One Piece 1086 Review: Planetarium

One Piece, Chapter 1086: The Five Elders

This chapter's fan-scans were released around half a week ago, but I purposefully waited on talking about it just to see how the official release handles certain translations. And I think I'm pretty happy that I waited! So yeah, this is a pretty great cliffhanger before a massive break, and one that reveals a bunch of revelations almost a decade in the making. 

A bunch of the earlier pages are just... well, bookkeeping, and I'm happy to breeze through them. Alabasta's people are trying desperately to look for Cobra and Vivi, while multiple people stow away on different ships. Wapol and Vivi snuck away on an Eigis Kingdom ship to meet up with Morgans, an event that the manga had previously lined out to us. Wapol still hasn't told Vivi about Cobra's death yet, though as we learn in the present-day Egghead scenes, that will happen eventually. We get to see Bonney stowing away on a Tajine Kingdom ship, and a wounded Sabo on the Lulusia Kingdom ship. 

And then we get Imu talking to the Gorosei, or the Five Elder Stars... or the Five Elder Planets, as some people have pointed out to be a more accurate translation. The Japanese word 星 (hoshi or sei) was originally used in antiquity to describe any celestial body that's not the sun or the moon -- and if you've seen a night sky, our planets are actually visible in the sky but you won't be able to tell that they're planets instead of stars without training. And since cultures like the Japanese have already given names to planets (they move regularly in the sky, after all, thanks to the rotation) before the world figured out how this whole 'planet' thing works, the term 星 is still used for both 'star' and 'planet', with 惑星 (wakusei) being used if you really want to describe a planet in terms of an orbitting body instead of a celestial body. 

Anyway, they all have planet names, excluding the three 'outer' planets that were discovered in modern times (hundreds of years ago, as opposed to the original five, which were already discovered by ancient civilizations). And I can finally get rid of the nonsense nicknames I have in my head:

• Dreadlocks Pastor is St. Jaygarcia Saturn, and is the Godhead of Science and Defense.
• Tall Forkbeard is St. Marcus Mars, the Godhead Environment
• Giant Beard Man is St. Topman Warcury, the Godhead of Justice
• Gandhi is St. Ethanbaron V. Nusjuro, the Godhead of Finance.
• Scarneck McYoung is St. Shepherd Ju Peter (oh god!), the Godhead of Agriculture. 

The Japanese word actually has them be 'War Gods', but the Berserk fan in me absolutely loves the usage of 'Godhead' here. Also, it's rather fun to see how two of them have just the planets straight up (Saturn and Mars), we've got the gloriously punny Ju Peter, the slightly confusing Warcury (War + Mecrury) and then V. Nusjuro, where you really scratch your head where the Venus is until you read the name out loud and then you laugh. 

Also, I love that the Gorosei's titles aren't like the Godhead of... oh, I don't know, war, conquest and subjugation or some shit like that. No, Ethanbaron, the badass Gandhi-looking samurai man is the Godhead of... finance. The Shodai Kitetsu cuts apart balance sheets and debit/credit stuff!

Anyway, we also get the revelation behind Lulusia, and I'm not sure how I feel about this one. It does admittedly make Imu feel a lot less mystical and godlike, because we learn that Imu picked Lulusia to test out a superweapon out of proximity. Imu just picked it just because they like it, and while V. Nus and Warcury did try to tell Imu that it's a populated area, they just shrug and go along with the will of the 'creator of the world'. 

On one hand, it makes Imu scary because they are so callous with casually wiping out an entire kingdom full of people. On the other hand... it's less scary that they didn't just target Lulusia with the intention of pinpointing and murdering Sabo with the aid of some supernatural power... but on the other other hand, some people argued that the shadowed panel of Lulusia being nuked might be Imu's own Future Sight or something, and that they might just not be sharing about Lulusia to the Gorosei. 

Also, Vegapunk notes that they are using Vegapunk's creation, the Mother Frame, which the Gorosei note that this is basically a test drive since they have never used this weapon before. They talk about how Lulusia being a rebellious nation is a bonus instead of the actual goal, and the Gorosei seem enthusiastic at bringing this battle to a quick conclusion with the usage of this weapon.

Also, Imu continues on their obsession with Vivi, 'desiring' her, and I've seen theories run wild with this. Imu has been weird with Vivi ever since the photo seen during their first appearance, and I've seen theories from body-hopping to a creepy romance to just general rivalry against the D. Clan members.

We also briefly see the Marine deploying troops not just to arrest the Shichibukai, but also to quell the rebellion in countries like Tajine and Eigis. Most interestingly, we get to see three more Seraphims being deployed -- which are the missing three from the original batch of Shichibukai. Seraphim Doflamingo, Seraphim Gekko Moriah, and Seraphim Crocodile. There's a lot of debate on whether kid-clone Crocodile is actually a boy or a girl, but we see so little of smol-Croco that it's clearly being kept ambiguous.

Sabo then recaps what happened in Lulusia, where the already-rebelling citizens arrested the vampire-looking king and princess, and was very willing to celebrate Flame Emperor Sabo. Sabo himself isn't too keen on correcting them about his role in Cobra's death, since it's for the good of the Revolutionary, and I wonder if this will come and bite him in the ass later on. Sabo also explains how he basically used a snail-VPN to trick the World Government into thinking he's still on Lulusia when he's already halfway on the journey back to Kamabakka, but... well, while Sabo didn't die, the rest of Lullusia certainly got Death Starred to oblivion, much to the despair of the revolutionaries that Sabo recruited, who saw their families atomized. 

Sabo also says that he sees a dark shadow above Lulusia, so yeah, a Death Star (or a miniature one), or even just some sort of flying dreadnought or battleship seems likely to the identity of this Mother Frame. Ivankov and Dragon speculate on whether this is a Vegapunk creation (which Imu confirms) or an Ancient Weapon, though the jury is still out on whether Vegapunk created it knowing that it's going to be a weapon, or if Vegapunk created, like, the 'framework' of the Mother Frame, or if it's Shaka or York that made the weaponized version out of something that originally was more benign. 

Ivankov also name-drops Imu's potential last name, which is Nerona -- with Ivankov noting that Imu shares their name with one of the 20 Kings (though the wording is specific not to reveal Imu's gender), St. Imu from the Nerona Dynasty. So our final villain is St. Nerona Imu, then? Ivankov also pulls out the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia, noting that for the Ope Ope no Mi to be able to grand everlasting life, clearly someone must have tried it, and it's likely that this someone was Imu. 

As if all this wasn't enough, we get the final page that very casually revealed that St. Donquixote Mjosgard has been executed. Like, we see his bloodied corpse straight-up crucified while other Celestial Dragons cheer in the background! There was a bit of ambiguity in some of the early fan translations, but the English official translation using the wording as 'had just been executed' has a ring of finality to it. RIP Mjosgard, at least you died a decent human being. Again, I am all for this longer-established characters being killed left and right, with a bit more finality. One of my big annoyances about the Yonko Saga in general is how ambiguous it was when someone died, that even the ones that did die ended up being 'well, there's still a chance until they properly confirm it!'

But far more interesting than Mjosgard's death is the wacky-ass moon-haired mofo that killed him. What a hilariously stupid-looking hairdo, but I bet this is going to be a character we'll be rooting for as a badass, because this guy is the leader of the God's Knights. Cool! The former ruler of God Valley? Say whaaat? And his name? Saint FIGARLAND Garland. O SHIT!

Figarland is, by the way, essentially all but confirmed by the One Piece Film Red movie to be the family that Shanks likely hails from, which is our big little wink-wink-canon-information hint from that movie just like 'Laugh Tale' from Stampede. And yeah. One of the God's Knights silhouettes in the previous chapters were allegedly speculated to be Shanks, but it might just very well be Garland when he was younger! Which means Garland might be Shanks' dad, or grandpa, or uncle, or something, which is a very fun bit. Again, these recent chapters are really building up a lot of hype for the villains, and I'm all for it!

And in a fun reversal of Shanks's "weakest grand fleet among the Yonko" where he shelters all the weaklings, Garland's first lines of dialogue is something along the lines of "whose who protect subhuman filth are lower than them", so yeah -- we're going to have a major fighter that subscribes and embodies the Tenrhyubito ideals of racial supremacy, and I am all for seeing this guy rising up as a villain!

Anyway, what a mammoth of a chapter! 

Random Notes:

• One Piece is going on a one-month break because Oda is going to get some eye surgery. Get well soon, Oda!
• More about the planetary naming stuff:
• So yeah, to elaborate a bit more, ancient cultures like the ancient Greeks, Egyptians, Chinese and Japanese are already aware that five of the 'stars' in the sky move at regular intervals, and have identified Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn as 'special' stars. It's not until the invention of telescopes in the late 1700's that Uranus, Neptune and Pluto were discovered (and Pluto subsequently lost that planet title more recently). The three Ancient Weapons are named after these three more 'modern' planets. 
• In addition, the five 'elder' planets are all named after classical East Asian elements in China and Japan, which may or may not be connected to their superpowers! Mercury is Suisei (Water Star), Venus is Kinsei (Gold/Metal Star), Mars is Kasei (Fire Star), Jupiter is Mokusei (Wood Star), and Saturn is Dosei (Earth/Ground Star).
• If you notice, at least the jobs of V. Nusjuro and Ju Peter are associated with their respective element, with V. Nusjuro being the 'gold planet' in charge of finance, and Ju Peter being the 'wood star' in charge of agriculture.
• If you're curious, the three 'modern' outer planets, due to international influences, use a combination of the international naming scheme and the original one, with Uranus being Ten'ou-sei (Sky King Star; Uranus is the Roman sky titan), Neptune being Kai'ou-sei (Sea King Star, Neptune is the Roman sea god) and Pluto is Mei'ou-sei (Underworld King Star, Pluto is the Roman god of the underworld). 
• An alternate reading for Saint Topman Warcury's last name has been posited as 'Valkury' or 'Valcury', to try and get a pun with 'valkyrie'. This, I think, had the opposite reaction and made some people confused where the planet Mercury is in the name since 'Valkyrie' is such a common fantasy name, whereas Warcury is such a nonsense name that the 'Mercury' part pops up a bit more. 
• God, the name of 'Samurai Gandhi' is... Ethan. That's more hilarious than Ju Peter or Topman, really. 
• Nerona is likely a reference to Emperor Nero, which isn't particularly cheery on what Imu plans to do with what they rule over. 
• There's also a confusion about Mother Frame vs. Mother Flame, and I think Flame does really bring up connotations to the Eternal Fire from the Vegapunk monologue. 
• Another thing that made me glad that I waited for the official release to come out is that some of the fan scanlations omitted 'saint' from half of the Gorosei, causing some confusion on whether some of them aren't Celestial Dragons after all. They all have Saints in the final version. 
• Wapol at least has the brains to sell the news to Morgans about himself running for his life, instead of actually blurting out and selling the news of Imu's existence on an open line. 
• In addition to cameos, we get a cameo of CP-0 agent Gismonda, a.k.a. the guy who never shows up in Wano, as well as Spandam, and Stelly (Sabo's brother) lusting over the poster of Vivi. 
• There is also a line about how 'Crocodile appeared in Emptee Bluffs Island', or Calibali Island, and while it's confusing since it's being shown atop S-Crocodile, it might just be a reference to Crocodile and Daz Bones appearing to accidentally bail Buggy out. 
• There's also a brief couple of scattered lines of Celestial Dragons complaining that they don't have any food, but more hilariously, one says that they 'only have cake to eat', a reference to the famous Marie Antoinette line.