第205回：How Moria Got His Ghoul Back

Well, well! It looks like there might be more than meets the eye to one of ONE PIECE’s shadiest villains. (Sorry)

The supposed hero ‘from’ West blue who was ‘raised’ in Wano’s Ringo would appear to be none other than…Gecko Moria?!

There’s always been a great deal of play involved with Moria’s name. ‘Gecko’ obviously fulfills the qualification for the running Seven Warlord wildlife theme and in Japanese it also could be interpreted as 月光 gekkou meaning ‘moonlight’ which fit the theme of his arc and persona. In addition, one could also make the argument that if heard as ‘mo-ri-ya’ instead of the standard ‘mo-ri-a’, rearranging mo-ri-ya gives you ‘ya-mo-ri’ or ‘yamori’ which is type of Japanese gecko.

So in a way, to a native Japanese speaker, his name has always sounded similar to what ‘Gecko Kogec’ might sound to an English speaker. But this time…this pretty much changes everything we thought we knew about ONE PIECE’s shadow master.

As described above, IF his family name were written in kanji (which, to be perfectly clear, never was) it would sound exactly the same as 月光 gekkou ‘moonlight’. However, reverse these two kanji and that gives you 光月 ‘kouzuki’ [kozuki] or ‘light of the moon’. Believe it or not, some clever Japanese fans noticed this way back when the Kozuki clan’s name was first revealed and even made some theorization videos establishing this link. Back then it was a wild shot in the dark but it looks like the Cover Story shows a connection between Moria and the Kouzuki clan.

Now…exactly how he was given “Kouzuki” remains to be seen.

We really can’t say for certain until Oda reveals more or someone finds an obscure scribble on a Vivre Card but it seems that Moria was indeed born in West Blue and raised there for SOME・AMOUNT・OF・TIME before coming to Wano via CERTAIN・MEANS and then lived in Ringo long enough not only to establish himself as a person of note (whose family name was clearly linked to the Kozuki family) but then fought against freaking KAIDO in defense of his village.

Look…we knew Kaido messed up Moria. You can see it in his eyes near the end of the fight with Luffy. But Moria was fighting to protect…a village??? Really? THAT Moria? The Moria who forces dead bodies do all his dirty work? Did their clash in Ringo leave Moria with that scar? Did seeing the people of his village massacred make the Moria we know today? Unfortunately, we can’t say for certain just how the events transpired yet, but here’s what we know so far:

・Around age 26, Moria witnessed Roger’s death at Logue Town where he clearly had stitches on his forehead (which he did not have as a child). Unfortunately, the stitches on his throat were not clearly visible in Chapter 0 so arguments could be made both in favor of or against them existing at that point.

・We also know that at around age 27 he fought Kaido in Ringo which is where he lost his crew. One could make the argument that his throat stitches didn’t exist yet from this picture, but it’s still too small and rough a depiction to say for certain.

・Later yet, at around age 38, Moria was seen with very prominent throat stitches.

・ This is probably worth mentioning, but Odacchi recently drew the child seen in the image above on God Valley in Chapter 1159.

While it’s true that the child has a style of hair very similar to Moria’s AND that God Valley is located in West Blue, Moria would have been roughly 12 around the time of the God Valley Incident and this boy looks considerably younger than Oda’s typical 12-year-old. Though, admittedly, there is certainly no golden rule for his depictions of children.

However! The above child is also missing Moria’s prominent neck and forehead line, both of which may be seen in Oda’s depiction of Moria as a child in the SBS. While such features surely could have grown in with age, this suggests that Moria’s depiction in the SBS is older than when we saw him at 12 in the below image. That doesn’t seem very realistic as the SBS image seems childlike and more like an 8 or 9-year-old depiction as opposed to what would probably have been a 13-14-year-old Moria if that boy was actually him. Of course we can’t say for certain of course as Oda could create any number of explanations for the changes.

The only fact that doesn’t discount this being Moria would be his name as ‘Kozuki’. Families are complex and any number of reasons (creative and complicated) could be responsible for how Moria came to possess the Kozuki family name.

So, considering all of this, how many times have Moria and Kaido met in battle? It’s entirely possible that he’s faced Kaido not only once, but twice.

Option 1:

It is possible there was an initial clash in Ringo during Kaido’s invasion 25-26 years ago. During this invasion, Moria may have (and I can’t believe I’m saying this) bravely fought a losing battle against Kaido and/or his forces. This may be where he received the forehead wound.

If this is the case, then Moria secretly left Wano and began gathering his crew for revenge. At this point, even having suffered defeat, Moria seems to have been motivated enough to believe he could beat Kaido’s forces in a rematch. Unfortunately…that rematch would not end well for him. This may be where he received the throat wound and his crew was decimated.

Option 2:

Did Kaido take control of Ringo while Moria was away from Ringo? If so, Moria may have heard of Kaido’s invasion and felt that -if he could gather a crew- he could take down Kaido’s forces. This would mean he only faced Kaido’s forces once at Ringo and suggest that his forehead wound was received from some other conflict.

Personally, I subscribe to the first option. I like the idea of a young Moria full of confidence who felt that -even after suffering defeat- with enough power and support, he could take down Kaido! It makes his ultimate defeat at around age 27 even more tragic and helps paint him as…I dare say…sympathetic?! But let’s be frank, while we can debate the past, what we’re really looking forward to is Moria’s future role in the story.

We can assume Moria has been successfully rescued by the efforts of his crew and it stands to reason that the main members have (mosty?) reassembled in one form or another. Perona and Hogback both seem to be fine but we can’t exactly say the same for Absalom. Did Shiryu really obtain his ability due to Absalom’s death or is some new quirk of Devil Fruit ability extraction at play here? In either case, Absalom is certainly in the right crew when it comes to living beyond the grave.

But what effect will this have on Moria?

His crew has now saved him from either certain death or imprisonment not once, but twice (thrice, if you count them tending to him after his encounter with Luffy). Moria originally lost his dedication to crew members because of what he suffered at the hands of Kaido’s forces, but now, with not only his greatest foe felled and his crew having proved their dedication and capability time and again…is something going to change in Moria?

Moria is a villain through and through, but I have to admit, like Crocodile before him, there’d be a spark of catharsis if Moria finds himself with a renewed faith in his crew and a willingness to fight behind Luffy’s cause in the final war. Is Moria currently undergoing a training montage? Will we see him return to Wano when its borders open? Will he get back in fighting-fit shape? Will Moria get his groove back?! Time (and Odacchi!) will most certainly tell…

While we’re placing Moria in this somewhat redeemable light…what do you think are the odds that he loved the people of his village enough to care for them even as he fled? Is Perona originally from his village? She would have been roughly two years old at the time of Moria’s decisive clash with Kaido’s forces. Was her pet bear, ‘Kuma-A’, killed in the invasion? This would explain her strong attachment to her unnamed stuffed animal (which I call ‘Kuma-B’) and the eventual ‘Kuma-C’! Until next time!