One Piece, Chapters 1181-1185
So due to my quasi-hiatus, I haven't had the time to really do the typical in-depth discussions I usually do for One Piece. But I am still keeping up to date, and I'll just do a rapid-fire discussion about the past couple of months of chapters. I know I'm missing a couple of the newest ones! Such is the case when you make some notes for a discussion while the chapters are being released, and whatnot.
That'll be similar to how I handle the Bleach TYBW season as it comes out, by the way. Very excited about it, but due to real-life stuff I really am unable to do the reviews to the depth, detail and speed that I used to do. Anyway...
Chapter 1181: God and Devil
That's not to say this isn't entertaining, as Loki is really angry at Imu having the gall to act all inconvenienced at Harald's death when Harald's son and kingdom are the ones that actually suffered the most. We then have some clashes of big, over-the-top anime powers. Not a lot of them are explained; Loki has some lightning hammer attacks and does a dragon breath explosion attack at one point. Imu has some more black flames that he can mould and shapeshift. He summons a blade called Nemesis at one point. It's cool, it's neat, and just like the Rocks/Garp/Roger fight, it's nice to see a One Piece fight breathe and take the time to show off new powers.
Imu gives a nice Final Fantasy villain motivation rant, too, about the 'trinity of evil', which is neat. It doesn't really tell me anything new about him. He's anti-freedom and all about subjugation and domination. He freaks out about Joy Boy every now and then. But I can appreciate a villain speech as he's beating up the heroes. The title is 'god, devil, what's the difference', which is a bit of a background theme in One Piece.
Not much to really discuss here and I thought I'd be happy if the bulk of the chapters of the hiatus were action scenes and I can take it easy... but it's not all just punchy punch!
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Chapter 1182: Zaza
And then we get a couple of scene-seetting scenes. We get a scene of Sanji heading off to hunt down Killingham after a bit of a flashback to establish Killingham taunting him. A bit shorter, but Zoro is also heading down to go God Knight hunting. Robin and Saul find out that the enigmatic Biblo the owl have moved the books of Ohara into a secret underground chamber. Chopper has stitched Gerd's fingers back. There's a comedy moment with Road and Gerd. Summers (or SUPER Summers) have gotten a boat to kidnap the kids...
And the final part of this chapter is an odd one, where it's the titular 'Zaza'. SUPER Summers berates Killingham for accidentally summoning the thing that he fears most... and after a buildup, we learn that this is... the Rain God Zaza. the Rain God Zaza is a four-armed woman with a kasa hat, a covered mouth, and utterly titanic as it moves around like a water elemental kaiju to grab the children. Zaza honestly did really just come out of nowhere and I kind of wished that there was a bit more of a buildup.
Or, well, buildup within the arc, in any case, since the idea of a "Rain God" has been around since Skypiea, which also mentioned the "Sun God" which would become super relevant. That leaves Earth and Forest as the two missing ones from the Skypiea pantheon. I like the idea of Killingham summoning another threat for our heroes to fight, and I like the concept of tying it into showing off the mythology of the gods that Oda is building up to... but not necessarily how abrupt it is done.
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One Piece, Chapter 1183: Good Mor-Maid
We get more shots of Zaza kidnapping the kids and Ripley giving a badass motherly rallying cry... but then we cut to Brook talking with the rest of the Straw Hats there, who ask Brook what his connection to Gunko is. Finally it is being addressed! With how abrupt the Brook-vs-Gunko-Imu was handled, I was very very pleaased to see it actually be handled. In the previous chapters, that Brook/Gunko flashback the tension and mystery and confrontation rose up, it was so compelling, and even Usopp joins in... and the two are defeated offscreen. And that was a bit bad.
But now?
Now, we don't just get Brook sitting down (or lying down) and explaining the context about Gunko (or Shuri)... but Brook also points out that three are three personalities in her -- which we know as the original kind Shuri, the evil twisted Domi Reversi'd Gunko, and Imu possessing Gunko. Jinbe asks Brook to make the decision on whether Gunko lives or dies...
AND WE GET A BROOK FLASHBACK.
I am sorry, what?
That was so unexpected, but so welcome. Brook is in the running to be my favourite Straw Hat with really the only serious contender being Robin, but I've honestly fallen into accepting that Brook is in the secondary tier of the crew and I wasn't expecting a full flashback to flesh out the story before he joined the Rumbar Pirates. I was already over the moon that we're getting something with the Gunko connection.
But Brook is revealed to have hailed from Esperia, a country that makes musical instruments. He's singing (which gives us the painful 'good mor-maid' title) in the city early in the morning, and Leader of the Raider Squad Brook is like the superstar of the kingdom. The knights idolize him, little tiny princess Shuri really looks up to him, and we're also introduced to the king and queen of the kingdom. The seemingly slovenly King Reuven initially looks like a typical evil king a la Wapol, but the comedy between them is basically just two brothers having a comedy routine. Brook also has an unashamed crush for the queen Candelle, even openly saying it in front of Reuven and Shuri... again, it's all a nice establishing of their wacky little family dynamic. The chapter ends with Brook doing a very long distance Arrow-Notch Slash to cut a bunch of mafia trying to kidnap Queen Candelle, which is hilariously and insanely over-the-top with how delayed it was. Man, present-day Brook need to be in more fights!
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One Piece, Chapter 1184: We're All Bones When We Die
We then get a flashback-in-a-flashback, which is... it's a very touching story, even if it's simple. 11-year-old Brook is a ratty little beggar who peeks into the nobles playing music, while he lives in a garbage dump and plays music with a "violin" made up of random bottles and wires. He sings songs to mock the king while singing about his dead family that starved to death. This is when he met the then-Prince Reuven, who is doing a "royal pretends to be a common folk" deal, and the two become fast friends. Brook calls Reuven 'big bro' (aniki), and gives his precious food -- random frogs and grasshoppers, but it's a cuisine because Brook found some curry powder and cooked it. Reuven is utterly appalled at the contrast between his own royal life.
A couple of years later, Brook gets captured by some corrupt navy who thinks he's a drug runner (it's actually the Moron mafia family from the previous chapter). But then heedless of the potential implications of fighting the Marines, Prince Reuven charges in to rescue Brook... and Candelle, who is his royal bodyguard, shows up with him. This is when Brook essentially gets adopted into the castle as Reuven's charge, and this begins Brook's crush on the future queen Candelle.
It's a very wholesome chapter, but we also know what happened to Brook and some tragedy's going to happen. This is a One Piece flashback, after all.
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One Piece, Chapter 1185: Mindja Own Beeswax
We get more wholesome scenes of Brook bonding with Candelle, who trains Brook as her squire. There are some nice comedic moments that show Brook's a gigantic goober even as a child, and we see the genesis of his panties gag -- Candelle insists that Brook needs etiquette and has to speak politely, which is the origin of the 'would you mind doing me the favour of showing me your panties please' formal gag.
We cut to the teenage Shuri, and in a very blink-and-miss detail, as Brook handwaves the time when they grew up and Shuri was born, Brook notes a moment when a World Government ship landed on Esperia, where Candelle was 'stressed and bedridden for months', and shortly afterwards was the time of Reuven's coronation, marriage and Shuri's birth. I actually didn't realize the implications that was being told here until the next couple of chapters... which is surprisingly well-hidden by Oda and honestly one of the better ways to utilize the rape/sexual assault trope in a narrative and making it horrifying without being graphic.
The fact that it was hidden in-between Brook's stories as he explains his benefactors to Shuri, and there's also a cute moment where Shuri pouts that she also wants Brook to treat her as someone that he would 'sacrifice his life for', is cute. There's a great montage of Brook and Shuri as they grow up, set to the tone of 'Mind Your Own Beeswax', a little teenage-rebellion song that Brook teaches Shuri. Lots of cute moments here, the highlight being Shuri scaring the shit out of Brook with a halloween sheet skeleton.
Of course, it's a One Piece flashback, so bad things happen. A couple of years later, Esperia is beset by a fog that conveniently destroys the musical instruments that Esperia's economy depends on. Everyone tries to keep their spirits up, but Queen Candelle ends up succumbing and dying to the disease. This was done quite quickly, there's a lot of great panels of the mourning Brook, Shuri and Reuven... and shortly afterwards, the country is beset by another problem -- they can't pay the Heavenly Tribute.
Reuven declares that there's going to be a war against the World Government, and we get a cool scene where Brook just immediately nods and accepts it with no question. Reuven did explain what's going on to the rest of his soldiers, noting that the World Government demanded 1000 slaves. We get then another montage of Brook singing the 'Mind Your Own Beeswax' song. He says this to raise the morale of the citizens, and then as he leads the army to fight the Marines that come. It's such a valiant fight, but while Brook himself is badass the artwork shows just how outnumbered the Esperian forces are.
We get Brook running through every setting that has been shown in this flashback. The castle, the garden, even the dump are on fire. And as he rushes back into the castle, he sees... a demonized Shuri licking blood off her face over the dead body of a similarly demonized King Reuven. A giant demon bird (St. Marcus Mars's Itsumade form, but shadowed) looms over it, and a God's Knight is in the background. Brook's shocked face is... appropriate.
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One Piece, Chapter 1186: One More Time
But that confrontation was also horrifying. Faced with the death of his 'big bro' and benefactor. And while Brook initially thinks that Shuri is some kind of impostor, then Shuri starts talking horrible things about how she is a Celestial Dragon, how Reuven isn't her real father, and how Reuven hid the true reason of the start of the war -- the Celestial Dragons demanded her, and Reuven plunged the nation into devastation over nothing.
St. Manmeyer Gurou also speaks up, noting that he remembers Brook as Candelle's squire -- he was the Celestial Dragon that showed up long ago, and Shuri's biological father. There's discussion about the heterochromatic eye, and how Gurou couldn't 'awaken it' and perhaps Shuri can do so instead. Brook doesn't care about any of this heavy lore drops, more horrified about the strange betrayal of Shuri. And as Brook mentally compares the younger Shuri to an angel, and the current Shuri to a devil, he can't even raise his sword to defend himself as Shuri stabs him through the skull (giving him his distinctive skull scar) with Brook's own Gavotte: Bond en Avant technique.
(Imu also shows up, rising out of Mars's shadow-bird form, and seemingly glorps out because he doesn't care about the drama, which I thought was weird but funny. He also shows up only to interrupt Gurou for talking too much.)
As Brook seemingly 'dies', we later see him wake up, miraculously surviving having the sword hit his brain stem, and after realizing what's going on (and telling the audience the caveats above of why Brook doesn't know the real context of what happened) Brook freaks out and breaks the fuck down.
End flashback.
That was... that was a really, really powerful flashback. I am very biased, because I love Brook. But seeing this right after the Harald one? I like the Harald flashback, but I feel like this short flashback was also really very powerful as well! This also gives me hope that some of the other characters (particularly Usopp, mostly Usopp, okay it's just Usopp) is going to get some attention from a character development perspective.
We cut to the present, with Brook telling this to his crewmates... and noting that if the 'demonic visages' are real memories, then Shuri could be a victim and not a traitor, and Brook asks and resolves to have faith in Princess Shuri once more. Cutting back a bit to the scenes about his cute argument with Shuri about 'why would you protect me', Brook resolves himself, bows his head to ask the help of his crewmates, before running towards where Shuri was frozen in ice.
We then cut back to the 'main' fight, and if we're being honest as much as there's the fun spectacle of Loki versus Imu, it feels almost disappointing to go back to that fight! Luffy is also here, finally having eaten his fill of food. Imu gives a rant about how he had defeated the giants 800 years ago with their children, and continues his ramble... until Luffy shows up and decks the shit out of Imu the way he did St. Charlos all the way back. Okay, that fight is happening, then... nice to see some progression there, but if we're being honest I'm not the most invested in Luffy at this point.
Random Notes:
- Yes, there's a lot of comparisons to One Piece: Red. I don't want to make this review any longer, but I'll recognize it.
- During the run of the chapters I remembered there being a lot of discussion about Queen Candelle actually being a God's Knight honey trap, trying to infiltrate a country or get some 'genes' like what Shamrock did with his own children's mother. Which I always thought was an insane leap even as the chapters were going on. But you should feel bad for thinking that Candele is evil!
- St. Manmeyer Gurou was also mistaken as Admiral Kong by many people, and I would like to say that I also number among this one.
- With this arc (or the previous one) introducing the idea of bounty inflation for Dorry and Brogy, Brook having a 'reinstated' bounty from the past actually means that whether it's because of his raw 'cut some mafia members an hour into the future' sword skills or because the World Government suspects that he knows about Esperia means that Brook's real bounty might be quite higher than what it was introduced as!
- Snuck in-between Brook training Shuri is Brook mentioning that Shuri seems like she could even see briefly into the future, with the wording clearly implying Future Sight. Brook doesn't seem to know what Haki is at the point in time (especially when he doesn't know what Devil Fruits are) so it might be Shuri awakening Future Sight Haki very early on because of her eyes.
- Brook's dream of piracy is actually noted by Shuri during one of their discussions, but Brook does the "I'll lay down my dream for another's" in deference to Reuven, because that's how much Brook respects him. Shuri also offhandedly makes a comment that she'll also be a pirate with Brook. Foreshadowing?
- By the way, a lot of the details in these flashbacks have been noted to be in Oda's mind since forever. Brook's favourite food being curry, Brook being stated to be the Straw Hat that wakes up the earliest, and the different artwork of Brook as a child has alternatively shown him as a beggar or in noble clothes, so it's most certainly something Oda has had in mind for this backstory!
- Knowing what we do later on about Shuri's parentage, it does add a huge layer of tragedy for poor Reuven as he keeps seeing Shuri get along better with Brook as a paternal figure. It's not even that Shuri and Reuven are estranged or fighting or anything, which honestly makes me feel even worse for poor Reuven. He really is quietly one of the best men in all of One Piece.
- The 'Mind Your Own Beeswax' stuff is the English localization team's attempt to localize the Japanese accent that Brook borrows the slang from. I think it's the same real-world Hiroshima dialect that Akainu speaks, which Brook notes in-universe comes from 'Kamigata'. I am more surprised to learn that 'Mind Your Own Beeswax' is a real phrase that's an old slang from 18th to 19th century!
- The Itsumade is a being associated with the spread of disease, so putting two and two together, Mars might be the exact person responsible for the plague on Esperia. I mean, the World Government is definitely responsible in some way or form, but maybe Mars specifically.
- Speaking of the Itsumade, I did a quick scan through the Egghead arc, but Brook was never in a position where he would come face-to-face with Mars's Itsumade form, and even then it's glorping in a shadowy form instead of manifesting as a full bird like in Egghead. Luffy really did eliminate Mars from the battlefield quite early!
- Can I just say how wholesome -- and sad -- the cover art for chapter 1186 is? Little Loki surrounded by his animal friends drawing Ida as 'Mommy' with crayons? How fucking cute that is?
- Jinbe of course is aligned with Brook the moment he hears the story, but I like how cold he was when Gunko was just a heartless enemy without the context, asking Brook basically for 'do we kill her or not'.
- Franky, as always, is the most emotional of the Straw Hats, full with tears as Brook finishes his story.
