#ch 568

And one of the few chapters I’m underwhelmed by. It’s all right of course, because Oda’s baseline is so insanely high. But it’s mainly a transport chapter and that shows.

But there are some highlights!

I really like this panelling. It shows us what’s up with some of the characters we are worried about while simultaneously functioning as a visual representation of what Otama is working for. There’s big bro Luffy and Momo and they are the reason she’s right here, right now. And the reason she has to keep going.

On the other hand…

I’d probably react similarly if an actual dinosaur, which I just saw fighting my tanuki-shaped friend, yelled at me.

More information about the scientist past! What is MADS an acronym of?

Medical Advancement Development Squad?

Masterful Alliance-Dealing Sisterhood?

Megalomaniac Academic Deployment Stop?

Not a fan of even-more-cutified-Chopper. Have to check with the official translation if the weird speech pattern (probably the “gramps”-part) makes more sense.

On the other hand — great showcasing of Zoro’s will! Reminds me most of Luffy in chapter 568.

Like captain, like first mate.

I want to say that I like Who’s Who and that it’s not only because of his cat-theme.

But then for my biggest gripe with the chapter.

I’ll be so terribly disappointed if there’s some Great Secret To The Gomu-Gomu Fruit.

One of the really great things with One Piece is the sheer silliness of Luffy’s powers. He got hungry, ate what he thought was a fruit and got stretchy for the rest of his life.

There’s a lot of cooler and more impressive powers. But the thing is: Luffy’s developed. He trained and improvised and stretched (hue hue) his limits and found some really cool ways to use his powers; powers which most people would just go ‘oh, bugger’ with. In that way he’s like Katakuri with his mochi powers, or Kalifa with her weird-ass soap. All three got an unconventional power up and are making the best of it (and killing it in the passing).

So I’ll just be really disappointed if there’s some Power To Unlock All or something similar in the Gomu-Gomu. It’ll just take away from Luffy’s journey to the Pirate King.

Because then he won’t have worked his arse off and sacrificed more than anyone can count.

It’s actually different- Robin’s line in Enies Lobby was 生きたい/ikitai, very straightforwardly ‘I want to live,’ while what Ace says here is a little more complicated. He says 今になって、命が惜しい/ima ni natte, inochi ga oshii. 

Ima ni natte is like a way of saying ‘now’ that contrasts the present with the past- sort of like ‘at this point’- and inochi means ‘life.’ And oshii, in this context, means ‘precious,’ or ‘dear.’ “At this point/after all this/now, life is (finally) precious (to me).”