One Piece 1054 Review: Plant Boi

One Piece, Chapter 1054: Flame Emperor

How is that break, huh? Everyone had their One Piece withdrawals? Well, we finally get 1054! Ryokugyu is just walking slowly through the Flower Capital while Yamato and the Scabbards all pile on to him, and Ryokugyu talks about his whole 'justice' ideal. And his opinion is basically that anyone not allied with the World Government has 'no human rights', and... and he's actually a fair bit more unhinged than Akainu, at one point talking about how 'discrimination creates solace'. Ryokugyu has a very strict idea of what ínferior and superior is, and believes that society runs on that discrimination, I guess.

Also, he's a Logia-type Devil Fruit that ate the 'Woods Woods Fruit', and can summon giant wood fists and turn himself into like this wood tsunami monster. Yamato seems to be the only one who can do anything to damage him, whacking his head down with a Conqueror Haki infused strike. Dragon-mode Momonosuke also attempts to help out... only for his 'Blast Breath' to just kind of fizzle out into nothing. He tried, the poor fellow. There's a great panel where we zoom into his face and he's clearly scared, but damn, the boy is at least standing up to the enemy of his country. 

This whole scene ends with Ryokugyu grabbing Momonosuke with his giant wood tendrils and demanding that Yamato not fight, though we really don't get to hear the reason why. 

And then SHANKS randomly out of nowhere and... okay, there's always some degree of hype where ol' scarface is involved, but Shanks' ship is just passing through Wano. We get to see some of the original chapter 1 characters, including, of course, Yasopp being a terrible dad and mumbling about how he's not ready to see Usopp. We get to see a brief flashback of the Red-Haired Crew attacking a young Who's Who and his CP9 vessel, a little recap of Shanks and Luffy's first encounter, and... and I actually do like the little shot of a bunch of random new recruits (including some sort of bizarre gorilla demon creature) gossiping about why Shanks likes Luffy so much. 

Shanks, however, apparently isn't going to set foot in Wano, and is going off to deal with Bartolomeo setting fire to Shanks' flags... before pouring a wine cup in front of Benn Beckman and he goes "let's claim the One Piece".

I never quite get as super-excited as Shanks as most people do (his last appearance is more exciting due to the fact that it involves the Gorosei and Marie Geoise more than anything but that last shot? Badass. 

We then cut to Akainu, Kizaru and a new high-ranking marine called Kurouma -- not an admiral, but part of the 'Bureau of Investigation'. This mystery has been dragged on for a bit too long, but finally we get confirmation of the strange Sabo mystery that we've had during the Reverie arc. Sabo is now called 'Flame Emperor', he's allegedly killed Nefertari Cobra, burned the living area of the Celestial Dragons, and there was an offscreen battle between Fujitora and Ryokugyu against the Revolutionaries that managed to free Kuma as well. Also, Vivi disappeared. Now whether Vivi was taken by the Revolutionaries or Im... 

...and it seems that the next arc will finally focus on the Revolutionaries, with something called the Eight Nation Revolution brewing, and so many people chanting and gathering under the literal giant flag of Sabo. I guess him killing a (former) Celestial Dragon and a king is something that causes the Revolutionaries to get riled up? The news claim that Sabo has more influence even than Dragon himself, and this is sparking huge waves all over the world. The chapter ends with a huge Akainu declaration of bashing everyone to the depths of the ocean, and... well, I for one am just excited to see where we go from here! Again, the idea of the Revolutionaries being pretty involved is fun, and while I do enjoy the reveal of Ryokugyu's power and personality, I do really want to see what's going to happen with him. 

Random Notes:

• I'm back from a pretty long trip, and while you guys did get some updates from me as far as posts and reviews go, they are all of older material. I haven't actually blogged since... since probably the last One Piece chapter? I have a backlog of Revice, Ms. Marvel and a bunch of others to catch up, I have yet to complete Pokemon Legends Arceus and I do plan to finish the MCU reviews. Hopefully I'll be able to catch up eventually! 
• Aramaki gets rather bamboozled by the revelation that Yamato is Kaido's child. Yeah, that's going to be a "Franky needs to really leave Water Seven" moment for Yamato, I believe. 
• In the midst of all the Reverie follow-up, we get the note about what a mess Mjosgard and Charlos's fight are, and that there's a brand-new faction called the Holy Knights that are investigating. 
• I'm not entirely sure if Charlos's "attempted murder" is the conflict we've already seen in the Reverie arc, or if it's something else? As with everything else they are blaming it on Sabo.
• Whatever happens to Vivi -- whether Sabo rescued him or if we'll be going to rescue her or if Kuma paw-paw's her away, she's going to join the crew, right? Right?
• Kurouma means "Black Horse", and he shares the same "colour-x-animal" naming scheme as most of the Admirals and some of the Vice Admirals.