第159回：In Darkness Blooms the Spider Fleur

Odacchi is a huge fan of classic 70’s anime with no shortage of influence shining through in his various cover illustrations and occasionally spilling over into the main series itself. Franky’s special move might be the latest example of that! The 70’s anime series Voltes V featured a special attack called the ‘V-Slash’ with a movement and line of damage that seems very close to General Franky’s move. Look for this to be a possible theme running through many of General Franky’s attacks beyond the standard set we’re already familiar with!

Let’s take a look at three examples of difficult-to-spot words in the artwork from this chapter!

1. Iberico
Iberian ham or ‘Jamón ibérico’ is a delicacy known throughout Japan and featured on many classy restaurant menus, thus the pig-theme of this Gifter.

2. 降下刺
This kanji reads ‘kookasasu’ or ‘Falling Stab’ which is a Japanese portmanteau of the ‘Caucasus’ beetle. Interestingly enough, it looks like Odacchi picked kanji he felt best fit the beetle as the actual kanji (which read the same btw) are 高加索 which is simply the Japanese name for the Asian region of Caucasus.

3. MADE IN???
Very tough to read what is written on the chimp’s shirt here but it appears to be a ‘MADE IN’…somewhere-type phrase. I wonder if the Arabic 1 is somehow involved or if it’s just a style choice. Unless someone is highly creative, I don’t think we’ll know what this one is without asking Odacchi!

I want this series of panels embiggened and on my wall. Odacchi isn’t just going for ‘teh sexyfulness’! This type of scene is highly reminiscent of the pre-battle stance scenes from yakuza films of the 70’s and 80’s where female yakuza or the wives of high-ranking yakuza would reveal their massive back tattoos without hesitation before battle. I’ve been waiting for a true Robin battle since Yama on Skypiea so my excitement is through the roof.

Since we’re in Wano and we have a literal spider fighting someone whose Devil Fruit derives its idea from the concept of a flower, I’d be genuinely surprised if we don’t get an attack based on the spider lily, a flower believed to guide the dead in the afterlife. It’s also not-so-subtly known as the ‘Hell flower’.

Chapter 1004 gave us our first glimpse (literally) of the view experienced by individuals wearing the all-seeing eye mark. And while many of us expected some sort of monitoring network, I think we were all surprised that the Merries are cyborgs and not just normal animals.

I can’t think of anyone else on Kaido’s team who seems more fit for augmenting animal bodies than Queen who has given himself a number of Franky-like upgrades. Lest we forget he also seems to have some connection to Vinsmoke Judge, which also highly suggests he was at some point associated with Vegapunk, meaning Kaido could have a great deal of future-tech at his disposal. Pretty helpful when you’re helming a weapons-based black-market superpower.

Is this…*that* person? If you read Chapter 1006 this week, you know who I mean!