ONE PIECE Chapter 987, check out here the complete Review & Analysis,  check out here Flowing Cherry Blossoms

Again, as a quick disclaimer, this review is based on the Japanese original and none of the English translations. So, if I mess anything up translation-wise, you can blame that on me. But once again, I think there isn’t really too much ambiguity in this chapter’s dialog, so I’m pretty confident that we’ll be doing just fine. Now, this chapter here has not 1, not 2, not 3, but 5 double spreads in it. I think that already is a dead giveaway how much epic stuff Oda has crammed in here. Finally, the battle has started and I think we’re all more than ready for this. Also, quick spoiler, Kaido towering over the scabbards with his powerful, snake-like body- framed by the moon – looks sooo unreal. One Piece has really come a long way here. And the shot looks so fantastic that I would bet by the best coffee mug that Oda had this panel finished or at least planned out for a long long time.

It looks like something that he would work on to relax and enjoy in between drawing other stuff. That’s some fantastic inc-work right there. We also have a really nice color-spread this week instead of the continuation of the cover-story- which really broke my heart. You guys know how much I enjoy these. But yeah, I think most of you will hopefully agree with me that it feels really nice finally having Jinbe integrated into these shots. Finally this ambiguity over his characters over. Jinbe is finally an official straw hat. But where’s Yamato? I’m kiddiiing.I’m sure she’ll be in the next one though. The title of this chapter is chuushin Nishiki, which basically means the loyal retainer offline cloth, which is a pun with Kinemon’sname, where the ‘kin’ in his name has the same Kanji for fine cloth. So basically the title refers to the loyal retainer Kinemon. Ah, languages are fun.

The chapter kicks off with a flashback Kaidohas to Oden’s execution. He remembers Oden’s last words to him, that he shouldn’t underestimate his samurai and that he should be living on, even if he is forgotten. What Oden probably means here, is that his spirit will live on inside his retainers. This becomes clear as we return to the current moment and see the scabbards in free Fallon top of Kaido. When they try to penetrate his skin, they seem to fail at first, just as Kaido had predicted. However, putting in all their strength, some of them manage to sink their blades into Kaido’sbody, especially Kinemon and Kiku. As soon as it happens, Kaido suddenly feels a wave of pain from the scar where Oden cut him over 20 years ago and cries out in pain. I think that this shows really well that Oden’sspirit is still living within the Scabbardsand Kaido even wonders if they have Oden’sRyuuou, though it is ambiguous whether he means that they have it in general or that they have exactly the same one as Oden.

An interesting thing I noticed for the first time here, is that the word Ryuou contains the Kanji for flow and the Kanji for Sakura. While flow definitely makes a lot of sense, I wonder what cherry blossoms have to do with this. If you guys have any idea what that could mean, please let me know. Kaido shouting out in pain and the scabbards on top of him, they crash into the floor of the plaza, where Kaido’s men immediately try to attack the scabbard.

At that moment, Hyogoro and the other members of the Yakuza finally feel that the time for stealth is over, and dropping their disguises they stand in between the scabbards and the beast pirates. Big Mom notes that this a very dangerous feast indeed and wonders if Kaido has actually been killed. I love how she says that without any change in her smile. It looks like Big Mom either doesn’t actually think Kaido has been killed or she simply doesn’t care either way. Whatever it is, I think her reaction to this is simply fantastic and made me snort out some of my coffee by accident. Not my proudest moment I admit. At the same time, Yamato has started charging towards her father upon hearing that these are the actual Scabbards that followed Oden. Before she and Luffy can make it to the place where Kaido crashed into the ground, they are stopped by Ulti, who has finally caught up with them. Ulti is understandably furious at Yamato for knocking her out.

Upon seeing the Ulti approach, Luffy recognizes her and cries out “it’s dzutsuki” which literally means “headbutt”.Luffy’s nicknames have never disappointed me so far, but this one is exceptionally funny. I think Luffy has already ruled Ulti out as a real threat here and I hope that maybe somehow she will end up on our side over the course of this arc, but we’ll see. For now, she confronts Yamato about her intentions. At this moment, Yamato declares that the day where she has become Oden has finally come and that she is no longer an Ally to the beast pirates. I think aside from the fact that Ulti has no clue what the hell Yamato is even talking about, this is a bit curious since we always assumed that Yamato was portraying Oden all along. However, at this moment she makes it sound like it is only today that she took on his role.

Maybe she meant it in the sense that she now truly’ has become Oden and no longer just strives to be like him. Meanwhile, Nami and Carrot have used the commotion to use their electricity powers to escape big Mom’s Yokai, which I think was a cool scene for both of them, giving them a moment of strength and independence, instead of having someone step in for them.

Big Mom meanwhile has finally realized that Luffy is in the room – who tells her that he is busy right now, which is probably the most disrespectful thing anyone has said toan the emperor ever, and I love it. Big Mom ignores this and tells Luffy that she has come all this way just to kill him. She asks him why he came to Wano in the first place and tells him not to come up with something funny like wanting to take down Kaido. And Luffy says – of course not, huh. To which Yamato leans in from the side, who has apparently stopped her brawl with Ulti, and asks him what he means by that. Luffy then steps up and declares that he has of course come here to take down Kaido, BigMom, Orochi, and all of their subordinates. After all this an All-out war.

This is one of those epic Luffy speeches, where you simply can’t help but love Luffyfor his attitude. This man is disrespecting Big Mom so hard in this scene that anyone watching must think that he has a death-wish. Big Mom retorts that he must be joking if he thinks he can take them on with a just a handful of men and Queen wholeheartedly agrees until he gets a report that thousands of new intruders have been spotted throughout the castle. At this, Queen’s eyes pop out, as they tend to do quite often these days, and I really wonder if Queen is actually gonna fight anyone, because if he keeps this up, he might not even make it to the battle. We see Zoro, Kid, and Law approaching the central plaza with an always-increasing number of fighters behind them, and even more, interestingly, it looks like Marco has teamed up with prosperity fight TEHIR way through the front door as well.

It looks like the shadow that Marco saw was Prospero after all and it is also clear now that Big Mom’s oldest son has abandoned his crewmates to look for his captain on his own. But the fact that he has now TEAMED UP with Marco, I think I wouldn’t have speculated my wildest dreams and I really hope we get to see the conversation between them. I can only imagine that this is a very temporary alliance to make it into the dome as these two seem far too different to have forged any long-term deal with each other. But who knows. Perospero definitely doesn’t even care to pretend to be here on friendly terms. While the alliance is spreading through the castle and battle is breaking out all over the place, Kaido has gotten up from his fall and while he definitely didn’t take any significant hit, he has certainly been dealt at least a bit of damage, which we can see from the blood coming from his mouth.

I appreciate that Oda decided to do this because it gives some well-deserved props to the scabbards and their power, even if they weren’t able to take him down here. And it doesn’t look like the samurai expected to kill him here either, as we find out that they have stationed the minks on top of the dome. But we’ll get to that in a second. First Kaido takes us back through the Yonkosaga of the new words, punk hazard, Dressrosaand Zou, and shares with us his surprise that the scabbards have actually made it to this point, just as Orochi had feared for all these years. He seems to acknowledge that they have allied with Luffy and the straw hats, whom he calls his enemies, which I think also shows some respect, but he warns Kinemon that aspirates tend to do they will abandon and betray them in the end, referencing what he just did with Orochi. Kinemon also catches this remark and stands up to Kaido, telling him that Luffy is different and that even if they should die, he wouldbring the dawn to Wano – which I think is a very important moment since much of Kinemon’sand the scabbards’ thoughts have understandably been about Wano and Momo.

However it is really powerful here that he acknowledges Luffy and what he has done for them, and I think that this faith in Luffyis something that he hadn’t communicated before this directly. So, good job Kinemon! Kaido then transforms into his Dragon form. He acknowledges that Luffy has challenged him and accepts his challenge and that he will show them the strongest fighting power in the world. And while Luffy stays behind to face Big Mom, Kaido takes the scabbards up to the roof of the dome to fight there. Now, this here might be the most ambiguous piece of dialogue in the entire chapter. What does Kaido mean with fighting power? The word itself refers more to military power than personal power, but given Kaido’s epithet of the strongest creature in the world, it would also make sense if he referred to himself after his transformation. If that were the case, I think it would become real food for the theory that Kaido is actually a dragon who ate a human fruit and I still would like this option the best I think. Plus we once again don’t get a name for his devil fruit.

Then, we get the fantastic shot of Kaido and the scabbards on the roof of the dome, where snow is falling in the moonlight. Kaido says that he has finally sobered up, implying that he is 100% serious now and explains that he wants to fight the scabbards in an open space, just as the last time they clashed, only that oden has already died. Upon these words, Nekomamushi steps forward, saying that this is not the only difference since back then. As mentioned before, the scabbards had anticipated aid, not wanting to fight in a closed space and had positioned all of the minks’ forces at this location.

Because here they can perfectly see – the full moon. And we get a scary-looking last shot of Nekomamushipreparing to transform. Holy shit. This just got real.I’m so ready for this. These guys better look badass in their slungforms. I didn’t expect the minks to face off Kaidolike this in their Sulong forms and especially this early on. This entire chapter has me extremely hyped up and I can’t wait to see the battles with the Yonko unfolding. I gotta say though, the way things are progressing now really speaks more and more for the theory that the fire festival will end in failure and that the alliance will lose here. Despite all they have done so far it justdoesn’t seem like they can pose such a big threat to the Yonko here. But I might in fact be wrong and this might yet turn into the final big battle of Wano. I really enjoy what the scabbards have done on onigashima so far and I read can’t wait to see them face Kaido with all they have. However, I don’t have a good feeling for them in this battle. I also really liked the Big Mom – Queen dynamic here in this chapter once again. These two are just pure comedy gold together.

Also, I wonder if Kaido also heard Yamato’s swords if he heard Luffy’s and I’m curious what she will be doing from here on out. Also, I think this chapter once again shed some light on how Big Mom and Kaido perceivealliances. Both have them probably have not made particularly great experiences with them and it looks like the alliance between them is anything but stable. I really wonder if they will go down together, cause I personally think a Yonko betrayal would be in order somewhere down the line. The break next week definitely hurts, butI’ll be more than ready once the next chapter rolls around. Until then, if you want some more One Piececontent are really into Yonko, you can

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