One Piece 1053 Review: Shin Yonko

One Piece, Chapter 1053: The New Emperors

Yeah, okay, a little bit late to the bandwagon on this one, mostly because I kept adding more and more and more and this chapter just does not end. One thing that I am actually very happy about -- and a good reason why I wasn't doomsaying too much in my 1051-1052 reviews -- is that I really don't actually pay too much heed to all the real-world announcements and stuff, so I wasn't exactly expecting the Straw Hats to fully leave Wano at the end of 1053 like a good chunk of the fandom believes. Sure, I expected some kind of resolution in 1052 and 1053 before the one-month break, but it's definitely a very nice surprise to know that Wano isn't quite over just yet, and we're seemingly heading into a little "post-Wano" mini-arc and we're not rushing things to get the Straw Hat crew out of Wano ASAP, since there was none of the seeming urgency that our heroes had at the end of Dressrosa or Whole Cake Island.

The first scene in this mammoth of a chapter takes place in Marie Geoise, with the huge-mustachioed Gorosei member yelling at the Marines about Luffy's bounty picture, as well as an unmet demand for the "D" to be struck off of Luffy's bounty poster. Man the Gorosei are kind of... incompetent, aren't they? There's a neat little nod to how the World Government changed Gol D. Roger's name to Gold Roger... but man, you'd think they would just suppress the "D" out of... well, anyone who gets a bounty poster. Silly World Government. 

Interestingly, the Marines never got that order, and we're not sure who intercepted it. We do get an acknowledgement that "Guernica" of CP-0, presumably the lone surviving CP-0 person, giving them the full orders... but we don't really know who intercepted Guernica last chapter. It is implied to be Ryokugyu, but it could be something else? A running theory among some of the fandom that I've seen is that Guernica might be pissed off that the World Government essentially sent his/her two partners to die? 

Interestingly, later on we learn that the last message that Cipher Pol sent out before the line went dead is that it's "Big Mom's Ship"... and I could go on a whole tangent on what the fuck might have happened there. We still don't have a proper confirmation on what happened to Big Mom and Kaido! 

Anyway, Big News Morgans is just on the moon, happy to be printing all of this news. I really do like Big News Morgans... he's not reporting the truth out of a sense of duty, or hatred towards the World Government... he's just doing it 'cause it's going to make him the most money, and it's BIG NEWS! He's not a nice or good-aligned character at all, but it's so interesting that he's basically being such a wild card. 

We then get the two-page spread revelation of the three bounties of Luffy, Law and Kid... and they're all an equal 3 billion each. It's a bit vexing, admittedly, because while I do expect everyone to get an increase in bounty it really does feel off to have Law and Kid be ranked equally to Luffy. Although I suppose it's a nice reversal of the end of the events of Whole Cake Island where Luffy was over-estimated thanks to how Big News Morgans framed the events? Now Luffy is under-estimated and they think it's an equal alliance between Luffy, Kid and Law? It's still really odd, though at least as we learn at the end of the chapter, Luffy does get an extra Yonko status at the end of it.

And... and I suppose the way the World Government is trying to spin it so that Luffy isn't counted as the next Pirate King does make sense, in a way, by trying to downplay his contributions, but it's the Gear Fifth portrait that Guernica or Apoo or whoever provided to Morgans that's out of their control.

The next couple of scenes aren't quite as hype thanks to its content, but I do like the little bit of characterization stuff we get here especially with the new knowledge that we're not quite done with Wano just yet. Some high-end chef has prepared a full meal for all of the saviours of Wano, but he took so long that everyone except for Jinbe has absconded and ran off to the city. Jinbe's a nice dude, though. He appreciates the work that this nameless chef NPC has provided for us. 

Luffy, Yamato and Chopper are running around and enjoying typical Japanese festival stuff. Brook and Hiyori do a cover of 'Moon Princess', and while it goes by quickly, I suppose this is the first time that Hiyori has played that song after Oden's death and she's smiling. That's nice. 

Then we cut to Robin, who is not kidnapped in the short time-skip. So that literally is just Oda trolling the fandom for a week. Robin is in that one kokeshi room with the non-red Poneglyph that Brook stumbled into for like one panel waaaaay back before the raid. I only realized this when I watched the anime! Tenguyama shows up and talks about how that is his private collection, before revealing himself to be Kozuki Sukiyaki.

...and what a non-plusser of a revelation that is. I'm sorry, but I'm wholly underwhelmed. Tenguyama is barely a character and he drifted off into being kind of irrelevant, and Sukiyaki is even moreso. I am already aware that there's a lot of speculation in the fandom because Sukiyaki and Tenguyama share a voice actor, and there was apparently an errata made to a databook's ages that put the two's ages as exactly the same. The time that this is revealed in the arc, as well as me really not giving a shit about either character really made me shrug. We do get some handwaved reason of shame or whatever, and I start wondering why we're covering this instead of the many other unanswered questions we have for this arc... 

But then Robin cuts through all this bullshit, and immediately asks Sukiyaki about Pluton. Pluton is in Wano, and Robin knows it all the way since Alabasta, and Sukiyaki confirms it. 

That. That is much more like it. That's the bombshell we need. We already have a lot of hints and my personal pet theory is that Onigashima might be connected to it somehow -- Izo or someone mentioned that the island had an older name before. Big Mom and Kaido both hinted that Kaido chose Wano for a reason. And both Enma and Pluto are 'kings of the underworld'. It really could be anything, but man, that is such a great bombshell of a revelation that made me far more excited than I thought I would be. 

...and then we cut away to Udon, which is now lush and green and filled with plants and mushrooms, and we get to see roots and tendrils reaching up to the sky, having skewered prisoners. Poor Babanuki is straight-up dessicated! And then we see King and Queen -- both presumably imprisoned there -- get absolutely bullied by Ryokugyu's vines. There's a cute gag where Queen, who's now reduced to a wrinkly thin man, jokes about how he shold stay round. 

That answers what happens to... well, to at least King and Queen. There's a lot of debate in the fandom on how to powerscale this fight. It's been a week, but King and Queen might be still weakened from their defeats? Regardless, though, Ryokugyu totally beat the fuck out of the two of them, all the while drinking wine with his vines. We learn that Ryokugyu's real name is Aramaki, and unlike the chill persona we saw him had in Marie Geoise, turns out that he's actually a huge Akainu fanboy, and he's here without Akainu's knowledge with the specific intention of taking Luffy's head. 

So yeah, what a first impression he makes! He's like a more devil-may-care and far more hot-headed version of Akainu, and... and if the Marine Admirals are going to be relevant in the future, I do really enjoy the fact that there's at least someone other than Akainu that's a bit more antagonistic. Fujitora's an ally in all but allegiance, and Kizaru treats it more like a day job. It's nice to see that there are members of the Marines that are going to actually feel like proper opponents. 

And then just before Ryokugyu actually gets to the Flower Capital, though, we do get the obligatory end-of-arc huge party. We had the hot springs last chapter, and now we get the whole huge party, ending with a gigantic two-page spread of a huge firework in the sky. Very fun, very cathartic, and we check in with practically every important Luffy-aligned character in Wano at the moment. Oh, there's also Kid trying to attack Luffy and kill him because he's pissed off at sharing the bounty with him, but Luffy doesn't even care. He doesn't really even see Kid as being serious and just hugs him and drags him into the celebration. Silly Kid. 

And then the final two-page spread shows us the new Yonko... Blackbeard and Shanks retain their position. Luffy is a new Yonko, who no one is afraid of. The fourth member of the Yonko, however... is BUGGY THE FUCKING CLOWN.

BUGGY.

BUGGY IS A YONKO. BUGGY. BUGGY THE FUCKING BOMBASTIC CLOWN. 

I am absolutely 100% happy with this. I was slightly worried with the Yonko stuff and wondered if something would have happened -- maybe Law and Kid would both be considered Yonko as well which I really wouldn't like. But then Buggy? Man, clearly some shit happened during the time we spent in Wano. Something happened when the Shichibukai attempted to arrest Buggy, and somehow, just like how he went from being a no-name prisoner in Impel Down into a Shichibukai by sheer luck, our lovable clown somehow lucked his way into becoming a Yonko spoken in the same breath as Shanks. It's ridiculous!

There are so many wacky theories out there. Buggy lucked into an Ancient Weapon. Buggy brokered an alliance between Mihawk, Hancock and Weevil and somehow the world thinks he's the leader. A freak storm sunk the Marine ships sent to arrest Buggy. Somehow Buggy's the only Shichibukai not defeated by whatever the hell the SSG is. Buggy is the pirate that Shanks warned the Gorosei about. Sabo is working with Buggy. Something. Anything. 

Man, this makes me really want to know what happened. Moreso than I want to know what happened to Sabo or whatever. 

Though I suppose next month's chapter is going to focus more on Ryokugyu's assault. And... and he sure is impressive, bullying King and Queen, but... but is he really going to be able to fight against everyone there? Even if Jinbe is in the castle, we have, on top of my head, Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, Kid, Law and Yamato all in the party. All the heavy-hitters, not counting the rest of the Straw Hats, the Scabbards, the Heart Pirates and Kid Pirates. I don't really know if Ryokugyu can hold all of them off on his own, but maybe he really is that much more powerful than Fujitora and Kizaru? Maybe something about SSG will finally be revealed here? We'll see. 

What a chapter to go to a break on!

Random Notes:

• With the reveal of Guernica's name, based on Picasso's famous painting depicting anti-war sentiments, people have clued together that Maha's name is a reference to La Maja Vestida and La Maja Desnuda, a pair of classical paintings. Now if only Oda would reveal the name of the bowler hat CP0 guy who Kaido bashed to death!
• Like the rest of the Marine Admirals, Ryokugyu is based on a prominent classic Japanese actor, in this case Harada Yoshio. His real name Aramaki is based on one of Yoshio's roles, the main character of the 1990 film Ronin-gai. The film involved bulls at some point, as well as a character (not played by Yoshio) called 'Bull'.
• The name 'Aramaki' can also be a pun on the term of 'seeding', which is a nod to his powers. 
• Ryokugyu's tattoo roughly translates to a 'double suicide by a river', though as with anything involving the admirals, it's actually related to a specific piece of Japanese literature. TCB-scans explains it in great detail here.
• Sabo is on a random picture on the side of the building in that one panel where random people are reading the newspaper. It's so random and off to the side and you can go hog wild in speculating whether it's an execution announcement or if this particular country is filled with huge Sabo fans or something.
• Robin doesn't find the Kokeshi Doll collection cute at all. We know Robin's styles go for a more, er, gothic persuasion.
• Sukiyaki can read Poneglyphs, can't he? And he can carve into them. I guess he can teach Momonosuke. Or maybe if someone like Blackbeard or the marines are trying to re-kidnap Robin, this means that there's a "spare" that could be kidnapped instead. 
• I missed it until someone pointed it out, but Kin'emon's wife survives and there is a small panel showing the two of them in the party montage.
• Yes, Killer is still eating noodles with his serial killer mask. 
• Luffy's eyes pop out like Gear Fifth when Kid shows him the Yonko posters. Interesting. 
• Also, yes, look at tankobon volume 27 or something, which had all the current Yonko posed in exactly the same orientation that they are in the final panel of this chapter. Also Sengoku's goat is there. 
• Pluton being on Wano actually gives us a reason, if Oda wants to, to bring Shanks and Blackbeard to Wano instead of our characters going out to look for them. 
• My schedule's kinda swamped in July, but I'll try to catch up to the One Piece anime during the break!