Wow.
Everything seems to be happening really really fast now.
We just got the news that One Piece will be going on a four week Hiatus after chapter
1053 to prepare for the final Saga.
And earlier this week I was convinced that we would still be Wano for a little bit longer
after all that has happened.
But chapter 1052 proved me very wrong.
After spending almost 2 years on the raid of Onigashima that literally took place over
the course of a single night, we have just skipped to a whole week after the battle just
like that.
I was convinced that there was still quite a bunch of stuff to deal with in Wano, even
after the defeat of Kaido and Big Mom.
How Kaido knew about Joy Boy, Zoro's connection to Wano, Big Mom's and Kaido's fate.
Maybe, since Wano had been taking its time for the last 4 years, I was kind of expecting
things to wrap up properly and Oda-sensei taking his time to say goodbye to the land
of the samurai, maybe with a couple of other little surprises happening after the end of
the battle.
But boy, it looks like now that Kaido has been taken care off, we're trying to get out
of there asap.
A quick banquet, some goodbyes and we're off towards Elbaf, or wherever the story might
take us next.
If I sound mad or disappointed about wrapping up Wano this fast, I'm not.
But the sudden shift in speed and pacing has just really caught me off-guard.
I trust that Oda-sensei will not suddenly start rushing the story now.
Him taking some time off to properly prepare for the final Saga of the story is a very
good sign I think.
And people in Japan seem to think the same way.
I actually covered the big announcement by Oda's editor live on my Twitch channel, if
you want to check that out, I'll leave a link in the description below.
And basically everyone there, including Luffy's voice actress Tanaka Mayumi speculated that
there is still quite a lot that has to happen in the story, given all the foreshadowing
we have gotten over the years.
And anyways, this chapter actually closes a lot of open plot points, while opening up
a bunch of others.
And I actually want to start with the ending of this chapter, where we finally see admiral
green bull taking action and making his way to wano, by...fyling through the air using
what looks a lot like a flower as a propeller.
This is a huge deal in a number of ways.
First of all it guarantees that we're about to see his face revealed for the first time.
We're also about to have one of the strongest characters in the story make an appearance
in Wano.
The flower on his back seems to strongly suggest, that many of the plant based theories surrounding
Green Bull were actually true.
It has been speculated for a long time now that Greenbull might have a plant based ability,
based on both the color green and the fact that he doesn't eat, which might have been
a hint that the admiral is using photosynthesis.
If that's actually true, and this last panel really seems to suggest it, that could mean
that Greenbull is a plant logia fruit user, someone who's body is actually made out of
plants, which is why he can survive on sunlight alone.
Even more interesting however, is the question why he's going to Wano on his own, against
the command of Akainu, who doesn't seem to have very good control over his admirals,
if we're being completely honest.
They all just do whatever they like.
I don't know about you, but somehow Greenbull doesn't giver off the vibe, that he's trying
to pick a fight with Luffy and co.
If I had to follow my gut feeling, I want to say that he seems much more excited about
the fact that Wano has been freed from Kaido's rule.
That would of course tie in wonderfully with the idea that both Fujitora and Greenbull
are actually citizens of Wano.
Former Samurai, that were defeated by Kaido and joined up with the marines.
Not only would that explain Fujitora's Japanese theme and why he blinded himself, but also
how the Marines were able to find two such powerful fighters.
Wano is one of the few places on the grand line were ridiculously powerful people just
randomly live.
There was also speculation that Greenbull might be either one of the former Daimyo or
even Zoro's father.
Either of which, let's be real, would be absolutely epic, if true.
The fact that greenbelt is still on his way right now, also gives me a bit of hope that
we're not actually gonna leave Wano right next chapter, but that we still have a bit
more time to say goodbye to the country of the samurai.
Super excited for that and I can't wait to make a video on Greenbull soon.
The next thing we need to talk about is the Gorosei tasking CP0 with capturing and delivering
Robin to them.
This would be concerning enough by itself, but what really is worrying me, is that Robin
is suspiciously absent in this chapter.
She's nowhere to be seen 7 days after this order.
The last time we saw her, was when Yamato introduced herself to the crew.
Now however, she's neither with Franky and Usopp, nor at Luffy's sick bed, nor in the
pretty wild bath house scene, that Oda kindly enough threw in there for us.
We'll get to that.
The fact that Robin is the only straw hat missing in a chapter, where her kidnapping
has been ordered by the rulers of the world is pretty disturbing.
The messaging of this week has all been about One Piece moving into it's final Saga, but
next to guaranteed arcs, like Elbaf, Laugh tale and the final war, also setting up Robin
getting captured would add quite a bit of story time on top.
No complaints from my side for more one piece, but rescuing Robin from the hand of the government
again, would be a truly painful task for the straw hats.
Next up we finally know, who actually died during this battle.
Even though Kinemon and Kiku seemed to be as good as dead, both of them puled through
in the end.
And while I do think that Kinemon dying for Momo would have been very powerful, and I'm
sure Oda-sensei was thinking about that as well, but in the end getting to see Kinemon
witness the rebirth of wano and Momo becoming Shogun is just way to precious.
I'm not quite sure if Kiku permanently lost that arm or not, but I'm glad she pulled through
as well.
The two scabbards that actually have lost their life for good are Shutenmaru and Izo.
We actually get this really sad and emotional remark by Marco, who can't believed he has
survived again.
It must be truly painful for him to keep losing his family.
Ace, whitebeard, the men he lost during the war with Blackbeard.
I'm really more than curious to see what Marco decides to do next.
I really would love to see him travel with the straw hats honestly.
I don't necessarily think he will join the crew as a member, but simply having him accompany
them for a while would already be awesome.
But maybe he will simply stay in Wano for a while to rest.
We also get some really interesting closure for the remaining supernova.
Drake and Hawkings have a closing moment.
It turns out that the man with a 1% chance of survival was actually not Luffy, but Hawkings
himself.
He apparently knew that Luffy would succeed right from the start, but accepted his fate
for feeling guilty about betraying Kid.
And it looks like he actually dies here moments later.
I think that is a really nice little cathartic ending for his character, though I will say
that I found Hawkings a little bit underwhelming as a supernova in this arc.
In the end he was someone with hog ambitions, who didn't have Kid's or Luffy's willpower
to actually stand up to a YOnko and in the end payed for it with his life.
Both Kid and Killer seem to have been sending time at the port with Usopp and Franky, who
have been fixing up everyone's ship.
It's really great to see everyone get along.
Especially that panel with Killer and Beppo fanboying over shogun Franky is just the best
thing ever.
What really caught me off-guard in this chapter was Apoo.
Like I am very much on board for getting the new bounties most likely in the next chapter.
In fact I'm working on my own bounty myself right now, trying to overtake Trebol's 99M.
If you subscribe, you raise my own bounty by 100 Berries each and we're almost at 60M.
That's of course nothing compared to what Luffy and the other straw hats will get after
taking down two Yonko.
And I'm also really curious to see who will get the title of an emperor next to Luffy.
Will it be both Kid and Law?
Or just one of them.
After all there were only two Yonko's taken out.
Okay I'm getting a bit too excited here about the upcoming bounty reveal.
What I actually wanted to say is, that I find it very strange that Apoo is just casually
walking up to everyone here and distributing newspapers.
Maybe defeating Kaido and Big Mom has calmed Kid's rage about being betrayed a little bit,
but after everything we have learned about his character you would kind of expect him
to tear Apoo to pieces nonetheless after selling him out.
Kid's reaction seems really off here to me, but maybe he's just grown that much as a character
during the raid.
Or he's also way too excited about his new bounty to still care about Apoo in that moment.
And then we of course HAVE to discuss the preparations for the big festival.
First of all, I'm still over the moon that Yamato is pretty much confirmed to be a straw
hat at this point.
7 days after the battle, and everyone in the crew seems to love her and treat her as a
member already.
The fact that she refused to eat and move for a week in order to pray for Luffy's health
is just the cutest and most loyal thing ever.
It's like a mini version of Zoro's sacrifice and willingness to suffer for his captain.
Love it.
The way she rushes in an hugs Luffy is also pure gold.
The entire sequence feels very much like something that could take place on the sunny.
Momo trying to pull his usual move with Nami as expected and getting the Sanji treatment
for it.
Yamato placing a place on momo's head actually has him look exactly like his father.
I'm a real sucker for stupid stuff like that.
Just my type of humour.
We get a second serving of the bathhouse scene, and honestly I think at this point Oda-sensei
is either just living out his wildest fantasies with Yamato or just trolling all of us really
badly.
Yamato, as Oden, joins all the guys in the men's section of the bathhouse, which has
the expected effect on Brook and Sanji.
And in general there is a lot of boob in this chapter.
I've honestly given up on trying to figure out Yamato's pronoun.
I'm sticking with the vivre card's she and my reasoning from the last chapter review,
and I swear I'm not biased at all because she looks super cute.
Maybe the biggest surprise of all, next to Greenbull showing up, and the nudity, and
robin missing....wow this chapter had a lot in it huh - is the fact that Zoro seems to
have woken up without any repercussions and with the help of Hiyori, who I'm pretty sure
admits that she exploited Zoro being unconscious.
I really hope that we still get an explanation for the grim reaper figure appearing.
And I also really love how Zoro is secretly relieved that Sanji is back to his old self
after almost losing his humanity during his fight with Queen.
If you really want to understand why that was such a major moment for his character
you really should watch my video on that right here.