On the cover page, Ace and Yamato and Otama help guide some boar piglets on a field trip! D'awww...look at the cute little family. So...how many of those piglets are going to end up eaten by Ace and Yamato before they reach their destination? Ace is already sizing one of them up. And mama-boar looks a bit concerned. I feel like bacon's on the menu. Much to Otama's horror.
It seems like the situation at Mariejois hasn't completely been settled, yet. I guess the fight's still going on. And Shamrock alone seems to have turned the tide a bit. Interesting.
Seems like York already has the Celestial Dragon mindset down pat. She's fitting in pretty nicely all things considered. And...it sounds like they've moved the ENTIRE Labophase all the way from Egghead to Mariejois, already. That didn't take too long. I guess when you literally have all the money in the World, things get done quick.
Again, we get a focus on Ju Peter when Nika is mentioned. And he tries to change the subject pretty quickly. Something is UP with this guy.
"Arrogance, Idleness, Negligence, Pride..." Hmm...I wonder if these are each of the remaining 4 Gorosei's "sins"? Like, do they all sort of represent a "Deadly Sin"? Arrogance and Pride are pretty similar, though.
They call Loki's ship "The Fog Ship". I wonder if that's a official name? I'm a bit curious what the original Japanese line is, here.
Huh. Imu calls Luffy "Joyboy" for what I think is the first time. Not "Nika" like they normally do. Interesting.
And it seems like there is some sort of consequence to Imu leaving Mariejois. Imu's presence did seem to be locking something away. I'm not sure what that sound effect is supposed to be once Imu leaves. Could it be...a heartbeat?! Is the Red Line coming back to life?!
Gerd found Sommers! And...she's playing with him like he's a magnet toy! That girl's freakier than she lets on, I'm telling you.
Okay, so it's confirmed that WAS a "Steel Heart" we saw last chapter. Personally, I really wan't sure if it was just Oda giving it odd shading, or some sort of Haki literally "hardening his heart" or what. So, that IS a artificial heart of some kind. And it DOES seem to be some sort of key to the Regeneration, somehow. So, the God's Knights powers are tech based?
"Want me to turn you guys into cyborgs?" Kind of ironic, since that seems to be what Imu did. There's some original Kamen Rider parallels in here.
Loki doesn't like frozen food. Kind of ironic, given where he was imprisoned before.
So, only Ragnir can unfreeze Gunko. Well, Oda's setting up something for the future. Maybe Ragnir WILL have to go along with the Strawhats, if Brook wants to unfreeze Gunko.
Also...MAN is Luffy looking rough. This might be the longest he's stayed in "old man mode" in a while. That doesn't seem like a good sign.
And then...black smoke erupts from underground and makes a giant Summoning Circle in the sky over Elbaph! Okay...well...that wasn't as much of a "break" as I thought the Strawhats were going to get. Funny that Imu doesn't get a more unique Circle design for their big entrance. At least the Gorosei got numbers.
And then....wooden houses and trees start singing. Imu has their own theme song! Imu has a "Drums of Domination"! I'm curious if this song is similar or even the same as Bink's Sake. A complimentary tune, or a completely different tune. I wonder if you could tell in the original Japanese? The "Do-ro-ro-ro"'s kind of remind me of the "Yo-ho-ho-ho"s, you know? Also, interesting that it seems to mostly be affecting the WOOD. A hint that Imu has the Forest God Fruit? I guess we'll see soon...
And Imu's arrival creates a Conqueror's Haki wave that's enough to know out the Giant Kids. Even though, it's not enough to knock out anyone else, I guess. The Giants are heartier than you would think, I suppose.
Imu seems to be spitting up blood. So...maybe Imu has some sort of ancient disease that only staying in the Flower Garden can help stave off? I mean, we saw with Ginny that something's happening with ancient diseases long thought extinct.
Also, Imu very briefly gets wings before the full transformation. But, he doesn't seem to have wings in his full reveal. So, are the wings part of his "sealed" form, or what?
And then...Imu is REVEALED! I was NOT expecting that! Oh you KNOW I gotta break this down in detail!
And...Imu's a MAN, baby! Okay, I'll admit, I was wrong about Imu being a girl. *Squints* Probably, anyway. Imu HAS "Crossed the Bishonen Line", and as anyone who's a fan of Digimon knows, that means they just got ten times more powerful! They keep calling him "he" in this chapter directly, so I'm just going with the idea he's male. I guess.
Imu has the literal Devil Fruit! Or "Akuma" Fruit, which might help clarify things. That's on the nose, but still pretty cool! The translator's note about the Fruit being named oddly is interesting. Is Oda still hiding some secret about Imu's Fruit? So, I think there's still a chance that Imu's some sort of Dragon, or something to that effect.
And...he looks a lot like Ganondorf, to me. Definitely some Legend of Zelda vibes in that design.
The scale's kind of throwing me off. But, it looks like Imu's about as tall as one of the windows on Ouest Castle. And given that's a castle made for Giants, that probably means he's pretty tall. I'm not sure if he's Loki-tall, but still pretty large.
The horns are interesting. And he's got a darker skin color. Kind of similar to a Lunarian, really. Hmm...I wonder if there's a relationship between the "Angels" and "Demons" of this world?
The striped pants are a choice. It kind of brings to mind Kefka from Final Fantasy 6.
Imu's got a viking-like belt around his waist. Which...could that mean that Imu is originally FROM Elbaph? Is Elbaph actually Imu's original home country?! That would explain a bit why Imu's so determined to get it under his control.
Plus a "evil eye" symbol on his hand, similar to the eye symbol Madame Shyarly had on her hoodie.
His cape has the Contract Mark on it. I guess Imu doesn't have a special "complete" symbol that's different than the God's Knights' Mark. It's just their cross with horns on it.
Imu's weapon seems to be a spear of some kind? I'm sure there's a special name for a weapon like that, but I'm not sure what it is. A polearm? A highly-specialized naginata? Hmm, I'm not sure if that weapon is particularly significant or not. Nothing really stands out to me. It does look cool, though!
The dark aureole around him is in flames, with a BUNCH of eyes inside it. Pretty cool! And I think this probably counts as Imu's "Awakening Ribbon". So...this is actually probably Imu's hybrid form?
Plus, Imu's got white hair, just like Luffy in Gear 5. So, again, this points to this Fruit being fully Awakened. Although, it's interesting that his hair is white instead of black. There's so many black clouds surrounding Imu, that I'd expect his hair to be black, too. I wonder if that's hinting at something. Maybe being more similar to Luffy than we give Imu credit for?
Also...note the three skulls hovering around Imu's coiled tail 3 Skulls again. Just like with Oars, Little Oars Jr, and Blackbeard. They all have downward-facing horns, too. So, whoever's skulls these are, they're likely all from the same "tribe" of Ancient Giants. I guess that alone hints that Imu's pretty tall in this form.
Really, the only criticism I have for the design is that I kind of wonder where the Crown went. That was probably Imu's most defining feature in his "Shadow mode", and it's just GONE, here. That feels a bit like cheating. But...meh...this is cool enough that I don't really care. I guess this is everything Luffy's Nika form COULD have been, if Oda went a darker route with it.
AND...there's a break next week. NUTS! I want to see more of this! UGH! Oh well...this chapter was pretty top-tier, just for that Imu reveal, alone. This just got VERY interesting. And with Imu being revealed NOW...I wonder what that means for Imu's chances of being the main villain or not? Either we're MUCH closer to the ending than we thought, or Imu's not the main villain. Since Oda likes to keep reveals pretty close to his chest until the last moment. But, I guess we'll see. The wait for the next chapter is going to be excruciating!
