One Piece 1145 Review: You Can Stop Forest Fires

One Piece, Chapter 1145: The Blaze in Branch 8 Forest, No. 2

The chapter starts off with a group of people taking down a giant beast -- just not any of the ones we expected from last chapter. It's Goldberg, Sanji and Zoro taking out a giant brachiosaur-type dinosaur, with a seldom-seen "armée de l'air" combo move between Sanji and Zoro. Sanji launches Zoro towards the dinosaur, and Zoro beheads the poor beastie. Oh, and before that, Goldberg's sentient shield expands into a massive size to block the dinosaur's charge. 

A lot of people have pointed out that Goldberg's shield has a weird Homie-esque face all the way back since when these giants appeared on cover stories, and we get the confirmation for this minor character's weird shield. Goldberg notes that the shield, Nash, was transformed after his dad clashed with Big Mom a while back. It does confirm that Nash is a Homie, but it also raises some questions -- why is Nash not aligned with Big Mom anymore? He also recognizes who Zeus is (and is surprised that Zeus is the Straw Hats' lackey now). I'm not sure if we'll have any time for the story to really devote itself to expanding on this at all, or if it's just a handwave so Goldberg can start showing off his power in action scenes later on. 

Meanwhile, Loki is still chained up on the grounds and tells Luffy, Hajrudin and the others about the God's Knights that maimed him. Loki doesn't go into too much depth about how powerful the God's Knights are, but he does explain the basic concept of them being super-high-ranking government knights. 

We get a bit of a running gag of Luffy wanting to help Loki get better, but constantly accidentally harming him even more -- whether it's by dropping a piping-hot chunk of meat or an entire mug of hot soup on poor Loki. It's a bit of a black comedy, but I do find it funny that Gerd, the doctor, is even giving Luffy thumbs-ups for hurting Loki. It's a nice bit of storytelling from One Piece here since the gag itself is some nice slapstick, but it also really adds to the utterly horrid reputation that Loki has among the giants. 

We don't quite get a full backstory for Loki just yet, but Loki still claims that he knows of Shanks' whereabouts. This leads to Loki noting that having a pirate to look up to is a feeling he knows very well as we cut to a period of time in the past when a little young boy Loki charges into a tavern and demands that a well-known pirate take him as a crew. Many children all over the world have done this -- to Luffy, to Roger, to Shanks... and it's a familiar sight in this series. Except Loki's idol is... ROCKS D. XEBEC! Making yet another appearance while silhouetted. I think this is his first speaking appearance? Xebec is no Shanks, though, beating and stabbing Kid Loki before walking off, much to the disgust of Whitebeard, who was with him at the time. Interestingly, present-day Loki mutters something along the lines of "I was born in the wrong era", the same kind of language used by Roger when he found the One Piece. 

No real explanation for that, though, as the next sequence of scenes shows Dorry, Brogy and Scopper beating the shit out of the nightmare giants. Interestingly, the Draugr seem to have multiplied... are there just multiple kids imagining Draugrs, or can Killingham summon more nightmare monsters from the same nightmare? Or is the undying-ness just part of the Draugr's abilities? Scopper Gaban beats up the fake Loki, and makes a comment about how this isn't anywhere close to the real Loki and is inaccurate thanks to the kids' imagination... but also is solemn as he notes that we're reaching the endgame now that even Elbaf is no longer safe.

Saul has also beaten Fenrir offscreen, which I really would've liked to see even if it's in a panel. (Or, y'know, let Robin or Chopper do something, y'know?) The firemen on flying boats are trying to put out the fire as the children walk into them, but it's ineffective... until a moving, serpentine mass of water comes and douses off the fire. Saul and the other giants praise the very confused firefighters for doing it, but it's actually Jinbe's Ocean Current Shoulder Throw. 

I didn't realize that Jinbe is doing it secretly so as not to upset the giants, but it does kind of make a fair bit of sense. Robin and Chopper realize what's going on, though, and we get a nice little moment where Colon tells the Straw Hats that while he doesn't get along well with the other kids, they are still his friends. That's cute. 

But then as this little victory is over, we see Gunko, standing menacingly with her arrow swirling around her, ready for a confrontation with the kid that isn't at school. That's a very fun little setup for the confrontation between the God's Knights and the Straw Hats, and while I am excited with the prospect of seeing the God's Knights show off what they can do in direct combat... Brook is also there on Colon's boat. I do really want to see Gunko's reaction to Brook more than anything, since we've established last chapter that she's a Soul King fan. 

Random Notes:

• Yamato's Pilgrimage Cover Story: Ulti finds that Pay-tan is still alive. Notably, Yamato in the background is looking away. The Ulti and Page One for Grand Fleet agenda is still strong! 
• The 'Groggysaurus' or whatever is yet another animal design taken from the artwork of One Piece: Strong World. Again, to remind everyone that Loki's giant animal friends are all creatures from Strong World. 
• A nice little detail is that Goldberg is the New Giant Pirates' chef, which is why he's so quick at suggesting cooking recipes for the Groggysaurus. 
• Of course Whitebeard, who has a huge desire to be a dad, takes massive umbrage with Rocks leaving a child near-death.