#chapter 1059

Okay so these are the eyecatchers from episode 966 (aired on 2021.03.21) :

Back then and until recently I thought "the Roger Pirates are gonna be in Mock Town next so that's why they show us Teach and Luffy's first encounter..."

But more than a year later, chapter 1053 (2022.06.20) reveal the new Yonkou lineup, and here's the cover of chapter 1054 (2022.06.25) :

(Not only the combo is correct it's also displayed in the same order)

Just- How much insight about the next storylines or plot twists does Oda give to the people at Toei ?

I mean I know there's a time gap between the manga and anime and okay, they spoil us things in the openings often but- THIS EPISODE GOT OUT MORE THAN A YEAR BEFORE THINGS ACTUALLY HAPPENED 👀

Mock Town meetings ? Or foreshadowing ? They're going to kill me someday 😭

Or maybe Oda has a thing with patterns ? OF COURSE HE DOES, this is the cover of Volume 25... released in 2002 👀

...Either way One Piece will always blow my mind, I guess 😂

On a related note, I thought back of this panel in chapter 1059 :

I'm going to ignore the grief and the anger that Rayleigh must still feel 2 years after the war

Boa Hancock!

and

Koby

and

Blackbeard! and what does his say above about this new pacifista (seraphim—great name)

That's what they managed to do with King's DNA, possibly? Vegapunk? Blackbeard's aware of the Lunarians, it seems, so I know there are some theories out there about Rocks D Xebec and Lunarians...and there are theories linking Blackbeard to Rocks as well. PX, or are all pacifistas with those initials (I see that they are. PX- and a new letter for whichever model). But that's not all. Very few can fight Teach's devil fruits (plural!) and

Boa finds herself in a pickle, BUT

never fear! Rayleigh is here! (Marco, Beck, Shanks and Rayleigh. Be still my beating heart). AND that's not all folks. This is the reveal of the century (or one of them)

Shakky was the former Amazon Lily empress and ex-captain of the Kuja pirates!!!! *Kermit flail*. I did not see that coming, but I'm sure some fanfiction writers somewhere did! Ahhh. Such good news, and I think with Oda feature prior generations so much, and them saying how tired they are and they can't fight any more (the men, anyway), that they're still sure to be around, even if Luffy & co play the main role. It is Luffy's story.

Man, I wanna see Shakky in action in the past. AND did you see this on Amazon Lily?

Luffy's got his own billboard, and Hancock's solution to everything is to marry him :-).

And lastly, this doesn't bode well:

Oof. No wonder they couldn't fight them originally.

and, the Rocky Port Incident. Ah, what happened? Blackbeard was there too, and Law, as we know.

Oh, and Koby got captured by Blackbeard (Rayleigh's negotiations), and Yamato is staying in Wano to take care of Momonosuke, kinda.

With that out of the way, I’m revising my outlook. We’re not done. No matter what purpose towards, Rocky Rakugo gave us a false ending. I’ll stick with this until I see a grand toast for Jinbei and/or the present-day Straw Hats setting sail towards a clear destination. If that’s next chapter fine, but this opens a lot of possibilities. Here we are, still filling in gaps in a very Wano storytelling style. Just saying, this chapter really feels like it builds off that “big feelings for little actually happening” element of 1058. If this scene is starting a new thread though, you bet I care for Kiku for two reasons:

1. Marco. Credit to friend of the blog Fallensnowfan on this concept, but we already had favorable timing for Kiku’s absence from the Ryokugyu fight to be explained through Marco. Neither were seen, now we’ve seen both right after the fight. This all works, you can make what you will of the combo “...” bubble over this note about protecting Momo’s pride. I also adore the callback to Shanks trying to poach him earlier in the story and the specific line about being “Too old to babysit great pirates.”

2. Yamato. I’m very interested in Yamato using this line of logic for staying behind specifically. Because the seed was always looking at the pair of Yamato and Kiku. How they’re so frequently cast as mirrors. What is the mirror of realizing you’re needed here for the immediate future and can always sail later? The realization things will be fine for a little while without you and it’s actually pretty good timing to take some time for yourself for once.