Episode 914, “Wait, I Have A Backstory Too!”

Summary

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The One Piece Podcast

Episode 914: “Wait, I Have A Backstory Too!”
April 13, 2026

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Episode Overview

This week, the One Piece Podcast crew—led by Zach and featuring translator Steven Paul and archivist Ken O’Connor—deliver news, dive into the newly released One Piece Volume 114, and tackle Piece Together questions. The main focus is the God Valley flashback and the SBS (“Shitsumon o Boshū Suru,” or “I’m Taking Questions”) section, where Oda reveals long-awaited lore and fun reader questions, including Geoff Moria’s backstory and the fabled “Billy the Ripper.” This episode is full of genuine reactions, One Piece fandom news, and characteristically goofy banter.

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Key Topics & Discussion Points

1. Opening Banter & Fandom Talk

[00:00–05:43]

• Humorous promo for “K Pop Demon Hunters” and McDonald’s meals.
• Quick touch on past interviews and behind-the-scenes of the OP Live Action (OPLA) cast.
  • ”He was genuinely interested in wanting to be part of the fandom... just so cool.” — Ken [03:04]
• Patreon sticker poll: Lego Nami on Elbaf vs Give a hoot Luffy with a biblio.
  • Listeners encouraged to vote; Ken stores stickers “like collectible cards” for fear of losing them forever [04:58].

2. News Segment

[09:43–42:10]

a. Popeyes x One Piece Collaboration

• Collab only at six U.S. locations with collectible bento box
• General consensus: underwhelming, “lame,” but ripe for fan memes.
• “This is dumb” — Ken [13:04]; “Why could they only give this in six locations if that's all it is?” — Zach [14:32]

b. Anime Update: New Opening & Ending

• Opening feels more like an ending, ending like an opening—Steven, echoing Steve’s Discord take [16:05].
• “Visually it looks incredible… good subtle spoilers, just enough to reward manga fans but not ruin anything for anime-only” — Ken [18:22]
• “Just having fun on the ship is my favorite One Piece thing” — Zach [19:26]

c. One Piece LIVE ACTION (OPLA) News

• Season 3 title: “The Battle of Alabasta”—debate over wording (“of” vs “for”).
• Hopes and skepticism over Netflix’s future support past a few seasons despite PR hype [25:51].
• “Could I see this going four or five seasons? Yeah, I could. Could I see this going 12? No, I really don’t.” — Zach [26:26]

d. LEGO x One Piece Announcements

• Netflix LEGO One Piece special coming Sept. 29; new sets include Wapol’s castle (only a facade) and Garp’s ship “SS Ruff Ruff.”
• “The show’s getting too popular. We might be past the Popeyes thing—the Popeyes is the tipping point.” — Zach [32:14]
• LEGO “Unluckies” minifigs get a special shout-out.

e. One Piece Magazine Vol. 21 (“Heroines”)

• Release Sept. 4, Amazon Japan exclusive card bonus.
• Oda/Toei now differentiating between card/no-card editions after previous sell-out fiascos.
• Scalping and card collectibility is the new “Beanie Babies/401k” for the fandom [43:16].
• “It’s basically like the new NFTs... a market softness that people take advantage of.” — Steven [39:10]

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3. Manga Recap: Volume 114 – “The God Valley Incident”

[45:50–139:55]

a. Volume Structure

• Entire volume is the God Valley flashback; Luffy absent except for ads and inside cover.
• SBS and cover commentary: Stussy omitted from main cover (“forgotten” by Oda; added in the undercover art blowing a kiss) [49:02].
• Pandaman eagle-eyed sightings: two cameos in the cover illustration (one inside Prometheus’s flame, one in Wang Ji’s wine glass) [50:01].

b. SBS Corner Highlights

• SBS #1: Billy the Ripper [62:13]

  • Reader jokes about the person always tearing off wanted poster bounties—Oda introduces "Billy the Ripper," a weird stick figure destined for fan-favorite status.
  • “He’s got to look exactly like this.” — Ken [65:00]

• Roger’s Jolly Roger Udon Theory

  • Roger’s mustache on the crew’s flag: “Is that udon?” “Yes, that’s udon.” — Oda [67:58]

• Rocks’ Ship Name

  • The “Rocks Fury.” [70:46]

• Gekko Moria’s TRUE Backstory [101:42, 104:46]

  • Moria was washed up on Wano as a youth, warmly welcomed, given the Kozuki name, became attached, then lost to Kaido, fled, and was presumed dead.
  • “It’s just text on a page…not really changing how I actually feel about him.” — Steven [105:01]

• Shamrock/Shanks Clarification [78:45]

  • The man at Mariejois during Reverie (volume 90) was not Shanks, but his twin, Shamrock; in the anime, his line was still voiced by Shanks’ seiyuu due to manga confusion.
  • “That was Shamrock. ... Glad that’s cleared up.” — Zach [79:02]

• Yamato at 40 and 60 [89:11]

  • Two timelines: one “good” where Yamato is still waiting for Luffy “Come visit Wano someday” (age 40/60); one “bad” where Yamato takes the “I am Oden” meme too far and essentially dies in a boiling cauldron.
  • “Ken, you have to accept your love in all its flaws and potentially bad futures.” — Zach [95:01]

• Fruit Succession & General Zombies

  • Confirmed: Captain John, Ganzui, and Gil Bastar all previously had the Bomb Bomb, Magnet Magnet, and Horo Horo no Mi fruits, respectively, and are now zombies on Thriller Bark.

• Fun Details

  • Straw Hats’ party mini-games: Usopp’s quiz, Jinbei’s dice gambling, sumo contests, Jenga, arm wrestling, and “impression shows.” [116:35]
  • Denden Mushi care: Kept in Robin’s flower beds, Nami’s orchard, fed cabbage/lettuce, love being watered. [96:21–100:57]
  • Shanks's mother’s name: Magnolia [120:41]
  • Rocks D. Xebec’s sword: Eclipse [115:06]

c. Usopp Gallery Highlights [128:46]

• Stained glass Gear 4 Luffy art.
• “Sleep Tids” (giant nightmare monsters) as drawn by children—hilarious and adorable.
• Fanworks of character cookies, meme entries, and the perennial sadness of Chopper’s tear.

d. Final Reflections

• Recognition that, despite being a deep lore volume, Oda is “clearing house” of lingering mysteries in prep for story’s endgame [138:36].
• Anticipation for next volume’s cover (“gotta be a giant dragon”), fate of certain threads (Loki/Lola), and more.

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4. Piece Together Segment

[140:00–169:33]

a. Questions from Fans

• On channel rivalries: Sonata’s YouTube has more subs; crew debates the impact of “lewd content.”
• Emu’s motivation: The accelerator for intervening now (Vegapunk’s message, food shortages, other crises).
  • “The revolutionaries are really getting the upper hand.” — Zach [145:14]
• Chopper’s bounty and Emu: Joke theory that low-bounty Chopper was selected for the “Domi Reverse” because he was most easily manipulated [147:21].
• Emu’s gender and design: Discussion of Emu’s androgyny, devil motifs, and possible inspirations from Western (alchemical, demonic) mythology.
• Adaptation philosophy (Opla/Wit Studio): To retcon or not to retcon? Wit adaptation should stick as close to the manga as possible; Oda’s authorship is key [157:03].
• Blackbeard vs. Emu: Would Blackbeard’s powers negate Emu’s? Potential set-up for an “Achilles’ heel” confrontation [165:30].

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On the Popeyes collab:
  “This is dumb.” — Ken [13:04]
  “I apologize to everyone who works at Popeyes in those locations.” — Zach [12:50]

• On New Anime Opening/Ending:
  “The opening feels like an ending and the ending feels like an opening.” — Steven [16:05]

• On Netflix’s ambitions:
  “Could I see this going four or five seasons? Yeah, I could. Could I see this going 12? ... No, I really don’t.” — Zach [26:26]

• On One Piece collectibles: “It’s basically like the new NFTs.” — Steven [39:10] “The card game is too popular... it’s become our generation’s 401k.” — Zach [43:16]

• On SBS: Billy the Ripper “He’s got to look exactly like this.” — Ken [65:00]

• On Gekko Moria’s Backstory:
  “It’s just text on a page… not really changing how I actually feel about him.” — Steven [105:01]

• On Yamato’s Age Drawings:
  “Ken, you have to accept your love in all its flaws and potentially bad futures.” — Zach [95:01]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Segment | Start Time | |---------------------------------|-------------| | Opening & Banter | 00:00 | | Patreon Polls Talk | 04:16 | | News Segment | 09:43 | | Popeyes x One Piece | 09:55 | | Anime Opening/Ending Reaction | 16:05 | | OPLA / Netflix Future | 22:20 | | LEGO & Merch Updates | 29:50 | | Magazine Card Collectors | 36:33 | | Manga Recap Start | 45:50 | | SBS – Billy the Ripper | 62:13 | | SBS – Roger Flag/Udon | 67:54 | | SBS – Twin Shanks (Shamrock) | 78:45 | | SBS – Yamato at 40/60 | 89:11 | | Maria's Wano Backstory | 101:42 | | Usopp Gallery & Fanart | 128:46 | | Piece Together Segment | 140:00 | | Emu Discussion | 148:14 |

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Closing & Next Episode

• Shenanigans with bracket competitions (Ark Madness, “Glup Ship Beards”), invitation to join Discord and Patreon.
• Next week: Return to main story in chapter 1180. Golden Week is soon.
• “Until then, everyone… goodbye, Sam.” — Zach [178:19]

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Summary for Non-Listeners

This episode is essential if you love lore, SBS shenanigans, and the meta-fandom culture of One Piece. The team gives a full, honest, fan-first reaction to the new volume, tackling everything from meager fast food collabs to “who really was at Reverie” and Gekko Moria’s secret past. It’s part appreciation, part roast, part work therapy, full of the banter that’s made the One Piece Podcast a mainstay for over a decade.

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For fans who missed the episode: You’ll get everything you could want from Volume 114’s SBS, a masterclass in deep lore, all the news on collabs and merch, staff takes on anime/live action adaptation, and a healthy dose of that OP fandom spirit—plus “Billy the Ripper,” tailor-made for the memeverse.

Transcript

[Zach]

K Pop Demon Hunters, Saja Boy's Breakfast Meal and Hunt Trick's Meal have just dropped at McDonald's.

[Ken]

They're calling this a battle for the fans.

[Zach]

What do you say to that, Rumi? It's not a battle. So glad the Saja Boys could take breakfast and give our meal the rest of the day.

[Steven]

It is an honor to share.

[Ken]

No, it's our honor. It is our larger honor.

[Steven]

No, really, stop.

[Zach]

You can really feel the respect in this battle. Pick a meal to pick a side. Ba da ba ba ba. And participate in McDonald's while supplies last. Sam. This is the One Piece podcast episode 914 for the week of Monday, April 13, 2026. My name is Zach and on today's show we have very special guest translator for One Piece and weekly Shonen Jump and Manga. Plus Steven Paul is with us. How's it going, Steven?

[Steven]

It's good, it's good. We were talking about it before the show. I've had a long day. Had to get up early again because of my wife. My wife. But everything, everything's good. I got a lot of work to do as well. And I will be taking the reins for most of this episode, which we'll talk about in a minute. But yeah, it's been, it's been quite a day.

[Zach]

Yes, rest your voice, Steven. We have lots to talk about. And on here for his live reactions, we have our official archivist, Ken o'. Connor. How's it going, Ken?

[Ken]

I'm doing okay. I did not know what was in this SBS we'll be talking about today, but before the show I glanced at a couple images and I am not okay. So we will see how this unfolds.

[Zach]

Listeners, I want you to take what you know about Ken and extrapolate what you think is in the sense.

[Ken]

Yeah, what could I possibly be upset about of all these things?

[Zach]

And is it the episode image already? We don't know. We don't know that.

[Ken]

As we said today, if that's the episode image. Okay, nevermind. We'll get to it. We'll get to it.

[Zach]

We are a minute into this, so we have no idea. We have actually a ton of news. So we're going to do a dedicated segment to that in a moment. Before we do, please, as a reminder, subscribe to us on patreon.com One Piece Podcast. We have alternate images, alternate titles, ad free episodes, early releases for opla, which by the way, this is the week that our interview with Aura who sang the Am I Enough Tony. Tony Chopper. That theme for the live action One piece series that comes out this Wednesday. We just released the Rob Coletti interview, which I think, Ken, you said was your favorite so far.

[Ken]

That was my favorite one we've done so far. Just because Rob was so. I'll say laid back is not the right term, but he was so easygoing. He seemed genuinely interested in wanting to be part of the fandom and doing the convention circuit in the future. He wants to come back more and do more with waffle. He was just so cool. I thought all the behind the scenes was really good. And I think you and. And Alex did a really good job with that one.

[Zach]

Yeah, I was already like, at the beginnings of COVID with that one, I think. So I probably. You could tell in time. I progressed through the interview a little bit.

[Ken]

You let Alex take the wheel for most of that one, but Alex is a Big Apple enthusiast, so it was really good. I enjoyed that one a lot, actually.

[Zach]

I also just. Alex is great. And speaking of laid back, Alex has just this laid back Persona as well, so that's a great combo. And he was. He was, you know, doing a good job. I would rather other people take the wheel, so check all that out. The OPLA episodes. The video is available early and ahead of time. Early and ahead of time means the same thing on patreon.com One Piece podcast. Ken, did you have something else you want to say?

[Ken]

Yeah. And if you're part of the Patreon the sticker crew, the. The new poll is up for April. We have the Lego Nami on Elbaf as one choice versus the Give a hoot Luffy with a biblio in the background as the two sticker choices this month. So go vote on those polls on the Patreon.

[Zach]

What's the current standing? As we sit here this evening, Luffy

[Ken]

is actually winning 54% over the NAMI Lego, which I'm actually surprised I voted for the Nami Lego one myself.

[Zach]

But those are both great ones. I don't.

[Ken]

Oh, they're both excellent.

[Zach]

Yeah, yeah, that's. That's. I'm not. I'm not like a person who has stickers everywhere, though, so I don't. I can't put myself in that mentality.

[Ken]

I'm the same way where I have that fear of once I place a sticker, like, it's permanent, it's there forever. So I keep most of mine, like, in a big binder with, like, big, like, sleeves, like, okay, here's all the art in sticker form in a binder almost like collectible cards.

[Zach]

Yeah, this is exactly how I am. And I'll say one more thing on this tangent is like, when I get memorabilia, like food, like you get like a candy bar or something with like, you know, and it's like the one piece, blah, blah, blah. Like, I can't, I can't ruin this. I'm the same way, except it will rot because it's food. Anyway, this is. These are the struggles today on the One Piece podcast. Steven, what do you have for us?

[Steven]

Well, the manga is off and, yeah, I don't believe it or not, Oda didn't do his job this week. No. So, yeah, we're going to go over. Yeah, we're going to go. We're going to do our volume recap of volume 114, which is the latest one. Now, I know you know that this is, this is a month late. We never usually, like, say this, but it's worth pointing out that, yes, this, all this information, it gets leaked the second the leakers get it. And then, you know, like, when the volume, the day the volume comes out within 24 hours, all the SBS information is, like, up on the wiki and everything. So, you know, chances are there's probably a good percentage of our listeners who have already heard all of this stuff before, and there isn't necessarily going to be anything particularly new with the way that we cover it, but, you know, it's a fun way to react to it and, you know, have some fun with it.

[Zach]

Speak for yourself, Stephen, because Ken and I have no idea what's in this. I have the volume in front of me. I have not looked at the sbs except for that one thing that we just looked at right before we started. So, like, I, I save this for my Stephen. Sbs corners, whatever you want to call them, Stephen story time, I think is typically.

[Steven]

Yeah, so, but yeah, we'll, we'll go through it. I'll give you my version of the, of the text off the top of my head. And then it's Zach and Ken here will be like, I don't know if you've ever seen, if you ever watch those, like, downtown, like the gaki notes guy, you know, punishment games, all those Japanese comedy shows where, you know, it's a, it's a, you know, the, the guys, like, don't laugh or you'll get smacked or whatever, whenever they do those shows. And they're like, on us on a closed set. So it's not in front of a live audience. There's only like six crew members there with Them, and they're the ones who have to be the audience. And so, like you, you'll very quickly notice that, like, whenever something funny happens, there's just like six guys off to the side of the camera who are all going, like. Like, really loud just to. Just to make it sound like there's a live audience there. So that's what Zach and Ken will be doing.

[Zach]

There's. I feel like there's a lot of TV shows that are like that. They're, like, not filled and filmed in front of an audience, so you'll have, like, their staff. Laughs like, like, I was talking about Conan's podcast before. It's just like, four people in a room with them, and they're always like, you get the four people in the back.

[Ken]

Or they have this.

[Steven]

Well, I think Zoom 8. Yeah, Zoom 8. Whatever that was.

[Zach]

You know, I have a button for this. I don't remember which button it was. We could find out. No, that's funky music.

[Steven]

I was going to say. Is it going to play the funky music?

[Zach]

That's horn jazz. That's horn jazz.

[Steven]

Yeah, we're not hearing these either.

[Ken]

Yeah, we don't hear any of this,

[Zach]

but no, it's on. Zoom. It's on. I mean, it's coming out in the

[Ken]

main recorder in the audio. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

[Steven]

Okay.

[Zach]

Okay. All right, you got applause. I figured it out. Third one. Okay.

[Steven]

Figured out what the buttons are.

[Zach]

So we have. This went way longer than I thought. So we also have news. We have that recap of volume 114, and we have some pieced together. So why don't we get straight into it? Do it. There's no one like you and there never will be. From the producer.

[Steven]

Bohemian Rhapsody. There are many legends, but there is only One Michael. Rated PG13. In theaters April 24th.

[Zach]

This is our news segment, and we have a lot of it this week. What do you want to start with, Steven? What. What item piques your interest?

[Steven]

I mean, should we pick up where we left off last week? And is that where you start? The revealed details of this, you know, oft rumored Popeyes.

[Zach]

All rumored.

[Ken]

Yeah. That cupcake was a lot more varied than we thought.

[Steven]

Did it?

[Zach]

Okay.

[Steven]

I think we know less about the cupcake than we did last week.

[Zach]

And someone said also that the ad for this Popeyes one piece thing looked very aied. And I'm. Yes, it does.

[Steven]

It really does.

[Zach]

Looks extremely aied. Like, this is. I didn't even look at this closely before because it's like I'm not as much as I love fried chicken. I am not doing this. Which I'll explain later, I guess. Okay, I'll go. I'll read their AI IFIED thing. But with begrudgingly. The Popeyes one piece collaboration. April 13th exclusive collectible, whatever that might be. It's only one. Only one collectible. Boston, Chicago. Just the box, which is free with purchase. The box coming to Boston, Chicago, L.A. new Brunswick, New Jersey, New York City, and Miami. But I think just one place in each of those cities.

[Steven]

It's one location each. Yeah.

[Zach]

Which I think we might have. Oh, I have all the information. I'll go through it at the end of this.

[Ken]

I just love having this in this image. It's like Boston, Chicago, Louisiana. New Brunswick.

[Zach]

New Brunswick, New Jersey.

[Ken]

No one knows where that is.

[Zach]

New Brunswick. Isn't that where Anime. There's a con there. It's the one in New Jersey. It's not called Anime New Jersey.

[Ken]

That's not. That's not Anime Castle, is it?

[Zach]

No, no, no, no, no. That's a store, I think. Shit. I can't remember. I've been.

[Ken]

It doesn't matter.

[Zach]

I can't remember and it doesn't matter. That's right. Popeyes and One Piece have come together for more than just a delicious menu collaboration. A bounty of exclusive collectibles. Pop. Okay, whatever. They are being given away with the purchase of a Luffy's Bento Bundle. Blah, blah, blah. Doesn't say really anything interesting. It's available in Boston at 304 Squire Road, Reverie, Massachusetts, in Chicago, 621 Ogden Avenue in Downers Grove, Illinois, in LA at 7635. When that got you. In New Brunswick, New Jersey, at 571 Milltown Road in New York City, 1530 Broadway and Miami in 1427 Washington Avenue. So get in line. I apologize to everyone who works at Popeyes in those locations.

[Steven]

Yeah. Was that your version of the New York. Yeah. The Simpsons episode. Okay, I know exactly what you're doing. Yes.

[Zach]

It was always very funny to me that in the middle of the sentence it switches voices.

[Ken]

Okay, so this is dumb.

[Zach]

Yes. I think we could agree.

[Steven]

Yeah.

[Ken]

Like last week when we were talking about this, I was like, okay, it's a weird Popeyes collab. Like, I was on the fence as it was anyway. But sure, There's a Popeyes 15 minutes from me. I'll go there and check this out. Just for the sake of. Like, it's one piece. It's just. It's something to do kind of thing.

[Zach]

No, no. But it's not 15 minutes from you. It isn't 15 minutes, is it? Is this location 15 minutes?

[Ken]

No, there's a Popeyes 15 minutes from

[Zach]

me, but they won't have it at that. Popeyes. It's only in all six locations.

[Ken]

No, no, I get. No, that I understand. Now, here's the thing. I was going to go if it was 15 minutes from me, but it's not worth the drive out into the city for a single location.

[Zach]

What's our city?

[Ken]

Yeah. No, I'm not doing this now. But I wasn't supposed to do this when I thought it was everywhere.

[Zach]

Don't drive to the city, Ken. That's.

[Ken]

Yes.

[Zach]

Just a terrible idea.

[Ken]

I know, I know.

[Zach]

Okay. Just making sure. Yeah. Steven, I know you have thoughts.

[Steven]

Yeah, well, I'm just curious. Let's poll the fans. Like, how many collectible KFC buckets have you saved up over the years? This is why I. Yeah. I'm just. I cannot get past, like, the idea that it's, like, going to be a greasy, used, you know, paper receptacle, basically. And that's what people. That's what you're getting. That's what you're lining up for.

[Zach]

Why could they only give this in six locations if that's all it is? That seems very unnecessary.

[Steven]

Yeah.

[Ken]

I wonder if it's nicer than we think it is. Like, maybe it's actually. Actually like a wooden or plastic, like, composite bento box like that you get with the meal.

[Steven]

I mean, you would hope, right?

[Ken]

Yeah, exactly.

[Steven]

Yeah.

[Zach]

So this is on April 13th. And I've learned. Thanks to Adil, by the way, for posting all of this information on our Blue Sky. And I've learned from Blue sky, also the date. It's a Homestuck date. I'm going to really show my ignorance here.

[Steven]

Yeah, that's true.

[Zach]

So lots of conspiracy theories around that that I can neither confirm nor deny. I'll just spread the rumors around. But, yeah, they had. They had more advertising for something that looks. I'm going to just say lame than I would expect from Popeye. From anyone. I mean, there's not very much here is six locations is not very much. Anyway, we have, like, actual news. One piece. Like a lot of real news. But for more Popeyes discussion, we'll have a whole episode devoted to it, I'm sure.

[Ken]

It's real to me. Damn it.

[Zach]

You know, go ahead.

[Ken]

What else we got?

[Zach]

Zach, you've completely made me lose my train of thought. We have. Let's start with one piece. Anime stuff first new opening, new Ending. Steven just watched both.

[Steven]

Yes. I didn't watch. Yeah. Because of my aforementioned race in the morning. The thing that I had to get up in the morning for. I have not seen the episode. But I did watch the opening ending and I will. I will echo what Steve wrote in our Discord, which is the opening feels like an ending and the ending feels like an opening, which I absolutely agree with. But they both seemed pretty great. I like them both.

[Zach]

I disagree with that take, but I just. I just very much. I think both fit. Like, I think one is an opening and one is an ending. Like I personally, it is definitely mellower than I feel like some of them in a way. But it feels appropriate, especially for the first half of Elbaf, which I assume this is covering.

[Steven]

Probably.

[Zach]

Yeah. And gave some really good. I don't know if I even want to call them spoilers because if you're watching you're not gonna really realize what they are. Particularly I'll say with. Was it chapter 1138, the two page thing. There's some really cool little hints throughout the opening in particular for that. I won't say more about that, but I thought that was very. It was a beautiful looking opening. The song was good. The ending. My description of it was. It felt like. I think Steve likened it to like Dreamship or like that era. I was thinking around like the Shining Ray, kind of the ones with like Robin looking up at the sky and reading because that's what she was known for doing at the time. That's. That's what the ending theme reminded me of. I loved it. It felt extremely nostalgic. Is it going to be one of my favorites? Probably not. But it's. I think in this post wano era for openings and endings, these were all excellent. I have no qualms. They'll probably be in the higher. Certainly the top half of openings for me. But at that said, it's also not going to be, you know, probably like a top five or something. But it's nice, it's cute, it's cool for both. Ken, did you have thoughts?

[Ken]

Visually it looks incredible and I thought that even the more spoilery aspects went by so quickly that if you're an anime only watcher, you're not going to really notice or look for what is there. But they showed some characters and some details. Very, very subtle at points. Which I thought was nice if you know what it is. But at the same time doesn't outright give things away like some of the openings have in the past. Ending. The ending Song. I kind of get what Steve was saying about them being swapped more so the. The energy of the song than the visuals. But the ending song is great too. I like the. The giant bird in the ending sequence.

[Zach]

It reminded me of another song and I could not put my finger on it, but it is. It does feel very. Am I the only one who thinks that's absolutely.

[Ken]

Absolutely.

[Zach]

Like a Naruto opening? Like that kind of like a. Yeah, I don't know what it is.

[Ken]

It hits a point where the music kind of like speeds up, the tempo increases a little bit. It's like. It's a little more fun. It's like, all right, this is more of an ending than a serious opening. But it does remind me of the old opening. So. Yeah, it's good.

[Zach]

Yeah, it, like. It has bursts of Hikari A and like that kind of thing where it's just like we're just having fun on the ship, which is what all openings ending. I know. That's like my favorite One Piece thing is just when they're hanging out on the ship and having fun. So more of that.

[Ken]

But again, just both visually beautiful. There's some stuff with the new giant pirates as kids. Sketchy in the opening. I was taken aback by that. There's in section where I think most, if not all the straw hats are falling. I guess it's from the tree. And just a very fun sequence of, oh, anime characters fall, falling. Like, it's a very cliche thing, but it looked so cool.

[Steven]

Yeah, they did the. They did the homage to the one color spread where it's like they're. Everybody's getting the character that they love as a little plushie from like a crane game sort of thing, which works for the giants.

[Zach]

So it's like.

[Steven]

Right, right, right, exactly. It's like the doll thing. And so they have like, the. The straw hat versions of those in their Elbaf outfits and stuff. It's very cute. Um, very nice. I would say. I would say overall, like, the. It's maybe not artistically on the level of us in terms of just like, the amount of stuff they're doing, but it did remind me a bit of that, like, where it was a pretty ambitious opening in terms of, like, blending a lot of different things together in a way that was still cool and you could tell kind of what they were doing each time.

[Zach]

Yeah, I think us, for some people was almost like, too frenetic. This feels like a good middle ground. Almost like it's. It's like a slower version of that and it's just gorgeous looking. This one. Yeah. Look, I'm not one of those people, but there are. I have heard those. Yeah, I've heard of those people existing. And I'm just, you know, saying I don't want them to feel like, you know, they're crazy. I've lost the thread, you know. No, it's a gorgeous opening and I'm. I'm looking forward. I'm looking forward to watching it many more times. I'll say. I'm going to try not to get on this tangent too much, but I've just. Like I was saying before on our Discord Home, like, actually watching anime this season, like, so this is my fourth, I think. So I'm watching a kind of Banashi. I'm watching Demons of the Shadow Realm, which is excellent. And I'm watching Witch Hat at. And One Piece. Yeah. And I think the problem is. So that this is related. The openings and endings for all of those are astounding. Akana Banashi. The songs are astounding. And the visuals are closer. They're. They're not quite as. So, like, I feel just so spoiled.

[Steven]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Especially Witch Hat, which Hat is a very good opening. Like, reminiscent of like, Delicious and Dungeon, that sort of thing. So, yeah, I got to give some distance to this too, because I feel like I'm just comparing and that's not really what I should be doing necessarily. We have more news and it's OPLA related. So the One Piece Live Action announced its third season a while ago. But the name of the third season is Drumroll. Someone drumroll. You're doing that with your tongue. One Piece. The Battle of Alabasta. Ken, can you summarize my thoughts for me?

[Ken]

Why is it of and not for? Why is it the drop the. The. It's cleaner. Alabasta.

[Zach]

You know what? You're right. You're right. That's true. Like, I appreciate what they're doing, but you're right. Not only is it like, yeah, why the. You're right. That doesn't make sense. Battle. Even Battle of Alabasta, I think would be better. Better now that I'm like, reading sounds

[Ken]

slightly better, but Battle for Alabaster.

[Zach]

Yeah, well, it's. I. It also sounds more personal. That was the reason I'm like a big promote proponent of using for instead of of this.

[Ken]

This sounds like if you were to teach it, like in a college, like if it's an actual event. Ah, yes. The Battle of Alabasta. When Young Monkey D. Luffy came and freed the Country. Like, it sounds like old and more

[Zach]

grand than it actually is this your Civil War teacher?

[Ken]

Yes, exactly.

[Zach]

Whatever that is. Yeah, I. I think especially just given, like, the role of Vivi, not even spoiling anything for those who haven't seen or watched Alabasta, but, like, it is a. Obviously a much more personal struggle, so it feels like it should have a much more personal title, but I don't know. Stevenson, your battle was the Battle of

[Steven]

Alabasta in A, 1514, B, 1532 C. Yeah.

[Zach]

Do we know the answer to that? I forget the year. Which. Which calendar are you using?

[Ken]

See that? That was a bad war because brother fought against brother until Vivi said stop.

[Zach]

It's coming in 2027. I think that's the first time we got. I'm gonna say a date confirmation. Even though that's not this year, by the way, Ken, that's next year. Okay?

[Steven]

He knows how numbers work.

[Ken]

That's when you start throwing in words and letters. I start getting a little woozy.

[Steven]

Those are complicated.

[Zach]

You were right about oven 4, right? I agree with you.

[Ken]

I'm right about many things, including months.

[Zach]

We'll see. Yeah. But I am excited for it. Like, unrelated news, there's been. IGN posted an article with the. With the showrunner, the current showrunner of One Piece, and it was also reported in Gizmodo and I think a few others that. And I've been seeing a lot of the YouTube clickbaity kind of articles. Like, they plan on going forever with the One piece series and 20 seasons.

[Ken]

At least.

[Zach]

Least like, good for them if they do that. But I think we've actually. I don't remember when, but I. I feel like we have heard that they're like, okay, we have a plan if it's going to get to this and if it gets to this. But, yeah, yeah, that's really optimistic. I. It's just I. Even the. The articles I've read are like, Netflix is known for loving to cancel shows after, like, three seasons. Like, could I see this going four or five seasons? Yeah, I could. Could I see this going 12? Like, they're saying, no, I really don't.

[Steven]

Yeah, I mean, yeah, they. They definitely have like a sort of, like. I don't know if benchmark is right, but they have like a sort of a. Of a floor of, like, investment that they will do in their, like, scripted shows. And that does not, you know, that absolutely does not guarantee that you will get more than one or. Or two seasons. But they clearly have been investing heavily in One piece. And it seems like that's paying off for them. So, you know, if they do end up cutting it unceremoniously short, I feel like it's just going to be because they're like, oh, this is just way too expensive for, for, you know, the. What we need to. To do it justice. And, and so it, it's not. I don't think it'll be because of a lack of interest. I think it'll be because of, like trying to, to make it fit in the budget or something that causes them to cut it off. But it does seem like in terms of what they're getting out of seems like it's going well.

[Ken]

Season two did very well. I think. I read somewhere that it outperformed the initial week of season one in terms of the streaming and the views. So if Netflix is happy with this, I see no reason why they can't keep pushing going forward. Like, after Alabaster, you would assume the next season would be Jaya Skypiea. If they split that four and four.

[Steven]

Yeah. And, and I don't know, I don't know. Like, like, you know, all of these extra deals that they make with these other companies. Like, I don't know how much Netflix gets a piece of that, but I'm sure that that probably plays a part in like, the marketability of it. Like, like regardless of what the streaming numbers themselves are, like, if they're doing lots of cross promotional stuff.

[Ken]

Yeah, this Popeyes thing is going to be huge for them.

[Steven]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true. They're going to sell a couple thousand of those,

[Zach]

apparently one piece. So I'm looking at Wikipedia at least for like, a little more guidance as to, like, how what Netflix series look like generally in terms of time. Even though I think we all kind of know One Piece is among only four in the family and kids category, which includes also Blippi, who's awful and Please, can't. Can't. Avatar the Last Airbender, which is gonna have a second season. Geek Girl I've never seen, but also renewed. But that and Blippi are the highest. They have the most episodes.

[Ken]

I'm fortunate.

[Steven]

Yeah, well, Blippi doesn't even say shit, so.

[Zach]

Oh, he might merely. We're best.

[Ken]

Yeah, well, depends on which Blippi you're talking to.

[Zach]

No, it's just one guy.

[Ken]

No, there's. Wait, you don't know. I never. Played. Yeah, never mind. We'll keep going.

[Zach]

Okay. Whatever. That guy is rich. I have no, I have no qualms saying that. I can't stand him. The comedy ends have their. Emily in Paris was the most at five seasons. The drama end seven seasons. Virgin river, which I just know is trashy but maybe addicting. I don't know. Yeah, so I. Who the hell knows is the answer. But I think this is stuff that's currently running though. I was trying to see like what's the most of things that have already finished. So I'm not sure but I'm sure someone out there already knows and is yelling it at their headphones right now. But that's not how podcasts work. You can't yell at headphones and tell me the correct answer. More news though. And Netflix related to. There is a Lego One Piece special coming out September 29th. This is probably in my opinion the most out of nowhere big news I guess we have of this segment. So we're not doing this in any sort of order, obviously. Did you guys have thoughts on what you saw and just generally when you heard this?

[Steven]

Oh, you're talking about the special. I thought you were talking about the.

[Ken]

The line of the Legos themselves.

[Steven]

Yeah, that's just. That's just more of the same. But yeah, you're talking about the special. The Lego One Piece. Yes. Netflix special, like a la LEGO Star wars or whatever. Except they've done.

[Zach]

Yeah, it's probably a short. Did they say how long it was or anything? I don't think they did.

[Steven]

Yeah, I don't. I don't know. I mean, I know that like Disney plus has a bunch of little LEGO things like that where they're like, you know, five minutes long or something.

[Zach]

I feel like they must be easy to produce because I feel like there's a ton of them. But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm wrong. I don't know.

[Ken]

I feel like once they get the rigging of any LEGO figure, it's easy to just replicate that with a different skin on it over and over again.

[Steven]

Right. Because they all, they, they all kind of animate the same way with those.

[Ken]

Yeah. Kind of going back, they follow LEGO rules in terms of like physics and movement.

[Zach]

But did you guys have any thoughts on what you did see? There was a trailer that came out and stuff.

[Steven]

I just looked at the pictures. I did not watch the trailer.

[Zach]

Oh, okay. Well, I mean, I could forward that your guys way too. We don't have to talk about this.

[Ken]

I have nothing crazy to think about except like we're in a day and age where one is getting a LEGO cartoon. You would never have seen this 15 years ago. It's kind of crazy how far it's spreading.

[Zach]

I say that all the time. I'm going to say I'm almost to the point where I'm going to say Brian Newton's favorite line. The show's getting too popular.

[Steven]

I was just thinking that last night. I was like, what was. Brian always say, this show's too damn popular.

[Zach]

We're almost there. We might be past the Popeyes thing.

[Ken]

The Popeyes is the tipping point.

[Zach]

The Popeyes might be the tipping point.

[Steven]

That was the last draw.

[Zach]

The Lego is on the good end of it. If you're weighing it, like, that's. I think that's cool. And I'm looking forward to watching it with Japanese. In Japanese specifically.

[Steven]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Yeah. Because then it's basically like an anime special. Except there are also Legos, which I think is great. I would watch a whole series on that.

[Ken]

It's just Elbaf all over again.

[Zach]

Yes. And that today's. This week's episode also had a lot of that. Which, by the way, Sam has been putting. They're trying to do like an anime recap, like marathon. So we will get there. I've been watching them and I've been very much enjoying what I'm seeing. And everyone loves Lego, so I think that's good news all around. A lot of good cross promotional stuff happening here. There.

[Ken]

Did you see the. All the Lego figures? They announced that coming out in August or.

[Zach]

I saw Adil posted a lot on our blue sky.

[Ken]

I want them so badly. But like for the price they are and what they actually like. The Waffle Castle one looked really cool because, like, it had a bunch of minifigs and whatnot. But then I realized that the castle, it's only the facade of the castle. It's like someone took the castle and like cut off the front.

[Zach]

Yeah, but it's. Of course.

[Ken]

I know, but I want like, I want like a big. For that price, I want like a big castle kind of thing, not just a storefront.

[Zach]

I'll say. What's fun about that is that the promo for that is of like the anime version where they're fighting outside in the snow.

[Ken]

Yes.

[Zach]

Which I do kind of wish they did. That was maybe my biggest disappointment, which is not a huge complaint, I guess, but that's my, like, biggest disappointment. Because fighting in the snow is always fun.

[Ken]

I think with the way they limited Waffle's powers in the live action, like putting it in a closed area made it more. It raised the stakes a little bit more. I feel like doing that outside wouldn't have felt as like it wouldn't have gone for the feeling they were trying to capture, considering they couldn't do Apple's full power set.

[Zach]

I want to talk to folks like Aiden Scott again though. The fact that they have a LEGO figure of themselves now has got to be pretty surreal. Oh yeah, that's probably the one I'd get though is the SS Ruff Ruff. The Garps ship. That's what we named it. That's not the official name.

[Steven]

You know, another. Another casualty of that could have been an amazing LEGO set since they didn't really do the like Crocus lives inside laboon would be to have like with the two halves that you like pull apart on the hinges or whatever to see the diorama. So cool.

[Ken]

Official hot dog.

[Zach]

The writers. The writers were probably pretty happy with their decision until they just heard you say that.

[Steven]

Yeah.

[Zach]

And now they're like, it could have been a really cool LEGO set.

[Steven]

Now they realize, get Johnson in here right now.

[Zach]

I do kind of hope that they have LEGO sets of like the manga or anime, but I. At some point.

[Steven]

Yeah, maybe.

[Zach]

I guess it's possible. I shouldn't never say never, I guess.

[Steven]

But yeah, you can never count LEGO out in terms of like expanding to fill. Yes. The known universe with every possible.

[Ken]

They get their fingers into everything eventually.

[Steven]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Oh, I'll say the unluckies that I might have to get. I forgot that. That because they have a Dorian Brogy thing. I might have to get that because just having the unluckies is pretty amazing in LEGO form. That's amazing. Yeah, that's. There's not a lot of unluckies merch out there. I'll say that. I know that.

[Ken]

I think people ever get a LEGO One Piece video game like the Star wars ones.

[Zach]

I would get that.

[Steven]

I would love that.

[Ken]

That would be really good. Right?

[Steven]

I mean for me it was already like kind of a dream come true when they did the Kaizoku Mus.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Steven]

Pirate warriors games. So yeah, that would be. That would be like the next best thing, I think.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Ken]

I'd buy it.

[Zach]

I would. I would 100% get that. That sounds fun. Also, this is. This is the way I would introduce my kids to the series legos.

[Ken]

Yeah.

[Zach]

That's a good way of doing it. That's how you do it. That's, I think, the best conduit. There's one more piece of news and then one other thing I want to talk about, and that is that volume 21 of the One Piece magazine is coming out September four entitled Heroines, I believe. And I think the thing that all of us immediately noticed. Stephen, YouTube. Would you like to do the honors?

[Steven]

Sure. Yeah. I think they noticed what happened last time with the, with the card pack in because they now have announced that there's going to be like this. There's going to be two SKUs on this. There's going to be one that comes with the card and one that does not come with the card. And apparently the card version is going to be like exclusive to Amazon Japan or something. Or like, like you need to order it.

[Zach]

You.

[Steven]

You did get that one?

[Zach]

I got it if you need an extra. Cool.

[Steven]

Yeah, it's. It's on Amazon Japan right now. I mean, I saw the link and then I tried to search for it, like just using the search bar and I did not get the result. But then the link still works. So that was a little suspicious.

[Zach]

I would have already purchased it through that because that's usually where I get my stuff. So, you know, they, they stole from us. So I'm gonna take their card. I'm not gonna do anything with it. It's just gonna sit in its original packaging and I'm never gonna touch it. Ever gonna rip it up. You're not gonna get it. Yeah, maybe I should rip.

[Steven]

Yeah, so. So, yeah, but the, the one that is live now apparently is for the. Is for the version with the card. And then they said that later, closer to release, they will have a normal, you know, non card, you know, page on Amazon to get that, you know, the, the regular one. I don't know if that's going to have a different price or anything. Probably a slightly different price, if I had to guess. But yeah, it's. It's a ridiculous situation. But at least they're doing something to, to facilitate, you know, easier access to it.

[Zach]

But I was saying to Ken and others that like, I kind of wish I could have collected this. These things. And like, even if I'm not playing the game, it would have been fun, I think, but it's like so beyond now. It's just absolutely insane where I like, oh, there was a red. Wasn't there a Red Bull crossover this week too with the One Piece card game? I remember seeing that. Yeah, the show's getting too. Actually the card game is getting too popular.

[Steven]

Yes. Well, that, yeah, that, that's the thing too is. And because this is something that I think anyone who, it lives in this space can, can tell you is that there's something about, like, the way that the economy works right now, that anything that is, like, collectible or limited, like that, it's. It's basically like the new NFTs. Like, it's just a thing that people snap up to flip it for a higher value because there's a lot of demand, and they're not necessarily making that many of them. And. And so that's just like, you know, it's like a market. A market softness that people take advantage of. So they go out and that's what they do with the Pokemon cards and all these other things. And there is a demand for them. So, like, they know that people will pay more than the, you know, the sticker price for these things. And so it's just people that. But all they do is they just swoop in and scoop this stuff up and scalp it.

[Ken]

I'm just worried about the future because the last card, the image on the card was the COVID of volume one of the magazine. And this new magazine has a promo card for the COVID Volume two. So if the pattern repeats, we have eight more of these with cards or no card variants for a while. Because it was the first nine magazines that had the special Luffy Oda.

[Steven]

Yeah,

[Ken]

it'd be great to. It'd be great to have all nine cards. Like, that'd be. That would look great to have all nine of those promo cards, those magazines, because those covers are beautiful.

[Steven]

Yeah, they've done. They've done a lot of merch of those, like, with the color coordination and stuff, because it's like red, blue, yellow, all that stuff. It looks really nice.

[Ken]

Yeah. I couldn't get the last magazine through normal means. I had to buy it on ebay with the person, like, Exacto knifed the card out of the magazine. So the magazine was in perfect condition and with shipping and handling, it was only $12 to get the magazine with no card in it. So I wonder if they saw that and like, all right, we're losing.

[Zach]

I think we're losing sales. Yeah, I think they figured it out. And, yeah, it was the Red Bull Double dawn, which happened already. It was on April 11th in Milwaukee. Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

[Ken]

You're on the air.

[Zach]

Just going into Larry King. Really crazy. The. The card game is too popular. I stand by that. Like, it's cool. Yes. And we're gonna have an episode of this podcast devoted to the card game and to talk about it in the future. But this is not that week. The. The volume itself is on heroines, not the drug, but the series. Yeah.

[Steven]

Presumably yeah, it will be. Because that. I think it comes out in September, right? The magazine. So.

[Zach]

Yeah, the fourth. Yeah.

[Steven]

Yeah. So it'll be after the heroines. You know, Ova is out, so maybe they're gonna.

[Zach]

July.

[Steven]

Is that July? Yeah.

[Ken]

Perfect.

[Steven]

So something to look forward to.

[Zach]

That's all really exciting stuff. Except the Popeyes thing and the way

[Ken]

first it was a Popeyes card. That'd be something.

[Zach]

Okay, that's now. Now you've peaked by.

[Steven]

No.

[Ken]

Could you imagine six locations giving out cards that like everyone across the country would swarm.

[Zach]

That's literally what happened to Rick and Morty back in whatever year.

[Steven]

Yeah. They would need it to be like when they sold the Switch 2 at Best Buy and they, they had like armed security guards. They're gonna be watching over the cards with their guns drawn because people are gonna come by in their trucks to steal them.

[Zach]

There was that. There was actually like a robbery of those cards and like a baseball game or something in like New Jersey somewhere.

[Steven]

Maybe something. Right.

[Zach]

It's possible it was New Brunswick. I don't know.

[Ken]

I think I saw videos online of people outside the. The basketball game, like giving $100 per card for people who didn't want the Ridiculous. Just absolutely ridiculous. Yeah, just.

[Zach]

Just give them. No. Oh. What I was going to say to end this discussion off is the thing is it's become our generations 401k. Like that's how you invest for the future. Is buying one piece cards. Is it really apocalyptic to think about? Yes, absolutely. But is it the coolest apocalypse you could think of? Maybe. Maybe, Maybe.

[Steven]

Yeah. No, that's the thing. It's. It's part of it is that the desirability and the, the, the. The people who have money who really want this stuff. And the other, the other part of it is like the desperation that there's just no better options to. To make money these days, apparently. And that's, you know, what is it

[Zach]

one of those signs of a recession? I guess.

[Steven]

Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

[Zach]

Yeah. Beanie Babies were those. Both of that was during the 90s, right?

[Steven]

That was the 90s. Yeah.

[Zach]

Going okay. That's what. That was my 401k when I was a kid and boy, did it not work out at all, I think. Which is better than I would have thought. But not good stuff at the divorce.

[Steven]

The Beanie Baby divorce. You don't remember that?

[Zach]

No, I don't. With that. Stephen, are you ready to talk about volume 114?

[Steven]

All right. If we have to.

[Zach]

Okay. Let's take a more Popeyes. After this, you tell yourself no one

[Steven]

wants your college era band tees.

[Zach]

But on Depop, people are searching for exactly what you've got. You once paid a small fortune for

[Steven]

them at merch stands. Now a teenager who calls them vintage

[Zach]

will offer that same small fortune back.

[Steven]

Sell them easily on Depop.

[Zach]

Just snap a few photos and we'll take care of the rest. Who knew your questionable music taste would be a money making machine? Your style can make you cash. Start selling on Depop where taste recognizes taste.

[Steven]

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[Zach]

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[Steven]

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[Ken]

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[Steven]

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[Zach]

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[Steven]

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[Zach]

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[Steven]

Start filing today in the Credit Karma app.

[Zach]

This is the manga recap for volume 114, the God Valley incident. You could get this volume where you get your imports in Japanese. It'll be out, I think probably a year from now in English. That's usually the time.

[Steven]

That's usually the timeline.

[Zach]

I think we're like. I think 113 is coming out in like July, right? Or something like that.

[Steven]

It's always. It's always misleading because Viz will like put up the. The COVID images like way ahead. It'll be like nine months ahead of time. So you're like, oh, it's coming out. And then you actually read the. And you're like oh, it's like, I

[Zach]

hate when I see things pre orders like in a year. And I'm like, why do you do this to me? The hope. The only one I'm happy about is a witch and Mongol. Which I just didn't know if it was going to continue or not. So I'm happy to see it. It that series comes out in July. Let's talk about volume 114 here. Where's Luffy? On my cover.

[Steven]

Where's Luffy Indeed. Yeah, he's on the. Yeah, he's in the. Yeah, he's on the ad inside the. The COVID flap.

[Zach]

He's not really in the volume at all.

[Steven]

Only in the Japanese. Yes. Monkey D Not appearing in this volume.

[Zach]

Is this the first all flashback volume that we've ever had, Right?

[Ken]

Yes.

[Steven]

Yes, that's true.

[Ken]

Wow.

[Zach]

Wow. What a moment.

[Ken]

Missing D Luffy Missing.

[Steven]

Yes. Because the. The. The. The Wano Flashback. The Odin Flashback was well over a volume long, but it was Split. It was like eight chapters in one volume and eight chapters in another volume. So this one is all 10. 11. 11 chapters.

[Zach]

I can't believe the Odin one wasn't. Yeah, that's crazy.

[Steven]

That's just how. How it worked out. And yeah, we did talk about this. This cover when it was revealed. I don't. I don't remember if Ken was on for that one necessarily, but y. The. The rocks pirate. This is the. Not the reunion photo, but like the class photo that they took with everybody posing here. And. Yeah. No straw hats

[Zach]

because they weren't alive yet. I'm still annoyed that. What's his. Can't even remember his name.

[Steven]

The fish guy.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Steven]

What's his name?

[Zach]

His face just being completely covered, like, not even trying there.

[Ken]

Oh, in the top right.

[Steven]

Top right. Yeah.

[Zach]

What's his name?

[Steven]

I guess it's appropriate that we also don't give him the respect to remember his name.

[Zach]

I mean. I mean, Right?

[Ken]

That's a. Isn't that Barbell?

[Zach]

Yeah, I was gonna say sort of

[Steven]

with a B. Yeah, I was gonna

[Zach]

say Barbo or something.

[Steven]

Barbo. Yeah. Why not?

[Ken]

Yeah, that was Barbell.

[Steven]

I think it is Barbell. Yeah. I think. I think that's how I wrote it.

[Zach]

I should probably have the rocks pirates list up here just because.

[Steven]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Come in handy. And we talked about. I'm going to try and this is going to be a good segue. I think I know what's under this cover. So we're missing a character on the front, right?

[Steven]

Yes, that's right. We were missing miss Buckingham Stussy who was bafflingly absent. And apparently Oda realizes mistake. Or maybe the editor noticed the mistake because on the Undercover, they superimposed. Like, they removed the. They removed the straw hat skull from the O in the one piece logo. And they just have a little illustration of Stussy with her cowboy hat. And she's. She's doing the Looney Tunes. The Porky Pig. Yeah. Or her version of the, you know, the MGM roar or whatever. Yeah.

[Zach]

Oh, I like that she's blowing a

[Steven]

kiss in, you know, her. Her coquettish fashion, which is. It's nice that she appears there, but. Yeah. It does not, you know, necessarily positive that Oda forgot. Yes. 100.

[Ken]

It's a great way of fixing it, though.

[Zach]

It is.

[Steven]

Yeah. Like, oops, we can't. We can't add her. You know, Oda was like, no, I can't. Like, I would have to redo the composition.

[Zach]

Did I remember Prometheus? Yes. Did I remember Stussy. No, I did not.

[Steven]

No. Yeah, yeah.

[Ken]

Priorities.

[Steven]

Yeah. Yeah. She didn't appear, but he did remember to draw Panda Man. Not once.

[Zach]

Oh, this is twice.

[Ken]

Oh, wait, is he here?

[Zach]

He's here.

[Steven]

Although, yeah, it's probably hard for. For Ken to see because it is very strong.

[Zach]

I could try showing on mine, but.

[Steven]

Yeah, that's okay.

[Ken]

So I'm zooming in on here.

[Zach]

I find the second I found. Oh, I found the second I remember. Yeah.

[Steven]

Yes. One of them is burning up inside Prometheus.

[Ken]

I see that one.

[Steven]

Yeah. And you can see he's got the. The tiny little ear dots to identify that it is, in fact Panda man and not. Not some other special character.

[Zach]

I hate to ask. Is that his penis?

[Ken]

What?

[Steven]

Why not?

[Zach]

Look at it closely, Ken.

[Steven]

No, no, it's not. Actually. There's. It's the little. It's like the flicker in Prometheus's flame. But Zach's a dirty joke.

[Ken]

No, I don't.

[Zach]

On the segment. How dare we.

[Steven]

But we also have a bit of recursion, some recursive humor here, because inside the glass that Wang Xi is holding, he's got a glass of wine. And inside the wine glass, Panda man is soaking, and he is holding up a super tiny little wine glass himself with his own toast.

[Ken]

And in that wine glass is a smaller Panda Man.

[Zach]

Yeah, that's the Matryska man all the way down. Yeah. Spider man all the way down.

[Steven]

Yeah. The Pendry Oshka dolls.

[Zach]

The Pendry Oshka dolls. Okay, I know we've done that joke already, but still. Good. Yeah, I'm done.

[Steven]

Yeah.

[Zach]

I. I think of under. I don't. What do we call these Undercovers?

[Steven]

It's called the Undercover. Yeah.

[Zach]

Yeah. I think this is probably one of my top ones in a while. Like. Of like, improving or making humorous things too.

[Steven]

Right. The fact that st on there in the way that she is does make this very funny. Even if it is, like, kind of like poking fun at Oda. The fact that he forgot.

[Ken]

But I would almost love if it was like a sticker they had to add on, like, afterwards. Like a little sussy sticker put in the.

[Zach]

I gotta say, I like it. The Panda man in the wine glass holding up his own wine glass is just that chef's kiss. That's probably one of my favorite panda mans we've had in quite some time. Time. So that's great.

[Ken]

Same.

[Zach]

And no one's face got replaced by Panda man this time, huh? Maybe next time.

[Steven]

Yeah.

[Ken]

No.

[Steven]

No facial replacements.

[Zach]

Yeah. What's our comment though this week.

[Steven]

Our comment. So we have, yes, we have a, an illustration of a little like wind up robot doll with the, you know, with the bender clampers and it says Robo on his face and he's, he's doing a little jig there. And Otis comment is, well, you know, we humans, we love to do that. Do the robot and you're doing the little herky jerk thing. And before you knew it, now the robots are moving more smoothly than humans do. So Next Episode Preview the robots have come up with their own human dance to make fun of how unstable we are with our movements. They're totally taking it out on us. God damn it. Okay, volume 114 begins. So yeah, I guess he's been, he's been watching all the, you know, the Boston Dynamics videos, I'm sure of the weird, weird walking robots.

[Zach]

I, I think we've made this. He's definitely watching just random YouTube videos.

[Steven]

Oh yeah, yeah.

[Zach]

There's no doubt in my mind.

[Steven]

So fathom the diet of Internet videos he's watching.

[Zach]

Yeah. I think the good news is he does probably stay away from one piece related ones pretty well. I mean he says he does, I believe.

[Steven]

Yeah, I think so.

[Zach]

Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

[Steven]

And then we have a cool for the inside cover.

[Zach]

Hey, there's Luffy.

[Steven]

Yeah, there he is. We found him.

[Zach]

That's the shonen jump cover, right? From a few months ago, presumably.

[Steven]

Yeah.

[Ken]

Yes. Yeah.

[Steven]

I rarely remember where these come from, but I'm always like that looks familiar. And yeah, he's got the slices of rocks. Roger. I was like, is Ace. No. Roger and Garp in their younger days as they appear in this flashback.

[Zach]

This was I think the first time we saw his color scheme ironically here in black and white. Yeah.

[Steven]

Yeah, you may be right about that.

[Zach]

Yeah. He wouldn't have had long ago.

[Steven]

Right. He wouldn't have had many opportunities to draw him in color.

[Zach]

He definitely took those opportunities. I'll put it.

[Steven]

Yes. Yeah. And then yeah, we have the. We'll skip past all the character profiles since that is all.

[Zach]

They've gotten much bigger, I will say over the last few years. Like they have. They're like a six page ordeal now or something.

[Steven]

Yeah, this one is four pages but yeah, it is almost always four pages at this point. And yeah, this one, the God Valley incident. This is 11 chapters from 1156 to 1166 which starts with. Starts with the chapter idol where it's all about, you know, gloriosa and shaky and everyone is infatuated with them.

[Zach]

And the other one.

[Steven]

Oh, right, right. Tritoma. Yes, she was cute too. And. And then it ends with the new story. I think this was the one. Yeah, it was the. The chapter that ends with Garlings. Right, The Garling finishing off rocks. And then. Yeah, and then you go back to Loki and Harold's story.

[Zach]

I think the horns is the very end. Yes. Oh, yeah, I was getting there. Okay. Sorry, Sorry.

[Steven]

And yeah, this. This volume does begin. Like the first chapter begins with a color spread, which means they don't have anything to put right after the table of contents. And so they have this adorable. This must have also been. It definitely was a jump. Jump illustration because. Yeah, it is the Tsukimi, or mute moon viewing, like holiday style illustration. So there's a big picture of the moon and you have Luffy and Nami, who are they both wearing rabbit ears? Because the rabbits live on the moon, according to the mythology. And Luffy.

[Zach]

And this week that they did indeed.

[Steven]

Oh, yeah, yeah, they saw them from. From Artemis. They're all on the other side.

[Zach]

Although I thought Artemis was a cat.

[Steven]

Yeah, well, that's how he has really good eyesight. So they're doing the. The Mochizuki, or pounding the mochi, where Luffy's got the big mallet and Chopper is holding the. The receptacle that they pounded in. And then Nami is trotting over with like the little. The little stand that has the. The pile of mochi on it, which is a very, you know, New Year's sort of traditional activity thing to do. So I. I'm presuming he probably did this in January. This. This January. So. Yeah. Anyways, it's a very cute illustration. They're kind of cheapified, so a nice little thing to see before the. The volume begins. And. And yeah, and then it's just this flashback of all these, you know, gross pirates in Rox's crew, you know, fighting and bickering and stuff. So we get right into that. But we will skip past the manga itself because we're going to go right into the sbs.

[Zach]

Wait, can I. Before we. Before we get into it, the first chapter, the second chapter. I can't read Japanese, but it says something bar. I have to assume that's Blue Note from the bar. That has to be what that's about, right?

[Steven]

Yeah, that's him. And the. The snowman on the. On the COVID Wait, is he dead? Yes, he is dead. He died with Big Mom. No.

[Zach]

Okay, that doesn't really work without the visual.

[Steven]

Yeah, the. The. The First SBS here is. It's kind of funny because it's like I can't tell how much of it is a joke or how much of it is serious because it is a very amateurish looking. But I kind of like it because of that. It's like Robin and she looks like she's in her post time skip outfit maybe and she's kind of doing her like arms crossed pose and then her hands are sprouting to, to form sbs but they barely look like hands. It's very strange.

[Ken]

So did he use his non dominant hand to draw this?

[Steven]

Maybe. I mean there's no, there's no.

[Zach]

Could be a kid.

[Steven]

It could be a kid. Yeah, but there's no information to identify. Like interesting how this was drawn. It's just kind of an ugly looking robin which is, is amusing to see.

[Zach]

Adult swimming.

[Steven]

Yeah. And so our, our first reader is going to do of course the, the, the, the traditional initiation of the sbs. And you can see here they have the picture of the panel where Emu has taken over Gunko and she is saying allow move to show you the dominance of God. And so the reader is like hey, hey, great one. Diabolical covenant dummy. Reverse he. And then, and so I'll explain this later, but he says allow Bo to show you the domination of the reader, begin the sbs. And then they, they put like the part where he wrote at the bottom of his thing, there's like hockey crackling off of it. And it's like pen name Hebo sama. And Hebo is like a word that means like kind of like loser or chud or something like that. And so, so like similar to how, how Emu uses mu as one of the first person pronouns, he's using Bo from Hebo. And so he says start the SBS, end the SBS. And, and ODA's like hey, whoa, you flipped it over. You ended the segment. So he's kind of making like a, you know, the domi reverse he joke where he, he does the one thing and then he flips over and does the other thing. So that, that one's a little, I'll have to come up with some like translation of the name that, that would also sound kind of funny if you shortened it like that.

[Ken]

So it's also funny because sbs like reverse would still be SBS if it got flipped.

[Steven]

Yeah, that, that, that too. That is, that is amusing. And so our next question, more of a comment really is I want to be Gunko's slave. And Oda says be my guest.

[Zach]

So I'm sure, she'd be happy about that. Or actually, she probably have no opinion about that, but just go along.

[Steven]

And then the last one here, this is actually a really funny one. I can. You can tell that Oda really loved this. This is like a classic SBS thing.

[Zach]

Yeah, this. This one looks great. I love this. So this is the one I'm thinking of, actually.

[Steven]

Yeah. So the. So the reader says, I've noticed that, like, on one piece merchandise and things like that, that whenever we have a wanted poster for a character whose bounty hasn't been revealed yet, the part where the numbers go is suspiciously torn off right along where it would reveal that information who's actually ripping those. And he's like, here's my guess. Is it this guy? And so they drew this little. Like, it's not a stick figure, but it's like. It's like a little kid's drawing where, like, the guy has like, like, like rectangles for ears and like a, A triangle for a nose. And he's going like, oh, I'm gonna rip them. And he's just walking past this, this, you know, line of wanted posters and then ripping the bottom off, like their, you know, like their, like, telephone pole, like, ad. You know, tear the number off sort of thing.

[Ken]

This is a rip it Ralph.

[Steven]

Yeah. Well, no. Okay, so then he puts the name in. So this is going to be kind of funny. So you remember how. What was it in. Was it Strong World that had Billy the. The bird, like the, the electric bird? Yes, that was Strong World. Okay. Yeah. And so. And his name was Billy because bidi biddy is like the word, one of the sounds for, like, electricity crackling. Well, bidi biddy is also a sound for ripping something like paper. And so this guy's name is Billy the Yabuki in Japanese, where yabu the. The verb yabuku means to rip. And so this one actually turns out to be very easy for me because I can just call him Billy the Ripper. I was gonna say because. Because it was clearly like kind of making a Jack the Ripper joke already. So Oda's response to this is like, oh, you're.

[Ken]

That.

[Steven]

You're that one guy, the, the mysterious, you know, the mysterious Ripster, Billy the Ripper. You're the guy who, who goes around tearing the. The, you know, you, you show up with the, like the. He shows up like on the wind, tearing off the bounty posters for, you know, that. That contain potential like, uh, story spoilers or, uh, bounty. Bounty amounts that the author hasn't thought up yet. He's like, oh, Billy the Ripper. I got something to say to you, pal. Thank you.

[Zach]

This guy better show up in the background of an anime thing.

[Ken]

He's gotta look exactly like this.

[Zach]

Yeah, he has to.

[Steven]

Yes.

[Zach]

I don't know how.

[Ken]

Or at least a detailed body. But the face has to be exactly this face with, like, the triangle nose.

[Zach]

I don't know. This is gonna. Yeah, I want to see something like this.

[Ken]

He's great. I love him. It's my new.

[Zach]

What is he saying there?

[Steven]

He's just saying, I'm gonna rip it. He's like. He's like, rip it rough. Like. Like what? Yeah, yeah. This is definitely, like, on. Along the line. This is. This goes up in the pantheon next to Minatomo and I don't know how.

[Zach]

100 this week. I don't know how we're gonna. This is. This is a fantastic one. Yeah, I guess we'll see.

[Steven]

Very good.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Steven]

All right, we'll go to the next sps, which I do love. This is kind of like the rare header illustration that is like, more or less take. You know, it is a scene from. From the manga. So it is the part where Gabon and Shanks are bathing together. What is Shanks doing 10ft apart?

[Zach]

Oh, I thought was out.

[Steven]

Yeah. So. No, they're in there. They're in the bath. And Ripley is watching over them with great interest. She's, like, blushing and humming to herself. And they're. They've got Their hand. Their hands are together and they're doing the squirt. Like, squirt the pool water in order to make the S's. And then the B is like a little puff of steam from the. From the hot spring or from the bath or whatever it is.

[Zach]

So Ripley's a fujo, is what is what we're saying here?

[Steven]

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

[Ken]

It looks like she's cooking them.

[Steven]

Oh, my God.

[Ken]

Like, above Gabon's head looks like a slice of, like some kind of fruit. Like it's a hat, but.

[Steven]

Right. It's his hat. Yeah. It looks like pineapple. Yeah.

[Zach]

Different directions.

[Steven]

She's like, I can't wait to eat those humans. And this is what I thought she was. That's what she's saying.

[Zach]

She's thinking to herself, when are they gonna kiss? Go ahead.

[Steven]

Yeah. And then the. The first question here. This is another great one that people were pointing out. So they have the. The image of Rogers Jolly Roger, which, you know, as we. You probably remember, it is the skull and crossbones. And then he's got these like this very long, luscious curly mustache that comes out. And so the reader says, so that stuff that's coming out of the nose on the Roger pirates. Jolly Roger. Is that udon? Are those udon noodles which, you know, if you, if you're not familiar, are very thick wheat noodles. They're like ramen, but they're like the, the big, they're like the giant size ramen, basically.

[Zach]

Yeah. And, and this would explain why he had it before he had a mustache.

[Steven]

So, so Odo's response is, yes, it's udon. Yes, that's right. It is udon. Aha. Yes. He's like, okay, all right, people, I heard you. I heard so many of you. You wrote in after chapter 1156, when the Roger pirates showed up and their ship had this mark on it and Roger didn't have his signature mustache yet, that they're like, why does it, why does the, the flag have the mustache on it? And Oda was like, good question. He says, and he says, I'm gonna, I'm going to comment very passive aggressively. 99 of readers didn't care about this,

[Ken]

I'm sure, but, but the one piece

[Steven]

podcast, but specifically now a hundred percent of readers don't have to care about this. And then he, his, his. He adds at the end, I wonder how, how do I explain this to foreign audiences? Like, is it. I guess you could say it does. It's like long macaroni. So I guess in case you don't know what, what.

[Zach]

Oh, he actually wrote. That's very funny.

[Steven]

Yes. Yeah.

[Zach]

But we have udon. I feel like udon is. Yeah, ramen and udon. And yeah, like those are, it's not most. Yeah, they're pretty mainstream.

[Steven]

It's, it's not main. Udon isn't mainstream yet, but it is, it is well enough known.

[Zach]

Like, I feel like the bodega, like kind of places in the city can correct me if I'm wrong, but like, I feel like you go like not even Japanese place, just places that like have like everything that you go for lunch.

[Ken]

Yeah, I feel like udon's all around. I don't understand why people wouldn't understand udon. Maybe soba would be a little bit more scared.

[Zach]

Yeah, I don't think most people know soba. Everyone knows ramen. That one's definitely everyone knows ramen, right? Yeah. I mean, because of the instant noodles, but yeah.

[Steven]

And the next one, this is a, a repeat submitter because they had one previously. It is a French Frenchman Named Valentin Catella. And Oda liked his comment last time because it was very obviously machine translated and it was all weird. And so like this time he's like yahoo. Oda Sensei, it is Valentine from France. I really want to know the name of the ship of rocks. And Oda says like ah, well thanks, thanks for writing from all the way from France. It is called the Rocks Fury which is, that's pretty cool.

[Zach]

I feel like it kind of exudes what I feel like about the rocks pirates. It's like kind of almost considering Blackbeard

[Ken]

ship is like the sword of Zebeck which sounds so much cooler than Rox's own ship.

[Zach]

Yeah, I mean the skull's on fire, so. But also Vox is not even his real name.

[Steven]

Yeah, sure, but it says it, but it says that name on the ship. So yeah. So the next one is. So in chapter 1142 when you were drawing all of the, the nightmares, the children's nightmares, why isn't their worst fear like semester, end of semester exams? Like I don't, I. It's just unbelievable that that would not be, would not be the case. Well, yeah, well we live in America. We don't have you know, tests for children anymore.

[Zach]

Do children do 28 year olds actually have like end of semester? Well, I guess there are some.

[Ken]

They probably do. Yeah.

[Steven]

Yeah, yeah. Also these, these kids, they're not eight, they're like 50 years old. They're giants.

[Zach]

They're 20. They're 20.

[Steven]

Okay. Yeah. So they should be college students. And then they say what is your greatest fear, Oda Sensei? It must be the pta. And that the pen name was North American pta. And, and Otis. Otis response is boy, it's really hard to draw a representation of an exam. Test. It's like tests, yeah. How do you draw a test? You know, it's just questions or like, you know, restrictions. It's judgments on you. He says also yes, the PTA is correct. So there you go. Lastly, we have no, it would be,

[Zach]

it would be like a picture of yourself walking naked into a test or something.

[Steven]

That's pretty good. Yeah, yeah, that sounds like one of those. Well I was going to say it sounds like one of you know those like the Japanese Halloween, like the subtle Halloween or whatever that they do where it's all these, these really like ex. Very extremely obscure, you know, Halloween costumes where it's. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're, they're, it sounds like something that they would do for that. Except that's probably a little more extreme.

[Zach]

I always Feel lame because existential always scares me so much more than anything like Halloween could throw at me.

[Steven]

So the last question on this page is now that to. To celebrate Shiki appearing in the manga itself, please tell us all sorts of stuff about Shiki, like his age and the rank of his katana and all that stuff. And so Oda says. Ah yes, yes. The character Shiki appeared in the movie Strong World. So if you're curious about him, you can watch him there. Let's see, what should I answer for this? He's currently 73 years old. He has two swords and they are Oto and Kogarashi, which I forget if we knew that already. I think we did. But they are both considered like fine grade swords. They're not like supreme grade or anything like that. He also likes, let's see, Kim Poon sushi. So it's a kind of sushi. I don't know what this is. Let's see. Let's do some live Googling. It's like gold. Gold flakes sushi. I've never heard of that. Maybe it's a type of fish. Anyways, that's his. His favorite food. And he hates gobo or like bamboo. Bamboo shoots. Which incidentally that is the thing that you can get on ramen. He comes. He comes from Yanokuni, which is. Which he describes in parentheses as. It's basically like wano cooney but less reputable. And.

[Ken]

Yes.

[Steven]

Y.

[Ken]

New Jersey.

[Steven]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, There you go.

[Zach]

New Jersey. You're on the edge.

[Steven]

And his hobbies are sketch comedy and bonsai.

[Zach]

That doesn't surprise me.

[Steven]

So that's pretty good. Yeah, I mean, yeah, the sketch comedy is very apparent if you watch.

[Zach]

Yeah, I think we talked a lot about that when it came out in 2009 and 10.

[Steven]

Yeah, it's like they keep.

[Ken]

Wait. So Steven, the two swords that Oda mentioned, is that his leg swords then? Yes. His legs have names?

[Steven]

Yes, I think so.

[Zach]

But no, they weren't. Remember, this is pre him having to cut off his own legs. That doesn't happen.

[Ken]

Yes, but he took those swords and put them on and. Okay, so his legs have names down.

[Zach]

His legs are sword and they have names. Yes. Right.

[Steven]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Yes. That is a 15 year old joke.

[Steven]

Yeah. Our next SBS has an amazing header image. A callback to Foxy the Silver Fox. He's doing. He's doing his little fox hand motions and the crowd is. The crowd is loving it. They're like, boss. Oh yeah, Bean. Oh yeah, Bean. And then he does the. The Foxy Pin Badge or thing where like they all come down in a line which was a, you know, a great gag where he like, you know, he. He takes the place of one of them with his own head. And so they're all going by in slow motion and they're going. But then there's the SBS is part of the line and so, so it goes. As they slowly pass.

[Ken]

That's so good.

[Steven]

That's really great.

[Zach]

Yeah, it's very.

[Ken]

So good.

[Zach]

It's also great. Great drawing. They're great drawings there. This is excellent. Yeah, I don't know who this is,

[Steven]

but I assume an all timer.

[Zach]

Yanokuni, New Jersey.

[Steven]

Yeah. And so the first question here. This is if you'll notice this, this,

[Zach]

this is the only one I think I've seen the.

[Steven]

There's. Yeah, there's a lot of stuff where it's like, oh, here's Oda like explaining things that people guessed or kind of like were wondering about. So he's doing confirmations. So here we go. Just to, to set you up. The first thing you're going to see is a picture of Shanks. Or is it saying I want to talk to you about a certain pirate from volume 90. So the reader says Odachi Hesso. So I've been wondering, back in the reverie, was the person who comes to talk with the five Elders to say he wants to talk about a certain pirate? Was that Shanks or was it Shamrock? Also, when mermaids poop, does it come out of the front or the back?

[Zach]

Ooh, that's a good question.

[Steven]

That is a good question.

[Ken]

Yeah, you start with a really good question, end it like that.

[Steven]

Yeah. And Oda says, okay, first of all, the back.

[Zach]

That's why he answered it. That's. Yeah, you know, that is that person. What's the pen name on this one?

[Steven]

It is Red Haired Kai Ben.

[Zach]

This person knew how to get this question answered.

[Steven]

That's right.

[Zach]

That is right.

[Ken]

I think by hiding a silly one and with a serious one.

[Zach]

Yeah, that is targeting to your audience right there.

[Steven]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he says first of all, it's from the back. And yes, that. And that was Shamrock. And so I thought it was the other.

[Zach]

I thought I saw spoiled somewhere that it wasn't. Okay, I, I'm glad that's.

[Steven]

Then he goes on to explain in the anime actually for this scene, Shanks is say you, Shuichi Ikeda did the line and. And I was like, oh, oh, I forgot to tell the anime staff that that's not actually Shanks.

[Zach]

Oh.

[Steven]

And he Talked about this when they

[Ken]

announced Shamrock's voice actor.

[Steven]

Yeah, so. So he says he's like, oh. So I thought like, oh, crap, I forgot to say that. To mention that that wasn't going to be Shanks. But it was after that that he ended up kind of becoming friends or. Or becoming acquaintances at the very least with Tsudaken or Kenshiro Tsuda. And then after that, he thought like, oh, this has to be Shamrock. So he's like, so. Actually, I'm kind of glad that I didn't, like, hasten to be like, oh, we have to come up with a new, you know, voice actor for this, you know, not Shanks character. Because he would not have gotten the guy that he ended up getting who he's like, oh, this is Shamrock. So it says, all's well there as well.

[Zach]

I'll add that identical twins often do have very similar voices. So, I mean, not always, but it's like, I also, they might be fraternal. As far as we know.

[Ken]

This is a really good.

[Steven]

I mean, they don't even look that alike, really, when you think about it.

[Zach]

I'm almost upset that that isn't, like, confirmed. Although I guess would this have been. How would this have been confirmed in the manga proper? But I am happy that it is Shamrock. That is the correct answer. If it were strength.

[Steven]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Zach]

It would be very annoying. Yeah. But this, I will say I don't remember who, but there definitely were people on this podcast who thought it was an evil twin. And we said, that's stupid and we were wrong. But they were right, whoever they were. I don't think we actually called them stupid, but I think it's kind of crazy that someone even. That would have even popped into someone's brain at that point. But there you go.

[Ken]

Do you think they'd re dub it and like go back, or do you think that's not worth their time?

[Steven]

The latter probably Japanese. No, I don't. I don't think they've redubbed up anything.

[Zach]

And the English may, but no, it. No, the. It's probably still.

[Steven]

Yeah, I still don't think they would. Yeah. No, it's like, what? How would you do that? Yeah.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Ken]

All right. Just food for thought.

[Zach]

They have the same facial hair. It makes no sense. Go ahead.

[Steven]

Yeah. So the next one you see here we have illustrations of Shaka and York, and the reader says, sorry for spoiling this, but I have figured out what Sanadachi's identity is.

[Zach]

Oh, no.

[Steven]

He says that Sanadachi must be the The York, the greed of Oda that split off onto its own. And. And he says, so if you think about it, that pervert really did come from Oda. And Otis response is, okay, just erasing that last sentence from my memory. And oh, so. So I'm Shaka and he's York. Which means. Which means. Oh, I'm actually a saint. Oh, oh, so that's why I don't have any wicked thoughts. Oh, that makes so much more sense now. Oh, so, yeah, you really hand yourself this. This is good. Yeah. And then the next one, this one actually does not come from Sanadachi, but

[Zach]

shocking considering the screen.

[Steven]

You can never.

[Ken]

You.

[Steven]

Yeah, you. You can. You can never count out the dirty question after the innocent one. Yeah. So. So the. So the pictures here, the illustrations are. There's one of the. Of Boaz. Like, it's. It's just like the lower half of the illustration. So it's like boas wrap that she has around her waist. And then there's Nami's little, like, leather skirt thing that she's wearing in Elbaf. And this person says, hey, so when people show up in one piece wearing this sort of stuff, does that mean that they're not wearing any underwear?

[Ken]

And that's.

[Steven]

That's from somebody else. And. And Oda's response, of course, this is all, you know, this is intentionally coming right after his, like, I'm such a saint. So Oda's response is, of course they're not. And he's like, I mean, how would you even wear anything under that? Would you mind not, like, trying to destroy my dreams with a little, like, indignant puff of. Of air?

[Zach]

I mean, great, but that seems unhygienic. I'm just saying.

[Ken]

Yeah, well, I mean, a Nami one doesn't make sense. I can see Boa being okay.

[Steven]

Yeah. I don't mean to get as more cloth on.

[Zach]

I think you could do. You could figure it out if you

[Ken]

needed to, I guess. That's a weird question.

[Steven]

It is a weird question. All right, we'll go to the best page here.

[Ken]

Oh, God.

[Steven]

No, it does have.

[Zach]

Yes, that is a great header.

[Steven]

It does have a. Yeah, it does have a very good header, though. It is Marco in Phoenix form, but it's like this weird little, like, baby bird. Yeah. A little chick version.

[Zach]

Please send this to Brodsky immediately.

[Steven]

Yeah, Brodsky needs to see this.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Steven]

And. Yeah, and you got the little, like, Phoenix, the Blue Flames doing the sbs. Very, very good. Very stylish image there.

[Zach]

There.

[Ken]

That looks like sgs, though. I know, I know it's a B.

[Zach]

But yeah, I was thinking of it too. There it is. It's official.

[Steven]

Yeah, but it does from.

[Zach]

I love op, right? That's.

[Steven]

Yes. This. This person does.

[Zach]

Right? I thought maybe not.

[Steven]

I don't know if they're amania, but they. They do want to like. Oda selects one of these every single volume for. For iheart op.

[Zach]

Yeah, because.

[Steven]

And. And they're very. They're very, very good all every single time.

[Zach]

Yeah, this one's great. I've really liked, like, this one.

[Steven]

So here's another kind of like, I don't know, clearing up some confusion. So Stussy's. It's like, why does Stussy have. So this is a Japanese thing. Why does she have the. The Bat bat Nomi. So Bato bato no mi instead of the bato bato no mi. So in other words, there's like a doubling of the T consonant in the Japanese sound. So it's like, why does it have this little. The little two to. To strengthen that. That T sound? Is it. Is it because in the video game Unlimited World R, you had this pirate named Red.

[Ken]

Yes.

[Steven]

Who did have basically the same thing. It was the same type of fruit, but he had the. The legendary or the mythical model vampire. And is it because that already had the Bat Bat name and you had to match it with that. And Oda's like, you are so dead on the money that I, I literally, I cannot, you know, I can't give you any better answer or I can't like, weasel my way out of this one. Basically. She says, yeah, basically with the way that I write the names now, it would be Bato Bato instead of Bato Bato. But at the time I, you know, when I came up with the vampire one, I did write Bato Bato with the extra T sound. And so I did have to match that. He's like, yeah, but. But if you think of it like with the way that we say Kitokato, like a Kit Kat bar, it does sound more delicious that way. So I guess if you, if you say so Oda. And yeah, it has a little. It has a little illustration of Oda's sketch of the Red Count. I think that was his. His title Red. Red the Lonely or the Lonesome or whatever it is.

[Zach]

Red is obviously than the One piece film. Also KitKat and One Piece doing some interesting crossovers in India that also posted on our Blue Sky. There's a funny commercial that came with that.

[Steven]

Yeah, go Ahead, didn't Kit Kats also get stolen in a massive heist recently? Speaking of one piece cards.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Ken]

There was a. Like 12 tons of KitKats were stolen in the UK.

[Zach]

You're right. You're right. I did. I don't follow the news too much, but I knew that happened. I don't know what that says.

[Ken]

We have this character part of the art collab, and it's Patrick Redfield.

[Steven]

Right.

[Ken]

What's his name?

[Steven]

Right.

[Ken]

Patrick Redfield. And he had the vampire power. So that's very cool. I didn't put that together. That's.

[Zach]

What's Patrick Redfield? That is the most boring name for a vampire.

[Steven]

I mean, but that does sound like a vampire name.

[Zach]

It does, actually. Yeah.

[Ken]

They don't want you to know they're

[Zach]

a vampire, but my name is Vampire

[Ken]

D. It's not like Dr. Akula.

[Zach]

Dr. Akula actually is much better. I should have just done that.

[Steven]

That. That is. It is funny, though, to think that he's like. Like, oh, this. This mysterious vampire everyone's talking about. Red. And he's like, well, my name is Patrick Red Field.

[Ken]

He's. He's looking around the room.

[Zach]

Yeah, like, looks out the window. Field. Yeah, that's right.

[Steven]

Yeah. He sees. He sees Patrick. SpongeBob.

[Zach]

There's a picture of Patrick from SpongeBob that he looks over and he sees a field and Patrick. Red.

[Ken]

Red field. Damn it.

[Zach]

Yeah. Oh, yeah, I got it. There.

[Steven]

Nailed it.

[Zach]

Okay, now let's break Ken's heart.

[Ken]

All right. All right, let's see what this is.

[Steven]

Okay, Odachi Hetso, please draw Yamato at age 40 and age 60. And it's funny because there is actually a slight wrinkle on the pattern in this one. Okay, so first of all, we have, I guess, the. The good or the canonical, if you want. You know, age 40 and age 60. And so at age 40.

[Zach]

This is the same.

[Steven]

Yeah, this is identical. This is just a picture of Yamato.

[Ken]

He looks slightly older. I can see some, like, age lines. What? You don't get Yamato as much as I do.

[Zach]

I'm close to 40 and I have more age lines than Yamato does. I think I could say, well, you have two kids.

[Ken]

What do you expect?

[Zach]

How do you know Yamato doesn't have children with age in this good timeline?

[Ken]

That doesn't change the past.

[Steven]

So, yeah, Yamato is saying, this is Wano Cooney. Come and stop by Luffy. So you know, the ambassador of Wano here.

[Ken]

And then does that Imply that all these years later, Luffy hasn't come back to get Yamato yet.

[Steven]

I guess not. Yeah.

[Ken]

This is the bad timeline.

[Zach]

They're both bad.

[Steven]

Yeah. But then age 60 now you get the, you know, the age lines. And Yamato's wearing like a little. An extra, you know, coat. Because with some. You're 60.

[Zach]

It's cold.

[Steven]

Yeah, but. Oh, but they have crescent moons on them.

[Ken]

Oh.

[Steven]

Which is definitely not an accident because Kozuki. Yeah. And Yamato is saying, oh, no, I don't want to be important.

[Zach]

So they're okay.

[Steven]

Yeah.

[Ken]

Wait, so what's the problem?

[Zach]

Or something?

[Steven]

Yes, yes, yes, exactly. It's. It's that Yamato has been around long enough that the. That he's like, gotten into, like, seniority.

[Ken]

Yeah, okay.

[Steven]

Exactly.

[Ken]

So, like. Gotcha. Okay.

[Steven]

That okay.

[Zach]

Does not want. He does not want it.

[Steven]

Yes.

[Zach]

And then the good timeline.

[Steven]

So. And on the bottom line, instead of being the. What is he usually call. It's like in a future where something happens or, you know, in a different future or whatever. This is in the future where he went too far or he took it too far. And so. Yeah, the first one is just.

[Zach]

The first one's amazing.

[Steven]

Yamato has the oden haircut. Like the mushroom haircut.

[Zach]

No, that is an actual mushroom on his head. That really looks like a shiitake mushroom or something.

[Ken]

Yeah, I guess it's like. It's the end of his highlights.

[Steven]

It's the darkened color, so that's technically

[Ken]

blue and like red on top there.

[Zach]

You got the eyebrows perfect here.

[Steven]

Yeah, he's doing. Right. He's doing like the kabuki, like, frown,

[Ken]

the frowny face, the extended, like, lower cheekbones into the frown. My God. Okay.

[Steven]

Yeah, he's going like, you don't like this.

[Zach]

You don't like oden.

[Steven]

Right. He's saying, I am oden bokuga udenisoro. And then.

[Ken]

And then, as Kirby pointed out, he removed his horns.

[Zach]

Yes.

[Steven]

Oh, yeah. Yeah. But he still got the chopsticks. Yeah.

[Zach]

That's a spoiler for the end of this volume when Harald does the same thing. I have to become Odin and rips off the horns.

[Ken]

You can just take those off.

[Zach]

No, this is the difference between identifying as Odin and really committing the poem.

[Ken]

This is taking it too far. This is taking it too far.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Steven]

Yeah.

[Ken]

I hate it.

[Steven]

And then, of course, the. The. The. The further one is, I am Odin, and it's just a burning pile of bones.

[Zach]

So wait, is this. I was. You know, I was wrong. I got tricked by it. I was gonna say, is this right in front of the COVID spread of the COVID page of the last Yamato one? Of course it isn't, because there's, like, four endings to that one. Now I'm gonna look over the horizon. Now I'm gonna look into the camera.

[Ken]

So does that imply that Yamato just like. Because Odin is born to boil.

[Zach]

Yes.

[Steven]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Ken]

They. They. But it's born to boil, Yamato. You don't just light yourself on fire.

[Steven]

Yeah. It is funny because this looks more like the cremation that Oden was eating. The Oden on top of. Yeah.

[Ken]

Oh, I hate this. So in the good timeline, Yamato just hates being important. In the bad timeline, it doesn't age, really?

[Steven]

Yeah. Ages a little slowly.

[Zach]

Well, the only difference in the ages is that he looks a little perturbed in the second one.

[Ken]

I don't know. Again, this could just be me. But, like, Yamato looks older in the age 41.

[Zach]

The 61. I see a little the 41, definitely.

[Ken]

But the 41. 41.

[Zach]

Older, mature.

[Ken]

Yamato.

[Zach]

I think he looks younger. In the 40s. Well, how old is he? He's only, like, 36, to be fair. Right? Isn't he, like, older? Oh, I. Ken, this is you. How old is Yamato?

[Ken]

Same age as momo. Which. 20 years.

[Steven]

Yeah, 27.

[Zach]

So 30 or something. Oh, I thought it was 30.

[Ken]

No, no, no. 28. 28 years old.

[Steven]

Yeah. Off to be 40. Yeah.

[Zach]

But those are.

[Ken]

I don't know.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Ken]

Okay. Is there a reason for 28? 28. Okay. Is there a reason why Oda did something different? Because it's been all good future, bad future the entire time. It's the only one we've had, like,

[Zach]

a wrinkle in the. It's funnier.

[Steven]

It's funny.

[Zach]

Yeah, it is funnier.

[Ken]

It's horrifying.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Ken]

It's mushroom head Yamato.

[Zach]

Ken, you have to accept your love in all its flaws and potentially bad futures.

[Ken]

I'm very glad that Yamato didn't take the Odin thing this far.

[Zach]

I'm upset. And there's still time. There's still time. This is bad future, not bad present.

[Steven]

Also could still happen. Some of us do retain our youthful looks at age 40.

[Zach]

That's true.

[Ken]

That's true.

[Zach]

To be fair, Steven actually looks much younger than me.

[Steven]

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[Zach]

Yes.

[Steven]

I was fishing that, but I.

[Zach]

You really do.

[Steven]

Okay, so the last one here. This is funny. So this is the the little scrap of paper where Shakuyaku writes come and get me to. To Rayleigh and the reader is like, oachi, come and get me, bro. Which is, that's how I'll do it. Because he says like boku, boku instead of watashi. So it's so you can tell it's a God guy. And Oda's like, oh, yeah, sure, if I can get around to it. Yeah, I'll totally go there.

[Zach]

Yeah, that's the funniest thing I would have said in a while.

[Steven]

Yeah, if I get around to it.

[Zach]

That's very good. That's excellent. I'm excited for this next one. What is happening here?

[Steven]

Yeah, this one is interesting. I didn't. Yeah, let's see. Let's see how well I can interpret this because I was, I was brushing up on this before we recorded, but I didn't get all the way through. So our next sbs, we have a lovely header image of Nami. It's like, it looks like an eye catch illustration. It's like Nami posing, showing off her tattoo. And there's a bunch of like flowers and Mikan, the tangerines in the background. And she's got like tattoo styled sbs

[Zach]

that I think is great. And that's, I think, very clever looking because the B is the berry symbol and the S is the tattoo. I think that's super clever.

[Steven]

Yeah, it's very neat. And so this question here, as you can probably tell, is about Den Den Mushi, the transponder snails. Let's see, you've said that the, the transponder snails don't mind being caught by people because then they get fed. So you know, they're basically like pets. Does that mean that the, the Denden, the Denden Mushi that the straw hats use, does that mean Sanji feeds them delicious food? So yeah, I want to know how do the straw hats care for their transponder snails? And so Oda says, okay, so first of all, the Thousand Sunny has one long range transponder snail. And so he's drawn. So there's like, he drew a big transponder snail that has a little more elaborate. It's got like a straw hat. That theme. No. And then, and then he points out, and then he has like Nami, Usopp, Sanji, Robin and Frankie. So, you know, aside from Jim bae, roughly speaking, these are like the responsible ones.

[Zach]

Yeah. Why are they. That's a good point.

[Steven]

They each have a, like an individual transponder snail under their icons here. And so they have like the, the baby transponder snails or the, the CODEN mushi, which are short range and, and, but he does say they, they'll lend them out and they'll, they'll, you know, they'll, they'll hand them out and, and switch them around and stuff. So basically as long as they have enough hydration, they can live for about three months without needing any food. But because they're kind of like their, their mental brainwave, you know, conversations require a lot of energy. You know, you, you still, you need to, you need to give them like some scraps of leftovers or something after you've used it for, for a little bit. But that's all, that's about all you need to do so they can, they can work, work, live off of leftover scraps. And they say. So they'll, they'll leave them out on this on the Sunny. They'll leave them in like robin's flower flower beds and Nami's tangerine fields and every now and then they give them their favorite things, which is like leaves of cabbage and lettuce. And then they will be very happy about that.

[Zach]

That.

[Steven]

Let's see. On the days when you water them with a watering can, they get so worked up and so excited that their brain waves can, can travel practically to the other side of the world, which I think he's being tongue, tongue in cheek there. But yes, apparently they are really excited about getting sprinkled.

[Zach]

I just want a slice of life of these transponder snake else I don't

[Steven]

know what we got.

[Ken]

That'd be great.

[Steven]

That is cute. Yeah. And then they, he included a cut of one of the, the design sketches of the Sunny from volume 46 when he showed off all those different, you know, all the different rooms and such of the Sunny just so you can see like. Oh yeah, there's where the flower beds are and Nami's trees and stuff. So that's where they go to get the snails when they need them.

[Zach]

That's excellent. I love that. Yeah, it's great SPS there.

[Steven]

Yeah. And then here we go. Okay, this one is probably the, the centerpiece.

[Zach]

No, that's the centerpiece.

[Steven]

You know, we'll see our. My, my favorite reveal of the Yamato cover spread is coming up here.

[Ken]

But first, Hell yeah.

[Steven]

We get the sbs. Header is Gabon and Crocus sharing a drink and they're grilling up some squid to make the SBS with the tentacles and such. So that. Yeah, they're just, they're yucking it up they're having a grand old time.

[Ken]

Oh, is this supposed to be that one cover page?

[Steven]

Yeah, over at the Twin Capes.

[Ken]

Right, right.

[Steven]

Because Laboon is there. All right, so as a. As I alluded to on Yamato's cover story, chapter 1158, which is in this volume, it has a grave marker for a Kozuki Moria. Does that refer to Gecko Moria? I'm sure you've gotten a ton of questions about this, but please tell us. Odachi and Otis says, Ah, yes. Well, I really wanted to reveal this during the Wano arc, but I just didn't have room to, you know, to work it in. So here's the information that I have given you all about Moria's backstory prior to this point. So he has this little bullet list. He's. He has fought against Kaido in the past. All of his followers were killed, and that turned him into this kind of lazy, you know, type who delegates things to others. And he's in possession of the corpse and Wep or. Yeah, the corpse and the weapon of the legendary samurai Ryuma. So from these things, based on these things, you might guess, you might imagine that he has probably been to Wano Wanakuni. And so what I want to tell you about is the reason for his battle against Kaido. So young Moria washed up on Wano as a youth from outside. So. Yes. So he was not a native of Wano. He washed up there, and he was warmly welcomed by the people of Ringo in Wano. And because of his strength, he was given the Kozuki name and, you know, was. Was. Was treasured. He was treated very, very well and highly prized. And so he. Let's see, he had gone out to sea in order to be a pirate, but when Kaido attacked, he fought against Kaido in order to save the people of Wano, but he lost. After Moria lost, he was, you know, he felt so ashamed of losing that he simply left Wano without telling anyone anything. So he just disappeared and everyone thought that he died. And so they put. They erected a grave for him. And. Yeah, so basically, I cut all of this information out of the main story. So it is not essential to. To know in order to, you know, make sense of any of the plot. So there you have it. That is the backstory for Maria.

[Zach]

Stephen, I know you had thoughts on this. Does this alter them?

[Steven]

I don't think that I would. I don't think that it would change my opinion of Moria as a character unless we had actually seen, because the thing about Oda is, like, he's such a good, like, emotional manipulator that like, like, like they can say like, oh, like, and then this happens. And then this happens, like in a digest form. And you'll be like, that's the stupidest thing. Why would that character ever do that?

[Zach]

That.

[Steven]

But all he needs is like one or two pages of like a montage scene and you'll be like, oh, I totally see how this character turns from this personality into this personality over a year or whatever. Like, he's just really, really good at, you know, showing you the evolution of a character. And so, like, yeah, I don't know. I have a hard time, like, just looking at this text.

[Zach]

Yeah, yeah.

[Steven]

Summary and being like, oh, so like, Mario was actually like a really good and conscientious guy. Like, he's still just kind of the dickhead Moria that I. I remember. But if Oda had drawn him, I totally believe that I. You know, I could have bought a. You know, Moria as a younger and more idealistic person before, you know, his loss turned him into the. The shitheel that he is today. But I just, you know, it's just text on a page for me. It's not really doing anything in terms of changing how I actually feel about him in his backstory.

[Zach]

Yeah, maybe. I mean, also, like, I get why Moria is the he is today because of the he's gone through. It's kind of like Mori is kind of the bad end, Luffy. Like, that's what it. I mean, actually, all the villains are supposed to kind of be that in some way, shape or form, so. But maybe we'll see that one day. I mean, we saw Senor Pink's backstory.

[Ken]

This just goes back to the lengthy discussion we had on this when this first was, like, announced. Like, this is. Unless this amounts to something, it's still kind of whatever. Like, if this plays a role in the greater story, then yes. But like, it still feels like kind of needless backstory. I still don't mind it. I still think it's kind of cool, but. Well, if it doesn't amount to anything, then you could have left without this.

[Zach]

Well, I'll put it this way. I know Oda always says the characters tell him where they wanna go. I feel like this specifically is just something that I guess he's like, okay, Moria had this, and it's just something he thought of and just thought it, you know, or just felt.

[Ken]

It's cool establishing Moria in wano Cause we did assume, okay, he fought Kaido. It all connects. It's like, okay, but why make him Kazuki? Like, why extend his stay at Wano and give him home roots there? That's the one part that. Yeah.

[Zach]

I think the Kozuki thing at least has kind of explained his thinking here. Because there's. Obviously, we knew there was like, oh, you're of the Kozuki people. Like, I don't completely admit.

[Steven]

Right.

[Ken]

If he was like.

[Steven]

If he's, like, an honorary member.

[Ken]

Kurozumi. If he was part of the evil clan, like, oh, okay. This is like. That almost fits better to me. Like, he was from Wano and part of the evil clan.

[Zach]

Yeah. But then why would he. What was it again? Why did he go back? He said to defend his homeland, who

[Ken]

treated him so well.

[Zach]

Yeah. So Kurozumi would never have been treated well. But it was also, like, not even an adopted name. It's like, I'm of this, like, clan.

[Steven]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Or something. Yeah. Do I think that the choice was a good choice necessarily for Moda? No, but I get it. You know, whatever.

[Steven]

Yeah. Like, I. Yeah. And I. And I. You can clearly see here that it's like, oh, when he was doing Thriller Bark, he's like, oh, this is great. Like, this will be, you know, how I start seeding information about Kaido and Wano and all that stuff. And so he kind of like, set up the little, like, the. The tent hook to. To attach it later on when we got there and to, like, pay off more about Moria, but it just didn't fit into the story he ended up wanting to tell once he had, like, come up with, you know, Kinemon and Momonosuke and all those other characters and stuff.

[Ken]

Could you imagine right before Onigashima Moria shows up? Guys, wait, wait, wait.

[Zach]

We thought that was gonna happen while we were reading through it. I think I'm the traitor. Oh, this is shocking, Moria.

[Steven]

Oh, that would've been. Yeah,

[Zach]

yeah. I conjure.

[Ken]

I was like, yeah, sure, go ahead, take the bullet.

[Zach]

This is, like, Oda's, like, specialty we've talked about is, like, being able to either seed something from very early on or throw enough of the kitchen sink at it to make it seem like it was seeded. Like, the Kaido and Wano stuff was, you know, established at Thriller Park. Like, that is undeniable. I think the Ryuma stuff and the Moria stuff, Oda just did not figure out a way to weave that into the main story. Unfortunately, like, the Ryuma stuff, too, is not really into. Yeah.

[Ken]

Unfortunately, I'll just be very excited when Laboon is Kazuki too.

[Steven]

Yeah.

[Zach]

As he should be.

[Steven]

Yeah. I mean, I guess I'm glad that he didn't, like, try to shoehorn them more awkwardly in than. Than he did. Like, not like he didn't force it, but, like, I. I do agree that, like, it would make the overall story stronger if they had been more of an integral part of what the Wano story ended up being.

[Zach]

Yeah, if I had. That's. That's one of those, like, if I could rewrite it, maybe, you know. Anyway, Go ahead, Steven.

[Steven]

All right, our next sbs. We get a lot of some. Some Amazon Lily stuff here. So we start off with the. The SBS header, where it is Shucky's. Shucky's Bar. And so it is Shaky's ripoff question corner. And she's like, welcoming all of the pirate. And so while they're. They're all, you know, their hearts are beating out of their chests and forming the sbs, which is quite.

[Ken]

So funny.

[Steven]

Quite adorable. Yeah.

[Ken]

The Rock's face especially. I don't know why. Yeah, it's very funny.

[Steven]

Yeah, they all look very good, even.

[Zach]

I like how Whitebeard is even experiencing it. However, his face would. You would never know, except for the hard eyes.

[Steven]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Yeah, he's just. He just has a completely stoic face. As far as you could tell. I mean, with that mustache. Go ahead.

[Ken]

Pretty great.

[Zach]

Yeah, it is.

[Steven]

All right, so here's a question. Odachi is the Empress of Amazon Lily. Does the Empress of Amazon Lily always become the captain of the Kuja pirates? And Oda says, actually it's the other way around. First of all, you know, there's a saying among the Kuja which I believe was actually in the. The Ark, which is in this country. The strong are the beautiful. So in other words, the ones who are the most strong and therefore the most beautiful are the ones who win the seat of the Empress. And then at the same time, they also take over the. The. The Kuja, you know, captain. They serve as the captain of the. The Kuja pirates. So in this volume, I did draw the story of Shakuyaku being, you know, managing to escape safely from the Celestial Dragons. So let's see why. Let's see. Why would the. I think so. Okay, so, so by. By showing that Shaki successfully escaped the Celestial Dragons, you can. I think you can see why the Hancock sisters, who were potential, you know, Kuja Empresses, would have been so desired and, you know, a target for being kidnapped and turned into slaves. Not that it really matters. He says.

[Ken]

Oh,

[Steven]

okay. So the next one is. So you drew Gloriosa in her youth and she is wearing the same earrings, the same snake earrings that Hancock does. Also, Shakuyaku and Tritoma were wearing different accessories, ear accessories before they became the captain. But it seems like they then switched to wearing the snake earrings once they did become captain. Is there. Is there a rule that the captain of the Kuja Pirates always has to wear these earrings? And Oda says, like the question above, it's the fact that they are. The Empress comes first. So they're kind of like the crown that is given to the Emperor. The Empress always wears the. The. The earrings. So it's not the captain thing, it's the empress part. And after they have quit, they can choose to keep wearing them or take them off as they wish. And then lastly, we have. What is the name of the sword that Rox D Zbeck uses? And his sword is named Eclipse. That is very cool. It's a cool sounding name. And it also. Yeah, exactly. It feels very.

[Ken]

His sword is named Teach.

[Zach]

That would fit with Roger.

[Ken]

Sword was Ace. Yeah.

[Steven]

Yeah. And Garp's sword was Luffy.

[Zach]

Garp didn't have a sword exactly.

[Ken]

Garp named his cannonball Dragon.

[Steven]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Oh no. That was taken by Kaido's secret technique. Technique. This volume.

[Steven]

Yeah.

[Ken]

Dragon.

[Zach]

Dragon.

[Ken]

I loved Teenage Kaido. That's some of the best part of this.

[Zach]

It really is. It's so funny. It is. I like, I was looking at it again and I'm like, it is very funny that it just says Dragon. Yeah, go ahead.

[Steven]

And so our last SBS section here. Oh, hey, this is a great. This is from the anime, right?

[Zach]

Six.

[Ken]

Yeah.

[Zach]

It's also. I believe it is also a color spread. I think it was like animating a color, but it was Brandon, right? Yeah.

[Steven]

Okay. Yeah, it's the. It's the one with the five. The. You know, the east blue five where running like Luffy is running ahead and like he's like got his head down and the. The hat is flying off. And so Sanji is trying to catch the hat and Nami's got her like arms up in the air like she's jumping.

[Zach]

Yay with the light.

[Steven]

That's a very.

[Zach]

On the beach. Yeah.

[Steven]

If it doesn't sound familiar, you will recognize it when you see it.

[Zach]

It's. It's. It's at the beginning of Brand New World, I think. I'm pretty sure it's the. That. That. That one has a ton of Color spread references. So that might be.

[Steven]

So the first question is, what are there like certain, like classic, like foundational, basically party entertainment. Things that the straw hats always do. Like what's their. What's their classics? And Oda says, oh, there's a. There's a bunch of them. You know, when Brooke gets going, he's always starts playing the piano and the violin and everything. Frankie will start strumming his guitar and they'll start all singing. They'll have a big sing along. There is of course, the classic Chopsticks in the Nose doing the eel scoop dance, which everyone you know is familiar with. They don't do it as often, but they. He. He does crack it up. He does bring it out every spoiler alert for opla.

[Zach]

But it is in that.

[Steven]

Yeah, there is. There is the Usopp quiz, where in parentheses Usopp hands out Usopp boards. And everyone takes a quiz. There are punishment games involved. He's a. It's a. Wow.

[Zach]

That's like what I do to have fun.

[Ken]

Zach, don't you and Usopp share a birthday too?

[Zach]

Yes.

[Ken]

The accusations are starting to pile up here.

[Steven]

Zach and Usopp in the same room.

[Zach]

Yeah, I can neither confirm or deny.

[Steven]

They also do arm wrestling, board games, Jenga weapon darts, swords, axes and knives.

[Ken]

Wait, do they say the word Jenga?

[Steven]

Yes, Jenga. Yeah. In Japan. It's not really treated like a. Like a trademark name.

[Ken]

Okay.

[Steven]

Like. Yeah. Which I mean, is the same, to be fair.

[Zach]

Yeah. Janka also is the.

[Steven]

Yeah.

[Zach]

What do you got hours or something like.

[Ken]

No, know, wooden blocks. I don't know.

[Zach]

Yes, go play wooden blocks.

[Steven]

They also have drinking competitions, eating competitions, Jinbei's dice gambling, which is. Yeah, I mean, that's a. That's a classic. Yeah. Yeah, that's a classic. Yeah. Yakuza thing, which Jim Bay is. Is Yakuza coated? So that fits perfectly? Let's. Let's see. Okay. Blindfold, plank walking, I think.

[Zach]

I'm not sure that is great.

[Steven]

Pirate. Yeah, I'm not sure if that's. I'm not sure if that's the exact term or if that. If that might be a different game. I'm not familiar with all the Delafert users. Yeah, yeah.

[Zach]

Oh, no, that's when it's most fun. And then there's Russian roulette, but on a plank.

[Steven]

There's sumo wrestling, Usopp's impression show, etc.

[Zach]

Oh, I'd say the sumo wrestling they did talk about. Remember Usopp's like record Luffy's Record against Usopp and Wano. Yes. Yeah, yeah. The beginning.

[Ken]

Did we see a little bit that in film Gold too? The beginning? Or is that. Am I thinking something else or one of the movies?

[Steven]

Maybe. I don't know.

[Zach]

But I know the him against what's his face case and Hiroshima.

[Steven]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Zach]

Oh, Human Jim Bay. Human Jim Bay.

[Ken]

But Human Jim.

[Steven]

Yeah, but he says. Yeah, but the. The. The main thing, like the classic one is, is when they sing. So that's like their main family.

[Zach]

They all sing. Yeah,

[Ken]

That's great. That's very fun.

[Steven]

Yeah, that was. That's a fun question. The next one is what is the name of Shanks's mother? Which is nice since like we. We had that weird.

[Zach]

That's your face. The picture is literally the back of her head.

[Steven]

Yes, it's the back of her head where she's got the vivi. Hair.

[Zach]

Yeah, it's back. Back. Her back of the head.

[Steven]

Back of the head.

[Zach]

Back of the head.

[Steven]

Yeah. And then. And then she. It's like. It's like the robin face on the back of the head thing. Like she just moves the hair away and it's like, oh, hey, here's my face. No, her name is Magnolia.

[Zach]

Oh, that's a good name. Interesting.

[Steven]

That's a good name. Yeah.

[Ken]

I don't know. Back of the head has a ring to it.

[Steven]

Has a ring to it.

[Zach]

Yeah, Back of the head, but in the middle. Magnolia.

[Ken]

Magnolia Shanks.

[Zach]

Quotations. Her last name is not Shanks.

[Ken]

I know.

[Steven]

That would be her first name.

[Zach]

Yeah, that would be her first. In Japan it would be the first one.

[Steven]

I mean, in one piece.

[Zach]

Back of the head.

[Ken]

It's not figarlen Magnolia, but. But I guess, right, because they didn't never married.

[Zach]

No, they definitely did not. Because he murdered her.

[Ken]

Right. Well, I never stopped.

[Zach]

Spoiler alert for in this volume.

[Ken]

He Gotcha. Gotcha.

[Zach]

She gets stabbed through the back.

[Ken]

All right. Magnolia.

[Zach]

I like it shot through the heart.

[Ken]

You're too late.

[Steven]

I am glad that Oda answered that because like I said, there were still some, like, some questions about like there's some interesting words that they used in that one little scene that she gets where it's like she seems like she's probably more of a character than an is being led.

[Zach]

Yeah. I mean, I assume we will get a proper Shanks flashback at some point in the series because how could. Maybe not. How could we not. That feels like necessary.

[Ken]

Could she still be a Davey?

[Steven]

Yeah.

[Zach]

If she's on God Valley, we don't know. No, it's that all the Davies were on God Valley, not that all the people on God Valley were Davies.

[Ken]

Right.

[Steven]

Yeah.

[Ken]

Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay.

[Steven]

Yeah, it's God Valley, not Davey.

[Zach]

Yeah, you want Davey Valley? That's that way.

[Steven]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. This easy mistake to make. Yeah. All right. Last. Last question. Last SBS for this volume. It says, hello, Oda Sensei. All right. The Rocks Pirates, Captain John and Ganzui aren't they're like the previous owners of the Magnet Magnet fruit and the Bomb Bomb Fruit. And also they both seem to be using them in different ways than the, you know, than the other characters. And then, you know, quote, quote, unquote, Gil Bastar, you know, the. The guy from the one shot who was the. The guy with the weird little black hat and he has the. The holo. Holo fruit. Was he using negative Hollows? So yeah, we're getting the questions about the. The fruits which people had been picking up on. Ota says. Yes, that's right. They all were the previous owners of those fruits and they are all dead now. You will notice. Yes, all three of them do appear in the Thriller Bark arc as general zombies. Not that that really matters. Oda's classic SPS phrase. Yeah, so basically there's no like set way that you have to use your powers. So you know, it's the. The personality of each person is going to come out in the way that they wield those powers. Since Gonzui has really big fat fingers, he can't pick his nose, so he can't do the Mr. Five thing. He says. Okay, well, that's it. That's time. We are done with the SBS for today. Luffy does not appear in this volume, but next volume he will be tearing it up. So see you there.

[Zach]

I like that Oda actually notices that that is true here. It's also crazy. Not only is this volume all flashback, it's like just about All God Valley, like minus a couple pages.

[Steven]

Right, right, right.

[Ken]

This is the time to do it.

[Zach]

Yeah, it's really nuts. It's not just all God Valley. It's not the complete God Valley. There's like several more chapters before that were in the previous volume. Anyway, go ahead.

[Steven]

Sorry.

[Zach]

I'm just astounding.

[Steven]

Yeah, so that's the. That's the end of the sbs. And I did also check because I have not gone through this to do all of the revision and the translation and stuff. I did check the. The wiki just to see because they do track all of the like minute like, oh, Oda drew this, you know, this scar on this character because he forgot the first time or whatever. And usually do edits. Yeah, yeah. They have on each volumes page. So it's like, oh, he got the color of the, you know, the clothing wrong or whatever. The only significant change in the text was. And I remember this being kind of weird, which was that. And people pointed this out when Big mom, when they're going on God Valley. And Big Mom's like, oh, it's the fish. Fish fruit. I'm gonna feed it to Katakuri people who were like, at this point, Katakuri already had the mochi powers, apparently.

[Ken]

Oh.

[Steven]

And so they changed it. They changed it to Perospero, which now I feel like now actually. Yeah, now he should draw that image instead of the Katakuri one.

[Ken]

I saw so much fan art of Katakuri Dragon Power when that came out too. That's so funny.

[Zach]

Yeah, I think it's much funnier that it's for us, bro.

[Ken]

Yeah, Giant dragon tongue.

[Zach]

Like.

[Steven]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Oh, oh.

[Ken]

It's almost the time.

[Zach]

I don't want to see it. But it's funny. What else do we have at this volume, Stephen?

[Steven]

We do. Yeah, we have a little thing, I think this. Okay. Yeah. It does say in the corner. This appeared in issue 40 of. Issue 40 Shonen Jump of 2025. It's like a two page. Like here's. Here's the story of the Rocks Pirates. And so it's basically just like a refresher. They must have put this in like an off week or something. Yeah, yeah. It's like the. A special extra issue of the World Economic News. And so it's like Morgan's is telling you, like, here's all the members of the. Of the Rocks Pirates and what they're like after and so on. And so it's like, it's a nice refresher of your memory. And selfishly, I'm gonna say I really hope Alexi does not want to put this in the volume because there is so much text on this. There's a lot of these. Yeah, these kind of like data book style pages are.

[Zach]

Do they ever put these in?

[Steven]

I've definitely translated some of them before. So yeah, I wouldn't be surprised. I'll definitely check first.

[Ken]

But that Luffy in the top left corner is so good. That expression.

[Steven]

Yeah, yeah. He's in his like Elbaf outfit just like sitting there with like a blank look.

[Zach]

The only time you see him in

[Ken]

this volume, that's you looking to translate it. Steven like, oh, God.

[Steven]

Oh, boy. Dear.

[Zach]

I have to do this.

[Steven]

Oh, brother. So. Yeah, but it is a neat resource at the very least because. Yeah, there's a. If you didn't know, there's a shitload of context behind the rocks Pirates. So it doesn't.

[Zach]

Yeah. This. This might be in it. I hate to tell you.

[Steven]

Yeah.

[Zach]

He won't give you some extra, you know, whatever. I won't put Alexi on the spot here, but I will.

[Steven]

Yeah. You put some pressure on the negotiations for.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Steven]

Extra payment.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Steven]

Yeah. I also included for these for. For Ken at least to see the Usopp Gallery.

[Ken]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Oh, my God. The. I have pretty fun. The. The one at the top. The.

[Steven]

Yeah, the title starting.

[Zach]

Yeah. Amazing. I I, I. What is. So it's.

[Steven]

It's Anjay with the kids. Yeah, it's Anjay with the kids from Elbaf. And she's saying like, oh, there's so many interesting, you know, pieces here. Let's all look at the Usopp Gallery Pirates. And then like, the ones that are up on the on the board are like, it's like all of Luffy's drawings of like, fish, Nami and Frankie as like the giant weird. The shipwrecked guy. Yeah. And then what's the third one? It's also a fish.

[Zach]

That's what I think. That's what a fishman fish or. No, that's a mermaid. Maybe that's how he drew a mermaid. I don't know. It's very funny. Those are definitely three Luffy.

[Steven]

And then the kids are like, it's scary.

[Zach]

I want to see Nightmare the sleep tits for those. Yes, yes, yes, yes. That would be great.

[Ken]

Zach, look at the chopper here. Look one. Look at that chopper.

[Steven]

Yeah, there's a very adorable.

[Zach]

I love the little. There's just one little tiny tear. Yeah, it is. It's like. Okay, let's draw the saddest scene in the manga. Except it's cute. Yeah, that's.

[Steven]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Steven]

They did do they did. They do have a little meme one in the corner where it's the scene where Emu sucks Saturn's life away. But in this one, Emu is saying, I desire the grand prize. And they're like your will be done. And then like, Saturn is. Is getting, you know, desiccated here. And Emu is like, Saturn, why did you not seize the grand prize? So he's like, he's failed because it was not the winner. The winner is like a cool gear for like, Bounce Man Luffy in Stained glass, which looks like it would be awesome if you could see the colors.

[Ken]

But. But is that actually stained glass, you think? Is there a.

[Steven]

It's a photo. Yeah.

[Ken]

Oh, that's so cool. I thought it was. Oh, that's so cool.

[Zach]

What is the pen name? Sometimes maybe find it. Yeah, sometimes they post the.

[Steven]

Usually the artists it is Mocha Nosuke.

[Ken]

I'm going to look for this real quick.

[Steven]

Sometimes. Yeah, sometimes they do like on the. On the Hiro staff or like on

[Zach]

the one piece.com or on the YouTube.

[Steven]

Yeah, on one piececom they. They put the color originals.

[Zach]

They usually do like they. There's always a ton of fan art on the front page of the site. That's the first thing you see when you open it. I'm sure you could find it. Ken, what was the site again?

[Ken]

Sorry?

[Zach]

1-peace.com. the official 1 piece.com.

[Steven]

1 piece.com. yeah, you should just clicking. Just click the button on your taskbar. That. That goes straight to one piece dot com. Ken, I know you must have it.

[Zach]

Yeah, yeah. If you are a real Yamato fan. I'm just here to.

[Steven]

I'm like looking through to find some more. Oh, somebody made a bunch of cookies. This is page 215.

[Zach]

I like a lot. Well, I'm also like. I love this. Love is a hurricane with each of the. Although Roger never actually. Well, like that's Gloriosa. Like that never actually happened. Sorry. That's on the second page. But I like how we just don't know anything about Tratoma so they just waited it up.

[Steven]

Oh yeah. Yeah. It's just all the. Oh, Luffy's mom and the lover.

[Zach]

Yeah, Luffy's mom. Yeah. Yeah. So Dragon should be there. Really?

[Steven]

Maybe. Yeah. Somebody made some very adorable little like Kobe cookies where it's a bunch of different looks at Kobe. Like original Kobe and Marine. Kobe and stuff. And they look very delicious.

[Zach]

I want cookies.

[Steven]

Yeah. Yeah, me too. Yeah. I don't know. I'm looking at. Usually I'm like looking for like what are the. Kind of the Mimi ones. But. But these are all.

[Zach]

These are all good. Yeah.

[Steven]

But there's something like on 216 someone drew like the Giants looking at the. The sleep tids. But they're. But they are like kid drawings and they just look like trog doors. It's amazing.

[Zach]

Oh, that's. That's an incredible. That looks like a kid did draw that picture.

[Steven]

Yes. I think that's. They must have like gotten their kid to do it like the the adult drew it and then the kid drew it or something.

[Zach]

That is amazing. You know what? Oda should have just had kids draw it for real. Like. Yeah, sometimes you have to. Sometimes you have to let go of your responsibility. Can't micromanage everything. Let real kids draw the sleep tits.

[Ken]

That's better than I can draw, honestly.

[Zach]

Oh, well. I don't know, Ken. I haven't seen you draw before.

[Ken]

It's not. It's not great.

[Steven]

There's a reason he was coordinating the character for the collab.

[Ken]

I did draw one character for the collab, but it was the fiery ghost spirit that Kanjuro makes. Cause that's just a weird blobby ghost.

[Zach]

Yes.

[Steven]

Was it Kanembo or something like that?

[Ken]

Kazenbo.

[Steven]

Kazembo.

[Zach]

Kazembo.

[Ken]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Kazembo. Oh, you.

[Steven]

True.

[Ken]

That was my contribution. Just a ghost.

[Zach]

Speaking of kind of. Of like blobby things on the. The last page of the Usopps Gallery. What are those? Like the. The. Like the demonic little versions from. It looks super familiar.

[Steven]

Yeah, somebody did little. Like Domi. Yeah, they're little Chibi. Like Domi. Reversy. Like demon versions. They look more like icons. Like they're not real.

[Zach]

I was gonna say this looks like merchandise. This it?

[Steven]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Or something like this is super merchandizable, but that is.

[Steven]

That is from I Heart Op. The. The artist.

[Zach]

Oh, well, there you go. There you go. It stood out to me, apparently.

[Steven]

Yeah, they're very cute.

[Zach]

The Kid Pirate 1 is kind of cool too, I guess. Even though they're all dead.

[Steven]

They're dead.

[Zach]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we know. Oh, WT100. Might as well find out where things stand, right? I think that's probably a good idea since that's advertised here. I have to.

[Steven]

Yes, yes.

[Zach]

I have to. You know, that's how advertising works. I recently learned that these top five are like. Which ones are the ones gaining the most steam?

[Steven]

Okay. Basically, it's momentum based.

[Zach]

Momentum based? Yeah, I'm pretty sure. And it would make much more sense. Like with rocks in particular. I feel like that's one that like. Okay, I get it. It. That's why so in. We'll do these quick and then we'll wrap. Give Stephen a chance to not talk. Japan. This is five through one. Ace. Trafalgar D Water Law Sanji Luffy Zorro in Asia Trafalgar D Water Law Nami Zorro Sanji Luffy Oceania Trafalgar D Water Law Robin Luffy Zoro Sanji. I have to say, the full name for law, it's contractual. I don't know with whom. In North America. Robin, Nami, Zoro, Luffy, Sanji North America. Finally something right? Central and South America. This is an interesting. This is interesting. Luffy, Utah, Nami, Zoro Sanji Wow, that's very interesting. Non canonical characters. Well, Quasi.

[Ken]

She's in there for a panel.

[Zach]

Yeah. In Europe. Robin, Luffy, Zoro Sanji Nami. Nami is doing very well this year. I feel like Middle east. Uta. Something must have happened with UTA this week. Or the bots are back. Maybe Utah, Zorro, Luffy, Nami, Sanji and in Africa, while. Here you go. Africa. I feel like. Does in these top five exemplify the movements the most? You have Zorro, Luffy, Nami, Sanji, and Utah at number one this week. Wow.

[Steven]

Back in town.

[Zach]

I think the southern hemisphere is really into Utah. I think these are almost all southern or like on the equator or somewhere around there. So something's happening. Since they're heading into the. What is it? Fall? Maybe they're getting in it.

[Ken]

I hope it's not boded like this contest doesn't really mean anything, but I do like knowing where everyone's thoughts actually are. Botting kind of spoils that a little bit.

[Zach]

Well, we're only up to 6.8 million, and if you recall, when there were a ton of bots, it was at 70 million, so. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, Steven, that kind of. That is also part of volume 114. Yeah. Yeah. Any final thoughts from anyone?

[Steven]

It's. It's a good one. But yeah, I'm looking forward to getting back to the Straw Hat story in the next volume.

[Zach]

Yeah. I'm curious what the COVID is going to be for 115. I'd be remiss to not think there'd be some sort of giant dragon on it. Yeah, I feel like that's.

[Steven]

I'm. I'm curious too. Like, I feel, you know, I mentioned it during the. The SPS part, but like, I feel like Oda has really been like kind of doing a clearinghouse on all these, like, oh, here's this story thing that I didn't quite get to. Here's this story thing that I didn't quite get to. And I'm like, I don't know if there's any other, like, things he can still clear up off the top of my head, at least. And so I'm kind of curious if that's going to be kind of the end of that for a while. And we're going to kind of get back to like, I don't know, more present matters in terms of, you know, new information.

[Ken]

The only thing I could think of is if he doesn't get to the Loki and Lola stuff.

[Steven]

Oh yeah, that is true.

[Zach]

Actually a lot of that Loki during that, that six year period.

[Ken]

I think that six year period he's at sea.

[Steven]

Yeah, right.

[Ken]

I'm sure they'll touch on it. I don't think we're ending.

[Zach]

Elbaf and the Thrillerburg silhouettes actually were not revealed. It was a mysterious other misty experience with giants that took place many years earlier.

[Ken]

Everyone's in the mist hiding.

[Zach]

This is the second mist incident and there's at least one other mist incident. So there's three. Three, three. That'll do it. For our manga recap, why don't we move into Piece Together?

[Steven]

All right.

[Zach]

This episode is brought to you by Redfin. You're listening to a podcast, which means you're probably multitasking, maybe even scrolling home listings on Redfin, saving homes without expecting to get them. But Redfin isn't just built for endless browsing. It's built to help you find and own a home with agents who close twice as many deals. When you find the one, you've got a real shot at getting it. Get [e-mail] own the dream. Refreshing Wild Cherry cola meets Smooth cream. The treat you deserve. Pepsi Wild Cherry N Cream Treat yourself. This is the Piece Together segment live from Yanokuni, New Jersey where we take your questions, comments and theories and rip it just like Billy the Ripper used to back in those days, you know. What's our first segment?

[Ken]

Ken Dispies. First up, we got Big Mike. Hey Opp, I was just browsing the YouTube channels of other One Piece content creators. Oh, and I noticed that your rival Sonata has almost twice as much subscribers as his on his channel where he shows off his collection of one piece merch like than you guys. You guys may have outperved him with your boyfriend bracket episodes and all the other lewd content on your podcast, but he still has more subscribers than you. What do you, what do you plan to do about this?

[Steven]

Well, clearly the answer is remove the lewd content.

[Zach]

We to be more like we have been. We have been removing the lewd content. This is after we remove all that.

[Ken]

Wait, we need to be more lewd on here or less lewd?

[Zach]

Yes.

[Ken]

Or More loot on YouTube? Less loot on the podcast?

[Zach]

I don't think it's possible to be less lewd.

[Ken]

I mean, when we do our Next bracket with our glup shittoes like that could be more lewd.

[Zach]

If you want to put that in.

[Ken]

Yeah.

[Steven]

You didn't announce that yet.

[Zach]

Yeah. Come on. What are you doing? What's next?

[Ken]

Our last DIS piece we have Guardian Ant. Hi Opp. The Celestial Dragons treat humans as ants. And the great Emu had been very clear that they seem most matters as trivial. But Emu did did just scold Warcrate to discard arrogance and attachment before their descent into the lower world. I guess the matters of late have finally been deemed untrivial. Do you think Emu understood for a long time that these mace. These many small coincidences have been accumulating and formed a plan? Or do you think they finally realized in these last few chapters that it's just gotten serious?

[Zach]

I genuinely, I genuinely don't know. Like what. I mean, why, why did this push him to do this and not like God Valley, which I was just looking at the volume with like the page where with all like the big shots including teenage Kaido fighting against Emu and Saturn modern, like why was that not more of a, you know.

[Steven]

Yeah, I mean I think that's, I think that's one of those things where it's just like, okay, it comes down to Oda to like, you know, retcon like an explanation so that it. So that the. The Big Bad was not solving all of the problems as they occurred. But I would guess, I mean even the greatest villain, like they have to have a flaw, they have to be fallible for the hero to get the better of them. And so, you know, I am not opposed to a, a mind cannon. That Emu is kind of slow on the uptake here. Like maybe being immortal causes your brain to actually work a lot slower.

[Zach]

Or, or it could also be, you know, like when you're at the top and you're tyrannical and. Or you're untouchable. Yeah, you are. But you also don't get all the right information all the time. Like sometimes you just have sycophants or you just have, you know, people are doing the thing that you want them to do, not necessarily what you need to hear. And that might be part of what's going on.

[Ken]

We're living in a post vegapunk message the world world too because like before, like we don't know what Emu's overall plan is for the world, but now, okay, the message is out there, the secret's out there, the bubbles in burst and they're just looking at Elbaf like, oh, there's Nidhogg. Oh, I can't dummy reverse Nidhoggar or Nika. Like, all these new things could be like, all right, I can't just keep ignoring this.

[Zach]

The Holy Land is either quote unquote, or actually on fire.

[Ken]

On fire. Everything's going to shit now. So I think he moved.

[Zach]

Yeah. The revolutionaries are really getting the upper hand. Generally. There's a food shortage. There's. Yeah. And Vegapunk's message, I'm sure, has stirred everyone else. Like, things are finally really riling up around the world, as far as we know. I mean, I'm sure it's even crazier than what we know.

[Ken]

Popeyes event is only in six locations. Emu has only six.

[Steven]

Yeah, the people are right.

[Ken]

The people are fighting.

[Zach]

It's time for Emu to show up in person.

[Ken]

Emu saw the video, all the scalpers. I have to do something.

[Zach]

I'll say if someone got an emu cosplay together in time for. It's April 13th, so it's today as they were listening to this. If they're listening to this when it comes out. If they are able to get an emu cosplay together in time. Excellent. He had to descend to the lower world to go to Popeyes.

[Ken]

That or bring the Japanese plush of silhouetted emu Popeyes and have him sitting in one of the boots.

[Zach]

I should have ordered one of those.

[Ken]

I kind of want one of those too. Those pretty great.

[Zach]

I'll say. One of my favorite posts I saw this week is, yes, I know he's, you know, he's an imbo and he's around and all that, and he looks great, whatever, but he'll always be a silhouette to me. And it's true. It's true.

[Ken]

Was it you who made that post? Of all our past emu images, that was genius.

[Zach]

Yes, the Grimu will never get back the grimmest. Yeah, I think it's perfect because the silhouette fits perfectly.

[Ken]

Oh, Zach, they're on eBay for 150.

[Zach]

That's not as bad as I would. The Popeyes.

[Ken]

No, the greasy boxes, the giant EMU plushes are 150 on eBay, it looks like.

[Zach]

Why don't we move away from the shores of Dispiece Steven to somewhere else?

[Steven]

Okay, we'll go to the subreddit archipelago@red thread.com R One Piece Podcast. This is from last week. So we'll get some emu questions in here.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Steven]

And Brad Wonder, who created the thread, started off with, hey, Opp, I know that the emu hype is real, but I wanted to mention a fun Chopper theory that I haven't heard mentioned on the pod yet. I saw it a couple weeks ago, so this is not my original idea, but the gist is that Emu designated Chopper as the the other reverse player because of Chopper's low bounty. So because Chopper was deemed the least threatening enemy, he was able to flip others with as much ease as Emu. It's a bit silly, but I like it much more than Chopper's devil fruit being some special and amazing power. That's pretty good.

[Zach]

It's good. That would. You see, I think Emu's an idiot. As we discussed. We discussed him being an imbo.

[Steven]

Yeah, that's true.

[Zach]

I also like. So he would have to know the bounties, and then he would have to be a power scaler. Is he that evil that he power scales through bounty numbers?

[Ken]

Oh, obviously.

[Zach]

Oh, he is, isn't he? Okay, no, this makes perfect sense, actually.

[Ken]

They revealed that Imu was the one making the bounty numbers all this time.

[Zach]

Let's go with 5683-000000-00000,000, it is, it's

[Ken]

like a weird chain of command. Like the marines ask the elders, the elders ask Emu, and then it gets passed down the chain of command each time.

[Zach]

Yeah, it's like, ooh, I'm gonna do. I'm gonna make this one a pun.

[Steven]

Yeah, yeah. This is a number joke.

[Ken]

Oh, he has three swords. What should I do about this?

[Steven]

This one. 111 boobies when you put it upside down. All right, next one.

[Zach]

Got it.

[Steven]

That's the answer right there from Ice Fisher 10. Who says hello? OPP. This chapter was like an asteroid impact. I was blown away by Imu's design. Though I'd be lying if I said I wasn't hoping for Lady Emu. I am grateful to Oda for making Emu as androgynous as possible and noticed a lack of any third person pronouns, so jury might still be out. Then again, maybe not, since Emu appears to be shirtless. I say all this to preface my theory that Imu could be a. A rebis. I've not seen this word. R, E, B, I, S. It's a kind of alchemical ultimate product, like the philosopher's stone said to be a perfect fusion of opposites, young and old, human and beast, order and chaos, saint and sinner, man and woman. Could the immortality operation be responsible? What do you think? Am I just on copium?

[Zach]

The divine hermaphrodite Is the. Apparently determined. That's the.

[Ken]

For rebus.

[Zach]

That's the literary term, I guess. I'm trying to see where this comes from specifically.

[Ken]

It sounds Latin. Rebus.

[Zach]

It is. Yeah.

[Ken]

Okay.

[Zach]

I mean, I think. Yeah, no, no, it is respina, meaning dual or double. I'm looking at Wikipedia, but it also comes from the image appeared in the work of Azoth of the Philosophers by Basil Valentine. Oh, maybe that was that guy who wrote in earlier Valentine Florence from. Except this was in 1613, so probably

[Ken]

not the same guy.

[Zach]

No, probably not.

[Steven]

He had the immortality operation.

[Zach]

I mean, I think. I mean, it could be that. I feel like it's just. What are the bassoon kind of. We got.

[Steven]

I mean, I don't think that Oda is going for that, but it would be interesting to find out what kind of like, artistic influences he is synergizing in his. In his depiction. I will point out that when they do say. And I feel like this was also repeated somewhere else, that when they do say so, when they say saint. So and so in the names, there is a certain kanji that they use that. That is translated to saint because it means like the holy or something like that. But like Shalrya, the female celestial dragons have a different kanji. And so the fact that that Emu. When it says like Saint Nerona Emu in the. The color spread and then. Or not the color. But then in the last chapter and then I think it was used one other place before that is the. The one that you see on all the males. So, you know, that. That would definitely suggest that. That Oda sees him as a guy. And I would agree. You know, since the.

[Ken]

Is that Ivankov used to describe him back when they were theory crafting with Sabo.

[Zach]

Oh, that's a good question.

[Steven]

Did he actually say.

[Ken]

No, I think he just said there's a name emu.

[Zach]

No, I don't think he said saint.

[Ken]

Did he not say saint? Okay, did.

[Zach]

Did he? Because if he did, then we've known this.

[Ken]

You guys keep talking.

[Steven]

Yeah. It seems like we have a male character here, though.

[Zach]

Yeah, I agree. Though. I really like that theory of the divine androgynous being. That's fun. I don't.

[Steven]

Isn't that a common sort of medieval, demonic artistic motif that, like the demon is like hermaphroditic or something that they have, you know, both.

[Zach]

Why can't a demon just male and female qualities have a gender?

[Ken]

I didn't bring this up in the last episode, but it's kind of genius. You know, that famous Quote that, like, the devil's greatest trick was proven the world he didn't exist. Like, the fact that Emu has tricked the world, like, oh, there is no king. It's very just fitting thematically, I will say.

[Zach]

I will say the fact that Emu and the demonic elements do feel very Western is fun. I mean, I don't know like, how much of like. I guess I don't even want to say Christian because I think a lot it's probably pagan. And like, earlier in, like, when I say Western too, I don't mean even just European. I think there's. It's a very. It's just non Japanese, kind of like,

[Ken]

hell, he's definitely depicting like. Like, I think like the cuphead devil. Oh, it has the tail and the horn.

[Zach]

I'm only aware of that because I'm watching Stevenson.

[Ken]

Yeah, that's why I bring it up. It's selling the devil thing without going like, oh, kind of demon or devil is this?

[Steven]

Yeah, it's a visual move motif.

[Ken]

Yeah. I found the chapter in 1086. Chapter 1086. Ivankov says there was a monarch named Saint Emu of the Rona dynasty and uses. So. Uses saint. So that's this. If that's the same way it was used, then.

[Steven]

Yeah.

[Zach]

What chapter was that?

[Ken]

That's 1086, page 13.

[Zach]

Okay.

[Steven]

Yeah, that was what I was thinking of. So. Yeah, that was already kind of a point of evidence that it was. It was, you know, probably not.

[Ken]

Yeah, I'm fine with him being a guy again. I thought him being.

[Zach]

To discuss that. Actually, now that I think about it,

[Ken]

like, him being a girl would have been interesting. But, like, I have no problem with him being a guy. I just wanted to see what he looked like pre fruit. Like, because I don't think the horns and the tail, like, like, I'm sure that's the power of his fruit before

[Steven]

he got all fruited up.

[Ken]

Exactly. I want to see what he looked like. To me, he's like a skinny little dude and then he got full devil.

[Steven]

I need Josh here.

[Zach]

I still think he has the silhouette fruit. I think that's. I mean, like half jokingly, but like,

[Ken]

we saw him transform into. He transformed into a dragon. He transformed to a big, like, amorphous blob chasing sabot. Like, he's changed his form a bunch of times and now we're seeing he can give the power of demons to, like, the five elders and whatnot. Because those were never fruits. They were just demon powers or monster powers that come from Emu. So it looks like he can create, like, any demon or devil out of mythology. Like, it's a. It's a very loaded power, what he's doing with the contracts and souls and tattoos. But it all fits into that devil, afterlife, underworld, theming. So I'm not. I. I think it's fine. I like it.

[Steven]

Okay. All right, let's move on. 23 years virgin says. Hey, opp. Happy post. Emu reveal. Since Opla is finding its own pace and narrative, don't you think the One Piece remake. I'm guessing he means the One Piece might change the narrative to avoid certain retcons in the story. Or would you prefer it to stay true to the manga but with better pacing? And my second question is, what are you guys doing for spring break? As for me, I'm going to renovate my backyard. Cheers. And keep up the great work. I don't know. I'm not in school. I. Yeah, I don't have kids, so I don't know when spring break actually is.

[Zach]

It happened for us already, but I think it's different.

[Ken]

It was this past week.

[Zach]

Yeah, it was this past week. This came from two weeks ago or a week ago?

[Steven]

No, this is one week ago.

[Zach]

Yeah. So that makes sense.

[Steven]

Yeah. One week since.

[Zach]

Didn't we, Stephen? Did you say that?

[Steven]

Yeah, yeah, I just did a bare neck.

[Zach]

It's been one week. Yeah. Ken, that. We're not doing that again. That was last week.

[Ken]

Sorry.

[Zach]

Yeah, I remember if we recorded that. Yeah,

[Steven]

yeah. Now the question of, like, should the One Piece.

[Zach]

That's a good question.

[Steven]

Avoid. That is a really tough question to answer because I think. Yeah, I think some of those things are knots that, like, if you pull them out straight, they're just a line and it just removes everything. That would be interesting about it, potentially. I guess that would be stuff like, oh, should things like akin to, for example, in translation would be like, oh, well, if you re translated, it should you say Laugh Tale. Because everyone knows.

[Zach]

Yeah, right.

[Steven]

But. But like, since. Since it's out, you know, it's out of the bag. The cat is out of the bag. So at some point, you know, you just kind of assume. Well, people just absorb it by osmosis. So we might as well just use Laugh Tale from the start and then that reveal is no longer as exciting as it was. Or do you preserve it?

[Zach]

I'll say my two cents on this. Like. So I was thinking, like, how the Easter eggs, I'll call them, which is really what we're talking about here, like, being able to Retcon. Retcons in opeluv. It like, it irritates me a little. However, the real question is, is how is it digested by someone who is reading this, watching this for the first time?

[Steven]

Yeah.

[Zach]

And that is a question I legitimately have no ability to answer, and probably. And certainly no one listening to this podcast has the ability to answer that either. Yeah, yeah. So. And I think, you know, a lot of what I noticed with the live action is that a lot of these things are dropped, like the bartellemeo thing or, you know, like there's little, obviously, things in the background. And someone watching that show for the first time, maybe with the same kind of magnifying glass that we would use on like a manga chapter, you know, to theorize, oh, what could this be? What is this? And they would have a completely different take on it. It wouldn't seem as superfluous or as f. Servicey to them.

[Ken]

Yeah.

[Steven]

The problem is.

[Zach]

But it might.

[Steven]

They would have to go to those insane lengths knowing that, like, the answers to all the questions are like a half a second away. You just type it into the Google search bar and you'll get all the answers to everything of that. So, yeah, it's just so unlikely that any. That, you know, there's a significant number of people out there who would observe. I don't know, I feel like they just. They hear all of those, like, references like, oh, you know, you know, they. They did so many, you know, Easter egg, like, referring to this or bombs dude. I think they hear that and it's the same thing as when, like, Gandalf is like, we must go through the

[Zach]

forest of blah, blah, blah.

[Steven]

And they're. I was just like, oh, it's that name. Like, what? Whatever the. Exactly. And. And they just like completely, you know, it just does not even register at all.

[Zach]

I think that's how it goes when people, like, ask me about, like, seeing spoilers early in the series. Like, what if I saw a picture of.

[Steven]

It's the people who go, like, that's a spoiler. That's. They would have no idea it was

[Zach]

a spoiler until you made a fussy picture of Yamato. Like, right. That's not gonna register to me at all. I'm going to completely forget I'm just doing this to piss Ken off. But like, but seriously, like, when you see something like that happens way further in the. And it's like, before you really are digesting the series, you're not.

[Ken]

Yeah, yeah, I didn't mind it in the Live Action. Because in my head, they're not reaching, just Rosa. So like the fact. Okay, let's throw Bartolomeo in here. And that's a fun little. Okay. We saw Bartolomeo last night. We got to see him.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Ken]

Even if we never got to jessrosa for the One Piece, the WIT Studio one, I want it to be as one to one as the manga as possible. It was written that way on purpose. And yes, there are are quote unquote retcons, but you don't know their retcons when you're watching or reading it.

[Zach]

Would you be upset? Not if Bartolomeo played like a role. I'm not saying. But what if he was like, in the audience there?

[Steven]

Like in the audience.

[Ken]

I wouldn't want that because I'm expecting Wit Studio to do the entire series and we'll see him eventually with Live Action. I have doubts.

[Zach]

So I think that there should be minimal tweaks and this is the reason. And we have the manga. Like, I think each adaptation should be just that. It should have something unique about it. And the anime is one to one, so to speak, with lots of extra ones added in there, like for filler early on and that kind of thing.

[Ken]

I don't want to labor on this too long, but like to open a can of worms when we eventually find out why Shanks lost his arm in the furry first encounter with Luffy.

[Zach]

No, I don't want that to. Yeah.

[Ken]

Can you imagine though, like, oh, that they have to retcon that. Like, okay, it's like, oh, my tattoo. Exactly. Do you show Shanks, like, do you show Shanks the tattoo and like him, like rolling up his shirt in the first episode to hide the tattoo, like, what do you like? Stuff like that would be bad, right? I don't want that.

[Steven]

Yeah, well, and also, they've already done that episode and then Oda's gonna reveal it like two years after.

[Ken]

Exactly. And then what's.

[Steven]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Zach]

So, yeah, by this point, they probably already done a lot of that.

[Ken]

I say no changes. Keep it to the manga as much as you can. It's fun when the Live Action does it. And this is supposed to be the definitive version of the manga to anime. It should be definitive.

[Zach]

I think as long as Oda thinks it was the. Like, I don't. The live action changes. Yes. Were approved by Oda, but they weren't like really written by Oda.

[Steven]

I think we could say that they weren't from him. Yeah.

[Zach]

I think if they are going to make those archon changes, they should be from him.

[Ken]

Correct.

[Zach]

Like, very specifically, I think having. Yeah. So like, for example, here's just a complete random one that we don't actually have. Let's say the skypiea, like hieroglyphs were supposed to actually like, refer to like the Harley and the stuff in the Deep Past lore. Then that. Yeah, do that. You know, like, if Oda had that in mind, even if it wasn't in the original, like, maybe Oda didn't really have the full scope. Scope of that like ancient past. I think, like, little like true Easter eggs in the background are that aren't like, so like, oh, look at this.

[Steven]

Are.

[Zach]

Are cool to have. But I. There's so many winks to the audience in OPLA that it like, kind of annoys me as like someone who has read the series very in depth for a very long time. Time. I know that's not everyone's.

[Ken]

The winx were fun. It didn't deter me too much. It's.

[Zach]

Sometimes they do like. And I don't think it's all of them, but like the Bartolomeo one, I actually did not mind. I thought it was cute, I guess. But there are like, definitely moments where they like, mention something as, like, they feel like they're winking at the camera. Even the Laugh Tale thing, even though it's in the manga. Oh, Roger. Remember when we were in Laugh Tale Wink?

[Ken]

Oh, yeah. God Valley. Like it was yesterday.

[Zach]

Yeah, I'm really. Did he say God Valley?

[Ken]

I feel like you're the hero of God Valley.

[Zach]

Oh, the hero of God. Yeah. Like, that's okay. You're being a little cute.

[Ken]

Like Pedro's wanted poster in Rogue Town.

[Zach]

And well, you wouldn't have noticed that

[Ken]

all the shops in Rogue Town were had like, the Saints like, names and like, stuff like that.

[Zach]

That isn't as bad because it's not. Not like, who cares?

[Ken]

It's just Easter eggs. It's just references. Like, again, no one would know.

[Zach]

I think the. The hero of God Valley is a little cute. Like, a little too cute.

[Ken]

I got you.

[Zach]

There's. There's like, levels of it. Anyway, can. Let's move on. Sorry, Stephen.

[Steven]

All right. Amiibo Hunter says with Blackbeard's powers negating devil fruits, do you think his power would also negate Emu's power of the devil fruit? Thanks, Opp. It's great to see Alex and Steve back in rotation.

[Ken]

It's.

[Steven]

It's nice to hear from my fellow. From my fellow old men again. Hope the whole crew is Doing great.

[Zach]

Yeah. And instead you got the young men.

[Ken]

I'm so sorry.

[Zach]

That was the question.

[Steven]

Yeah. Blackbeard. Will Blackbeard's powers negate his power? I mean, that's a real good question

[Zach]

to test out if we don't know what his power is technically.

[Ken]

Still, if all devil fruit come from IMU because he has the devil's fruit, then I would say that, no, the Blackbeard's fruit would not work on him. If devil fruit come elsewhere and Emu just has the devil devil fruit, then, yes, I would say Blackbeard's power would work against it.

[Zach]

I will say Blackbeard's ability to steal devil fruits is, like, the most in threatening. That's not the word I'm looking for. Like, ominous thread through the series that's kind of been happening in the background sometimes in the foreground. And the fact that I think Blackbeard is definitely an Achilles heel here. And remember, someone touched Saturn's face too, so. Right. It was Saturn.

[Ken]

Yes.

[Zach]

What's her. Katarina.

[Ken]

Katarina Devon.

[Zach]

Yeah, Catarina Devon. Which she has. Oh, no. What was it? It was.

[Ken]

She was the ninetail Fox power.

[Zach]

Ninetale fox. I mean, that's basically Bon Clay's thing. Whatever.

[Ken]

I still don't understand how that plan works. Like, if, like, Saturn starts walking around the Holy Land again, like, didn't you die? He passes garlic. Wait a second.

[Zach]

But does that mean she also has that, like, power too? Like that?

[Ken]

No, I think she can just mimic it.

[Zach]

Becomes a little op. But then you have Bonnie. So next.

[Steven]

All right, last two. Very quick upstairs. Jackfruit says, hey, Opp. Another absolutely amazing chapter. Still can't believe we got the reveal of the King of the world. My immediate reaction when I saw Emu was Enaru vibes. Did anybody else feel that? Also been loving the guests from the live action too. Great work as always. Cheers. Yes. Well, did you. Did you appreciate our discussion about Eneru and pants and. And setting up Steve with the quiz to try to get him to guess that we were talking about Enaru?

[Ken]

That was fun.

[Steven]

That was good. Yeah.

[Zach]

Yeah, that was fun.

[Steven]

And last. Oh, do you have anything?

[Zach]

No, that was it.

[Steven]

Okay, last one from Waffles who says, hey, Op. Insane Chapter reveal. ODA is giving Emu a time limit outside of Mary Joa. How do you think he will be able to stay? Also, what color do you think Emu's skin is? Wrong answers only.

[Zach]

I genuinely think it is green or red. Like some otherworldly color.

[Steven]

Yeah, I mean, if it's going to be a devil thing. Like, I know wrong answers only. But yeah, so like a dark answer

[Zach]

is only like plaid.

[Steven]

Yeah.

[Ken]

Purple. He's keeping his grimace.

[Steven]

Look. Lavender.

[Zach]

No, what's the. What's the periwinkle? Gingham. Gingham, Periwinkle. Well, what's the other. What's that other design? Like the Scottish plaid. I forget what that's called. No one knows what I'm talking about.

[Steven]

Oh, I know what you're talking.

[Ken]

I know what you're talking about.

[Zach]

I just can't think of the name. Whatever. I hear people yelling at us in the future. Again, that's not how podcasts work.

[Steven]

The time limit. I think it would be really funny if it was like. If it was like two pages.

[Zach]

Yeah. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Thank you, Ken. That's why you're here, to Google things quickly. To google things. I don't want to make the type of sound while I'm working.

[Steven]

What else do archivists do today in modern day?

[Zach]

You're the archivist.

[Ken]

Not much.

[Zach]

Thank you, Ken. That does it for Piece together. Thank you for sending in those questions. Apologies. Our manga recap was like seven hours long last week, so we weren't able to get to a lot of these. But I'm glad we did. Stephen has not read the chapter yet, so these are real answers. I have not read the chapter yet. Just in case anyone was wondering. That's round off the show. Your next chapter in healthcare starts at Carrington College's School of Nursing in Portland. Join us for our open house on Tuesday, January 13th from 4 to 7pm you'll tour our campus, see live demos, meet instructors and learn about our associate degree in nursing program that prepares you to become a registered nurse. Take the first step toward your nursing career. Save your spot now at Caring Carrington Edu events. For information on program outcomes, visit Carrington. Edu Sci. This has been the One Piece Podcast 900 Episode 914 for the week of April 13, 2026. Thank you all for coming on the show this week. A reminder, the Polls Forever Patreon sticker of the month crew are currently open vote between Luffy holding up a book or Nami Lego fied. Those are your choices. We also have Opala continuing this week. Aura, the wonderful, amazing musician who sang the vocals to Am I Enough. Tony Tony Chopper from the Drum island episodes of the live action series. Plus, if you haven't listened to OPLA yet, great stuff. I'm hoping after we're done with this Set of interviews to do kind of this season recap. I know people have been asking for it has just been scheduling on our end and getting that all together so hopefully we could do like a real dive and maybe I'll give it another watch as well. So look forward to those. Those come out every Wednesday or regular episodes like like this one come out on Monday. Steven, where could people find you?

[Steven]

I'm over on blue sky. StevenPaul, BSGuy Social and yeah, check out One Piece. We'll be back next week. Kane Banashi is rolling along. The anime has started. Check it out on YouTube and Kurumi's always Folly should have another chapter coming up soonish next next week or two. So yeah you can. You can see all those on shonen jump or manga plus I am curious

[Zach]

how Akane got like how YouTube got that and I actually really like it. It's. It's nice not to.

[Ken]

Yeah.

[Steven]

Yeah. Not to have to deal with a subscription.

[Zach]

Yeah yeah. Although I do anyway. Ken, where could people find you?

[Ken]

You can find me anywhere online under kindking01 whether that be blue sky, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, not Twitter. Anywhere. Anywhere. I'm the same name everywhere. Very easy to find. And please check out the one piece art collab. I plug it every week. It is at OppCollab, BSGuy Social. It was a huge project where me and our artist Kirby got hundreds of artists together to draw hundreds of one piece characters. It lasted well over a year and now we post a character a day over there. It's like a little one piece calendar. Very fun. So please check that out.

[Zach]

You can follow [e-mail] on Blue Sky. Follow [e-mail] on Blue Sky. Or you could find us [e-mail], where Emu's eyes see you. As of this recording they might disappear.

[Ken]

That was a very fun addition to the website.

[Zach]

Yes, huge thanks to Sai also last week for her episode image.

[Ken]

Incredible.

[Zach]

Yeah. Trying to be coy about the emu reveal and also show the emu reveal is a tough. Is a tough one. You could follow us, subscribe, rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, the rest of them [e-mail] One Piece Podcast. We are trying to pay more attention to all of you who are listening and watching on YouTube. So please let us know what you like, don't like, etc. About the our releases there. They come out the same day as they do everywhere. Else maybe a couple hours later, just because of technical stuff, but check that. That out, and I think that is it.

[Steven]

We have one. One last thing. What is our next bit of audience participation going to be?

[Zach]

Yes.

[Ken]

Oh, right, right, right. So thank you all for participating in our Ark Madness, our Marsh Madness bracket competition. I know a lot of people thought the ending was a little anticlimactic because. Wow. My man.

[Steven]

Yeah.

[Ken]

Yeah. The four highest rated arcs were the final four with very little fanfare.

[Zach]

They're good.

[Ken]

They're good arcs. It plays out exactly as you expected, honestly. But our next bracket, which may be up as the time that you're listening to this, I'm not sure yet. I'll try to get up as soon as possible. But we are doing our own. The universal term known as glup shito. But we're calling this Glup Beardos. We have pulled the people the Patreon.

[Steven]

Glup shit beards.

[Ken]

Glub shit beard. Is that what we called it?

[Steven]

Yeah. I mean, you know, we could call them glub beardos if you don't want to cuss in the name of the glop Ship beards.

[Ken]

That's what we called. Yeah, Glop ship beards.

[Zach]

Glop ship beards is funnier. I was gonna say.

[Ken]

Yeah. Yep. Glop ship beards. But we've pulled the host, the Patreon, and people in the general discord, and we are gonna pit all these little freaks that everyone loves against each other and should be a much more freak. That's really what they are.

[Zach]

We named all of them Alex several times. Named a lot of them, I should say.

[Ken]

Yes. Let me pull that up real quick.

[Zach]

They're all our endorsements for the WT100. They're all our endorsements.

[Steven]

That's where we started.

[Ken]

Names on here. We have Strawberry. We have poor Chemi Penis Face. We have Kinderell on here. Charlotte, mascot of Mr. Gelato. It's a bunch of the podcast fan favorites with a bunch of. Of what you guys suggested as well. So it's gonna be completely random. This one's not gonna be seeded because how do you do.

[Zach]

I don't think it needs to be seeded.

[Ken]

How do you seed some of these guys?

[Zach]

Yeah, Strawberry is gonna beat all of them. I don't really see what the issue

[Ken]

is here, but this should be a more interesting competition, start to finish, where no one. We can't really predict how this one will play out, but yeah. Thank you all for enjoying the last one so much. It was very fun. Seeing everyone vote in the polls. So hopefully we can make this a monthly or a reoccurring thing.

[Zach]

I was just going to say, if you want to vote or participate, you. All you need to do is join our Discord. It's free to do. Anyone could do it. The link is on our website. It's the link that looks like the Discord logo. Or you could find it. I think you could probably just search it on Discord and find us. But yeah, anyone could subscribe. And it's in our. What's the Twitter channel? It's the bracket, it's the current polls, just under brackets of consequence. So there you go.

[Ken]

Yeah, there's two channels underneath that category. One for the polls, one for the discussion. So everything is separated and you could

[Zach]

join our wonderful community. Over a thousand folks have already subscribed on our main Discord server. So, yeah, join us there. Give us some boosts if you'd like. But Patreon's more important. So if you have to choose Patreon, I think that'll do it. Next week we're gonna go through chapter. What are we up to? 1180, I believe. And I think after that, is it Golden Week after that? Is that what we're up to in the year already?

[Steven]

Oh, that might be coming up soon. I'm not sure.

[Zach]

Yeah, I think. Well, we'll see. We always have more stuff to talk. Talk about.

[Ken]

Golden Week is April 29th through May 6th. So that is.

[Zach]

That is. That is the week after next.

[Ken]

Yeah.

[Zach]

So we'll either have the double issue this week or next week then. That might also be why. Yeah, well, we'll see. But until then, everyone, my name is Zach Ice. We'll see you next time, everyone. Goodbye, Sam.