Very nice chapter. The art and layout of evil HQ was stunning, the Beast Pirates partying is so much fun.
Onigashima has become something else. The anime gave me the impression there was a wasteland outside the skull. This feels more like sacred temple grounds. The tiny fleet ships give it a fantastic sense of scale. The mansion in the back is massive with multiple levels, platforms, exposed elevated paths, water ways and bridges like a palacial hotel. It's going to be a VERY interesting ground for a war to take place. Seeing all the Beast Pirates marching to Queen and Apoo's beats brought it all to life beautifully.
The alliance putting on costumes and sneaking in is starting to smell like WCI Tea Party shenanigans. Kin'emon finally impressed me with a superb DF technique, for evil Kanjuro this would just be serving up breakfast. These fodder get ups are amusing to look at, but I'm soooo glad they're getting their original costumes back when it's time. I still wonder if they're going to start kicking ass the moment they barge in or they're going to try to be discreet enough to blow up a second cake in Big Mom's face.
The Tobi Roppo and Drake look glorious. You can see Oda tried to restrain himself to make them all relatively human designs, even Mr. Fishmen teeth. The first impression is that these characters are meant to be taken seriously. They're next in line to replace an All-Star like Queen, though Numbers may like a word. It's honestly bizzare to compare them to the BMP veterans as Oven, Daifuku, Persopero and Compote who all had wild body proportions and very eccentric styles of dress. One explanation for these is that the Flying Six are Zoan users, and therefore Oda wants to heavily contrast how they look as humans versus how they look as beasts. Think of how ordinary and suave Rob Lucci looks before he transforms into a hulking monster cat. This extensive introduction reminds me of how the CP9 were all finally introduced at Enies Lobby. It's a very real possibility these are the Middle and Weak trio's 1v1 opponents, minus Drake of course.
Page One is back and he's the black sheep of the group now. Uruti (his sister?) is especially terrifying despite looking so cute. What exactly is Page One's great shame? That a Soba shop owner ran away from him? Doubtful. I believe Page One was injured by Soba Mask in some capacity, maybe even knocked out. He's had a full 10 days to recover since then. Luffy was stabbed, dried up, and poisoned by Crocodile and that led to his all-time record of 5 days sleeping to recover. At the same time, Page One passed on the information about Soba Mask to Drake which was only possible if he remained concious. Sending him back to Sanji would be too cruel for the poor guy so I wonder who he'll battle this time to regain some honor. At least he can take pride in being my favorite Beast Pirate design in human and hybrid form.
The Samurai sinking their ships was pretty ominous. These guys are not going back Wano. If we get the bad WCI wedding scenario, the no name Samurai could get completely massacred and have to be replaced by the Grand Fleet, Whitebeard Pirates, and Wano civilians in the second battle. That would be one devastating way to up the stakes make it clear you don't mess with two Yonkou. But for now, the party continues as Numbers and the Big Mom family enter the stage next.
he got the offer up front within the Flying Six.
I wonder what his reaction to the conversation of the Flying Six will be.
