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This is the One Piece podcast episode 859 for the week of Monday, March 10th, 2025. My name is Zach and I have very special guest translator for One Piece and weekly Shonen jump in manga plus Stephen Paul with us. How's it going, Stephen?
A
Hey, I'm back. I'm healthy again.
B
I need to. This might be the time for me to read Oda's comment this week because I feel pressure for you.
A
Sure.
B
Three of my four regular staff members are out sick. I've never faced this level of crisis. What a week. Steven. I guess you must be one of those three.
A
Yeah, I was. I was one of the three. I'm. Yeah, I'm part of the big four. That's what they call us. We protect EIichiro Oda from harm.
B
Fisticuffs.
C
The she ten. No.
D
The four heavenly kings.
B
The.
C
Thank you. Thank you.
B
The four emperors of the Sea. Stephen, how are you feeling? Better though? Everything good?
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've transitioned from, you know, like viral cold to just plain allergies and, you know, pollen.
B
Season 2025 has been a hell of a year. It's March. We also have our artist for this week. Also Eisner Award nominated artist for Merman Go. I love trying to get to do all these off the top of my head. Ghost Hog, Dragon Racer and his newest series, which is the one I keep. I say Dragon Racer. Is that the newest one, Joey?
E
It is until a week from now on March 18, when the littlest Fighter drops.
B
Littlest Fighter. I'll get.
E
Yeah. Look out for the littlest fighter. March 18 and beyond.
B
You know, I was just setting up the plug is what I was doing.
C
Does he Do a one inch punch.
E
Yeah, that would be a small fight.
C
Good.
E
Just an inch.
B
What is it an inch high? Private eye or whatever that is. We also have Dennis. You may know him as Itchnob, longtime contributor to the podcast and podcaster for of his own in His Own right vintage anime pod and. And others. How's it going, Dennis?
D
It's going good. I want to give a shout out to my man Shanks for his birthday. And also it is Zach's day. Happy Zaku day for all you Gundam fans out there.
B
Oh, it's not my.
C
Thank you.
B
Well, I mean, that's my boyfriend.
A
Yeah.
D
Zaku.
B
I mean, I do like how in Japan that is my name. Yeah. Abby Denton.
C
They have actual pipes. I'm really. I'm just delighted you got Stephen Paul on this podcast. Like, I've been thinking he'd be great on this for years and years and I'm glad you finally.
B
You don't even listen. Abby Denton's with us. Comedian. And what, you have something coming up too, Abby? Right?
C
I do. Well, okay. So using a fake name online unfortunately means that it's very hard to convince Kickstarter that I'm not a fraud attempting to steal money. So this keeps getting pushed back, but we're within. I think this has been in the pipeline making for two years. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think I've said look out for this for two years. Then poor Javi. Poor Javi sadly got regular paying gig for two years. The poor, poor man suffering for us all. But now we finally have time again to do Gamer mom the Mamu games. And if you Google it, look it up on Itch IO there's a landing page I made there and you can read a 10 page preview. You'll love it. It's got jokes. You'll love it. You'll love it.
B
I like jokes.
C
We're making something great. It's. It's beautiful. Like. Like, like my mother.
B
I'm trying to think of the name of the Patton Oswald thing. The. Was it the bed that eats people?
D
Deathbed the bed.
B
It's just the similar. I like it. It's a. Yeah, similar, like rhythm, not any other thing thing.
C
Yeah, you know, I was going for the man who laughs, but that is admittedly a much more readily recognizable cultural reference.
B
No, the thing is, I have no.
C
It's something I'm actually familiar with.
B
I have no cultural touchstones whatsoever. So that's my issue on today's episode. We're going through chapter 1142. Yeah, that's right. And we also have Piece together. But before we get into that, the biggest big News is after 18 years, Crunchyroll, now formerly Funimation, the dub has caught up with the release of One Piece somehow. Yeah, Dennis, you're. You're fist pumping that. Which is appropriate.
D
Good for everybody who are staunch dub only people. But the dub is good, so kudos to them to be able to be caught up, you know, with the whole break that the anime had for what is it, three months, four months?
A
Yeah.
D
I thought it was pretty amazing that the dub cast was able to spend that time catching up. So that's great.
C
And it's a great dub. All the performances are amazing. I was just watching the dub of Whole Cake and there's that great bit where Sanji's like, so you're telling me that I'm a clone.
B
What's going on with that?
C
Love that, though.
B
That's such a good Eric Vale impression. Emily, who friend of the show, did post a big thank you. I'll read a little of it. Not the, not the whole thing, but just that. 18 years in the making, the English dub of One Piece is officially caught up to the Japanese version of the main story. It's been one of the biggest honors of my life to spend the last three years sailing. I can't believe it's been that long. Sailing toward this milestone with everyone first as one of two ADR directors and then as the sole ADR director, nearly 1500 actors and crew members stretching across two decades is what it took to reach this massive milestone. The largest English dubbing effort in American history. Also mentions that it was five days a week that they were doing this for three years straight, which. Which is nuts. Employing the entire state of Texas. Much like Walker, Texas Ranger, which I believe was the comparison that has been used to One Piece over there.
A
It is. Texas is a right to voice act state. So is that what it is?
B
It's in the constitution. You have to be in One Piece if you live in the state of Texas.
A
If you have.
B
Yeah, yeah.
A
I was thinking about this and I was wondering how many other countries or if there are any other countries, any other dubs of the One Piece anime that have covered like the entire length of the series and are also like done by essentially the same regime, like the same company. I mean, you know, obviously a lot has changed over the years from funimation to Crunchyroll. But like, it's a through line. You know, the same people have been involved the. The whole way. So that's a remarkable, you know, Longevity. And it's quite a feat.
B
In similar news, the One Piece Dallas event. The One Piece Day Dallas event was happening this past weekend. And I think in addition to showing some double dated stuff, I believe, and I know Brina Palencia at least was their voice of Chopper. It seemed that they also had an exclusive premiere of the upcoming episodes, maybe. Ooh. So no one knows about this? I was just.
E
No, I had not. This is my first time here.
D
I knew about the event. I could not go because I could not swing it. But all I saw was some actors along with Kitadani doing a concert there. And it's mainly supposed to be focused on like cards, tabletop card, that sort of stuff.
B
Yeah, I think it's through Bandai Pandai.
D
Yes. Yes, it is. And the first time that it happened in the us.
C
They got Ayami Miyazaki to do the Card Fest last year. But that's a Digimon guy.
B
They. I think they did something similar in la, I think last year for the One Piece card game with Kitadani and Otsuki. Right. Is that her name?
A
Makiotsuki.
B
Makiotsuki. So I think this had like there's been some sort of template, but I don't think it was called One Piece Day.
D
Yeah, it wasn't called One Piece Day. It was usually just like Bandai's all encompassing game stuff. So with the One Piece stuff with their other card games and stuff that they have too. So it was more like.
C
And Digimon was there too.
B
I'll have Maddie on again. So you have more representation here.
D
I'm just glad I didn't say Yu Gi.
A
Oh.
D
Because that is not Bandai. I was like, what's another card game that Bandai has? You. No, not that one. No.
C
They tried to have. What is it? Union. Union. Something. Just launching Gundam. What is it? Battle Spirits that tanked so bad that like it's $10 for a box now.
B
One Piece seems to be. The card game seems to be doing well though.
D
It does.
B
They said they're gonna do simultaneous releases in different languages next year. I think for One Piece.
C
Wait, they spent last year doing Digimon, like at a ramped up worldwide, like the international release, super fast. And now it's already linked up. It's weird that they didn't do that with One Piece too, since that's like the big money maker.
A
But they're already digital, so half the.
C
Work is already much easier.
B
This is all above my head. I'll say though. I've. You know, we've always, I think, wanted kind of like a one piece con. And this is the closest we have gotten so far and it seems like they've been successful. If anything, they don't sell enough tickets from, from what I saw, because it's like a lottery, I think, as to. As to who gets into the thing, whatever you want to call it. The event. They're called events. Any questions? I have no answers.
C
Where do babies come from? Zach?
B
I wish I knew. Gonna let that pregnant pause. No pun intended. My best puns are accidental. That's another piece of news.
C
Much like your best children.
B
No, neither of them were accidental. Anyway, the best. If they're listening to this.
C
Not in a hot mic. Not in a hot mic.
B
No, but they really weren't. Anyway, what was I going to say? Completely lost my train of thought. Volume 111 is out now. We talked a little bit about the COVID Steven and I. Neither of us have it, so I don't think the recap for it is happening next week. Probably not.
A
Yeah.
B
Unless some forces come together to allow it to happen. But we'll. We'll be on standby for it. I am excited to go through that. I've already seen. I don't usually see leaks for it, but I've been seeing leaks for it.
A
Yeah, we'll see. If. If Greg happens to not be available for the sgs, then maybe we'll have to. To figure something out to. To. To do the volume recap instead.
B
Or something that does remind.
A
Since there is no chapter.
B
There is no chapter next week. Yeah. That reminds me though, Stephen, I don't think I've talked to you since the last sgs, which was probably one of my favorite episodes of this podcast. Granted, I only listen to the ones that I'm not on, but definitely my favorite of those. Yeah, it was such a fascinating discussion. I have not stopped thinking about Dragon since. And it's not unrelated to the sgs, it's related to it. But do you want to let people know what the SGS is generally? Because I feel like they should be listening to it if they're not.
A
Yeah, it's our, it's our off week thing that we do when the manga is taking a break. Me and Greg Werner, who many of you already know but you know, is a kind of well known super fan of One Piece, has been big in Japan for years. You know, longtime member of the show and is kind of a. I don't want to say confidant of Asia ODA's, but you know, like he he texts the man. So, you know, he works on the. As a consultant on the Netflix series and writes stuff on the official website and so on. And so it's just me and him basically doing our own sort of recap. And it's mostly a sounding board for Greg to get, you know, his ideas off of his chest. But he, he always has a lot of them. And we do take questions as well. So, you know, we do our own question and answer thing. And it's just, it's a very laid back. Because it's just the two of us.
B
And your cat Simba.
A
Yes, and my cat. And we just kind of, you know, just share our expertise. That's what we, we try to do on it.
C
And am I right that because this only happens on off weeks for the comic that it. Spike Jones did the theme song for it and he sings, yes. We don't have a manga. We don't have a manga today.
B
Okay, now I get it.
C
Yes. We have no bananas. Oh, it was great. I worked hard on that. I worked hard. I'm sorry. Seconds of thought went into that.
B
He just imagined you up all night every, every day of the week like, ooh, going to fit this.
C
I've spent all week trying to think of a good sequence of, of of syllables to pretend is a one piece villain laugh. And I think I've hit it. I think Patti LaBelle would be a great one piece villain and she'd go, gitchi, gitchi ya ya da da.
B
Wrote that earlier. Yes, that is accurate. You do that impression. I'll pay for to listen to that whole arc, I guess.
C
Hey, Zolo, want to give it a go?
B
Okay, I'm gonna cut it off there. Let's move into our manga recap. But before we do, please subscribe to us on patreon@patreon.com One Piece podcast. It's the only way to listen to us without any advertisements and with all of Abby Denton's jokes intact. Because obviously they cut out most of my cutouts.
A
It's the unabridged version.
B
Too filthy. Too filthy for air. So check that out if you haven't. But with that out of the way, let's get into the manga.
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This is the manga recap for chapter 1142. What I'm afraid of this is if this were my chapter here.
A
Finally a chapter for the neurotics.
B
Finally the agoraphobics. We're all. We're here.
C
So what's you're afraid of Agoraphobics. You know, most of them seem very nice.
B
Let's go through our biggest fears. We'll start with Abby Denton. No, I don't wanna. What. What's going on? On the COVID page here. Steven, do you want to take it?
A
Sure. This is Ogre Child, Yamato's golden harvest. Surrogate Pilgrimage, Volume 28. Give back the Sword and Girls. Thunder Bagua. And Yamato is donning who's who right in the face.
B
Hey, that's an English stone.
A
Yeah.
B
That's a rare big one.
A
Yeah. Project do.
B
Project Don. Yeah.
D
Battle. Battle Stadium. D O N. Yeah, exactly.
B
Yeah. Yamato enters the fray of. Of his own cover story with with gusto here.
C
The Sword and Girls.
A
Yes.
C
The two highest priorities.
A
The sword is loose.
B
Give me back the sword. And also the girls. I guess I don't. Also it's paid.
C
Not the girls. Just give me back girls.
E
Yeah.
C
I want to go girl. Give me girl.
A
Well, if I'm being pedantic, it is Give back the Sword and Girls. So the covers, both of them.
B
And German.
C
No one does parallelism like that. Except Steven, who's my friend and he's doing a great job.
B
Any thoughts on this cover story?
E
It's my favorite kind where it just looks like a good single illustration over necessarily just a single panic. A panel in a story. You know. I don't know. I like this one a lot. I think it looks good. It's good. Yeah. And it's.
C
Yeah, it's the.
B
The.
C
The after impact instead of middle impact.
A
Although I.
C
Which is a Very samurai movie kind of a way to do it.
A
I don't want to.
E
I feel like every time we see the Thunder Bagua, it's framed exactly the same.
A
I don't want to ruin anyone's, you know, view of this, but I cannot unsee the gigantic index finger now holding the.
E
Oh, yeah, the club. Well, you know, like, sometimes when you hold something, it kind of smushes the skin out a little bit.
A
Yeah, I think so. I think so.
B
Yeah. That's actually a reasonable excuse if. When. When he inevitably makes that excuse in an sbs.
E
Yeah, I'll take my. No prize. Thank you.
C
Four people were sick this week. Hands.
D
Hands are hard to draw. All right?
B
They are. I forgot to mention, you could read this chapter. In all chapters, as soon as they come out. A manga plus horizontally or vertically or shonen jumped off is.com mangaplus Shueisha Co JP come on, you should know this already. It's free, it's legal, it's available worldwide, the same day it comes out in Japan. Anyway, Abby, what's. What's happening here on the first.
C
All right, I gotta do my best anime child voice. Teacher, teacher, teacher, teacher. That's. That's one of the children. And then a different one goes, help us. And then another one. I think, because I grew up in 90s dubbing, another one would probably just have an inexplicable Brooklyn accent and go, teacher. There's a huge snake in the school yard. And this. This kid's just got two. One big tooth at the top and one big tooth at the bottom. I don't know if you've gotten a name for this kid.
B
His name is. What are those mole rats. Like, the. The really creepy ones.
D
Rufus, the naked mole rat.
B
The naked mole rat. Rufus, the naked mole rat.
A
What's the. What's the squirrel?
B
Joey, get on it, SpongeBob. Oh, Sandy.
D
Sandy.
C
And another one that looks kind of like a. Like a tall shark. Says it must be Jormungandr. It's the snake that brings an end to the week. Oh, and I. I do want Stephen to break down this pun. Yeah, because I saw how it changed.
B
I'm sorry, Abby. I didn't mean to interrupt. I know. I did see people talking about this first page since it comes out legally on the One Piece site. The first page. And being like, how is Stephen gonna do this pun? And damn, you did it, Steven. Yeah, I want to hear a breakdown.
A
Okay, well, we didn't finish the joke.
C
Okay, so the punchline.
B
I'm sorry. I'm Sorry.
C
It's the snake that brings an end to the week spelled W, E, A K. The weak, those who are not strong, but someone else, you know, hears the homophone and says, you mean Saturday?
A
Yeah, like the weekend.
C
It's good. It's a good.
A
Yeah.
E
Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend.
A
Yeah.
D
Thank you. Thank you, Dan.
A
Yeah. Was a weekend pun. So the thing I had to change was the description of Jormungand, which was originally. It would have been like the. The snake of the end times or the. The conclusion or the ending or something like that, so. Or like, you know, I guess the. I guess you would interpret that as the snake at the end of the world or something. And it just means that the word shuumatsu was a homophone for weekend. And so, you know, one of the kids responds, it's Saturday. So I basically was like, okay, so Saturday. All right, how do I do a weekend pun? And then I was like, oh, well, week is a direct homophone of, you know, W E A K week. So, you know, the initial message had to be slightly adjusted. But I thought it, you know, it was like 90% of the way there already. So I was like, oh, that's perfect. And so, yeah, it took, like, 30 seconds to do that. Yeah.
E
Very well, then.
B
A professional.
C
I've enjoyed it for more than 30 seconds, which I think that that's better than most labor.
A
Yeah.
C
Yeah. Your. Your joke dollars are getting stretched very well there. And the snake looks really, really fun. It's a. It's a good. We haven't seen a lot of fun monsters lately, so it's good. Good to see a wacky snake. And then all the kids are saying, oh, no. Eek. It's gonna eat us. Everyone run into the school, and one of the kids has, like, a weird Soga King hat. These are some. Some fun little baby kids, Vicki. The Viking babies running from the snake and their teachers trying to. Trying to. Trying to slow it down ineffectively. They go into the faculty room of the Walrus School, and someone comes in and yells, we got trouble, teachers. There really is an enormous snake out there. Presumably because the faculty had been possibly sitting there thinking, oh, these children are making up this giant snake. All the. All the.
B
To be fair.
C
Thumping and fair. Yes, A beast from the underworld. What is it doing here in the Sun World? And then the math teacher, Mr. Blade.
E
Says, don't cross him.
C
Always someone's trying to go uphill and ice skate. Mr. Blade, he says, I'm the day walker. He says, I only hope we can evacuate everyone in Time. And then the Walrus School principal, Mr. Tusk, says we should call the Chiefs. Wait, sorry, hang on. We should call the Cliffs.
B
So upset. We're not a video podcast.
E
Like, I'm there.
C
And then the language teacher librarian, Ms. Ange, which isn't quite as funny as Mr. Blade, I have to say. But in the meantime, the children are in danger. That. She's the serious one. She's the shemp. The one that no one laughs at.
B
Her. Vice versa.
C
Oh, yeah. You know, I. You always see a N G E in, like, manga. I don't watch as much anime as manga. Like, how. How is that pronounced? Oh, I don't know, like, in either language.
A
Yeah, this one is. I think it's. Is it NJ or is it Anjay? I forget. It's not Angie. Like. Like an American Style. Okay, but I'll shut up. But I. I don't. I don't think it really matters that much.
C
I'm gonna do. You know, I never know how to pronounce a lot of these sort of anime words. Like that character in that manga that started in Shonen Jump recently. Star of Bethoven.
E
This weird Japanese words. They're very difficult.
C
Get Bethoven. He's, you know, that had all those symphonies in this. I think it's fun how you can make up.
B
Beth Hoven.
C
Yeah, yeah. Beth Hovind Symphony Sympony.
D
Just keep saying simp a whole bunch.
E
Yeah.
C
Tentatively. I like. I'm excited for more. Star of Beethoven. I'm enjoying it. Anyway, the child's crying. He says, teacher, it's gonna gobble aegir up. And there's a little kid, presumably ajir, sitting there while the snake roars forward. And the kid goes. And all the little kids in the background are going. And. Yeah, really tiny and really cute because they're little kids. So when. When they scream, they go. And the snake has a big tongue lashing out because, you know, he's not like a. Like a creature you'd see in a. In a sane and, you know, very realistically rendered comic. He's, you know, he's like something out of some kind of a horror story, perhaps.
B
Wow. Foreshadowing.
A
Yeah.
E
And there's, like, early on, you can kind of notice that the, like, shading on him, especially in that first page.
C
Oh, wow. Yeah.
E
Unusual. Yeah.
C
That's a very good catch.
B
It was very similar, I think. Yeah. I was going to say someone mentioned that in Discord. I agree that it does, Dennis.
D
All right, next page, we have one of the teachers charging in Yelling move it. And wielding a large two handed hammer.
B
That's the principal.
D
That's the principal. We zoom in, see Principal Tusk making the very, very angry face. And for all my Monster Hunter players out there, he's doing a level two hammer charge. That way when he's running for it, he gets the upswing uppercut, which is only for level two obviously. With a huge leap, swings. It protects Ager Gwarb and the snake. Then still reeling. It hasn't actually been stunned yet, but it's built up a lot of stun damage, which is what the hammer does being a blunt weapon. And then we see who's that? But it is Saul running up the tree saying sorry I'm late. Watch out Tusk. And looks like he's just like Henry Cavill clocking his arm, you know. Yeah. Cocking his arms so they could loading up a punch I guess. Yells out midterm. And then his hand is imbued with Haki. And as a snake is sort of still feeling that hammer blow, looking up at Saul coming down reels X slam. And then with a big old hockey base attack, smashes them to the ground. Big impact everywhere. Snake yells out this really funny onomatopoeia phrases just says Gyarg.
B
Gyarg. I saw that animated giant.
D
Giant Gjorg. Yeah, it's really good robot.
C
I like that between like Luffy's everything and Kanjuro and whatever's going on with these guys. Like, like Oda's just written in so many ways to do Looney Tunes stuff. Not that he was really limited before.
E
But been quite a few many years since I was last in school. But that's what I looked at at the end of midterm. Exclaims as well.
C
Oh, could. What is it? The, the wiki says that the Japanese is kimatsu shiken, literally meaning demon erasing resolute fist. I assume there's puns that this.
A
Yes.
C
Bringing in, but I would love to hear a breakdown of this.
A
Yeah, it's so. It is a classic one piece style attack name where you know, Oda puts together a bunch of cool sounding kanji and menacing and very intense sounding kanji. But they are meant to be read in a way that sounds like something completely different or innocuous. And the funny thing is.
C
Oh, like the onigiri.
A
Yes, very similar to that. But the, the funny thing here is that actually I, I adjusted the. The term so the, the homophone like the joke in it in the name is that he's actually saying like Final exams or final tests. And I came up with the. I came up with the exlam pun pretty quickly. But then I was like, I was afraid that it would be too difficult to parse as a school related term. Like, if it was just final ex slam. I was like, maybe people will think that's like, I don't know, like final rights or something like that. It's like a, you know, like an undertaker move or something like that. So I changed it from final to midterm just to make sure that it was something you would not ever confuse for anything that was not school related. Because it is definitely a school pun since Saul is a teacher now. So, yeah, that was.
D
If there were another speech bubble, you could have given, like a test grade at the very end where it's like, hit Simon, like, you failed.
C
Okay, discussion question. Is it funnier to imagine that Jaguar was a Marine using school themed attacks and everyone else on his crew were like, like, you're off theme. Like, this doesn't make any sense at all. Or is it funnier to imagine him sitting up, like, after changing jobs and being like, all right, I got to rename all my moves.
E
Oh, yeah, with a notepad.
D
Was a teacher first and then got drafted. So he already had.
B
We don't know.
C
Okay. I like it. I like it.
A
I know what his past was.
B
Do we know his age?
D
No, I don't think we do.
A
You know, you want to give me some time to look through the cards?
C
The wiki says he's 127.
B
Oh, that sounds right.
C
I don't know where they get it.
B
From, but probably the fever card.
E
Sounds like a beaver card to me. Do we all see what's wrong with this last panel? The slam panel?
A
He has two feet. Yep.
C
Oh, whoopsies.
A
Yeah.
C
One was maybe it's moving so that we're getting like an after image. You know, like when you wiggle a pencil and make it look like it's rubber.
E
That must be it. He's got a little something.
A
Yeah.
C
Oda had it planned all along.
B
Guys, to be fair, it's just like a line that he needs to fix. He just needs to erase a little bit. Right.
A
I will say when. When Dennis was describing the. The hammer techniques that Principal Tusk was using, I think I cracked the case of why three out of four staff members were sick.
B
Yeah. Yeah.
A
It is the new Dragon Quest.
B
Yeah.
C
Although if they were any good, they'd be using hunting horn.
B
I do like how his they would be. I do like how the principal's hammer Also has tusks.
A
Yeah, it's like just a big tooth.
B
What are those called again? The thing that on the other side of the hammer. I don't remember.
C
The nail remover thingies.
B
Yes, the technical.
C
You know what? Let's just call them tusks.
B
Yeah.
D
Nail tusks.
B
Yeah, Hammer tusks. Hammer tusks, Steven. All right, page here.
A
So, yes, the kids are watching in shock as like, whoa. And they're screaming. We get a. A wide shot of the. The school. You can see how big the snake is overall as it's kind of like its body seems to be sort of undulating through the. The. The. The impact going through its length. And then the. The little boy Aier who we.
C
You.
A
You might recognize him because he was in a previous scene. I think he was on the swing with Luffy. He's, you know, because he has this very distinct, like, flared hair, blonde hair. And he is pointing at something going, Ah, what, Mr. Principal? Which, I mean, I don't know. I mean, I guess if I saw my school principal, like, swinging a giant hammer at a monster, I would probably freak out too. But it does seem like a bit of an extreme reaction in this case. But yeah, he gets to his feet and he's doing like the. He's tapping the. His back like an old person does and going, oh, my back. Thanks for the help, Saul. And Saul is also getting to his. His foot and says, don't mention it. Where'd this snake come from, though? And the kids are like, Mister, Mr. Principal. Mr. Saul. And we get another ODA box for Tusk the principal. But this time it is revealed five.
C
Pages after the last.
A
This time it revealing that he is a former member of the Giant pirates. So that being Dorian Brogy's crew, not Hiredin's crew. And so the. The kids who again, like, just every time we see him, there's. There's different kids here. They're all dressed so adorably. And this one is like, you used to be a warrior too, Mr. Principal. The rumors were true. Mr. Saul is super duper strong. He was in the navy, right? That was really cool. So, you know, despite their apparent fear of, you know, violence and fighting, the kids are definitely blown away by the display they have just seen. And meanwhile, up on. Are they in his beard? Is that where they were?
E
They hide it in his beard?
D
Yeah, they're in a beard.
B
Meanwhile, up on Saul, who's also seeing.
C
Saul's beard.
A
Robin and Chopper just pop out. And Robin says, there are monsters like this in The Sun World Saw. And he says, not really. They're more like the usual wild animals. And Chopper remarks, it's enormous. Which you'd think they would be used to it, really.
C
Putting his doctor training to work there.
A
Chopper and Saul, like. Like. Like the character from south park says, sorry about the scare, children. And they're like, thank you, Mr. Saul. And there's more screaming, and someone says, Mr. Wolf. And chopper, like the reader, says, what is it now? And then we go back inside the school. So this is very frenetic pacing here. Inside the school. We see the gym teacher, Mr. Wolf.
B
Does it sound like a name people have? Mr. Wolf?
A
Yeah.
B
Maybe it's Wolf Blitzer.
A
What big teeth you have.
C
Actually, the chorus teacher at my school was named Mr. Wolf.
B
Really?
E
There's a very.
C
Didn't spend a lot of time in the gym, though, big guy.
E
There's a very cute graphic novel series called Mr. Wolf's Classroom, which this made me think of.
A
But, I mean, I was taking a.
B
Callback to a previous episode where I was an idiot, but it's fine.
E
No, Zach, we all heard that.
C
You're a lovely person. We're proud to know you.
A
You know, I would think you're our friend. Mr. Wolf would be a great name for a choral teacher since they are so often singing in chorus. But, yeah, Mr. Wolf is bloodied on the ground and they're wondering what happened to you. And he's. He is worse for the wear.
B
It's funny here that the. The. Not the academics are the one kicking ass, and the gym teacher gets his ass kicked. I am a little. I'm not lost on the irony there.
D
Before we move on, I want to point out one thing. It looks like there's a little girl developing her first little crush on one of the. Probably on Saul. I'm going to say. It's all. You see her going like, kya. And then like, little hearts and stuff. It's like the kindergartner's first crush on the teacher. Oh, my God.
B
It might just be like. What do you call it? Like. You're so inspirational.
A
They're just so happy. Yeah, it could be.
C
You know, Jaguar was my first crush reading this comic, too.
B
It's the hat, isn't it?
C
It's the underbite.
B
Okay.
E
Nice.
B
Yeah. I don't know why I would have assumed otherwise.
C
I like orcs.
B
Forget that. What about the children? And everyone's like, band and. Is this. So this is Saul's accent, right? Oh, no. Or Y, L, V, A. Is that a. That's not a name.
A
That's a name.
B
That's a name. Who's. Oh, Ilva. Okay, I'm sorry, I'm not Scandinavian. Unfortunately, teacher Ilva and the others wandered off somewhere and everyone's like, what? Where? And here is the kid who is cosplaying Super Saiyan to Gohan back here saying, oh, are you guys Luffy's friends? And Robin's like, yeah, that's right. And shuffles away after remembering Luffy tortured them by swinging them and. And a bunch of other things. I think Robin being like, did Luffy do something to you? Meanwhile, the gym teacher arises ready to do push ups, saying, Be careful, Mr. Saul. While Mr. Saul uses both his legs. But it's a peg leg. I'm remembering Kyros all of a sudden. And the. The animators are gonna have to go through.
E
Well, he's got that peg.
B
Yeah, that's true.
E
Yeah, he's got a leg up on Kyros.
B
Cuirass has an invisible leg. Oh, Oh, I thought my pun was bad. You mustn't. You mustn't touch the children.
A
There's some life advice.
C
Did Luffy do something to you?
B
I don't like any of this Saul questions. This is why I thought it was Ilva was his accent. Because which way, way. Which way do you and them go? I can't even. It's like a tongue twister.
D
At least you didn't think it was an organization like the Ylva.
B
Yeah, I'd like to stay at the Ylva.
E
Yes.
B
You guys could think of what that stands for. Anyway, that way toward the beach. And they head toward the. And you see, heading toward the beach, a bunch of children walking in the distance and said, Mr. Saul, what happened to them? They fell fast asleep and wouldn't talk to us. And Robin, noting the contradiction here. Asleep? You said they were walking. You guys are telling the truth. But Robin being proven wrong immediately as we see. I. I do like. This is a fun perspective shot, actually. Here I'm walking on the beach and we see what is very likely Gunko's arrow next to them as they're sleep walking through the. On the beach, enjoying the. I don't know what time of day it is, say sunset, I guess. And they're sorry. They. They walk on with snot bubbles and all which. Having a baby I could say is a real thing. I have seen snot bubbles. They totally exist. And they're really. Oh, yeah, yeah. I think I remember thinking, wow, my daughter is an anime character. I knew it would happen. Anyway, they. They're. They're walking forward. And everyone's like, come back. Where you going? Blow the horn, says the principal. Warn the whole country. And Saul's like, isn't that a little overboard here? I mean, the whole country. And Principal's like, this is an abnormal state of affairs, Saul. He should sound like Wilford Brimley. I'm realizing.
C
You gotta. You gotta. You gotta get this going to do the voice. All right, get your fingers up here.
B
This is an abnormal state of affairs.
D
Saul.
B
Look at the forest better. And Saul is like, what? And meanwhile, you hear them blowing the shofar as we go to the next page. Steven.
A
Oh, me again. Okay, so Robin. We get the reaction from the straw hats here. Robin, as usual, is. Is reserved. Huh? And Chopper is much less. So what? There are more monsters there. And we see big inky silhouettes of some gigantic bird and some kind of like, wolf like creature. Where'd they come from? See? Abnormal. Right, Mr. Principal, the children are passing out now. Anjay is directing their attention to the other kids that were right there with them, who are all flopping and thudding to the ground. And she's trying to rouse them. What's wrong? Everyone hang in there. What now? I just don't understand. Get up, kids. And we can see that, yes, they are just totally knocked out. Robin is speechless. She's got a hand to her mouth. And Chopper, once again speaking for the audience, wondering what's happening.
C
He's doing a tiny little anaru face.
A
It really is. Yeah. But then he snaps to attention. He's like, let me down there, Saul. I'll take a look at him. He's doing. It's like a. Hold me back. Let me at him. Let me at him. I want to do something. And so Saul says, thanks. Please do. I'm at a loss. The first thing we should do is stop the children and get them to safety. So clearly there's some kind of emergency going on. They can't control the kids. They don't know what's happening to them. And no one seems to know what the right course of affairs is.
B
At least that's the only bad thing happening on Elbaf.
A
Yes. Nothing else. Fortunately, it's just contained to one place. Meanwhile, down in the underworld.
B
Oh, yeah. Oh, shit.
A
Here. Here he is, as they call him. The what? The Aura Farmer or the Aura Merchant or whatever. Loki is on his feet, as we saw at the end of the last chapter. And he says, you thought that leaving one leg trapped in Sea Prism stone would contain the true Extent of my power. That was foolish of you. If you want to save Elbaf, undo the final cuff. Now you'll soon see if I'm really helpless or not in this condition. And Hayridin is there, and he's saying Loki, and you can really get a sense, even though these guys are half brothers. Jesus, that Loki is quite a bit larger than Hayridin. And yes, the. Even the. The Straw Hats. Even smaller, of course. And it is kind of interesting to like, to. To try to parse. Like, does Loki mean if you want to save Elbaf, as in like. Like, do you want to see Elbaf spared, or is it, do you want to actually save it? As in, I'm the only person who can save.
B
Yeah. Now, that was definitely the most interesting line of the chapter for me.
A
Yeah. And I think it's. I think it's meant to be kind of ambiguous that way, because I'm assuming the latter.
B
Because if you're have faith in Loki for some reason, since the.
A
The story here is that, like, Luffy seems to trust Loki for some reason, and Oda is really drawing out, like, the. Like, he's. He's trying to get us to the point where we're like. We're almost angry with Luffy. Like. Like, Luffy, how could you do this? Like, why. Why did you think this was a good idea? And Luffy, of course, is not explaining himself at any point, even when the other Straw Hats are like. And Zorro are like, like, what's your deal with this guy? And he still won't respond. And I think that's because Oda is really trying to ratchet up the dramatic tension before kind of probably showing us that Loki is not exactly, you know, who we think he is, but he certainly is dangerous. And Luffy here is like, hey. And Sanji is wondering, what's his deal? And then Loki is sticking that tongue out. Better watch out. You know how far you stick that out when you talk? Because it's gonna hurt if you bite it. He says, better hurry up. If I keep lending blasts, eventually they'll hit something and the fires will spread. You know what Elbaf is susceptible to, don't you? Didn't you hear a very unnatural line of dialogue about that last chapter?
B
Thank you, Stephen.
A
And yeah, and that was kind of a fun thing too, where, like, when he keeps saying blasts and you're like, are you talking about just like, swinging the hammer? Or is there something else you're talking about? Which we will see on the next page.
D
On that Page Loki brings the hammer up and yells, I can bring you all to ruin. And it looks like there's some electricity or something cackling in the Hammer itself. Hyrudan yells, stop it, Loki. But no, Loki does not stop. Swings the hammer into. I'm assuming it's part of the tree that he's next to. Yggdrasil. And like a loud crash is happening. A loud doom sound happens and it changes the lighting as everyone is dramatically shadowed. You see Zoro, Luffy, Hiredin and the other giants and stuff there too. Bruto.
A
And.
D
Oh no, I can't remember the name of the other Stanson. Stanson. I was about to say Struzan.
B
Like, no, it's not Streusan.
D
That's a Charlotte fan.
E
Zoro's like the goggles. They do nothing.
D
Yeah, he only needs a monogle. We know. But.
B
Wow. True.
D
All of this is happening while they're looking. And all of a sudden a loud. Well, the doom keeps happening. And we see a fire start breaking out somewhere around Yggdrasil. It looks more like lightning is striking this too.
B
So it's a fire caused by the lightning.
D
Yeah.
B
Yeah.
C
That's how he signals his friend Anal, who's just waiting up above.
B
Anal or Anna.
C
We all hear what we want to hear.
B
That's why I prefer. This is why I prefer Enterer.
C
That's why they had to re record all the episodes I was on during skypiea.
A
That being her anal retentive comments again.
B
I'll write it down. Why no. As anal retentive.
C
Okay.
A
And actually that's good.
D
All right.
C
Uno.
D
So yeah.
A
The king.
C
Uno.
B
Okay.
D
Loki's weapon. Not Mjolnir. Ragnar. Ragnar bringing lightning hitting Yggdrasil. And then the other citizens of Aloqwang. Was that thunder? There's fire on the south side of the island. Call Chief Jarl. Did you hear the horn too? All the notifications are going off.
E
Everyone's checking their phone.
D
Like what's happening? Amber Alerts everywhere. Let's go. Anything but fire. We must put it out quick. Check your apps. Where's the California had to deal with.
A
That fire watch earlier. Elbaf and their fire Twitter.
D
Yeah.
C
My fan theory for how they minimize thunder hitting their tree is that there's a bunch of giants on. On all the branches of the tree with little straws and they're blowing all the clouds away so that they don't go overhead and do a thunderstorm. That's my fan theory.
B
Abby.
C
Canon to me, folks. All righty. On the next page, we're back at the walrus school. And everyone at the walrus school should have tusks, but only one man does. And Ms. Ange says, Mr. Saul. Mr. Principal, I. I recognize those monsters. And. And Mr. Walrus. Mr. Tusks. Wally Tuskin says, you do, Ms. Ange. And she says, it was earlier today. And then the harp starts playing because they're entering a flashback, and they do those little foreshortened panels that I really like that Oda does that I've never been able to describe adequately to anyone.
B
I think the harp is a good description of, like, the visual harp.
C
Oh, my God. Oh, my gosh, you're right. That's great.
B
Yeah.
C
Oda does it again.
B
I just want to say I just connected that the walrus school is because of Tusk. This just occurred to me.
A
Oh, boy.
E
Zach, he's a walrus.
B
No. Well, he's not literally a walrus. He's just guy with very long teeth.
C
Probably he has tusks. But the school was named in honor of Wally Tuskett, the friend of Mantarokaniku from. From Kinika Manise. I don't know his actual name because I was a child. And the kids are all talking like, loki has a huge hammer and he destroys the world. That's his thing, destroying the world. He's always doing it. He's always destroying the world. Bad guy. Another kid's like, no, he doesn't. The one who destroys the world is Naa and holds up a big picture of. Of Na wearing a grass skirt and a little donut shield. That's very cute. And a sword, which he's holding it by the blade. That's not our Nika. Can't hold.
B
Okay.
C
Yeah, that is our Nika. He doesn't know how to use.
E
Peacetime.
D
They don't know how to fight. They don't know that the blade is the sharp part.
C
Yeah, they're just roasting.
B
How old are these kids?
C
Needs a crewmate to hold a sword for him.
D
They haven't studied the Blade. Mr. Blade teaches mathematics, not the sword.
B
That's true.
A
Well, the One kid is 20. Colin is 20, so that's probably.
B
I have to do math. Yeah.
A
Yeah.
B
What is that supposed to be?
D
Divide by five.
B
What is it divided by? I don't even know what giant years are.
A
Yeah. So if the kids are all around 20, then this is an accurate snapshot of the American education system.
B
Oh, it's true.
C
I drew my OC. Nika look. And everyone else is like, yeah, he's scary. Nika is scary. And another one's like, nah, man. Loki's scarier. Another one's like, no way. Obviously, the scariest thing of all is Fenrir the giant wolf.
B
What a nerd.
A
Their power scheme.
C
Oh. Oh, man. That. That guy's drawn so many pictures of the giant wolf.
B
Yeah.
C
So many outfits.
E
All.
C
All his little outfits. And massages. Like, don't stand on your desks, children. Which, you know. That's good advice. That's good advice. We had a kid in my middle school who would sit up on. He'd stand. He'd hop up on his chair and yell, spidey sense tinkling. And, like, do the pose. That kid ruled. I think he's president now. Oh, and another little kid does. Does a spooky ghost pose. She sticks out her tongue goes, it's ghosts. Another one says it's the undead Draugr. And another one says it's storms. Another one says it's Nidhoggar the lightning dragon who's always hogging up all the nids.
B
Oh, I hate that.
C
It's Jormungandr. And another one says, it's my mom.
B
I know her.
C
Your mom's a nightmare.
D
Your mom destroys the world.
C
Massage asks, is everybody finished? That's what you have to do when your kids get excited by something. And look. Little girl says, teacher, if I have to think of so many scary things, I'm gonna have a nightmare tonight. And this was Ilva all along. And Misogyny says, I'm happy to see so much personality and creativity in all these drawings and essays, though.
B
What. What is this assignment?
A
Yeah, I was like, okay, so we called it. We joked about it being the chapter of Neurotics, but, like, yeah, who assigns their kids? Like, think of the scariest thing you can think of. Let's all share our knowledge with each other.
B
Like, look, I get it.
A
Everyone drawing problems.
D
Let's go.
B
I get drawn prompts and freeform and all that. But. But, like, let's think of the thing that keeps you up at night.
C
If this is like a warrior culture, I kind of like it as, like, oh, you have to, you know, get used to your fears and address them or something. I could see if. Oh, that. Yeah. Yeah. Well, maybe. Maybe they haven't updated the curriculum decades.
B
Again, like, the American education.
C
No giant left behind. Normally, that would have killed in 2005.
B
That would have killed in 2003. I'll write it down.
A
Normally, in the. In the horror movie, like, it's the kid drawing the monster that freaks everyone out. But they. You don't assign the kids to draw the monsters as part of their homework.
B
So this, I think, would have worked almost as well if it were just the kids talking about this and drawing it separate from an assignment.
E
I wasn't actually going to bring this up, but this is flowing into something that I was talking about on the Discord. This reminds me very distinctly of a scene from Godzilla vs Biollante where there's all these psychic children and they're like, everyone's drawing their dreams today. What did you dream about? Children. And then all of the children simultaneously all raise up like drawings of Godzilla. And it's like this very, like, weirdly frightening moment. Sound like. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
C
Heisei monster movies are great.
E
It's really great.
B
I was gonna say that. I mean, there's a lot of. There's a few Star Trek episodes like that of. In a variety of different series. I think Voyager is the one that pops into my head and start drawing Godzilla. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's a good episode. You should watch that.
C
Wesley. Stop drawing Godzilla playing basketball. You're a cadet now.
B
It's also very Twilight Zone y. I know. The Simpsons did play on it like the all powerful child kind of thing. And then. And that. Which is not quite. But, I mean, this does feel very Twilight Zone. Yeah, yeah. Sorry, Abby. We had. Was that it for the page? I forget there was one panel left. Yeah.
C
And it's just. Just explaining the scene. She says all of those things that are showing up in the woods are what the children drew based on the prompt of what they were afraid. Okay. So that was the assignment was.
B
Yeah.
C
Prompt of what they were afraid of.
B
What the.
C
And Mr. Tusk, the principal of a children's elementary school for giants who are 20 years old but act like 5 year olds and who used to be a pirate on a. A giant boat the size of a lake says, but that's.
B
But that's ridiculous. You're right. It would have been ridiculous if you didn't do the Tusk thing.
C
Thank you. Yes. It's anilitude that I bring to your podcast.
A
He's shocked. He's like, I didn't approve this curriculum.
B
I thought we updated the books, Joey.
C
Oh, the last spread is so cool. It's best. It's so good.
E
Yeah. So here we are on this last spread here where they say these things are a vision of the world that terrifies the children most. And Saul and the others look on, and I'm going to go ahead and just describe these real quick. Let me get through this. I'm sure we all have stuff to say about them, but we see a dragon and my favorite, a bear with a helmet and an angry bird. Maybe you've heard of them. A ferocious warrior. Looks kind of like a Viking warrior. I think that's supposed to be a scary wolf. A Stormcloud. I think that's a like tentacle beast in the background. Nika himself looking, looking real fierce. A kind of tired looking skeleton. Kind of, given the Gasha Dokoro vibe here, reaching over the treetops. Oh, there's a ghost in the background. I didn't really notice that behind Nika there's a spooky ghost and then there's another sort, spooky black hatted creature. And then the most terrifying creature of them all, a mom.
A
The Obahan.
E
Yeah. And they all look fantastic. Really great. They all have that sort of like marker gray tone thing that makes them look kind of like the Conjuro drawings like we were talking about. And you can kind of do A to B. Like if you go back and compare what the kids were saying, you can be like, oh, that's, that's, you know, what was the nid. Nidhogger, the dragon who.
A
It's interesting.
E
Hugs all the nids.
A
Nidhogg is a. It is a Norse mythological creature, but from what I could tell, I don't think it actually is associated with lightning. But the, the kanji were like, you know, lightning dragon or thunder dragon or something like that. And so in order to, you know, kind of deliver that descriptive kanji use, I, I threw the little description in there just because, you know, it might be important or it might come up somehow. But I, I will note that I don't, I don't believe that in real life or in, in real mythology, real world mythology, that that Nidhogg has anything to do with lightning.
B
It. I just using Wikipedia and the very first sentence I'm reading, Nidhoggar is the one who gnaws at Yggdrasil. So reasonable that it would be a fear for that.
A
Creepy.
B
Yeah, yeah.
E
It's interesting if that guy is Loki, that he has a full beard. So that kind of implies that Loki's been down there long enough that none of the kids have seen him before.
B
I mean, yeah, it's only 20 years.
E
Yeah. But there's been a lot of question about exactly how long he's been down there.
C
My question is the.
B
Sorry, go ahead.
C
Didn't they say it was like 20 years ago.
E
Oh, did they?
C
No.
B
I thought it was only three.
A
Yeah, I thought it was more like five or six that he had, but maybe they've been talking about that.
C
So maybe he's had. The wolves have been gnawing off his beard to shave him.
B
Yeah.
C
And the kids are like, of course he can't shave down there. He's tied down. Of course he has a beard now.
B
That's just logical.
C
They don't believe in him. Yeah, they don't believe in him. These are smart kids. These are smart kids. My question is if they're drawing Nika with a beard. Assuming that's Nika because he doesn't have a beard in the little kids drawing. Although I do like that it looks like the same brush was used to color in the children's picture or marker. Meta Narratively, these kids are scared of beards. Yeah, I. So, okay. Luffy goes away to train for two years on Monster island, comes back from the time skip with a big beard for the rest of the series. How different would the show be?
E
I feel like less popular with a certain string of fan.
B
You can finish up, Joey. Yeah.
E
So then we transition to our holy nights here, starting with Killingham, who's nodding off to sleep, saying, okay, we're all ready to falling asleep. And then I guess he snaps back awake as Chair Guy. What is Chair Guy's name?
A
Summers.
E
Summers. Summers says, hey, good job there, Killingham. And Killingham says that the time limit is until the kids reach the ship. Do you think we can get them back? And Summers laughs with a gi.
B
Hahaha.
E
And says something rather poetic here. To know love is to wound one another. And then he's saying to Gunko, asking her if she's afraid of anything, and she pauses for a moment and contemplates and replies, Nika. To be continued, Steven, I have a.
B
Few questions on that whole. All right, bottom part. Let him rip. Okay, I have two questions. The. The. To know love is to wound one another does feel very. What's the word?
C
Like a quote?
B
No. No. Yeah. It seems unrelated to me at least. Do you have any insight or.
A
No, not particularly. I think it's something that we will probably understand better with more context. But I, you know, I could only guess as to what this has to do. Maybe it could be something like, you know, okay, they're going to. As part of their game or whatever. You know, obviously they. They want to kidnap the. The kids and take them back to Mary Jo. So maybe they're going to do something that messes with, you know, the adults love for the children or you know, that they're going to force them into doing something that damages themselves to. In an attempt to save the kids or something like that. You know, maybe I could be completely off base on that, but you know, it doesn't seem to be directly sourced out of anything that we see in this chapter.
B
I'm also going. I'm doing a good Google slash Wikipedia search on all of these different monsters, including my mom.
C
Your mom's got a Wikipedia page?
E
Owned. Owned.
B
Isn't that good? So Jormungandr is a serpent. Draugr is the. Probably the skeleton.
A
Yeah.
B
Storms is just vaguely.
A
Just Zeus.
B
It's just Zeus. Which is. Which is funny too, for that reason. So I wonder if we're gonna see a kid afraid of Zeus. And we mentioned Nidhogger, the one who hogs the nids. Jormungandr did we was the. Oh, I said that already. That was the serpent. And your mom, Fenrir. We mentioned giant wolf. I don't know if there was anything else.
A
I think the octopus looking thing in the back or the squid looking thing is probably a Kraken.
B
Yeah.
C
Did we say the draugr? What's the draugr?
B
That was the skeleton. The skeleton.
C
Oh, that is. Oh, sorry. Yeah.
B
Yeah. It's an undead skeleton, so. Or it's an undead person.
D
That'd be great to put on those 12 foot skeletons everyone uses to decorate.
B
I think, Stephen, every time I'm seeing a dragon now, it's like my new moon thing. Every time it comes up, my ears are perking or my eyes are perking up. That's not a thing. But I. That one. I guess that's the serpent. That's serpent.
A
Yeah, that's the world serpent.
B
But God, it looks like every punk has her dragon. Really does. Also the best. Whoever. Whoever drew that. Very good. And I just need to say my favorite is the very skeptical bird in the corner. He's either angry or just. Yeah, confused.
A
I would. I guess that that has to be Nidhogg, since.
B
You know, God, he's hogging all the mids.
A
Dragons are being. Their image is being rehabilitated. Like dinosaurs. They're. They're just birds now.
C
Vermilion birds. Everyone's afraid of. No, no one trusts a vermilion bird. I think his internal monologue from this face is, I just work here.
B
You may wonder how I got here. Yeah, that's.
E
That's everyone's favorite. Godzilla, Kaiju, giant condor.
B
Is that really.
E
Yeah, that's from Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster.
A
I think they really shouldn't be fighting those. Those are protected species.
C
I. I love the face that Helmet Bear is making. He just looks so happy to be alive.
B
It's a good face.
E
I love that guy.
C
So I assume it's gonna. I hope it's a little weirder than this because, like, if I can predict it, then it's hopefully not it. But, like, I like the idea of Luffy using the power of comedy to make the kids not afraid of these things and somehow defeat them is very sweet to think of. I will mark out so bad if that happens. I'll. I'll. I'll pretend I'm too cool for it, but I am not too cool for it. Not in a million years.
B
I do need to mention that this Nika is not holding his sword in the correct manner. And that is by the blade. Kids don't try that at home.
E
Yeah, this is like a stabby Nika.
A
Yeah.
B
Which makes too much sense. Okay, thoughts on the chapter? There's no chapter next week, by the way. But we'll all be fearing Nika until then. Abby, what did you think of this week's chapter?
C
I'm so hype. I feel like. What is it? I was here for the, like, the introduction to the night parade of 100 demons stuff. In wano. I'm very glad I've gotten to be here for every like. And now here's a big pan across a big. A bunch of monsters ravaging the landscape. I. I think these are some of the. The best spreads that Oda draws. Oda and crew draw. And in this case, that small children in giant school draw. It just, you know, you always get to get to sort of cut loose with the weird faces and. And it's a lot of fun to watch. So I'm. I'm delighted and excited to see where this goes.
D
Dennis, I thought this chapter was just okay. There's a lot of really good scenes on here that'll obviously build up to more stuff later. But it's, you know, kind of like a setting up chapter. I'm just glad that we have a lot of things that are happening here in this. Between Loki getting free, causing fires, these monsters are going on the kids and stuff. When we inevitably split up the crew more for doing things, at least they'll have various objectives that they can all try to do problems and stuff to solve for them to do. So it won't feel like we're breaking up the crew again to do stuff. But I Do find it funny that we had the celebration at the beginning of this arc with the whole feast and stuff for everybody. I'm hoping everybody got to eat that giant moose because it was very tough for everybody to. To hunt for the festivals. But we're gonna have a festival at the beginning and then another party, I'm sure at the very end of this when everything gets all cleaned up at the end of this arc. But I'm really looking forward to seeing what they do later. And I'm like, oh, I'm very bummed that we have next week off with no chapter, because I want to know more. And that's. That's a sign of. You know what I always like about one piece chapter is when after it ends, like, no, give me the next one. I want it now. I guess the only other thing I want to add is I really like the kid doodles. It reminds me very much of how I draw, which is very badly. Every time we play jackbox games where you have to draw and I'm like, all right, here goes me drawing on my phone with my finger. Competing against, oh, Steve and Alex, who have tablets and. Okay, great.
B
Yeah, that's always fun to compete against professional artists. Speaking of, Joey, your thoughts?
E
Yeah, wait until you see my sketches. They'll be sure to really not look as good as these kids drawings. But yeah, I loved this chapter. I thought it was really, really fun. It is true what Dennis was saying that there's not a lot of concrete, like, things happening. Capital. I just, you know, I don't know, it's. It's very like setting a lot of things up. But it's very fun. And I like the density and I like all the characters and stuff that are being introduced. I love Principal Tusk, brought to you by Fleetwood Mac. He's just so good. And I love that he's the principal of the walrus school. I guess they probably named it after him. I would hope so, at least, unless it was just a pure coincidence. But I think he's very fun. I love that his hammer is like a regular toolbox type hammer like we were talking about with the tusks and everything. And come to think of it, this is a very hammer heavy chapter. Like, we've got Loki's hammer as well. They could compare notes. I don't think tusks has quite the same might, but maybe a better design. And let's see. I do think the powers on display here are interesting. You know, obviously somebody is conjuring these creatures from the kids dreams and Perhaps that same person is putting them to sleep. I was also thinking, like, there's a possibility that, like, maybe killing him is putting them to sleep and Summers is drawing the creatures from their dreams or something like that. And Gunko is using her arrow powers to yet again do another kind of nonsensical non sequitur power with the arrows. And it's making me, like, thinking about all this stuff makes me realize that, like, I think last time I was on here, I was kind of complaining that I didn't really like Gunko's power very much, and it felt kind of like a Jojo's power, and it felt like it didn't quite fit in the world and maybe, like, a little broken, but, like, maybe all of the knight's powers are kind of like this. Because I also think that, like, pulling people's nightmares out of their heads and making them real feels like a kind of a stretch for what we know as devil fruit powers, too. So we might just be kind of at this, like, point where we're about to kind of level up the threat and the kind of wackiness and craziness of the devil fruit powers. And Kunko's power will seem quaint compared to everything else eventually. But, yeah, let's see. Yeah, I think we've sort of covered everything about Loki. I think, you know, it's kind of unclear what he's doing here. I assume that. I do still kind of assume that he's, you know, ultimately gonna be a good character. And so whatever he's doing, you know, it's. I believe that there's good intentions here. And he does mention saving Elbaf and Steph, but, like, it's just very hard to see what it is at this moment because it's like, all they've been talking about is how easily this tree is gonna burn. And so now here we are burning the tree and. And I don't. I don't know where that's going. And it's interesting. And then. And yeah, lastly, I just. I do love these drawings so much. I like. Oda's been kind of experimenting with this kind of stuff with, like, Conjuro and with the mural and stuff a lot more lately with the kind of playing around the way that you do screen tones. And these look like they were drawn with marker and then converted to tones. So it looks cool, and I like it a lot.
C
I. I've known people who will, like, ding. Even, like, a very cartoony picture if it has that, like, the Muppet cutout mouth. Oh, they're like, oh, that's. It's not supposed to look like that. And I'm like, why? It's. It's so fun. And Oda understands how fun those are. Like, Nika is usually drawn with those. It's Calvin in the first Calvin, and Hobbes has one of those. But it's great. He looks like a Muppet. It's perfect.
B
All.
C
Everyone should just have a big cutout mouth. It should. It's perfect.
E
Yeah. I think that bird is especially muppety.
B
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That bird definitely feels like it's out of a different series, which is good. That's high praise, like, to have something like that. I love evil Zeus, though. Zeus, but slightly more evil Steven. Thoughts on the chapter?
A
Yeah, even. Even Nika looks like, you know, Dr. Teeth in the Electric Mayhem. One of those guys totally is, you know, hair covering his. His eyes and stuff. Yeah, kind of. You know, it is a fun chapter. It is very chaotic, and it is partially by design. Like, Oda is definitely trying to inflict kind of maximum confusion on the. The readers while still, you know, giving us something that is satisfying or that is something that you can at least follow and take something away from. But it does feel. It reminded me, like, the last time I felt like this was like this stuff in the LEGO castle where, you know, it was just sort of like, what part of this is supposed to be intentionally confusing and what parts of this are possibly, you know, like human error or you know, put maybe poor judgment in terms of construction, like, seeing construction and stuff. Because you do get a lot of just, like, back and forth. There are so many instances of, like, someone says, like, hey, oh, no. Help the kids. And then someone else, you know, and then there's like, a little cut in on someone else. And then they go back to the same people, and they're saying, hey, we gotta help the kids. And it's like kind of repeating the same thing. There's a lot of jumping around where it feels like the attention is very scattershot. Like, I'm looking right now at the. The parts where, you know, they're. They just found Mr. Wolf. Like, he's bloodied in there inside the school. And they're looking around and he's yelling about the children. And then. And then Oda just kind of pauses for a second to do this little gag with the kid, like, asking Robin, are you Luffy's friend? And then he kind of scampers away, which is funny, but it's also, like, very distracting. From kind of the, the thrust of the scene. And I think there's a lot. There's a lot of small things like that that do add up. You know, it's. It's been so. So Ed isn't on the. The podcast this week, but he has often said, like, at, you know, at the end of each chapter, like, I had a hard time following, you know, what was going on from. From panel to panel. And I think Ed has an excuse because, you know, he's kind of recovering from some neurological stuff. But he's not wrong in that. I do think the general flow of information in Elbaf, like, you know, just in terms of, like, what are we supposed to be thinking? Where. Where. What is our attention supposed to be drawn to? Where are we supposed to be going next? Is a little more. It feels a little more random than. Than usual. And I'm still not quite sure if that is again, like, if ODA's doing something intentionally or if he's just maybe trying to do a little too much at one time and it feels like it's a little bit disjointed. But I do think this chapter suffers from a little more of that than the average Elbaf chapter. But, you know, aside from that, like, in terms of, like, speculative stuff, I do think, you know, from. From what Joy was saying, it does seem clear. It does seem pretty clear to me that looking at the, The, The. The cumulative effects of what is happening to the kids, that, yes, they're, They're. They're walking. The sleepwalking is obviously Gunko's arrow. And given that that killing him seems to be, you know, a bit of a somnambulist himself. He. He is probably turning, putting them to sleep. And therefore Summers probably has whatever power is drawing their. Their dreams out and making them a reality. Although, I don't know, that seems like a very strange, like, devil fruit power to have. So we'll see what the actual, you know, theme of his. His powers are. But he's just Freddy Krueger basically. Yeah, pretty much. Pretty much.
C
If he has those accordion arms I'm marking out so hard. Yeah, that would be greatest introduction of a movie character. What if the line to no love is to wound one another is because they're also gonna blow up the tree such that these children that they're abducting like, are actually getting off better than everyone? Like they're wounding. I don't know. That's always justifying it to himself. Like, actually kidnapping children is good this time.
B
I don't think these folks really care. No, no, I think it's. I mean, they're.
C
Oh, yeah. But, you know, you want an evil guy who has, like, this is my wonderful reason for doing my evil things. And that seems like a. Yeah, it's.
A
It's still hard to tell too, like, what their goal is with the children, if they are. Because we. We've seen in the past, obviously that they. It seems like everybody is obsessed with like, getting giant soldiers and stuff. It does seem. Yeah, it does seem like, at least to the government, it's like that seems to be a more practical thing than, like, hoping that Caesar's, you know, gigantification medicine works or whatever. But, you know, it is a common theme, but it's hard to say if it's. If that's what they're going after or if they're trying to weaken ELBAF in order to make it easier to take over or something. You know, they've. They've clearly, obviously their. Whatever their goal is, it involves the children, but they have not really explained it yet. And so I guess we're just kind of waiting for that shoe to drop to find out, you know, what the, what the deal is with that. But you know what?
C
If their new project is turning giant children into small children.
A
We have to.
C
Create a normal army.
B
Counterproductive is what. That's a waste of money. Again, like the US Education system.
C
I went to public school. I turned great.
B
I'm okay.
C
It only took us 40 minutes to set up this podcast today.
B
Mostly my fault again, public schools. Steven. Yeah, Any. Any other comments?
A
Yeah, not much else, but I, I did. I really loved the. The impact of all the big illustrations. There was a lot of cool action and big panels in this chapter, and I thought they all looked great. So, yeah, as it turns out, you only really need one staff member to put together a great chapter.
B
Steven says, being one of the three.
E
Yeah, if I could speak to that for a second. That's the thing I've been loving about Elbaf, is how less tight and kind of airy the panels have been feeling. And so I offer that as somewhat of a counterpoint to what you were saying about it feeling more chaotic. Story wise. I feel like the art has been a lot more. Kind of like less cramped. I think largely because he keeps needing to emphasize that these are giant characters and he has these big characters that are filling up a lot of space and he's not getting too wild with the backgrounds in a lot of it. And so I've just Been really, really loving in Elbaf. The like panel compositions and the amount of kind of like less cramped space I'm feeling per page in general.
C
Does everyone else here read on mobile? Does anyone read like the blown up PC size I read on mobile?
E
Course I read it on an iPad, so it's okay in between Y.
C
It looks like for a lot of these panels and I think he's been doing this all through Elbaf, but I'm not a very analytical person where it looks like like the panels were sort of drawn separately and then. And then shrunken almost. Whereas previous like, like it. It's a very not dense on mobile, it looks a lot like, like the panels were sort of shrunken down as opposed to like a different line width I guess is what. What I'm clocking. I don't know.
B
I think that's the assistance versus oda.
C
Okay. Because it also kind of gives it the impression of like, oh, this is huge. And we're, you know, seeing this very detailed picture from, from further away, which, you know, is the effect you'd be going for. So it's working. But I guess I'm curious, Steven, whether that is actually part of the process.
A
Yeah, well, we do get that kind of. I think we do get kind of visual illusions like that a lot. Just because Oda's line work is very rough these days and the assistants are, you know, sort of hyper detailed. And so like sometimes in some panels, you know, it's really obvious which parts were drawn by Oda and which parts were drawn by the assistants. As far as the like composing the panels in different sizes. I don't believe that as far as I know, he still. They still work on paper. But that is a very common thing to do in manga nowadays when with people working with all digital tools. I've definitely worked on many series where it was very obvious that the, the, the artists would just you know, like draw the panel at whatever size they wanted and then they would figure out the layout of it and the sizing afterwards. And so you would have like super tiny sound effects where you were like, oh, you did not plan this out to be that. That size. But it ended up that way anyways. So that stuff does happen, but I don't think that it is true in one piece, this case at least.
C
Okay. Interesting. Interesting it is. Yeah. I wonder how, how they are accomplishing that in that case, because I really think the landscape pictures are very interesting that way.
B
Yeah, I was going to say, I mean the one thing we know is that Oda will always draw the things that are alive and moving, whereas assistants will draw things that are inanimate, like backgrounds. I think more often than not. So I. I think if you see weird line work in the animate objects, that would stick out to me more. But I think for the most part, I. It is. This chapter, I think, definitely does kind of represent how amazingly detailed his assistants are versus how. I don't want to say rough, but. But certainly it is Not Oda from 2005.
C
You know, Shades of Cerebus, of all things.
B
Exactly.
E
I mean, yeah, it's having a background. A different background artist like Cerebus. But, yeah, I think that's really what it is. It's that the background artists are not only super crisp, but I think they are using finer tools. They're using smaller lines, whereas Oda is using generally a thicker line. And so it does cause for occasionally some dissonance between background and character work. But I think it mostly blends very well. But I do think that's a thing that bugs me a lot, actually, in digital art is when somebody just draws a character and then shrinks them down and places them in an environment, and the line weight is all, like, you know, doesn't match. But I think what's happening here is kind of the opposite, where they're all, like, kind of doing the backgrounds probably after he inks these characters, and that it's just a matter of them being, like, kind of the sharpest, tightest background artists in the biz, and they're just, like, so, so good. And it's, like, such a contrast to the way that he's been getting looser and looser.
C
Yeah. Clicking back to, like, egghead. I guess they are still using thinner. Yeah. Finer line brush.
B
It's been going up for a while.
C
Yeah. Yeah. But I do feel like it's been especially pronounced in Elbaf, and I'm choosing to believe it's a deliberate attempt to make everything look smaller behind these giant people. It might be just to try to be positive.
B
I mean, the smaller line art, like looking at page 13, 12, 13 with Yggdrasil or Adam, like, that makes sense that it's very thin line art because it's supposed to convey something huge, and I think that's done well. I also want to say, just to give Oda more credit, since he doesn't get enough out there. He's one guy. These are three to four people and very talented people. But I think you probably have tripled or quadruple the amount of time to get it done because you have four hand, you know, four sets of hands doing it versus just the one. Any. Any other thoughts, Stephen, on the chapter? Nope. I'll make mine quick since I think Stephen did hit a lot of my points. But we invoked Ed before and the thing Ed has been saying for I think as long as the podcast has been going on are chapters are usually better when they hold on one scene. When there's like one, you know, story that goes throughout and when you cut back and forth between different scenes, it can take away from it. That's. Look, that's not always true, but I think Stephen really brought up some good points as to why it's true this week. I. I don't. I really do think his art has been really nice and kinetic and it's particularly in this chapter. And I do agree with Joey that a lot of issues that he has had in the past with the crammed panels and such have improved. I. I'd even say an egghead a little bit and there was a lot going on there, so. But I certainly an Elbaf. That said, I. I think a lot of the story construction has been a little messy at times. So I, I do see that sometimes it isn't and sometimes it is, but I do want to give a shout out. Pages 12, 13 are gonna. That's like gonna be one of my favorite of. Of this arc, I think, because I. Not only do I love anytime Oda does do the. Oh, there's lightning or light or something that creates shading. I've always been a fan of that, but I do really, like. Maybe I'm thinking like Steve Yurko or whoever here, but how his hammer like hits the tree and the tree is literally to the left of it of like right where he's hitting it. It's. I. It gives like a good kinetic flow to the, to the page, I think. Like, it. It feels like he's actually, you know, you see the cause and the effect. The hammer also looks badass in that first one. I don't. I don't know how to describe what he did, but almost the fact that it looks so rough. The, the lightning I think is really cool looking. So I do want to. The hammer itself is interesting. It does. I think I forgot if this was Jill who. I think it was Jill who mentioned this this week. It does look a little like Usopp's 10 ton hammer again round. Dennis, don't correct me here because I know you're right, but I'm gonna Pretend I'm right. No, no, it is a little more round, but I do the corners.
C
Made it. The 12 ton hammer. Yeah, happy to help.
B
Oh, God. But I do like the idea of Usopp using this in the future. I think that would be really cool and you wouldn't have to update your cosplay too much, Dennis. And that's. That's what's important here. If you. I mean, I don't. I don't.
E
I don't have a hammer.
D
I have the range weapons and I did carry a chalkboard one time.
B
I thought you did one with the 10 ton, but I guess I'm wrong. Oh, and by the way, it is called a claw hammer. That doctor that Principal Tusk had. I was thinking of a ball peen hammer, but that's a different type of hammer. Does not have tusks. For those interested, the last panel is gorgeous as well. I'm pretty sure that. Well, my son's 3. He's not 20, but I don't think he could draw this necessarily at this time. Although, you know, I haven't asked him to draw a bunch of creatures from his nightmares yet. I was planning on waiting until.
D
What's your nightmare look like?
B
So can you draw your nightmares for me and then we'll make them come to life? Apparently a car wash is the current one.
C
There's a. There's a book. I forget who did it, but it's just like taking children's drawings of monsters and then like doing super rendered.
B
It is a part of them.
C
They're great.
A
Yeah.
B
Yeah, they're great. Yeah.
E
I don't remember who that is either, but that's a cool book.
D
They're going to talk about a car wash nightmare.
B
Oh, let's talk about our car wash nightmares. I'm only thinking about that because that happened today.
C
Zach only fears agoraphobics. They're coming, coming to get him.
B
As an agoraphobic, I do fear agoraphobics anyway. No, but I do really like this concept. I know it is very Jojo also, but I think this is a really fun power in a ridiculous way. But Oda, it's one piece, as I think Abby so astutely put. Here's the guy who looks like a walrus, who's a giant, who's part of the giant pirates, saying things are abnormal here. Like, why not? I'm not, I'm not. I'm not upset about the craziness of it. Gunko's was a little weirder. If anything like it. It's More. It's less potentially overpowered. But it's just like. I don't completely get what they're going. What he's going for still, like, okay, you could make animate arrows that kill things. Cool. I also really like killing him generally. Just his design and I'm sure we talked about that.
C
It's a wonderful name, too. It is magnificent.
B
Well, it's also the key. Well, did we even. What's the reason for.
C
Oh, my gosh. That's right. I missed that episode. That's. Oh, my gosh. That rules.
E
Yeah.
C
My favorite.
E
I was. I was actually kind of mad when killing him showed up, because I was like, oh, man. Now I like a celestial dragon.
A
Yeah, he's playing with fire there.
B
I think he is. I mean, just because you look cool and have cool powers doesn't mean you are cool.
D
He'll do something douchebaggery to be like, okay, I hate him again.
A
Yeah.
E
He's got a fun gag, though. He falls asleep. I don't know.
B
Yeah, narcolepsy is always a good gag. Narcolepsy is my other fear.
C
Abby, I'm so sorry to hear that.
B
I fear people who are in narcolepsy. No. No, I don't. What. What was the origin for Summers, Steven? Did we have, like, any.
A
I have. No. Yeah, I don't know that one. That could have.
C
In honor of Buffy.
A
Yeah. Well, it is Summers with an O, but, yeah, I don't. I don't know if there was a particular route for that. We'll probably find something with his devil fruit when that gets revealed. But right now, I do.
B
I do like that he gets dressed and he goes right back in that chair. He's like, look, if it's here, I'm gonna sit in it. I did think that was very funny. Not saying that they're all not complete douchebags and deserve to die, but for now, I'm enjoying their antics. And it makes sense also that Gunko is afraid of Nika. Since we heard from Corazon, kind of the enemy of the gods and all that. I think it makes sense that Nika would fit in with. With the D kind of thing, given everything that we know at this point. But I guess it's a cliffhanger, you know? Are these children's drawings going to destroy Elbaf? Maybe. We'll have to find out in two weeks. Any other thoughts on this chapter?
E
I do. I. I love Jill's idea about the 10 ton hammer potentially, like, manifesting through this. This Viking hammer. And I was Thinking like, but how is there any way to make it small so that he can carry it around? And then I remembered that we have an owl that can change the size of an inanimate.
A
Oh.
E
Which I like for Usopp.
B
That's really good. Okay, I guess it could stay that size. Why not? There we go, shrinking things now. Now we're doing it. Any other thoughts? Otherwise, let's take a little break and we'll be back with some peace together.
A
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D
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D
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Get started@LinkedIn.com Campaign terms and conditions apply. This is the Piece Together segment where we take your questions, comments, theories, and then decide. Sorry. Whether Rufus the naked mole rat deserves a place first. What I saw when I looked down and I'm like, I gotta bite that bullet. Steven, what's our first segment?
A
That would be disp.
B
I love everyone trying to do that first one. So low.
D
It's hard.
B
I should have made. I should have made Dennis. Dennis, do you want to try? Because you're the boys. I know. I'll.
D
I'll give it a world. Yeah, it's time for Deuce Poo.
B
But it's. Everyone sounds like they're, like, manufacturing the lowness. As I think.
C
I think I can do one very naturally.
D
Okay, go.
C
It's time for.
B
Yes. There it is.
C
There we go.
A
Yeah.
E
We can use that every time.
B
Big Mike says, oh, crap, it's daylight savings time now, and I have to wait an extra hour to read the new chapter Lousy Farmers. So I'll ask a Piece Together question to pass the time. Is the reason you can't get to laugh Tale using the log Pose. Is it because it's a giant piece of poop in the ocean? Like when Usopp was telling Kaya the story of him landing on a giant goldfish poop. And that's why Laugh Tale has no magnetic field. Good question.
C
I think there's running out of time to make that one come true.
B
It's a non zero chance. I think it's poop. I could see it.
A
I bet if you get enough of it, goldfish poop would be magnetic.
B
That's if you eat magnets.
C
Maybe they land on it and then they see the giant seeking goldfish. And that's the real Laugh Tale.
B
We're gonna have a whole Patreon episode just about this question.
D
It's an iceberg made of poop. There you go. That's why it floats around.
B
That's the four. That's the four kids. To be fair. They love. They love their poop jokes.
A
Yeah.
C
Would that be like the. The Boo Boo know me is that no desert. Doo doo doo doo doo doo. No me.
E
I just listened to the Interview 4Kids actor for Crocodile and they. That does come up in 4Kids Flashback.
B
Please listen to 4Kids Flashback. 4Kids Flashback.com our sister podcast. Waddy Matthews Pa Slay says hello, my fellow. Hello, my fellow Daylight Savings fans. Wow. Another character named Wolf. It really does make sense. Make sense that these characters are called this because there is another famous wolf out there since Wolf Blitzer is a person. Fuck all of you. I love you all.
C
But really, you know, there was another man, wasn't there? Who seemed to be defeated and then he stood up. Have warned people about how to look after the children.
A
Really put us in a situation faster.
C
Stop trying at some point.
B
Shut up, Stephen. I heard that. I heard that. Wait. I broke fun to wonder what other news anchors ODA can name name characters after. To my question, if you could pick just one giant minus Dorian Brogy to wolf down some food with which. God damn it, which one would it be? And why would it be Roto perhaps? Have a great day. Light savings day.
D
Nice.
C
I'd be most curious about how Mr. Tusks is like fitting big sandwiches past the tusks. So I guess he's immediately very interesting.
B
Eat their sandwiches somehow.
C
How often?
D
Submarine sandwiches. You know, that way they're already narrow. So.
B
And they're underwater already.
C
Walruses in the wild mainly eat pasta, you idiot.
B
Can we change the title of the episode? I don't think we're gonna beat that. Didn't answer the question.
D
Eat with heiradin There you go.
C
Ooh, yeah.
E
A yet to be introduced giant named Cronkite.
B
You really went back on that. Was an ancient giant.
D
I can't wait for the giant Dallas reigns.
C
The Maddow. Maddow. Know me.
A
I love how rather eat with Dan.
B
Oh, good.
C
Very well.
B
I love how Maddow is a devil fruit, not a person. Interesting.
C
It turns you into. It's. It's the. The Hito. Hito. No. Mi model Rachel Maddow.
A
That's what I mean.
E
That's.
A
That's what Fox calls her. The devil fruit.
E
Okay.
B
Steven cut himself off. Wow.
A
Yeah.
B
Next question. Professional pollo said, howdy Opp. We might not be getting Linlin in this arc or ever again, but we do have a big mom attacking Elbaf now. That counts. Right? Right. Anyways, it does look a lot like her. It does. I think because they're probably both Obahan's. Technically.
E
Yes.
A
Yeah.
E
Yeah. It's like Oda's ideal vision of a mom.
C
She does kind of both big mom and this drawing look like sort of widened out versions of the. Is it Saze San? I'm thinking of just like she's a skinnier version of both those sort of shapes.
E
Yeah.
C
Silhouettes.
A
At least it's the perm. The perm. Hair. That's a big thing.
C
Yeah, that's it.
B
It's an 80s mom.
E
Brooke. Brooke is my mom.
C
Had a perm in the 80s.
B
My mom.
C
That's not interesting. Everyone had a perm in the 80s.
B
I don't think it was a perm. I think because it's still like that, but it's less big. The question what childhood fear would you hate to see gigantified right in front of you? And don't worry, Killingham is not listening to this question that we know of that we.
D
But wait till the dub actually listens.
A
To this car wash. Obviously a gigantic pit of quicksand.
B
God, there's such an 80s, 90s, early 90s.
A
It was fear number one. You never knew when they were gonna get you.
B
They did a Radio Lab episode on quicksand and how it just like fell out of the zeitgeist. It's like a scary thing because it used to be everywhere quicksand and it's.
E
Not anything that actually exists in nature. It's just like the thing. Adventure books. I believe that that was also part of that podcast.
B
How do you. I don't remember. It's been a long time since that came out. A long time ago.
D
How do you make gravity into A nightmare because mine was falling.
B
Like, curious.
C
I've had nightmares where, like, I'd wake up right as I impact the floor and die. And drowning. I'd wake up right before drowning. So gravity falling is a nightmare.
B
Adult fears are too difficult for this. Oh, what about Usopp? He would just, like, everything would come out. That's how we.
C
My. My parents listened to a lot of Dennis Miller. So my fear growing up was political correctness going mad.
B
But I work through my fears. Is one of the. Is like a nightmare come to life. So that makes sense.
C
Oh, my gosh. I've worked through my fears and I actually named my dog Political Correctness. But that came back to bite us because political correctness went mad.
B
Abi. I never know.
C
Came back to bite us.
B
I never know if what you're saying is true, ever.
C
I called the police. I said, political correctness has gone mad and come back to bite us. And the officer said, this is all very well, madam, but this is not a policeman.
B
I choose to believe you.
C
I'm sorry. Sorry.
B
Well, it happened to you and it was real, so that's what matters. Joey.
E
Oh, I don't know. This sounds like a matter of freedom of leash to me.
C
Very well done.
B
I should have ended this podcast hours. Next question. Straw Pirate 9 says Happy Birthday chapter to me. Happy birthday. Got to enjoy this chapter while celebrating my birthday in New York City. Or New York. Yeah, New York City. Right on the subway and everything. The full New York experience. I ask again, why? Why did they leave Loki down there with the hammer? Thank you. Thank you. I've been saying this. The poor kids, they're gonna have to deal with those arrows better than Mr. Wolf did to save them. The night power to create fire fears is crazy. And I sure hope Gunko gets to see her fear soon.
D
No one else can lift the hammer. That's my guess. It's a whole Mjolnir thing, so.
B
Oh yeah, yeah, it's true.
E
It's kind of weird that Gunko's fear is one of the fears that is already manifested up there.
B
It is funny. I mean, to be fair, two Nika's.
D
Oh, no.
E
Yeah, her worst nightmare now is odd.
B
Yeah, my worst nightmare is two Nikas. And then Street Killingham Killing Cram. They them says, ahoy OPP Banger chapter as always. Wow. Yamato certainly came out of nowhere, lightning fast and kicked who's who in his racist ass. What is the pacing in this cover story? Really interesting chapter though, with cool questions and setup so far. Do you think we will get Nika fall fighting evil Nika maybe have a good week.
D
Well, we know what Nightmare Luffy already looks like, so.
B
Oh, what is with the pun?
C
Well done. Well done. I like to imagine the tunicas just become bros and he. He just overpowers the nightmare energy and they become funny together.
D
Like personality pilgrim.
E
Like. Yeah, that one piece thing of that. Their arms are over their shoulders and they're kicking back and forth.
D
They both have the chopsticks in their nose and then. And lips.
A
Yeah.
E
Yeah.
C
They meet. Mr. Mr. Tusk saves them by inspiring them to do a bit.
B
That's a great image too. Damn it.
C
Mr. Tusk is the key to all this.
B
He's the key to everything. Hopkins hat 15 says. Hey opp. How it be? So all the chains that were touching Loki's skin have been removed. The one on his ankle is around his boot so he could use his devil fruit powers. Why do you think there was no question mark there? I don't know why I read it like that. Why do you think he didn't use powers to break the chain? Was it established that C Prism Stone is unbreakable or just extremely durable?
D
Thought it was.
E
I think he was just in a hurry to hit that tree. That's what he was kind of single mindedly wanting to do. You know, I interpreted.
B
Oh, Stephen. Yeah, you're probably.
A
I would guess that the ODA's answer would be that like. Well, he wouldn't actually be strong enough to break the Sea Prism Stone. Like, I don't think he wants to create a. A loophole where like you can destroy the thing that is meant. You know, that is the kind of the Unobtainium, The. The. The MacGuffin that nullifies your powers. So I think he's just. It's like he'll be even that much stronger once it's off.
E
Sea Prism Stone is this universe's adamantium that the lightning.
A
Yeah.
E
Conjuring hammer is his powers. Because I thought that that was a.
B
Property of the hammer.
D
Yeah, property of the Hammer.
B
That's my.
C
No way is anal dead.
A
Anal will live forever.
B
I was gonna say anal will live.
C
Forever in our hearts of all places.
B
How is this joke not been made on the Internet before? I was gonna say his name is.
C
A, but.
B
Abby's doing the he pose. What I was gonna say before I was so rudely interrupted by anal is that. Are you gonna be okay? Stop pointing and laughing at me just because I said anal. What I was going to say is Luffy had the Seastone cuffs on during the udon stuff and was still able to fight and stuff. So I think it's the amount of seastone. Abbey, calm down. It's not that funny. I just said anal.
C
It is that funny. Funny. It has been funny ever since the arc happened.
B
What I was just going to say is that the seastone that Loki has around his ankle is probably just not sufficient to completely tamp down on his energy level. Next question is about anal from Reverse Mom Patch. Who says? Oh, hey, it's the question that puts an end to the opp. You mean Blue skypiea. Anyway.
A
We'Re finally getting canceled. Thank God.
B
Anyway, it took long enough. Anyway, I can't find any lore about the Kyrian doing anything related to sleep. So does killing him just look. Look like that and have an unrelated dreaming devil fruit? Or is summer summer summers going giving him too much credit? Anyway, my biggest fear is that you guys make a bunch of regular show references with my mom, and I hope it isn't hasn't been manifested in this episode. Don't worry, it has not been. Yeah. What was the.
E
Yeah, regular show is great. I don't know it by heart, you know.
D
Yeah, I don't have regular show quotes to pull. I'm sorry.
B
I haven't seen regular show.
E
I like when they go oh for a long time.
B
Next question.
E
But I don't know. Was there an actual question? Oh, about the Kirin powers? Yeah, I was wondering about that. If that is a. I don't really know what the myths I don't believe so are.
B
I think it's unbelievable. Yeah. Next question.
E
So it's like, why does he look like that then? Like.
A
Right.
E
I don't know. Like, what is his power? Exactly. Yeah.
B
Oh, that's true. Because he. If he's some guy, why does he have a carrying head?
A
Yeah, it would be serious.
B
Maybe he's half man.
A
He does. Yeah. He does kind of feel like, you know, if there was like a. A dude in the. The Empire from Star wars who was just like, you know, like a Greedo or something, and, you know, they were all like, super cool with him, even though they're like, you know, space Nazis, basically. So that would be weird. And that's kind of. It feels like that's. That's kind of the. The inherent tension of having a guy who definitely does not look human. Mm.
B
Sailor Karna has our last dispiece question. Hey, Opp. I fully expected to wake up and read the chapter and have a great day. Instead, I was woken up by my new Neighbor accidentally ripping off my front bumper with a moving truck. I sure could know some positive energy. I wish I had Frankie on speed dial so he could fix it quickly. Can any of us help with us? Do we. You know, if we had a hammer. Big one.
C
I'd hammer in the morning, I'd hammer in the evening.
B
Don't you dare.
C
How does that song go?
B
I'd hammer at suppertime.
C
Ah, that's it.
B
With hammer on a bagel, you break your teeth. What's the next segment, Stephen?
A
Next one is the subreddit archipelago, where we do have a few questions here. First one from 23 years, Virgin, who says, hey, Overpower podcast. Seeing the fears manifested made me think about what if someone had an irrational fear? God, perish the thought. Like a fear of flying or heights or that donuts didn't exist, but someone is afraid of them and it starts raining donuts. Cheers. And keep up the good work. I get that reference.
B
Yeah, me too.
A
Yeah, that's. I feel like this works. This works best. This. Yeah, this. This concept works best with kids. You know, it's harder to. To get, like, manifestations of, like, you know, taxes or something that adults are afraid of. So.
D
My 1099s.
B
No. Oh, my God, no. I think that's hilarious. Curious. I think the most. More boring the fear is, the funnier, the better. Yeah, that's my.
C
This isn't. Yeah. This isn't quite on those lines, but I do. This is, like, almost Lost Media, and it's one of the greatest jokes I've ever heard. The. The Upright Citizens Brigade, when they were just four guys, did a redub of the film It's a Wonderful Life that was aired, like, once, and it's available for piracy. And they're trying to give acting lessons to this guy, and they're trying to get him to be angry, and they're like, just try to think of something that makes you really angry when you're mugging us. Because his line is, your money or your life. And he just keeps saying, hey, your money or your life, my friends. So he tries to think of something that hates him, and he says, your money or your life. Parking tickets. And it's. It's a really good joke, and I. I just. I'm sad that it's lost and sort of bound to this thing that will never be seen or remembered by anyone because it only exists in terrible quality online.
B
Abby, do you know what you did, though? You let it live on in a new form here. In a worse form, but a form nonetheless.
C
Thank Goodness. Okay, my. My responsibility to this joke is over.
A
All right, and our.
C
Is Matt Walsh, the great Matt Walsh or the good Matt Walsh, the one that isn't the other Matt? Yes.
A
And our other question on the subreddit archipelago is from load8027, who says, hey, Opp, is this the first time the monster trio are facing up against a strong foe in question in quotation marks, without one or multiple of them being nerfed by injury? To me, this is a sign that this may be the toughest test the straw hats have ever faced.
B
Or maybe Loki's a good guy and he just, you know, wants to make one of those, like, smash burgers. And that's how he does it. He hits his.
A
Yeah, his hammer.
B
Hammer on the tree. Yeah.
C
What is a smash burger?
D
Smashed moose.
A
Seeing them around, they flatten them. They're good.
B
It's like Shake Shack, I think does that too.
A
Yeah.
D
Instead of. Instead of making into a hamburger patty, you just kind of make a big meatball and then just press it down with the.
B
Press it. When I make my burgers, I've been trying to do that because I think I forgot this was a tweet at one point in the distant past. But a better, bigger burger is thinner and bigger than thicker. So I'm not trying to be anal retentive about this. It's just. That's the way it is.
C
I'll tell you what wasn't a on retentive was this comic. They just threw him away after a, you know, one and a half arcs. Disappointing.
B
Steven, Any other questions? That's all for Reddit, so I think we could round off the show. Everyone ready? Mm.
E
Okay.
C
Eczema isn't always obvious, but it's real. And so is the relief from EBGLIS. After an initial dosing phase, about 4 in 10 people taking EVGLIS achieved itch.
A
Relief and clear, or almost clear skin at 16 weeks.
C
And most of those people maintain skin that's still more clear at one year with monthly dosing.
B
EVGLIS Lebricizumab LBKZ, a 250mg injection, is a prescription medicine used to treat adults.
D
And children 12 years of age and.
B
Older who weigh at least 88 pounds.
D
Or 40 kilograms with moderate to severe eczema, also called atopic dermatitis, that is not well controlled.
A
With prescription therapies used on the skin.
B
Or topicals, or who cannot use topical.
D
Therapies, EBGLIS can be used with or without topical corticosteroids.
B
Don't use if you're allergic to EB.
D
Gl allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. Eye problems can occur.
B
Tell your doctor if you have new or worsening eye problems.
D
You should not receive a live vaccine.
B
When treated with Epglis.
D
Before starting Epglis, tell your doctor if.
B
You have a parasitic infection searching for real relief.
A
Ask your doctor about epglis and visit.
C
Epglis.Lily.Com or call 1-800-lilyrx or 1-800-545-5979.
B
This has been the One Piece Podcast Episode 859 for March 10, 2025. Thank you all so much for coming on this week. We are back next week probably with an sgs. If not, we have. We do have a couple Skype voicemails and if you want to send those in before Skype sends sunsets imminently, call us at Our phone number 347497. Maggie number 347-497-6254. Call anytime.
D
Anytime.
B
Questions, comments, theories, or why you're anal retentive?
A
See you next week. Bye everybody.
B
No, I do that at the front though, because Skype is sunsetting and we should enjoy that.
A
Very important.
B
Well, I actually have started downloading voicemail, so it's actually working this time. Before we go, Abby, where could people find you and the work that you're doing?
C
Oh God. Well, I got banned from Instagram for describing the British Empire as a source of historical evil. Seriously, they dinged that as hate speech and I'll tell you, I don't think that that's fair.
B
Okay, anywhere else that people can find where you are dissing the British Empire?
C
Abident Itch IO I have a little video game I made over Crimbus that's got lesbians and a talking pig that smokes a big cigar. And I was very proud of that. And it's fun. And it'll be an even bigger game at some point or the engine that I programmed for it badly will be better in another bigger game. Also with lesbians and a cigar smoking pig. So if either of those things are within your areas of interest, check out Abiden itch IO also a 10 page preview of Gamer mom, the mom who games, which will be up for crowdfunding as soon as Kickstarter gets back to me. And I guess Blue Sky, I'm at Abident. What is it? Bisky Social whatever is the sort of the very generic suffix there.
B
Thank you.
C
Thank you for having me.
B
Yeah, anytime. Joey. Where could people find you?
E
I am also on Blue sky at joeyweiser and Joey Wiser Comics on Instagram. Blue Sky's sort of taken the place of Twitter where I'm talking about whatever, talking about one piece, talking about movies I'm watching and talking about my work. And Instagram is more focused on my comics and illustration work only. And big, very important thing to talk about right now is that Next week on March 18, my new book, the Littlest Fighter drops. And so you can find it at your local bookseller of choice, your online bookseller of choice, Littlest Fighter. It's a Kaiju inspired graphic novel about a little monster about the size of a human child who wants to battle giant sized monsters. And I hope everybody checks it out. And if you are in the Southeast, specifically the Georgia area, ten days later on March 28th, I'll be doing a launch release party in Athens, Georgia at Bizarre Wuxtree, the comic book store. And I'll be doing a reading along with Caroline Cash and Stephen Pilnatt and Abby Casen, who's hosting. And it's gonna be really great. And the day after that in Athens is Fluke, a mini comics and zine festival where I'll be selling my books for the first time at a convention type thing. And the weekend after that, on April 5th, which is my birthday, I will be signing at Neighborhood Comics in Savannah, Georgia. So if you're in the Savannah area and couldn't make it up to Athens for Fluke, this would be a perfect opportunity. But if you're not in Georgia, I'd still really, really love for you to check out the Littlest Fighter because I'm very proud of it.
C
Do we have a special podcast birthday song we can sing for Joey in advance of April 5th?
E
We can sing it for Zach.
C
Fios. Mucho san yo stales Mucho san yo Stales Mucho san Ye.
B
Dennis, where could people find you?
D
I am also on the blue skies and at the Instagrams. Ichnob, Ichnob. And I am, like Zach said at the top of the show, I host the Vintage Anime Club podcast, a podcast about old school anime while drinking lots of wine. So we are covering Fushigi Yugi right now and that one does not hold up on that revisit, folks. I'll tell you that. There's still a lot of fun with it. But 90s shoujo, you know, to say.
C
That'S yeah, yeah, comics don't need endings. You can just keep them all up in the air as long, as long as you can. I guess this is not the podcast to Say that on to make fun of.
E
We're working on it.
D
But for folks or fans also of One Piece, I'm hoping that people will go check out the Universal Studios Fan Fest nights also. Fan Night Fest Fan Fest nights that are happening in spring. Looks like me and Jill are gonna be going on Friday, May 2nd. So any other One Piece fans heading there? Maybe on that day you get that Friday off. You know, come hang out, say hi, do all the things.
B
Stephen, where could people find you?
A
I may be found on blue sky@stevenpaul, bsky.com social and as always, you can check out my simulpub work on One Piece. Akane Banashi, Shoha Shoten and Trillion Game on the Shonen Jump or Manga plus apps. I think Trillion Game might be Viz Media. I'm not sure.
E
I think it's web only.
A
Oh yeah, yeah, for sure because it is a mature title. But yeah, they're all. You can find them pretty easily. And yeah, they're. They're all out there. So enjoy.
B
You can find me@zach zacklogan.com on Blue Sky. You could also find us@onepiecepodcast.com or One Piece podcast wherever you get your social media. So Facebook, Instagram, I guess if you're on Twitter, we're technically there the rest. And you could of course listen to us wherever you get your podcast, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, all those. Please subscribe, rate and review. It means a lot. And please subscribe to us on patreon.com One Piece Podcast. Your support helps us make more podcast content including We've been putting Kirsten Carries articles about the latest chapters on our website@one piece podcast.com helps us pay our amazing artists like Joey and helps us keep our upkeep and server costs. And whatever there's, there's always stuff that comes up. So we really do appreciate every, each and every one of you for, for supporting us. The podcast will be back next week as we said, maybe with an SGS after that we have guest Chris Dobbins. The week after that, Marion Bray, Voice of Flompe. The rhyme was not intended. And Dr. Gomez returns at the beginning of April for Joey's birthday. Apparently I think it'll be recorded right around there. And until next week, everyone, my name is Zach and we'll see you next week everyone. Goodbye.
E
Bye. See ya.
B
Mike and Alyssa are always trying to outdo each other. When Alyssa got a small water bottle, Mike showed up with a flower 4 liter jug. When Mike started gardening, Alyssa started beekeeping.
A
Oh come on.
B
They called a truce for their holiday and used Expedia trip planner to collaborate on all the details of the trip. Once there, Mike still did more laps around the pool.
E
Whatever.
B
You were made to outdo your holidays. We were made to help organize the competition. Expedia made to travel.
Release Date: March 10, 2025
Host: Zach
Guests & Crew: Stephen Paul (translator), Joey Weiser (artist), Dennis (Itchnob), Abby Denton (comedian), plus regular panel
Theme:
This week’s episode dives deep into Chapter 1142 of the One Piece manga, a chapter bursting with Norse mythology-inspired monsters, childlike nightmares made real, and escalating chaos on Elbaf. The panel celebrates the milestone of the English dub catching up with the Japanese release and dissects the ongoing mysteries of Loki, the true powers of the Holy Knights, and the nature of fear—giant-sized and otherwise. Notable guests include Eisner-nominated artist Joey Weiser and comedian Abby Denton, who bring insight and chaotic humor to the mix.
[06:01–09:05]
[09:05–11:14]
[13:28–15:11]
A. Elbaf's School Under Attack by Mythological Nightmares
B. Introducing the School Staff
C. Children’s Nightmares Made Real
D. The Threat in Elbaf: Loki’s Rampage
E. The Holy Knights’ Nightmares Game
Panel Impressions:
[97:45 onward]
The episode is characteristically boisterous, deeply nerdy, and irreverent, with the panel riffing on Norse mythology, Oda’s pun work, and their own childhood fears. Abby Denton and Joey Weiser bring high-energy improv to every page turn; Stephen Paul offers detailed translator commentary; Dennis keeps the game references coming. The gang manages to synthesize both laughter and thoughtful speculation, making this a buoyant, inviting take on a chaotic, monster-filled chapter.
| Segment | Timestamp | Highlights | |--------------------------|-------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Manga Recap Start | 18:02 | Examining the chaotic attack on Elbaf school, puns explained, monsters manifest | | Key Translator Insight | 21:27 | Stephen explains the Jormungandr/weekend/week pun | | Action Sequence | 28:07 | Giants battle nightmares with school-themed attacks ("midterm ex slam") | | Loki's Ultimatum | 46:03 | Loki warns of Elbaf's destruction, hints at deeper motives | | Nightmare Spread | 59:41 | Kids' drawings become real: dragon, wolf, bear, Nika, "my mom", and more | | Holy Knights’ Game | 62:51 | Knights manipulate dreams; "To know love is to wound one another"; Gunko fears Nika | | Piece Together Q&A | 97:45 | Wild fan theories, favorite giants, quicksand, and more | | Final Thoughts | 81:56–88:00 | Panel weighs in on art style, chapter construction, future speculations |
This episode is an essential listen for any One Piece or manga fan who loves deep thematic breakdowns, translation trivia, and rowdy, warm, and funny panel chemistry. The team turns the monsters of childhood nightmare into a joyful communal discussion on fear, myth, and the ever-expanding imagination of Eiichiro Oda.
Listen for:
If you've missed the episode, this summary will get you up to speed with every laugh and insight!