Episode 893, “Igaram’s Nightmare” (with Mike Patten)

Summary

The One Piece Podcast – Episode 893: "Igaram’s Nightmare" (with Mike Patten)

Release Date: November 17, 2025
Host: Maji Media
Notable Guests: Stephen Paul (One Piece official translator), Mike Patten (artist & storyboarder)
Main theme: Manga Volume 113 SBS ("The Birth of Loki"), anime recaps, One Piece in global news, and the wild world of SBS questions.

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Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into the newly released Volume 113 of One Piece, titled "The Birth of Loki." The hosts explore the SBS (question corner) fun, the design choices on the newest manga cover, a raft of wild and unconventional fan questions, and the impact of global events involving One Piece iconography (especially in recent protests). The show offers thoughtful discussion about the legacy left by the late anime director Tatsuya Nagamine, an in-depth look at recent and classic SBS content, and an anime recap covering episodes 1148 and 1149, centered around Vegapunk’s fateful broadcast.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Remembering Director Tatsuya Nagamine [06:00–10:00]

• Nagamine directed Film Z and episodes 892–1122, ushering in a new, vibrant era for the anime.
• He was integral to transforming Wano into "an animator’s playground."
• Brief tribute: “He’s done a lot in just his short time with us. ... He’s really shaped it into what it is today, which is becoming a very different anime than it was in 2017.” — Zach [08:47]

The "Storm" in Southern California (and One Piece Names) [01:50–04:00]

• Stephen Paul jokes about SoCal finally getting a storm, riffing on "Toto" and their namesake character in Alabasta.

One Piece Iconography in Global News: Mexico Protests [10:00–14:00]

• The hosts analyze a recent protest in Mexico City where the Straw Hat flag appeared.
• Right-wing groups seemingly co-opted One Piece imagery, confusing the nature of the protest.
• “It was like a false flag sort of thing.” — Zach [11:38]
• Insight into One Piece’s popularity from Indonesia to Mexico, and the effects of Netflix’s live-action casting choices.

Main Segment: Manga Recap – Volume 113, "The Birth of Loki" [17:10–1:04:15]

• Cover critique:

  • Absence of the classic “cover box” motif is divisive among the cast.
  • “Once you notice the box is gone ... it feels like they’re on a set missing a background.” — Stephen [19:13]
  • Color design surprises: blue-haired arrow girl, Luffy’s helmet, and Gabon's inclusion raise questions.

• Hidden Panda Man:

  • “I enjoy the ones where he replaces a character, but it would be much funnier if he were Luffy.” — Zach [24:22]

• Oda’s comment:

  • About the lengthening of Earth's day (now 24 hours, previously 23)—Oda finds quirky science facts (jokes about mangaka deadlines in prehistory). [25:56]

• SBS headers & running jokes:

  • Multiple callbacks to classic “fan service” jokes and illustrations, with fun narrative set-ups referencing everything from Loguetown to Corazon.

• Key SBS questions and Oda responses:

  • Does Zunesha poop?
    “Yes, of course Zunesha poops ... enough that you would get adventurers disembarking on it to go on an adventure.” — Oda [32:02]
  • Who’s with Crocus in chapter 631’s cover?
    "Yes, that was Gabon ... he never really got over his wanderlust." — Oda [34:23]
  • Why does Bonnie pose as an adult?
    "A crew with a kid as a captain is bound to get disrespected ... now on Elbaf, she can just relax and be the kid she actually is." — Oda [35:14]
  • Egghead design inspirations:
    "All of the robots that I draw are trying to be like Time Bokan and Robodachi ... they're full of joy and wonder." — Oda [39:34]
  • Multiple calendars in One Piece world:
    Oda reveals the current years per calendar system (Tenreki: 4131, Kaiendeki: 1541) and discusses their parallel ongoing use.
    “It’s interesting. It’s hard to say how meaningful that will be in the long run, but it’s good to know Oda has it straight.” — Stephen [47:37]
  • Are Vegapunk’s and York’s Celestial Dragon tendencies latent in all humanity?
    “There is the potential for a Celestial Dragon inside of everyone ... think about that as much or as little as you want.” — Oda [51:57]
  • Frankie and Queen: Are they related?
    Oda cycles through a “sweating” internal monologue about fanbase connecting the dots, but pointedly doesn’t confirm or deny:
    “There’s no way ... I can’t reveal something here ... I have to hide this.” — Oda [61:36]
  • Why Oda uses 2-page spreads and layout:
    "I always envision the manga as two pages at once ... for those who read on a phone, I’m sorry." — Oda [75:07]
  • New SBS for Frankie’s new VA coming:
    Oda asks for questions for Subaru Kimura, transitioning the voice since Kazuki Yao’s departure. [79:46]

Notable & Fun SBS Moments

• Vivi at 40 and 60:
  • In one alternate future: “I’m gonna hypnotize ya, ya dumbass!” (as a pirate captain, referencing her dance) [57:40]
  • In the worst timeline: “Luffy? Yeah, I remember that guy.” (as a Celestial Dragon-esque villain) [58:47]
• Does Jinbe have blue genitals?
  • “It’s blue.” — Oda, to a question from a five-year-old (everyone laughs/cringes) [84:26]
• Gear 5 attack naming conventions:
  • A reader jokes that “white whip” should have been “panty whip;” Oda bats this away, blaming the “perverts” and the PTA. [60:10]

SBS Artistic Fan Highlights

• Clock handcrafted by an 87-year-old grandma for her grandkids [95:44]
• "Four Flashers” parody of the Four Emperors, complete with dubious Blackbeard anatomy [96:29]
• Balloon art of Bonnie & Kuma [97:21]
• Multiple running fan gags riffing on Emu and Kanjuro

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Anime Recap: Episodes 1148–1149 [105:13–137:36]

Hosts: Sam & Ken

Main highlights (with selected timestamps)

• [107:00] Anime-original Icarus metaphor during Vegapunk’s broadcast.
• [108:20] Mach Town antics; world reacts humorously to sinking-ocean prophecy.
• [111:19] Saturn’s battle with the Straw Hats; Chopper “blocking” rapid stabs.
• [112:52] Vegapunk’s broadcast enters the Void Century history and the Great War.
• [116:21] Joy Boy is revealed as the "first to be called a pirate."
• [119:23] Carrot fangirls over ancient weapons tech: “Weapons, that’s so cool.”
• [120:00] Foxy cameo, lampooning Vegapunk’s self-doubt.
• [124:16] Venus Juro’s unicorn-horse moonwalk and cutting the Labo Phase in half.
• [127:28] Major lore drop: the world sank by 200 meters during the Void Century; King Cobra's posthumous presence; Alabasta mourning.
• [131:03] Stylized visual tricks for Stussy/Edison conversation.
• [133:49] York figures out the snail’s location is inside the Iron Giant.

Notable Anime Recap Quotes

• “It’s hard to make any meaningful distinctions between the last four episodes now.” — Sam [136:24]
• “It’s nice seeing them all back, all animated, a lot of returning voice actors... but is it quantity over quality?” — Ken [135:00]

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Piece Together: Q&A, Theories, and More [139:36–176:22]

Memorable Q&A Moments:

• [142:20] On Teach’s “dreams never end” line: Stephen discusses the translation choices and universality of the line’s meaning.
• [159:45] “Can we assume the black form of Emu is their actual body, not just a silhouette?”
  • Hosts debate if the “shadow monster” form is literal or just a story effect, and joke that only Zeus the homie might remember what Emu actually looks like.
  • “If any individual character should be the one to reveal it, it should be Wapol. That would be awesome.” — Stephen
• [149:42] “Will Oda ever explain the true origins of magic/haki/races, or are some things destined to stay mysterious?”
  • Deep discussion about Oda’s "no-magic-without-some-kind-of-explanation" policy and how themes of legend, science, and confusion blend in One Piece worldbuilding.
• [170:39] Reflections on Rocks D. Xebec:
  • “He is not a perfectly inspirational figure to everyone… but [for Kaido, Whitebeard, Big Mom] he has clearly made an impression.” — Stephen

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “There’s a picture of [ex-president] Vicente Fox wearing the straw hat Jolly Roger … What a way to make something uncool is to have an elderly politician sport it.” — Zach [14:25]
• “Can someone get fired for this blunder [removing the cover box]?!” — Zach [19:13]
• “You could tell Oda was referencing Time Bokan, Gundam, and Robodachi. They were all so alluring … all the robots I draw are trying to be like that.” — Oda [39:34]
• “If Bonnie is 12, why does she look 20? Because a crew with a kid captain gets no respect!” — Oda [35:14]
• “There is the potential for a Celestial Dragon inside everyone...” — Oda [51:57]
• “I always envision the manga as two pages at once. For everyone on a phone, I’m sorry!” — Oda [75:07]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 06:00 — Tribute to Tatsuya Nagamine
• 10:00 — One Piece flags in Mexico protests
• 17:10 — Start manga recap for Volume 113
• 32:00–62:00 — Marvelous/funny/insightful SBS answers
  • 34:23: Gabon confirmation for Crocus cover
  • 51:57: Celestial Dragon tendencies inside Vegapunk/York (and us all?)
  • 61:09: Oda sweating on Frankie/Queen relation
• 75:07 — Oda’s page layout philosophy
• 84:26 — Jinbe’s blue ahem “genitals”
• 105:13–137:36 — Double anime recap
  • 116:21: Joy Boy as "first pirate"
  • 127:28: Lore reveal: world ocean rose 200 meters
• 170:39–175:53 — Reflections on the Rocks flashback (and the nature of Oda’s character work)

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End Notes

• Fan/community interaction: Listeners are invited to ask SBS-esque questions in the Piece Together section or become Patreon supporters for more access.
• Podcast wrap-up:
  • Mike Patten details his art on DoManStone (Simpsons-styled One Piece) [179:17]
  • Stephen Paul shares details about his translation work, including Kingdom, Kurumizawa's Folly, and more [181:00]
• Next week’s tease:
  • New manga chapter incoming; tune in for more live recaps and shenanigans!

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Summary prepared for those who want the juicy new One Piece lore, hilarious fandom antics, and unique creator/fan engagement—all without sitting through a three-hour episode.

Transcript

[Stephen Paul]

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[Stephen Paul]

Sam.

[Zach]

This is the One Piece podcast episode 893 for the week of Monday, November 17th, 2025. My name is Zach.

[Ed]

And my name is Ed.

[Zach]

And on today's episode we have very special guest. You may know him as the translator for One piece and weekly shonen jump in Manga plus. His name is Stephen Paul. How's it going, Stephen?

[Stephen Paul]

It's going good. It's going good. I'm. I'm happy to announce that Toto has blessed the rains down in SoCal. Uh, we do have our first storm of the season.

[Ed]

It's mudslide season, isn't it?

[Stephen Paul]

Uh, yeah, well, yeah, I think if there had been more fires, that would have been a bigger concern. But it's mostly just been very dry this year, so it's been a long time since we had some nice rain, so I'm enjoying it.

[Zach]

Good. That's good. Is. Is that why Toto from One Piece is named that? Now that I'm thinking about it?

[Stephen Paul]

Uh, yes, yes. He blamed the. He blessed the rains down in Alabaster. That's how.

[Ed]

That's how it goes actually. By long standing supposition that people in. People in Southern California talk about traffic because they don't have weather to talk about. Maybe that's just Los Angeles, but I.

[Zach]

Think that's Los Angeles. Yeah, there is.

[Ed]

Now there is rain weather to talk about.

[Zach]

Well, there's always weather to talk about these days. But the biggest, the biggest weather of all is the storm coming. Drawing our art today. Also a storyboard artist and a lot more. Mike Patton with us. How's it going, Mike?

[Mike Patton]

Hey, how's it how's it going? It's going all right for me.

[Ed]

Good thing you're. Here's something I wanted to mention to you is there's a song I heard on the radio this week. There's a song by the Osmonds called Down by the Lazy river, and it was on the radio.

[Mike Patton]

Oh, hell yeah. I'm very familiar with it. I'm more familiar with the Louis Armstrong version, which I like a lot.

[Zach]

Good, That's. I have nothing to add to that.

[Mike Patton]

I'm no longer a lazy river guy. I'm now a balcony guy.

[Zach]

Yeah, I've heard where so.

[Mike Patton]

No, I'm so lazy river guy.

[Zach]

Oh, okay.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, I can't.

[Mike Patton]

Can't. Can't sustain the bit.

[Zach]

I'm sorry. Yeah, forget it. I. I'm just gonna stop the bit right there then.

[Ed]

Anyway, the station I was listening to, actually their Saturday night is Yacht Rock Saturday.

[Mike Patton]

Hey, that's a good time.

[Stephen Paul]

That sounds.

[Zach]

That sounds good.

[Ed]

ME TV Radio. Familiar with the ME tv, the oldies station on TV with the old TV shows. They have a radio.

[Zach]

They sponsor us, though. So please, unless they choose to.

[Stephen Paul]

And then hold your praise to a minimum. Yeah, yeah.

[Zach]

T. Today on the podcast, we're going to go through volume 113 of one piece entitled Steven, the Birth of Loki. Oh, is that what happens? Not to be confused with the Birth of Zorro, which has been film cold.

[Ed]

The Birth of Venus by Botticelli.

[Zach]

Yes. Also very easy to confuse with this volume of one piece. But we're going to go through the SBS with Steven. Maybe a little. Little more. I don't know what else is in here. We'll find out. And we also will have peace together for you before.

[Stephen Paul]

And I do think that Sam and Ken are planning an anime recap to catch us up.

[Zach]

I think a double anime recap for episodes 11, 48 and 49, I believe are the numbers. So hopefully I'm right. We didn't think so. I'm sure we did.

[Ed]

But Sam and Ken, or as I call them, Skim.

[Zach]

Oh, that's.

[Stephen Paul]

That's very bad.

[Zach]

No, don't call them that.

[Mike Patton]

I've been calling Cam this whole time.

[Zach]

Cam.

[Mike Patton]

Sam and Ken, right?

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, K A M. Anyway, I'm gonna.

[Mike Patton]

Turn my mic back off.

[Zach]

There's no. There's no way to segue, unfortunately, so.

[Ed]

And the manga will be back next week.

[Zach]

The manga will be back next week. We're all here. So of course the manga's off. Stephen, I know you and I and Ed, and also, obviously we're not on last week for that chapter. I don't know, we could talk about.

[Stephen Paul]

I enjoyed it though. I thought it was a good episode.

[Zach]

It was a good episode even if.

[Stephen Paul]

It was controversial with the, with the listeners.

[Zach]

Yeah. I don't understand why. I thought Steve, Josh and Alex did an excellent job so you could listen to last week's episode if you haven't. So yeah, there's no way to segue, but we have some sad news and some weird news. I'll start with the sad news. Director Tatsuya Nagamine passed away. He was only 53 years old. He passed away over the summer on August 20th I believe. But recently toy held a memorial. We will have Henry Thurlow on the show to talk about his personal experience with Nagamine san in soon. I don't want to give an exact date because I'm not sure as I sit here today, but I didn't know.

[Ed]

We were doing that.

[Zach]

Neither did I. But we, we are good now. We are. But Henry did post a 5 minute clip on his social media channel which I hope you all check which is a more fitting tribute than, than I could ever make, obviously having never met or worked with Nagamine san. So please check that out if you haven't. Henry Thurlow, wherever you get your social media.

[Stephen Paul]

And to be specific here, Nagamine was the director of Film Z of the the movies. And, and he was like the, the series director in wano or something like, like kind of when they started their big like push to kind of rejuvenate the series.

[Zach]

And I'm sure, I'm sure if you go back to our 2018 episodes, like he was like the harbinger of the, of the good of this new like this new amazing era of like we called it an animator's playground I think on our show. And, and it sounds to me from, from the stories I've heard and from what I've read in these articles and so forth that he was really the person who started and, and fostered that sort of environment which I think has really revitalized the entire franchise in a way that we didn't even see coming. So he worked on, as you said, was it film read too? I'm trying to. Or films that. Films that Film Z Z as we say here in the States. Yeah. But he also did episodes 892 through 1122 as the supervisor, the, the main director of the series. I, I know there's a lot of terminology that I'm not as adept with, but he also worked on Dragon Ball Super Super Broly. That movie as well. Like that. You could tell that, I guess. How would you even describe that art style? Almost like sketchy looking. No, not proc.

[Stephen Paul]

I believe the kids call it brolic. Is the. Is the style adjective. It's the adjective to describe broly.

[Zach]

Oh, I don't like that either. He's done a lot in just his short time with us. He is, you know, one of the most accomplished members of the One Piece anime staff, bar none. I think he's. He's really shaped it to what it is today, which is becoming a very different anime than it was in 2020 18, 2017. So there's, there's a lot of. It's a huge loss. A lot of great tributes out there. I'll. I'll post some links out there if you want to read more about Nagamine Son to the Weird News I woke up too early this morning even for me and I do. I think someone posted on our discord. But I do do periodic searches for the one piece protest movements since those have started in Indonesia and noticed there was a big one happening in Mexico City as we recorded this yesterday, Saturday, November 15th. But it turns out that this. Well, I'll put it this way Ed. You probably remember Vicente Fox. Yes. Yeah. He's a right wing politician in he.

[Ed]

Was the president of Mexico and George Bush was president here.

[Zach]

Right. He. Well next to George Bush I guess he didn't look so right wing. But no. So there's a picture of him wearing the straw hat Jolly Roger that I saw. So what ended up happening here is I think some from. From the news that we have seen so far and from accounts on the ground, Spanish language speaking, Spanish speaking accounts on the ground, on Blue sky and elsewhere. It seems like yes, there was a real protest there but it got co opted by right wing agitators who were just using one piece stuff to further.

[Ed]

Well, there were a lot of pictures of one piece flags he posted.

[Zach]

Yeah. But it ended up that a lot of that might have been.

[Ed]

But his supporters.

[Zach]

No might have been and it might have been right wing supporters.

[Ed]

I was like is. I don't know is Fox trying to copy?

[Zach]

I don't know if it's Fox specifically, but the whole thing is so I think the way NBC News put it is this is a Gen Z style movement. However, the people who are running this particular demonstration were all elderly I think is the actual word that was used on NBC to describe Fox and I think another former politician. So it sounds like it was like a Way to like a false flag sort of thing.

[Ed]

Like it's just like you, you hold a protest and the straw hat flag will show up.

[Stephen Paul]

I think like I said, that's what it seems like.

[Ed]

Like, like I said when or any critical mass of protest signs show up, legalizing signs also show up.

[Stephen Paul]

Right?

[Zach]

Yeah. I will say having looked at the images from the Mexico City one, I. It is so prolific in a way I hadn't seen in any of the previous rallies, including the ones in Indonesia which were kind of the most. Had the most ubiquity of the.

[Ed]

I thought it was Nepal.

[Zach]

No, Nepal did have a lot of it. But Indonesia was like the, the, the breeding ground for using the one piece flag in a political way.

[Ed]

Not surprised. I remember like when we first got our first like geographical statistics about who was listening to the podcast, there was.

[Zach]

A lot from Indonesia, Indonesia, Philippines. Yeah, I think we've. And India. Yeah, yeah. I mean the. There, there's a lot of English speaking folks there. And more importantly, one piece is very ubiquitous in those places. Not that it isn't in Mexico as well, but it seems it was like a different level of it and people were also wearing like just other random, seemingly random one piece merch like Zorro shirts.

[Ed]

And I was wondering if anyone, if any of the one piece popularity in Mexico has anything to do with the Netflix live action actor of Luffy being Mexican.

[Stephen Paul]

I think it can't hurt.

[Zach]

No, I think it is very popular there, which is why it's like hard to parse this out. But I know the current leader in Mexico is left wing and has actually been, from what I read it sounds like has been making some incremental progress in Mexico. So, and it was. So I think what the, the, the main reporting was that the, the movement that was originally going to protest on Saturday ended up denouncing the protest on Saturday. So it's, I think it's early right now, but I, I thought that was a kind of crazy bit of news coming out of there and wanted to point it to people's attention to remind everyone to be skeptical of if anything you read. What is it, trust but verify or something along those lines. Just, you know, uh, don't trust yourself at six in the morning when you see something necessarily that it's 100% accurate. It's the lesson I'm telling myself here.

[Stephen Paul]

Incidentally, that's. This is the second time that we've mentioned Vicente Fox on this podcast, which you may remember we had an episode titled Vicente Foxy back in the day.

[Zach]

Still a good title.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Zach]

He has a great name. I'm not going to deny that out of him.

[Stephen Paul]

That's true.

[Zach]

Maybe, maybe he was just a fan of our podcast and that's why he wore that shirt. But you know what a way to make something uncool is just to have an elderly politician sport it. And I. It was just gross. I also saw some other images there that I can't really verify that were really gross in, you know, stomach churning like one piece flag held by like far, far right people I that I either hope are false or just because they're trying to co opt an image that is, you know, it's an aesthetic. Yeah. But I. I think people should listen if they haven't to our episode a few weeks ago with Dr. Bentlen, myself and golfer Garer where we really talk about like the. The deep meaning that one piece seems to be resonating in a completely different way around the world. But I'm sure we're going to discuss that more in depth in the future and hopefully once dust is settled a little bit more. I don't like that we have suddenly become an actual like quasi. I don't want to even say news outlet, but that we're reporting actual news. But here we are in the year 2025. So to the. To the really crucial stuff. We're going to get to volume 113 and Steven's gonna do some story time with us right after this.

[Stephen Paul]

As a raider scavenging a derelict world.

[Zach]

You settle into an underground settlement.

[Stephen Paul]

But now you must return to the surface where arc machines roam. If you're brave enough, who knows what you might find. Arc Raiders, a multiplayer extraction adventure video game. Buy now for PlayStation. PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S and PC. Rated T for teen.

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[Zach]

This is the manga recap for volume 113, the birth of Loki. This volume may be explicit because it's going to describe the intimate details of the birth process, but it doesn't actually. You could pick up this volume in Japanese Kinokuniya or anywhere you get your Japanese volumes. Amazon. Japan, I think. Or.

[Stephen Paul]

Or just wait a year.

[Zach]

Or just wait a year and it'll be out in English. That's the. Yeah, exactly what I was going to say. Volume 110 is out now, by the way. If you haven't picked it up, that's a nice big thick one. So I'm going to be done talking right after I gave it to Stephen. Paul. Stephen.

[Stephen Paul]

All right. Yeah, here we go. Volume 113. I don't know if I got the chance to talk. I think. I think I may have been off the week that the COVID was revealed. So. Yeah. I don't know. Does anybody have any new thoughts about. I think this is. What is this the second one in a row now, Zach, that doesn't have the box in the background?

[Zach]

The last one did. So the box is. Can I stand up as a proponent of the box?

[Stephen Paul]

So that's why I gave it to you.

[Zach]

Yeah, I know, I know. I'm just telling the audience that I like. Please forgive me. I'm going to talk about the box. So every volume of One Piece on the COVID there's a box in the background that they. That Oda has completely bursted over for the most part, but it's still there in just about every volume. I haven't looked at all of them, but just about.

[Ed]

No, not this one.

[Zach]

Yeah, so last. Last time it was. They were all like, oh, is the Giants.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Yeah. So they literally were over it. So you could imagine that the box might still be under them. Like it. Maybe it's there. This one didn't even try. There's definitely no box and there's no reason for there not to be a box. Someone should get fired for this blunder is all.

[Ed]

I was not prepared for how orange Summer's hair was.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. I mean, it's a very colorful. Obviously it is a one piece cover. Yeah.

[Ed]

I like the blue and orange motif.

[Stephen Paul]

It is nice. It's a very like sort of primary color. Like, there's a lot of blue, there's a lot of red, there's a lot of orange on.

[Ed]

And Luffy's. Luffy's hat is. His helmet is yellow and Gideon is also yellow, except for the parts of him that are black.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. I don't know if I. I don't know if this is going to be one that's going to be very memorable on the long run, but, you know, since it's one of those things where, like Zach said, once you notice that the box is Gone. Like that. That sort of frame that. That kind of centers everything. It does feel weird. Like, it feels like. Like they're missing, like a background or on a set or something.

[Zach]

They are, yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Ed]

The Arrow. Arrow girl has blue hair. I was not.

[Zach]

No.

[Ed]

I feel bad that I've forgotten her name.

[Stephen Paul]

That was a surprise.

[Zach]

We talked about this, I think, but Sai almost exactly predicted this color scheme, which is insane. If you look back at our image a few weeks ago, that she did. Yeah. The only difference is the eyes were in opposite places. And I think she's got blue hair.

[Ed]

Like Cinco man, because you got to have blue hair.

[Zach]

You got to have blue hair. Noah. So I. So my son Noah is four and a half, and I brought this in and I had it. And he's like, danny, is this a superhero book? I'm like, kind of. Is it? Oh, are there pirates? I said yes, and that's all. He's very into Spider man, even though he has never seen any Spider man before. So that's osmosis for you. We'll see how that changes.

[Ed]

Spider Man 1 with Toby Maguire is a Thanksgiving movie.

[Stephen Paul]

It is, yeah.

[Ed]

Yes.

[Mike Patton]

We watched it a couple Thanksgivings ago. I think Steve was there.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. Willem Dafoe serves the turkey, right?

[Ed]

More like Willem Dufrid.

[Mike Patton]

And then Macy Gray plays at the light.

[Stephen Paul]

What is it?

[Mike Patton]

Was it the Life Day Parade? No, wait, that's Star Wars.

[Stephen Paul]

Star Wars.

[Zach]

Okay. We are moving on.

[Stephen Paul]

Yes.

[Zach]

Steven. Oh, well, do you. What do you think of the COVID generally, though? Do you like it?

[Ed]

I like the color scheme. I mean, Shamrock looks very cool on this cover.

[Zach]

Actually, he looks too cool.

[Ed]

Very, very samurai. Ish. Like his facial hair and.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. The way he's pulling the sword out.

[Mike Patton]

Mike, question about Shamrock's design, because I know we've gotten a couple, like, full body pics of him. He's wearing, like, shorts, isn't he?

[Zach]

Yeah, he's.

[Stephen Paul]

No, he's wearing that, like, it's like riding pants style.

[Sam]

Right.

[Stephen Paul]

Like, he's got the top and stuff.

[Mike Patton]

I was going to say it was cool, but I take it back now. He should be in shorts.

[Zach]

He's not cool. I want to make it clear that he is, like, the opposite of cool.

[Stephen Paul]

He's kind of evil.

[Zach]

Yeah, he's insanely evil. Unless you're into really evil people. He's not cool. And I know a lot of our fans are into very evil people, and that's okay.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. Overall, though, I do, I, I, my, my lasting impression. It feels like this is the, the mandatory, like, Color reveal for the cast that. That has been introduced. It's just like, okay, here they are. This is what they look like in color.

[Ed]

I mean, there's something especially interesting about this design. But everyone's here. Gang's all here.

[Zach]

Well, killing him is not d yassified here, so that's fantastic. But I also want to add Gabon being here also kind of. Why? Like, I love Gabon. Don't get me wrong. But why is he here amongst all the villains for some reason? Unless he is white. Okay, Luffy's there.

[Stephen Paul]

That's what I'm saying.

[Zach]

He's in the background.

[Stephen Paul]

Here's all the new.

[Zach]

Here's all the new characters. You're absolutely right. Except the children. Won't someone think of the children? Okay, are we opening the COVID Which. Which part do you want to do next?

[Stephen Paul]

We can look underneath.

[Ed]

You find Panda Man, Zach.

[Zach]

Oh, oh, let me look.

[Stephen Paul]

Now you can look. Yes, you're allowed to look.

[Zach]

It could be anywhere, obviously. Oh, Gunko looks a little bit more panda. Yeah, a little.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, yeah. A little more Manny.

[Zach]

A panda Manny.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, but it's. But it's. What is it? A heterochromatic Panda Man. Because she has the different colored eye. So like his. He has one black eye and then one like. Like brown or mid. Mid.

[Ed]

It almost looks like one. One eye has a patch over it or something.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, yeah.

[Zach]

I. I will say of so of our post, like Pandaman stories, which has been a really long time since like of him appearing in Randy in random places in the COVID I do enjoy the ones where he replaces a character the best. So I have to like this one. However, I think it would have been much funnier if he were Luffy.

[Stephen Paul]

Oh, that would be good. Yeah. Or. Or like Gabon or something. I just feel like.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

Good code is probably the least interesting person he could have chosen to do this to.

[Zach]

Oh, you're gonna get some hate mail. But yes.

[Ed]

Or if. If Panda man was. Got it on Shamrock's face and they gave him Shamrock's beard.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, I'd like to see that.

[Zach]

Yeah, the little crappy mustache.

[Stephen Paul]

His pandy. Yeah.

[Zach]

Well, but he already has hair that's already fur. How do you have a mustache over fur? Now these are the questions that keep me up at night. Sorry, you're right. Billy Goats. Steven comment.

[Stephen Paul]

All right. Yeah. Oda's comment here. It looks like he just drew Robin. Or at least it's a. You know, it's a. It's a. A woman who is very similar in style.

[Ed]

A dark haired woman. With sunglasses.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. Who looks cool. And with bangs and bangs and bangs. Yeah. So almost certainly Robin. His. His comment is the. The rotation of the earth has very gradually been slowing. So in the very distant past, a Single day was 23 hours. And over time it became 24 now. Man, it must have been really hard for the weekly serialized mangaka of the distant past. And then he says in parentheses, roughly a 180 million years ago. Start volume one 113. So yeah, Otis found out a new fact.

[Zach]

That's a pretty good one, that is.

[Ed]

And now we're all subjected to it.

[Zach]

Yeah. Now we all have to think of what are the prehistoric names of popular manga.

[Stephen Paul]

I mean, that's. Yeah. 180 million years ago. That was the Flintstones age, right?

[Zach]

That definitely was when the Flintstones were around. Yeah. Dinosaurs and cavemen walk the earth simultaneously.

[Ed]

Dino Ball. Zed.

[Zach]

Ed. Yes. That's really good. That's what the Flintstones kids watched when they got.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, yeah.

[Zach]

They got home and watched. I can't think of a Toonami Tsunami. No, wait, it's already a pun. I can't think of another pun we could get into.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, I would. See. Did I. Did I select out the. The inside cover here? I think this was a. I mean this is definitely a illustration from the COVID of Jump Luffy just pushing his hat. Yeah, but it was like he drew it with like markers or paint. Yeah, that's right. It was an iPad.

[Zach]

It looks like the iPad. It looks like. Or digitally, I should say.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, one of his kind of funky color experimentations.

[Zach]

He seems more willing to do that for Shonen Jump covers. Which you know, that's fine.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, I mean it's less work that way too.

[Zach]

Yeah, sure. Probably helps. He needs that.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. But this is volume 113 covers from 1145 to 1155. And so it's getting late in the evening. What's that? Oh, yeah. Okay. I. I gotcha. I gotcha. Yeah. This covers from the time 11:45.

[Zach]

Oh. Oh.

[Stephen Paul]

It does start from kind of. Well, we're in the midst of the. The chaos of the. The sleep DS and the, you know, the fighting and all of that. And then as the. The title of the volume would suggest, we do get into the start of this mega flashback that we're on now.

[Ed]

And hasn't officially ended, has it?

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Zach]

You.

[Stephen Paul]

You really would not. Unofficially, aside from the fact that it does, we get the rocks reveal on the second to last chapter. And so then the final chapter of the volume does have like. Oh, here's all of his, his crew members and stuff. But aside from that, like, yeah, if.

[Ed]

You smell what the Rock says cooking.

[Stephen Paul]

Aside from that, if you just looked at the, you know, the, the start of the flashback, you would have no idea, you know, where, where it would end up with us at the current, at the current point. But as for the. The sbs, this is a very big SBS volume. Like, I think I counted eight pages of sbs, which I don't know if that's like a record all on its own. There might be other volumes that have had eight. I'm positive that there are no, none of them that have nine SBS pages. So this is a pretty, pretty packed one as far as the questions and answers go.

[Ed]

So gather on, children. Get your hot cocoa. It's story time.

[Stephen Paul]

Yes, it is story time. We'll start with the first one in which I do love the, the header illustration here. This submitter has chosen to redo the scene from. From Loguetown when we are introduced to Smoker and his pants eat the little girl's ice cream. Only this time the. The ice cream, like, scoops are in the SBS shape. So the little girl's like, it's the sbs. And then her dad has the question corner shirt on and he says, hey, hey, you better hurry up or Papa will start it. And, and then, and then it cuts to the. The shot of Smoker, like giving her the. The money. But instead of giving her the money, he's giving her a little like, alarm transponder snail. And he says, sorry, I started the SBS before you next time come five minutes earlier. And then he's like beeping the, the alarm on the snail. It's so funny.

[Zach]

There's a lot going on in this.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, this is the high concept.

[Ed]

Yeah, it looks like, it looks like soft serve, not scoops.

[Zach]

It looks like something.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, it's very, it's very goopy. Yeah, it's like pizza in, in the.

[Zach]

One piece world, that's what it looks like.

[Ed]

Well, I mean, they do have that gimmick soft serve in Japan where they put it in the cone and turn it upside down and it doesn't fall.

[Stephen Paul]

Oh, yeah. Um, but then instead of reacting to that one, then Oda also selects a regular letter that's like, oh, it's so hot. When it's hot like this, you just, you want to turn on the fan and you, you point your face right at it and you say.

[Ed]

Yes, the good old Senpouki.

[Stephen Paul]

Yes. And. And he's like, yeah, you remember doing that in the past, right? Odachi and Otis, like, oh, yeah, I used to do that when I was a kid. Boy, we just love going. Going up to the fan and you say, sb, hey, you started it already. So. Yeah, and then we get the. That, that picture from the. I'm sure it's hot in Kumamoto.

[Ed]

It's in the south.

[Stephen Paul]

Yes, yes. More hot than. Than in Tokyo.

[Zach]

It gets hot in a lot of places in Japan. Yes.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, yeah. And it's got that. The color spread. I think it was from like a year or two ago. I remember seeing this one in the. The calendar not that long ago where Luffy, I think. Yeah, okay. Luffy is doing that exact thing where he's. He's looking into the fan and in.

[Zach]

There with a cat doing the job.

[Stephen Paul]

Yes, with the cat. Yeah, the cat is sitting on top.

[Ed]

Of the fan and Usopp's just chilling there on the floor.

[Stephen Paul]

Yes. Hanging out. And then the next question is, does Zunisha poop? And Oda's like, disgusting. He's like, disgusting. That's the first one. Oh, God, the first question. Oh, that's so cool.

[Zach]

I've been to parades.

[Ed]

I know elephants poop.

[Stephen Paul]

He says, yes, of course. Of course he poops. Yeah, yeah. Enough that, you know, you would get adventurers disembarking upon it to go on an adventure. Wow. This island, it seems like the whole thing is like one giant swamp. Eventually, the island sinks into the ocean to become nutrients for. For the sea life. He's like, yeah, okay, whatever. He's like, yes, of course it does poop. So he goes on a little joke.

[Zach]

Was that an Usopp story?

[Stephen Paul]

I feel like, yeah, he's basically doing the same thing is. Yeah, he makes island poops and.

[Zach]

Right.

[Ed]

Well, I mean, the. The island poop from Little Garden, that was a giant goldfish poop, right?

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, yeah, the story. Yes. And that came from Usopp originally.

[Zach]

And wasn't there something in one of the movies like that too with like, goldfish poop or something?

[Stephen Paul]

No, maybe. I do not remember. I don't remember either.

[Zach]

I don't remember. Okay, well, our listeners are either saying, what are you talking about? Or how could you not remember the poop? Go ahead.

[Stephen Paul]

But now we get some. Some more interesting, you know, factual questions here. So, no, it is not poop related. It is. First you want it, then you don't. So the, the make up your mind. This person asks, you know, everyone's been curious. Or the people who have been curious have been dying to know. Let's finally Put an end to the question of who was the guy facing away from the camera on the COVID of chapter 631, which of course that was the one where Crocus is sharing a drink with a guy, a robed guy with the casa straw hat who looks a lot like Shiki that people thought at first. And so the person says, so tell us straight, was it Shiki the Golden lion or was it the left arm of the pirate king Scapper Gabon and what it says. Wow, I'm surprised you remember that. Yes, that was Gabon. He, he never really got over his, his wanderlust. He's always off traveling and you know, moving around the globe. And he is a navigator after all. So yes, we have the canonical answer there.

[Zach]

Have they mentioned he's the. I'm sure they have. I don't, I didn't remember.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, they did. They did say that.

[Zach]

I'm surprised you remember that. That's all we've been talking about for like 15 years.

[Stephen Paul]

Right?

[Zach]

Jesus Christ.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, we are the audience for that question.

[Zach]

I know, yeah. And we were all wrong or right. It's unclear.

[Ed]

I mean I remember some people, sources like say maybe it was Yorkie or something.

[Zach]

I still did.

[Stephen Paul]

That was another popular one.

[Zach]

I still like that theory. Well, we did that. He's the only one we didn't really see the fate of on folks crew because he left before they all died.

[Stephen Paul]

Right, right. To get that was.

[Zach]

That was the hook there for his.

[Stephen Paul]

Convalescence in the, in the hospital or whatever it was.

[Zach]

Yeah, whatever Shanks had that time.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, yeah. He had to leave the adventure first.

[Zach]

Leave the adventure. Disease. Yeah, yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

And then the last question here is if Bonnie is 12, why does she maintain a, an appearance in her 20s? Will she be 12 from now on? And Oda says, well, you know, a crew with a kid as a captain is bound to get disrespected once they're out on the sea. And you know, in order for her to take on this, this travel to go find her father, this was a kind of convenient answer. It was a solution to her problem. But now on the, the thousand sunny and an Elbaf, she can just kind of relax and be the kid that she actually is. And he says, let's watch over, you know, what, what she does in the future. So yeah, it kind of seems like that that's going to be the going pattern from now on at least.

[Ed]

Where is Bonnie right now? In Elbaf. Is she on this?

[Zach]

What's she doing with Lil? Yeah, she's with Lilith. We don't know where Kuma is.

[Stephen Paul]

Oh, that's right. That's right.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

Lilith was gonna build the lab.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

Somewhere in Elbaf.

[Zach]

But yeah, Kuma is mia, but I assume somewhere.

[Stephen Paul]

I think he's just hanging out on the ship.

[Mike Patton]

He's just.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, yeah, he's like the big Snorlax in there. He's just.

[Zach]

Or Totoro. He's like kind of just. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

He's just sleeping it off. Our next SBS segment has a wonderful callback to Corazon and Law, where Corazon is. He's not like blowing his vape rings, he's farting SBS rings. When he did, he demonstrated his silent powers.

[Mike Patton]

All right, that's good.

[Stephen Paul]

Silent but stinky. But stinky. Yeah, because you see Law there. But yeah, it's grown up law, not. Not little kid law. So the first question here is from a reader who says, so the sea beast weapons, you know all those, the Mecca animals that were in the sea outside of Egghead, were they based on. Are they modeled after all the Yata, the Yatter Mecca, like Yoder1 and Yadder King that appear in the Yadderman anime. Oh, it's so nostalgic. And Oda's like, right, yes, like that's exactly what I was going for. And he says, he explains, long, long ago there was a mecha anime called the Time Bokan series which I loved. And you had people like Mitsuki Nakamura san and then Kunio Ookawara who later on went to work on the Gundam. They created the, the foundations of Japan's robot anime. And you know, it had all of their design, their ability to design, their designing prowess and their coloring.

[Ed]

And this aired on TV when Oda was in primary school. 1977. 79 era.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, I guess so. I don't know the actual years of.

[Ed]

Yeah, I just looked that up.

[Stephen Paul]

Okay.

[Ed]

Yeah, so as we know is 50 years old now. He was born in 75.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. So he would have been, you would have been seeing probably reruns when he was a little kid. He's like, yeah, they were so. They were just so alluring, all these, these designs. There was also a plastic, plastic model. Primodo is what they call it. Or like a toy I guess called Robodachi that he also includes a picture of here.

[Ed]

Reminds me of Harrow from Gundam.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, it's, it's just like a little like Humpty Dumpty looking guy with short little arms and feet in a, you know, big, big old smile. And he says all of the, all of the robots that I draw are, like, trying to be, like, Time Bokan and Robodachi. And he's like, wow, I just. I just went off on another tangent that no one's gonna understand. And he laughs. He's like, maybe you can look at this stuff up online. Anyways, they're very exciting designs, and they're. They're full of joy and wonder.

[Ed]

He was talking about the Egghead boots there, too.

[Stephen Paul]

Yes, that is our. That is our next question. In fact, we have in 1064, we do see, uh, the introduction of the Dom shoes. And the question is asking. Or they called that because they're an homage to the legs of the Dom, you know, robot in bubble Suit Gundam. And Otis, like. Oh, yes, yes. If I. Whenever I hear. Or whenever I think of, like, fat legs, I think of Dom. So that's, that's, that's the connection there. That's where he got that from. I had no idea about that.

[Zach]

Yeah, I don't either. Yeah, I think at the time.

[Ed]

Kinkle boots.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. The gout boots.

[Zach]

Yeah. I think we had. I think we had a different crew on, so I think they had different theories. But, yeah, no, that's. We. There was guns and maybe related, I feel like.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, well, he, He. He did a lot of, like, exposition, like, like, world building dumping in those chapters when they were getting shown around Egghead, because there was, like, the Labo phase and the Fab, and there was a lot of stuff where it was like, I don't even know what this is talking about, what this is referring to. So it's nice that we at least get that, because I never even thought about those since they showed up, that they had that name.

[Zach]

I got to watch my old Gundam again. It's been a very long time.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Just looking at images is getting me nostalgic. Okay, yeah, go ahead.

[Stephen Paul]

And our last question here. This is very, very interesting and one that has not come up in a long, long time. The question is. So in the world of One Piece, we know about two calendar systems. And there's. These are in Japanese. They're called Kaiendeki and tendeki. And that would mean, like, I guess it's literally like ocean or sea circle calendar, and then heaven calendar, heavenly calendar. And these are mentioned. This is just me talking. He includes this picture of when Nami is reading in. It's in Jaya, when she's reading these old historical books and saying, oh, yeah, in the year of Cayenne, 11:20, June 21, you know, it's blah, blah, blah. We left the lively town of Vera and. And all this stuff. I believe that the viz translation at the time just called it the year. The. Yeah, the year of Cayenne or something. Which is. You know, I, I'm loathe to like to, to complain too much about the work of, of older people because I know how hard it is to like anticipate how these things will end up becoming used later on. But this is very much like the, like the Hakoku sovereignty thing where it's like, okay, it's a Japanese term and.

[Ed]

But yeah, because they needed more translation.

[Stephen Paul]

Yes, yes, exactly. Instead of. Because they didn't know what it was, they just left it in Japanese and that it's not really very helpful. So I might need to, to do some like editorial or some contextualizing in the text here. But there was that. And then there was the Tenreki, which Robin mentions when she's reading off the poneglyph with crocodile in the crypt underneath Alubarna. So anyways, back to the question. So the kayanriki and the 10 Riki. How what years? Like how. How many years ago do these calendar systems refer to? And like what, what year. What age are we in now and what year is it? And that is from Nexile. And Oda says, ah, interesting. Yes, this is the sort of thing that normal readers have completely forgotten about. And he laughs class to himself. But we are not the normal readers, of course. He says. Aye, so you must be curious. Of course. And you are. You're under the assumption that both of these are old or like outdated calendars that are no longer in use. But the answer is that the. In the present day it is Tenreki year 4131 and Kyandaki year 40, 1541. And so that would be like the age of heaven and the age of the sea or the age of the sea circle or something.

[Zach]

Which one's? Which.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, Tenreki is the longer one and the Kayanriki is the shorter one.

[Zach]

I mean, so the age of the sea and the age of the.

[Stephen Paul]

That's the. Yeah, the sea is the Kayen Re is. And the age of the heaven is the tenreki the longer one. And Oda says.

[Ed]

And the void century, was it 800 years ago?

[Stephen Paul]

Yes, so. So it's part of both. So Oda says they are both in use. So you know, they're, they're both active, I guess. It's not like they stopped one and then started the other They're. They're both ongoing.

[Zach]

They're.

[Stephen Paul]

They're measuring from some. Whatever particular points in the past they are. And he also adds because like in. In the. The lead up to skypiea, which was kind of started by the journal that they found talking about the, you know, the, the journey in the sky and everything. That's what Nami's reading. And she says it's, you know, it's a journal from 400 years ago. He says all this stuff in Skypiea about being. Is all roughly 400 years ago, but I just used the term 400. I was just rounding down. So, you know, don't. Don't think too, too hard about that. Which I guess is his way. Yeah, I guess that's his way of.

[Zach]

Saying like timelines of these.

[Stephen Paul]

Yes. Don't try to calculate like exact years based on, you know, on that. It's just roughly 400 years ago.

[Zach]

Wait, I'm going, I'm going on the grand line.com to see because he definitely. Yeah, he has a timeline here.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Yeah. Interesting. Okay.

[Stephen Paul]

So, yeah, I don't know if that's going to be important. And it's noteworthy of that. Like, okay, the, the nearer one, the one that's newer still is like, you know, like 700 years older than the. The Void century. So it's not something that was created like by the world government.

[Zach]

I, I know Greg has not updated this in some time, so please keep that in mind. But looking at things that did happen around the 4,100 years ago, the only thing that comes up is the Ohara. The, the Library was around 5,000 years old. Around.

[Stephen Paul]

Interesting.

[Zach]

So that's interesting. And then that would be older than the. Yeah, that's the like one of the only things up until recently at least that we heard about like pre Void Century. We also have that mural. So who the hell knows?

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, the mural. And then, and then what was it like the, the robo. I don't know if it was the robot or if it was the. No, no, that. That there was the stuff that was also much older than the, than the Void century.

[Zach]

Oh, related to.

[Ed]

Oh, Robo. No, Ski.

[Mike Patton]

The robo.

[Zach]

Yeah, no, Robonosuke I think was supposed to be from around that time. Well, he definitely was because Joy Boy gave him. Imbued him at least to that.

[Stephen Paul]

That.

[Zach]

Yeah, he's at least that old. Yeah, I mean he's got to be older than that, I suppose. But he was so cute back then. He must have been a little kid. Yeah. Yeah, we. I I. Yeah. Anyway, it says this information is accurate as a volume 55. So that I know has had other things since then. Yeah, yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

But in short, yeah, it's like, it's interesting. It's hard to say how, how meaningful that will be in the long run, but it's good to know that at least they're like Oda has it. It's straight in his mind of like okay, this is this and this is that. So we'll go to the next SBS page here which has a fun very simple header of Papagu at his like crimin brand display here where he has new items. And it's three shirts that all look very similar that just say SBS on them and they all have like the, the stitches on. Yeah, the little. Yeah the scar thingy.

[Ed]

One of them is a ringer T. One has stars, one is just dark.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, yeah. Very, very unified in their look. And the first, the first comment comes from someone who says Odachi Thai kick. And that, that's the, the entirety of the message. You know it's like ah, that hurt.

[Ed]

That sounds like, sounds like the Batsu game.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah right. Yeah. What they do to Yamazaki. He always gets, he always gets tie kicked in the year on special.

[Ken]

Yeah.

[Ed]

Tanaka always gets the tie kick.

[Stephen Paul]

Oh is it. Oh that's right. Tanaka Yamazaki is the one who gets slapped every time.

[Ed]

Yeah yeah yeah. Jose always gets sl by Chono.

[Stephen Paul]

Yes. So the, the follow up to this is Odachi. What's, what's the thing you're most afraid of? And then they, they included the, the picture. The big spread of all the, the sleep tits that the you know, all the kids worst fears. So you know in reference to that story Beat and Otis, his answer is Ty kicks and the pta.

[Ed]

So yeah we should have guessed the pta.

[Stephen Paul]

It's a bad sign for Oda here. And then we get, we got a great question here. I really like this one. I think and I think Oda's answer is fantastic. It is about Vegapunk and York. So it says hi. Hi Odachi. So I was wondering this as I was reading is the fact that York wants to be a celestial dragon a sign that you know before he split his personality into satellites there was a part of Vegapunk that wanted to be a celestial dragon too. And it's like ah, interesting. Yeah. Is this, is this shocking to you? Because you know it's a tricky, it's a tricky thing to talk about. He says. But in, in my opinion in my, in My way of thinking, all people have a very large greed or desire, the yoku, which is, you know, where he came up with the name York, or for greed. All people have a large greed towards everything. And it is, you know, it's our sense of reason that keeps it in check and allows us to actually be, you know, human in our control over ourselves. So if the reason is good or righteousness, if the reason is shaka, then that's the. That's the thing that normally, because you can't separate these things out, that. That would govern stuff like your disgust towards the Celestial Dragons and the things that they do. And you know, your. Your common sense of. Of reason that, you know, you're not supposed to just kill people. And so in that sense, you know, I think there. There is the potential for a Celestial Dragon inside of everyone. He says that's, you know, that's kind of an extreme way of putting it, or a very simplified way of putting it, but, you know. Yeah, that's, you know, think about that as. As much or as little as you want, he says. He kind of laughs it off. So basically, the answer is maybe everyone, maybe all people have the desire to be a Celestial Dragon.

[Zach]

I know we spoke a lot about like the, I guess, how flawed of a character Vegapunk was.

[Stephen Paul]

Vegapunk. Yeah.

[Zach]

And interesting to hear like almost uncharacteristically cynical view of humanity from Oda and that we all are fucked up, which is true.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Zach]

But it's coming from Oda feels almost kind of.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, well, yeah, I mean, obviously the. The. The Celestial Dragon angle makes it more extreme because. But, but that's. Because that's what the, you know, the story angle is about. But obviously, I think if you were to remove it from that, you know, it would just be. Yeah, well, everybody has like, desires that we just keep them under, you know, they don't have to be as. As wicked as that. They could just be desires about, you know, more innocuous things. But everyone is susceptible.

[Zach]

It's that, I mean, to be fair, like everyone has, you know, thoughts. That doesn't mean that they act on them. And then maybe it's that when you split your personality into these different parts, then it's an interesting philosophical, you know, kind of thing that you could do.

[Ed]

Not to get Freudian, but it's the ID in the super ego.

[Stephen Paul]

Yes, yes it is. And then our last question here. I do love this one. It is like, boy, Luffy has really small pupils, right? What would happen if he wore color contacts and Oda's like, that's what this is. Okay, here he's like, this would happen. And so he has. On the left, he has just a regular drawing of Luffy with his little kind of beady eyes.

[Ed]

And on the right, it's. This is what Luffy would look like if he ate mushrooms.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, he's got the dilated pupils.

[Sam]

No.

[Stephen Paul]

So on the left, he is doing his famous catchphrase, which is, I'm going to be the King of the pirates. And then on the right. Yeah, now he's. He's drawn. He's added little sparkles, but, yeah, it looks like. It looks like a blingy version of Luffy. Do you remember that website where you would add, like, little sparkles and stuff?

[Mike Patton]

Absolutely.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. He's. He's like a little yassified version of Luffy here with big, big eyes. And he's saying, I'm going to be the hero of the pirated version. Or in other words, the. The. The bootleg version of One Piece.

[Zach]

Basically, I'm going to be the hero of what?

[Stephen Paul]

The pirated version. Oh, because that's what. Yeah. Kaiser Guban is what they call, like, a bootleg. But you know, in order for it to. To match the. To be the King of the Pirates, you kind of have to match the. The pirate part. So that's a fun one.

[Zach]

I'm gonna be king of the bootlegs. I guess that doesn't work as well. Yeah, go ahead.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. So our next SBS over here. We have a fun. I. I like this one where it's like. It's like two panels in one where there's the picture of Emu, you know, in silhouette, obviously saying, like, do not. Do not search or do not ask. I. I will not answer, which. I forget which exact line this was in response to, but. And then you have, like, peeking out.

[Zach]

Oh, it was the. It's the Cobra, him asking the question.

[Stephen Paul]

Oh, that's right. Yeah. Cobra was asking. And then you see a waffle, like, peeking out from the grate or whatever, and he's, like, crying in terror. Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Mike Patton]

That's good.

[Zach]

I like how waffles become this witness. It's a very conceit.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, the designated witness. So the question here is from someone who says, I want to see Vivi at age 40 and 60. Also, I've laid down a layer of anti Sanadachi spray, so don't worry, you're safe this summer. Like, it's mosquito spray, basically.

[Zach]

You know what? Good. I like this guy. I'm sure I won't be foiled.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, no, this is good. This certainly won't backfire in any way. No, Oda says yes. No more Sanada. Okay. As thanks for that, I will draw what you asked for. And so we get. Yes, we get the classic. Yes, the classic four. The four quadrants here of 40 and 60 in a good and bad future. And so the good vivi at age 40 basically looks just like regular Vivi with glasses. She's got. Yeah, she's wearing her glasses.

[Zach]

Glasses to show the time has passed.

[Stephen Paul]

Certainly does. And she's saying, let's go Karoo to the east blue. So they're gonna go on a trip. And then at age 60 now she's. @ least she's wearing a more elegant, you know, hairstyle where she's got us tied into a bun in the back. And it appears that she's like at a social function or something because she's holding up her hand to her mouth and saying, oh, you're. You're so charming. Are you such a flatterer? Oh, so she's receiving a compliment.

[Zach]

That seems like a bad future if you have to go schmooze at a function, but okay, whatever.

[Stephen Paul]

Well, I mean, she's. She's a queen, right?

[Mike Patton]

You gotta schmooze sometimes.

[Sam]

That.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

And then age 40, she has clearly left. This is Igoram's nightmare where she. She's gone off to be a pirate.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

And she's got like the captain's hat on and everything. And she's all dirty. She's got a big scar. And I love this. Her comment is like, I'm gonna hypnotize ya, ya dumbass. Referring to her like, belly dance that she does as Ms. Wednesday.

[Zach]

Oh.

[Stephen Paul]

Which is a fun, like, side thing that never really comes back.

[Ed]

The bad future. 60 year old Vivi looks like a fairy tale witch.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, this is a gone future. She's gone full like Onibaba here. She's by the way, witching it up.

[Zach]

By the way, the age 41 can't be the same as the age 61. Like, these are two separate bad futures.

[Stephen Paul]

The bone structure has changed completely.

[Zach]

Yeah, well, yeah, that too.

[Stephen Paul]

But yeah, in her age 60 version, actually, yeah, you're right. It looks like she's wearing the Celestial. Celestial dragon. Yeah. Yeah, but she's still got the scar, I guess. Yeah, no, I guess she. She must have come back from being a pirate and then was like, oh.

[Zach]

You'Re right, she does.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, the forehead scar. And she's saying Luffy. Yeah. I remember that guy. Or that I remember that name. So, yeah, she's like, by the way, no fondness for it anymore.

[Zach]

Her. Her Jolly Roger is just a knife through it didn't Skull.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

Pretty sick.

[Zach]

It's such a lazy.

[Mike Patton]

Yeah, that rules.

[Stephen Paul]

It's like. It's like. It's like Snake's tattoo in the Simpsons. It's just like, as simple as possible.

[Zach]

I'm bad. I'm bad. Vivi. You could tell by. By the Jolly Roger. Yeah.

[Ed]

I am evil Vivi. I am evil Vivi.

[Stephen Paul]

I like it.

[Zach]

All right, all right.

[Stephen Paul]

So the. The next one is about the naming of Luffy's Gear five. Moves in. In Luffy's Gear five, he has these new attacks, like gum gum, dawn whip, and dawn rocket. Which the kanji for those are like white whip and white rocket. Like, the dawn is. Is originally white in Japanese. He's like, oh, they're so exciting. But, you know, usually when you think of stuff that's white, I mean, the word. The first word you would associate with it, of course, is panties. So I think that would be way more exciting for people.

[Mike Patton]

This guy.

[Stephen Paul]

Why did you. Why. Why is it red Dawn. And that's from pen name Ejiko. And Oda's like, hey, wait a second. Like, he's talking to the. The person who submitted the Vivi question. He's like, hey, you. Your. Your Sonata spray is keeping the sonatas away, but it seems to have drawn other perverts to. To our midst. Instead. He's like, what the. What the hell are you talking about? Speaking of white. You know, everyone associates this with white. He's like, yeah, shut up. He's like, oh, pta. Members of the pta, please. No, it's not what you think this is. That's not what kind of manga this is. So, you know, he's protesting his case there. And then the last one protests a little too much. Yeah, exactly. And the last one. This is the one. This is the one that was, like, first immediately spoiled for me as soon as people started leaking this stuff. So you. Some of you may have.

[Zach]

So it's a sonito question, obviously.

[Stephen Paul]

No, no, no. This one was Hesso, Odachi. Are Queen and Frankie father and son.

[Zach]

Oh, God.

[Stephen Paul]

And yeah, that guy's father was a pirate. And. And Otis says, oh. And then he, like, he has a little, like, sweat. Sweat drop emoji. And then. And then in parentheses, there's a parenth parenthetical here where he's thinking to himself.

[Zach]

It'S the whole thing it's the whole thing.

[Stephen Paul]

Okay, so this is what he's thinking. He's like, crap. They must have seen that in the one piece Vivre cards. The. The year that Queen had a child and the year that Frankie was born. Match. And he also must have seen that the year that Queen abandoned his child and the year that Frankie was picked up by Tom also matched. Ah, damn. But there's no way. I can't reveal something here that. To allow the readers to know something that the people in question themselves don't know. So I have to. I have to hide this. I have to throw them off the, off the scent and then end parenthetical. And he's like, no, no. Why'd you say that? Like, he just completely fumbles whatever he's trying to say. In any pro. Any protest of like.

[Zach]

No. Yeah.

[Ed]

ODA is determined to not answer this question.

[Stephen Paul]

Yes. He's not going to answer the question.

[Zach]

But also did answer the question.

[Stephen Paul]

Yes. And in doing so acknowledges. Which I guess is a. Is about as appropriate a way to address this in the story as any. Since it doesn't seem like.

[Ed]

Yeah, sorry.

[Zach]

No, exactly. Yeah. I mean, and it doesn't seem like.

[Stephen Paul]

Either of them would care about it.

[Zach]

No, I don't think. Yeah, but well, I mean, it's Found family is the. You know, it's a story about found family that said. Yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, that's about how I feel about it too.

[Zach]

Yeah. I mean, even if that were revealed in a way that was more satisfying still.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. It's like he could have done something dramatic or made it more personal for them. I'm not opposed to the idea that, like, oh, Frankie is like, oh, yeah, I, you know, some, some pirate or another was my, my parent, but he doesn't care about him. I think it's fine. Like, it's interesting to have it turn out. Turn out to be someone who's shitty. Like, I think that's cool. I get. Not everybody has to have like a cool dad.

[Zach]

No, I like that. Especially in the middle of this flashback where everyone has a cool dad.

[Stephen Paul]

Right, Exactly.

[Zach]

Even. Even maybe caribou. But. Yeah, no, it's. It. I, I mean, I just. I guess maybe the fact that it's whatever is a good thing because everyone else has such a cool dad.

[Stephen Paul]

Right? Yeah, yeah, he's. It's like the, it's like the, the. The placebo version that you judge of them all. All the other ones against control. Yeah, well, you know. Yeah, the. Frankie's is kind of crappy, so like it's cooler that somebody else has like a notable dad or something? I don't know. Yeah, but yeah, there you go. Oda addresses the rumors.

[Zach]

And they were true.

[Stephen Paul]

They were true. The next SBS has everyone's favorite character they've tried to forget about. Kanjuro.

[Zach]

Oh, I thought you were talking about the. The bird whose name I forget, but it's fantastic.

[Stephen Paul]

Just the. The sparrow, right? Did it have a name? I forget. Spring Sparrow or something like that. Yeah, yeah, that was. That was. This is when they were.

[Ed]

When they were escaping the garbage pile and.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, yeah, I guess. I guess they didn't name it because it was the straw hats who named like Ryunosuke and. Yeah, that sort of stuff. So it was just the springs.

[Zach]

How could someone so shitty make such great art? Wait a second. This is not related.

[Stephen Paul]

In quotation marks.

[Ed]

What are those, like, tags? Those seals on the ink?

[Stephen Paul]

That's just the S, U, B, ESU to let you know that that's where the letters are. So. Yeah, he's tweeting the question corner. Our first, first question here is about a. A callback which I don't know. I don't remember if we specifically singled this out, but now that he puts them side by side, they're literally. I. I don't know if these are the same.

[Zach]

I don't think we mentioned this.

[Stephen Paul]

Are the. Are these literally the exact shapes of the panels too? Because he could have just done that to like accentuate it. But anyways, yeah, in 1127, which was the, you know, adventure in. The adventure in the Land of Mystery, this is where Luffy and Zoro and Sanji attack the. The cat. Like the giant cat in the LEGO Kingdom. They do the. What is it? The Maki Whip strike. Their. Their three part attack. That's the same angle and everything as the Maki Moochie shot. So the Ma Whip shot, I guess from Alabasta in the adventure of the Kingdom of Sand on the giant lizard there. It's the same angle and everything. And I was looking it up and man, that was 24 years apart. Wow. I've grown. I've gotten so much older. And he says, from age 10 to age 34. And Oda says.

[Zach]

Did Oda deteriorate before?

[Stephen Paul]

No, no. Oda says, yeah, I guess this was a scene that really lit your, you know, your. Your young heart aflame. You know, it made. Got you all, all riled up as a kid. Thanks for noticing that. Yeah. He's like, yeah, I was. I was doing some. Some kind of hidden. Hidden homage. You Know, emotional homage here for, for all the old time readers.

[Zach]

So. So a thing I do want to mention, I don't know if you're noticing Steven, but there's a lot of Alabasta and let's say like baroque works, saga level stuff in this, in this in particular, I'm gonna guess it's because he's been working on the live action of those and.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, it's getting updates on it or something.

[Zach]

Yeah, I bet you he's like, okay, I'm reading the script or something and oh well, maybe I should go back and see what I wrote here. Yeah. Because he did. I mean he definitely up to the release was doing a lot of East Blue, like stuff like that color spread. Yeah, I, I think of the things that he's worked on supplement supplementally as a supplementary, you know, thing like the live action or movies or whatever this is. This has really helped, I think his storytelling. And, and I like these little homages to, to. To Alabasta in that era. Yeah, go ahead.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, yeah. The next question is about Wano. Here you can see we've got a big old map of all the regions of Wano. And the comment is. So now the Akazaya Nine seem to be the daimyos for all the regions of Wano. Can you please tell us how they were selected? Was it Kinemon who you know, assigned them to those spots? Way to go Kinemon or Way to go Kinsan. And Oda says yes, well, now that the. The evil Kaido and Orochi are no longer around and of course Oden has passed on, his son Momonosuke has announced that he will be ruling the kingdom of Wano. The problem is that he is still an 8 year old boy on the inside. So of course he needs the help of the Akazaya 9. And so he has says on the left here and you can see an older map of Wano. And now the. The Okabori towns, like the leftover towns from the various regions. The. What do they call this? The. The prison. Prison, prisoner excavation camp or whatever.

[Zach]

You got it. I think that's what you.

[Stephen Paul]

I think that's how it was. Something like that. Yeah. The factories and Onegashima, all of these no longer exist. And so he says as, as is revealed on the. The COVID story that we've been doing, the samurai of the Akazaya, you know, basically talked it all over and decided to become the Daimyo to spread across the. The land. And while in the flower capital we have Kinemon as the. The Taito or like the Great Elder, I guess, which is. I'm sure that's probably a position from. From one or other of the, you know, the various imperial eras of Japan.

[Ed]

I guess it kind of makes him like the mayor of the capital.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, kind of. And then. And then Cat Viper is like the. They call it the Rear Face. But I would guess that he's probably more like the. The back room, the. The underworld, you know, representative or the go between or something since he is kind of yakuza coded himself. So yeah, he's probably the guy who's dealing with all of the. The yakuza clans. And he finishes by saying Yamato is still traveling and learning more about the ways of the world. And so he's got a little list here that shows that in the Flower Capital we have Cat Viper, Kinemon and Momonosuke. In Kibi is Denjiro. In Kuri is Dog Storm. Udon is the. The Daimyo is Raizo. Hakumai is Kawamatsu. And Kiku no Joe or Kiku Okiku is Ringo. I'm just.

[Zach]

So many of these. I don't think we saw all of these, right?

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, I don't think we saw all of them, but we saw a couple.

[Zach]

Of them for sure. I don't think we saw Denjiro for example.

[Stephen Paul]

Right.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

Right. Yeah.

[Zach]

I might be wrong because it blends together that whole.

[Stephen Paul]

All right, we will move on to the next. Still not. Still not through with these. There's still a few more to go through. Our next SBS header is. I guess this is the scene where Gear five Luffy gets all of his like face features knocked off.

[Zach]

Right?

[Stephen Paul]

He's doing the. The. The THX audio, right?

[Zach]

That's thing we call Max ld Luffy I think was the.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, that's right.

[Zach]

That's right title for them.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, that's good, Good stuff. But yeah, he's forming the SBS with his. His hat and his eyes and everything. And then we get another interesting question. This is kind of a process question here, but it's, It's. It kind of serves as Oda's I guess definitive answer on like some of his creative decisions here. So the question.

[Zach]

Talked about this a little right, Earlier, I guess the iPad stuff.

[Stephen Paul]

Well, no, not. Not exactly here. I know, I know you can see. I know you can see iPad in the text here, but I know how.

[Zach]

To read English, guys.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, it's so. It is Odachi nowadays, you know, ebooks, electronic books, digital books are commonplace. And there's more and more web only manga. But it feels like, you know, even aside from, you know, the big panels where, you know, one piece is on a double page spread, it seems like there's a lot of, you know, there's. There's a lot of panels that cross two pages. So, you know, he has a, an example here of the scene where Loki stands up after being chained and you know, he's like looming over Luffy and you can clearly see that. Yeah, it's like one and a half pages, basically. And then the last bit is a couple more panels. And so this person is asking, are these designed or are you coming up with these layouts with people reading it on paper in mind? And Oda's like, yes, yes. Nowadays you can read jump. You can read the volumes in digital form as well, of course. And he says, of course, you're all free to read it, the story in whatever method you prefer. But in my mind, like, I'm. I'm always envisioning the manga as two pages at once. And so he shows, you know, just like two regular pages. It's not a double page spread. There's a big, you know, white gutter in the middle. But you're seeing both of them at the same time the way that you would when, you know, you have the book open. So he says, yes, I see it as one set of two pages. So, you know, for the digital jump, the digital comics, the digital volumes, I should say I am, I am envisioning it as you are reading it on a computer or on an iPad with a longer horizontal screen. I guess that's how I would put it. So, like, for example, one of the things that I will do what it says is like, if I want to do a big impact panel, like, okay, I'm going to do a spread. It's going to be huge. I will on purpose draw like the, on the page before the very last, like left in the. Down in the lower left corner. I'll make that one extra small, a little small panel, just so that when you turn the page, it makes the large panel look even larger. So I, you know, I'm playing around with your perspective in that sense a lot of the times. And you know, the size of the panels is one of the methods of expression, you know, artistic expression here. So for everyone who reads on a vertical screen like your smartphone, all I can say is, I'm sorry. And then he laughs. So, yeah, it seems like, you know, it doesn't necessarily answer to, like, why do you put like dialogue bubbles over the Middle. Where it's. The text is broken up. That, that really sucks question. No, that's the question that I. Right, fam. Is, Is why do you put Split the bubbles? But yeah, this is obviously, I think you can tell, like, you can already tell that this is kind of like his philosophy towards.

[Ed]

I think what's splitting the text bubbles is even harder on the letter than it is on Stephen.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. But, you know, I, I still have to decide, like, okay, where do I split the text so that it actually will fit properly?

[Zach]

Like, what words do you write?

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, but, but clearly, yes, it is. It's definitely obvious from, from his designs that, like, yeah, he, he intends for you to read two pages at a time, not to scroll through one page at a time.

[Zach]

Yeah. And as someone who initially at least reads on their phone, it's. Yeah, no, it's noticeable, but I, I, that's mostly because of situation. You know, you can't even.

[Stephen Paul]

That too. Yeah. I mean, you can always turn it to landscape mode, but then it's even smaller on the screen on a phone.

[Zach]

Yeah, that's nice. Yeah. True.

[Stephen Paul]

Our next question. I do love this, this next question. So, and this is clearly now that we've seen a lot more of the celestial dragon family.

[Ed]

I don't, I don't like it. I don't, I don't want to see these guys.

[Stephen Paul]

All right, so here we go. The Rosward, St. Rosward, St. Charles and St. Charya, which you remember, our father and son and daughter. What family are they in? Because of course, now we have. What is it like the, the Manmire family and the.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

What's. What's Shamrocks?

[Zach]

No one really cares.

[Mike Patton]

Figgerland, right?

[Stephen Paul]

Yes, Figgerland. Yeah. So we've gotten a bunch of stupid name. We've got a bunch of these names.

[Ed]

And the shepherd family.

[Zach]

Shepherd.

[Stephen Paul]

Shepherd family. So Oda says they're the Rosword family. I guess St. Rosward's parents were stupid or something. His name is Rosword. Rosword.

[Ed]

Yeah. That's pretty stupid.

[Zach]

Yeah, I just, I, I have some good stories off Mike. I could tell you about that.

[Stephen Paul]

Okay. And then our, our last question on this page is, I'm sure you've gotten lots of requests for this, but I think we should bring back the, the, the voice actor question corner for Subaru Kimura, who, of course is the new Frankie actor, because they did back. Man, how far go. That was like after the time skip.

[Zach]

Yep.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, man, that was a long time ago.

[Zach]

Although for Jim Baze. They must have brought that back more.

[Stephen Paul]

Recently or, or no, I think they started it before for the time skip because they did. I, I, yeah, I was gonna say I started working, I think 65 was the first volume I did entirely on my own and I think I only had to translate like maybe one or two.

[Zach]

I was gonna say, I think that was Brooks. Yeah, yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

So anyways, Oda's response is. Ah, good point. Yes. Ever since, you know, the long time voice actor of Frankie Kazuki Yao stepped down, you know, we, we have to say, of course, thank you so much for all of your, your time, you know, portraying the, our Araniki Aniki and his, you know, all of his strength and power. So now that Subaru Kimura is performing Frankie's voice, let's do a Subaru Kimura sbs. So send in your questions. So I guess look forward to that within the next couple volumes. Probably.

[Zach]

I was going to ask, sorry Steven, on this Frankie question, do you remember, must have been years ago that I think as a joke Oda said something like, you know, like, or Yao said like I just don't want this hairstyle in the, in the post time skip or whatever it was. And he said oh, I'm going to put it in there. But we don't know which one that was. And us as a podcast have been trying to guess which style.

[Stephen Paul]

Remember that?

[Zach]

Yeah, that was a while ago. So we'll never find out the answer to that question, I guess probably.

[Stephen Paul]

I thought it was, I thought it was this one.

[Zach]

The one here.

[Stephen Paul]

The.

[Zach]

Yeah, that sounds like something. Yeah. Would be okay with. I feel like Al would be okay with anything. So yeah, Greg would probably remember this.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Yeah. You could move to the next one.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. Next SBS is another recent callback. Here we have Elbaf Nami along with Zeus having summoned him. And then let's see, where is the. I guess Zeus is like the crackling electricity is the S. And then Sanji is getting, yeah, Sanji's getting zapped and he's doing a B. Like, like he's doing like a YMCA dance. And then Roto is also getting zapped by more lightning that has the S.

[Zach]

So it's a very subtle obscure.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Zach]

What is it?

[Stephen Paul]

Very subtle one. A little hard to make out but, but I do like the, I like the drawings, I like the characters. And we have here, this is a callback to the line at the start of Elbaf where I, I forget the exact wording that I use. But you, you must not or you should not overstay your. Do not overstay your welcome here. That's right. That was what I, what I had it. And that was from the explorer Louis Arnott, who is the, the author of Bragman. And so the, the reader writes in and says, do not overstay your welcome in the SBS from PTA chairman Louis Arnault. And it was like, oh my God, he was the PTA chairman. And he's like, I'm, I'm trying really hard to make this a corner where the, the children can stay as long as they're welcome. You know, I'm, I'm trying. And then it's like little like tears kanji. Like he's so desperate. And so then to, to prove his point. So here we go, we have the, the kids have written in. He's, he's reproduced the kids handwriting from their postcards. The first one is Oda Sensei. Hello, I'm Masahito, age 6. I thought of a new devil fruit. It's called the Shakishaki no mi. And if you eat it, this is a bit of like a Japanese joke or you know, Japanese language thing. You know, if you get attacked, you will still be which is, it's kind of like, like you'll still be firm or you still stand tall against it or something like that. Obviously I'll have to, to come up with something that, that works in translation for that.

[Zach]

I guess Vanessa will have to channel her inner six year old.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, I guess every time I'm like, like, you know, they just have to do like a. I could have my.

[Zach]

Son just write it for you in a couple years. Which will be when it's ready.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. And so Oda's response is here. Oh, six year old Masahito. Oh, that's so cool. The shucky shucky fruit.

[Zach]

Wow.

[Stephen Paul]

Maybe I should use that one. Oh, that's so adorable of you. He's like throwing all these hearts in. Oh, are you watching everyone from the pta? See, this is a safe place.

[Zach]

Oh, look, look.

[Stephen Paul]

We have another very adorable postcard coming in.

[Zach]

I really don't like this.

[Stephen Paul]

And so the next one which is also drawn like that is, is, is Jim base penis blue. And I'm just like, well, six year.

[Zach]

Old would ask that, especially in Japan.

[Stephen Paul]

I feel like, I think, I think I'm gonna have to say genitals because if you remember like the sharks have two penises.

[Mike Patton]

So.

[Stephen Paul]

And I think he did say that there were two of them in a question.

[Zach]

I think he did recently.

[Stephen Paul]

I'll say genitals.

[Zach]

I wasn't gonna ask what the plural version of that would be, but okay, go ahead.

[Stephen Paul]

Peni.

[Zach]

Peni.

[Stephen Paul]

And Oda's like, oh, five year old Amimi chan. He's like, wait, what are you asking? And then in parentheses, it's blue. So there you go. And then it's a little picture, little picture of Jim Bay just to help you with the mental image in case you need it.

[Zach]

It's like, do you remember what Jim Bay looks like? Now imagine his penis.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, exactly, exactly.

[Zach]

Penises. Or is it like moose singular?

[Stephen Paul]

And then the bottom question here we say. Oh, so I guess it turns out that magic mirrors, you know, one sided mirrors exist in the, the world of One Piece. Since of course that was in the Roto's LEGO Kingdom. He had his one sided glass. Like did you know that in, in our world there's a, there's a car made out of magic mirrors. Like it's all one sided glass. He's like, now I have absolutely no ulterior motives or you know, underhanded thoughts, but there is just something about a one sided glass that, that you know, there's just a real dream there. And that is, that is from Sanadachi and Oda's like, yeah, it's just, it's nothing but dreams, baby. Like heart. Yeah, they, they think it's just a mirror, but actually. And then like Sanada, why are you here? And then, and then, yeah, then there's the panel of Nami kicking Sanji which I believe that's what this is all based off of because he said like, like, oh, it's a, it's a thing of dreams. The, the one sided glass. When they discovered that that's what, what they, what they thought Elbaf was, it was actually just a big set.

[Zach]

Wow. Jail.

[Stephen Paul]

There you go.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

But there is more. There's one more sbs. The dirty jokes are gone.

[Zach]

Thank God.

[Stephen Paul]

And the first. So the, the SPS header is this is something is evil Gunko. She's got the wing, the devil wings and everything. And there's like, you know, Saint Elmo's fire or whatever. She's, she's making it come out of her hands and it says SBS Corner. And she is saying all of the. This the SPS shall now begin or you know, whatever the version that it's parodying, parodying in the Elbaf arc is. So you'll notice this is the very last SBS page. And then Oda has a comment where he like points up at it with the Arrow. He's like, look, look. I put it in here. This is what happens when you try to start it with the sbs with your little drawings. This is what happens. So he's basically just like rubbing it in their face. Like, I'm going to put it in the back of the volume instead. Which I thought was very, very funny. Metacom Meta humor here.

[Zach]

Even though they did the same exact thing.

[Stephen Paul]

Even though he did it, he did it in the first one. Just so you. Just so you recognize how it works. And then the next also.

[Zach]

Is that where Gunko's buttons are in the actual thing? Sorry.

[Stephen Paul]

I mean, that's what all the coats are like, right?

[Zach]

Like they are.

[Stephen Paul]

He always draws the. The rows of. Of two buttons, the double breasted suit. And so the next one, this is kind of like. I don't know if this is like a. A Japanese thing or whatever, but you will often see like when. When people talk about their age, they. They refer to it as a level. So this one says what, Hasan, is it true that you've. That you're now level 50? Because like the way you talk in the SBS seems like level eight. And it was like, shut up. That's what my daughter said.

[Zach]

Excellent. Excellent. And true. Also very true. I mean, I think for good and for bad, it is why one piece is the way it is. Is he is.

[Stephen Paul]

Yes. Yeah.

[Zach]

Eternally level 8 or somewhere around there.

[Stephen Paul]

Exactly.

[Zach]

I do also like that. That terminology of level and makes it a little more dignified.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, I've seen that in author comments before. So that's why I'm like, maybe that's a. Maybe that's like a thing. Like a slang thing.

[Zach]

It must be.

[Stephen Paul]

And then we have a question here. Hi. This is my first time writing in. So you know how you do all those story. You know those cover story series. My dad was saying, like, you know, don't. Isn't it pretty much true that like none of the characters in them show are come back into the story? What's the truth there? And Oda's like, what? That's not true. I mean, so here's. Here's all the COVID stories I've done. And so he has little icons of each. And so we got Buggy Kobe, Jango Hachi, Waffle, Ace, Gedatsu, Baroque Works, Enaru, CP9, Caribou, Jimbe, he Never Came, Straw Hat Fleet, Bejerma, and Yamato. He's like, yeah, this is how many I've done. And pretty much all of those characters have shown up in the story. Again, if anything, he says, it seems more like these stories serve to explain what those characters have been doing so that the readers know when they show up again in the story. And he says, yes, there's a series of books which I'll have to include only in Japan, that collect just the covers of all the chapters called Doors. And that makes it easier to, you know, to reread all of these. These cover stories. So he addresses the. The person writing, and he's like, are. Are you wondering if maybe Yamato will come back into the story at some point? He says, look forward to the future, and then laughs.

[Zach]

So I think all of these people are coming back in the story, and this just almost, like, solidifies it.

[Sam]

We have.

[Zach]

We see Ms. Golden Week or Gadatsu, though those two, I feel like, are the.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. Might be a holdout.

[Zach]

Yeah, I want to go to that spot.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. And of course, we. We also have not seen Enaru, but he at least has. He has some evidence that suggests we might. We might see him.

[Zach]

I think. I think it's certain, and I think it'll be. In a big way. The longer it takes, the more substantial I feel like it needs to be.

[Stephen Paul]

Yes, yes.

[Zach]

Yeah, I'm sure we need Doors here. I want that. I want that in English, but I don't know how many other people do.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, it's. It's a very. What would you say? What's the, like, inessential kind of thing? Like, it's neat to have and to look at. It is absolutely not necessary to.

[Zach]

It's more. It's more necessary for us, I feel, like, to, like, be able to read and remember. Yeah. Like, as podcasters or like.

[Stephen Paul]

Sure.

[Zach]

For super fans, it's. It's a. It's a good thing to have. I understand that it is an essential otherwise, but. Yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, yeah. And then our final SBS question. Here you can see in the picture. Here it is, the. The little boat that Jewelry Bonnie first left on where she drew the.

[Sam]

The.

[Stephen Paul]

The Kuma portrait.

[Zach]

No, that was very adorable. Wasn't that Kuma's ship that he just. Yeah, this was Kuma's ship that she drew the portrait for. It's not Bonnie's ship.

[Stephen Paul]

I thought she made it.

[Zach]

She did. And he put it up because it's like, look, it's my kid. Oh.

[Stephen Paul]

Oh.

[Zach]

And she drew this.

[Stephen Paul]

Okay. You're right.

[Zach]

Because there's also the target thing at the top.

[Stephen Paul]

That's right. Okay.

[Zach]

Which is, I guess, a cross, but whatever.

[Sam]

Right, right.

[Stephen Paul]

The. The question is, I thought it was really cute. That Kuma's. The sail of Kuma's ship has the picture that Bonnie drew. Can you tell us what the name of that ship is? And so he says the name is the Leap Out Jewelry. That's the name, which. I'm not sure.

[Zach]

I mean, Williams reference from 30 Rock.

[Stephen Paul]

Oh, man, I wish. No, I'm pretty sure. Like. So my guess is that Leap out was supposed to be like Toby Dase in Japanese, which would be like. Like to, you know, to jump. Leap out. Leap out in the sense of like. Yeah, jump out. Like. Like leap forward. You know, take a big jump. And so that might be. That could be like a reference to going out to sea. It could be a reference to like his powers, the way that he bounces people away or something like that. Or it could be, you know, like, okay, Bonnie, we're gonna help you, you know, jump out into the sun again or whatever. Something like that. There's probably some. Some reason along those lines. But yeah, that's the name. The Leap Out Jewelry, he says. And that's it for the sbs. We are waiting for your questions for Subaru Kimura. See you next volume.

[Zach]

I guess that's going to be in the next one then. If he mentioned it again.

[Stephen Paul]

I mean, I think he's just. Yeah, he's just reminding people that. Yeah, that it. It should be coming up. So, yeah, that is all the SBS for this one. I usually try to pick out a couple of the fan art things from the Usopp Gallery Pirates, which. Actually, speaking of which, they drew gadatsu for the. And it's the same Gallery Pirates.

[Zach]

It's the same gag as the emu thing where they're peeking from under the wall.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, it's the same person that.

[Zach]

It's a good gag. I like it. I think that's probably my favorite of these. I find emu humor excellent, personally.

[Stephen Paul]

It is. Yeah. I mean, it's at the risk of. At the risk of making, you know, like the ultimate evil a little too cutesy and approachable, but, you know.

[Zach]

No, no, I like it when they're. I want them to be the butt of the joke. I just find it. It's not cutesy. It's like it's a silhouette.

[Stephen Paul]

I don't know. I feel like there's definitely some. Yeah, some woobifying going on here.

[Zach]

There's always some woofying.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. But the, the winner of the. The Usopp Gallery Pirates here is a clock. It's a handmade so cool clock that it's A carved, like. Was it Kurumi? I guess it's like a stenciled.

[Zach]

Oh. I thought it was like a stitch. Like the stitch work. It almost looks like. You know what? I like the ones, but no, I.

[Stephen Paul]

Think it's like woodcraft. Yeah. But it was done by an 87 year old grandma for her grandkids. Wow. But it's like I'm so emotional. Oh, my God. Take the grand prize.

[Zach]

Yeah. That makes me emotional. Which is super cute. Yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

I also had to include this one of. It's a parody of the scene where Frankie when he's leaving water 7 and he has no pants on. And then he turns and he does like the. You know, like the man is naked like a lion, like standing against the waves or whatever. And he does the super pose. Only this person.

[Zach]

God.

[Stephen Paul]

Drew Gear four, Gear five, Luffy Blackbeard with like a black hole. And then shanks and buggy. And then they wrote on the. On the bottom in English, four flashers instead of four emperors.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Mike Patton]

That's fun.

[Zach]

Wow.

[Mike Patton]

I love that buggy.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, it's very creative.

[Mike Patton]

That's really good.

[Zach]

I know how I feel about the Blackbeard black hole. On the one hand, it's. On the one hand it's.

[Mike Patton]

That's hilarious.

[Zach]

It's creative. On the other hand, it's disturbing.

[Mike Patton]

Doobie Sholen hole.

[Zach]

These are. I mean. Yeah. Wow. What is that? Sorry. Yeah, go ahead. I'm just looking. Yeah. You put the balloon ones, I think.

[Stephen Paul]

Oh, yeah. They did a balloon art of like little jewelry. Bonnie and Kuma. Yeah. Very, very adorable.

[Mike Patton]

You know, I. I used to be a very skilled balloon animal artist.

[Zach]

Really?

[Stephen Paul]

Really?

[Mike Patton]

Yeah.

[Zach]

That feels tough. Did you do parties?

[Mike Patton]

I didn't do parties. I would bring them into school and do them. So that was like a cool kid.

[Zach]

I'll hire one. Oh. But when my son got one recently at a party we went to, it popped in the car. He was not happy about it. Well, it's a balloon. These things happen.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. Like, is it really. Is it a real childhood if you haven't been traumatized by a balloon suddenly popping?

[Zach]

Yeah, Look, I've tried to avoid that trauma, but maybe that's part of what makes us into whatever. Lost the thread. Yeah. The art is, as usual, great. Is there anyone we know in these? Sometimes we do.

[Stephen Paul]

Oh, yeah. I don't usually go looking. Okay, so usually find out from like social media first before you're right.

[Zach]

We do.

[Stephen Paul]

You know, looking through them. And then I thought there was one other thing.

[Zach]

There's the Second season of the One Piece Live Action. The.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. Or that I singled out. Oh, yes, there was the. The update to the manga material. Where was this?

[Zach]

I'm trying to find.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, it's okay. Here it is. Yes, it's the dummy. It's like the dummy reversi scene where Gunko shoots Brogy with her big old shotgun thing. And originally when she did that, she said, I will give you the power of evil. Which is. Yeah, I mean, you know, sure, that's kind of badass, but it also kind of give. It's a little too on the nose of it. So Oda did change that to I will give you the power of God, which is much more in character with Emu's.

[Zach]

Yeah, agree. Yeah, I'm happy you changed that.

[Stephen Paul]

So, yeah, that's a notebook.

[Zach]

That's a good change. I also wanted to mention. So I'm just like, the things I don't get to see. So I don't see the Japanese text, you know, ever, really. And unless we're looking at the volumes. The shaggy thing. And not to get back into that discussion, but I do notice the text. The font is, like, very prim and proper, which I think we had discussed, just like the language generally. This. This is chapter which.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, which one are you looking at?

[Zach]

Wait, this is chapter 1151. So what? I don't know what page this is. They don't have page numbers on most of the pages. Yeah, it's like 125 or something like that. For those who have the English version in a year. I don't know what page that is, but it's. I'm like. I'm trying to pay a little more attention generally to the text and how.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, I would say that this looks like his typical, like, Den. Den Mushi.

[Zach]

Oh, it does.

[Stephen Paul]

Font. Yeah.

[Zach]

It just is so much lighter than everything else. It looks like to me, like, very. Right. Doesn't it? Well, it's less bold, I should say.

[Stephen Paul]

You might be looking at Loki's bubble.

[Zach]

Oh, is that his thought bubble? Well, you're right. You're right. Yeah, I. I take that back. It is him saying, shut up. I'm pretty sure. Yeah, yeah. Stop. Why. Why are you saying. Okay, yeah, never mind. You're right. That's. That's just me.

[Stephen Paul]

But yeah, he doesn't often. He doesn't always. They don't. I shouldn't say he. Because it's obviously like the. The editors or the. The crew that. That does the type setting, but I think usually I don't Know if they. I don't know if he always has a different, like a lighter font for thought bubbles. We certainly don't in the English version, which is kind of a bummer. That's one of those things where it's like, it's just part of the style bible of the series that like when they started it in the monthly Shonen Jump, I guess they just decided, well, we're not going to differentiate it with italics, but I think that would really help like the legibility. Unfortunately, that's just not how it. It works. So I can only use italics when it's like over. It's over a signal or it's like on the background. Those are the only.

[Zach]

I'll say the emu font is excellent. And that's like the most.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, I do like that different.

[Zach]

I feel like. Oh, I know. I do notice it is all the thought bubbles. I thought it was just like Loki, like saying shut up. But no, you're. They. They are a lighter. I'm noticing now. I don't know. I'm interested in that sort of thing. That's the only reason to bring that up. And I don't really get to notice this unless I'm looking at the volumes. Yeah, I, I know our English. The. The one. Vanessa does the. For the English emu. And, and that sort of kind of text is cool as well.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Zach]

And it does mirror pretty well. I think it's pretty faithful.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. I don't think we always, We. We don't always match. Like, okay, if there's like seven different fonts that appear. We don't necessarily have seven different English fonts that go exactly to each one. There's probably some language versions that do go to that. That length. But it's nice that there is at least some level of. Of font differentiation.

[Zach]

Well, I know like, I think it was Sarah who was a letter at Viz, makes her own fonts and.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, there's a couple. Yeah, there's a couple letters that are like super into it and they, they get really into the nitty gritty of like making. Making their own specifically for certain effects that like just aren't really covered as well and stuff. And hey, if you make it yourself, you can use it. Like, you don't have to worry about, you know, paying whatever the websites are.

[Zach]

No, it's very cool. We don't talk about it enough. I don't know what if there's stuff specifically to talk about, but it's cool. Mike, any questions?

[Mike Patton]

I don't have any questions at the Moment.

[Zach]

Steven, any answers? Why?

[Mike Patton]

Like, about like, about text?

[Zach]

No, about like life and.

[Mike Patton]

Oh, well, we got how much time we got. What is the mind?

[Stephen Paul]

No matter. Check the YouTube bar. See how far. How much we got left here.

[Zach]

Okay, we're gonna move on to the anime recap and do a little bit of piece together right after these messages. Don't go anywh.

[Stephen Paul]

Extra value meals are back.

[Ed]

That means 10 tender juicy McNuggets and medium fries and a drink are just $8 only at McDonald's for a limited time only.

[Stephen Paul]

Prices and participation may vary. Prices may be higher in Hawaii, Alaska, and California. And for delivery. Hello, friends. Guess who? That's right, it is I, the replacer. Once again, I've been called on to. You can play the new Call of Duty Black Ops 7 with three expansive modes, 18 multiplayer maps, and the tastiest zombie gameplay you've ever freaking seen. Call of Duty Black Ops 7, available now. Rated M for mature.

[Sam]

This is the double anime recap for episodes 1148 and 1149. I'm your host, Sam. And today with me, we have Supreme King, Conqueror Majesty Overlord Ken o'.

[Zach]

Connor.

[Ken]

How have I never thought to do, like, Supreme King kind king? Like, how I could have combined my name so long ago with the color of the Supreme King Conquers Hockey or.

[Sam]

Something similar Kind King Kai.

[Ken]

There we go.

[Zach]

That works.

[Ken]

Perfect. Nice and simple. Not confusing at all.

[Sam]

On Opposite Day.

[Ken]

God, that's never gonna die.

[Sam]

Listen, we don't know when Opposite Day is. I don't know when it is.

[Ken]

Not to tangent. Is Opposite Day. Like, is there an actual day that people look at as Opposite Day?

[Sam]

It's definitely not today.

[Ken]

Definitely not today. January 25th. January 25th is international opposite Day.

[Sam]

Well, we don't. We don't call it international.

[Ken]

Find the national then.

[Sam]

No, think higher. Like Doflamingo. Let's. Let's go somewhere higher.

[Ken]

Speaking of doflamingo, we saw him into these episodes today.

[Sam]

That's what I was referring to. Let's see. Episode 1148, the Lost Joy Boy. The first pirate. And we are kind of hanging out in catch up mode with the anime recap lately. But that's okay. The cold open here is like. I'm guessing this is just straight up Icarus falling from flying too close to the sun.

[Ken]

This is weird. I didn't know what this was trying to do exactly. It was.

[Sam]

Yeah, you just. You see like a big feathery shape falling and, you know, feathers flying off of it as it hits the ocean. And I don't Know if. I don't know if this is anything like. I don't remember if this is anything literal in the world of One Piece or if this is just using the Icarus metaphor.

[Ken]

Yeah, it's weird because like One Piece does reference like other gods and other mythologies. Technically we have the Buddha and whatnot, so it does reference other gods and mythos. But I don't think this was ever directly referenced in the manga at all. So it was interesting seeing the anime take a little bit of a Crate of Liberty here right at the start.

[Sam]

It reminded me of Whole Cake island, the anime using the butterfly for Sanji's freedom and entrapment.

[Ken]

Oh right, yeah, good, good, good point.

[Sam]

We get to see the Marine Headquarters reacting to the news about the world progressively sinking into the ocean. We cut to Mach Town, up to their old ways. Mach and Njirin, a town of ridicule, throwing tomatoes at the projector screen as Vegapunk's talking.

[Zach]

Their.

[Sam]

Their general attitude is haha, yeah right. Ocean sinking. You're what a loser. We've never been wrong about anything.

[Ken]

One of them even says like if you're gonna lie, at least make the lie believable. Come on, vegapunk.

[Sam]

Back at Water 7, Paulie is shocked that it's not just Water 7 that's sinking. Because you know, the the tide is rising with every time Aqua Laguna comes through. Food for thought. If that's connected in any way to the world's condition.

[Ken]

I could see that.

[Sam]

Deep in Impel down we have Doflamingo laughing as Magellan has. He's just sitting with a, I guess just a fold out chair that he's just propped up outside of Doflamingo's cell. And they're listening to the broadcast and Doflamingo is savvy enough to know that a 5 meter rise would destroy most cities. And he's like, oh, but should we move somewhere higher? Ryugu Kingdom. They're all listening and reacting. Vegapunk continues his speech. He says he believes that sometime down the line, which, which you know, relative to the recording, he does not know that it's the day of the the broadcast. But he's like someday down the line there's going to be a massive earthquake and the sea level will rise by 1 meter. Islands will become uninhabitable, beaches will disappear. And everyone's just kind of reacting to the realization that he's spot on. Like he's describing an earthquake that happened earlier that day. And Vegapunk very humbly is saying, but If I'm wrong, just ignore everything I'm saying.

[Ken]

Yeah, I like that. He adds that caveat. Like, if I'm wrong, just forget this entire message.

[Zach]

Just.

[Ken]

I think it'd be hilarious if he was wrong. And this message drones on for like three or four more episodes, like, well, none of this matters. He was wrong, so thank God he got it right.

[Sam]

But there is something funny about him saying, if it turns out I'm wrong, just ignore all this. But, like, everyone's kind of in panic mode. Like, oh, my God, he's right about everything.

[Ken]

Yeah. One guy's like, what is this prophecy? It's really funny.

[Sam]

And he urges people not to dismiss the earthquake as a regular. As a standard natural disaster. We have Saint Saturn versus the Straw Hats. Still, like, incredible cuts of animation here. As Nami is hitting him with the Zeus lightning bolt. Brook's going in with the icy slash. Lilith has her bubble gun. And then there's kind of a not clear sequence where Saturn is just kind of stabbing at them really fast. And it looks like he's missing them, but I think it's him being blocked by Chopper.

[Ken]

I was gonna say the animation starts off so cool in this scene. And then the next scene, it just looks like he's like, they're all standing completely still, like cardboard cutouts. And he's like jabbing the ground in front of them. Like, how is he missing them every single time? Like he's hitting chopper. But, like, I don't know. The animation just looked really weird at that point when he was fighting back, I couldn't get past it.

[Sam]

But eventually he gives up and he just kind of charges right past them. He's got bigger fish to fry or smaller snails to kill.

[Ken]

Yeah. The elders are talking and they realize, like, hey, Veigo Hung's message is top priority. Let's go get that instead. So he kind of leaves them that day.

[Sam]

Yeah. As he's like hopping through the air, he looks like a big bloated tick. He does, because his underside is, like, red and glowing.

[Ken]

Yep, he's got that one glowy eye for part of this scene too.

[Sam]

Vegapunk continues. He says, I wished for peace in my own humble way. That was my first sin. Very dramatic. Saturn's escapades result in him finding the mother flame, which is a very kind of pinkish purple magenta y flame inside of a. Like a submarine porthole window in a big machine.

[Ken]

A giant vat of water with a flame inside of it. It's very cool looking.

[Sam]

Vegapunk goes. Starts going into the, the topic of the Void century. And like, as. As Emu's hearing this, you know, they're. They're like one of the butterflies perched on, on their finger, just kind of gets away from them. He's losing his, his grip. And, you know, he's. He's going through the basics. Like, you know, behind between 900 years ago and 800 years ago is a time period with no written history. And back at Mary Geoa, all the Celestial dragons are kind of challenging this information. But you have Saint Shalria, the girl from Sabodi. She seems like she's like her ears are perking up, like she's listening, like, what do you know? Like, what do we not know?

[Ken]

Yeah, well, it's funny. Some of the celestial dragons are just like, oh, Vegapunk deserves to be chopped up and flayed. And like they just care about quieting him. And she just seems the only one like, oh, what is this? She has no idea. And it's almost like you would think that the Celestial dragons would be privy. Well, not necessarily privy to this information, but the fact that even they don't know and they're the top authority of the world makes it interesting.

[Sam]

Yeah, it's interesting that they don't know and most of them don't want to know.

[Ken]

Yeah.

[Sam]

We have a cutaway of a man who looks an awful lot like Jaguar D. Saul in a kind of a foresty area, leaning back on a pile of wood that he supposedly had cut down. And he's just kind of taken in the day and laughing to himself, saying, dead Shishishi. Back at Orange Town, where Buggy was reigning supreme. Briefly, we've got a young child reading a history book and asking questions to Mayor Boodle, who does not really have answers. And he's, you know, given Shushu the little chin scritches.

[Ken]

Yeah, she's talking about, oh, like the 20 countries came together and united and that's what made the world. It's a very innocent version of the history.

[Sam]

So Vegapunk explains how he read into the history of that void century and that that was his second sin. And we got Robin listening in as he's explaining having access to the research from a certain group of archaeologists. We got Edison down below somewhere turning a valve that looks like in Tom and Jerry when there's that one bit you know is going to move because it's a cell and not the background. That's what the valve looks like.

[Ken]

That's the reveal is he's alive. Because the last time we Saw him. He flew headfirst into the force field. So it's like, oh, he's alive. Great.

[Sam]

He had predicted like only like 78% damage or something like that, right?

[Ken]

Yeah, but it's still just as. Just like in the manga. Like, okay, he flew in. We don't know why he did that. And they're like, oh, he's alive. He's fine. The anime did the exact same thing. No effort to show him like, oh, I survived. And like crawling away or anything like that.

[Sam]

Vegapunk says that the main character of this story is a man who was born 900 years ago. He fought with an elastic body like the Sun God Nika. And this is being read over footage of Luffy doing a big twisty wind up punch to Warcury. But just like before, whenever Luffy hits Warcury, his fist just like explodes with flames. I'm never sure if. Cause he acts like he just hits. Warcry's body is just really hard. But they always draw him with these flames.

[Ken]

Yeah. It's almost like the Haki on his hand is getting ignited on contact or something.

[Sam]

Vegapunk says that Joy Boy was the first man to be called a pirate, which is a big. Kind of a. Kind of a big puzzle piece falling into place there. The. We catch up with the folks in Wano. Kinomon is surprised that they even get these. They're even getting these external signals into the country at all. And we got cute little Otama now a ninja explaining how they, you know, this was a snail from like Orochi's castle. And it's come in handy, which is.

[Ken]

A great explanation, honestly.

[Sam]

Yeah, I buy it. It works. Kinemon asks Momonosuke if he knows about Joy Boy. Because Momonosuke is kind of dwelling on that. On that name for a second. But Momonosuke just has no answer at all. They just move on in a prison. We've got Damalo Black and his crew. They've now traded their fake straw hat disguises for fake kid pirates disguises.

[Stephen Paul]

I like the.

[Sam]

The fake Sanji like face and hair painted to look like killer's mask or Killer Killer's helmet.

[Ken]

Yeah, yeah. It's really funny.

[Sam]

Looks like a bowling ball.

[Ken]

Yeah.

[Sam]

And you know, Tamala Black is doing his best kid impression. Like oh yeah. Oh, that guy. Huh? Of course he's weaker than me. That joy ball. And then his crew gives.

[Zach]

Don't you mean Joy Boy?

[Ken]

Yeah, yeah, that one.

[Sam]

On the poneglyphs was written the. The record of a great war. And he goes on to describe a. That the union of the 20 kingdoms that began the World Government was originally just called, like, the Alliance. It's the precursor of the World Government. And it's possible that they joined forces because Joy Boy and his crew, his alliance, were just so powerful that it necessitated this alliance of kingdoms. And Joy Boy, he came from an advanced civilization with. With weapons beyond the capability of modern technology. We cut to Zo. We've got Duke Carrot listening and the Minx. They're listening in. Carrot's wondering if there's a connection between Joy Boy and Zunesha, which we know there is likely the case because Zunesha was talking about Joy Boy during Wano, and then she's just kind of amazed by the factoid that the weapons were beyond modern technology.

[Ken]

She seemed way too happy about these weapons of mass destruction. She's like, oh, it's so cool.

[Sam]

Yeah. She's just like, huh? Joy Boy and Zunesha. I wonder if there's a connection.

[Stephen Paul]

Weapons.

[Sam]

Weapons.

[Stephen Paul]

That's so cool.

[Ken]

Oh, Carrot, you were missed.

[Sam]

We see Foxy and the remainder of his crew loading in a little dinghy with a foxy masthead. He's got, like, a mustache and goatee now. And Vegapunk is on the. On the. On the broadcast. Vegapunk is saying, even. Even with my genius, I couldn't replicate the weapons. And then you got, like, Foxy doing, like, weird, like, fox hand gestures as he's, like, mocking Vegapunk like, oh, don't say that. Like, you were supposed to be impressed. Yeah.

[Ken]

Like, why would you admit that, you idiot?

[Sam]

You're a genius and you're saying that you couldn't do it. And so Vegapunk is. Is continuing to say, and that's where the problem lies. And, like, the. The soundtrack, like, goes into a very naked, like, dun, dun, dun, just to get that stinger in there.

[Ken]

Mm.

[Sam]

The crew can see the clouds of egghead expanding forward now that the barrier that Edison took down is retreating. So now the clouds are going outward, meaning that they have a shorter distance to leap off the edge and fly to safety.

[Ken]

Well, the barrier is still up. He just made so more clouds stretched out from where they were. Sure, yeah. The barrier is still up for now.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Sam]

And, you know, Edison is thinking to himself, get out of here at any cost. Straw hats. Don't let the world government catch you. Dun dun. To be continued. We move on to 1149, the void century. A revelation about a sinking world. And we're returning to the. The Labo phase. I really like It. When the. The info boxes are kind of like tracked to you know, like the, the. The building. So like as the camera's like pushing in like the, the text. The text box is kind of like moving with it.

[Ken]

Yeah.

[Sam]

Edison is calling Stussy to let her know what he did has given her the getaway as well. And we're hearing this conversation as we're watching both Saturn and Mars individually walking through different hallways. And with just snails dying all around them.

[Ken]

Them walking is so funny because they're kind of speed walking. There's agency there, but they gotta make sure that they're combing through the hallways well enough to zap every single snail. So just these awkward shots of them speed walking down the hallways was very funny to me.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Sam]

Just using their mystery zap power to just like I assumed it's just hockey.

[Ken]

Just the black lightning coming off of them.

[Sam]

But Stussy's not eager to escape. She's kind of making a justification about like, well, if I leave Kaku here, if I leave Lucci here, they're just gonna go after the straw hat, so I'm gonna keep them down. But she's. She's admitting that without Stella she doesn't know what to live for. And we can see kind of a stone faced Kaku listening. You can kind of infer some. Some sympathy. The back at the giant ship, the big Viking ship, we got kind of a beautiful like pink sunset view going as Atlas is laying down Stella's body onto the Viking ship. On the shore we've got some of the giants versus Venus. Jiro. I thought this, this. There's one shot in here that's very strange or like it's Oimo and Orkashi kind of swinging at. At Venus's legs. And like, like a CG Venus just like very kind of like slowly does like a hop back. Like a, Like a video game character.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Ken]

It's like, yeah, backstep like a prance.

[Sam]

It's kind of a funky like CGI animation. Although the rest of the sequence looks great. Sanji's coming in for some kicks. And then one of the other giants is grabbing Venus by the. By the tail. Like the big wispy red horsetail. Just like, oh, we can. We can grab this. It's like, you know, like when Goku's keeping Raditz down during the. The special beam cannon.

[Ken]

Yes.

[Sam]

And Bonnie's going for a dive kick. The other giant is going for a swing. And then Venus just looking cool as hell, just blocks both of them with his Swords. And then jump kicks the guy behind him who was holding his tail. Like just the classic horse kick.

[Ken]

He bucks like a horse.

[Sam]

It's great. And then he goes. And he's like, oh, I'm gonna kill you, little girl. He goes for Bonnie with the sword. Hyper Slo Mo leaves us in suspense for a good few seconds here before Frankie's able to jump in and catch her. And she. She reverts back to her kid form. And Venus, like, yes.

[Ken]

There's a nice moment there where she turns back into a kid in Frankie's arms. She's like, I'm sorry. I can't hold that form for long. He's gone. Don't worry. We got you. Like, it's just very reassuring of Frankie. It was a good moment.

[Sam]

Yeah. And just like how Saturn just kind of. Kind of gave up on his fight earlier. Venus is just like, well, let's go somewhere else. And he jumps into the air towards the big. Just the big smoking fire tornado. And he's moonwalking.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Sam]

As a horse. He's moonwalking through the sky.

[Ken]

And it's very like unicorn magical because like every step he takes, he clops up into the air. You see like those like little blue footprints as he's hopping through the air. It's very magical, girl.

[Sam]

He's very. He's like a unicorn.

[Ken]

Exactly.

[Sam]

Or a pegasus. But he's got. He's got like kind of like a red version of Zoro's green. Like hell hockey. And he just goes. And he cuts the entire laboratory in half. Horizontal. The big kind of like puffy, bulging cloud shape is now just like. Like opening up like a pokeball. And got all these government agents who are inside. They're now falling to their deaths. But I don't think Venus cares.

[Ken]

Yeah. It was everyone who was in the in the basement part of the labo phase. So all of the CP agents that were kidnapped and all the Seraphim who were trapped in the bubbles too, they all fall out.

[Sam]

And Vegapunk. The broadcast continues. He says a cataclysm happened during the Void Century. And fun fact. But the world has in fact sunk into the sea before. Our islands are now pieces of former continents. And you know Nojiko who's just looking fine as hell.

[Ken]

Yeah, yeah.

[Sam]

She's listening and she's like, you know what? I'll just go for a walk. I'll do what Luffy did when he was listening in on Nami's story. He just walk away. And Vegapunk gives the incredible fact that in the 100 year void century, the sea level had risen 200 meters in that short amount of time. And this is, this is very shocking news. We get a scene at Drum Kingdom. Kureha calls Vegapunk young fellow.

[Ken]

I love that.

[Sam]

Another on some other island, we got some guys like kind of pointing at a mountain like, look, that's. That's 200 meters. That's how, that's how much the sea changed. That's crazy. And then, you know, camera pulls back in the foreground. We just got the former baroque works agents hanging out.

[Ken]

That happens a couple times this episode where like even like the marines, like this marine ship's only 50 meters. If that's 200 meters, like a couple characters keep making comparisons to how much 200 meters is like.

[Sam]

Yes, they're all having fun explaining it to each other.

[Ken]

Exactly.

[Sam]

And Vegapunk believes firmly that this rise is a man made disaster and not a natural one. The ancient weapons from the before times, they are waiting to be re awoken. And the great war from the void century is still ongoing. And you can see Imu is very kind of frustrated to be hearing this. We got like some, some guy in the, you know, some, some guy talking, responding to the. The broadcast is like the great war still going, but no one from that time is alive. And like that footage is right over me.

[Ken]

Yeah.

[Sam]

Going over to, to look at Neltari Vivi or Nefeltari Lily's portrait.

[Ken]

Is this the first time we've gotten like colors and like actual, like look at Lily.

[Sam]

Possibly, I guess because it was like a sepia tone.

[Ken]

Alabasta, because it cuts from the portrait of Lily right to the posters in Alabasta of hey, have you seen Vivi? And they look like, I'll say identical, but it's pretty identical. The same blue hair and everything.

[Sam]

Yeah. I was describing Vivi when the Alabasta, when like Igoram is like looking at Vivi's posters, I'm like, I'm thinking like that's their like lost child milk carton.

[Ken]

Yes.

[Sam]

And you're seeing a little bit of them like mourning King Cobra, like the guy's big portrait and they got what you can assume is his, like his casket. To Vegapunk, the mother flame was an incredible technological achievement. It's an infinite source of power that he was hoping would help the entire world. But a fragment of that flame was recently stolen. And we got this kind of funky art style change as Stussy and Edison continue to talk. Like all the, all the colors are now like very flat. And there's like this film grain effect, like giving all the colors texture.

[Ken]

Yeah. I thought something looked weird. Like, that looked drastically different. Like, is this just a style choice? I couldn't figure out why that choice was happening there, but it looked okay.

[Sam]

I don't really know. It kind of stands out. And it was two weeks after the Flame was stolen that Lulusia was destroyed. And we see Modern Bandana Girl. She's reacting to this. This is the first time she's hearing definitively that her home country is destroyed. And we got elizabello iii. He's like, what?

[Zach]

Lelouch?

[Sam]

She is destroyed. Go verify this info for me.

[Ken]

Go check. Look out the window. Is it still there?

[Sam]

He's looking like, like season one Homer Simpson.

[Ken]

Yeah.

[Sam]

And Vegapunk is confessing that he feels complicit for. For the destruction. He's like, I, you know, I had the best intentions, but the. The results are. Are speak for themselves. The results speak for themselves and I'm deeply sorry. And he's lowering his head and he's got a pained expression on his face. He's talking about how Joy Boy wanted to pass the ancient weapons on to future generations, which is a surprising thing to learn. Vegapunk asks, like, what is good? What is evil? Like, who's on what side really here? And then we got like Sengoku stress eating his. His Sen Senbei crackers. And we got Sakazuki stress melting a cigar in his hands. Like, Vegapunk, you're really gonna tell them everything. And Vegapunk goes on to say that the people that among the people who knew the secrets of the world, who had learned this stuff for themselves, were the crew of the king of the pirates. And everybody's having a big reaction to like pirates. Pirates know all this world changing information. Like, what do you mean? We got York who's been like running around the lab like, much like the five Elders have been. She's wondering out loud, you know, how could Stella have even known that she had stolen the Mother Flame? She had turned the synchronization off. Stella had acted surprised when he found out she was the traitor. The timeline just isn't adding up here. But as she's thinking about it, she does have an epiphany. And she's able to tell the five Elders that she knows where the transmission transponder snail probably is. And it's inside the Iron Giant. It's the. It's the safest place it could be put.

[Ken]

Dun dun dun.

[Sam]

Yes. And we got the. You Know, a shot of the. The Iron Giant itself continuing to march through the fire and flames as it has been for the last few episodes.

[Ken]

And nothing like the Navy gets attacking. And nothing is damaging it or phasing it. It just keeps charging forward.

[Sam]

Yeah, that snail is safe. And then Vegapunk is pontificating, why? Why didn't the pirates act on their knowledge? Like, what? What did they learn? You know, what. What are they planning? What was their idea? And we got Shaky's ripoff bar. And Shaky's like looking over at Rayleigh wasted over the table. Like just face on the. On the counter. She's like, well, Ray, what do you think? And Rayleigh's having himself a beleaguered laugh of sorts, saying, Vegapunk, you're talking too much. Don't spoil it for the young. Isn't that right, Roger2B? Continued general thoughts on these two episodes Ken.

[Ken]

Very good. I watched them back to back, so they kind of blended all in together. One long episode. For me, it's Vegapunk's speech. If we're going to keep getting this speech for another few episodes. So it's nice to listen to. Everything he's saying is super interesting. Visual wise. It's just fun seeing, oh, we haven't seen these characters in forever. And it's kind of like a little visual like, oh, I remember that. Oh, that's that person. That's that person. It's bringing back like every single character, minor character, one off character. It's a lot of. Just a lot of characters. So it's. But is it quantity over quality? I don't really know. But it's nice seeing them all back, all animated, a lot of returning voice actors. So in that aspect, it's very fun. And I think the knowledge that Vegapunk is talking about is really interesting. But the actual events happening in Egghead, it's like, okay, Luffy's still running from a workery. Everyone's still fighting. They're still trying to. It's kind of like the action on the straw hats and the island is the important part. It's all about Vegapunk's speech and little incidentals. We're seeing off the island now and we're just kind of like waiting for the speech to conclude. It's good. I'm enjoying it. I love this part in the manga as well. But I could. You could tell that like, all right, this is the lore dump. Just pay attention to the lore and we'll get back to the action, the good action in a little bit, but I enjoyed it. Good episodes.

[Sam]

Yeah. It's hard to make any meaningful, distinct distinctions between the last, like, almost four episodes now.

[Ken]

Yeah.

[Sam]

So it's. It's, you know, it's not like, as an adaptation, it's not doing anything crazy. It's kind of business as usual. I do remember thinking. I remember in the manga when Venus Juro cut the Labo phase in half. I remember really wanting that to be like a spectacular moment in the anime. And it's fine, but. Yeah, but I don't think it really stands out as much as it could have. Yeah, it's just kind of hard to really have a comment on these episodes. It's, you know, mostly just kind of cutting around and seeing the characters and you get the few really consequential lore nuggets. But as far as the adaptation goes, there's not a whole lot exciting going on.

[Ken]

Yeah, I would say that's about right. Just like another thing, like, there are some, like, a lot of the shots are just like, straight on Vegapunk's face the entire time. But every now and then the anime gives him, like, gave him some really dramatic angles or, like, up tilts from his face and, like, dark shadows going like they're having fun, showing him different angles and sometimes cutting back, showing Shaka, like, filming him from, like, the side. Like, they're doing what they can with it, but really, like, there's not much they can do with this part. They just kind of let her. Gotta let it ride out.

[Sam]

Yep. Anything else you'd like to say before we move on to the next segment, Ken?

[Stephen Paul]

Nope.

[Ken]

That's about it.

[Sam]

All right, thank you very much, Ken. Hopefully we'll be back for the anime recap next week and we'll be caught up again. Let's move on. Thank you, everybody.

[Stephen Paul]

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[Nordstrom Rack Announcer]

This episode is brought to you by Netflix from the creator of Homeland. Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys star in the new Netflix series the Beast in Me as ruthless rivals whose shared darkness will set them on a collision course with fatal consequences. The Beast in Me is a riveting psychological cat and mouse story about guilt, justice and doubt. You will not want to miss this. The Beast in Me is now playing only on Netflix.

[Zach]

This is the Piece Together segment where we take your questions, comments, theories, and find out am I evil? Zach, the answer is yes. Let's but where's the good one? Let's start.

[Stephen Paul]

He's in the grave. That's how that scene goes.

[Zach]

He's spinning. He's spinning. Spin on the first let's start with this piece that was just for that one's just for Mike and our Patreon listeners. First one is this piece. These are questions from our Discord for our Patreon subscribers who understood the joke I made. If you want to understand our inside jokes, just subscribe to [e-mail] One Piece podcast. For $5 a month, you get to ask questions and a hell of a lot more. First one comes from Big Mike, who says, hey Opp, I don't know about you, but I'm getting sick of the perverts in sending Oda Horny SBS questions. I don't have a good feeling about this. I haven't kept reading, but let's. Let's find out. At first I was able to tolerate them, but now I just can't stand the cheap joke at the expense of the dignity of the female characters, especially when they have the opportunity to ask questions about the lore, oda's creative process, or constructively criticize the problematic content in the series. Before I continue reading, I just want to say before I continue reading and I think it. I think this is a sincere question, but I have like PTSD from the SBS just from doing it earlier that this is going to go in a bad direction. But anyway, I'll keep reading. So what could we do to start a movement to get the perverts to stop sending Oda Horny SBS questions and send them to you guys as pieced together questions instead? Boo. I knew that was. I knew a shoe was going to drop.

[Stephen Paul]

That was a good one.

[Zach]

I can't. Good job, Big Mike. I do agree with all of that, except for the very what is it? You had me in the first half, but yeah, yeah, and we get those anyways. And sometimes we don't read them or cut them out. Usopp D Grade says so I had a question for Stephen. He spelled your name wrong, but we're gonna forgive it. Here on Teaches declaration on Jaya. Can there be variations on his statement about dreams? What other translations could fit? I know that translation is a personal process, so I want it your or if there's another Japanese reader this week take on it. There is not. So it's just Stephen. Oh, and more horny questions to the sbs. Just trigger Oda with the word boobs and watch him go. And the Jayo question. Yeah. So what are your thoughts, Steven?

[Stephen Paul]

That is interesting. Yeah. So the famous phrase is hito no yume wa, which is, you know, what, what is the, the dreams. People's dreams. People's dreams never ever die or don't ever end.

[Zach]

I just remember it's end, I think in the Viz version because the one I made Maddie do was the, the one piece manga Never ends or something like that.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Will never end. Yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

I mean, I guess if you're looking for like, I think the straightforward interpretation of that is the way that like everyone kind of interprets it, which is that, you know, like humanity in general and people individually have dreams and they are, they're eternal, they're undying. You can't stamp them out. You know, you cannot fight against the human nature to yearn for things. And I don't know if there's like a particular angle like because like I'm curious a lot of times when, when people send questions like this, like, oh, can you translate this? Some. Some way else.

[Zach]

I always translate this again.

[Stephen Paul]

Well, I always get my hackles up where it's like, are they, are they coming? Are they wondering if like some other potential interpretation is true and they're trying to see if I will corroborate that without knowing what is on their, their mind.

[Zach]

I mean, as someone who does not speak Japanese and who would ask this sort of question potentially, like I think it is more. Could I create a new theory out of a potential like, because Japanese it's, it's not one to one, it's never going to be one to one.

[Sam]

Right.

[Zach]

So like, you know, you could be the greatest translator in the world. You're not going to be able to capture every sense of every word in the series. So I think it's that for this very important thing, can it mean something else? And therefore can you know that, that maybe you were talking about like sometimes, you know, you can't predict the future, so you translate something one way. And I guess what he's asking here is since they didn't know what was going to come and we still don't know what's going to come, could this be translated in a different direction? Yeah, so I'm trying to give him a little more.

[Stephen Paul]

I don't. Yeah, I mean I don't think that this is necessarily a situation where I feel like, oh, if only they had known about this. Now that could change. Because, you know, a lot of it is like, we don't necessarily know. Like, we can guess kind of now maybe what is driving Blackbeard. Or at least we have. We have an inkling that obviously, given what happened to his dad, you know, that certainly colors our perspective on how he might feel about the powers that be and maybe how that informs his relationship with the rest of the world. But I don't think that I would necessarily. I don't necessarily think that at this time there's like a. Oh, we didn't think about this angle. And maybe, you know, you could translate it this way. Like, I feel pretty satisfied with the way that it's represented.

[Zach]

I think, if anything, this flashback solidifies that translation for me as like, the correct. Like, I. I can't think of another way. You could say it for many reasons, but, like, the whole thing with rocks is that the dreams of. Of the ancestors of. Of the Davey pirates can't be squashed out despite repeated efforts.

[Stephen Paul]

Right.

[Zach]

Like, you could really tie that thread directly to Blackbeard potentially now. So if anything, I feel like that adds a whole other personal layer to why he believes that.

[Stephen Paul]

Yes. And of course, what makes that. What. What makes that scene so great, though, is of course that he's, you know, he's not saying, oh, the dreams of my specific family's ancestors will never die, like the will the D or whatever. You know, it is a very universal statement. That's kind of what makes it so powerful and memorable. Yeah, is.

[Zach]

Well, I mean, more that it is applicable to his own, like, journey and it gives reason as to. It gives it. I don't think he's saying it like I'm specifically. I think it's like a lesson he has learned because of stuff like that, potentially.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Zach]

And I would add, also, what makes that line so powerful is that it's like a potential villain antagonist saying something that is also true of. Of Luffy and us as readers. That, you know, like, is a very important and potent point.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, it's an inspirational line, which is.

[Zach]

It'S inspirational line from someone who has dubious, you know, intentions. Yes, that part's interesting. Good question, though. Reverse Eye Patch has our third and last dispiece. Hey, y', all, how come when Zorro threw Yubashiri way up in the air to test its curse, it didn't go straight into the ceiling? Epon Matsu must Have really Must have a really tall shop floor. Like a mezzanine level.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, yeah, it's like. It's like the, you know, southern construction where like the. The ceilings are like 15ft tall.

[Zach]

Well, we'll see when the live action does this scene. Yeah, I think you'll have your answer. Also, Reverse Eyepatch has their name back and without any puns, so that's fantastic. I apparently have noticed we could move on to emails which. We have one. I believe we have one. This one comes from Psyche who says. Throwing my support for the Steve, Alex and Josh show last week. Enjoyed listening with the crazy theoreticals of the past age a la the mural and the Harley. I wonder how much of the supernatural of One Piece will be explained. Are there some things that have always been in this world that will just be. That will just be there? Like the various races, hockey. Incredible physical potential such as what humans could do with Rokashiki or Fishman karate training. Or do we. Or do even these things have origins in the past where there's a further mundanity lost to the past and there's a further mundanity loss of the past. I'm not someone who needs actual in depth explanations, but to imply such things would be curious to discuss. P.S. beginning the catch up of 2020 opp episodes now one step in front of the other. You're about to get into our well edited episodes which I believe in 2020. Yeah. So. So good luck. Yeah. Steven, I don't know if you have any thoughts on all that.

[Stephen Paul]

This actually this reminds me because it's very similar to like one of Greg's ongoing things and every time he brings it up, I have to admit, like I'm not really sure exactly what he means by it, but he will. He often talks about like. Like if, you know, if there's a special power, if there's a mythical thing or whatever like that it has to be based on a real.

[Zach]

Oh, I know.

[Stephen Paul]

Or not.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

And I just don't really get it. I don't know. I guess I just don't see the hang up about like whether that like fits the rules or not.

[Zach]

Let me see. Confused. Let me. Let me see if I could untangle the Greg isms. I don't speak fluent Greg, but I speak some Greg. So what he means, I think is that like magic quote unquote doesn't exist in the One Piece universe without some sort of explanation as to how it exists.

[Stephen Paul]

Right.

[Zach]

I think if anyone reads like Witch Hat atelier, for example, like you Know, that is a series about magic, but magic has very specific. It has to work in a specific way. And I won't spoil. And I think in one piece, you know. So you take each of the. Let me take the examples they have. Like hockey, to be fair, does have its own rules, but we don't completely know like, its origin other than will and ambition. So that is one of the things I think fits much less squarely into the. Into. Into these. I think, like, you know, a way a devil fruit works, for example, like, he. As ridiculous as the rules get, there are rules that you could like, plug in. And when we see something that looks like it's just magic, I think to use that Gregism, it's like, how do you explain that? There must be some sort of explanation for it because ODA wouldn't just do the thing like in Bleach, how they all are suddenly flying for no reason. Yeah, Like, I think most Shonen series usually just will do something like that. And I feel like that is a pet peeve of ODA's generally.

[Stephen Paul]

So I guess. I guess the reason that it just keeps coming up and, and keeps becoming a. A discussion point is because, like, everything that seems to be happening under the umbrella of emu and, and then when you add into that, like a lot of these, the mythical creature, like the mythical versions of. Of creatures like that, that seems to be, you know, part of it is like it's artificially sort of hidden from us because ODA doesn't want to reveal all the details yet because, you know, it's a. It's a big surprise. That always is when there's like a big special devil fruit power and the.

[Zach]

Big bad of the world, if not the.

[Stephen Paul]

Exactly. Yeah.

[Zach]

Clearly.

[Stephen Paul]

He's clearly inviting us to guess as to what. What's going on.

[Zach]

Well, I mean, the, the, the person. I, I don't. We don't know the gender or if a gender exists for emu, but for emo. Yeah, yeah. Or what it is or who they are. But like, that whole thing is just laughably. I. The reason I think the emu jokes are funny is because it is making fun of the fact that he is still in silhouette.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, that's true.

[Zach]

Yeah. Or they. Or it or whatever. So I, Yeah, I, I think we're going to get explanations for that. Whether or not the explanations are satisfying, you know, I don't think. But to like, go back to the question. The midichlorians are always the thing that pop into my head. Like, at what point do you need an explanation for a thing. I just rewatched Bad Batch, which is great. And they, I think, very cleverly try and, like, take that back, like, and make it more interesting. For those who've seen the series, I won't say anything more, but I. I think. I think there are ways that you could explain a thing and make it interesting by not explaining it too much or by still giving it some vagueness. So, like, for midichlorians and Bad Batch, it's. This isn't. I don't think this is a spoiler, but it's that they say something like, just because you have a lot of them doesn't mean, you know, you're automatically the best at. You know. It doesn't. I think in the, in the prequels, it's. It gives the. It gives force power or whatever it is to. To people. But yeah, I don't know. That's. That's really here nor there. Let's see. Steven, do you have Reddit questions?

[Stephen Paul]

Yes, we do have a couple questions on Reddit, believe it or not.

[Zach]

I don't.

[Stephen Paul]

You don't? Well, you would be wrong. Electric Dynamite did start up the thread for us and says. Hey, Opp, have you considered that outside of the five Elders and God Knights and assuming Big mom and Kaido are indeed dead, that the only living creatures in the series that have met Slash fought Emu are Garp and Zeus? That's right, Zeus. Do you think he will tell Nami if he recognizes Imu in Gunko? Or is his head just in the clouds?

[Zach]

Boo. You almost had me until that pawn. Was Zeus, one of the homies that she used. I. Now I'm trying to. I mean, I'm assuming they're right, I guess.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. I don't. I don't recall what exactly Big mom did because there was like five different attacks in that.

[Zach]

I got. I'll. I was just gonna pull it up. That was like two or three chapters ago at this point, right?

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. I mean, considering that.

[Zach]

Long ago. Yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

Zeus is a cloud and he's always drawn like a stereotypical, like, stoned Muppet that the. Well, because the jokey answer would be that, no, he does not remember.

[Zach]

Well, because there's also. There's. That's true. He's stoned. He definitely does not remember. Well, just because, like, Mother Carmel had the different version of Prometheus and then when Zeus got fired, there was. What. What was the. His replacement?

[Stephen Paul]

Hera. Was that the.

[Zach]

I think it was Hera. I think you're right. Yeah. So just Like, I'm looking at. No Zeus is there. Yeah, that. I assume that's Zeus.

[Mike Patton]

He got let go.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Zach]

And Zeus looks a lot less high in this. So if anything, they do say in.

[Stephen Paul]

In England, they. They call it redundancies. So he was made redundant.

[Zach]

That's true. I was gonna say Zeus. No one's asked him. And also they don't know who the hell Emu is. So, yes, it's possible that Zeus knows. And also, like, what does he know here? Like, they all seem to think that Saturn is the, you know, the monster. To be fair, that's true.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Yeah. We don't know what's growing out of his back, specifically that.

[Stephen Paul]

Right.

[Zach]

There's. There's a lot of questions that. How is the anime gonna do this? Like, in that. How do you, as we were talking about. How do you coyly not reveal this when it's like, right in front of you?

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, it's the same. Same way they do in the manga is just. Just silhouette.

[Zach]

So you're telling me Roger, Big Mom, Kaido, Whitebeard and rocks are all dead. Garp, to be fair, is frozen in carbonite at this moment. So, yeah, we all know. Any other.

[Stephen Paul]

I do think it. I do think it is interesting to. To like, to guess. And I think someone asked this maybe on a previous episode where it's like. Like, is that what Emu looks like? Or are we still seeing like a dramatic effect? And like, so, so does that mean that Garp and Roger and them, did they see something that was actually in detail that would be considered like the revealed version of Emu and we just don't get to see it because, you know, it's not the right point of the story yet.

[Zach]

So first off, I think the funniest thing would be if he just ends up looking like a blob Y. I think that would actually be very funny. I think here, though, they are not seeing a detailed version of Emu. Like, I think this is like a. What do you call it? Like a transmogrified. You know, like a thing stick. Like a weird boil sticking out of Saturn's neck. Well, that's what you want. You want that kind of grossness, right? Did this say. Let me.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, let me go ahead and read because we have one other question.

[Zach]

Okay, sorry, go ahead.

[Stephen Paul]

It is from. From Emil Nordpole, who says. Hello, Opp. Another question on Emu. You'll see why I'm cut you off now that we've seen a lot more of him slash her and many characters have Seen Emu as well. Can we assume that the black form is not just a silhouette but the actual body? I find it rather strange to have that many interactions with a stand in design and the true face and body are going to be revealed later. So what this is saying is that Imu's genitals are also a silhouette.

[Zach]

Well, I mean that we knew.

[Stephen Paul]

That's a callback.

[Zach]

That we knew. It's a good callback. Was it a six year old write that question too?

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, the eight year old.

[Zach]

Don't go and write a six year old or listen to our podcast. So two things. First, Roger, when he's referring to it says, do our attacks do nothing to that spider? So very specifically, like does not. I think that is Oda like saying, I don't think they see.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, Roger just sees a giant monster thing.

[Zach]

To be fair, if you had no context, it completely fits the bill like that. That's a good interpretation from Roger. The second thing is the one person we do know 100% has seen Emu in this is Rocks because Rox did show up briefly to see Emu. So the fact that he's the only one like talking to Emu and like able to like have that kind of conversation makes sense. So like, of the people we know who have seen Emu's actual visage, maybe cobra?

[Stephen Paul]

Saba. Sabo.

[Zach]

Maybe Sabo. Waffle. Definitely.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Zach]

The. I mean obviously waffle.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Besides like the five elders, if there's.

[Stephen Paul]

Any like individual character who should like reveal it, like to be the one who says it's like this, it should be waffle. That would be awesome.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Yes. Agreed strongly. Yeah. Vivi wasn't even there. Vivi was. She like ran into her room, right? Or something.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, he was running away.

[Zach]

Yeah. Oh yeah, he. Oh no. He snuck into her mouth. His mouth or is that just the image?

[Stephen Paul]

It was like. Yeah, he was like running with his mouth open and then she just got like scooped up like it like a pelican.

[Zach]

Yeah. So I like, I don't think any of these God Valley folks other than like rocks who had seen him prior, I don't think they knew quite what was going on. Trying to think of who else, I mean, besides like celestial dragons and five elders and all that would have even seen him and that are seen them. Yeah, I think, I think that's a. Yeah. Although Sabo never mentions what they look like when he's giving his report to Dragon and even cough and they're talking about Emu Nerona. The. Yeah, yeah. Maybe Maybe it's just a very non impressive form. Like, you know.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, it's very hard to separate the, like, the actual factual discussions and stuff from the obfuscation for story purposes that ODA is obviously doing.

[Zach]

And the other thing I'm thinking of, like, like, let's say they just look. They're like Lily and they look like Vivi, which has been a long standing theory.

[Mike Patton]

Right.

[Zach]

I would, I would say, like, wouldn't Sabo have noticed that? However, no one noticed that Blackbeard looks just like Rock. So maybe there's just a lot of face blindness in this world.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, yeah, I do. I do. Like, I feel like that reveal, which I think would be awesome. Like, that. That's a really neat, like, theory to run with. But I do feel like that would be similar to the like, oh, shaky was the treasure of Pirate island sort of thing where like, you go back and look and it's like, okay, nobody would have reacted this way. Like, they would have said it differently if they, you know, if they were talking about, you know, what we now know is the accurate truth. You know, rather than being like, oh, we're gonna get the treasure we want. We all want the treasure. Instead of being like, we want that hot lady. You know, that's. That's the sort of thing that, you know, I feel like, yeah, if it's that reveal, they would be talking about it more openly.

[Zach]

So I'm not going to subject you guys to trivia this week, but was there, like, anything about last week's chapter that you, like, had on your mind that you all wanted to mention, besides Polo Graham recap?

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, well, I mean, I don't know. Obviously I, I still have no, you know, we'll see what the chapter is next week. I have not seen it as of this moment, but. And the assumption that like, this might be the last we ever see of Rocks in the flashback, it certainly seems like. It does seem like a sort of like. And this is how it ended. Sort of like we might get transition out.

[Zach]

I'm thinking of a conversation I previously had with Rocks and even we hadn't seen before. But.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, but I, I will say, like, as a, as a, like a, you know, epitaph on. On Brox's story. Like. Well, for a guy that I was kind of skeptical of at first, and I, I never really liked his design, not necessarily for like the, The Blackbeard resemblance the way that some people have. Have taken issue with it, but I just thought his, his design was too goofy. Like his, his bi. Colored hair that looked like, like chewing gum or something. Like, I, I thought that was kind of whack. And. And so I never really liked his design, but he really won me over as a character. Like, I think Oda did a great job of portraying him not like, as some demonic like, super pirate who was like the.

[Zach]

Even though he ends up demonic. Super.

[Stephen Paul]

Even though he. Yeah, he ends up that way. Kind of like, you know, on, On. On evil steroids, the evil drugs from, from Fishman Island.

[Zach]

But they're called God drugs now.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, they're called contracts. But I think that, like, he did a great job of portraying him as like a guy who, who is very powerful and is. It is driven by, you know, sort of like the, A very close proximity to like, the truth of the world. Like, his devi roots clearly, like, cause him to know a lot more about what is actually happening in the world than anyone else. And I think that he does a great job in that, that scene where they're, you know, he's crying and they're like, you know, I feel your sorrow. Like, I got a really strong sense of like, yeah, this is a guy that. You may not agree with him, you may not like all of his, his methods, but Oda does a great job of portraying like, the kind of the nobility of like someone who's striving to the greatest degree to be free and to live and to, you know, to keep his family alive and so on and to, to keep his. His quest ongoing. And I think that was. Was very powerfully feat done in a way that I would not have guessed at the start of Rox's story. So I really did. I enjoyed the way that he has been portrayed throughout the, the flashback.

[Zach]

Mike, Mike, did you have anything you wanted to.

[Mike Patton]

No, I agree with all that. I really would have to reread the chapter. I. Nothing's like, sticking out to me. I've turned around on this, you know, long stretch a lot more than I thought I was going to. I do want to do it in like a batch read though. But. Yeah, yeah, I'm just ready. I'm ready to get back to the mainland, see what's going on.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, I, I really want to see like, how this goes back to Harold and then how that's gonna work into Elbaf because, yeah, important.

[Zach]

It's funny because we're like. It's like a book within a book within a book. So we have to close each of them and we're maybe closing the innermost one. And now we have to go A few layers back before we get back to the main story. Yeah, no, I, I think I really echo Steven. I think like I hit a. I was like skeptical, skeptical, skeptical. And then I'm like, you know what? I like it. You know, like coming back on it more recently, I think the more we've seen how it ties into this is a very different type of flashback. I've talked about this a lot, but I'll talk about a different aspect of it. It's not as much of like the usual flashback as it is like showing parallels to like the present day and more of like a, almost like a setup to what's coming next. In a way that most of his flashbacks, he does it sometimes. But like, I feel like this is the most. He's like focused it. Like, I, I don't want to say it's something he never does because it is obviously something he does. Actually, the one that it reminds me of in this way is the maybe the Nolan Kagura stuff in that it feels very disjointed when you're reading it initially. But then in the context of the whole thing, it like fits so perfectly. Like when you're reading it week to week, Stephen could probably tell you more than me. It felt, probably felt like, what the hell is this? And that kind of at points is like where I was on this, on this flashback. But like the flashback is the, the one piece flashback is such an exemplar of like you can't judge it until it's over. And I always say it, yeah, absolutely. It sounds like I'm copping out of I not giving an opinion on this, I guess. But it's like, you know, I, I'm. Even now I know we have enough left to like change opinions one way or the other. So that said, yeah, I, I, I was moved by Rock story. I can't recall like a specific time where it's like the story was about dreams getting crushed midway. Like the, the protagonist of a flashback, like not being able to like kind of fulfill their purpose because that feels almost, it's antithetical to the present day. One piece kind of drive the dreams we talked about. The dreams don't ever end. And here Blackbeard's father, you know, his dreams.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, well, it's cut short, right? It's like it's instead of being framed around the protege who goes on to, to do it. Now if ODA continues for another five chapters showing little Teach growing up, then, you know, then it's a little bit more like a Typical one piece flashback.

[Zach]

I don't think that's gonna happen.

[Stephen Paul]

Right. For the central figure to be the one who, who dies, you know, kind of ahead of his time, so to speak. That's usually like the, the, the parental figure who, who that happens to which.

[Zach]

This is gonna be Harold. But it's like the inherited will here is from Zabeck to his boyfriend Harold here.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Zach]

I mean essentially I like they. Their relationship is very interesting.

[Stephen Paul]

They have a bromance for sure.

[Zach]

They 100 have a bromance at the. At minimum. A non sexual bromance at minimum.

[Mike Patton]

Why? It's so tragic.

[Zach]

It's. It is. But like the fact that, I mean like I understand his crew. He isn't close with all of them, but he did have a bond with them. And I mean that's why I think Whitebeard and Big mom and Kaido felt so dejected when they thought he was turning on them legitimately.

[Stephen Paul]

Good point. Yeah.

[Zach]

Which is very interesting. Like they don't all. I mean there's the Shikis and the, and the golden and the Silver ax and the other crap people. The crap people.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. You remember like, like you can definitely tell that he is not like a perfectly inspirational figure to everyone. Like, you know, he's definitely patched his crew together with a lot of duct tape. But there are some, there's some people that he's closer to than or that people who are more important to the story of One Piece, like Kaido and Big mom. That, yeah, he. And Whitebeard that he, he has clearly made an impression on.

[Zach]

He's an aspirational figure to that generation. I think less than an inspirational figure. Like. Yeah, I don't think. Yeah, for, for that, for that generation. I think for future generations he could have, you know, been more. If his legacy wasn't literally squashed here.

[Stephen Paul]

But yeah, it's.

[Zach]

It's a very interesting and different kind of character study that like he. I think if you're reading it on the surface Level Rocks feels like this kind of impenetrably like noble guy. Like idealistic, like look at what he's doing. But like the, if you dig into it a little bit under the surface, you're like, he, he is a very flawed individual whose intentions are even now still uncommon clear, in fact, very, very opaque. Like we, we really don't know what he was intending. I do not think there are points in the story. I'm like, is he gonna do a heel turn? I believe is the. If Steve Yuriko is listening is the term. I Don't I. Like, I thought that was gonna happen. I don't think that's the case. But that. Yeah, we don't really. I don't know. It was. It's a very interesting character study. And the fact that it kind of is cut short in the way it is, does create. It's not like. Like, I wasn't bringing tears to my eyes, but it is absolutely emotional. It is an emotional story. Like, it is an interesting. It's. It's like the bad end musical, you know, it's the bad end for Luffy. Like, what if he. He got his dreams cut short? You could think of, which is maybe why Blackbeard's the way he is. But again, he was two here. I don't know how he remembers all this, but we'll see. Although he wouldn't. He didn't even witness this end part because he got blasted away.

[Stephen Paul]

Well, yeah. He's with his mom, so read whatever.

[Zach]

In the newspaper, I guess.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. Or she told him, you know, whatever is going on.

[Zach]

I choose to think he's literate and is reading the news at the age of two.

[Mike Patton]

He's a smart kid.

[Zach]

Dumb adult, smart kid. Yeah, I know. I. I really enjoyed this one, which is. I think I knew when I was off that week and I wasn't gonna be able to make it, I'm like, this is gonna be a good chapter, isn't it? Because that's always how it works. The. The one thing, Steve. I know if we got a lot of comments on it. Steve, Alex and Josh, I don't think mentioned the Marco Polo thing, which they. They mentioned it, but they didn't mention that maybe Marco is like a reincarnation. I've been seeing that theory going.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah. I was confused. I guess I thought Marco was older than he was because I was like, was. Did he. Like. Was this his original identity? And he was hanging out with Whitebeard from the start.

[Zach]

Right.

[Stephen Paul]

But see him younger.

[Mike Patton]

He's like, like little kid.

[Ed]

Yeah.

[Stephen Paul]

Marco's like 45 or something. So this was 40 years ago. He would have been like. A little kid is 38 years.

[Zach]

Right. So he would have been like seven.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah.

[Zach]

So we're gonna see a little brat Mirko running around. I don't know. Yeah. I do agree that it feels unnecessary, but I am happy that he did use the Marco Polo joke that we made. Sure.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, sure.

[Zach]

Oda was listening and it was like. Like, that's a great joke. I'm using it.

[Stephen Paul]

He's. He's done a lot of like stuff with Marco, like the Chibi Maruko chan joke. Like just a lot of Marco, like joke name name jokes and the pineapple jokes and all that stuff. He's just a. He's a meme factory.

[Zach]

He's a pineapple who lives above the sea. No, no one that'll do it for piece together. Slash. Our manga recap, I guess a little bit. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks for indulging me on that. I. There's like, I'm not gonna go through all the minutia. I just want to talk a little bit about my thoughts generally of where we are right now. Yeah, let's round off the show. All right.

[Stephen Paul]

Let's spin on it. Oh Hilton, stay. Oh Hilton, stay.

[Sam]

Your beds are soft and cozy. No lumpy couch, no stiff futon, no.

[Stephen Paul]

Shower line at crack of dawn.

[Zach]

Oh, Hilton, stay.

[Stephen Paul]

Oh Hilton, stay.

[Nordstrom Rack Announcer]

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[Zach]

This has been episode 893 of the One Piece podcast for November 17, 2025. Thanks first off to Ed who had to take off for coming on the show. Thanks to Sam and Ken who I believe have recorded their anime recap or are recording it as we speak or which you have heard already, so that's not. Anyway, you could check us out@one piece podcast.com patreon.com One Piece Podcast where you could get the alternate images and titles for this week's episode for $12 a month or more. You could also join our sticker of the month crew this month. Steve has up on a poll right now. It's. What was the title of that? I think it was ridiculous. Might have been the title of the one of Luffy in Gear five playing jump rope with Kaido like one of like a snake. Yeah, it's our like crew Discord image. Like for years. It's. It's an iconic Stever. And then there's Flamin Hot Kaido.

[Mike Patton]

And that's a funny one.

[Zach]

That's a funny one. It's just a funny one. So you can vote now on Patreon. Both good choices. Also our alternate art this week by Mike, which is excellent and worth the price of admission alone.

[Mike Patton]

Oh, thank you.

[Zach]

It is. Mike always draws like quantity wise, like around 10 more, which is great. Which I enjoy. I enjoy the sketch. I love to doodle a ton. I enjoy doodling or enjoy doodles. So yeah, please, please subscribe to us there. It helps us make more. It helps us pay and hire our artists. Writing. When we do any writing or reporting or anything else that we want to do as a site or podcast. Mike, where could people find you?

[Mike Patton]

Well, I think your best place to find me right now is if you want to see art, go to Instagram, patent pending. If you're on Blue Sky, I'm there patent pending at the Blue sky default stuff. If you want to see more art like this, check out Doman Stone, where I do most of the COVID art for that. They just hit the time skip. So I've been drawing a lot of post Time Skip designs on the Simpsons, which has been a lot of fun.

[Zach]

Yeah, the ones you've done recently are like, excellent, excellent. And we had Luke.

[Mike Patton]

Hey, thank you.

[Zach]

Yeah, yeah, the other day, I just.

[Mike Patton]

Got a chance to listen to that.

[Zach]

Yeah, yeah. I was trying to shout you out exclusively, but I appreciate it.

[Mike Patton]

I, I other artists.

[Zach]

Chris.

[Mike Patton]

Chris messaged me recently and was like, I forget the context, but Zach on the podcast said something about you in a balcony. It's like, oh, yeah, that makes sense.

[Zach]

I did.

[Mike Patton]

I guess so.

[Zach]

About.

[Mike Patton]

I'm behind on a lot of shows.

[Zach]

I don't even. Yeah, how dare you. While you're here, you listen to this one.

[Mike Patton]

Hey, I'm here.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, let's quiz Zach. What did he say, like two hours ago. He's not gonna remember.

[Zach]

That's if you ever turn the tables on me to do trivia. That should be the trivia. And I would fucking fail. Like, we always get people's.

[Mike Patton]

My nightmare.

[Zach]

Yeah, I know. And we get like, people on our discord and elsewhere, like, saying, oh, you said this on this episod. I'm like, I said what? It's like you recorded it like four hours ago. How do you not remember? Yeah, Steven, where could people find you?

[Stephen Paul]

I am over on blue sky at StevenPaul, BSky Social. And lots of cool stuff going on with the simulpubs that I'm working on. Obviously you all know One Piece.

[Zach]

I need to read the monthly series whose name I always forget.

[Stephen Paul]

Akane Banashi is in a real fun, like, dramatic spot. Lots of tension in the air, which is fun.

[Zach]

It got very anime. Like, it feels very anime rated in a.

[Stephen Paul]

In a good way. And I. I also recently found out we'd been off for a couple months, but I've been working on a trillion game, which some people may be familiar with that is actually wrapping up real soon. I worked on the penultimate chapter and there will be one more after that that. So that that story is almost done. And then my. I guess it's a bi weekly series now. Kurumizawa's Folly is getting, getting real good and dramatic as well. A lot, A lot of fun, like sort of not really mystery, but just lots of like thriller type tension in that about, you know, a guy trying to like sort of underhandedly have his manga ghostwritten by a much younger author. And lots of, lots of exciting twists and turns in that one. That's been fun to work on. So. Yeah, check those out. Oh, and also I guess I should point out since my. My editor blew my cover, but I hadn't really been talking about. It is now that VIZ is putting out Kingdom series which of course very popular based on Chinese history. I am not the main translator of Kingdom and I certainly would not want to be, but I did help out. I'm kind of like the understudy I guess when the. The main translator is not able to keep up with the schedule for. For whatever. Whatever reason. So I have done a couple volume upcoming volumes of Kingdom which you might look out for if you are a fan of that series. So just to. To let you know, you may see my name popping up there every now and then.

[Zach]

That's when I've been meaning that. And Vinland Saga and now the Folly. Those are my homework. Those are my Stephen Paul homework.

[Stephen Paul]

Okay.

[Zach]

I only read series that you translate, you know.

[Stephen Paul]

Okay.

[Zach]

Yotsuba One piece and the rest that we just need.

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, the ones that everyone loves like sword art online that nobody has ever.

[Zach]

How many times have I read that? Somewhere between 0 and 0 and 1. Yeah, you could check me [e-mail] on Bluesky. So I know Steve recorded these like eight months ago, but his latest Prozd plays games I am a cameo in, I guess technically because there's a. Some very deep one piece podcast lore that comes up on there, which we talked about when someone was last on. So for Stephen and Mike, I don't know if you were there or you remember, but it's when Steve and I appeared on television.

[Mike Patton]

Oh, I think about that all the time.

[Zach]

I think about it all the time too. Steve said there might be video out there of it and I wasn't able to find it. Incredible. But then I'm like, wait, we know someone who works at CNN may be able to get that. Do I want to pull those specific strings for that?

[Stephen Paul]

Yeah, let's get. Let's get Jose fired. Yeah.

[Zach]

To embarrass Steve Yurko and Zach. Yes, Zach.

[Mike Patton]

What were we. We were talking recently on Blue sky about that. I. I forget the context. There was some. Maybe it was. You're right.

[Stephen Paul]

You're right.

[Mike Patton]

Made the election.

[Zach]

Oh, it was like. I think it was a. Oh, yeah, yeah. You were. You made a good joke. You made one of those good jokes.

[Stephen Paul]

Like, he's good. Not to be.

[Ken]

Not to be confused.

[Mike Patton]

Yeah. With a good post that I made on March.

[Zach]

I could. I could pull it off because it was very funny.

[Mike Patton]

20, 25 or 27th, maybe.

[Stephen Paul]

This is good. This is our trivia segment, by the way.

[Zach]

This is after Mom.

[Mike Patton]

When did I make the good post?

[Zach]

Mom, Donnie won the election. What's this? Two weeks ago now? What's this? I thought Mike says to Steve, what's this? I think I see you and Zach on CNN right now. Steve sent the picture of him then my response was, oh, you're totally right. Here we are. Gotta love that iPhone 3G. It was actually an iPhone 4. And I apologize for that. That was a mistake. And you said, ah, sick. Zach's retro core now. I said, absolutely upset. I forgot my Nokia at home. I am typing this on a T9 keyboard right now. Which explained how I had no spelling errors. Those keyboards sucked. I, for one, hated blackberries, so that's why I didn't give them a shout out. Not the fruit, but the. The phone. For people who are under the age of. I don't even want to say what the age is. That'll do it for the One Piece podcast. We have a manga chapter next week, so you'll hear much less of this kind of talk. But until then, my name is Zach. See you, everyone. Bye. Bye, Sam.