One Piece VI: Wano Piece

[Devonix]

This might be were we are crossing wires here. I think the decision to base Iva's design on Frank-N-Furter, alongside an actual cross dressing friend of his, is deliberate and I don't think it's the only way in which western views on the LGBT community are relevant.


But it is, we have a term that he made up to represent a group of flashy and classy badasses leading their own nation and culture which has declared itself beyond gender, lead by Frank-N-Furter with the serial numbers filed off, clearly is drawing comparisons not to any one group or culture. Viewing them through a western lens is absolutely valid and not whitewashing or ignoring anyone.

Looks like a duck, quacks like a duck. Is most likely a duck unless proven false.

[Claudius Maximus]

One of the most common Japanese words for trans and cross-dressing individuals is "newhalf." Okama is also in widespread use, though you will hear "gay," "lesbian," and LGBT sometimes too. Okama and newhalf are considered a bit behind-the-times or insensitive by some.

More specific or modern terms are generally imported as katakana words, but are not necessarily well-known except among LGBTQA+ populations or whatever younger people happen to have moral education textbooks that include modern takes on the matter.

Anyway, I always saw the newkama as half newhalf, half okama, because they incorporate both gender/sexual identity and sexual orientation.

[Braininthejar2]

I guess we'll have to wait and see how Yamato does in a real fight - women in One Piece have some traditonal narrative stacked against them and tend to suffer from needing to be saved regardless of how strong they are supposed to be. (Big Mom being a conspicuous exception)

Casually parrying gear 3 Luffy seems to point towards 'man', but we'll have to wait and see.

[ben-zayb]

I guess we'll have to wait and see how Yamato does in a real fight - women in One Piece have some traditonal narrative stacked against them and tend to suffer from needing to be saved regardless of how strong they are supposed to be. (Big Mom being a conspicuous exception)

Casually parrying gear 3 Luffy seems to point towards 'man', but we'll have to wait and see.

I wouldn't even consider Big Mom fully exempt, since she got momentarily shafted by soap opera amnesia BS.

Robin and Nami may get spotlight, probably against Ulti and Black Maria if Oda wants to stick with woman vs woman. Ulti vs Robin in a grappling fight, anyone?

[A.A.King]

I wouldn't even consider Big Mom fully exempt, since she got momentarily shafted by soap opera amnesia BS.

Robin and Nami may get spotlight, probably against Ulti and Black Maria if Oda wants to stick with woman vs woman. Ulti vs Robin in a grappling fight, anyone?

Big Mom's amnesia though had less to do with saving her and more to do with others being saved from her. The amnesia allowed her to be in the story without posing immediate danger but with the ever present possibility of her becoming a danger again. It was definitely a cheap trick, which amnesia pretty much always is (just ask Sabo), but even with her amnesia everyone was still scared of her.

[Dragonus45]

Yea the amnesia plotline just helps highlight how truly terrifying Big Mom actually is by making her this giant Sword of Damocles.

[LaZodiac]

New chapter!

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The samurai begin their climactic, and very cool duel! Luffy spies on Kaidou's speech with Yamato, who reveals his sordid past in further detail. Kaidou reveals his great plan to unite with Big Mom to take over Wano and hunt down the One Piece themselves, and makes a show of how serious he is by slaughtering Orochi in front of everyone! He's a hydra so it's fine but also this is SUPER graphic for One Piece.

We also get something that I am reminded of, regarding Yamato; a lot of the oda boxes in this arc have been lies. Showing everyone by their Wano disguises and stuff, as shown with "Olin the Oiran" here. So clearly we can extend Yamato the same courtesy. He's a guy! Even his abusive dad agrees!

[ben-zayb]

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Pretty sure that's Kiku weeping after making a Kanjuro sashimi. But was that just ink clone shenanigans?

Orochi has the eight-headed Yamata no Orochi mythic zoan, not the nine-headed (or six, depending on source) Hydra mythic zoan. That said, he probably has a trick where he actually can live as long as he has 1 head left, and now we are down to 7.

Yamato looks like a lock to join the SH Grand Fleet now, if not the SH crew itself.

Too bad for Nami, but Zeus was never really her power anyway.

Kaido sorta screwed himself by possibly dividing his force at the worst possible time. Like the World Government that he isn't so fond of, ironically.

[LaZodiac]

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Pretty sure that's Kiku weeping after making a Kanjuro sashimi. But was that just ink clone shenanigans?

Orochi has the eight-headed Yamata no Orochi mythic zoan, not the nine-headed (or six, depending on source) Hydra mythic zoan. That said, he probably has a trick where he actually can live as long as he has 1 head left, and now we are down to 7.

Yamato looks like a lock to join the SH Grand Fleet now, if not the SH crew itself.

Too bad for Nami, but Zeus was never really her power anyway.

Kaido sorta screwed himself by possibly dividing his force at the worst possible time. Like the World Government that he isn't so fond of, ironically.

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Yeah, Kiku crying out of her samurai mask is... so ****ing good. It's a bit unclear to me, but I think so, yeah.

In my defense the Yamata no Orochi is hydra like, but I think it's a valid guess still.

I'd love for Yamato to become a full, or even part time, character. Badass dude crushing everyone with his giant oni club!

[A.A.King]

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I'm actually starting to think that Yamato her claims of 'being' Oden and Kaido's constant mentions of 'my son' are completely unrelated.

The interactions between Yamato and Luffy this chapter about who was more "Oden" really gives the idea she is just role-playing. Pretending to be Oden gives her the most sense of freedom she can have locked up on this island.

In the mean time, Kaido seems to not care about his daughter's wishes at all. Somebody who locks up their child under penalty of death and plans their entire life out for them does not strike me as the kind of parent who listens to their child personal pronoun wishes.

Just like Big Mom, Kaido doesn't habe a child, he has a tool, a pawn, a chess piece. Kaido wants his chess piece to become shogun of Wano but the problem is, the shogun has to be a male to be recognized by the people of Wano. This is why Momo is the true heir and not his older sister. Kaido needed a son for his plan to work and so he simply started calling his only child "my son" so that others would fall for it.

Though we have to wait 2 weeks to learn more...

[GloatingSwine]

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The interactions between Yamato and Luffy this chapter about who was more "Oden" really gives the idea she is just role-playing. Pretending to be Oden gives her the most sense of freedom she can have locked up on this island.

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If Yamato was about pretending to be Oden in order to be free for her* own sake, I don't think her response to Luffy would have been "maybe you're more Oden than me".

Yamato wants to be Oden because, as far as she's concerned, he's the only one who ever defied her father with any degree of success. She wants to be Oden because someone has to be.

If Yamato is to join the straw hats at the end of this arc, however, she's going to need to find her own reason for doing so. "Because Oden did" is not going to be enough for Luffy, he wants his crew to join for their own dreams.


* I do not believe that Yamato is intended to have a trans identity, because we've seen what that looks like in this arc with Kikunojo, "a woman at heart". Yamato is specifically inspired by Kaizuki Oden in a way that will lose relevance once Kaido is defeated, and currently presents as male as part of that specific inspiration, we do not know what she will be like when that is no longer necessary.

[LaZodiac]

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How hard is it for people to accept "Oden's a guy, so I decided I'm a guy"? Literally everyone refers to him as male. Also if we're going to get into this; Kiku is obviously a girl but everyone, including her sister, calls her male even if she has the heart of a woman. So by your rules we should refer to her improperly as well. Don't discredit Yamato just because he "feels like he's roleplaying".

Regardless, Kaidou using him as a pawn is absolutely true, regardless of how it shapes out. That said I feel like Kaido just... wouldn't care, if the people of Wano "didn't recognize" Yamato, since he intends to rule them with an iron fist anyway. So he's not just calling Yamato his son for that reason. If the shogun had to be male to be recognized he'd have just taken the title himself.

[Dragonus45]

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How hard is it for people to accept "Oden's a guy, so I decided I'm a guy"? Literally everyone refers to him as male. Also if we're going to get into this; Kiku is obviously a girl but everyone, including her sister, calls her male even if she has the heart of a woman. So by your rules we should refer to her improperly as well. Don't discredit Yamato just because he "feels like he's roleplaying".

Regardless, Kaidou using him as a pawn is absolutely true, regardless of how it shapes out. That said I feel like Kaido just... wouldn't care, if the people of Wano "didn't recognize" Yamato, since he intends to rule them with an iron fist anyway. So he's not just calling Yamato his son for that reason. If the shogun had to be male to be recognized he'd have just taken the title himself.

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Because the context it is presented in isn't straight forward, and "I thought this one guy was cool so I just decided I was male now." isn't exactly what I would call sterling representation for a loooooooot of reasons anyways. I've been waiting it out for actual details to get show up before wading into this subject but this chapter in particular was the one that made me go huh, because from context it seems like Kaido might just be a sexist ass who as part of being an abusive father just calls his daughter his son and everyone else just goes with it because he will kill them otherwise.

[GloatingSwine]

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How hard is it for people to accept "Oden's a guy, so I decided I'm a guy"? Literally everyone refers to him as male. Also if we're going to get into this; Kiku is obviously a girl but everyone, including her sister, calls her male even if she has the heart of a woman. So by your rules we should refer to her improperly as well. Don't discredit Yamato just because he "feels like he's roleplaying".

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The point is that there is going to come a time, likely at or before end of this arc as a result of contact with Luffy, when Yamato no longer needs to be Kaizuki Oden and stops doing things because they're what Oden did (because following your own dream is a really significant theme in One Piece as a whole).

When that happens, Yamato's male identity will likely not persist.

Kikunojo will continue to be a woman, because she's not trying to be a specific individual who happens to be a woman, she's a woman at heart.

[LaZodiac]

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Because the context it is presented in isn't straight forward, and "I thought this one guy was cool so I just decided I was male now." isn't exactly what I would call sterling representation for a loooooooot of reasons anyways. I've been waiting it out for actual details to get show up before wading into this subject but this chapter in particular was the one that made me go huh, because from context it seems like Kaido might just be a sexist ass who as part of being an abusive father just calls his daughter his son and everyone else just goes with it because he will kill them otherwise.

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As a trans woman myself I can say definitively that Yamato's actually pretty damn valid, actually. But I get it, things aren't 100% clear cut, and probably never will be, so I'm going to drop this discussion for the time being and instead focus more on the story. Still will be referring to Yamato properly though.

As for Yamato droping the male persona when he decides to stop living in Oden's shadow and become his own person... well, we'll see. I don't think it'll happen, but whatever. He's made it pretty clear that being like Oden is his dream, so I don't see why Luffy beating up his dad would STOP that, necessarily, but again. We'll see.

[GloatingSwine]

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As for Yamato droping the male persona when he decides to stop living in Oden's shadow and become his own person... well, we'll see. I don't think it'll happen, but whatever. He's made it pretty clear that being like Oden is his dream, so I don't see why Luffy beating up his dad would STOP that, necessarily, but again. We'll see.

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It's not just when Yamato stops living in Oden's shadow, it's when Oden's mission of opening Wano is complete. In 984 that's what Yamato says she's doing. She didn't decide to be Oden for her own sake, but for Wano's sake. Because someone had to be Oden to finish what he started.

You'll note she also immediately changes to presenting as female when she's in private away from any of her father's soldiers.

[LaZodiac]

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It's not just when Yamato stops living in Oden's shadow, it's when Oden's mission of opening Wano is complete. In 984 that's what Yamato says she's doing. She didn't decide to be Oden for her own sake, but for Wano's sake. Because someone had to be Oden to finish what he started.

You'll note she also immediately changes to presenting as female when she's in private away from any of her father's soldiers.

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He's not presenting as female just because he has a female body. All he did was drop a mask and rip the sleeves off his shirt. He wanted to be Oden BEFORE finding the journal. He goes by male pronouns and corrects Luffy when he's like "wait didn't you say son?". Also, note that despite no longer wearing his apparent disguise, everyone recognizes him as Yamato at the end of the latest chapter. So they know what Yamato looks like and still refer to him as his actual gender.

I think it is disingenuous a read of the story as presented to say that Yamato only wants to be Oden to open the country. Opening the country is a shared goal, but Yamato wants to live a storied, powerful life like he does, and his being a guy means "ah, then I'm a guy too".

[A.A.King]

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That actually is an interesting question to ask. Why does Kaido want to make his own child shogun of Wano?

It is undeniable that Yamato does NOT want that. Her wanting to be Oden clearly is not a wish to be shogun. This means Kaido is not doing it for the sake of his child's wishes. He has made it very clear, you either follow my orders or I'm perfectly happy with killing you. Kaido seems to have as much paternal instinct as the OOTS's Tarquin. This is not a loving dad puling whatever strings he can to get his child her dream job, this someone who is selfish and manipulative manoeuvring a pawn in place.

So the question becomes, why this pawn? Why can't he just assume the title himself and why does it have to be Yamato and not another member of his crew. Big Mom only believes in the loyalty of blood, but I find it hard to believe that Kaido would be using the same logic. Yamato may be his own flesh and blood but he has to keep her on this island against her own wishes. I very much doubt he doesn't know this, he has to know that to keep Yamato as shogun would still require trapping her on the island. There is not going to be a point where she will just sit back and accept her faith.

Surely it would be easier to let King do the job, or Queen or Jack or one of the Flying Six. I get why he had to get rid of Orochi, but there are so many other possible pawns he could replace Orochi with I don't get why he's fixated on somebody who doesn't want to do it.

I wonder if there is something special about Yamato that we don't know yet. Does Yamato have some kind of power visible since at least the age of 8 (when she got shackled for the first time). Did Yamato eat some kind of Devil Fruit that is just perfect for the job? Or is she like Shirahoshi. an Ancient Weapon that reincarnates? Kaido & Big Mom seem confident in their ability to get a hold of at least one Ancient Weapon so it could be that, though I'd hate if 2 of the 3 ancient weapons turn out to be actual people. The twist worked perfectly once but won't be as special a second time.

Why Yamato?

[Dragonus45]

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I’ll bet Yamato’s mother is from Wano, which when combined with being Kaido’s kid sort of creates a better claim to rulership then just sticking any other pirate in there.

[LaZodiac]

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The question remains; why bother with a "legitimate" heir at all, if he intends to just conquer and pillage it into his weapon factory? He doesn't need a son for that, he needs any ole figurehead.

[A.A.King]

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Either the plan to take control of Wano is a lot less violent than we are led to believe now, will be more similar to the way Orochi himself managed to become Shogun OR there is some other key piece of information about Kaido and/or Yamato that we are missing. Something that explains why Kaido believes Yamato to be the only acceptable Shogun for Wano

[ben-zayb]

Spoiler: Why isn't Kaido the Shogun himself?

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I'm assuming the simple answer to that is he still wants to be the Pirate King.

However, he can't manage a base of operations while at the same time go on a journey to get the Ancient Weapons, go to Raftel, and find One Piece. I'm almost confident he's sick and tired of having him and his main crew micromanaging Wano. Heck, his alcoholism may be because of work-related stress, if you consider the goal of building up and managing Wano as his work. Dude can't barely go out and have fun. After two decades, Kaido has established Wano as a solid, weapons-making stronghold, and he can finally leave it to the strongest person to manage it with an iron-fist.

Why not delegate King, or anyone from his crew? Think why Kaido's been captured multiple times and even stopped by Shanks while on his way to Marineford. He needs his main force out there on the seas, his most loyal and powerful warriors concentrated near him to take care of pesky admirals whenever he can't (i.e. falling down drunk). It's been suggested that Shanks stopped Kaido by means that involved alcohol, but I'm confident King and Jack would likely have none of that BS if they were there. Currently, we've already seen Jack and Gifters like Sheepshead out and about, but we have Queen stuck as the ruler of Udon and its prison mines and headliners like Babanuki and Holdem are stuck in Wano too.

That's why there's the new Onigashima Project. The idea, at least to me, is for him to have a subservient Yamato take command of Orochi's remaining Mimawarigumi and Oniwanbashu. Basically, have Wano take care of itself. While Orochi was a good pawn, Kaido favors might and Orochi seems anything but having that. Even if Yamato starts a Wano rebellion, Kaido can wipe the floor against them and their most powerful warrior.

Initially I thought of Kaido as a stage mom, but while being a funny mental image, the analogy doesn't fit. You guys were right and Yamato is just being treated as an extension of Kaido's will, same as everyone else under his command.

TL;DR Kaido lived a life of a stereotypical salaryman despite being his own boss, developed alcoholism due to that, and now wants to break the cycle.

[GloatingSwine]

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I wonder if there is something special about Yamato that we don't know yet. Does Yamato have some kind of power visible since at least the age of 8 (when she got shackled for the first time). Did Yamato eat some kind of Devil Fruit that is just perfect for the job? Or is she like Shirahoshi. an Ancient Weapon that reincarnates? Kaido & Big Mom seem confident in their ability to get a hold of at least one Ancient Weapon so it could be that, though I'd hate if 2 of the 3 ancient weapons turn out to be actual people. The twist worked perfectly once but won't be as special a second time.

Why Yamato?

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Yamato is trapped on Wano by the cuffs so Kaido regards her as sufficiently cowed to just shut up and be the figurehead he needs whilst he goes off and, quite possibly, dies in a blaze of glory (since he also seems to be suicidal and envies Whitebeard for having actually gone and died).

Also there's good reason for Kaido to be reasonably confident in his ability to get at least one of the Ancient Weapons. There's someone on Wano who knows Shirahoshi is Neptune and has neither the reason nor the strength of will to keep that information to themself. Caribou.

[Razade]

I'm fairly convinced we've seen or been told of all three now. Pluton's been mentioned a number of times, we know Neptune is actually the Mermaid Princess. That's left Uranus M.I.A. A lot of speculation places it in the Holy Land or it's the giant straw hat or things like that. I don't think it's either. I don't think mine is particular wild as far as speculation goes either.

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It's the thing that sucked Bege and his crew up into the sky. Nothing's ever been mentioned about it. It's not connected to the Big Mom Pirates in any way we've seen or been told about. It's literally just gone without mention. That whole event has been totally skipped over in the series and it seems very unlike Oda to include that and not have it be important.

Oaranos translates to Sky or Heaven in Greek.

[A.A.King]

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Yamato is trapped on Wano by the cuffs so Kaido regards her as sufficiently cowed to just shut up and be the figurehead he needs whilst he goes off and, quite possibly, dies in a blaze of glory (since he also seems to be suicidal and envies Whitebeard for having actually gone and died).

Also there's good reason for Kaido to be reasonably confident in his ability to get at least one of the Ancient Weapons. There's someone on Wano who knows Shirahoshi is Neptune and has neither the reason nor the strength of will to keep that information to themself. Caribou.

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It could be just the confidence that Yamato will go along with whatever he decides, willing or not. I still feel it would be easier to find a willing figurehead. Why force such a nice job on somebody that others would do anything for to get? Seems like a wasted recruitment opportunity.

The moment Kaido mentioned Ancient Weapons my head also immediately went to Caribou and Shirahoshi. The only question I have with regards to that is that Kaido seems quite willing to take on strong people after having broken them, if they already managed to extract that information out of Caribou why would they still have locked him up?

I wouldn't be surprised if Caribou is a red herring and we'll actually learn something more about a different Ancient Weapon. Of course, it could also just be him, but with Oda I try to never expect the most obvious answer

I'm fairly convinced we've seen or been told of all three now. Pluton's been mentioned a number of times, we know Neptune is actually the Mermaid Princess. That's left Uranus M.I.A. A lot of speculation places it in the Holy Land or it's the giant straw hat or things like that. I don't think it's either. I don't think mine is particular wild as far as speculation goes either.

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It's the thing that sucked Bege and his crew up into the sky. Nothing's ever been mentioned about it. It's not connected to the Big Mom Pirates in any way we've seen or been told about. It's literally just gone without mention. That whole event has been totally skipped over in the series and it seems very unlike Oda to include that and not have it be important.

Oaranos translates to Sky or Heaven in Greek.

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That could be it, though I'm sure we've seen other one of weird things like that. Panels that just serve to show case how wacky the grand line actually is. I doubt we'll learn more about the island Apoo found himself on in which they suddenly had cartoon physics and were able to walk on the sky.

My own person crazy theory with regards to Oaranos is that the One Piece world has a few too many moons for there not to be a "that's not a moon" scene. Enel's moon and those little robot soldiers have to come into play again at some point in the story. It being the final Ancient Weapon might just be crazy enough to be true.

[Razade]

My own person crazy theory with regards to Oaranos is that the One Piece world has a few too many moons for there not to be a "that's not a moon" scene. Enel's moon and those little robot soldiers have to come into play again at some point in the story. It being the final Ancient Weapon might just be crazy enough to be true. [/spoiler]

Technically (and the actual weapon is called Uranus) we've already seen how that all plays into the actual series. The Birkan and Shandora originally came from the Moon.

[ben-zayb]

Technically (and the actual weapon is called Uranus) we've already seen how that all plays into the actual series. The Birkan and Shandora originally came from the Moon.

My money's on having the secrets of Uranus hidden in one of the Sky Islands. I mean it makes sense that way. And personally, I'd like to see another Sky island adventure.

[LaZodiac]

New chapter!

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Yamato learns his father really, truly never loved him, and the Akazaya Nine mourn their dead comrade turned traitor... and then proceed to attack Kaido as a single force! Pretty hype!

[ben-zayb]

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I love the juxtaposition. On one hand, you have the combined Oniwabanshu and Mimawarigumi troupe of 10,000, who turned against their dead Kurozumi lord at the drop of a hat to save their hides. On the other hand, you have the Nine Red Scabbards and the 8-year old heir to the shogunate laying their lives in the name of their dead Kozuki lord.

Props to Luffy for his growth since Fishman Island, acknowledging it's not his war to start.

Izo disarming King is pretty awesome! Let's not forget, he's a WB Pirates division commander and pretty much their version of Yassop or Van Augur. King even acknowledged him by name. Nekomamushi disarming Kaido, though, that's... Wow! Actually, are we yet to see an Animal Kingdom Pirate member who has good observation haki?

TL; DR Luffy and Akazaya 9 are awesome. Momo, Izo and Nekomamushi are MVPs this chapter.

[PraetorDragoon]

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Shame we didn't get the fight vs Kanjuro. Good scene on them mourning him however.
The raid has fully begun! Very excited for the next chapter.