第61回：Searching for Charlotte Linlin

Sanji’s ‘big brother’, whom we currently only know as ‘1’, is portrayed here as being an indiscriminant killer of children and women!

Wooooah there partner, are ‘1’ and Sanji really related!? Our ‘Prince’ is literally willing to die rather than ‘kick’ a woman and yet his brother has no problem *killing* women and…*gulp*…children!? Why do I get the feeling that Sanji has a second sob story in his past that’s going to make his castaway experience with Zeff look like a trip to Disney World? Time to invest in some tissues.

We didn’t get color titles for ‘1’ and ‘2’ in this chapter but it seems fairly safe to assume that the Vinsmoke siblings will all have a specific color theme.

So far we know:

Reiju = Pink
‘1’ = ?
‘2’ = ?
Sanji = ?
Yonji = Green

If I were to venture a guess I’d say ‘1’ is probably red or white and ‘2’ is black. As for Sanji, I think it’s reasonable to make an argument for either one of two colors. Which of those two it is might depend on the siblings’ hair color scheme. If their hair color determines their title color then Sanji would obviously be yellow. However, if the siblings don’t dye their hair and/or follow normal genetic patterns then it’s *more than likely* Sanji would be his very own image color,
blue. If so, is it more than just a coincidence that Sanji yearns to find All *Blue*? Is Sanji’s connection to the mythical sea deeply rooted in his past!?

SO MUCH IS GOING ON IN THIS CHAPTER! It’s almost too much to process. I love it!

While Alice in Wonderland took inspiration from decks of cards, its sequel, ‘Through the Looking Glass’ featured characters based on chess pieces and that’s exactly what we’ve seen sprinkled throughout the past few chapters.

Let’s see, thus far we’ve caught glimpses of:

Rooks: Still early to tell but they seem to take on policing business of royal nature.

The Queen: Why, look no further than the woman of the hour herself, Big Mom! Clinging to a tower shaped literally like a queen chess piece. Finally we understand the crown design on the top sail of Big Mom’s ship!

Matters of the king (or kings) aside, this leaves us with knight and bishop piece reveals down the line! Thus far we’ve only seen white chess pieces and they seem like pretty basic fodder but you need two sets to play a game so I wonder if…

Finally, looking back in Color Walk 1, it seems that Oda-sensei has been forming designs for these underling characters since at least 1998 where in this early artwork we see his depiction of suit-based henchlings. Oh, and hey, there’s a white rabbit with Alice! I like how Carrot has evolved over the past 18 years!

If this is any indication of crew positions that need filling, the Straw hats (desperately) need a helmsman. It can be argued that Oda-sensei considers this a valid full-time crew position since it Jesus Burgess of the Blackbeard pirates filled said role when he travelled on a single ship with Teach.

Thinking back on characters that have filled such a role, Jinbei famously took the helm of a Marine HQ battleship.

No small task! Does this mean…!?

Wait, what!? Did the anime just confirm that Law and Sengoku have Color of Observation!? It seems obvious that they’d have such an ability but I can’t recall it ever being intimated *this* strongly! I guess that makes sense for how Law would have tracked Sengoku down amongst all the chaos.

Also, isn’t this map awesome?

How useful would this have been for viewers at the *start* of the arc, right? Oh well, it makes subsequent viewings of the Dressrosa arc that much easier to understand so no harm no foul! Also, ‘Balsa’? Has that name ever come up before?

The map from the previous episode brought back memories of early Dressrosa where we saw a heavy Spanish influence in the design and atmosphere of the city. With that in mind, while watching this episode, it dawned on me what’s occurring during Luffy and Rebecca’s escape.

It’s a *reverse* running of the bulls!!! The townspeople are totally chasing after Luffy and Rebecca down the streets of Dressrosa much like locals run *from* the bulls in Spain.

Although it’s not clearly visible in this episode, check the back of Luffy’s shirt which bears a design modeled after a bull. In monarchical Dressrosa, *you* chase bull! Ah-ah-ah!

It also looks like the animators snuck in an opportunity to replicate the cover of Volume 80!