One Piece, Chapter 935: Queen
An... interesting chapter? It's mostly set-up, honestly. I do enjoy the random SMILE users like Solitaire, Daifugo and Old Maid that we're introduced to here, even if none of them genuinely feels like that huge of a threat to any of the important characters. They are neat for world-building, if anything else, and introducing them now sort of sets up actual characters to be taken down later, I guess? Solitaire is a bizarre design, though -- despite being a monkey fruit user, she has six arms, which is pretty bizarre. Old Maid's just utterly weird-looking, and I'm definitely a fan of Daifugo even if he gets introduced just as he's taken out. I suppose this is to establish just how powerful Luffy has became even while seastone-cuffed? Luffy did mention that he wants to train his body so that he can be more powerful when the cuffs come off, so maybe this will lead to some sort of a power-up? Either way, I do with that going forwards, we get less fodder like Daifugo, and get to fights that actually matter.
We also get Raizou stealing the keys to the Seastone cuffs happening in this chapter, only for him to arrive in a position where he's unable to hand Luffy the keys. We get some talk about how the punishment awaiting Luffy right now is death, just as Luffy gets taken down by the elephant fruit user Old Maid, the warden of the place.
And then... we get Queen. He's not an okama like everyone else had suspected him to be, but he's just... he's just a fat man who really likes to dance with random minions shouting "FUNK!" in the background. Oh, and he really, really likes Komurasaki. We do get a pretty funny scene where Queen has this elaborate sit-down moment, asking Old Maid to rank the problems, and he gets these WHAAAAAT face as Old Maid calmly lists the fact that Kid has escaped, someone stole the key, and Luffy is trying to escape right now.
We cut away to other things, but Luffy ends up being subdued off-screen while Raizou watches from the shadows. Queen basically demands that Luffy submit and join their crew, and mocks Hyogoro while doing so. Hyogoro asks for Luffy to be spared, and Queen notes that he's "come up with an exciting idea", while Raizou meets that mysterious fish-bone dude that is imprisoned there, who Raizou recognizes as Kawamatsu, one of the Scabbards or whatever. It's... it's neat, I guess. Queen's funny, and the reveal of Kawamatsu is handled kinda well, but I honestly do feel that this arc's just been dropping a whole lot of characters left and right, and there will always be chapters like this where it's just mainly just introductions and set-up, and therefore nowhere as interesting.
And we get some additional scenes in the middle, with Law, Usopp and Franky (not Sanji, though, who's MIA) arriving in Ebisu Town and meeting laughing guy dude that Zoro befriended. We learn that apparently Zoro's chasing someone who stole his sword, which... it's bizarre, honestly, that Zoro's apparently doing things in the background while he's already been pretty much out of the spotlight for much of this arc. I guess this could set up the Witching Hour Boy, which is the other thief character that's quasi-relevant in this arc? Eh.
The other scene is Nami, Robin and Shinobu in the bath house, delivering your obligatory anime bath house fanservice scene. In addition to the fanservice and stuff, as well as the bizarre octopus massage (insert your own tired "I've seen enough hentai" joke here), this scene is basically Shinobu telling Robin and Nami about the importance of Boss Hyogoro of the Flower, who is such a charismatic leader that apparently his presence will cause all the samurai to join their cause. Of course, Luffy's already befriended said plot device character! Shinobu notes that Hyogoro had refused to bow under Orochi and was executed, so it's interesting how he ended up at that prison instead. We also learn a bit about Shinobu, who once served alongside Fukurokuju of the Oniwabanshu, but refused to serve Orochi with him. Neat.
Shinobu also notes that they'll only be able to gather 500 people instead of 5000... and I'm curious if we're going by the route of Hygoro gathering a whole ton of other samurai when he breaks out alongside Luffy, or if we'll just have the Straw Hat Grand Fleet make up the numbers. Overall, though, it's mostly setup, so I really don't have a whole ton to say here.
We also get Raizou stealing the keys to the Seastone cuffs happening in this chapter, only for him to arrive in a position where he's unable to hand Luffy the keys. We get some talk about how the punishment awaiting Luffy right now is death, just as Luffy gets taken down by the elephant fruit user Old Maid, the warden of the place.
And then... we get Queen. He's not an okama like everyone else had suspected him to be, but he's just... he's just a fat man who really likes to dance with random minions shouting "FUNK!" in the background. Oh, and he really, really likes Komurasaki. We do get a pretty funny scene where Queen has this elaborate sit-down moment, asking Old Maid to rank the problems, and he gets these WHAAAAAT face as Old Maid calmly lists the fact that Kid has escaped, someone stole the key, and Luffy is trying to escape right now.
We cut away to other things, but Luffy ends up being subdued off-screen while Raizou watches from the shadows. Queen basically demands that Luffy submit and join their crew, and mocks Hyogoro while doing so. Hyogoro asks for Luffy to be spared, and Queen notes that he's "come up with an exciting idea", while Raizou meets that mysterious fish-bone dude that is imprisoned there, who Raizou recognizes as Kawamatsu, one of the Scabbards or whatever. It's... it's neat, I guess. Queen's funny, and the reveal of Kawamatsu is handled kinda well, but I honestly do feel that this arc's just been dropping a whole lot of characters left and right, and there will always be chapters like this where it's just mainly just introductions and set-up, and therefore nowhere as interesting.
And we get some additional scenes in the middle, with Law, Usopp and Franky (not Sanji, though, who's MIA) arriving in Ebisu Town and meeting laughing guy dude that Zoro befriended. We learn that apparently Zoro's chasing someone who stole his sword, which... it's bizarre, honestly, that Zoro's apparently doing things in the background while he's already been pretty much out of the spotlight for much of this arc. I guess this could set up the Witching Hour Boy, which is the other thief character that's quasi-relevant in this arc? Eh.
The other scene is Nami, Robin and Shinobu in the bath house, delivering your obligatory anime bath house fanservice scene. In addition to the fanservice and stuff, as well as the bizarre octopus massage (insert your own tired "I've seen enough hentai" joke here), this scene is basically Shinobu telling Robin and Nami about the importance of Boss Hyogoro of the Flower, who is such a charismatic leader that apparently his presence will cause all the samurai to join their cause. Of course, Luffy's already befriended said plot device character! Shinobu notes that Hyogoro had refused to bow under Orochi and was executed, so it's interesting how he ended up at that prison instead. We also learn a bit about Shinobu, who once served alongside Fukurokuju of the Oniwabanshu, but refused to serve Orochi with him. Neat.
Shinobu also notes that they'll only be able to gather 500 people instead of 5000... and I'm curious if we're going by the route of Hygoro gathering a whole ton of other samurai when he breaks out alongside Luffy, or if we'll just have the Straw Hat Grand Fleet make up the numbers. Overall, though, it's mostly setup, so I really don't have a whole ton to say here.
It took you mentioning it for me to realize Solitaire is a pun on Spider-monkey.
ReplyDeleteBut spider monkeys don't actually have eight legs, right? It could very well be the reason of her multiple arms, though, since One Piece is no stranger to using puns to inform character designs... although I'm not 100% sure if spider-monkeys are also called that in Japanese.
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