One Piece, Chapter 932: The Shogun & The Courtesan
We don't get any follow up to that horrible amnesia cliffhanger from the previous episode, which is honestly fine by me. I'm still not sold that it's a good idea in any stretch. Still, that was the previous chapter, and this chapter, interestingly, focuses on my favourite scene from the previous one -- Robin's little infiltration! Nico Robin is an absolutely fascinating character with a great backstory and perhaps one of the few members of the Straw Hat crew that tends to be more serious than most... and has been utterly shafted ever since her focus arc all the way back in Water Seven/Enies Lobby has ended. Sure, she's got some minor fights in Dressrosa or whatever, but she's for the most part has been reduced to a support character, and I am so, so happy that one of the supposedly stronger members of the Straw Hats finally gets some chance to shine.
This episode focuses primarily on Komurasaki and Robin, and I do find it interesting that this chapter basically sort of hammers on the fact that Komurasaki is the masked instrument player that marks the changes of 'acts' in this arc. Meanwhile, Robin is confronted by the Oniwabanshu, who demands to know what Robin's agenda is, offering the classic villain choice of 'die quickly or be tortured'. Interestingly, Robin deadpans that she is the Witching Hour Boy, which the ninjas recognize as bullshit -- and they attack Robin with shurikens, kunais and even a rope around her neck.
And then Robin disappears into flower petals! That's... that's actually a far, far simpler usage of Robin's ability to escape than I thought it would be last week. While part of me is sad that we didn't get a proper battle between Robin and a squad of ninjas, it is definitely far more in character for a character like Nico Robin to be cautious enough to make use of her clone ability to sneak around, and then just dispel said clone. There is admittedly a bit of a stupid moment of Robin to actually use her real face and not use a mask or something, but I guess that's the limitations of her ability.
Robin quickly calls her allies -- Nami and Shinobu in the rafters; and Brook in the well -- and Robin basically confirms that there are at least 11 ninjas in the castle. It's nice that Robin isn't just going into the castle alone without any backup. The leader of the Oniwabanshu is apparently called Fukurokuju, who is the name of one of the Seven Lucky Gods in Japanese mythology.
Interestingly, Robin's attempt to 'escape' is just to walk and blend into the main party chamber, and basically use her charms to try and milk more information out of Orochi, and sorta-kinda competing with Komurasaki for the shogun's attention, so to speak. It is worth noting that while the art does give both Robin and Komurasaki distinctly different noses and hair ornaments, the constant close-ups to their faces really make the same-face-syndrome really cause me to reread some scenes over and over again. It's fun that Robin simply just pulls out a random mask to hide her face from one of the ninjas on the ceiling of the room... although it honestly begs to question why Robin doesn't just use the mask in the first place.
We get some extra additional dialogue surrounding Kyoshirou, the pompadour yakuza man, and it's... it's interesting how much extra screentime this man is getting. I do actually like the concept of him as one of Orochi's more powerful underlings from a more political standpoint -- he's a villain, but he also respects his prostitutes and his underlings, being pretty damn angry that his 'children' were beaten up by that soba owner.
This leads to Orochi's rant about how Oden's ghost, his possibly-still-alive son, Foxfire Kin'emon and the twentieth year of Oden's death, which... which, of course, as the reader, we all know is absolutely true. And Orochi's paranoia was all pretty much on the ball. But all of his retainers just dismisses this as the drunk ramblings of someone who's afraid of ghosts. It's actually an interesting twist on the archetype of an incompetent, bumbling villainous leader (like, oh, I dunno, Wapol or Spandam or someone) who tends to be portrayed as way too out-of-touch to realize the good guys' plans and relies on the other competent villain of the arc to keep his plan from falling apart. It's interesting while to everyone in the room Orochi just seems to be grasping at straws, all of his deductions are, in fact, right on the ball.
Of course, while the entire room is hiding their laughter from Orochi, O-Toko ends up laughing because, well, that's what she does. Laugh a lot. A lot of other people made this connection that O-Toko probably came from the laughing town that Zoro visited a while back. Orochi was fully willing to straight-up just murder O-Toko, but Komurasaki suddenly shows up and bitch-slaps Orochi in the face, which is admittedly pretty badass. Not a big fan of Komurasaki since she's kind of a bitch, but that was a pretty badass scene.
Komurasaki gives this whole speech about how she's the daughter of a samurai and will not live shamelessly like bowing down to someone she knows is in the wrong... but... but cheating people out of their livelihoods and driving them to despair is okay somehow? Not the biggest fan of Komurasaki still, but I am genuinely curious to see how the story is going to handle her character moving forwards. Is she a villain with a more noble streak? Or is she just a genuinely good person forced to do those despicable things for some reason?
Whatever the case, Orochi transforms into his full orochi beast form for the first time. Komurasaki faces off against Orochi, Robin saves O-Toko and breaks her cover and the ninja attack, while Kyoshiro draws his blade... and I'm not sure if I'm supposed to recognize that blade's hilt? Kyoshiro's probably one of the members of the Nine Scabbards or whatever the Nine Samurai are called, and, again, I'm pretty curious about everything that's going on here.
Overall, a pretty great chapter! I honestly like Wano-kuni a lot more when they don't just stop every now and then after brief glimpses of random towns and random new characters, and actually allow the world-building to continue. We'll see where this goes, and if Komurasaki and Kyoshiro will be more interesting than they initially seem.
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