第85回：The Mystery of the Ninth Man

I love how Mom just took that Gear 4 punch like it was a massage! Luffy didn’t name the attack so it might not have been a full-power Kong Gun, but we clearly saw him compressing his arm for it. And what does she follow that with?

“Kaidou? You can’t beat *that*!” Are you kidding me!? She eats Luffy’s Gear 4th attack like breakfast and even *she* refers to Kaidou as if he’s a beast!? Oh man, LUFFY! What’re you going to do!

Look at the range of that explosion! Are you kidding me!? Considering Whole Cake Chateau’s gargantuan size, that blast must have been *massive*. I’m not certain keeping that as a ‘security measure’ in Ryugu Palace was such a good idea! If thieves opened it in the palace, the blast would easily have taken out half of the palace itself! Well, nice knowing you Whole Cake Chateau!

I’m also excited that Judge’s mask has been destroyed. Back in Course #68 I suggested that we might get a chance to see Judge’s face before Whole Cake Island concludes and it looks like we’ll get that chance! So which will it be, super fans!? To the left or to the right!? Or will there be a completely unexpected result!? You know what I’m talking about, yeah?

…..By the way, where’s Pudding?

Mom’s starving stomach sound effect is the same as Luffy’s! Something tells me Big Mom is going to be a bit pickier about her gourmet wedding cake! The ingredients that took days to gather have been used up and Mom took the souls of some of her chefs so that doesn’t leave many options!

Looks like it’s time for Sanji and Mom’s family to roll up their sleeves!

WOAH, Nami! I can’t believe she actually said this! It’s really cool but that’s harsh! You can tell how strongly she wanted to protect those children. It’s similar how Ace used harsh language when he thought that Sabo had been killed.

Oda-sensei doesn’t like to have his heroes use ‘kill’ or ‘die’ but if a villain crosses a certain line, it doesn’t seem like he’ll hold back.

This scene of the residents covered in cake gloop must have been inspired by the conclusion of 1984’s Ghostbusters!

…..By the way, where’s Pudding?

I’m a little surprised to see that Luffy and the gang’s (mis)adventures with the ants weren’t vastly expanded for the television animation! We did, however, get a chance to see more than a passing glimpse of Nami in her battle armor. Where do you think the crew picked that up? It’s clearly made for a female soldier. Did they procure this from Thriller Bark?

An interesting detail of Whole Cake Island’s arboreal life are the candle-shaped trees.

No, those aren’t jumbo-sized candles, they’re jumbo-sized trees with candle-shaped branch growth and the leaves are even red! Sure enough, this has always been a part of Oda-sensei’s design for the island going back to its first appearance in Chapter 651!

There were only nine voice actors present for the recording of this episode of One Piece! I’m not well-versed enough in the One Piece animation to know if this is a record or not, but that’s still a startlingly small number of members! Franky’s voice actor Kazuki Yao-san provided the voice of Shark Submerge’s sensors and tweeted a photo of all but Carrot’s voice actress.

There were nine voice actors, Carrot’s voice actress is missing, why are there nine people in the photograph!? Wait, on the far left, is that…it’s Kappei-san! Why is Usopp’s voice actor in that photo??? Kappei-san apparently didn’t have a role in the episode and isn’t listed in the credits, but he was still present for the recording?

Hmmm…well, if you check the voice actor’s whiteboard graffiti on One-Piece.com, you can see a tiny comment written upside down in the upper right corner. It reads, “I want a role….” Was that comment written by Kappei-san? Was he visiting the cast just to cheer them on!? What a guy!