@Joy:
So Oda is really going to nerf Kaido by having him not possessing awakening
Maybe his awakening is transforming his fish into dragon!
@Joy:
So Oda is really going to nerf Kaido by having him not possessing awakening
Maybe his awakening is transforming his fish into dragon!
A build up chapter for sure, but I think we dont really need a page or 2 of Momo and Yam's bickering.
King becoming Garchomp is fun too! Also did he really have a skin TONE?!
Lmao, remember when last week we boasted that Yamato will be dueting with Luffy? He immediately sends her down lol. Still, nice motivational speech from Yamato there, from Oden to Oden
Wow, Carrot stops Neko from slaughtering Peros right there, with a huge motivational speech! Would you look at that, she totally redeems her past disappearances!
Carrot is popular, yes, but even after the poll she still get a very minimal panel time. And when she does appears, the panel is either small or she only get to say a bare minimum of dialogue.
Just compare it to Momo, for instance. Cheat aside he does get a nice character development and cool moment, now becoming a major factor in the raid.
Shine? I mean, Carrot is literally a background character atm, in an arc with so many named characters that also waiting for their moment to shine…
Gonna be realistic tho, maybe she will be involved in post-arc Minks moment/mass reaction faces, and that will be it.
After all I've been seeing so far in Wano, Oda seems like not interested anymore in Minks storyline. He skipped the cathartic Sulongs pile up on Jack, made the confusing "revenge Pedro" plot and then offscreened most of Neko and Inu's final battle in raid. Of course, because of that Carrot has been reduced to a mere background character at best.
I saw ppl comparing Carrot to Paulie at Enies Lobby, but Paulie at least had a better showing in the early parts of the raid by actually confronting the enemies. Carrot… has not. She's been missing for too long and reappears only on small panels with not meaningful dialogues at that. Even with Peros done I dont think Carrot's situation will get better, as we still need to deal with other important match ups. I think her time is almost up and done.
Not to beat a dead... um, rabbit at this point, but Yamato's part on the raid is far from over and now she's gonna partnering with Luffy to take down daddy dearest. That a lush place for character development etc...
I said all about my grievances about this chapter at the spoiler thread, so now I can praise the chapter rightfully.
Finally!! I can see the ending!! Last duel of Luffy and Kaido (with Yamato on side), and a few stragglers like Orochi etc. I don't even think King and Queen would last more than 2 chapters, which is suck for Sanji and King as they really need those developments, but such is life.
Oh and did we really need those 2 early pages…?
@Zik:
How about we envision what the crew would look like if a new nakama joined after each arc
Overbloated main cast where everyone not named Luffy or Zoro or Law would get memorable scenes per arc.
Nami Chopper Brook Usopp and Robin get shafted even more.
Each chapters would consist of the crew's reaction shots for 5 pages, then 5 pages for the mooks' reaction shots to the crew's reaction, 2 pages for the overall situation of raid then at last! 5 pages of the true content of story.
The reasoning of Yamato staying in Wano is that she will magically tank everything the Marines and WG throw at Wano. Guardian god, baby!!
And for that reason, her dreams of journeying the world alongside Luffy will be discarded. Who cares about dream anyway? Not on this manga about realizing dream!
Tbh in Dressrosa the crew + Grand Fleet members also curbstomped Doffy's crews. No one is even threatening them, well maybe Pica, but he is also massacred by Zoro.
Doffy need Sugar's broken DF just to stall Luffy and co. After that? The crews are dancing around Doffy's.
Only Beast Pirates are threatening the crew but then again Jinbe and Franky barely broken their sweat…
@Zik:
Would be cool if its zero.
Including BB.
Then they come with an alternative against all odds way to fight those users.
It'd be cool if the SH are top dogs for a change, we will be wondering how absurd the enemies' powerset to troll SH.
Well, "wings" doesn't have to be strong as hck. They can be supporting and helping the PK to achieve his goals through other means. Sanji is now not as strong as Zoro or even Jinbe, but he can supporr Luffy with strategic minds/buffs from cooking etc.
That is, if Oda shown them to us!!
The real problem with Sanji is, Oda never shown him as many badass, strength defining moments after timeskip… not even on the supporting areas. Like 99 Newkama Recipes that are revitalizing and strengthening are dandy and all, but he doesn't even cook it to buff the crew before battle.
It's almost at the last leg of the journey, where the protagonists are getting almost of all their upgrades and now the last obstacles are the final bosses. Main character have a super lopsided party seems likely, I mean in other series the MC usually has the most overpowered crew at this point of story.
Adding a non-powerhouse new member is like you're recruiting a lv 45 character for your party of lv 70-80…
Oni race huh… even since Kaido is revealed to have a kanabo mace, he fits the stereotypical tropes of an oni. Horns, mean drunk, kanabo mace, hell he even resides in Onigashima!
Maybe Onigashima is the homeland of Oni race? And that's why Kaido is set to have that place become the new capital of Wano?
I guess that the sacred "we are nakama now" will be uttered by Luffy in this rooftop batte before Yamato finally falls and Luffy would proceed to go mano-a-mano against Kaido.
I can see it: big spread page, Luffy shouting "Yamato!! You are my nakama now!!", with sneering Kaido, wheezing Momo and crying Yamato, as well as "Break next week" LOL
Like, it's almost a certainty at this point. It's not even funny how blatant Oda threw the clues at us…
So relevance to the plot is convenience? lol
I mean, she is too convenient.
Which is nice, actually. She has all the markings of a great and memorable character!
I agree. Yamato is convenient as heck.
We're about to fight a Yonko! Suddenly the child of said Yonko helping us.
There are mysteries in Oden's journal! Suddenly said child of Yonko have the journal.
Etc.
Not to mention, Yamato is loaded too. Tama's connection with Ace? She has it! Tama's memorable crying moment when she ate real food? Yamato also has it! Connection with Minks' so called Dawn? Hey, Yamato knew that too! Sulong? Yamato can go sulong like with her DF!! Coating CoC, a new concept? Yamato does that too!
She is TOO convenient that I said she's a literal shortcut to the endgame portions of OP. Neato.
Yeah, in my mind Oda just wanted to draw the 60 top rankers on cool spread, even my man Woop Slap (I voted for him lmao) looks cool there.
The merchandise and last week Yamato's focus was cool but like Robby said, it was because she is "happening" in the anime right now.
Still, with volume 100 being celebrated hugely last week even on Japanese news, you'd think Yamato on the cover must means something… at least, hey, it's free publicity to an already breakout character!
Oh, now discussing a color spread is fine when last week I was attacked when discussing voice actor? (Granted I was misinformed, but still)
IMO the colorspread's positioning and composition only mean 1 thing… that is, to make everyone looks cool in battle position. Also to make it like a poster for a huge blockbuster superhero movie. No need to over analyze it.
Wait what, Yamato can use Conqueror too? I missed the spoiler discussions…
Wow she keeps getting better. Even her flashback is not finished! I smell 1 chapter more for her flashback.
And the communication panel within Straw Hat crews are so nicely done...
Hey y'all, long time no see. Everyone here, and especially Robby, I'm sorry I was pretentious as fk last week. I was so over my head lol. I'm so embarrassed that I skipped visiting AP…
Anyway, with that out, it seems that last week is "Yamato Week". My feed is filled to the brim with Yamato... she rides the coattail of volume 100 where she's on the cover as free publication lol. Oh, and most merchandises of vol 100 do include Yamato in Straw Hats line up, somehow.
It's like the marketing team knows something we don't wink wink nudge nudge
Robby, how many anime do you watch? Because us anime watchers kinda know what happened behind the screen, at least on seiyuu's salaries.
There are "ranks" amongst seiyuu, starting on F to A. Reaching the top rank is not decided by how long you're in the industry. Its a mix of popularity, workload, experience, and variety of works.
Top ranked seiyuus get to negotiate their salary, just like film actors. That is common knowledge.
But let's move on, we're going out of topic lol.
Oh, and for the note, I am a Yamato supporter. She sold the fk out of me with chapter 1,000. I just like to discuss anything about her even if its going meta. Hey, its not like other candidates dont have meta things to discuss, its only fair!
@All:
Sawashiro (Pudding) voiced Mordred and Kanbaru.
The only Monogatari role Hayamin has is Ononoki.
Gah, I misremembered lol. Still, I stick with my theories for now.
It's like Hiyori's Nana Mizuki, too big of a seiyuu. Law also has high profile seiyuu and he sticks around as a prominent ally. Maybe Yamato will become this too.
Although what Robby said is also interesting as the anime team generated hype for a character even before she appears on the show. It's a big deal (TM).
EDIT
Oh, and no seiyuu is paid the same. There are CV, portofolio, recognition, and all in factor. They're actors, after all. That's why ppl can guess how much an anime worth by seeing its seiyuu list alone.
I do not agree with the basis of Vivre Card and voice actor logic when it comes to this subject.
It's easy. OP is a long running anime; thus, using high profile voice actors are hella expensive for something that is on air for many years.
But Hayamin's reveal is treated as the next big thing TM and ppl are already hyped for her as Yamato… if nothing else it's a good publication lol.
Out of topic for a sec, it was revealed that Yamato will be voiced by Saori Hayami. She's one of the most promiment female seiyuu out there with amazing range, she usually voices tomboyish character like Mordred of Fate and Kanbaru of Monogatari among others.
Too big of a seiyuu. Methinks Yamato's chance is kinda… decreasing lol.
I… love King. Enemy generals that are super serious are rare nowadays, there are usually banters involved. You say King lacks character, but for me that is his character. Stoic, business-oriented guy that let his fist and sword and leg do the talking.
Queen with his showbiz banters is fun too, ofc. Also did Jack became a mammoth centaur in hybrid form???
Vivi is so a Strawhat, she doesnt even need bullshit DF/powers to become relevant. Just plop her in Sunny and the plot writes itself around her!
Well in the end, despite how hard and long we theorized about anything, we can only accept when Oda drops a divebomb, destroying all of our well-thought, detailed theories lol.
I don't like the numbers theory because it seems too restrictive imo. Why just limit yourself to a very specific number?
Weird some tried to bring up disagreemnts about Carrot as hating the character/hate speech, when you have something that qualified as hate speech earlier way in this thread (just by reading) when it came to Yamato.
What hate speech? Dying Yamato thing? I just think it will be fun narratively lol.
And no, 2 new crewmates joining at once (Carrot and Yams) is a defeatist, compromising theory. Because one has way more going at them and way more developed than the other one (you know who).
So, don't agree with someone's chance to join is a hate speech now? Man I missed 2010 era OP where ppl argued who might've join more civilly…
@Zik:
Yeah but if act 3 ends when Wano ends there won't be an act 4.
Unless somehow Oda introduces another antagonist
Act 3 ends when the battle ends. Act 4 is epilogue and building for the next arc…
That's what I've been repeating everytime, and then they said it's a slander to Carrot lol.
Like, I understand that you guys want Carrot to have her moments, but Oda has been sidelining her for so long, even off-screened her fight (well the anime will somehow overblown the fight into 10 minutes though). That's proving how "relevant" she is in the grand scheme of things.
And if, somehow, Carrot joins the crew as the mythical last member, after being sidelined for so long? The one that will become a "face" of One Piece as a mega franchise, 5-10 years after this? Man that's so bad on so many levels.
I can understand if Carrot had her big moments in Wano, like infiltrating the society like Luffy and co., had her fight with Peros alone in some pages (even if she lost), then had a flashback in the midst of that, a big speech etc… but she doesn't have any of that.
"But the arc is not over yet!! All of them could happens!"
Well yeah, it will happen... for Neko. Because he's the one that will defeat Peros, have cool techniques to show off, had a flashback of Pedro as his lord, and a big speech to Peros for Pedro's sacrifice.
Why does everyone want a piece of brother Peros? He did nothing wrong, man… Pedro exploded himself, its not like Peros strapped a bomb on Pedro and triggered it!
Oh, and the Tobiroppo are donezo I think.
Well an intermission chapter to be sure, thankfully no break this week!
Moving on, I also support Vivi's comeback wholeheartedly. Even if she doesn't participate in the big fights, she would support the crew behind the screen as politician. In a war, army logistics and politics are as important as the fighting force, after all.
No need for DF or anything bullshit like that imo.
When Kaido flashback happens, Yamato will surely in it… even though Kaido is a monster parent, she is still his child.
"Waiting the right time to bring it back" is not the same as "ignored".
Yeah and when she returned back then, she uttered the legendary, world shattering quote:
"Uuhhh…"
Oda had so many chances to brought the spotlight to Carrot and he ignored them.
I mean, you really cant slander a character that has been ignored even by the author…
Can someone give me a brief summary about the current state of this thread?
We're going in circle like some of OP chapters.
If Yamato's problem is independent of the crew, then Carrot is way independent too. She literally only have revenge against Peros in mind.
For Carrot she must find a way to reappear in the story first. There I said it.
Even if she does appear, she must share the screentime with Neko, who realistically has a shot of defeating Peros.
What overprotective dad left his kid in the midst of enemy rank?
Also, bodyguard/guardian is such a weird position/job on the crew. Why not another combatant? It's not like a swordsman is also a requisite position on a ship, yes?
Tbh, it was her appearance and mini flashback in chapter 1000 that sold me on the idea of Yamato joining. Beforehand I saw her as "flavor of the month" candidate, just like Shirahoshi, Monet, Rebecca, Violet, Barto, etc.
Knowing Luffy's true dream is HUGE however you like it.
These people have been patiently waiting for an interaction between Carrot and Robin for 216 chapters. but Yamato at 37 chapters ran out of time already?
It's kinda telling something that Yamato only had 37 chapters (37!) appearance so far and become the leading candidate by like 3 miles, that made the oppositions literally grasping at straws…
I'm sure if her flashback is told, her chances would shoot up even more.
Yamato constantly states he wants to leave
Let's see what squares and lines have to say about that!
Screw that, lets scour the miniscule panels for META clues yet again! To hell with actual story beats and plot point!
Altho I kinda agree about "guardian Yamato" thing :ninja:
How convenient we just go introduced to a solution for Tama's issue then :ninja:
Adult Tama powers up her fruit so that she can brainwash the enemies' inner primate. Scary af.
"My other name is Yamato and I'd die for you!"
Man, if Yamato REALLY dies at the end of the arc, it will be gloriously tragic and sad… and that's why Oda wont write that lmao (based on his track records).
As sad as it is, I will be pleasantly surprised if he does kill Yamato.
Everyone knows Robin's fight is good, so next…
Maturing Momo. Yeah it was foreshadowed. But it doesnt mean I must like this development.
How nice, getting an instant power up without drawback like that!
"But he actually loses some years of his life by doing that! Its a tear shedding sacrifice!!"
No, he will get an instant power up, no drawback at all. Lost years of his life? Only that? Pssh... considerinh he will get a bigger dragon form and maybe magically Oden's sword technique and physique, thats a slap on the wrist.
Luffy did lose some years of his life back then from Iva, but he doesnt get a clear power up from that. Only a cure for poison.
Naruto and Dragonball both continued with new creators handling them.
Though both eventually brought the original creator back to do the writing.
And One Piece has already had spinoffs. Dr. Chopper, the high school thing, the Ace novels…
Not all current OP readers will follow the sequels/spin offs after OP ends you know. Just look at Boruto, most Naruto fans left the franchise after Naruto ended.
Not to mention OP is very difficult at garnering new readers because its sheer chapter numbers. Dragon Ball is different because how simple its premise/characters are. Basically you only need to know the Saiyans, Goku and Vegeta, and you're set.
So I think the main series crewmembers are the one that will left the biggest impression in readers.
Nope, 10 main characters are already too many and that's why Oda splitted the crew back then in Dressrosa and WCI. Not to mention with the allies we have every arcs, most SHs are already sidelined.
Even if Oda really adds Yamato to the crew, I fear that she'll only become a new toy syndrome, that she only become relevant for 1-2 volumes after joining and then get sidelined like Nami, Usopp and Chopper nowadays. It's sad but when you have many main characters in a weekly series someone is getting sidelined for sure.
Tbh I never believe in number theory at all. You'd think if Oda really had that in mind he would show a character with DF that fit those numbers as a legitimate new nakama candidate… but no, amongst crewmate candidates he instead shows: 1) minks, or 2) dango girl, or 3) mythical wolf.
So I think the number theory is either has been smothered slowly by Oda... or he will use it on later day with a totally unexpected fruit etc (not Kuma or Kinemon).