第59回：Regarding Esta

An epic love story spanning almost 100 episodes just reached its climax! Kyros and Scarlet? Nope! I’m talking about Esta and her boyfriend! Yes, Esta, the former (and perhaps still?) girlfriend of this poor toy, forgotten by his sweetheart due to Sugar’s Hobby Hobby Fruit powers. In Episode 647, when the toy tried to remind Esta of their past together, he was accused of having ‘human illness’and thrown in the scrap heap.

Episode 677 continued their story by revisiting Esta after she remembered that she had a boyfriend while in the arms of her current beau!

And now Episode 734 where we see Esta’s boyfriend in his human form witnessing the destruction of Doflamingo’s Birdcage!

What will happen after these two lovers reunite!? Tune in next week to find out! Or…maybe not. I don’t know if this thread will be resolved but it sure is cute that the animation team remembered it after all this time.

Why is Gladius balancing on Pica’s Charlestone spike!?

I guess the goons transporting him back to Giolla never made it through all of Pica’s rumblings. Going to the manga for a confirmation on his whereabouts isn’t entirely conclusive although it clearly shows him on the stretcher indicating that he never made it back to Giola

Ooh! Notice that in the comic while we only got to see Apple Nine the animation treated viewers to scenic views of Dressrosa’s other neighboring islands!

No way!!! Drake was at the same location as Kaido’s base!?

I always assumed he was back at the wintery island with the former weapons factory! That very small but important detail blew right past me in the comic! That means that the spindly spire in this panel:

Is actually half part of the oni structure! I never even noticed the similar pine trees there! Uh-oh, does this mean Caribou is currently at Kaidou’s base of operations too!?

Nice to see the added scene of Sabo, Hack and Koala hiding from CP-0 AIGIS!

Speaking of CP-0 AIGIS, it appears that a particular member of them team hinted at in the comic will be making his first full post-time-skip appearance in One Piece Film: GOLD, ROB LUCCI! As a huge fan of Lucci and Hattori I couldn’t be happier to see them coming back and in such a bold way! Sketches of Lucci seem to indicate that he’s grown out his goatee into what appears to be a swinging pendulum beard. Hattori appears to still be wearing clothes that mimic his master and according to Oda-sensei’s notes there’s ‘no change’ for him.

Spandam will also make an appearance in the film and, as was hinted in the comic, the tables seem to have turned and he’s acting as Lucci’s flunky instead of the other way around.

So pumped for GOLD! Do you think we might be lucky enough to see Lucci utilize an ‘Awakened’ form of his Devil Fruit powers!?

An epitaph carved in English may be glimpsed on Ace’s grave. Although not clearly seen here the full message reads:

There is also an epitaph on Whitebeard’s grave that reads:

These (mostly) illegible inscriptions were first glimpsed in the comic but the English inscriptions were first unveiled to the public via life-size replicas of the graves at Universal Studios Japan in summer 2011 during a cross-promotional event.