One Piece 1059 Review: Escalation

One Piece, Chapter 1059: The Captain Koby Incident

Yeah, okay, after last chapter's bounty revelation, this one covers a bit more about the rest of the world. I don't know, I guess I just find these guys a bit more interesting than the Revolutionaries? Maybe if I actually care for more Revolutionary characters my opinion will change. Anyway, this chapter is a bit interesting because we see like, a couple glimpses of the present-day stuff before we cut away to what happened in the flashbacks.

First up we see Marco hanging out with the Red-Haired Pirates crew in the present, and apparently he hitched a ride with Shanks. He basically views himself as the old generation and can't really play babysitter for the younger generation... I really do appreciate one of the flashbacks showing that Luffy and Marco finally had a proper interaction, with Luffy, Jinbe and Marco reminsicing about the Summit War, and Marco acknowledging how Ace would be proud of Luffy's progress. 

We also have, unexpectedly, a bit more resolution to the Yamato stuff. I don't know if the mangaka really intended for Yamato not joining the crew to be a surprise and thought that it would be received well, or if he had wanted to hit a certain milestone with the chapter numbers, if this was planned all along, or if this was fleshed out as a response to fan outcry... I don't know. I personally really didn't think that there was a reason why showing Yamato's talk to Luffy about her staying behind on Wano to protect it from more strong Marines like Ryokugyu from showing up couldn't have done before the Momonosuke/Kin'emon farewell.

At least the reason they gave made a bit more sense than the nonsensical "I want to follow in Oden's footsteps". But Yamato realizes that another person, Shanks, was the one that drove away Ryokugyu, and that Yamato and Luffy would be always worrying about Wano regardless. So Yamato and the Straw Hats are smart enough to realize what's going on during the Ryokugyu fight, and Zoro and Yamato realizes that they need to do this in a way that doesn't wound Momonosuke's pride or credibility. 

I don't know. I really felt like seeing this in chronological order would've actually been better story structure for me? Eh. I don't really even like Yamato all that much, it's just how this whole story is handled that rankles me quite a bit. 

The rest of the chapter focuses on Amazon Lily, which is actually a place that I wanted to check in for quite a while. Maybe it's because I really do like Boa Hancock, but I'm also a little bit worried that the only female member of the original Shichibukai's going to be the one that the Marines defeat and capture or something. And seeing her not among the Cross Guild ranks did raise that worry... but Boa Hancock is still recovering in Amazon Lily, albeit half the island's mountain structure is wiped out. And she doesn't quite have the full sense of victory. Mostly because she lost!

And the rest of the chapter basically shows us the conflict. Vice Admiral Yamakaji, one of the boring ones who doesn't have any kind of weirdness to him, is leading the charge and we immediately get to see what I assume is the SSG -- a new model of Pacifista that they identify in some translations as "Seraphims". And while initially it just seemed to be a Lunarian Pacifista, we later learn that the Seraphim... had the appearance of young Boa Hancock. So... a clone? Mixing the Pacifista laser-hand powers with Boa Hancock's child body and Lunarian DNA? Um?

But then Blackbeard shows up! Always Blackbeard, showing up where he doesn't belong. He shows up with Catarina Devon and... and the one member of his crew I always forget, Vasco Shot the crazy drunkard. Blackbeard just wants to take away Hancock's powers, Catarina wants to rip her face off and use it as a trophy, and Vasco... well, he basically goes 'I wanna rape her' in the most PG-13 way ever. What a creep.

And we get a three-way-fight between Blackbeard's forces, the Marines (including Koby and the Seraphims) and Hancock's Kuja Kingdom. Love that even in the process of fighting two different forces, Hancock does hold firm to her refusal to be yoked to anyone else. Turns out that it's the second Pacifista Seraphim brat* that cut half of the island's structure, and the Seraphim is strong enough to force Blackbeard to use Armament Haki to block him. 

*I didn't realize it until much later, but someone pointed out that this might be a Mihawk Seraphim. Which makes a whole ton of sense!

Whatever the case, everyone starts using their powers, and I love it. Black Hole, Slave Arrow, Perfume Femur, the Pacifista shooting lasers randomly... ultimately, at the end of it, we just cut to the ending of the fight. Hancock's powers have taken out not only Helmeppo and Yamakiji, but also, surprisingly, both of Blackbeard's lieutenants. 

But Blackbeard's Yami Yami no Mi is able to nullify Hancock's Mero Mero no Mi. Hancock is still unflinching before Blackbeard, threatening him that whoever inherits her powers still won't be able to release those that are petrified. Not sure if it's a bluff or not, but either way Blackbeard isn't buying it (he really wants the powers) and Koby isn't taking the chance.

We also get the brief drop about how Koby's actions at the Rocky Port somehow allowed Blackbeard to defeat Ochoku/Wang Zhi (another member of the Rocks Pirates) and claim the territory of Pirate Island. Interesting, huh? But either way, Blackbeard does something actually sensible -- if he releases Hancock, she's just going to petrify Blackbeard and Koby and there's no real reason for her not to. And as Blackbeard prepares to kill Hancock...

Casual Silvers Rayleigh walking in. 

Rayleigh demands Hancock release everyone that was turned into stone, and basically brokers a parley that causes everyone to leave the island. And afterwards, we get the revelation why Rayleigh has such a connection to Amazon Lily... Shakuyaku, or Shakky, is... the former empress of the Kuja Pirates. Before Nyon! It's a random bombshell and while we always knew that Shakky was a great pirate and probably a member of the Rocks Pirates, this Amazon Lily Empress revelation certainly caught me off-guard. Good revelation! 

Rayleigh does note that at his age, he probably wouldn't be able to win in a fight against Blackbeard, and that the Marines are trying to replace the Shichibukai with the new Seraphim Pacifistas. And in addition to the rather unsettling reveal that one of the Seraphims looked like Hancock as a kid (who is the other one based on, then?) we also get the reveal that in the chaos, Blackbeard apparently grabbed Koby!

So yeah. Absolutely interesting stuff this episode. Keep on this 'cliffhangers across the world' series, please and thank you. I do really want to know more!

Random Notes:

• Most people have settled into spelling his name as 'Koby' and I guess that's a bit more exotic sounding or whatever, but forgive me if I slip up between Koby and Coby. The man's been 'Coby' in my head for close to a decade!
• The cover story has Katakuri and Oven punch each other out due to Caesar Clown using some hallucinogenic gas. While it's nice that we're respecting the fact that the Germa siblings and Caesar probably aren't anywhere close enough to taking out Katakuri on their own (let alone Katakuri with help) it really ends up raising a couple of questions. Does the hallucinogenic gas fuck up Future Sight Haki? And why does Caesar never, ever use this rather useful-sounding hallucinogenic gas of his before?
• So since we have had proper farewells with Marco and Yamato... is Carrot really sneaking on board the crew? 
• Okay so Hancock has a full island of Haki-wielding warriors and whatnot, so I can see, actually, why the Marines would think that she warrants the Lunarian Pacifista-clone. But really? They came at Mihawk with less than that? 
• I was in a convention recently and there was a lot of Uta cosplayers, so for a moment when the Seraphim showed up, I thought it was Uta and went 'but what why'. 
• Almost casually, we also get bounty reveals for Hancock and Blackbeard. Hancock rocketed up from 800M to 1.659 billion, very respectable number that ranks her slightly lower than Crocodile. Meanwhile, Blackbeard rockets from 2-bill-something to 3.996, higher than Mihawk and slightly lower than Shanks!