We’re here in the wonderful land of Wano and things are already weird. Giant animals are fighting each other, children are being kidnapped and there’s even a man dressed as tengu. Luffy finds himself with Tama and her guardian, who are waiting for the return of a certain Portgas D. Ace. We also see Basil Hawkins for the first time in a while, now fully on the side of Kaido after miserably losing to the man. Luffy eats the last of Tama’s food without realizing it and then makes up for it by bringing her to a nearby town for food and a doctor. It seems like almost all of Wano has been turned into a hazardous wasteland with only the flower capital having access to the riches that the shogun and Kaido hoard for themselves. On their way to town, Luffy and Tama meet up with Zoro as well as Otsuro, the owner of a nearby teahouse. Tsuru and Okiku – a waitress at this teahouse – help Tama recover and offer them all some food. It’s also made clear that Luffy and Zoro should not cause any trouble, so the moment Tama gets kidnapped they head headfirst into trouble, alongside Okiku, who is a samurai. Okiku also refers to themselves as “this one” which is something we’ll talk about later on.
Inside of Bakura town – where the officials live alongside Kaido’s pirates – things start to get chaotic. With the leader of the town, a man by the name of Holdem who has a lion as his stomach, having captured Tama, the trio has to fight the local Yokozuna who has been courting Kiku up until now. They deal with him swiftly and after retrieving Tama they flee the scene. At least until Luffy hears how she’s been treated by Holdem. In a rage he kicks him into the next volume while Law regrets ever allying with these people. The gang steals the food on their way out and allows everyone in Leftover Town to eat well for the first time in many years. With Tama safe, they head up the mountain to meet “the ghosts of Wano.”
This is where we learn the truth about Kinemon, Momo and Kozuki Oden. 20 years ago, Oden was the son of the shogun and a rambunctious youth. He then was eventually executed by Orochi, the current shogun. During this entire debacle, Kinemon, Raizo, Momonosuke, Kiku and Kanjuurou were sent to the present time by the devil fruit powers of Toki, who was Oden’s wife. Since they returned here, they’ve been trying to collect allies to prepare a raid on Onigashima, Kaido’s base. They currently have around 5000 soldiers on their side, including Law’s group, some fighters from Zou, Luffy’s crew as well as the remaining members of the Ayakaza Nine, the retainers of lord Oden. While the crew learns about all of this, a bandit by the name of Shutenmaru is raiding Okobura village for all the food that Luffy gave them. He shortly encounters Jack and the two clash before the clouds turn dark and a giant dragon shows up. This dragon is Kaido in his fully unleashed devil fruit form. That can’t be good.
Wano as an arc is all about dealing with poverty and class struggles and this first volume sets all of that up perfectly. The rich and the poor have a clear divide and violence is used to suppress the masses. One Piece has always been very political at its core, but it definitely ramps things up with this arc and the one(s) that follow it. Look for the signs and it’s very hard to miss. For now, that’s been volume 91. Wano has fully gripped us now and we’ll be staying here for a while, so I hope you like samurai! Thanks for reading.
Opal Kaharis 