paneling set-up of this page is simple but exquisite. luffy is high in the sky so he occupies the top-most spot of the top panel. below him—literally in the story and physically on the page— we get reaction shots from the crowd. and at the bottom we have arlong and zoro, maintaining the same right-left positioning that they’ve kept for the last few pages, with arlong on the right and zoro on the left. luffy was flung in a top-left direction, so zoro facing a top-left direction immediately indicates that he’s looking at luffy.
this page is the moment where everybody sees luffy is okay and hope begins to rise. this is why it’s so important that everyone is looking up at him—characters AND the reader. the only person who’s looking directly ahead is arlong—because the sight of luffy does NOT give him hope.
















