第67回：Go, Go Oda Rangers!

Between Chapter 837 and Chapter 838’s covers it’s been revealed that the Red-Hair Pirates are attending a wedding! I wonder where this ‘devastated’ island is and how exactly it came to be ‘devastated’. Is it the hometown of the bride or groom? Or is a potentially vacant island just an easy place to gather a motley crew without attracting attention from Marines? Only Oda-sensei knows.

The only hints at where this island might be are the giant cacti and the Western-themed construction of the church.

For the world of One Piece these cacti are decidedly *normal*, not resembling the exaggerated cacti of Cactus or Foolshout Islands. While there are several unnamed islands/locations in the series that also fit this North American desert theme, my only other guess at a Western-themed island that was famously ‘devastated’ would be Banaro Island but that island’s characteristic rock formations are nowhere to be seen. Given the decidedly Western atmosphere, I wonder if this is an island in Shanks’ home turf, West Blue as it was never clarified whether or not this location rests along the Grand Line.

Speaking of Shanks, some fans might be wondering if he finally decided to tie the knot but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Notice how the crowd is cheering facing *towards* the church in the background. The groom (or bride) is likely someone related to the crew.

If it’s someone *from* the crew then the only named crew member absent is Lucky Roux. Did Lucky Roux get lucky? Then again -if it was a crew member- would Shanks and his crew be ignoring the festivities? The presence of the doves suggest a dove release which in turn suggests that the newlyweds *just* exited the church. Would they really turn their backs on Roux on his big day? Well, they’re pirates so…yeah, maybe.

Um, is Cracker’s hair on fire? Does that make him a ‘fire’…Cracker? Is, is that the joke? If so, I love you, Oda-sensei.

For anyone still wondering if Oda was gonna go full-on mad scientist super-human cyber-bio squad in this arc and, YUP! Looks like we just crossed that threshold with what appear to be clones! Throughout the years we’ve seen hints of Oda’s love for tokusatsu programming in his artwork and commentary.

But there’s one unconfirmed element of his love for Super Sentai series that isn’t widely known and it’s in one of the most unassuming places, the titles of the Color Walk artbooks. Many fans have recognized that the animals listed in Color Walk titles from CW3 and on are ‘kings’ in their respective environments. But did you know that the animals represented in the titles of Color Walks 3-5 are strikingly similar to the animals represented in the Super Sentai series, Taiyo Sentai Sun Vulcan?

The three rangers of the series represented land, air and sea and their costumed names were: Vul Panther, Vul Eagle and Vul Shark. The titles of Color Walks 3-5 are Lion, Eagle and Shark. While it’s true that Oda-sensei used ‘Lion’ for the title of CW3, he probably felt it important to follow the theme of ‘kings’ over copying the show’s exact theme. Considering he was seven years-old during the original series’ broadcast -the show’s target age-group- the similarities are too close to write off.

Since the mink have finally shown up in the anime, for fans that only check this anime corner, why not look back on some past mink-related articles!

After leaving the trenches of war in Dressrosa, the change of pace and quality in the Zou arc has been so refreshing! The rhythm-rich background music is playing a role almost as important as the characters and reminds me of SNES-era JRPG music! Ah~, sweet member berries.

Annnd since I’ve been covering the voices of Kanjuro’s creations, let’s continue that journey this week with Nekozaemon! Kanjuro’s pitiable cat creation is voiced by voice actress Aiko Hibi.

HIbi-san has voiced many supporting characters in One Piece but one of my favorites is Kitton from Karakuri Island!

It’s a well-known fact that the manga is approximately one year behind the manga storyline and usually the two don’t overlap but there was a HUGE anime-original tease this week which hinted at characters appearing *right now* in the manga storyline. If you don’t want to know then stop reading…NOW! You’ve been warned ^_^

Right, so although they’re only glimpsed in silhouette, these shadows are in fact the forms of Big Mom’s foot soldiers. Their identity will remain a mystery for some time but in the meantime this should give anime-only fans some food for thought.