The symmetry of this poll is crazy.

Wano country better be the Lone Wolf & Cub style feudal Japan + Japanese myths masterpiece that I want it to be.

If it isn't, I want that.

I'd also like a Gladiators/Caesars etc sorta kingdom but maybe that's too silly… It wouldn't be like, overly done, just subtle things, like the Chinese influence of Amazon Lily. Mostly aesthetics.

Those things are also just written by people at Jump, who don't actually know what's going to happen in the next issue. They just want to hype it up. I can remember times when the teaser has said factually wrong or just downright silly stuff.

I agree that the Den Den Mushi is probably Monet's ability. Is it some sort of egg-related ability?

What I think bothers me more than just the scene with Gemma is the whole character arc for this Sabretooth girl. She's going from a relevant enemy to yet another member of Fairy Tail who won't do much but pop up for occasional fanservice-based gags. This isn't the first time Mashima's done something like this with a new female character, and it won't be the last.

Oh well. At least the rest of the plot is still pretty interesting. For once he's actually escalating the complexity without everything seeming really dumb and arbitrary.

The thing is, shutting down Mangastream isn't going to stop a single person from reading One Piece without paying. Scanlation sites, like every facet of piracy, spring up like hydras in this situation. All they've accomplished is annoying the community.

Hey Stephen, for awhile I've been wondering about the idea of "curse words" in One Piece. The scanlations I typically look at usually have way more "minor swears" than Viz's localizations, saying "damn" instead of "rats", etc. As it seems like the earlier volumes of Viz have more swear words, I figure the scans were more accurate and Viz has been moving to "tone down" this sort of thing. Best example I can think of is that I'm pretty sure in one early chapter, where Nami ties Luffy up and hands him over to Buggy, she calls him an ass in Viz's original magazine and a jerk in the 3-in-1 Viz release. I know there's a lot of ambiguity in the translations, but I was wondering if you had any general thoughts on how "curse-laden" the series ought to be in English. Also, I was wondering if you've been given any sort of official policy by Viz in regards to this for your official translations.

And, this is sort of off-topic, but are you the Stephen Paul that translates Yotsuba for Yen Press?

I liked this chapter. Good to see them addressing the central plotline, even if they aren't acknowledging it in a realistic manner. Gets you pumped up for what's looking to be the final arc.

Wow, this is hugely exciting news! Congratulations Stephen! And congratulations to all English One Piece readers! We're getting the translations the series deserves!

Also, in regards to scanlators using these raws, even if Viz closes the two week gap, they'll still be behind. Remember that the chapter we read on Wednesdays goes on sale in Japan on the following Sunday. Raws come from leaked copies.

Really fun chapter. I'm definitely feeling a long flashback sometime this arc.