One Piece 1156 Review: Strongest in the World

One Piece, Chapter 1156: Idols

Another flashback era chapter to the age of Rocks, and this time, we cut away to a completely different side of the world. 

The narrators talked a bit about how 'idols' used to roam the seas during this age, and for a moment I thought these were idols as in... a 'false idol', or something, a thing you worship. Well, turns out these are idols as in, like, J-pop idols or something. Which, I suppose, are also things being worshipped in a way. These idols roam the oceans and took everything from all the cities they pass through... and all men were lovestruck and couldn't lift a finger towards them. These were the previous generation of Kuja Pirates, of course, which is a nice little bit of detail I'm surprised got a half-chapter's worth of focus. I thought these ladies would be relegated to like a montage or something, but I am quite happy to see them show up and properly be recognized. It's a nice nod to how One Piece, despite having so much going on, despite Oda being transparent about a lot of things that he's not putting into the story (like the Rocky Port Incident or Zoro's family tree), isn't being rushed as badly as it could've been.

And we get to see Gloriosa, captain of the Kuja Pirates who we have seen in the lineup of Rocks Pirates before. Gloriosa has exactly the same characterization as Boa Hancock during her debut, being super-proud of her beauty and having a gigantic fandom even among her crew. But then turns out that she's not the most popular. As one of the crewmates Tritoma (another future Empress of Amazon Lily) brings a pile of fan letters, turns out that another member has a literal mountain of them... and that is the first mate, Shakky! Or as she's known properly, Shakuyaku.  

As Gloriosa pouts around for a bit, the Kuja Pirates are attacked... by the Roger Pirates! And we get the comedic revelation that Gol D. Roger, King of the Pirates and most influential man in the world... is head-over-heels smitten over Shakuyaku, and wants to raid the ship to get her. Not the most ethical thing out there, Roger! Gloriosa, meanwhile, is upset... because she's the one in love with Roger, the way Hancock is in love with Luffy. And Shakuyaku shows up out of her room, and does an amazing kick that takes down Gyaban... and then absolutely dominates Roger, giving us a glorious panel with Shakky standing over Roger in a most dominating pose, before doing the hand-slam thing on Roger on the ground.

It's honestly kind of out of nowhere, and I felt it's the kind of comedy that Roger -- being a Luffy parallel -- would get up to back in the day. Shakky herself makes a whole talk about how she's never going to submit to another's captivity. It's only Rayleigh who initially doesn't give a shit, and both he and Shakky have a bit of a moment over 'man, these guys are idiots'... and then Shakky gives Rayleigh a wink. That's a cute start to what we know would end up to them being essentially married in the future. Simping doesn't pay, Roger!

But damn, power-scalers would looooove this chapter, I bet. 

As the Kuja leave, the Roger Pirates spot a Marine ship. And this isn't something surprising, but it's nice to see it happen. Roger realizes it's Garp's ship, and so goes on to explicitly pick a fight with them. Young Garp and young Roger fighting! We get a Haki clash between the two, with Garp punching Roger with a Haki-coated fist and Roger slashing Garp with his sword. Pretty cool! 

The second half of the chapter is back to Elbaph, where we get to see a scene in Ida's Tavern. Apparently some random giant fisherman rescued Loki from drowning as he tries to sail away from Elbaph... and we see a bit of a difference between Harald and Ida's parenting principles. Harald is way more intent on apologizing and thanking the nameless fisherman, but Ida is livid. The fact that the fisherman had to make it a point that he almost didn't help a drowning child pisses Ida off and she even threatens to drown the fisherman herself. And honestly? Harald has been portrayed as an absent-minded and just generally absent parent, but the fact that he didn't react to that is kind of... well, questionable. 

Loki himself continues to be prickly and rude, grumbling that he didn't ask to be saved, and when Ida shows him kindness he spouts out an angry rant about how Ida's totally doing it just to move into the castle because she's a gold digger. This causes Hajrudin and Harald to be angry, but Ida just takes it as children fighting. 

Ida being absent and not being confirmed to be dead or alive does lead some credence to the theory that she might be 'Shaggy' or 'Mosa' that is talking to Loki in the present day.

We then have a bit more of the narrator telling us how Loki keeps trying to leave Elbaph, how he keeps trying to go with Rocks (which is the short flashback we saw before), and how he notes that Elbaph hates him anyway so it really shouldn't be a problem. 

And the final leg of the chapter takes place in Hachinosu, Pirate Island. And we follow a hooded figure with X-es for eyes, who's looking for Rocks. Some random pirates do a great job at setting the tone of a hive of scum and villainy, and they pick a fight with the hooded guy... who takes off his hood and grabs the instigator by the face. This is the last of the we've-got-a-name-but-not-a-face legendary Rocks Pirates, and this is "Silver Axe" Kyo the Wicked. Kyo is here to apparently look for his rival Shiki (gold and silver, get it?).  

But before Kyo could do anything, the giant boulder explodes, and two giant holes are drilled into it,  giving Hachinosu its distinctive pirate skull appearance. Rocks is giving a whole speech, saying that he's got a plan, a dastardly master plan. He needs two specific Devil Fruits, and one of them is a fruit in Elbaph that will only show its power if Harald eats it. 

We then get to see more members of the Rocks Pirates that we knew were part of the crew, but we didn't see last chapter. Captain John is there, a young Big Mom/Charlotte Linlin is there, a young Kaido is there... even Streussen is there! (We also get the name for the random catfish fishman we saw in the background, Barbell). 

John talks about how they need the Galleila giants. Linlin notes that her information network (which is a bit of a bit about Big Mom's empire that isn't as prominent as I thought it should be) hasn't been able to find the frozen giants, while Streusen, Whitebeard and Barbell have a very interesting discussion about how they're dead and there's maybe 'no way to bring the dead back'. Hmm, interesting that this is the part of the conversation they're sticking to. 

Kaido then talks about just using strength to make everyone obey, including Harald... but Rocks actually gets pissed and beats up Kaido, because Harald is Rocks's buddy and he won't hear that kind of bullshit about subjugating Harald. Interesting! Shiki and John then talk a bit about how their group is bound to implode sooner or later from infighting, and do know that they did, so it's nice to see a bit more of that. 

But then we get a badass shot of the assembled Rocks Pirates, and it's epic. We've got Big Mom, Kaido, Whitebeard, Captain John, Gansui, Streusen, Barbell, Don Marlon, Whitebeard, Shiki, Wang Zhi and Stussy. A powerhouse of a team, and it's not even everyone just yet since Gloriosa, Silver Axe and Gill Bastar have yet to join. And it really is epic, considering how a lot of these are characters we've only known about from reputation. But Rocks gives this huge speech about how they're going to grab the Day of Destiny, and how they're going to "take you to the world's summit!"

Honestly, I am very happy to stay here for a while with the Rocks Pirates. Again, I tend to temper my expectations about characters being built up without having done anything, but I think the fact that this is a nice flashback for a lot of prominent characters' pasts... I'm really enjoying the ride. 

Random Notes

• No cover story, but we get a colour spread of Luffy running around with most of the Straw Hats as tiny versions of themselves, while giant versions of Sanji, Zoro, Nami, and the Roger Pirates power trio are in the background. Okay. 
  
• I really love how all the boxes note that these are the 'future' King of Pirates, 'future' Hero of the Marines, 'future' Silver Axe, et cetera. Showing that these legends are still in their younger years. 
• Tritoma was previously only mentioned in SBS sections, and was identified as the queen between Gloriosa, Shakky and Boa; and apparently the queen that died from love sickness. 
• Let's not really get into the logistics of how apparently the Mail Coo is organized so well that apparently they are able to deliver so many letters to the roaming Kuja Pirate ship. 
• Roger's attack, Ara Mitama, is the name of a kind of an angry spirit in Shintoism. I know this from Persona 5; and the Shin Megami Tensei games features the Mitamas as essentially faces on mitama jewels, making it even more hilarious to me!
• Getting a brief cameo is a little girl called Mato, talking to Ida. Mato is the current bartender of Ida's tavern! 
• Apparently the giant rocky skull-mountain on Hachinosu was originally a fish-shaped boulder! With Rocks blowing out the eyeholes, it now looks like a skull with a bandana.
• People have pointed out that Kyo does look a bit like Zephyr, the other Oda-drawn movie character. I absolutely would not mind a single bit if Oda incorporates all of his movie characters into these flashbacks! Zephyr being an undercover Marine would be neat (and maybe his disappointment with the Marines took place in the past in this continuity?), Douglas Bullet could be incorporated very easily as a background character in Roger's crew... which just leaves Gild Tesoro and Uta as a bit harder to do, but I like this.