Even a Child’s Hatred Flipped Into Admiration
The child with wide, sparkling eyes standing beside Cologne is Orabu, Oimo’s grandchild. He had said he “hated” Oimo for being a barbaric pirate — but watching adults risk their lives to protect children from Toge and the cliff, maybe that hatred flipped and turned into admiration for pirates.
Zoro’s New Technique
Three-Sword Style: Red Demon — Okomega (赤鬼 怒巨)
This is clearly a technique scaled for Elbaf’s giants. The name “Okomega” is a mashup of “okome” (お米, rice) and “mega” (as in extra-large serving) — fitting for a giant-sized attack. And isn’t the slash pattern itself shaped like the kanji 米 (rice)?
In the Enies Lobby arc, Zoro’s techniques began as a “rice topping series” (shrimp mayo onigiri and so on), and the Kaku fight added a sushi topping series. Now he’s graduated to rice itself.
Even so, the scale of the cuts apparently rivals three great daimyo who once protected young Yamato. Zoro alone matching three samurai daimyo… that’s genuinely remarkable.
Is Chopper’s Ability Awakening?!
After transforming, Chopper lightly punched and the demonic possession simply… peeled off. More accurately, he stripped it away. Did he separate the body from the soul? During the Hogback fight, there’s a scene where Chopper thinks about separating flesh and soul — so that’s what it looked like to me.
I’ve also been theorizing for a while that Chopper’s Human-Human Fruit is a Mythical type — so if it has an ability related to drawing out life force, that personally makes complete sense. The Elbaf arc seems very likely to reveal the true name of Chopper’s Devil Fruit — Vegapunk would know, and it connects to Norse mythology too.
Since this arc is drawing on Enies Lobby homages, I’m hoping for a scene where Chopper awakens as a Mythical type — just like when he first transformed into Monster and went on a rampage.
Various Homage Elements This Chapter
This chapter was packed with homages to past arcs. Kirinagum, who had only had his skull dented by Sanji’s Concasse before, somehow ended up with his head, upper body, and lower body all separated. There’s no Zoro around, and Nami isn’t a slashing type — so how was he cut? Either way, a severed head alongside a dragon and frozen Garleya is unmistakably a Punk Hazard homage. ↓
The Punk Hazard homage is there because Loki is the key person who will revive Garleya.
And Luffy shrugging off Loki’s lightning strikes is a callback to Luffy being immune to Enel’s lightning in the Skypiea arc. The Skypiea homage exists because of the ancient research facility found on Elbaf — which was built by immigrants from the moon. Those moon immigrants descended to the highest point on the blue planet and established a base. That became the Treasure Tree Adam — in other words, Elbaf. At that time, there was probably no Red Line yet, and the Treasure Tree Adam was the closest point on Earth to the moon.
This is the heart of my analysis style: find the self-homage, ask why it’s being referenced, and future plot developments become visible. Oda is a history enthusiast → history repeats itself → so does ONE PIECE → learn from the past, understand the present.
And the final page — that’s a homage to Usopp’s revenge in the Water Seven arc. Which means Loki, the outcast of Elbaf, is positioned like Franky — the outcast of Water Seven — and will join Luffy’s crew…?
Cover Page Theory
This week’s cover page request: “Robin planting flowers in a flower bed dug by a mole.” Based on the chapter content, the associations go like this:
- Striped socks → Impel Down prisoner uniform → dejected Buggy → recreated as Nika
- Many mole holes → Usopp’s famous Alabasta line: “It’s when someone laughs at a crewmate’s dream” → Usopp’s anger switch → chapter title (Fury) callback
- Mole → Gedatsu’s cover page series (falling to the surface, going from Skypiea gang boss to a bathhouse manager) → the bathhouse that appeared in Alabasta
It’s this kind of word-association game. Usopp tends to get angry when someone mocks a crewmate’s dream or insults something someone holds dear — in a series fundamentally built on clashes of belief, that sensitivity makes him genuinely cool.
Speaking of Impel Down — that’s Buggy, Mr. 3, and Bon-chan. All three connect back to Crocodile through Baroque Works and Cross Guild. Between the Whack-a-Mole imagery and all these Alabasta associations, could an Alabasta self-homage be coming soon?
- Buggy → Cross Guild → Crocodile
- Mr. 3 → Baroque Works → Crocodile
- Bon-chan → Baroque Works → Crocodile
Netflix’s live-action Season 2 ended with Crocodile appearing, and Season 3 will certainly be the Alabasta arc. In the live-action, it was Crocodile who fed Wapol the Munch-Munch Fruit. If we use the Crocodile-Wapol link to predict future manga developments: Wapol is currently with Vivi. Morgans’ forces probably aren’t enough to protect them, so Wapol looks for a more powerful organization — sets his sights on Cross Guild, and tries to use Vivi as a bargaining chip to secure his own safety.
That would create a Crocodile-Wapol connection in the manga too, linking the live-action and the manga directly. Then Straw Hats vs. Cross Guild breaks out to rescue Vivi — and would that be when Zoro finally defeats Mihawk and becomes the world’s greatest swordsman?
That’s all for today. See you next week.