Now, before you say “Kinyagi is just mad because he’s an admiraltard!” hold your horses. The characterization of Aramaki is actually something I’m going to rip into in this thread. This is a rare thread/post where you’re going to see me be completely serious with minimal trolling.
I’m going to go through every problem I have with this chapter in chronological order. Hopefully I make it clear that I’m criticizing this chapter from a story structure, set up, and pacing perspective, and not just presenting personal gripes or agenda related copium.
1. Why do a few scabbards, Yamato, and Momo suddenly become sensory ninjas from Konoha? No one else except these specific characters can detect Aramaki approaching? So then they suddenly teleport a few miles away from the capital and show up in front of a guy they have never met and somehow immediately understand the situation.
The whole situation is set up in a way that is convenient and weird. It doesn’t make sense.
2. “STOP RIGHT THERE, YOU DONT HAVE RIGHTS!”
Now, I don’t mind the characterization of Aramaki as an evil pro-WG admiral (I actually like it), but why is he getting outraged for no reason and screaming about killing thousands to the scabbards, completely unprovoked?
This is a moment where it blatantly feels like “the author really really wants me to know this guy is bad huh.” It’s over the top, unnecessary, and feels forced.
3. Shanks and his crew are in Wano but then suddenly dip because of… Bartolommeo? This scene feels like Shanks is here to advertise his movie, and… that’s it? It’s very meta and out of place, almost like it’s purely here for the audience and isn’t actually relevant to the story in a meaningful way. It’s incredibly bizarre.
*note I’m not actually sure Shanks is leaving Wano (Bartolommeo could have used Luffy’s vivre card to come to Wano and Shanks is chasing him down). If it’s the case that he doesn’t leave and is here for an actual reason then I have no issue, although I would still criticize the dialogue for being odd.
4. I have a number of problems with the information we get about Sabo, especially how it re-contextualizes the previous info we got in 957.
Makino and Dadan’s reactions make literally no sense at all. “NOOOO, SABOO” crying “AND JUST AFTER WE LEARNED HE WAS ALIVE!” more crying
Are they upset about Sabo killing a random king they never met? Uhhhhh… ok weird. They’ve got really upstanding morals I guess.
5. Why did Sabo allegedly killing Kobra make people start rioting against the world government?
This bit was confusing to me. So the revolutionary army got what they wanted (right?) from something that Sabo didn’t actually do? Or was it just Sabo assaulting the Holyland that sparked this? I would assume the latter but the presentation of information here is very confusing, and if this is the setup for the final war then it’s frankly completely botched.
6. Dragon getting overshadowed by Sabo before actually having a major role in the story or a scene giving us information about him and his character. Again, this is just another really weird choice. It almost makes it feel like Dragon doesn’t matter to the story anymore. Before he’s even in the story.
Bonus:
In addition to these pretty blatant and (mostly) objective criticisms, I have a ton of personal problems with this chapter that are kind of agenda related (obviously, I’m an admiral fanboy) and subjective but I also feel are pretty noteworthy.
Bonus 1.
The admirals “losing” in Mariejois doesn’t really make sense (even assuming Sabo is straight up equal to the admirals or top tier level) and kind of kills tension.
Bonus 2.
This is especially true because literally a few pages after the admiral de-hype, Akainu is shown/portrayed as re-entering the story as an antagonist. As an author, why would you dehype a group of characters and then immediately re-introduce a member of said group as a major threat?
Anyway, this was a long rant and I’m not sure if I was totally coherent throughout, but man this chapter sucks. It literally feels like a movie you watch and enjoy for the hype, but then process a few hours later and realize it’s trash.
EDIT:
Another issue.
Didn’t Yamato say Kaido was dead to her?
Yamato introducing herself as “the son of the Kaido” is like Sanji introducing himself as “the son of judge.”