Chapter 978: Introducing the Tobi Roppo
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I still don't get what the deal is with the Numbers if the Flying Six are just below the All-Stars.
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What is Oden saying to WB?
Become my son Whitebeard.
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Page-tan is the Jack of the Tobi Roppo, should've suspected as much. Not every character gets to go from muscular dino warrior to DeviantArt fodder.
Typically I wouldn't try to correlate them to a 1v1 with a Straw Hat given the amount of characters they are (and how the final battles have gone since Fish-Man Island), but I could pretty easily see, assuming Zoro-Sanji-Jinbe take on the All-Stars, and Kid & Law help Luffy fight Kaido & Big Mom:
Ulti vs Nami
Black Maria vs Robin
Sasaki vs Chopper
Who's Who vs Brook
Page One vs Usopp (this one I'm iffy about)with Franky doing larger-scale attacks with the weapon he said he would invent on Zou.
They are the strongest headliners, none of those match ups make any sense and are a total mismatch.
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If you're not seeing the double pages right then you need to change the reading direction to horizontal.
Oh dear lord, its much better.
Thank you. -
I still don't get what the deal is with the Numbers if the Flying Six are just below the All-Stars.
They're huge gigantic monsers…. I guess we'll know more about their deal when they get a proper introduction...
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I don't know what to think of the Tobi Roppo's strenght, in one hand, yeah, The Worst Gens need proper versuses, but in the other, we might not get another chance to show how strong the StrawHats are at thins point, as a whole. so one part of mee, sees Franky, Robin and Brook being capable with the Tobi Roppos, the other part wants X Drake to fight and defeat Who'sWho.
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Onigashima's entrance is really cool.
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I still don't get what the deal is with the Numbers if the Flying Six are just below the All-Stars.
IMO, the implication is that the Numbers are as strong (maybe even stronger?) the Tobi Roppo in terms of sheer brute strength. But what holds them back seems to be them not exactly being the brightest, like they have a limited intelligence thing going on. Like you wouldn't ever give them any real responsibilities or oversight like you would for the Tobi Roppo/Calamities.
I dunno, I'm increasingly interested in them.
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IMO, the implication is that the Numbers are as strong (maybe even stronger?) the Tobi Roppo in terms of sheer brute strength. But what holds them back seems to be them not exactly being the brightest, like they have a limited intelligence thing going on. Like you wouldn't ever give them any real responsibilities or oversight like you would for the Tobi Roppo/Calamities.
I dunno, I'm increasingly interested in them.
Is Oda ever going to break the trend of Giants being dummy dummy dumbs?
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Is Oda ever going to break the trend of Giants being dummy dummy dumbs?
Morley seems pretty clever.
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I still don't get what the deal is with the Numbers if the Flying Six are just below the All-Stars.
They might be literal monsters.
Dumb as an animal, but scary powerful.
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I'm gonna go with the theory that they're awakened zoans. Like the jailer beasts from Impel Down, but with dino fruits.
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This post is deleted!
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Kaido recruited the numbers from the Codename Kids Next Door universe
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Oh dear lord, its much better.
Thank you.
.I know. Horizontal reduces the size of all the pages, however. Don't see why we can't have best of both worlds, like so many web readers have been managing for years.
I guess it depends on the screen size, because on my screen it's just big enough to see all the details without the pages losing focus.
Add to that that the quality of the pages aren't like what we used to get from scanalators
, which is weird.What is Oden saying to WB?
Become my son Whitebeard.
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Man, Luffy really has his work cut out for him if he wants to make the afterparty the best one ever. I know the ones celebrating here are horrible bad guys, but man, their party just looks so much fun. Oda always delivers when the antagonists bicker among themselves and this is no different. And I went from not really feeling Page One as he was just some though big guy brute to adoring the little guy, who has an overprotective big sis.
I also want to put out some fight predictions out there, just for the off-chance of getting something right, so…
! Straw Hats Luffy vs Kaido
Zoro vs King
Sanji vs Queen
Nami vs Black Maria
Usopp & Chopper vs Page One & Ulti
Franky vs Sasaki
Brook vs Who's Who
Jinbe vs a Number
Robin vs a Number
! Scabbards Kinemon vs Orochi
Denjiro vs Kanjuro
Raizo vs Fukurokujo
Shinobu vs Daikoku (or whole rest of the Oniwabanshuu)
Ashura Doji vs Holdem
Kiku vs Mimawarigumi Boss
Inuarashi & Nekomamushi vs Jack
Kawamatsu vs Urashima
! Others Kid vs Apoo
Law vs Hawkins
Carrot,Wanda & Sicilian vs Perospero & Big Mom forces
! Some are kinda wonky, but there's still quite a bit in the air with us not knowing how much the Big Mom Pirates will actually interfere, whom Nekomamushi brings with him and how many Numbers there are.
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I like how every one of the F6 has horns except the double agent.
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The name who's- who annoy me.
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I know AP has been back for days but I would still want to thank the people who brought it back. Thank you!
As someone pointed out, I think Kaidou is aware his son is not someone who lives up to his reputation.
Big Mom probably demanded a payment for something Kaidou owed her in the past and I think she proposed an arrange marriage for that payment.
So Kaidou agreed to marry his son off to one of Linlin's daughters to strengthen the alliance.Who do you think will Kaidou's son marry from Big Mom's daughters?
The way this family issue is being hyped, I can only see two things happening, either a gag or catalyst for something worse for the NPMS Alliance -
Man, Luffy really has his work cut out for him if he wants to make the afterparty the best one ever. I know the ones celebrating here are horrible bad guys, but man, their party just looks so much fun. Oda always delivers when the antagonists bicker among themselves and this is no different. And I went from not really feeling Page One as he was just some though big guy brute to adoring the little guy, who has an overprotective big sis.
I also want to put out some fight predictions out there, just for the off-chance of getting something right, so…
! Straw Hats Luffy vs Kaido
Zoro vs King
Sanji vs Queen
Nami vs Black Maria
Usopp & Chopper vs Page One & Ulti
Franky vs Sasaki
Brook vs Who's Who
Jinbe vs a Number
Robin vs a Number
! Scabbards Kinemon vs Orochi
Denjiro vs Kawamatsu
Raizo vs Fukurokujo
Shinobu vs Daikoku (or whole rest of the Oniwabanshuu)
Ashura Doji vs Holdem
Kiku vs Mimawarigumi Boss
Inuarashi & Nekomamushi vs Jack
Kawamatsu vs Urashima
! Others Kid vs Apoo
Law vs Hawkins
Carrot,Wanda & Sicilian vs Perospero & Big Mom forces
! Some are kinda wonky, but there's still quite a bit in the air with us not knowing how much the Big Mom Pirates will actually interfere, whom Nekomamushi brings with him and how many Numbers there are.You listed Kawamatsu twice, Denjiro vs Kawamatsu (was that supposed to be a different name?) and Kawamatsu vs Urashima
I accept Jesus Burgess as my Lord and Savior
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People really looking down on the Big Mom Pirates as enemies in this arc, huh!? Hopefully once we go back to the Calamities as have them properly lined up, we can get Smoothie (and maybe Snack) together so Oda levels all of them in a very clear manner.
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@Medical:
You listed Kawamatsu twice, Denjiro vs Kawamatsu (was that supposed to be a different name?) and Kawamatsu vs Urashima
Uff, yeah. I mess up Kawamatsu and Kanjuro's names sometimes when I'm not focusing, lol. Thanks for alerting me to it.
Of course I meant Denjiro vs Kanjuro in a battle of deceivers.
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I rarely see the word "moor" being used, but Jinei used it and it fit perfectly. I don't remember seeing Cupboard's translation this week
Also, Tsuchigumo and Black Maria share size and the use of a pipe.
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About the fights, I won't dare to guess match-ups, but I'll guess some general expectations:
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Big Mom and Kaidou won't fall on 1v1 fights. These guys are on Whitebeard level, who fought the entire marine headquarters, an admiral and the whole Blackbeard crew before finally being defeated. I don't see them falling to anything bellow a gang up of the strongest. While Luffy will do something amazing and be the star of the brawl, he won't do it alone.
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The "high tier" near-or-above-billion bounty enemies (Smoothie, Jack, Queen and King) will be fought by Worst Generation members (Luffy [or maybe Zoro in his place], Law, Kid and Drake)
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The "mid tier" threats will be fought by the Strawhats, and Hawkins (who will see the chance to defeat Kaidou and change sides). These include Apoo, the Flying Six, the Numbers and Big Mom children.
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Orochi, Kanjuro, Fukurokujo and the Oniwabanshu and Mimawari guys will probably be dealt by the Scabbards.
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There's still the mystery of who Nekomamushi will bring with him. I'm betting on some Whitebeard pirates, especially Izou.
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I think there's a chance for Capone Bege to appear, if his cover story leads him to Wano. It would make sense for him to target Big Mom again. If so, he may get a mid-tier fight before joining the big Yonkou brawl.
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There's still the question of what Caribou's role may be. While I don't expect anything major from him, like having his own fight, I bet on him doing something important for the story at some point.
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I think Moria and Perona may appear and turn the tide at some point, maybe near the end. Wouldn't be surprised if Moria uses his ability to empower others on the big Yonkou fight ("You do it" is his motto, after all).
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They are the strongest headliners, none of those match ups make any sense and are a total mismatch.
I don't know about that. I mean the headliners just below the Flying Six are like Sheepshead, Speed and Babanuki right? Aside from Hawkins they don't seem to be presented as someone worthy of a Straw Hat. I'd say you're selling the heroes short. Nami alone can wield a weapon that came straight from an Emperor I expect her to get tested hard. When we finally get full on matches I wouldn't be surprised if someone like Chopper does get to go up against one of the Flying 6.
We do have ton of Ministers from Big Mom's crew. People like Mont'dor, Daifuku, Gallete, Amande and even Compote seem to carry a presence that is of equal footing to the Flying 6. I don't doubt that some of them would want a second go at the Straw Hats who infiltrated their land in the first place and put their whole involvement into motion.
Holdem, Ginrummy and Solitaire can fight some fodder on the side.
Folks who read One Piece… Just better people. ¯\(ツ)/¯
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I guess Oda just wanted to give us an idea who the strongest Flying Six member is. It worked.
Are you referring to Drake? Because if so Black Maria is talking about Who's Who not him.
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Strawhats are the official party poopers! Breaking a wedding and now this cool party, its not cool!!
Also, spreads on the official manga plus app is decent. You guys might want to try it. -
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There's still the question of what Caribou's role may be. While I don't expect anything major from him, I bet on him doing something important, like having his own fight, for the story at some point.
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I think Moria and Perona may appear and turn the tide at some point, maybe near the end. Wouldn't be surprised if Moria uses his ability to empower others on the big Yonkou fight ("You do it" is his motto, after all).
I don't know why I keep forgetting about him. At one point Caribou was my biggest point of interest at Wano since he was caught by Drake.
For years I kept saying Caribou would would tell Kaidou about Shirahoshi and then him and Mom would fight over Fishman Island. Seems like no better arc for him to spill the beans but no way its going down like I imagine like 10 years ago lol. I suppose if the Marines make it and clean up some folks on the side he can spill his guts then.
Folks who read One Piece… Just better people. ¯\(ツ)/¯
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I don't know about that. I mean the headliners just below the Flying Six are like Sheepshead, Speed and Babanuki right? Aside from Hawkins they don't seem to be presented as someone worthy of a Straw Hat. I'd say you're selling the heroes short. Nami alone can wield a weapon that came straight from an Emperor I expect her to get tested hard. When we finally get full on matches I wouldn't be surprised if someone like Chopper does get to go up against one of the Flying 6.
We do have ton of Ministers from Big Mom's crew. People like Mont'dor, Daifuku, Gallete, Amande and even Compote seem to carry a presence that is of equal footing to the Flying 6. I don't doubt that some of them would want a second go at the Straw Hats who infiltrated their land in the first place and put their whole involvement into motion.
Holdem, Ginrummy and Solitaire can fight some fodder on the side.
It isn’t lost on me that If you add Kaido (one) the calamities (three) and the Tobi Roppo (six) adds up to 10
Which is the exact number of straw hats
So….
Luffy vs Kaido
Zoro vs King
Sanji vs Queen
Jinbei vs Jack
And the rest of the straw hats vs Tobi RoppoMaybe.... I mean idk if any of the straw hats outside of Luffy and his new monster trio could actually put up a fight against X Drake, or someone of similar power as him
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It isn’t lost on me that If you add Kaido (one) the calamities (three) and the Tobi Roppo (six) adds up to 10
Which is the exact number of straw hats
So….
Luffy vs Kaido
Zoro vs King
Sanji vs Queen
Jinbei vs Jack
And the rest of the straw hats vs Tobi RoppoMaybe.... I mean idk if any of the straw hats outside of Luffy and his new monster trio could actually put up a fight against X Drake, or someone of similar power as him
I just look at Robin, Brook, Usopp and Nami as contenders even to Drake just because of how varied their abilities are. They aren't straight forward brawlers and their tricks can and have overcome brute strength. Now I'm not saying they necessarily can or will beat the best of the Flying 6, just that they can put up a good fight. They are still the crew of Emperor .5!
Chopper doesn't have the straight up tricks and mage like abilities the others have so I'm not as confident but I know if Oda needed it Chopper would win and I feel it would be believable.
I'm also keeping in mind Mr 1 and his pair Ms Double Finger. She was ranked up there with Daz and then it was Nami of all people who eventually took her out.
Also like I said I wouldn't count out the ministers wanting their revenge or Big Mom actually assigning missions to bringing Zues back.
Folks who read One Piece… Just better people. ¯\(ツ)/¯
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I just look at Robin, Brook, Usopp and Nami as contenders even to Drake just because of how varied their abilities are. They aren't straight forward brawlers and their tricks can and have overcome brute strength. Now I'm not saying they necessarily can or will beat the best of the Flying 6, just that they can put up a good fight. They are still the crew of Emperor .5!
Chopper doesn't have the straight up tricks and mage like abilities the others have so I'm not as confident but I know if Oda needed it Chopper would win and I feel it would be believable.
I'm also keeping in mind Mr 1 and his pair Ms Double Finger. She was ranked up there with Daz and then it was Nami of all people who eventually took her out.
Also like I said I wouldn't count out the ministers wanting their revenge or Big Mom actually assigning missions to bringing Zues back.
I think Usopp and Nami will probably take the weakest members which seems to be Page one and Ulti, at least the way the others are speaking to them
so
Usopp vs Page One
Nami vs Ultithen knowing oda he'll have both Nami and Robin fighting girls
so
Robin vs Black Mariaso that leaves Franky, Brook and Chopper and Who's-Who, Sasaki and X Drake
but like you said we don't know if Oda will go strictly Straw Hats vs Beast Pirates, who the hell knows how the Big Mom's Pirates will fit in
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I think Usopp and Nami will probably take the weakest members which seems to be Page one and Ulti, at least the way the others are speaking to them
so
Usopp vs Page One
Nami vs Ultithen knowing oda he'll have both Nami and Robin fighting girls
so
Robin vs Black Mariaso that leaves Franky, Brook and Chopper and Who's-Who, Sasaki and X Drake
but like you said we don't know if Oda will go strictly Straw Hats vs Beast Pirates, who the hell knows how the Big Mom's Pirates will fit in
Robin has never had a versus with a female.
And really really really should consider Drake as an ally
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Going by Queen's shoutout, I have a feeling that Numbers>Tobi Roppo. It seems apparent from their response that, Numbers are likely pure beasts (a la Minotaurs). They understand commands, but can't really communicate, and have no say in politics/power structure/hierarchy. Hence, they can't realistically be All-Stars.
Whichever side wins becomes the Justice.
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A lot of you are setting yourselves up for disappointment by predicting all these match ups. There won’t be as many one on one fights as you think, and it is doubtful that all the straw hats get a focused one on one match. The focused one on ones of Alabasta and Enies Lobby can be safely said to be outliers at this point.
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Robin has never had a versus with a female.
And really really really should consider Drake as an ally
Well Oda's not gonna have a guy beat the shit out of a girl, and Robin's a perfect fit to fight a Giant, seeing as how her powers after the time skip have been mostly making Giant Ass Limbs, so there's a first time for everything
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Yeah I'm really looking forward to the numbers and how they stack up to the rest of Kaido's crew.
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Meadows from the Colloseum.
LOL I just remembered this guy! Maybe he's Kaido's son? I mean, Garp was wearing an animal hoodie too for awhile!
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Lmao, I can't barely remember why we made a religion out of that guy
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They are the strongest headliners, none of those match ups make any sense and are a total mismatch.
Why would they be a mismatch? Sanji trounced one of them. They certainly won't be easy fights, but they shouldn't be in an arc like this. I wouldn't consider them to be any more of mismatches than the fights in Alabasta - the Straw Hats were certainly punching above their weight then, but found ways to win.
I think we should also recognize that it's about time for Luffy's strongest subordinates to take on the Yonko Commanders. Luffy has triumphed against them twice already. I don't see the likes of Kid or Law taking on the All-Stars, since I don't think Luffy can handle Kaido (and especially not Kaido + Big Mom) alone, and what benefit would that give to the Straw Hats and their portrayal? Does it make sense for Luffy to beat a Yonko while his crew is mostly limited to fighting regular Headliners?
Y'all can feel free to point out that Sanji was unsuccessful in removing Page One from the equation before the Fire Festival, but that was hardly the point of their fight. The main point was to show off the Raid Suit for the first time and give Sanji some combat spotlight. Unless he has some massive upgrade up his sleeve, Page One cannot give him any sort of meaningful rematch and there isn't any connection between the two that would make a rematch worthwhile. I personally think Sanji vs. Queen would make a great fight, in contrast. They would play off each other well.
Overall, the only non-Straw Hat characters that feel worthy enough to tangle with an All-Star are Inu and Neko (for Jack) and maybe Killer and X Drake. And sure, I'll acknowledge that the presence of the Big Mom Pirates could throw off potential 1v1 fights a lot. However, I still consider them to be a massive wild card and I don't quite think they'll meet the same fate as the Beasts Pirates will.
Spoiler:
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So, predictions on all of their dinosaur/ancient zoan fruits?
Black Maria - Titanoboa. Basically Sandersonia on steroids.
Ulti - Giving me some slit-mouthed woman vibes ( Japanese urban legend ), so maybe some sharp-taloned creature. Top three guesses: Raptor-type, Terror Bird, or Therizonosaurus. Basically a big funny looking Death Chicken, whatever she turns out to be.
Dunno about Sasaki and Who's who.
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Why everyone assumes queen listed them based on doriki levels. If anything, the fact that x drake is among them and they talked about replacing queen, it confirmation that they are after calamities and above numbers. Numbers are elbag giants huge, but that is never a good indication of strength.
Anyway, kaidou having a son is a smart way to have momo beat up kaidou without beating the actul kaidou, he will be monster kaidou dumbed down for momo's age.
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If Kaido son appears to be a weakling like Momo, it would be funny considering what he said to him 20 years ago
A lot of you are setting yourselves up for disappointment by predicting all these match ups. There won’t be as many one on one fights as you think, and it is doubtful that all the straw hats get a focused one on one match. The focused one on ones of Alabasta and Enies Lobby can be safely said to be outliers at this point.
Yeah I kinda agree. Especially if we have big Mum children in the equations I wouldn't try to start to make prediction especially since Oda will surely messing with them.
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out of all F6, very highly that Drake won't fighting SH at least. Maybe some other characters from the Alliance as he might need to keep his identity as spy in Beast Pirates.
Who's Who with a sword and seems like a leader of F6, could be a match for Zoro. Why must Zoro didn't get a fight with Calamities? because bounty wise, the gap between them is too big I guess. And they still have other pirates captain which can be matched with the Calamities.
Page One looks like the weakest out of the F6 probably. Rematch against Sanji may be not gonna happen.
Ulti attitude gives a Perona-Sugar vibe. Kind of Usopp potential opponent. Really love if Ulti is Raptor DF.
Black Maria and Sasaki probably will facing Okiku and Ashura.
Other SH Crews, could match up with Numbers (Franky, Chopper), Orochi's Ninja (Nami) or Big Mom Pirates (Sanji vs Perospero/Daifuku, Robin vs Mont D'Or, Brook vs Amande, Jinbe vs Smoothie).
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Why would they be a mismatch? Sanji trounced one of them. They certainly won't be easy fights, but they shouldn't be in an arc like this. I wouldn't consider them to be any more of mismatches than the fights in Alabasta - the Straw Hats were certainly punching above their weight then, but found ways to win.
I think we should also recognize that it's about time for Luffy's strongest subordinates to take on the Yonko Commanders. Luffy has triumphed against them twice already. I don't see the likes of Kid or Law taking on the All-Stars, since I don't think Luffy can handle Kaido (and especially not Kaido + Big Mom) alone, and what benefit would that give to the Straw Hats and their portrayal? Does it make sense for Luffy to beat a Yonko while his crew is mostly limited to fighting regular Headliners?
Y'all can feel free to point out that Sanji was unsuccessful in removing Page One from the equation before the Fire Festival, but that was hardly the point of their fight. The main point was to show off the Raid Suit for the first time and give Sanji some combat spotlight. Unless he has some massive upgrade up his sleeve, Page One cannot give him any sort of meaningful rematch and there isn't any connection between the two that would make a rematch worthwhile. I personally think Sanji vs. Queen would make a great fight, in contrast. They would play off each other well.
Overall, the only non-Straw Hat characters that feel worthy enough to tangle with an All-Star are Inu and Neko (for Jack) and maybe Killer and X Drake. And sure, I'll acknowledge that the presence of the Big Mom Pirates could throw off potential 1v1 fights a lot. However, I still consider them to be a massive wild card and I don't quite think they'll meet the same fate as the Beasts Pirates will.
Yeah, Raid Suit Sanji was already clearly superior to Page One in his hybrid form, and he's presumably being training this past week, so he should be even stronger now. The only way I see this rematch happening is as a pre-climax fight that's there exclusively for Sanji to show-off a la Wanze. Which honestly wouldn't surprise me because that's what Oda tends to do with characters that he has already used (see Buffalo and Baby 5 in Dressrosa).
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Nope, wasn't referring to Drake.
Curious though, if they woudn't have said a thing I would have assumed that Sasaki is the top guy, followed by Drake > Ulti > Who's Who > Black Maria > Pay-Pay.
Why would pay pay be the weakest. Like really, what other 5 ancients could be above spinosaurus. And pay pay was fighting super sanji, not even regular sanji like drake.
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Oh man, what a chapter! Wano's had more than a few spectacular environments so far - the flower capital, the ruined Oden castle and Tama's empty village coming immediately to mind - but Onigashima is the best of the lot. I love the atmosphere. I love the absurd scale of everything. I want there to be a One Piece video game that has a 1:1 recreation of that entrance area as a mini sandbox so I can walk around and really see how much everything towers overhead when put to scale. I want to climb around and see which ones of the oversized things strewn around I can get on top of. That first spread is going to go down as an all-time favourite.
The possibility of the skull being an actual bone is increased by the skyscraper-sized katana stuck in the ground in front of it. This one's even bigger than both Oars and the skull on Punk Hazard! The mysteries of the ancient giants are one of the things I'm most interested to get all the answers for. I really hope Kaido's possible connection to them (suggested by the distinct horns) is genuine and we can start paying off on almost a decade's worth of hints and foreshadowing. The only thing I'm more curious for in the long run is what the hell is up with the moon, but I don't think we're going to get much more on that until after Wano.
Luffy and Zoro are missing their scars in the new outfits Kin provides. Art error, or do his his powers of disguise go further than previously assumed. We'll probably get a better look in the next chapter. I expect that panel to be touched up in the volume release. Oh, and while it's a shame to see Luffy's captain coat disappearing so soon, Oda feeling the need to clarify that damage will make the disguises vanish makes me think it won't be gone for long.
I would have loved a wider shot of the Onigashima interior, but just from what was shown it already seems like an interesting locale for a battle, with all these bridges, trees and raised blocks ahead of the overlooking castle wall. I could be wrong, but outside maybe some of the vignettes in Law's flashback, I think this is the first time we've seen an enemy crew having a proper end-of-arc-Strawhats-style party. We know Kaido isn't above letting his underlings become collateral damage or annihilating a few of them in a drunken tantrum, but this chapter makes it seem like morale is at a high within the Beast Pirates. I'm interested to see how much loyalty these guys are going to have when their organisation starts to fall. Love all the Gifter designs as well!
The Tobi Roppo designs are all pretty cool looking, and Oda does his trademark fantastic job of introducing a bunch of characters at once in a way that still gives us a strong impression of who each of them are. Seriously, it looks so easy here but this kind of mass-intro is so hard to pull off without either making the characters feel indistinct from each other or overwhelming the reader. Pay Pay - uh, Page One - looks a hell of a lot different from what his earlier appearance suggested. I wish he wasn't sitting so bundled up like that so we could get a better view of his outfit. Visually, my favourite is Who's-Who. He's got strong F-Zero vibes that make me keen to see what he can do.
The discussions surrounding this chapter have raised some thoughts about translations. For example, Ulti's speech quirk. My understanding is that in the raw she's trying to copy the way Komurasaki spoke, but in Japanese this was achieved by adding a term to the end of her sentences. It was the right choice not to do that - it's the kind of thing that only works in Japanese. I've seen translators try to keep things like that in and it's at best awkward and at worst outright confusing. Problem being, while Komurasaki's dialogue was written a bit more upper-crust than the people speaking around her, it wasn't a huge enough difference to make an imitation of her obvious. I don't think this was a failing on Stephen's part or anything; who could have guessed her speaking style would ever be commented on in this way? And worse still to have to recapture it in just two lines from Ulti before Page One snaps at her and she stops talking that way. Maybe if there was a way to get Ulti to echo one of Komurasaki's more memorable lines ("I have only scorn for the poor man" to "Queen just called the Tobi Roppo arrogant punks! I have only scorn for him!" to spitball a possibility), but this is really another one of those things like Oden's last words that can only be smoothly worked out in hindsight. The perils of having an up-to-date translation.
I have no idea how some people didn't manage to catch at all that Ulti's word choices and emphasis were different from everyone around her though. It's noticeable! Especially coming right after Queen's more casual hype man dialogue.
The other thing that came up translation-wise was a lot of scan-readers being forced to expose themselves to Tobi Roppo instead of "Flying Six" for the first time, thanks to Oda choosing to write it out himself. And that's had me thinking - the names of these senior ranks kinda don't work for me. All of them come from traditional Japanese theatre, but two are different kinds of performers and the last is a specific kind of stage exit, a performance. Why not keep it to just stage movements or just performers? Worse is how hard they are to translate. The two performers lose the traditional Japanese connotations but are at least able to keep the theatre feeling. The most direct translation for Tobi Roppo, on the other hand, sounds more like a group of circus acrobats than stageplay types. I suppose you could keep them all in Japanese. Shinuchi, Okanban and Tobi Roppo at least sound consistent with each other, but it makes for a lot of foreign words to throw at the reader, and wouldn't be remotely acceptable if the crew wasn't headquartered in the in-universe equivalent to Japan. And even then they're going to stand out and sound excessively weeb-y next to the other groups of the crew, the Waiters, Gifters and Pleasures, which are used as English loanwords in the raw because apparently Oda cares a lot less about this kind of consistency than I do. Big, rambly nitpick, I know. I think it just bugs me because I like trying to solve these kinds of langue problems and there's just no way I can see not to make Tobi Roppo as a name stick out like a sore thumb from the things around it. I truly do not envy any translator trying to deal with all the linguistic and cultural things Oda is doing with this arc.
So it looks like all the pieces (save for the Numbers) are set up and ready to clash. Next week, I think we'll start to escalate, working in the last few factors like the Numbers, the Big Mom Pirates and Katakuri's kid one at a time as the tension ramps up. As conclusive as it feels now, I don't think Onigashima is going to be the place the Wano arc ends. There are twists and turns and unexpected developments in the works, all leading to a flight back to the mainland. There's probably one more most desperate hour to go as well (and I don't expect Cat and/or Marco a moment sooner than that) and a lot of manga to go before things ramp down. If the structure of Tottoland is anything to go by, we could barely be past the halfway point of Wano. I can't wait to see what's coming next!
