#chapter 1128

I was going to say that I don't know why I particularly feel like talking about this chapter because it's pretty normal, but I DO know and it's because it's centered around my East Blue five, huge day for og fans. I'm sure the dynamic of this particular group is enjoyed by many people regardless of when they started reading the story, but the nostalgia hit for those of us who have been here for, dare I say, decades is immense.

And this time I want to start with the color spread, bitch I LOVE THEM THIS IS SUCH A TREAT FOR ME. Nami and Franky have had some lovely moments in recent years in the manga and to me he's her real big brother (and not Zoro, as The Most Annoying People in the World often come to my channel to say).

Before I go on, I want to say that I'm not going to go pointing them out because other people analyze these things better than me but, despite the fact that it looks like they are indeed all together and that the boys are not Nami's hallucination, something still seems off to me. There's some dialogue and attitudes that seem odd to me and I'm very interested to know what's really going on.

Now, this reminded me so much of when they first arrived at Whiskey Peak because back then Luffy, Usopp and Sanji were inmediately drawn by the ambience of the island and only Zoro and Nami remained impassive. Sanji here is not drawn by the island, but by Nami, but my point still stands because it's just the energy the panel gives.

This whole chapter is a nostalgic trip for me because this next panel reminded me of that scene in Jaya where the group goes in search of a southbird and Nami and Sanji almost have a heart attack in that forest because they both have a terrible phobia of bugs. Usopp looked great that night.

AND THIS JSJSJSJSJS Zoro, Nami and Sanji with the same expression, I love them so much.

It's difficult to have one favorite panel in this chapter but these two are up there. Sanji is so fucking right and I love the detail of Nami running after them right after charming that man so that he does not suspect that they have done something bad already and that Luffy is probably about to do something worse.

Nami looks so pretty this chapter, it's actually insane. She is going to serve in Elbaf like never before.

I was right the first time! Chopper was nowhere to be seen! And once again, Nami will never beat the funniest mugiwara allegations.

And finally, this reminded me of the Arabasta desert trip on the giant crab. I don't now if this parallels are made on purpose or not but oh how I enjoyed this.

Heh, that's cold as hell Nami. Never change. She also got to steal and flirt this chapter. A wild, raucous chapter on the whole, but to pick up from last time I'm like to highlight how it does still reinforce this idea something seems weird. Great chapter for classic East Blue crew gags. But you have stuff like Sanji now dropping in a reminder how he feels about bugs after last time, not to mention this one having some of its own contradictions.

I also want to take a moment to highlight the title given the chapter doesn't have anything super specific relating back to it. "RPG," like the type of game you'd see this setting in. That's just a really interesting concept to introduce here in this chapter, to have hanging over all of it. But let's get on with the show:

"Scared of Bugs" Sanji💖 I am so glad to see you return King. You were never once forgotten by the fandom ever since jaya

Also I can't believe we have the "Luffys enabler" thing called out in canon. Zoro🤝Robin🤝Sabo letting that funky dude run off to fight some gods at every opportunity This is genuinely so fun and all the interactions were absolute peak :'D I was never one to critisize post time skipas I think One piece never lost its steam and even improved on a lot of things like the expression game on the girls as seen last chapter. But this gives me so heavy nostalgia for the early grand line banter. Its like we are back in skypiea all over again but in the best possible way

Little 1128 bonus in lieu of a Yamato cover story, courtesy of a conversation with Fallensnowfan. Very simple, but very interesting implications. See the orange box around Sun God's speech bubble? Odd choice of words but one we've seen a lot actually...