One Piece 1132 Review: Bifrost

One Piece, Chapter 1132: Adventure in Elbaf

So a lot of this chapter is mostly just connective tissue, as we re-assemble the Straw Hats and their allies. Not too much in terms of mystery other than the ominousness of the last couple of panels, which is perfect for me since I'm still kind of swamped with RL stuff for the next couple of weeks. It really is nice to have One Piece back after like, three weeks or something. 

We get to see the Great Eirik crew arrive first, and the little giant kid that was seen with Shanks before is all excited to see the Giant Pirates return. He also knows who Monkey D. Luffy is, which is very nice on Shanks's part! We get a name for him, which is Collun. Also arriving at the same time with them is the Naglfar, carrying Hajrudin and Stansen. We get some world-building that was alluded to last chapter, and One Piece's take on the legendary Bifrost Bridge that connects the realms are... literal rainbow bridges that the ships can just sail on. 

Brogy explains that they can literally draw rainbow with cubes called Painters, which is a very hilarious fantasy take on the Sun Stones utilized by Vikings to navigate and locate the Sun in an overcast sky. That's something that was popularized a bit among the anime-manga community thanks to Dr. Stone! The ships ride up on the rainbows, and I love that Brogy and Dorry's reactions to being questioned about this is "wtf, rainbows are meant to be ridden on, silly little people, gababababa!" We get the quick reunion as the two ships pass each other, and Franky recognizes Hajrudin, which is nice. 

Meanwhile, on the rope bridge, Luffy... solves the brief misunderstanding between his group and the two New Giant Warrior pirates Gerd and Goldberg. Goldberg is just kind of there, but Gerd is super over-excited about meeting Luffy. She likes humans, but not in the 'creepy way' that Rodo does. Which... I think she treats humans the way one would treat a puppy or a little baby, but that's better than the perverted livedolls thing that Rodo has been doing. 

Much more interestingly, Luffy and Loki made a deal off-screen, which Luffy is keeping a secret not just from the giants, but also from his crew so far. Loki even calls Luffy by the right name, which is interesting... presumably the deal they make has something to do with Shanks-related information? Very curious. 

We then get a sequence where the Straw Hats trick Rodo by using Nami and Chopper as bait, before Zoro and Sanji bash his face with a tree trunk. Yea, fuck Rodo! And then Gerd and Goldberg show up (and of course Rodo creeps on Gerd too), leading to the two of them bashing Rodo over the back of his head with weapons. I love Zoro's deadpan "nice, all evidence of our attack is gone" when he sees the giants attack. Luffy and Gerd explain everything, and of course Sanji gets immediately enamoured by the giant woman. 

We then get a simultaneous meeting as everyone goes to the 'Sun World', the middle level of the three levels of Elbaf. It's a simplified version of traditional Yggdrasil, made a bit less cosmic, and I like it -- we've got the 'Underworld', the 'Sun World' and the 'Astral World' (or 'Heaven World' in some translations). There are island clouds that Luffy can jump around on, and everyone reunites in an epic two-page spread where we get to see the massive village of Elbaf. Most importantly, we get to see Luffy and Usopp's reactions to it -- with Usopp ugly-crying. After Zoro and Franky theoretically should've gotten huge moments in the last two arcs, I really want Usopp to get a good story here. 

But then we've got an ominous narration on scrolls, narrated by a blast from the past -- Louis Arnot, the explorer who wrote 'Brag Men' seen in Little Garden and Jaya. It's such a cool nod to the past of One Piece, as he describes Elbaf in all of its grandeur and splendor. Words fail to describe it, indeed! However, Louis's narration briefly passes over a panel where a giant bear is looming and a silhouetted person with a kasa hat walks past the foreground... the same figure that has been lurking in the backgrounds ever since the arc starts. Louis Arnot's narration ends with an ominous warning about not overstaying one's welcome in Elbaf, as we cut to black.

And... that could be anything from war to some unnatural phenomenon in Elbaf. I don't really care, to be honest. Or the mystery about the silhouetted figure. The Loki bits are a bit more intriguing to me, it's fun to get the New Giant Pirates, old Giant Pirates and the Straw Hats reunited; and I really want to see what Usopp will get in this arc! 

Random Notes:

• Yamato Cover Story: The group sure reaches the Udon Castle, which is under reconstruction. That's nice. 
• I guess I'll be using 'Rodo' over 'Road', since that's what the official spelling uses. I've been flip-flopping between the two before 
• There are many theories about the shadowy figure -- with the most notable ones being Shiki and Scopper Gaban. I really don't get what the hype is about Scopper since he hasn't done jack or had any sort of reputation in the flashbacks. Shiki, however, is a bit more interesting not just because of the movie, but because of the Rocks Pirates flashbacks as well as 'Chapter 0'. Seemingly strengthening this Shiki connection is the fact that every single animal design in 1131 except the wolf are taken verbatim from the designs of Shiki's giant mutated animal army from the Strong World movie.
• Collun was initially mistranslated as 'Colon' by the fan-translators, which is very unfortunate-sounding. 
• Bizarrely, this is actually not the first time someone in One Piece has been able to draw rainbows, but no one remembers Ms. Goldenweek anymore. Wait, didn't she debut in Little Garden? Hmm. 
• I love that Robin answers Franky's confused yelling with a very scientific explanation about how rainbows are created by light refractions and all that jazz.
• Not much attention is called to it, but I like that Brook is singing Bink's Sake while they rise up the rainbow bridge. 
• Right, Gerd just scoops up Nami's group in her bosom. That group includes Sanji, and Sanji is just utterly in his own personal Heaven's Realm at this point.