Chapter 1053
I'm glad we get at least one chapter of proper post-arc before the break. It's so refreshing to be back in this phase of Oda's story structure and I'm glad to know there's more of One Piece's best on the horizon. I had the impression going in that this week's colour spread would be Oda's recently revealed Film Red poster, in much the same way his Stampede poster opened chapter 945, but we get a full spread for the Odyssey game instead? Neat! Interesting that Odyssey gets this treatment when other titles Oda contributed character designs to like Unlimited World Red and World Seeker didn't. Maybe Oda just wanted to show off his monster designs. Can't really blame him for that.
I'm loving that Morgans is now totally rogue after his falling out with Cipher Pol over the Reverie's details in chapter 956. Given how quick and easy it was for the World Government to alter the news as part of Doflamingo's scheme at the start of Dressrosa, we can assume that Morgans was the Government's mouthpiece for a long time before the past few weeks. We don't often circle back to Luffy's greatest strength being his ability to win people over to his side, but this is a super underrated example of it, him unintentionally drawing in the best hype man he could have hoped for.
It's also cool to see the Government trying to give Luffy the same treatment they gave Roger - subtley retconning the D initial out of the public consciousness. It's obviously not illegal to have a D, though some families definitely choose to keep it secret, but it makes sense to see the downplay it if someone starts to too much embody the folklore about bringing forth a storm.
Oda's also doing a quick job of wrapping up the loose ends people have been talking about. What happened to Big Mom's crew? They crossed paths with the incoming World Government fleet and had a little bit of a battle. That's pretty logical considering the pieces in play and where they all were, I'm surprised I didn't see it pop up more often as a theory.
Three billion each for the captains, with some great new pictures to boot. I guess the random panel of Guernica fleeing Onigashima in chapter 1049 was to set up him having been in the right place at the right time for that picture. I'm a little surprised not to see four billion, given the number of the Film Red tie in volume, but who's to know the mind of Oda. It's cool that Luffy, Law and Kid get to remain rivals in at least some sense here.
I almost feel a little bad for Jinbe having his fancy meal alone waiting for the others. But he seems happy, so I guess festivals just aren't his thing. I hope the events at the end of the chapter don't keep them from reaching him. Cool detail: this seems to be the same room from Orochi's introduction scene in chapter 929, the start of the party at which Hiyori and Denjiro would eventually fake Komurasaki's death.
Luffy's new kimono and Jinbe's new cape have pretty similar motifs with the hexagons. That's a cute detail. Wonder if the colours will match too.
The kokeshi dolls and the Poneglyph under the palace were first mentioned by Brook back in chapter 934 after he scoped out the place in soul form. It's important to remember that this isn't the country's Lode Poneglyph - but I imagine it's being kept alongside Pluton, wherever that is. Hitetsu's identity is one we were definitely given enough information to guess. The question of where he was all those years and why he didn't seek out Oden is immediately answered with the revelation he was imprisoned until after Orochi had fully consolidated his power. I feel like I saw at some point that something in the Vivre Card databook made this reveal impossible, like it gave Hitetsu and Sukiyaki different birthdays or made Hitetsu too old or something, but when I look back over the information we had I can't find anything that could possibly have brought anyone to that conclusion. It might feel a little cheap to have Sukiyaki alive after all this time, but since Momonosuke was never taught the art of crafting Poneglyphs or writing in the language used for them and Sukiyaki presumably was, there's a very good narrative reason to have kept him around.
Aramaki makes a commanding first impression for the series' final admiral. I'm not even talking about him attacking the leftover Beasts Pirates, just look at the establishing shot of the prison mine. Compare the environment around it to how it all looked in chapter 946. That would be a tremendous and terrifying amount of power even without all the pirates he beat.
He's got a fantastic, memorable design as well, but it strikes fear into my heart that he seems so dead set on capturing Luffy and winning Sakazuki's approval. I don't think Wano has another full-scale fight in it and I don't think anyone wants to see Aramaki beaten by the combined powers of the alliance immediately after his introduction. So what's happening? Will he be talked down? Driven back for political reasons by the new shogun standing up to him and declaring Wano's sovreignity and protection of the pirates? Or maybe something out of left field like Luffy fleeing all over Wano, leading him around so his out of control plant powers can bring greenery back to the land.
It's cool to see Luffy sticking with his not being a hero thing even now. It's obviously as much for Momo's sake as it is self-serving, letting the new dynasty start with a win the citizens can feel their new leader is responsible for, but it's still nice. Goes a long way in justifying not putting Kaido's defeat where the citizens can see, something a lot of people were expecting.
Absolutely loving the spread of Luffy and Kid dancing under the fireworks. That's a moneyshot as far as post-arc party scenes go. It's gorgeous! I can't wait to see the colour version! And so great to see all the crew and their allies celebrating alongside them, including Kin'emon and Otsuru reunited at last. It's one small panel for the last two, but it's surprisingly heartwarming after all this time.
And then the end of chapter stingers - the new Emperors and the admiral's approach. It must suck for Law and Kid feeling left out like that, but it makes sense. The Emperor position isn't just about might, it's about territory and influence. Luffy, having claimed Fishman Island, invaded Tottoland and inspired the Straw Hat Grand Fleet (including Bartolomeo running around trying to conquor other Emperors' territory in Luffy's name in his cover story) is legitimately much more representative of an Emperor than the other Supernova captains, who've kept their sights much more squarely on Kaido without getting distracted. Buggy is... well I saw people speculating it during the week, but I never thought they could be right. The obvious answer is that he somehow united the other betrayed Warlords behind him, but I'm very interested to see the truth. Aramaki hints again that the status quo outside has been shaken up big by the Reverie and the aftermath of the World Government's attack on the Warlords. I'm so excited to see what that means, and so hurt for a month off to happen here of all places.
So what's next? I can't wait to see what Pluton really looks like and confirm another Lode Poneglyph for the set! I want to see the new geopolitics! I'm looking forward to seeing how the crew and the locals handle Aramaki! This is such a massive, frustrating cliffhanger for a month off. And given the next chapter is likely the last of volume 104 it's all the more reason to be on the edge of our seats for it.
Horrible place for a break, but at the same time maybe the best time for it. I know my hype is going to stay strong during the gap after this banger chapter, rather than the lingering concerns of a few weeks ago when the end of the fight didn't quite touch the series' other emotional peaks and it was starting to feel like the post-battle lore dump would never come. Better to be left on a high note than a low one I guess is what I'm saying. Looking foward to seeing what Jump fills the next four weeks with, doing a reread of Wano up to this point during the interrim and of course getting back to Aramaki and the festival in a month!
Chapter 1054
Oh man, I've been waiting for this. I thought the month hadn't been that long up until I started seeing evidence of spoilers floating around, then I realised how hungry I really was for more of this story.
A colour spread for the return from the month off was a given, but we also get a long-awaited new volume cover. I'm honestly not the biggest fan of this one. It's a decent selection of moments, Big Mom's absence notwithstanding, but the layout doesn't quite work for me. It's too empty in the middle for how busy it is at the bottom. I think it might have worked better if the whole thing was scooched up a few notches until the moon is close to centred on the logo, with Nika Luffy leaping in front of it. Then either space out Kaido, Kid and Law a tad further, or emphasise another character or two.
The image of Nika and the moon has already left a mark on the fanbase's consciousness, so I get wanting to advertise it and slap some official colours on it as soon as possible, but just don't think the bottom-heavy layout is all the way there.
The colour spread is pretty tame by Oda's standards, but its simplicity goes a long way to sell how far Luffy has come. Look at our boy go! Seeing the way these characters are juxtaposed on the halves of the spread helped me realise the two pairs of opposing colours among the Four Emperors. Red and Blue on one side. Black and White on the other. I've never doubted that Blackbeard would be the series' final boss, no matter what Sakazuki was up to or how many Im figures were introduced, and putting him and Luffy in direct opposition like this only makes me more certain.
But it really shouldn't have been surprising. Oda has been pressing Blackbeard and Luffy as the same but inverted since Jaya.
I don't think this means Shanks and Buggy will fight though. I'm interested to contrast them in this final stage of the story, given their connected origin, but I'm not vibing real conflict just yet.
Going into the actual chapter, it's amazing how reliably the party-distracted capital was able to spot Aramaki's approach and how quickly the Scabbards were able to mobilise. How many people here ho aren't part of that group would be able to recognise a Navy admiral for the threat he is, given how closed off the nation is. But I suppose they would all be on high alert for any kind of move from the remnants of Kaido's crew.
Oda uses Aramaki here to turn subtext into text, telling the readers outright the things about the state of the world he's been hinting at for years. 170 member states out of millions of islands on the sea. Celestial-ranked nobles that operate on an entirely different set of rules even to regular nobility, only 50 world leaders - less than a third of of the World Government's total membership - get to sit at the Reverie table, and of course we see regular nobles abusing their power over the common man all over the place. The whole world is a towering system of haves and have-nots, where the classes are divided not just by their means, resources and levels of luxury, but what laws and consequences are applied to them. And we can see now that it's not a natural order, the people at the top are aware of the inequality built into the system and work to keep it there.
It's easy to keep on living and not be too envious of those who stand above you when you can distract yourself with thoughts of "at least I'm not that guy" but on the flip side, it's also easy to submit to exorbitant taxation and dehumanising political bargaining when there's a lingering threat of being made into "that guy".
Stop me if you've already figured out the real world stuff this applies to. Oda's many things, but subtle isn't one of them.
I wonder how the World Government feels about one of their top military officials saying the quiet part loud to the people of a nation they're planning to take control of.
All the politics aside, this is just a magnificent set of pages as well. I absolutely love the two fist trees rising out of the ground here, a great and memorable touch. I'm sure Oda had a great time designing and drawing it all.
Momo's doing great here. It really sunk in when Luffy asked him what else he could have to fear. And it doesn't seem to be the only thing he picked up from Luffy. [spinny legs comparison] But dispite Oda making note of improved physical strength in Momo a few chapters ago, the facts laid out during the battle, that adulthood doesn't instantly give him perfect technique or control over his powers holds true.
Do we dare compare Kaido's response to Momo's bite and Aramaki's? Some will use it for powerlevel trolling, claiming it proves Aramaki is stronger than Kaido. Others will analyse, claiming that Kaido was perhaps struggling to keep his haki all the way up after so much fighting while Aramaki is coming in fresh and all juiced up after draining the wounded Beasts Pirates officers. I'm here to tell you it's because dragon is super effective against dragon and only neutral against grass. Problem solved.
I'm very curious to see the what logic in asking only Yamato not to fight is. If it were all the Scabbards being asked not to stand down, that could be a new leader trying not to start a war, but I'm scratching my head over why it could be just Yamato.
And then we get Shanks! Shaaaanks! Is he making his move at last, or just teasing us again, as he's been doing for 25 years now. I'll admit, as exciting as his big declaration at the end is (and the follow up to Barto's cover story), this is more of a Shanks recap than anything else. We're not learning all that much new from his perspective of the Gum Gum heist. The dialogue surrounding the fruit remains vague enough that we still can't know if the fruit is something Shanks was specifically looking for or if he knew its true nature. Remember that even after stealing the fruit, Shanks made at least one more voyage from Luffy's town and returned, so his work in the East Blue wasn't done yet.
There are some interesting tidbits here though. Who's Who's horns are apparently something he naturally has. What's up with that? Shank's ship retains its chapter one appearance, confirming it was upgraded or changed out at some point in the past dozen years. This might have been confirmed in a databook or something previously, but I wouldn't have questioned it if the design had just been retconned as a relic of the simpler art style of the early days. We also see that not every member of Shanks's current inner circle was present for chapter one. This makes sense, given how many random crew members we see there that don't appear in the present and weren't canonised in the volume 101 SBS. We saw in Oden's flashback how much Whitebeard's crew changed over the decades, so it seems fair enough Shanks's group would shift too.
The need to hunt down Bartolomeo so Shanks can keep his standing is seemingly at odds with his philosophy from the opening chapter. Will we learn that this is just the weight of the years and knowledge on the captain's shoulders, making the once-cheerful mentor figure cynical? Or will it be that his choice to only act to protect his friends has become more complex, with shows of weakness inviting attacks on his territory and more danger for people in it that he cares about? What will Luffy think of the change in him?
The New Marineford section of the chapter is where the juicy stuff is. We've spent three weeks in-universe in a country where no info flows in or out, and it seems we've missed a lot. Cobra killed, Kuma rescued, Vivi disappeared, Charlos unfortunately only nearly killed, trials and tribulations in the land of gods, a glimpse of how the Celestial Dragons who live above normal laws deal with conflict among their own. Oda gives us so much new information to chew on but at the same time holds so many details back. I am hungry for more of this.
I think it's interesting that Cobra's death would spark so much chaos. Of course the slaying of a Celestial Dragon is the kind of defiant act that spreads like wildfire through your average dystopia, but when Doflamingo revealed that the Nefeltaris were a World Government founding family who neglected to ascend I had figured that was a secret to the world. Like they were fully committed to the idea of the Celestial Dragons being descended from gods, and wouldn't dare admit they just came from founders who had been normal royalty previously. Maybe the founders became deities in the act of doing the founding. That seems easy enough to make a religion out of.
Many Sabo detractors over the years have claimed with varying levels of fairness that he's just Ace 2.0, and that the story hadn't justified him as anything more than a way to partly bring Luffy's brother back. I never want to hear any of that again. Sabo's role as the face of a global uprising is one that Ace could never have filled. His legacy as Roger's child, as much as he raged against it, made him ill-suited to capturing the public's sympathy the same way. This truly feels like Sabo coming into his own.
And hot damn, catch that guillotine behind Sabo's hype guy at the end. There's even a bit of blood on it already, no messing around! We're doing this revolution the old fashioned way. Given the decidedly french name of the World Government's holy land, it's pretty obvious where Oda's getting his inspiration for the power to the people scenes.
I definitely don't believe Sabo killed Cobra. I think it all has to do with Im's attempt to erase a light from history, possibly Vivi. And I think he's probably with Sabo right now. But that's all low-hanging fruit as far as theories go.
I really don't know what to expect from the next chapter. Any other part of the series, I'd tell you outright you're a fool to think we're coming back to global events as big as the revolutions or machinations as important as Shanks's anytime in the next few months, maybe even within the year. Oda draws this kind of worldbuilding out and always leaves us wanting more. But this is the final saga. Maybe it's time to start following up. Whatever's to come, I'm so excited for the series to be back, and extremely pleased Oda has such a banger of a chapter waiting to return with.
Chapter 1055
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.
Cinder