One Piece 1140 Review: Keyblades

One Piece, Chapter 1140: Scopper Gaban

This one was a bit late from me, but mostly because... I didn't have a whole ton to say. We get the clash between Luffy and Gaban, which is played as being very safe and what you'd expect. I'm not a huge power-scaler (and god knows what you'd get out of this particular clash) so it isn't exactly the most exciting chapter for me. We do get to see Gaban show off a bit, and Luffy and Zoro are at least around Gaban's level. All right. Gaban being a kooky mentor is nicely expected, but I do agree with the sentiment that we do need to move on. 

Gaban plays around with Luffy and dodges all his attacks, before infusing the key with Armament Haki and bashing Luffy with the handle-end. I can already see the huge debates of Armament-vs-Conqueror Haki going on again because... honestly, it's a very valid criticism that Oda is not at all consistent with his applications of Haki into these attacks and how to tell what black lightning is meant to be. 

Gaban shoves the other end of the key into Luffy's rubber mouth and deforms his head, which is some fun little comedy. Gaban then pulls out his twin axes and unleashes an attack called "Yasotakeru", blowing up one of the giant castle's towers. Luffy goes Gear Fifth and Zoro even jumps in to fight... but then Gaban immediately gives up, causing Luffy and Zoro to crash-land next to him. Gaban stops Rodo from telling Luffy about the true identity of 'Ya-san',  and then buggers off, asking Luffy to look for him if 'Elbaf is intact' after what's to come. It is an interesting stance to take considering that he actually sensed the amount of danger coming Elbaf's way, and that his son is also in the crosshairs, but we'll see what Scopper does in the upcoming chapters. It's a rather simple introduction of a mentor-style character, and just as quick of an exit for him. Neato. 

We also get a brief flashback showing that Shanks actually shows up to visit Gaban presumably shortly before he left recently. 

In the school -- which is quite convenient for the Gods' Knights -- we see the kids pointing at a weird-looking bird. Very eerie, since we know that Gunko's going around on her weird arrow-bandage bird. Gunko then decides to 'make the call', pointing her arm and summoning the giant demonic magic circle like, well, something out of Naruto or Doctor Strange with their respective magic circles. We now know it's called the Abyss! Another explosion of black lightning and flames appear, revealing not one but two more Gods' Knights. 

And unlike the Gorosei or even Shamrock, these two are more of One Piece's signature kooky villains. Gunko is only a bit weird thanks to her giant go-go boots, but what made the Gorosei feel so weird and off-putting is how un-comedic they are in the Egghead arc. With very little exception (Crocodile and maybe Doflamingo being the only ones, but they make up for it in being hammy), most of Luffy's villains have had some kind of comedic streak to them, a streak that was broken with the Gorosei. 

We first get Saint Sommers, a member of the Shepherd family, making him a relative of Ju Peter Shepherd of the Five Elders. He does look like a more relaxed, more unkempt version of Ju Peter... though that might just be an unfair assessment since our first impression of him is him in his boxers lounging on a sofa, thinking that he's going to get some time to prepare before the summoning. 

Our other knight is a very weird, lanky guy with a trident-spear, and the half-dragon, half-giraffe neck of a Kirin (or Qilin in Mandarin). He's got cloud-flame-feathers that seem to indicate that he's an awakened half-transformed Zoan... or it could just as well as be the powers of the Kirin. His name is romanized as Saint 'Killingham', but it's pronounced identically to 'Kirin-ham', with the name of his mythical beast being incorporated. He's also wearing the Celestial Dragon bubble-helmet, which is hilarious on a half-Kirin person. Oh, and he's from the Rimoshifu family -- that's another new Celestial Dragon family!

Killingham and Sommers are quite surprised and shocked that they've been summoned to Elbaf. Killingham notes that there are orders from above that Shamrock was demanded to return, which is why they 'sent' two of them. It really is weird. Who decides who comes and goes, then, if it's not the summoner Gunko? 

As Sommers puts on his clothes, he asks Shamrock a seemingly innocuous question -- what is he doing in Elbaf? "Visiting Harald's grave?" The fact that this seems to be said with no irony or malice, I think, confirms with almost near-certainty that Harald was affiliated with the Gods' Knights. After a quick off-screen exposition segment, Killingham bemoans that they can't actually bring 'those without the mark' through the Abyss, so they'd have to sail them normally like peasants. A nice little exposition thing that explains just a bit more about the Abyssal teleportation. 

And then Shamrock closes off the chapter off with a chilling nod that with 'your powers' (not sure which one he's referring to) they could make it a game. So yeah, God Valley hunting games, redux, I guess! I like this introduction. I'm looking forward to seeing more of these Gods' Knights for sure. 

Random Notes:

• Oni Child Yamato Cover Story: Turns out that as everyone else guessed, the two mysterious figures being attacked by Who's Who are Ulti and Page One. This week sees Ulti strung up on a dartboard while Who's Who throws swords like darts on her. Again, this really does look like it's going to lead to Yamato eventually recruiting the two of them as allies.
• I really like Gaban going "wait, Shanks didn't give you the hat? You're only holding on to it? What a cheapskate!"
• 'Yasotakeru' is a term that roughly translates to '80 Tribal Leaders', but is also a term that has appeared in an ancient Japanese text that could either refer to a person, or a large number of courageous men. 
• Shamrock and Gunko seem to be a bit surprised by the existence of a school at all, showing that the World Government really didn't have much knowledge about modern-day Elbaf.
• Both Sommers and Killingham have the 'Saint' title on them, making it even more subtly clear that Gunko is, in fact, not a Celestial Dragon and probably why she was so obsessed with the title when talking to Loki. 
• Sommers also gives a nice little quick drop about the 'food situation', which is a nice nod to what Sabo and the rest of the Revolutionaries have been doing.
• The half-naked Sommers has prominent tattoos on his left arm. This might be the mark that lets summoning happen, if we're going by more conventional magic systems. 
• In Japanese, the word for 'giraffe' is often used interchangeably with 'kirin' due to giraffes being mistaken as kirin in the past, so this is basically an upgraded version of Kaku, isn't it? A new Zoro enemy, incoming?