One Piece 1136 Review: Dog-Killing God's Knights

One Piece, Chapter 1136: The Country That Awaits The Sun

We have a nice setup chapter! There is a significant thematic focus of what the Sun God means to the people of Elbaf, which I thought is a nice world-building element. Between this and the split between the giants' viewpoint on war, I think these slightly more decompressed early chapters are doing a lot of great job setting up the themes of this arc.

We get a lot of fun sequences, my favourite being Usopp talking up Oars ('who's a big deal to you guys, right?') and claims that he, Captain Usopp, was the one that finished Oars off. Fun Usopp stuff! Many of the giants are revealed to have never really been out of the country, so they are surprised by Jinbe's blue skin (and Fishmen in general), and... well, ain't no one in the world is exactly like Brook, but that's a fun moment. 

We also get the return of Rodo, who I think is going to become the Caesar Clown of this arc -- a defeated vile enemy that's going to be tormented by the crew for funny gags. I'm... I'm not the biggest fan of his "I'm secretly enjoying the punishment" BDSM jokes, to be honest, but it's nice to see that the manga's not going to actually just forgive him. That was my biggest worry. We get a very badass one-liner from Zoro about "Don't sweat it, no one died... but if Usopp didn't stop me it would've been your head." Badass.

In the midst of Gerd and the other giants shit-talking him, Rodo drops a bombshell that everyone in Elbaf apparently share the same dream... to become the next Sun God and rule the world. It's at this point that the party devolves into argument. Some view the Sun God as a ruler, some call him a god of freedom, or a god of laughter, or a god of destruction... frankly, considering how fragmented some of the major religions in real life is, this is a nice -- albeit more extreme -- take on that.

More importantly, Luffy gets to talking to Jarul about the Sun God, who notes that there are different interpretations of their sacred texts. There is a lot of ambiguity in those texts, but what is surely known is that the world has apparently been destroyed twice, and the Sun God Nika is associated with two instances. And this uncertainty about the god that represents the winds of change in this world is what's constant about the depictions of Sun God Nika. Monkey D. Luffy's reaction to this, when Jarul describes Nika's appearance? As everyone that actually gets what the manga's about, Luffy just laughs and notes that 'no wonder everyone's confused, we do look similar'. I love this. Luffy is never going to be a guy who cares -- or will accept -- that he's a reincarnation or a reborn version of someone else. He is him, Monkey D. Luffy, the Man Who Will Become King of the Pirates. Nothing more, nothing less.

The discussion leads to Loki, who's noted to also trying to become Nika. I like the subtlety here -- or at least Luffy's surprisingly successful attempt at subtlety -- as he asks if Loki is actually a good guy. All the giants begin to rant about how there was a prophecy, and during the year that Loki was born a lot of stuff happened. The royal horse died, the young Big Mom killed Jorul, a year later the Queen died... and we get a montage of the crimes that young Loki did, which seems to quite intentionally mirror that of Kozuki Oden. Ultimately, after a lot of wild-animal havoc and arson, Loki killed King Harold (allegedly) and wounded Jarul. Loki's reign of havoc was ultimately stopped by Shanks, which is why Shanks is so buddy-buddy with the giants. It's something that we could assume by context clues, too, but it's nice to have it confirmed. 

We then cut away to a very interesting scene. Zoro quickly catches on to some of Luffy's choice of words, and at some point he dragged Luffy aside. Nami's with them, too. Zoro is insistent on taking the giants at face value and note that Loki is a reviled kingslayer... but Luffy notes his motivation is to get Shanks' location out of Loki. Luffy's defense is more of a "you haven't met the guy himself!" and we do know that Luffy's a good judge of character. I think this is going to tie in with the overall exaggerated-reputation-vs-the-truth that has been so much of a common running theme among One Piece characters. Like Noland, Oden, Riku Dold, the Straw Hats themselves...

They borrow a flying ship and Nami also forces Rodo to come along as her 'newest slave'. Nami also makes it absolutely clear that she has no desire at all to befriend Rodo at all, the same deadpan harsh way she's been treating child-experimenter Caesar Clown throughout the arcs that Caesar traveled with the Straw Hats. Nami -- with a glorious Beli-eyed expression, also makes it clear her motivation to go with them... burgling the castle's treasury. That's fun. 

So yeah, we've got three of the classic Straw Hats off on a little mini-adventure, which I surprisingly appreciate. I do still want this arc to be the Usopp arc, but Zoro and Nami have been quite shafted in the last decade or so in terms of characterization, so I would like to see them do a fair bit more!

We cut away to the Underworld, where Not-Shanks and his partner -- who we learn is called Gunko -- are trying to recruit Loki into the ranks of the Gods' Knights. Loki gives a surprisingly similar answer to Garp during the Reverie, asking why someone would willingly 'become scum' like the Celestial Dragons. This implies that non-Celestial-Dragons, or even non-humans, can become a member of the God's Knights.

Apparently they've sent agents to Elbaf before, presumably some variation of Cipher Pol agents, but of all things they've been attacked by Rodo's crow. Meaning at least some of the trapped people within Rodo's little Legoland castle are actually World Government agents. Inadvertently, Rodo's fucked-up hobby is actually hindering the Gods' Knights! 

We then get a more proper look at Gunko, who's rather pissed at Loki's impertinence. Her design is... neat enough? She doesn't have pants, and she's got oversized sleeves. We get to see her power in action as one of her oversized sleeves unfurls into a giant tape-like whip of sorts. Most interestingly, that tendril-whip ends in the same cartoon arrow that Imu used to pierce Cobra! We get a nice display of Gunko's power as one of Loki's animal friends, a giant wolf, comes in to help Loki, but Gunko detaches her long whip and has it wrap around the wolf's neck and it rises up like a hangman's noose.

So yeah, fuck these Gods' Knights. Dog-killing bastards that they are! We're going the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure way of showing how cruel a villain is by having them kill a dog. It's always going to be effective! 

Loki is initially shocked at this, and Not-Shanks wonders as the dog struggles if Loki would change his mind if they were to spare the dog. To which Loki refuses. He notes that he'll accept his friend's fate and wish him peace in death, but he'll bottle up all that rage and unleash it upon the world once he is unleashed and free to destroy the world into dust. That's a pretty interesting personality, and it is something that could be used to parallel Luffy's own stance at life and friendship in general. With how much the world and fate and prophecy and destiny has been a gigantic burden on Loki's life since even before he was born, I am really interested in finally learning more about him. 

Random Notes:

• Yamato Inari Pilgrimage Cover Story: Our heroes discover that Holdem is working for... Who's Who? Who? Who's Who, that's who! Who's been making a pagoda with his giant helmet in the middle of the forest. Out of the Tobi Roppo, Who's Who being an actual worshipper of Nika does make him a surprisingly relevant-to-present-plot character.
• We have a lot of random callbacks to previous arcs. Luffy compares the giant moose that Hajrudin killed to the dinosaur meat -- which he would've eaten in Little Garden. Sanji brings up Mermaid Cove.
• Apparently, most humans that make it to Elbaf end up only seeing the 'Underworld' part, and bugger off without even going to the major giant villages in the two upper realms. 
• With Brook becoming an international rock star, I guess him actually having a proper song called "What The Heck Am I" makes perfect marketing sense!
• With Usopp finally bringing up Oars, I do hope this arc gives us some answers about the backstory of Oars but also the horned 'oni'-style giants that we've been seeing throughout the recent series. Not just Kaido and Yamato, but a lot of the background giant children in Elbaf also have horns. 
• The 'Horse of Fortune' that died is totally One Piece's take on Sleipnir, right? 
• We finally confirm Jorul's death. With One Piece's current track record on dead people staying dead, that was never a given. 
• "My helmet saved me in the end." I... I find the gag with Jarul's stupid helmet and the sword funnier than I should. Also a funny gag in this chapter is Zeus floating up to Rodo and telling him to know his place in the Nami-slave heirarchy. Zeus is #1, Sanji is #2 and Rodo is #3. This implies at some point that Zeus and Sanji got into a discussion about this, and Sanji lost to a cloud.
• A lot of what seems to be set up in the past couple of arcs is how beloved the Straw Hats are amongst the giants, and how reviled Loki is. With the "Luffy lets Loki loose" seeming to be on the horizon, I do get a feel like it's going to lead to an interesting reaction from the giants of Elbaf. 
• The amount of effort Oda is putting to keep Not-Shanks's "supposedly scarred" side hidden by his cloak is amazing. At one point, he uses the fun manga trope of having a word bubble block Not-Shanks' face.
• Just like the Gorosei, we don't have any real confirmation on whether Gunko's powers are a Devil Fruit power, or something else entirely.