One Piece 1056 Review: Caribou's Relevance

One Piece, Chapter 1056: Cross Guild

After the very action-packed and lore-packed last... last half-dozen chapters or so, this one is a lot more light-hearted. We get a bit of a cooldown after last chapter's Scabbards-vs-Aramaki bit. Raizou is just desiccated and needs some IV infusion, and apparently Shinobu also fell prey to Ryokugyu's attacks -- which I didn't really see. Apparently this ends up turning Shinobu into your typical One Piece supermodel body, which... okay, sure. We get a bit of resolution and actually see the scenes of Kin'emon and O-Tsuru committing themselvse to each other, and Tama's going to train with Shinobu to be a kunoichi. It's all a bunch of loose ends being tied up... everything other than the tantalizing big one about Big Mom and Kaido.

Speaking of loose ends, Nekomamushi and Inuarashi decide to stay in Wano in the capacity of Momonosuke's retainers, and they end up making Carrot into the new ruler of Zou. It's... it's kind of unsurprising, I guess. There was a while when it really looked like Carrot was going to be part of the Straw Hats during the Whole Cake Island arc, but she has been wholly out of focus throughout Wano. Being the new ruler of Zou (and, presumably, Zou's representative in the eventual Grand Fleet) is a pretty nice ending for her. The manga does have a bit of a handwave as to why the inexperienced Carrot was chosen over someone like Wanda or the Musketeers. It's a bit of an eye-rolling 'leave it to the next generation' thing, but they acknowledge it, which is nice. 

Sukiyaki reveals himself to Momonosuke and Hiyori, and I still really don't care about him or his role beyond being an exposition dump. But it does lead us to one of the most hilarious bits where we get another Kin'emon 5D-chess expression. This is unbelievable!

The Straw Hats, meanwhile, are hanging out in a room just discussing Robin's revelation last chapter, and that's nice -- presumably they got each other all caught up on what's going on. I absolutely love that Franky's reaction -- Franky, who burned the blueprints to the damn thing -- is "wow, Pluton really exists!" I also absolutely love that they ask Luffy if he wants Pluton, and his reaction is essentially just a shrug. 

...and all this discussion is, of course, witnessed by Caribou, who also knows about Poseidon. He's planning to sell this information to 'someone', which... could be anyone from Blackbeard to Akainu to Shanks to Dragon. My personal money's on Dragon, which would be a nice way to tie the recent Revolution-hyping-up and also because Caribou did meet some Revolutionaries in his cover story, right?

We also get to see later on that Luffy, Kid and Law are about to sail off and separate, and it's... it's so interesting to see Law actually part ways with the Straw Hats after being pals with them for so long. There's some discussion about who is going where (they're all splitting up) but we get to see the poster for Emperor Buggy's Cross Guild. He's apparently working with... Mihawk and Crocodile! Mihawk is kind of expected, but everyone expected the Shichibukai to be working together. To have Crocodile, the ex-Shichibukai, join up with Buggy is a great curveball. It does make me worried for Hancock, but... but regardless, Cross Guild! Kid explains that the Cross Guild has apparently been issuing bounties on Marines, which is such a big fuck-you to the Marines and their system in general. It's also going to be interesting for all of us bounty-hype-lovers. How much bounty does the Cross Guild assign Garp? Or Akainu? Or Ryokugyu?

I love that Zoro and Luffy immediately call bullshit for Buggy being an Emperor and Luffy dismisses him as a moron. And... and you just gotta love Law's understated reaction to all this. "If he's capable of commanding men like this, then surely he is a worthy new Emperor." Law has never met Buggy. Law, like the rest of the world, believes in all the stupid hype that the media has given Buggy. That's hilariously adorable.

As everyone goes off to do their own things, Kid does mention that his crew needs to go after the 'man marked by flames', that they have no leads... and refuses to elaborate, mocking Luffy for not knowing something that they know. More mystery!

A good chunk of the chapter also has Momonosuke and Kin'emon running around the capital because the Straw Hats kind of just left without saying goodbye to the two of the specifically, probably as a way to make it less difficult on them like what they did with Vivi. But Yamato's still hanging around, and next chapter's going to be a setup for Yamato officially and properly joining the Straw Hats, which is nice! She's already confirmed to be joining, but we do need a proper sendoff chapter for sure! 

Random Notes:

• The chapter also comes with a brief little one-page bonus to promote Film: Red. It sure is Uta writing songs; without watching the movie I don't really get the context behind it. 
• Cover story! Oven and KATAKURI are attacking the Germa 66! I like the Germa, I know this story is about them, and I'm not a big power-scaler guy... but really, Katakuri should be able to take out the quartet on his own, yeah? 
• Oh, right, Kin'emon is technically 20 years younger biologically than Tsuru at this point, but I do find it adorable that he still finds her beautiful after all this. 
• Oh, hey, after never actually being used since they just went directly to Punk Hazard which is not on the map, the Straw Hats finally make use of the triple-compass New World Log Pose. 
• Law also gives Kid a copy of the Lode/Road Poneglyph from the previous chapter. Just to be sporting. I mean, Kid needs all the help he can get. 
• ...wait, so Kid got a rubbing of the poneglyph from one of Big Mom's Sweet Commanders that... just... happen to be carrying a copy of very sensitive information that has no use outside of finding the One Piece... in the sea? We know for certain Kid never went into Big Mom's territory, so this one is just some stupidity on the Sweet Commanders' part, then. 
• Schedule for the forseeable future: I'll catch up to Ms. Marvel and the One Piece anime first, while also doing Pokemon Legends Arceus because I do want to finish these before August ends. Kamen Rider Revice, My Hero Academia and Stranger Things will be done over time in the next couple of months, with Kamen Rider I think having a higher priority since I'm almost done with it. I also plan to finish my reviews for Dr. Strange 2 and One Piece Stampede at some point? And then maybe if I have the time and energy to do the formatting necessary, I'll do reviewing monsters for D&D's Fizban's Treasury of Dragons, and the video games Scarlet Nexus and Final Fantasy XII.