Chapter 986 today we’re gonna talk about the latest developments in One Piece. As a quick disclaimer: I’m basing this review off of the original Japanese version of the chapter and NOT the English translation.This way we’re independent of any scans or the official translation and I also think that this way I can give you some additional insights into the RAW text and dialog of the story. Nonetheless, please keep in mind that whileI’m quite comfortable with reading the text,as with any other version, my translation and interpretation of certain scenes might not be 100% bulletproof and might be open for other interpretations.
That being said, with this chapter, I think there was very little room for ambiguity and so without any further due, let’s get right into the meat and potatoes of chapter 986 of One Piece.Now the first thing, I think we have to address here, is the quote from one of Oda’s editors in a recent live stream.In case you don’t know what happened, because you are smart enough NOT to have a twitter account, basically, the editor said that reading the latest chapter he got from Oda made him cry and that it was the first time that this ever happened.Now I personally am not a big fan of statements like these, because I think that the chapters should be able to speak for themselves.And if you build the expectation for something this intensely and it doesn’t end up blowing me away, I know it will just feel disappointing, even if the chapter itself is actually pretty well written and would have worked just fine on its own.That being said though, it wasn’t a major announcement by the editor or anything, but simply something that came up during that stream and so, I’m gonna give him the benefit of the doubt here.
So, now that we’re all on the same page,I think what we can all agree on, is that this chapter was probably NOT the chapter was talking about and that it’ll be most likely 987 or 88 we should look out for. Nonetheless, 986 was a fantastic and strongly entertaining chapter with an incredible climax,that without any doubt had some serious emotions in it.However, nothing I personally would considerably-material yet.If I had to pick a theme for this chapter,I would probably come up with ‘Samurai’-ish. The entire vibe and dialog here is very focused around what it means to be a samurai, and many scenes, especially surrounding the scabbards and momo, carry a certain sense of honour and loyalty. This already becomes clear in the title of the chapter, which is “sessha no namae”,meaning “my name”.Sessha is the pronoun that Samurai used to refer to themselves, pretty much meaning ‘I’or ‘me’ and is used by Momo later on in this chapter.
This will be important, since this chapter is a big moment in Momo’s character arcand the language he uses here, definitely plays a part in hammering that home.Also, as a quick comment on the cover page,Lola and Chiffon leaving Pound behind, still not believing he is their father is getting sort of tiresome to me at this point.What on earth was the reason for reintroducing him here, if not reunite him with his daughters?Also, Bege’s ship saying “I love family”on its sail, while leaving the devastated hound behind was unnecessarily cruel of Odaand it really broke my heart.Oh well, moving on.
The chapter starts off at the back entrance to the skull dome, where the last chapter, we got a glimpse of Kiku and her bloody sword, crying out of her mask.There was a lot of speculation around this scene, but it turns out the most straightforward answer was the correct one here: Kanjuro lies on the ground, unmoving and in a puddle of blood.Kinemon and Denjiro have also arrived with their men and are now walking over Kanjuro’sdead body with a pained look on their faces.You can clearly see how much he meant to all of them and how hard it must have been for them to kill a man, whom they believed to be part of their family.
Izo says pretty much the same thing to them and Kinemon as well as Denjiro are shocked to see him there.Similarly to Kanjuro, Kinemon asks Izo if he is fine with coming all the way to the place he will most likely die at, to which Izo responds that he is a man that has escaped certain death many times, striking a more hopeful and optimistic note here.Izo’s and Kinemon’s handshake meanwhile looks fantastic to me.
Their faces carry such a great amount of appreciationfor each other, that it’s hard not to cracka smile at this moment.So, what about Kanjuro?As of right now, him AND Orochi have been taken out and while it was indeed the scabbard this time who killed Kanjuro, we did not get to see it.Now, with Kanjuro, similarly to Orochi, the chances of him truly being dead are relatively slim, I think.Kanjuro, in my opinion, needs at least some sort of redemption arc, even if he should not survive the battle.For instance, him protecting Momo, in the end, would be something that I would love to see for his character.But even next to that, I think that his character is way too interesting to kill off right here,right now.And I have an idea or two what might really have happened here.While the reunited scabbards head into the dome and towards the plaza, Kaido’s 5 seconds that he granted the samurai to consider their fate have seemingly run out and he asks them to choose right now: Die by the side of their master, or take over the world with him.And without hesitating so much as even a second,Fukurokujo from the Oniwabanshu Ninja squadas well the former leader of the Yakuza and general of the samurai Hotei, pledge their loyalty and 5000 men each to Kaido and his course.
It becomes very clear, just how little any of them truly cared for Orochi and that none of them held any TRUE loyalty whatsoever for him.Pretty un-samurai-ish behavior, considering honor and loyalty are so important for a samurai.Nonetheless, they first betrayed Oden and then abandoned Orochi the moment he was taken down.Apparently, Hyogoro thinks among the same lines, as his men can barely restrain him in his rage at this behavior.What makes this scene EVEN more comical, however,is that Kaido apparently expected something different from the samurai as well.
He tells them, that he is well aware of the deep loyalty Samurai have and that he would praise them for challenging him.This makes their immediate response just the more hilarious.But at the same time Oda also shows us that this is the WORST version of a samurai, which basically represents the OPPOSITE of what the scabbards feel for Oden and Momo.However, it of course also falls back to the difference in leadership between Orochi and Oden and how only ONE of them managed to inspire trust and loyalty in their men.At the bottom of the stage, Nami and Carrothave been brought before Big Mom.However, Shinobu has somehow managed to escape the emperor and is now on her way towards mom.Similarly to us, she recognizes that, justas Oden had said, taking out Orochi would change nothing.
From the start Kaido had been the one that had Wano in his grip.Kaido tells Momo that he could never believe that he was the son of THE Kozuki Oden.However, should he truly be his heir, he would end the line of the Kozuki right now with this execution.However, if he were not, he would stop the execution.Once again he asked the question that he asked mom back in the castle, “What is your name?”.Back then, Momo was too scared to answer.Kaido’s men immediately see through their captains plan to have Momo denounce himself as the future Shogun and cheer for Momo to come up with a funny fake name.In this moment, Momo remembers the past.His mother telling him that he will be the one to carry Wano on his back and his father revealing the meaning of his name to him.Momo, the one who is unequaled and peerless.It’s this name, that he shouts into the crowd.
He is Kozuki Momonosuke and, remembering Luffy,he is the man who will become Shogun.A second later, Momo, very understandably starts crying in terror.However, I think this scene is really powerful. Momo truly has grown with this situation and has managed to defy Kaido and fill Oden’sshoes a little bit more.As I mentioned at the beginning of the video,Momo using the typical pronoun for samurai.This is one of these instances where language matters, as Oda uses it to drive home the point that Momo has become a bit more likea samurai here, behaving brave and saving his honour, despite risking his life.I think for me this moment is the final proof that Momo won’t end up traveling with Luffy and the crew, but truly is meant to grow into the position of Shogun and rule Wano.I think Onigashima has been a very strong character ac for Momo so far and I’m curious to see how it continues.
Now, at the same time we see the straw hats,the scabbards, the flying six, law and kid all on their way to the stage and Usopp leading the charge into battle is just a wonderful moment for his character here.The same goes for Luffy and Yamato, where Luffy finally has the chance to take off her handcuffs.Luffy calls Yamato “Yama-o” here. Which is the same naming scheme he does withLaw and Kid.I personally take it to mean that Luffy has already started to like her and my hopes for#yamato4nakama are as high as ever.Yamato tells him to throw the cuffs away however,just in case and they explode with such force that it blows a hole in the wall of the arena. These cuffs seem to have been way more powerful than the one worn by the slaves on Sabaodyand Yamato is shocked that her father would have actually killed her.A funny detail here is that she calls Kaido,Ushi-Gorira, which literally means Ox-Gorilla,a name that is weirdly fitting to Kaido.It is here that Yamato denounces him as her father and says that he nothing to her now.Before she can storm towards Kaido however,Luffy stops her. He says that the decisive battle is about to start, but not by them.And to me it looks like Luffy has used his future sight Haki here, because similar tohow Katakuri saw the raid at the tea party happening, Luffy can tell that the Scabbardsare here, just moments before they burst intothe room.Kaido and the three calamities are taken aback.Izo, who is already 10 times more interestingthan at marineford, disarms King with oneshot, while Nekomamushi slams Kaido’s clubfrom his hands.And with that all of the scabbards chargetowards Kaido, which three thoughts in mind:Throw away your name.Throw away your reason and put your very lifeinto this one attack.And with that they push Kaido from the stage,screaming Snatch, while one of the Beast pirates fired: “It’s a raid!”.*Whistle* What a finale to this chapter.This might be one of my favourite double spreadsin Wano so far, and that’s saying something.
And while I think that the chance that Kaidois killed here is exactly 0, I nonetheless love the scene here.The fact that the raid more or less succeeded in the way they expected, really has something satisfying to it.And even more so, it will be just the more impactful once all of the scabbards will failto kill Kaido, since their plan actually went way better than expected.Even under perfect conditions and with a united effort, they will not be able to take him out.And I really wonder what will happen next.Will there be a real big battle?Or will it be a quick defeat for the alliance?Things are getting more and more unpredictable here and given the statement of the editor, SOMETHING major will happen next chapter and I think the most likely answer will be oneor maybe even several deaths.Also, the fact that the scabbards are shouting snatch and the way Kaido sees oden’s face before him are just perfect in my opinion.And I am really excited to see everyone reaction to Yamato and her appearance as Oden. And most importantly, what is Kaido like when someone actually challenges him and his plans?I really am getting some goosebumps thing about it. Tragedy incoming.One other thing I really enjoyed about this chapter was the immense focus on body language and close-ups in this chapter.It really worked fantastically to create a sense of intensity and emotional depth.The way many of the panels were arranged, really helped to raise the stakes of the raid for me and I personally am 110% invested in this battle now. This chapter alone has done a lot of the characterization for the scabbards, that was missing a little form the Oden flashback and I am fully on board with this.