One Piece 1127 Review: Island of the Giant Pokemon

One Piece, Chapter 1127: Adventure in the Land of Mystery

So I don't really have a whole ton to say here. That's not to say I didn't enjoy this chapter, of course, but this is the "chaos at the beginning of an island" shenanigans! It's like when we first met the toys in Dressrosa while random fairies steal stuff; or Luffy fighting a sword-wielding baboon at the beginning of Wano; or all the stuff with the initial zombie parties in Thriller Bark. 

We do get confirmation that everything here is happening in Elbaf, and apparently for this village, the architecture is made up of lego bricks. The Elbaf village Shanks hung out in was made of more regular viking wooden logs and whatnot. And apparently the Straw Hats' arrival (which we still don't know how it happened!) ended up in your typical bit of chaos. Something is burning and they're afraid that it'll spread to Yggdrasil (which is what the giant tree is named, of course). Some bee-creatures called the Stingermols are knocked out, and a giant rabbit called the Ear God had apparently collapsed at some point. 

And apparently Nami is in a place called Big Steinn Castle. She's the one responsible for zapping the bees with her clima-tact, and she lampshades what the fuck is going on. She's woken up with new clothes, giant bees are attacking her, and Zeus isn't being particularly helpful. She cries for Luffy, Zoro, Sanji or even Usopp, and while it does feel rather natural as something Nami would say, it's also a rather nice highlight of how this arc will hopefully be revolving around how Usopp's going to overcome his status as a giant coward.

More giant monsters show up, though, with Nami being chased by a giant hedgehog, and she encounters Usopp in the jaws of a giant cat. Nami unleashes a giant lightning blast that takes out the hedgehog, but the giant cat keeps chasing them around. Usopp has also been given a makeover, with baggy Asterix-and-Obelisk style pants, a Viking helmet and a glorious comical beard-and-mustache getup. Absolutely smashing. 

Nami discusses the possibility of absinthe causing hallucinations, which leads to a rather silly moment where Usopp builds on this and tries to confront the 'illusion' cat, only to get bitchslapped and one-shotted. Poor Usopp. They fall down the tower onto the grounds below, and the giant cat transformed into a giant lion. And as the lion roars, Nami tries to protect herself with the wounded Usopp. Dick move, Nami, dick move. 

But then the monster trio arrives, unleashing a triple-combo attack. Luffy unleashes an Elephant Whip, Zoro unleashes a Black Rope Dragon Twister and Sanji goes all-in with an Ifrit Jambe: Epaule Strike attack. Okay, Sanji. I guess he has gone on record in saying that he won't tolerate people hurting ladies in his presence. It's a fun sequence, and we get to see the designs of the monster trio -- Luffy is basically what you expect him to be, just regular Luffy in stereotypical Viking gear. Sanji goes for a more knight-looking vibe, while Zoro, uh... he kinda looks like he's cosplaying X-Drake? That pair of goggles don't do him favours. I know it's based on some historical eye-guard part of the helmet, but it does look kinda goofy. 

We get a comedy moment where Nami makes a gag about how "I was so scared when Usopp died", when Usopp is still very much alive and complaining next to Nami. We also get the subtle confirmation that the Ear God was beaten up and COOKED AND EATEN by Luffy, Sanji and Zoro. So... yeah, we still don't know how the fuck our heroes got here, but they sure did come around and start beating up animals. Which... might be a point of misunderstanding and/or conflict with the locals, I guess, depending on how much they revere this so-called 'Ear God'. 

Not what I expected going into Elbaf, but I'm enjoying this ride!

Random Notes:

• Inari Pilgrimage of Yamato Cover Story: She's hanging out with Inuarashi to discuss the kidnapping and stuff. Inuarashi is now the Daimyo of Kuri. Presumably, the other Scabbards we haven't seen have all became Daimyos of various regions. 
• There's some buzz about it on the internet, but Luffy's 'Elephant Whip' attack was misattributed as a Gear Fourth technique and not a Gear Third one. I really do think it's just a typo that the editors missed.
• There is a whole lot of discussion about whether the giants we see are actually giants or not; or if they're actually in Elbaf or not; or if the various errors (Luffy's sword/axe changing from panel to panel) are an indication of this whole thing being an absinthe hallucination. I'm not saying that it's not possible, but I really do think it's just an honest mistake and that I wouldn't really like it all that much if it's a hallucination -- I feel like Elbaf has so much potential and stories to be told without resorting to hallucinations.
• And besides, scale has never been One Piece's best suit and I don't really buy all that much into one-panel arguments of 'oh, the bees are this size compared to the giants and this size compared to Nami and therefore...' when we've seen sizes fluctuate wildly so much within chapters. 
• By the way, I love the one-panel meme acknowledgement of Nami tripping over the lego floor and complaining about being hurt by it. 
• If it isn't something else, then maybe the giant cat ate the lion devil fruit, allowing it to transform from one animal to another -- similar to Komainu and Pierre before. 
• Chopper is still MIA. I guess having him talk to the animals would've made this chapter not happen at all.