Welcome to the final great Saga of One Piece.
We have made it!
We're officially in the end game now.
The marines demonstrate their immense power, Shanks finally reveals his true face and Sabo
has risen to almost as much fame as Luffy has across the world.
In other words pure one piece greatness.
4 terrible weeks of endless waiting and we are finally back with fresh One Piece content.
And just how the Yonko Saga has ended with a massive bang, the new Laugh Tale Saga has
just started off with an even bigger one.
And of course the only correct way to start is by addressing the man, the myth the living
legend of One Piece, Shanks, who actually has been in less than dozen chapters of one
piece.
In other words, whenever he is there, big things are happening, and that's exactly what
we got.
Shanks is literally sailing in the waters of wano, just a few miles from where Luffy
is celebrating his victory with the citizens right now.
And, holy Usopp, there is so much going on in the few panels he gets.
First of all, Shanks reveals, that he will not be meeting Luffy right now.
Which is hilarious.
Because I actually have a video coming out in 2 or 3 days about why, when and where Shanks
and Luffy will meet and what will most likely happen.
I said, that this meeting is going to happen very soon, most likely on Elbaf.
Then it was rumoured that Shanks was going to be in this chapter close to wano, so I
changed the script, only to read it and find out that he's only doing a drive by around
wano, which as you can imagine gave me some headache.
Anyways, I have a full video about what will happen between Luffy and Shanks very soon.
Make sure to subscribe if you don't want to miss that.
It's gonna blow your mind.
But for now, let's focus on the chapter:
I think we all have to accept, that the kind and funny Shanks, that we got to know in early
one piece is long gone.
As we have learned throughout the story, with shanks stopping kaido, stopping the war, meeting
the Gorosei and so on, and as this chapter confirms, Shanks is one of the most powerful
pirates in the world and a master manipulator.
He has been pulling strings and guiding the events of the one piece world form behind
the scenes, competing with the likes of Blackbeard and the World Government to prepare for his
dream of the future.
I always took Shanks to be more of a pacifist, someone who would try to avoid battle if possible.
He doesn't fight Higuma until he threatens Luffy.
He stopped Kaido from turning the war at Marineford into the apocalypse.
He stopped the war completely.
Overall it felt like he was a pretty peace loving guy with enough power to back it up.
That also gave Shanks a bit of a bad reputation among fans, with many theorising that Shanks
might be the weakest yonko and only has reached this level through tricks.
I think this chapter has turned this belief completely on its head.
Shanks comes across here as cold, calculated and very much willing to to fight.
It turns out that he indeed has a number of territories in the new world, just like the
other Yonko and that Bartolomeo burning his flag and replacing it with Luffy's will have
very serious repercussions for him, as many people have predicted.
Shanks is seriously coming for his head.
And he doesn't sound all too happy that he works under Luffy.
'I need to take care of my credibility'.
Damn.
This really gave me shivers, I'm not gonna lie.
Shanks is the real deal.
And Bartolomeo is in some serious trouble.
And as if this weren't enough.
Shanks also announces that it's time to join the fight for the one piece.
No more standing by and letting things develop.
Shanks will now take the stage.
No wonder Oda and his staff are so excited for film red.
This sounds like there is a lot of conflict brewing between luffy and Shanks.
Luffy's underling basically stole one of shanks' islands and now he tells Ben Beckman it's
time to join the fight for the one piece.
A battle between the four yank for laugh tale.
Luffy, Shanks, Buggy and Blackbeard.
All of this brings up the old question whether Shanks might not actually be a bad guy in
disguise.
Again, wait for my video on that in a few days.
But I think one really important hint we get in this chapter, are Shanks' men.
They are over the moon to read the news about Luffy.
They all are dying to meet Luffy in a really positive way.
Lucky too, Bonk Punch, Limejuice.
They are all excited to finally reunite with the boy they met so many years ago and had
so much fun with.
TO me, this indicates, that Shanks doesn't shut up about about Luffy either.
That all of the red hair pirates have been eager to meet luffy.
They all truly seem like Luffy's friends here.
They are as surprised by Shanks not meeting LUffy right now as we are.
And so I think Shanks acting this way is just Oda-sensei knowing exactly how to play with
us by leaving this ambiguous.
But really the only way Shanks could turn out to be a bad guy, is if he had also fooled
his crew, which, yes is not impossible, but also not very likely.
And I do want Shanks to be that secret weapon Luffy can rely on.
Then again, if Shanks actually does turn out to only be using Luffy and that he's mostly
in it for himself or some other reason, I wouldn't be mad at all either.
In truth, if I had to bet, the reality probably falls somewhere in between.
Shanks is an ally and cares for Luffy, but he has a higher purpose as well, that comes
before that.
I think Shanks might well turn out to be one of the most morally complex and interesting
characters in the entire story at the end.
I absolutely love that little flashback to the very first chapter of the story that we
get and a look at Shanks stealing the Nika fruit.
It was already pretty much obvious, that Shanks knew exactly what he was doing there and what
that fruit really was, but it's nonetheless giving me goosebumps, seeing it drawn and
how he reacts to Luffy's awakening.
It's almost as if Luffy awakening the Nika fruit was the signal shanks has been waiting
for to launch the race for laugh tale.
I'm also incredibly excited to finally see all of the red hair pirates in action.
Especially Lucky Roo and Ben Beckman.
And I love that Yasopp is not emotionally prepared to face his son yet, that he abandoned
as a kid back in Syrup village.
I'm gonna remind you that no one in Shanks' crew has eaten a devil fruit for some mysterious
reason, most likely related to the one piece.
In other words, this is a yonko crew purely based on power and skill alone, which is really
as impressive as it gets.
The only thing I'm curious about is why shanks was hanging around Wano in the first place,
if he didn't want to see Luffy.
Did he come for Pluton?
However what is even more likely is actually that Shanks came for Kaido's poneglpyh.
After all Shanks hasn't been to laugh tale before, so maybe he needed that one for his
collection too.
That would actually make a ton of sense.
What would be even more hilarious of course, would be if Shanks didn't possess the last
road poneglyph at all, but now has Kaido's because the straw hats were too slow to actually
get it.
Someone else who has made use of Kaido's defeat and is very much eager to meet Luffy in person
on the other hand is greenbull.
I still can't shake the feeling that he might actually be FROM Wano, I went in detail on
why in this video right here, but this chapter focuses mostly on him being even more of a
beast than we have already seen.
Kinemon and the remaining scabbards notice him moving toward the capital and decide to
stop him before he can disturb Luffy and the straw hats.
Ryokugyuu really hits home the fact that he's a real dough.
He gives Kinemon and co a big speech about the world order and how you need to discriminate
in order to make the world work, for the celestial dragon that is of course.
Sounds like he's projecting a little bit here.
However the power he unleashes is absolutely ridiculous.
I really don't want to know how crazy a battle between two of the admirals might look.
This is just ridiculous.
Actually scratch that, there is nothing I want more than seeing two admirals fight.
I actually made the argument in my greenbull video, that Aramaki might very well be a logia
fruit user, which is confirmed surprisingly fast here.
The fact that he calls himself a force of nature and compares his forest to the sea
raises two incredibly interesting possibilities for me:
One, since Greenbull falls in line with all the other admirals devil fruit powers, I think
we should assume that Fujitora's devil fruit also is a logia, though I couldn'T really
tell you how that makes any sense.
And two, Aramaki has just pushed the door wide open for a sea logia devil fruit.
Like, I can't be the only one that takes this line as some possible foreshadowing for this?
The ultimate devil fruit, possibly in the possession of Imu, who's name is Umi in return,
which literally means ocean in Japanese.
I think this theory has gotten quite a boost with this statement.
Then Yamato and Momo step in.
And oh boy, all the people who doubted where Yamato would be ranked inside the straw hats,
I think it's pretty close to the top.
The fact that she can knock this monster down like this and Ryokugyuu mentions how powerful
her haki is, it warms my heart.
Yamato has really become my favorite character in the series tougher with Zoro at this point,
maybe even a little bit more.
And seeing her handing it to one of the most powerful people in the world, is just so so
satisfying to see.
I'm really curious how momo will hold up against him 1v1.
Momo has grown a lot throughout the raid on Onigashima, physically and mentally.
But as his failed Boro breath shows us, he is far form actually being on Kaido's level
with his devil fruit.
Then there is the entire Sabo situation.
It is reassuring to hear that it was Cobra after all and not Vivi that has been killed,
and that Sabo has not been captured to start a second marineford.
I am really fascinated by the new character we are introduced to: Head of the Marine Criminal
Investigation Service, Kurouma, which means black horse.
Not only does this introduce an entirely new branch of the marines to us, but I'm very
much intrigued by the fact, that this man follows the naming scheme of the other admirals.
Color plus animal: Black horse.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds a lot like Oda just dropped another admiral level
character out of nowhere into the story.
And I'm all for it.
The real question is of course, what has happened to Sabo and Vivi, but luckily for you, you
don't have to wonder about that at all, because I have already made an entire video about
exactly that, that seems to have hit the nail on its head.