One Piece Chapter 955-957 Review: All of the Hype

One Piece, Chapter 955: Enma; Episode 956: Big News; Episode 957: Ultimate

(I'll maaaaybe do My Hero Academia early next week. No promises -- my laptop ate the long draft I made talking about the end of the Villain Alliance arc and I'm honestly too tired to rewrite it)

Well, shit, I chose a pretty bad chapter to leave off on, huh? I last left off on 954, and 955 is the end of the second act of Wano. And honestly? 955 was a pretty great chapter, although there definitely is a vibe of things being pretty rushed. I have a feeling that Oda is trying to get to a set point in the story by the time we reach chapter 1000, and god knows what that's going to be. In quick succession, we get the revelation that Hiyori/Komurasaki is alive to the rest of the Wano rebel squad, and a quick introduction of the sacred swords of Wano, Ame-no-Habakiri and Enma, and the fact that Zoro's essentially replacing Shushui with Enma. 

This is something that honestly didn't quite held too much fanfare for me, because I've always felt that while Zoro getting new blades tended to be a momentous event, he doesn't... really do much with it? Even Shusui being a 'problem child' really didn't matter at all until the whole misunderstanding with the citizens of Wano. But this time around, apparently Enma is a blade with an interesting power, being powerful enough to slice through cliffs with a glancing blow (and it wounded Kaidou before!) and forcing Zoro's arm to release armament haki. Basically, anyone too weak will be killed by this property of Enma, and that... that's far, far more interesting than just so-and-so-the-legendary-blade. 

Then we get a bit of recap from Straw Hats and samurai alike, counting the approximate amount of people that will be present for the final showdown, more recruiting. We then have the badass scene of the Wano-kuni samurai and ninja with straw hats on their heads walking through the jungle, while O-toko and the Minks pay respects to the fallen Yasuie and Pedro, which is neat. And as everyone prepares to fight, we get a brief scene of Orochi being told by someone about the change in plans, and how he's going to set up a trap to completely catch the rebellion of guards.

And with that... Wano Act 2 is over! It's... it's pretty dang inconsistent, if we're being honest. A lot of the weaker parts of it has to do with Big Mom and how her amnesia was handled, as well as juggling the spotlights on some of the new Wano characters, not all of whom ended up working out, and some feeling way-too-convenient. Ultimately it's still pretty fun to read through despite its flaws, though, and while I don't think it's as well-done as the first act of Wano, I do feel like it's some pretty mighty set-up for the third act, where presumably we'll have the huge raid and how it ends up panning out.

There is, of course, question of who the traitor is, with a lot of the current speculation leaning more towards Carrot or Shinobu, but... I dunno. I honestly see kind of holes in the description of many of the differing theories. I do agree that Law being the traitor or Komurasaki accidentally or naively leaking things isn't likely, but... eh. I haven't really cared all that much about the identity of the traitor, honestly, although it is fun to read and see everyone speculating about some really crazy theories out there.

But like what happened when act 1 ended, we jump straight into the rest of the world... and not to look down at the Wano characters, I am way, way more hyped about the rest of the world, y'know? And I'm not sure why. Maybe it's just attachment because I'm far more familiar with these other characters as opposed to the relatively more crowded and cluttered Wano cast (which I'm sure by the point we react Act 3 or 4, I'll be more attached to), but it's just so much neater to see the broader politics of the One Piece world, y'know? 

956 starts off with Garp escorting Shirahoshi and Neptune back to the Fishman kingdom, completely breaking expectations that something's going to happen with the fishmen in the Reverie. Or, well, I guess Mjosgard's intervention ended up being what it took? Garp talks shit about how the kings of the world tend to be too selfish and petty to actually resolve anything in the Reverie (which isn't too far off from real life, if we're being honest) but then hints at some huge event happening. And at this point, the huge question that hangs over our heads is just what went on in the Reverie? What happened to Sabo and the Revolutionaries, to Alabasta's delegates, to Imu and the Gorosei, to Kuma, Mjosgard, or Bonnie?

The next major scene is Big News Morgans, who talks about how there was a death, and he's going to have a massive news headline on both sides of his newspaper, and the obituary/assassination is going to be something that's going to cause everyone to freak out. The rest of chapter 956 seems to imply that the obituary is Sabo's, but that's both too obvious and too much of a silly thing to off-screen. I do absolutely love the subsequent scene of a Cipher Pol agent trying to murder Morgans when he refuses to change the news, and Morgans just beats the shit out of the Cipher Pol dude with his Big Bird hands. Don't fuck with the bird! 

Whatever the news was, it shook the world. We get to see various people reacting, particularly in regards to Sabo, and most interestingly are the Revolutionary Army members like Ivankov, Dragon and Koala, who are unaware of what transpired in Mary Geoise. Blackbeard is also shown to be making a move. But then just as it seems that Sabo's death and/or capture is the big news that shakes the world, the subsequent scenes quickly contextualize something else -- that the Shichibukai system is being abolished. 

And most importantly? Koby and X-Drake are actually part of a special secret force among the marines called "Sword", and that X-Drake has been a deep-cover agent all along. And while everyone's busy trying to deal with the Shichibukai abolition and whatever happened in the Reverie, X-Drake ends up shaking up the marines even more with the revelation that Big Mom and Kaidou, of course, have entered into an alliance. 

The final scenes of 956 is the Marines heading off to assault the Shichibukai. Poor Buggy's in absolute panic, but is putting up a brave front as the Marines close around his island, and, of course, he's planning to bail. Edward Weevil (who I genuinely forgot about) is mostly confused, but happy to fight, while Dracule Mihawk and Boa Hancock, both members of the Shichibukai that we, the readers, like, basically deliver badass boasts about how it's not a smart move to pick a fight with them. 

Chapter 957, meanwhile, is the big lore dump! It's very Marine-centric, too, with Fujitora and Akainu discussing a new force called the SSG, while Fujitora is all "yeah, it's good that the Warlords are abolished", but he ends up being shocked when Akainu informs him that this power balance shift happened at the worst possible time, because of the Big Mom/Kaidou alliance. The rest of the chapter mostly takes place in a marine briefing by Sengoku and Brannew towards a group of Marine commanders, and we finally get some information about the legendary Rocks Pirates.  

We learn that the Rocks Pirates used to have Whitebeard, Big Mom and Kaidou among its ranks, and they joined together for some unspecified reason. Sengoku noted that all the memebrs of Rocks hated each other, and they were eventually brought down by the unlikely alliance of Garp and Gold Roger, and this was the huge, huge thing that ended up earning Garp the title 'hero of the marines' and essentially allowed him to remain a member of the marines despite his utterly flippant attitude at the Celestial Dragons, and why he continued to be a Vice Admiral. Whatever the case, the actions of the Rocks Pirates are covered up by the World Government so much that only the oldest and most senior of the Marines are even aware of their existence, and apparently the island where this incident happened, God Valley, was 'wiped out from the world'. Whether literally or figuratively, we're not sure. 

Also, in addition to the descriptions of Garp fighting the Rocks Pirates, we get a brief glimpse of Rocks D. Xebec, and hoo boy, there's a whole ton of theories that spring up from this one appearance, and, most importantly, how he relates to Blackbeard. 

But, of course, for a vast majority of the fandom, the big part of this chapter is the bounties revealed for all the big names of the world, which... which is something that I genuinely don't really care about, because at some point bounties end up being pretty meaningless since they're all invariably "really fuckin' huge". I guess this is just to sort of establish just the sheer amount of bounties that a Yonkou has? A lot of the fandom really get super-hyped about this segment of the chapter, and I understand that -- while I don't share it, I do understand the hype that comes with the revelatoin of these long-awaited bounties. Blackbeard's got a 2,247,600 bounty; Shanks has got 4,048,900; Big Mom's got 4,388,000; Kaidou's got 4,611,100; Whitebeard's got 5,046,000; and Gold Roger's got 5,564,800. 

It's a lot of huge numbers, but I think the big takeaway, plot-wise, is the fact that Big Mom and Kaidou combined ended up exceeding the previous record bounty, Gold Roger. Sengoku and Akainu then basically discuss about leaving Wano alone since they simply don't have the resources to divert there... then Sengoku drops the bombshell that a pirate from Wano was favoured by Whitebeard, Roger and Shanks... which was Kozuki Oden. Honestly, between the fact that he was the only man to have ever scarred Kaidou with Enma, and this little tidbit that he's a former crew member on both Whitebeard and Roger's ships, Oden might actually end up being tied to all of these events happening in the world, which is pretty damn interesting. 

Overall, a pretty world-shaking series of chapters! I'm not sure how long this interlude's going to last and when we'll return to Wano, but I do hope we leave off this interlude with a fair bit more information about what's going on in other parts of the world. 

Random Notes:

• The cover story has Capone and Chiffon ending up on Thriller Bark and meeting some of Lola's old friends. It's neat. 
• Sanji and Zoro are... extremely civil, huh? They had a brief conversation in 955, and it's not too different from their usual antics. Makes me wonder if the whole "Zoro threatens to leave the crew in Zou" bit is ever going to come up, since he's already spoken to both Luffy and Sanji throughout the course of this arc. 
• Ame no Habakiri is based on the blade of the Shinto god Susano'o, which he used to slay Orochi. Enma, meanwhile, is the god/king of the underworld. 
• Tengu dude tells Zoro about how he might be able to cause Enma to attain the level of a 'black blade', so I guess there's some interesting property about haki and these super-awesome high grade blades we will know eventually in the future? 
• Koby is going off to capture Boa Hancock. I'm not sure if we're actually ever going to see this fight, but while his past couple of appearances have been really been hyping him up, I'm not sure if he's going to stand a chance against Boa. 
• Among the named members of the Rocks Pirates are Shiki (another neat nod to, so far, the only canonical movie villain), Captain John (yay!) and two that we haven't seen yet: Silver Axe and O-Choku. Whether any of these corresponds to characters like Shakky or Bakkin (who we're pretty much 99% sure were also part of Rocks) we're not sure yet. 
• A lot of people are apparently bemoaning how out-of-character it is for Whitebeard to be part of Rocks, but I dunno, Whitebeard's a cool old guy, but he's ultimately still a pirate, and I don't think it's too out there for him to do some morally questionable things in his youth -- particularly if it opposed the Celestial Dragons. Plus, after all, the crew members of Rocks are noted to be very tenuously allied with each other and we don't quite fully know just what the reason was that did so. 
• More random things I didn't get to cover in the main body of the review:
• Franky's building even more ships than what's required, which hints that maybe even more people are going to come into play. The Grand Fleet, perhaps? 
• Zoro and Momonosuke discuss 'Sunacchi' for a single panel. A lot of people picked up on context clues that Zoro's home village of Shimotsuki Village shares its name with the Shimotsuki family of Wano, so, yeah, we might have Zoro's origin story at some point in the future.
• Morgans has a flying portable news base, and that's awesome.
• Wapol gets a brief mention, calling in to inform Morgans about yet another Big News.
• Sabo's asshole brother gets a cameo, as do Doflamingo in Impel Down. Most importantly, perhaps are Makino and Dadan's bandit tribe that raised Sabo, with the latter two really trying to hammer home that something bad's happened to Sabo.
• Fujitora is wrapped up in bandages and his crew is doing battle with something, so, uh.. what happened in that Reverie?
• Perhaps a sign to not take the bounties super-duper seriously is the fact that most of them are apparently given out as puns, thanks to the multiple ways that Japanese numbers could be read.