第131回：A Bounty of Information

Well, well, well. Looks like someone on Kaido’s side is cooperating with the plan to eliminate the Emperor’s hold on Wano. And it seems very likely to be THAT certain member of the Worst Generation.

It seems very likely that this plan is precisely what he’s been waiting for his entire life. With dreams of being a Marine like his father at a young age, those dreams were likely shattered when the Beast Pirates were responsible for an assault that killed his mother and ruined his father, sending him into a destructive spiral.

Taking his time to gather skills in order to take down the Beast Pirates, eventually he made his move and his years of biding his time…ended in complete failure, placing him at the whim of the object of his torment.

And now, the opportunity to finally seek justice has arisen. He’s willing to go to absurd extremes in order to aid the Ninja-Pirate-Mink-Samurai Alliance, even feigning extreme shyness at the sight of a voluptuous pirate lady at the hot springs in order to give them an excuse to get away.

Wow, from the side, Wano is literally shaped like the Chinese character for mountain, ‘yama’ or 山. And the tallest point of the design is appropriately their own version of the real Mount Fuji!

Zoro’s blade absorbed his Haki -which we’ve seen before- but as Zoro forces the Haki back into his body it makes me wonder if black blades are in fact part of the wielder (or previous owner’s) very soul. If that’s the case, a very part of Ryuma’s soul could still be in Shusui making it all the more important for Zoro to return Shusui to its rightful resting place.

It seems that one of Zoro’s final steps to becoming a master swordsman will be to impart a part of himself into his katana. I used to think the coolest way for Zoro to show his skill would be by turning Kuina’s Wadou Ichimonji into a black blade, but if he’s sharing his very essence, I think it would be more meaningful to leave her blade pure. Leave the blackening to a ‘Judge of Hell’!

There’s a lot of big news going on in this chapter and some major moves have been made but like Dragon said, before we get worked up over the news, let’s wait and see what the truth of each situation is.

Speaking of big news, the Attach working for the World Economic Journal seems to have been a fake! Or…at least this one is! Where is the real Attach? Was that even really Attach who we saw at the start of Reverie? While I don’t think it’s terribly important to the overall story, Attach has always been an intriguing side-character and if he never actually worked for the WE but was indeed fired from the Marines, would his logic-defying photographic talents be of use to the Revolutionaries? These are the things I wonder about.

This is, in my opinion, a benchmark chapter of One Piece in terms of giving us a bigger glimpse of the world of One Piece and future events that will transpire from here to the end of the series. In addition to answering a myriad of questions, it also raises new and curious ones for us to ponder over in the coming months and years.

Sounding like a Pacifista or CP-0 type of squad. What does the acronym stand for is anyone’s guess but knowing Oda-sensei, there’s probably a ‘Super’ in there ^O^

I love the Shiki tie-in here! I was wondering if this shadow was him and sure enough it appears as such! While Teach has his mustache in this image, do you think this is the same crew he was with back when he revealed that he wanted a family?

Also, I wonder if any of the ruffians from this image will wind up being some of the Rocks Pirates mentioned here!

Here’s something I’m interested in regarding Rocks. Sengoku informed his audience that Rocks is dead. And while that could be well and true, my knee-jerk reaction to it was, “Wait a minute, what if he’s Imu!?” But then I calmed myself down by thinking that his bid for being ‘King of the World’ would seem almost too much of a hint in that direction and I sat on it for a while and while I’m still not comfortable in either camp, I do know one thing, the shape of Rock’s eye does resemble that of Imu’s own eye.

Last but not least Oda-sensei wasted no ink making puns for the bounties of his Emperors and big-name pirates! Granted I have no clue what Blackbeard’s pun is but the rest I’m pretty confident in!

Aaaaand interestingly enough, this even establishes a potential FINAL BOUNTY for Luffy which at this point I would project to be 56,000,000,000 because naturally 56 -> go-mu -> gomu = Rubber.