are that we should see the crew claiming when the battle is done. Between those and Oden's journal, not to mention the Reverie subplots, it's easy to see how Wano leads into the series' endgame.
I don't for one minute think Orochi is out of the game permanently. There's too many different powers in play that could be used to fake or survive that kind of thing, and this is a world where Wapol's Twenty Doctors could stitch his head back on without even leaving a scar, even if it was for a gag. Still, the betrayal ups the stakes considerably and is a big shock to the status quo. Will the newly headless samurai and ninja Orochi brought submit to Kaido, or will they be shown the kind of honour they're meant to have by the Scabbards and rise up? Either way, chaos and complications and a very exciting battle ahead.
Final note, Yamato looks to have shrunk considerably in the last panel, but I think it's just a matter of weird perspective. Also, the Beasts Pirates recognise him even without the mask, which if nothing else shows his male identity among the Onigashima locals isn't based on trickery or hiding his true identity, for whatever that's worth to the discussion.
Fantastic chapter all up. Can't wait to see where it's all leading in a (long) couple of weeks.