Honestly, among all the issues I have with the One Piece right now, "Luffy is too strong", isn't one. We've (or many of us have) been following the lill guy for over two decades now, while he was trying to become THE top dog…it was only a question of time and personally, I'm looking forward to seeing the pay-off of his struggle.

Someone made an interesting point about Kaidou and Awakening in the Spoiler-thread. Apparently, the azure dragon, which Kaidou is suppossed to be is a "protector deity". Kaido absolutely not being about that is thus unable to reach the phase where "Body, Mind and Fruit come together" meaning that he is unable to awaken.

Personal theory from here in: Luffy defeats Kaido without him awakening. Clear victory but Luffy is down afterwards. In sweeps the WGs new "weapon", about to rain down on Wano, take out the crew and take over the country. Kaido sees this and decides that, now that he already lost, he will at least make sure that the WG does not get to take over "his" country. He decides to "defend" it. This allows him to awaken (insert flashback here, maybe with some extra explanation how he turned into what he is now, bonus points if he started off wanting to be a "protector")

New superweapon still takes him out but has to retreat, after. This gives Kaido his Awakening, his "glorious death" (without Luffy having to kill) AND paints the new super weapon as a very, very credible threat, even for the newly baked emperor of the sea and his crew.

One thing people seem to ignore about Devil Fruits and their names on Wano; Wanos own people don't even know about DFs, calling them magic instead. This might as well be deliberate.

@All:

Are you talking about his face or his physical build?

Both, kinda. I was glad when the built of characters started to change because Zoro always looked too slim for what he was even on the manga, so I was hoping he'd start with a more fitting built in this series. His as for his face, I just have a hard time imagining Zoro looking this… K-Poppy.
No offense to the actor, I just always imagined him to look way manlier.

I actually didn't know this show was more than a joke before seeing this thread with the castings, but I'm positively surprised, I was a bit afraid we'd get an all-japanese cast despite Oda having his Charas based on other nationalities. I like Luffy and Ussopp, Nami and Sanji might be good, too. Agree on Zoro not looking masculine enough, tho. Maybe they'll give him more pronounced sideburns and a stubble, to save that, tho, that might help.

The budget is also kinda surprising, didn't think it'd be that high, kinda makes me hope it won't look as cheap as some anime-adaptations sadly tend to do.

also it feels really weird to see the talk about Wheel of Time here, both WoT and OP have been the two Series that I've been following for most of my life. Good times, good times.

Personally, I hope Oda will chose to have Sanjis power explained as such; yes, his power up comes from Vinsmoke science - but he's infinitely superior to his brothers because he managed to train and power up for a reason/ his own personal goals because he still has his emotions, such proving Judge wrong in his doing without destroying the "science" angle which I see coming back later on.

Would "Luffy will never…" and "...give up! He will become King of the Pirates" in the following panel have been possible? Feels stronger.

Also I'm starting to get a bit a bit afraid. All the off paneling and jumping around starts to feel like Oda really wants to finish in 5 years but knows he can't at his current pace, so he rushes stuff and speeds it up, which doesn't bode well... Hope it's just a "phase"

Also, really nice Chapter to come back to.

Kiku actually losing her arm and getting, getting the wound burned out without losing a word and going back to the fight really manages to show the Samurais resolve.

Sanji not being recognized and getting angry about it is a VASTLY superior running gag to "he´s got a boner". Nearly makes me forgive Oda for the "Gotta go visit the prostitutes"-blander.

Fourtricks and Hamlet are the last straw needed to ensure me that Oda is planning on making most of the Beast Pirates Crew look ridiculous just to make the moment when their true fighters throw down hit home even harder.

Queen and Apoo, especially together, remain ABSOLUTELY hilarious.

Also, I´m unironically starting to like Yamato and I really hope that Oda will manage to keep it that way.

Nice, we´re back.

On the other hand, without AP, I finally managed to do something I wanted to do for quite a while, saving up chapters so I can bingeread later. Guess, that´s over now.

@Deicide:

Something I commented in the spoiler thread: did something happen to Sanji in the brothel? I think so. His reapperance after that seem to have him way more level-headed, and his reaction to Ulti was really subtle (for him).

I think we will have a small flashback to his search for the women. Maybe he starts imagining them but his mind constantle goes back to Pudding crying in their farewell? Could there be some sort of character development seeded in WCI? Or am I imagining things too far?

God damn, I can only hope. Would be fantastic to get an actual character arc out of this instead of going back to Sanji being a horndog. I really want this to happen.