Happy New Year and welcome to the 50th edition of Greg-Sensei’s SUPER One Piece Course!
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House of Cards
Interesting nomenclature in play here regarding the rogue’s gallery closest to Jack which seems to build upon the codenames from Doflamingo’s (dysfunctional) family of scalawags, playing cards. Whereas Doflamingo’s theme ran with suits, Jack’s theme (or is it Kaidou’s theme?) seems to be related to card *games*. Let’s see what we’ve got so far:
Jack:
Although a card itself, this could easily be referencing the famous staple of card games, blackjack.
Sheepshead:
Arguably less well-known than blackjack, sheepshead is the Americanization of a Piquet deck card game originally from Europe.
Ginrummy:
Perhaps the most obvious of the group, the name says it all as gin rummy is a popular two player card game.
Does this card game theme carry over to the rest of Kaido’s crew as well? It’s not for certain yet but let’s look at one more character we know for a fact is part of Kaidou’s crew:
Scotch: Yes, that’s right, ‘Iron Boy’ Scotch from the yet unnamed wintery island under Kaidou’s control. Perhaps the most obscure of the bunch, if in fact a reference to card games, ‘Scotch whist’ is a card game derived from the ‘simple to learn, hard to master’ card game, whist.
In addition to Doflamingo’s crew, considering we’ve also seen card game themes with Ace’s Spade Pirates, one has to wonder if it’s only a matter of time before we meet the awful and terrifying Uno Pirates.
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Weekly Shonen Jump #3&4 Ch.808
Weekly Shonen Jump #53 Ch.810
One Piece Vol.79 Ch.795
THE YEAR OF SANJI!!!
Via letter, Oda-sensei declared that 2016 would be,”…the ‘Year of Sanji’.”, and that we would learn about Sanji’s ‘origin’.
His first color spread of the year certainly seems to declare that with the Straw Hat crew’s cook front and center!
Amazing color spread with lots of attention to detail but here’s something I’m most curious about, is that Brook scrunched up in the Doskoi Panda shopping bag rooting for panties!?!?
Looking Forward to Meeting Catviper
After the reveal of Catviper’s name in Chapter 806, clever fans discovered the link between Cat Viper’s name and a nonsensical song (at the time) unrelated to One Piece which was performed by Brook’s voice actor, Shigeru ‘Cho’ Nagashima. The title of the song, “Off to Meet Master Nekomamushi’, seems to match the Japanese name and title of the character perfectly and Oda-sensei confirmed the connection via the One Piece voice acting team at Jump Festa 2016! Cho-san then performed the song live on stage for the crowd of excited fans.
Perhaps this explains why, in Chapter 811, Cho-san’s character, Brook, expresses an affinity towards Catviper. On the way to meeting him Brook can be seen strumming his guitar and although he hasn’t been seen singing any lyrics (as of yet) it might be possible that we’ll be treated to Cho-san performing the song in the background when the animated version hits TV screens about a year from now!
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Weekly Shonen Jump #5&6 Ch.811
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Somewhere That’s Pink
TERMINATOR FRANKY! Loved how Oda-sensei managed to depict that single glowering red eye in the comic and it was perfectly rendered in full color here in the animation. I’d always assumed Franky kept his human eyes but, uh, I guess not. Wonder how he… Never mind. Kinda gross.
Anyway! Episode 715 gave One Piece diehard fans something new to add to their memory banks, an outside view of Senor Pink and Russian’s home sweet home.
Although several panels of the comic featured rooms of the house, fans never got to experience an exterior view of their dream home.
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TV Anime #715
Earnest P(ink) Worrell?
OMIGOSH! They did it! The anime revealed the mystery of Senor Pink’s partially legible English-emblazoned shirt from the comic! The back of the shirt Pink was wearing in the flashback fully reads, ‘EARNEST’! Wow that’s…well I’d…I’d probably be more moved by that if he actually gave up his life of crime, killing and overthrowing kingdoms but whatever, don’t think too hard about it and it fits like a glove!
We also get a much better glimpse at Senor’s real eyes during the final moments of his beat down from Franky. May you find happiness with Russian someday Senor, someday, but not yet.
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TV Anime #716