one piece: wano country arc — act one

2024-9-20

ch. 909–924

Okay, I'm gonna be out of town tomorrow and the day after, but I can't wait that long to start wano, so let's see how far I can get today!

909
Aww!! Whitebeard took care of his hometown! I love that!

WOW!! BREATHTAKING!!

Oh cool!! We're seeing what the rest of the straw hats are up to!! Franky (or "Franosuke") is a carpenter, helping with some project. Usopp (or "Usohachi") is a toad-oil salesman (clearly a play on "snake oil salesman" so funny)!!!! Robin (or "Orobi") is a geisha, trying to get a summons from the Shogun's chamber, very very cool! I love her outfit!

Alright, I should remember: the shogun is "Kurozumi Orochi"

Uh oh! Zoro (or "Zorojuro") is a "ronin" (apparently a vagrant samurai without a master) and has been caught! They are gonna try to force him to commit seppuku!

And then of course he attacks someone else and escapes! He says he "can smell blood and it says you're the killer" so I guess this guy tried to frame Zoro for killing people???

910
Ayye!! The straw hats are reading about everyone at the Reverie! Super sweet scene!

LOL THIS OCTOPUS CREATURE JUST APPEARED AND NOBODY SEES IT YET

Wow! What chaos and koi fish that was! We're now on the shore, presumably of Wano. Man leaving is gonna be a hassle. How do you guys plan on hiding/disguising the ship?

Oh shit we have some kind of dog-boar and a baboon with katanas! This is already going well!

911
Oh no!! Luffy is separated from the crew AND lost his vivre card!! This is bad!!

Someone got captured for following the Kozuki clan!! They're headed towards Luffy though so I'm sure he'll free them and they will help! Also, apparently it's a lion-dog (komainu)

OH GOSH IT'S A CHILD!! THEY WERE GONNA PUT A KID IN PRISON!! Anyways hello Otama! I like your outfit a lot!

Wow! She can pull dumplings off of her cheek?? I'm curious the specifics of her powers!

She tamed the baboon!?

The komainu is named Komachiyo! And the baboon is (now?) named Hihimaru. I like them!!

AHH!! ANOTHER LONG NOSED GUY LUFFY MISTAKES FOR USOPP!!

Shit!! She needs to have more to eat than that!!!

OH FUCK!!!! ACE!?!?!? HE WAS SUPPOSED TO COME BACK FOR HER!?!?? I mean Wano's a closed country... they probably don't know what happened...

Oh shit Basil Hawkins is involved with Kaido? Here we go! (edited)

912
Awww!!! Poor girl!!! Learning that Ace is dead so abruptly, so matter of factly like that!!!

I should write this name down: Tenguyama Hitetsu, the Katana Blacksmith

Wait....this place was once "Amigasa", the village of woven hats....could this...could this be the place where the legendary straw hat Luffy wears was made!?!!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Luffy's kimono is so good!!! I'm so fucking excited for this arc it's crazy!!!

Lol Luffy picks up this important sword and just borrows it lol

Oooh famed swords backstory! Kitetsu, the sword Luffy took is one of the 21 excellent-grade swords! I don't remember which grade Zoro's sword is

Awwwww..... she still believes Ace is going to come for her!! This is so sad!

Wow, Ace really had a similar role for Otama as Shanks was to Luffy. Obviously it was a little different, but this kind of cool mentor figure they looked up to as children and wanted to join!!

A SHARKODILE!?!?!?

Industrialization is the villain again! Pollution from the factory huh? Wasn't that the plot of the 1979 anime pilot episode of Unico, the series of which unfortunately didn't come to fruition

AYYYEEE!!! IT'S ZORO!!!!

Yikes!!! A confrontation with Basil!!

Aaaand of course Luffy's gonna fight!

GA: fun detail: the carpenter franky is working under (minatomo i think) looks almost exactly like the character oda invented the fix the plot hole in chapter 1 (edited)
when higuma the bear kicked down the door, but it was fixed in the panel afterwards
oda made up a guy that fixed the door between panels
and drew him in an sbs
minatomo looks just like him
and the name is also similar iirc

Huh, I'll have to go back and find that sbs. That's pretty cool!

GA: just checked, they have the same name, it's a family name and they're related

Nice!!

913
What a power Basil has!! Strawman!? Very funny and interesting!

Clearly tarot inspired cards... they might just be tarot cards... why are they affecting the battle? Is there some magic to them? Are they purely divinatory in nature?? I just wanna know what's up with them!

Oh hello Tsuru! Guess she's gonna help us with tea! Why not!

Oh no! This teahouse waitress "Okiku" is being creeped on by this bozo Urashima... Hopefully we get there in time and can punch this asshole

BEPO!!! THE HEART PIRATES!! HELL YEAH!!

914
Awww!! I'm so glad Otama got to eat something!!

OH GOODNESS BAT-MAN IS HERE!!

NO OTAMA'S BEEN KIDNAPPED!!! HELP HER!! SAVE HER!!! RIGHT NOW!!! LET'S GO!!!

LAW!!! I'm so excited to see Law again, I really really like him!

915
OH FUCK THIS GUY! HE PLANS TO TAKE OKIKU BY FORCE AND JUST DUMPED A BUNCH OF GOOD FOOD ON THE GROUND AND REQUESTED TO EAT THESE PEOPLE'S PET!?!?!

These smile fruit users don't seem quite right! They really do seem like users of bootleg devil fruits!

AHH DON'T TEAR OFF OTAMA'S CHEEKS WITH PLIERS NOOO

NICE LUFFY! USE THAT SUPREME KING HAKI TO CLEAR YOUR PATH!

HELL YEAH OKIKU! ESCAPE FROM URASHIMA AND CUT OFF HIS TOPKNOT!!!

916
SUMO SLAP LMAO

Oh my goodness Luffy is challenging him to sumo wrestling...this will be interesting!

AHH NOOOO!!! POOR OTAMA!!!! SHE'S GETTING HER CHEEK FUCKING PULLED AND IT DEFINITELY LOOKS LIKE IT HURTS!!

BEPO NOOOOO GET HIM SOME TEA

HAHAHA FUCK HIM UP LUFFY

And the Heart Pirates are coming into town too...

917
Hmm, the "Head Mountain Thieves Brigade", led by "Shutenmaru"... that definitely is going to be imprtant

They saved Otama and were gonna get away (and probably still will), but when Luffy heard about him pulling on Otama's cheeks with pliers...he could let that go! Punching that guy was very satisfying!

918
LMAO THEY TAMED THE HORSE LADY AND ARE STEALING ALL THE GOOD FOOD!!!

Awww!! Otama says Luffy was just like Ace in that fight!!! I understand Luffy doesn't think it's important to bring up so he hasn't, but I hope someone tells Otama Luffy is Ace's brother before this is all over!

LMAO LAW IS SO PISSED THAT LUFFY AND ZORO DID THIS!!! AS THEY GO BY LAW AND PICK HIM UP, LAW'S ALL ANGRY AND ZORO'S LIKE "Oh hey Traffy"!!! So good haha

I love Luffy so much, he just stole a bunch of food for the starving, and dropped a fucking swimming pool of clean drinking water on top of his pursuers!!

The "Ghosts of Wano" huh?

Oh shit these look like graves! There's Oden's, but why are there ones for Kanjuro, Kin'emon, Momonosuke, and Raizo? Were they all killed?? No way!! These stones must have some other meaning! Unless they faked their death???

919
By Otama!! I like you a lot, I hope I get to see more of you!!!

This elementary school propaganda! Of course everyone in the areas fortunate enough to have education are indoctrinated into their hatred for outsiders and the Kozuki clan.

Of course there's a prophecy involved!! When the Shogun took over and Oden fell, she apparently said "You are the moon unaware of the dawn... may your purpose be fulfilled... and cast nine shadows on the night woven of 20 years... and you shall know the brilliance of the dawn." To me that's the classic "you may be the dark of the night but the dawn is coming" cliche. "Cast nine shadows on the night woven of 20 years" huh... Nine is the amount of Straw Hats there is (not including Jinbe)... I don't know if Jinbe will actually catch up with us in Wano? There are only 4 of the Kozuki clan folks around here... what could the 9 mean???

And of course it's been exactly 20 years since then, why wouldn't it be?? Just once I'd like to see a prophecy for something that'll happen "in exactly 20 years" happen in like, 19.5 years? There must be some margin of error!

The graves do look way older than they should if they were recent... but momonosuke isn't 20 years old... hey wait a minute! If Momonosuke's dad was killed 20 years ago, why is Momonosuke still a kid?????

Also, Luffy lost Kin'emon's vivre card when he first got to shore...or so he thinks! Either 1) he's fine and the vivre card was lost to make us think he might not be, 2) the vivre card would look burnt because he's in trouble, 3) he didn't lose the vivre card, but it all burned up and is gone because he is dead...

LOL nope he's fine!

Ayye!!! It's Sanji, Nami, Chopper, Carrot, and Brook!!!!

WAIT EXCUSE ME!?!?!?!? WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN THE FIVE OF YOU FUCKING TIME TRAVELED FROM THE PAST!?!?!?!?!?!!??!?!?!?!?!?!? ADSOFHAS:GSDOGHK:LSDGH:ALSDGH:LDAKGH:ALDGHDLAGH

Clearly that explains the Momo age thing! He is actually a kid but from the past... how the hell did they do that?? That means their 20 year old graves are there because they went missing and were presumed dead.

920
Crazy Oden backstory! He was banished and then reformed the lawless land banished people resided in!

Oh wow Cat and Dog looked rather young when they came here back then

Wow... that's crazy... these people have been talking about this Oden guy that was killed so long ago and now it's clear that it was still very recent for them...

I wonder how they "travelled in time"! Maybe some sort of cryochamber?

Ahhh, the mom had the ability to leap into the future, gotcha!! That makes so much sense considering she was also the one who prophecized the dawn 20 years later. But what happened to Momonosuke's sister?

Oh my goodness we're seeing their arrival in the present!?!??? Also something tells me Momonosuke's sister Hiyori is still alive somehow. You'd think she would be sent to the future too if Toki was worried about her. My guess is she's all grown up and we're gonna meet her as part of the rebellion or something!

Ahhh!!! The "Nine Red Scabbards!" Nine!! I wonder who the other 4 are? Maybe Hiyori counts but wasn't sent to the future, she just survived? Did Toki send more people into the future??

Side note if Toki could send people to the future, that's a little bit overpowered in a fight is it not? "ZAP" now I don't have to worry about you for 20 years!!

Aww, hearing the whole story behind Kin'emon and gang leading up to meeting us... things really had gone the worst they possibly could before running into us!!!

Okay, raiding Kaido's base of "Onigashima" in 2 weeks! Got it!

921
Oh! Tsuru is Kin'emon's wife!! Has she been waiting for him for 20 years? Has she moved on? Did she come with him to the future???

Aw hell yeah! I love me a good secret symbol!!

Ahh!! Franky is working under the carpenter who built Kaido's mansion to get the plans!! Fuck yeah Franky!!

HELL YEAH THEY'RE ALL GETTING ROLES!!

Costume change!!! Ayye Chopper gets to be a lil' ninja!!!

Aaand there's the four!! "Kawamatsu", "Denjiro", "Ashura", and "Doji"! Plus the five who were sent forward in time, that makes 9!!

Okay first impressions of this Shutenmaru guy? Not great! But I couldn't help but notice...this guy's hair and that tree-looking tuft on top looks awfully similar to one of the sillouettes behind Kin'emon when he lists the four people... Could this guy be in disguise??

Yeah this Shutenmaru guy is absolutely one of those four Samurai! He just cut Jack and now they're fighting!

OH FUCK KAIDO IS AN ACTUAL DRAGON

922
It's so interesting that Kaido can transform into a proper dragon, probably with the power of a real devil fruit, and Momonosuke can transform into a little dragon, with not a "smile" fruit, but one Vegapunk created...

And Law heads off to keep Luffy from fucking up! I really like that duo, idk Law's coolness reminds me of Ace...

Aw shit! I'm definitely right about this Shutenmaru being one of the Samurai Kin'emon mentioned! Kaido "remembers him"...

LOL Kaido is drunk!

Oh no!! Basil "lied" to Kaido telling him Luffy and Law were at the ruins of Oden Castle not realizing that everyone actually is there!!

Oh shit lmao! There's Luffy immediately attacking fucking Kaido!!

923
OH FUCK THEY BETTER NOT HAVE KILLED OTAMA!!!! I SEE BLOOD!!! SOMEONE'S HEAD IS GONNA ROLL!!

Of course Luffy knocks him around a lot with his most powerful moves and then just gets immediately taken out in one swing!! I wouldn't have expected anything less from Kaido

924
That's kind of a big deal!! Apparently seastone/kairouseki is from Wano!!

Yep! That pink-haired guy is Ashura Doji!!

OH THANK GOODNESS OTAMA IS STILL ALIVE

Oh my goodness these faces LMAO

Oh fuck! Luffy is now totally bound and captured! Captain Kid is here too, we're gonna end up teaming up with him, presumably.

Let me think about this. We've teamed up with Law, and then Bege, and maybe now Kid?? I wonder how many of the worst generation we'll end up teaming up with, and how many will be villains to the end!

End of act 1! I'm getting Homestuck flashbacks....

Shit I'm torn
Should I keep going and start act 2 or should I stop?
If I do keep going, there's no guarantee I can get to act 3 before going out of town tomorrow morning...

CC: Man, wano act 1 was so good
I mean, it was a bit of a pain weekly, but the binge is great

this post discusses 'One Piece', which is intellectual property of Eiichiro Oda.

the screenshots used in this post are not mine, but are used under fair use for the purpose of commentary and review.