One Piece 1084 Review: Celestial Accordion

One Piece, Chapter 1084: The Attempted Murder of a Celestial Dragon

So yeah, we're picking up after the previous chapter's Reverie flashback, and... we get to see some more things going on. I don't think I even mentioned that Bonney appeared in 1083? Well she does, and she stumbles upon Sabo just as he cooked a bunch of the Celestial Dragon guards. I appreciate that the first couple of pages just quickly blazes through (and offscreens) a majority of the conversation between the two. Bonney just leaves Kuma's rescue to the Revolutionaries and entrusts them with Kuma's safety, while Bonney decides to go off to Egghead to hunt down Vegapunk and find a way to fix Kuma's mind. Sabo also passes the keys off to one of Karasu's crows, which ties up the whole 'freeing slaves' thing of the previous chapter. 

And then we get a bit of Sabo and Bonney, hiding on the rafters, overhearing some of the guards below them talking about how understaffed they are in this tower, and how the other guards are 'gone' becuase they saw the 'legendary Phantom Room', and the guards seem to be absolutely terrified about discussing it at all. So, yeah, there's definitely a pretty cool, almost fantastical, vibe to the fact that Imu just stalks through the tower as this 'ghost', and any of the non-Gorosei guards who saw Imu gets 'disappeared'. 

But the majority of the story, of course, is the exposition by King Cobra of Alabasta. Some of the information he gives us are information that we already knew about before -- about how 20 kingdoms and families founded the World Government, and all the 20 families except for the Nefertari family moved to Marie Geoise as the Celestial Dragons. The founding of the Empty Throne, as well as the election of the new royal families (like King Riku's family being elected to replace the Donquixotes). Cobra then gives us the name of the Nefertari matriarch that was supposed to join the Celestial Dragons -- Queen Lili.

Cobra then drops the bombshell that Lili's name isn't mentioned in Alabasta's long records, and Lili was never mentioned after the Void Century. Instead, Alabasta is ruled by another Nefertari, her younger brother... admittedly, if not for the whole 'what happened in the Void Century' thing, this would be an odd question to ask. One of the Gorosei even quickly points out that in 800 years, the reasoning of what some people did would be lost to history.

We also have an appearance of Imu in that goddamned butterfly room, where Imu is listening in to the conversation via Den Den Mushi. Ominous!

Also it's rather hilarious that the Gorosei didn't even really try to look into their records or anything. They just said 'nope, sorry, no records remain'. 

And then Cobra just drops the bomb about the 'meaning of D', asking the Gorosei what the meaning of "D" is, and dropping the bombshell on the Gorosei that, no, a letter from Queen Lili was actually passed down the generations in the royal family in secret. We don't know what it's about, but clearly it's something about the Void Century that survived the information purge!

And then we cut to the courtyard, where... yeah, apparently Saint Charlos is still being the biggest piece of shit ever. He uses the PX-0 Kuma to wrap a chain around Shirahoshi to capture her, promising to use her as a ride to town and that he'll inflict pain on her if she disobeys. There's also a lot about how Charlos clearly is still viewing Shirahoshi as nothign more than a fish. The other royals that we previously saw were trying to proposition Shirahoshi for marriage all bugger off and run away in fear of the Celestial Dragons. 

At this point, King Neptune is still in the Reverie itself, but his brothers are clearly not going to take this lying down. Fukaboshi, Manboshi and Ryuboshi zip in and get absolutely pissed off... but Pacifista-Kuma unleashes a laser beam that blasts away the three princes. Charlos continues to rant about how no one will care if some 'fish' die. 

And... well, despite the seeming invincibility of the Celestial Dragons, we do have a bunch of characters that are willing to help. I do like that Saint Mjosgard is just waving his hands in the bcakground, yelling that he'll take full responsibility. Sai and Leo in particular are the main ones to zip in. Mjosgard stops Fukaboshi from doing anything rash, though, telling him that he's got a country that all this could have a fallout back on, whereas Sai and Leo... are pirates, and pirates are free to do what they want.

Sai and Leo unleash a combo of Tail Hammer and Drill Dragon Nail on Charlos's head, and this is insanely satisfying after seeing just what a cunt Charlos has been throughout the story. Leo isn't weak, but remember that Sai's Drill Dragon Nail is something that was previously established to be able to crack entire iceberg formations, and I sincerely doubt that Charlos's head is more durable than that. 

Now, again, this is One Piece, and I don't think such a relatively brutal on-screen death is allowed by Shonen Jump. It's more of a comedic thing than anything, too, with Charlos's head and body being squished like a Looney Tunes accordion. Now, in favour of Charlos dying, he doesn't speak and one of the background characters panics that a Celestial Dragon has just been murdered. But, again, this is One Piece, so...

Pacifista Kuma is about to go wild, but suddenly Morley bloops out from the ground, grabs Kuma, and brings him back with the Revolutionaries. And in the midst of the chaos, Karasu calls for a retreat, since he's got the keys from Sabo. I don't think we'll be checking in with the fight against the Admirals anymore after the previous chapter. 

But honestly, I don't really care to know much about that fight since we've seen all we needed to see. Because Imu suddenly appears in the Empty Throne room, surprising not just Cobra but also the Gorosei, who's surprised that Imu has appeared even though Cobra is still there... and then Imu sits on the Empty Throne, muttering about 'Lili'... Imu speaks! It's very likely we're going to get something more out of Imu in the next chapter! 

And... yeah. For a chapter where it's just mostly people talking, I did really feel like this chapter has much more tension and content to it. We're getting very close to knowing some of the answers about things like the Will of D. and the Void Century, and even the true nature and identity of Imu!

Random Notes:

• I do love the little detail in the cover page (which features all the One Piece ladies in summer beachwear riding fishes) where Jewelry Bonney is trying to eat the fish instead of riding them. 
• Man, did Sabo just straight-up burn those guys to death? I mean, they're in metal armour, so they probably got cooked alive.
• So Karasu's Soot Soot Fruit allows him to actually divide his consciousness amongst his remote-controlled crows? 
• Yeah, I know the official spelling is 'Arabasta', but I've been calling it Alabasta for near a decade now! 
• Has there always been 19 swords around the Empty Throne? I think we used some rather interesting shots to make sure that it's difficult to count since the swords aren't neatly arranged in a row or whatever, but at least in the manga, I don't think the swords around the throne ever numbered 20.
• I do find it depressingly a bit more realistic about the stance that Oda sometimes takes about the 'cycle of hatred'. Not just with people like Charlos, but also the Hody Jones story where... yeah, sometimes it's difficult to just hope people will 'change' just because of a beatdown or two. Sometimes the racism and the classism is just so ingrained within a person. 
• I don't doubt that Rebecca would totally jump in to help, too, but I suppose the same 'let the pirates do the piratey things instead of the royals' logic that applies to Fukaboshi applies to her as well.