After a little break we’re finally diving into a long awaited arc of One Piece. When we first realized we were going to Wano we were all so excited and I think the detour to Whole Cake Island felt kind of less impactful because of it. Wano and Elbaph were the two major arcs we were looking for in the New World after all. But now we’re finally here. Well, sort of. There is still the rest of the world we have to take a look at. If you paid attention to the recent posts, we will be skipping the first two chapters as we already talked about them. With that out of the way, let’s get started, shall we?
In the aftermath of their escape we find out that Niji left a present for Sanji. It’s a raid suit that was made for him, just like the rest of his family had. Sanji wants nothing to do with it though and he doesn’t want to hear the name Vinsmoke ever again. Unfortunately for him, the new bounty posters have just arrived and his bounty has gone up but also includes his last name. And he also has to share his spot of Nami’s servant with Zeus, who is still tagging along inside Nami’s baton. And the craziest thing of it all? Luffy’s bounty has gone down?
In other places around the world, the royals are getting ready to make their way to the holy land for the Reverie. We see several familiar faces including Neptune, Riku and even Captain Koby who shows up to help out. It is telling that all of these people are friends of one of the most infamous pirates currently sailing the seas. As a matter of fact, it seems that Luffy’s bounty didn’t go down to 150 million, but instead went up all the way to 1.5 billion berries. That’s right, our Straw Hat crew now constitutes as the crew of one of the five emperors of the sea.
Again elsewhere in the world – that’s right, this is a volume that covers the goings on in the world from all different angles – the revolutionaries are getting ready to declare war on the world. With Sabo, Dragon, Ivankov and all the other important members gathered in Kamabakka Kingdom, we just have to wait for the four captains. Up until now we never knew much about the structure of the revolutionary army. We know that Kuma, Ivankov, Koala and Hack are some of their highest ranked members and that Sabo is the second in command after Dragon. But below them are four captains, each covering one of the four seas. They have been delayed slightly due to some pirates attacking Lulusia and this being a great opportunity for them to curry some favor with another kingdom.
We’re introduced to Morley, who seems to be a giant that has a devil fruit power that allows him to manipulate the ground like clay. We have quite a few abilities that allow people to control ground, buildings, dirt and even entire islands. It is getting a bit stale, but it’s such a useful power that it’s not strange that strong people would be searching them out. Betty has the power of the pump-pump fruit – what a name – and can get the people pumped up. It’s like a motivational speech but it’s actually powerful. Karasu looks scary and has a crow-related devil fruit which is very unsurprising as his name literally means crow. Lastly we have Lindbergh who is 100% loosely based on Rocket Raccoon from Guardians of the Galaxy and I won’t hear otherwise. He seems to be the one who has gadgets and inventions.
It does seem like their meeting went well as we flash forward to the start of the Reverie with all the kings and queens ascending to the holy land of Mariejois. We see some crows as well as an upset king Stelly – Sabo’s brother – after seeing a giant in the mountain. Luckily one of the guards – Sabo himself – informs him that there is nothing to be afraid of. We also get this beautiful moment of Shirahoshi feeling the warmth of the sun and finally living that moment that her mother worked so hard to get them to. The mood quickly shifts as we actually arrive and we’re quickly introduced to the darkness hidden in the holy land. I just hope that those things at airports in our world aren’t manned by people secretly. Didn’t it come out a while ago that Amazon’s stores where you could just walk out with your groceries weren’t actually regulated by technology but there were just a bunch of underpaid Asian people literally counting the products people were taking out? We’re not a dystopian world, what are you talking about?
Anyway, the girls fangirl about Luffy for a while before we move to one of the biggest reveals in all of One Piece. Doflamingo tells us about it, but we’re shown the actual scene only half a page later. There’s a treasure in Mariejois and it looks to be a giant Straw Hat. There’s a figure looming over it as well.
We keep moving from left to right and we now get a quick scene of Kaido and Big Mom possibly teaming up to deal with Luffy. It’s also revealed that they were once part of the Rocks crew and Garp dealt with them which is how he came to be a navy hero. Next up is the empty throne with the twenty swords, signifying that there is no one person who leads the world government after everyone has given up their power.
The mood that was already shifting has gotten even worse as one of the Celestial Dragons – the one that Luffy punched way back on Sabaody – is trying to turn Shirahoshi into a slave. A scuffle follows with Lucci and his cronies protecting Saint Carlos. Luckily an unexpected ally jumps in to save the day, Saint Mjosgard. He is the one who landed in Fishman Island a decade ago and he’s turned into a better person since then. Carlos gets sent packing, but with him encountering his father riding on top of Kuma it doesn’t look like he’s done causing trouble. Things are brewing as both the revolutionaries and Jewelry Bonney are there to save Kuma. With all this turmoil the Reverie gets underway while below them the real summit happens. The shadowy figure who was looming over the giant Straw Hat is called Imu and is the one who stands above the five elders. Except, no one has ever heard of this Imu. What is going on here? In the middle of a very tense and chaotic Reverie the camera flashes away to the sunny shores of the Wano Kingdom.
Nekomamushi is on his way there after speaking with Marco the Phoenix. He seems to have retired after having a difficult life. He’s also worried about the self-proclaimed son of Whitebeard called Weevil. Meanwhile the crew is fitting right in in Wano, although Zoro is about to blow their cover by killing the magistrate. During all this turmoil, the rest of the crew sails up the waterfalls, guided by giant koi fish, and lands on Wano. We’re about to start our adventure for real and there is so much happening it’s crazy. I remember reading these chapters every week and it was just blowing my mind every single time. I hope you enjoyed this longer recap than normal, I feel like I still only got to cover a small part of the story, but I hope I did a good enough job. We’re slowing down a little bit again next week but until then, thanks for reading!
Opal Kaharis 