One Piece 860 Review: Guests

One Piece, Chapter 860: 10:00, Opening of the Banquet

Nothing really much happened in this chapter, yet at the same time a crapton of new characters get introduced. One Piece likes to introduce a lot of characters in one go (the Supernovas, the gladiators of Dressrossa, Doflamingo's underlings) only for it to take some time until they become relevant, so many some or all of these will be future allies and/or enemies? Half of the chapter is just the party guests arriving, and the other half is some flashbacks that we could really just infer.

Basically, Pekoms is left tied to a rock (but with food and water) while Aladdin -- or Aladine, as his name is apparently spelled -- leaves with the rest of the Sun Pirates. Aladine has a brief flashback to when Jinbe decides to leave the Sun Pirates after talking to Pekoms. Jinbe notes how he's going to betray Big Mom with a rebellion, and apparently he chickened out of the roulette because the numbers apparently represent the amount of comrades that'll be sacrificed alongside him. So dishonourable rebellion it is! Again, a bit weird that it was put off for so long as a cliffhanger only to resolve in an anticlimax, but eh. Jinbe makes it clear that his joining the Straw Hats isn't an "if", but a "when", and so the Sun Pirates leave on good terms. Brief mentions of the Fishman Kingdom is made, but all that came out of it is Aladine going 'eh, don't worry about it'. 

We get a brief glimpse of the Germa leaders, but we then cut away to a group of the 'Underworld Kings', which are six people: "God of Fortune" Du Feld, the Loan Shark King, who's a huge mob boss guy chomping on a cigar. Stussi, the Red Light District Queen, who's just a lady. Drug Peclo, the Great Undertaker, who's a fat dude with a creepy clown mask, a lion's mane, a military outfit and a huge sickle. "Big News" Morgans, the president of the world economy newspaper, who's a big-ass bird man. "The Concealer" Ciberson, the warehouse businessman, who's like a skinnier, creepier, old version of Baron Tamago. "Deep Current" Umit, the Shipping King, who actually looks like a normal pirate, which is a rarity in this manga about pirates. 

They don't like each other, it seems. Perospero creates a pretty giant stairwell to bring the guests up, and he gives candy to kids. Capone Bege acts like a glorified doorman, arguing with a crazy-looking dude, the organ trader Jigra, who insists that he received an invitation... last time... but was unable to attend, because it was his mother's funeral. Before he can finish his sentence, he got shot in the forehead! The bullet didn't get through, but jeez. 

This metal-looking cool-dude with way too many ruffles on his leather jacket tells Capone about how the crazy dude's about to give an anecdote about how his father was killed by Big Mom and his head sent to him as punishment for missing her tea party. Apparently he's the third Sweet Commander, Charlotte Katakuri, and he tosses jellybean bullets like coins, and his Observation Haki is so powerful that he can see into the future. Not the kind of guy you want around when you're going to assassinate someone, that's for sure. Also his bounty is 1 billion, which is higher than even Jack, who IIRC was the highest we've seen so far. 

The remainder of the chapter is just the Underworld Kings arriving on the tea party, with Smoothie squeezing giraffes and women to provide refreshment. Just because. And Big Mom shows up to welcome everyone. The sheer amount of two-page spreads makes it feel a lot shorter, so it does feel a bit m'eh, but at least we do get the scale of the party.