One Piece, Chapter 934: Hyougoro, the Flower
[insert rant about how amnesia is a stupid plot device]
Anyway, I'm in too much of a good mood about this chapter to let the silly Big Mom amnesia plot bother me. The first scene is pretty interesting as we see the Big Mom crew talk about Big Mom's disappearance. The Vivre card tells them that Big Mom is at least still alive, and I do like the brief argument between Perospero and Oven about who should be crowned leader if Big Mom should die -- Perospero nominates himself because he's the oldest, but Oven notes that it should be Katakuri based on merits.
Meanwhile, we get to briefly see the tengu dude again as he screams at O-Tama for working together with Chopper and Big Mom. Big Mom, complete with a new hairdo, is just hanging out with Chopper, Momonosuke, Tama and Kiku as they go off to Udon and she's... she's all nice and happy, hungry glances at Chopper notwithstanding. Chopper lampshades that Big Mom's talking hat (how does Chopper know, though?) hasn't said a word at all, which is a neat little nod to a question that I had in the previous chapter.
We also get the first real map of Wano-kuni, which is nice! It helps to put things in perspective, and it also limits the story from randomly introducing new locales every chapter, which is something I found tiresome in the early parts of Wano (and honestly, all throughout Whole Cake Island as well).
The most interesting bit in this scene, though, is Momonosuke training in his sword-fighting, and one of his battlecries is "Snatch". Apparently, Momonosuke learned it from Zoro, a yell that outsiders do while practicing swordplay as a way to strengthen one's heart, but everyone -- even the goddamn giant crocodile they're riding on -- glares at Momonosuke when he yells that. Kiku warns Momonosuke that it's not something that Momonosuke should say, as it means something rather... rude in the old Kuri dialect. It's definitely kind of interesting, because this leads to Zoro's backstory of all things, since he apparently knows old Kuri language or something. I could go on and on about theories on Zoro's backstory, but honestly, at this point the "Zoro might have ties to Wano" actually seems to be something taht the story might legitimately lead towards.
Team Robin (Robin, Brook, Nami, Shinobu, Kanjurou) have regrouped at a random well in a cemetery after the chaos they caused, and I absolutely love the scene where Robin laments that all she managed to do is... a long, long list of great information she managed to figure out. Oh, Robin, you hyper-competent woman, never change. Interestingly, Kanjurou brings up another name, that the most famous yakuza was some dude called "Hyougoro the Flower", which ends up tying in into the next scene in the prison.
Also, Brook has apparently also been doing something off-screen, which is hunting for poneglyphs. Brook notes that because he entered the locked room in his ghost form (that's honestly something Brook really needs to use more) he could find a poneglyph in the basement with weird wooden human figurines -- something that Shinobu recognizes as Kokeshi dolls. They basically surmise that Kaidou's road poneglyph is in Onigashima.
We get a brief recap of the local uproar when we cut away to Team Law (Law, Sanji, Usopp and Franky) and it's... it's basically just a brief recap of them reading the local news, and Sanji bemoaning Komurasaki's death and really, really wanting to go do the public bath, something that the ladies in Team Robin has also wanted to do. We also learn from the news that, off-screen, Kid has apparently broken out of prison. Lots of things are happening off-screen, huh? I don't really mind, honestly. I also like how Law and Usopp lampshades how Kid and Hawkins seem to have different standings despite supposedly being in the same alliance.
Meanwhile, in the prisoner mine, Luffy is interrogated by one of the wardens, the Alpaca-Man, who keeps spitting on Luffy's face. Alpacas are funny, and I approve of using one as one of the SMILE users. Luffy claims that he knows nothing. Meanwhile, another pair of wardens, an elephant and some dude with multiple legs (scorpion? He does have a stinger-hair thing) is beating up on poor Grandpa Hyou, correctly assuming that he's technically cheating the system because he's getting the food coupons from Luffy. Hyou refuses to rat Luffy out, and he continues to stuff the dango into his mouth because he refuses to let a single one of it go to waste out of respect to his benefactor.
We then get the revelation that Grandpa Hyou is actually Hyougoro the Flower, and that he's all about that chivalry. A fun little revelation... is Hyougoro one of the Ten Scabbards or whatever? It's honestly kind of interesting. And everyone out there seems to be speculating that Komurasaki is an aged-up Princess Hiyori, but considering how this chapter brings up a connection between Hyougoro and Kyoshiro, maybe Komurasaki is saving up money to free his father Hyougoro from prison? Or maybe I've just had Order on the Stick on my mind. I dunno. Whatever the case, Luffy attacks the wardens, just at around the same time that one of Kaidou's top dogs, Queen, shows up.
Definitely an interesting chapter, and honestly, my interest in the Wano-kuni arc has been on a huge peak over the past couple of chapters. I've been pretty vocal at my apathy for Wano's earlier chapters, but it's at this point that I genuinely believe that Wano is starting to actually live up to its hype.
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