第66回：STOP! Hammerspace

The concept of hammerspace is frequently brought into manga as an inexplicable device in utilized mainly to comic effect. It’s rare that we get a glimpse into the depths of such sacred ‘safe spaces’ but thanks to Oda-sensei’s careful attention to *ahem* ‘detail’, we know where Nami keeps her multifarious tools, weapons and apparently, random pieces of paper that she was gifted years ago ^_^;

Imagine…two years of that Vivre Card just…sitting *there*.

In One Piece, hammerspace isn’t often utilized to an extent that distracts the reader or seems unbelievable thanks to manga physics, but there is one scene from the series that sticks out in my mind as comically perplexing, Vivi whipping out a cudgel onboard Merry!

Where did the cudgel come from? Where did it go? We may never know.

YES! FINALLY! A ‘VS’ chapter for Luffy! I love when Oda commits to drawing a full-on battle chapter, they’re a rarity these days. Here’s some perspective.

The last VS chapter was 816, Dog VS Cat (not Strawhat-related).

The last Strawhat-related VS chapter was 777, Zoro VS Pica.

Luffy never actually got a VS chapter with Doflamingo, (but Law did).

Luffy’s last VS chapter was 681, Luffy VS Master.

Of the 240 Chapters since the timeskip there have only been 8 chapter titles that include VS and 4 of them haven’t been Strawhat-related. Of the 597 pre-timeskip chapters, there were 34 VS chapter titles and 29 of them were Strawhat-related. This means -with respect to Strawhats- there were 188% more pre-timeskip Strawhat-related VS titles than post-timeskip VS titles. Oda-sensei, you’ve got some catching up to do!

The Silver Mine Arc episodes teased a new eye-catch for the commercial break and I didn’t want to get my hopes up but looks like it is official! The triumphant return of eye-catches with character-themed music! What a great day for One Piece fans old and new!

And it’s no longer limited to simply the Strawhats! Outside the crew, so far, we’ve seen Bartolomeo and Law. Thank you, Toei! I can’t wait to see the whole line-up!

There’s an extra line of dialogue in the scene where Wanda meets Luffy that adds an intriguing twist to the potential abilities of the Guardians, or rather, the minks in general.

When Pedro demands that the Guardians, “Pull back!”, Luffy states his shock at being surrounded. In the comic, this scene was drawn with careful attention to detail, motion, and Luffy’s surprised reaction.

Up until this week it always hit me as strange as to why this scene seemed deliberately emphasized but the additional monologue from Luffy, “I didn’t sense them at all.”, or literally, “They didn’t [give off] any presence.”, is veeeerry interesting. The word for ‘presence’ is 気配 or ‘kehai’ which is often specifically what characters with *drumroll* Color of Observation notice. Are mink somehow able to mask their presence from Color of Observation when they want to?

Sanji sensed the ‘presence’ of Cat Viper from inside Capone so while minks definitely aren’t *immune* to Color of Observation, are they capable of masking their presence? That would be an interesting twist to their still unrevealed ‘full potential’.