Video version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIzDmrMmEFI

Title and Cover:

The chapter’s title parallels the titles seen in the start of many One Piece arcs of “Adventure in the xxx”, but in this case, it’s been a double feature, as just a few chapters ago we had the title “Adventure in the Country of Mystery”. But since that was just Oda tricking us about the true scale of Elbaph, now here we finally have the real proper title of this adventure, simply being “Adventure in Elbaph”. This isn’t particularly new to have two per arc, as we already had Adventure in the Devil’s Sea and Adventure in the Ghost Island for Thriller Bark, Adventure in the Deep Sea and Adventure in Fishman Island, and Adventure in the Country of Love, Passion, and Toys and Adventure in the Country of Little People.

On the cover, Yamato, Komachiyo, Tama, and Speed leave Kuri in search of the sword thief and arrive at Udon, where they witness the construction of Udon Castle, rebuilding the area into a proper settlement rather than just a prison. The prison in the background, you might notice, still retains its factories, but none of the chimneys are spewing smoke, and the skies are clear.

We saw that Oden’s vassals are becoming the new Daimyo of Wano. Denjiro is the Daimyo of Kibi, Inuarashi is the Daimyo of Kuri, while Nekomamushi seems to now be a yakuza at the capital, while Kin’emon serves as Momonosuke’s aid. This leaves us with Raizo, Kiku, and Kawamatsu, who will likely take the remaining three regions of Udon, Hakumai, and Ringo. Kiku was born in Ringo, so it would make sense if she became the Daimyo of that region. Oden met Raizo at Udon, and Raizo himself was born at Udon too, so he would make sense as the Daimyo as well. However Kawamatsu was also jailed there for many years, so it could be a toss up between the two of them.

Over the Rainbow:

Back at Elbaph, the Great Eirik approaches land, as a loud horn blows from it as indicated by the zig-zagging speech bubble. If you look closely at the ship too, you can see the rear of it has been smashed. This is from when Luffy and Bonney pounded Saturn, causing him to fall off the ship as they broke the rear end of it.

The horn warns the people on the tavern found at sea level that they are returning. This is the same tavern Shanks was eating in before he destroyed Kid’s forces, as we even see the same little kid that Shanks refused to let on his crew, who turns out to be called Collon. While we don’t know his age, he could easily be like 18 years old, as Hajrudin looked like a kid as well at such an age due to how slowly giants age.

We don’t get the name of the tavern keeper, but she remarks how the giants were running late, just as it was mentioned a few chapters ago that their search for the missing Sunny made them spend some time looking around. Funnily enough, the tavern keeper is carrying an apron that has “WAR” written on it, likely a reference to the Warland Kingdom.

She hands over a basket of food to Collon, which she claims contains Ripley’s favorite food, and some food the kid’s father will like too, seemingly referring to two different people. We don’t know yet who this Ripley in the village is, or who Collon’s dad is and if he is someone we already know of.

Collon refers to Dorry and Brogy with the nickname of “Doriburo Sencho”, or “Captains Dobro”. Interestingly, Dorry and Brogy are referred to by many giants as “O-Kashira”, which means “bosses”. This is similar to how Shanks’s crew calls him, which is by the name of “Oo Kashira”, or “Big Boss”, so I wonder if there is some connection there. Speaking of Shanks, he told Collon to “never forget Luffy’s name”. As Collon leaves, some giants also mention an upcoming banquet that they are seemingly going to hold above, likely the same banquet for which Hajrudin and Stansen caught the Ettosaurus, or well, moose as Hajrudin seems to insist.

By the way, notice above the tavern there is a mask that is quite similar to Road’s, as these skull decorations are quite common in buildings of Elbaph.

The Great Eirik then approaches a giant rainbow, which they suddenly begin to ride, leading them all the way up to the second level of Elbaph. A rainbow was already visible in the big spread of Elbaph, and as we predicted, this is obviously inspired by the Bifröst. The Bifröst is the rainbow bridge of Norse mtyhology that connects the realms of Midgard, or the lower Earth itself, and Asgard, the realm of the gods in the sky. Much like how the Bifröst is crossed to reach the heavenly realm, the same happens here to reach the village of Elbaph. It is foretold that the Bifröst would be destroyed during Ragnarök, so perhaps when Loki is freed, the rainbow could cease to work.

It’s not completely clear how the science behind the rainbow works quite yet. Brogy claims to have “drawn” the rainbow itself by using a Painter, which explains its name, as they are literally “painting” a rainbow. As we explained last chapter, Stansen brought up a “Painter” to get back to the upper realm. Though it phonetically reads as “Painter”, the kanji reading reads as “Taiyouseki”, or “Sunstone”. Sunstones were a type of compass believed to have been created by vikings, as reflecting them against the sky would allow them to locate the sun even in an overcast sky. A sunstone literally refracts the sun’s light into the colors of the rainbow. The very same process seen in the logo for Pink Floyd, if you’re familiar with that. As such, it is possible with the right conditions for a sunstone to refract light into a rainbow, so the giants may have used it to help generate a rainbow, likely made easier due to all the water falling from the waterfalls of Elbaph. That’s why Stansen mentioned that with the snow they couldn’t use a Painter to get up above, but now that the skies have cleared they are able to go up more easily.

How this rainbow then turns into a crossable current is another question, but perhaps it could be a process similar to island clouds; perhaps the mixing of pyrobloin from nearby sky islands into the light makes it solid, turning the rainbow into a sea current. Bonney even mentions that the rainbow itself makes a sparkling noise, or “kira kira” in Japanese, literally audibly sparkling.

Hajrudin and Stansen catch up, in a smaller ship also bearing the symbol of the Giant Warrior Pirates, and the ettosaurus can be seen on it as well. They recognize Franky and Robin, calling Franky “Ironman”, referring to his pirate epithet. On the back of his jacket you can also spot a star similar to those he usually has on his shoulders.

Gerd and Goldberg:

Switching back to Luffy’s side, he runs into Gerd and Goldberg. Gerd is shown to be very fascinated by humans, which she finds adorable, though tries to distinguish herself from the likes of Road, whom she calls “weirdo”, or as Luffy calls him, “honeatama”, or “hornhead”. Unlike when speaking with Goldberg, she speaks much more candidly with humans, talking to them like one would talk with a puppy, addressing humans as “humans-chan”. Goldberg instead has a speech pattern that sort of fits his personality, what I can only really compare as being similar to a lisp in English, such as him pronouncing the kana “shi” as “shu”, like “deshu” or “deshu ka” (Viz translation keeps this).

Interestingly, Luffy seems to have made a “promise” with Loki, and part of that involves not telling anyone about it. I know Luffy wanted to know more about Shanks, but would he really be willing to break Loki free just to know, something the other giants could easily tell him about? Just what did Loki tell Luffy to convince him to form a pact with him without telling anyone? Even Luffy oddly enough feels worried to let it out and tries to lie, which causes him to sweat so much that Goldberg grows worried.

Road catches up to the Straw Hats, but they set a really simple trap against him, making him crash against a tree. Gerd and Goldberg give him a good asskicking too, as Road calls Gerd as “Gerd-taso” as well, being a weirdo towards her too.

Geography of Elbaph:

Brogy properly explains the three layers of Elbaph, showing that there are three realms, unlike the nine realms of Norse mythology:

– The first world is the actual land of the island, known as the Dai Ichisou Meikai (第一層冥界), or “First World – The Underworld”. They all end with “kai”, meaning “world”, but the first kanji in Meikai, “Mei”, is the word for “darkness”, though usually referring to the darkness of the Underworld beneath the earth. This is the same “Mei” as “Meiou” or “Dark King” Rayleigh, more literally “Underworld King” Rayleigh, drawing a very obvious parallel with the King of Hell Zoro.

On top of the first leaves of the tree is the “Dai Nisou Youkai” (第二層陽界), or “Second World – The Sunworld”. Here it uses “you”, which is the second kanji for the word “taiyou”, the Sun. This is because this area is more bathed with sunlight than the one below, allowing for a more temperate climate as we see, which is why the village is located here.

And finally, the top of the tree is called the “Dai Sansou Tenkai” (第三層天界), or “Third World – The Skyworld”. The kanji used here, “ten”, means “sky”, though it can also mean “celestial” or refer to the “heavens” itself (Viz uses “Astral”). In fact, as an example, it is the very same kanji used for Tenryubito, the Celestial Dragons, who more literally simply translate as the “Sky Dragons”, or “Heavenly Dragons”. We mentioned the possibility of there being something up there before, but we didn’t seem to see anything, so I wonder if there really is anything at the very top of the tree.

These three realms could still be loosely based off of Norse realms though. The lower realm of the Underworld we’ve established is likely inspired by Niflheim, the frozen hell realm of Norse myth. In this case, the Sunrealm could be considered Midgard, or literally the Middle Realm, or Jötunheimr, the realm of the giant jötuns, but the fact the Bifröst leads there could make it be considered like Asgard already, the realm of the gods, as it better fits being in the middle point of the tree just like Asgard is for the Yggdrasil. That would make one question that if this is Asgard, then what is the realm at the very top of the tree, which would make more sense to be Asgard in that regard.

Now, this naming pattern already makes sense, but there is something peculiar about it that you may likely not have noticed. The names of these three planes are incredibly similar to the concept of the trinity of planes, that the world is divided into three different planes. Though coming more from Greek mythology, it was believed that the world was split into three planes: the Underworld, the Sea (and the islands it harbors), and the Sky. In Greek mythology, these three planes were governed by three gods: Pluton, Poseidon, and Uranus.

And that should definitely ring a bell. In Japanese, the planets Pluton, Poseidon (or Neptune in English), and Uranus are named after the gods from the trinity of planes, being “Meiousei” (冥王星or Underworld King Planet), “Kaiousei” (海王星or Sea King Planet, hence the connection with the sea kings), and “Tennousei” (天王星or “Sky King Planet”). And you might realize that “Mei” from Pluton and “Ten” from Uranus are the exact same as the Meikai and Tenkai of Elbaph. Really the only outlier here is the middle realm. Instead of being the realm of the sea, it’s the Youkai, the realm of the Sun, which is an unusual distinction focused more on the adoration Elbaph has for the Sun than anything.

Finally… Elbaph!

Moving on though, we get to finally properly see the village of Elbaph with our own eyes and it’s impossible to not feel emotional after all these years in what is one of Oda’s most beautiful spreads to date, particularly with Luffy and Usopp recalling their desire to reach Elbaph all the way back during Chapter 129, almost exactly a thousand chapters ago. You can even see the Going Merry within this panel.

The irony of it all though is that this isn’t a new location. No, in fact we saw this back during 2017 in Big Mom’s flashback within Chapter 866, but within all those instances, the village was incredibly zoomed in, allowing us only to see a few houses and some hills in the background. In fact, if you look closely, you can spot this lookout tower in the middle of the village, which is the same that appeared in Big Mom’s flashback, with the hills in the background even being the same. However, Oda was already being cheeky back then, showing us the branches of the tree in the background of Big Mom’s flashback.

Back to this panel though, we see that both landmasses here are split apart, only connected by a bridge, likely sitting on two different branches. Across the great chasm seagulls fly by while the waterfalls descend below. On the left we can see dirt and soil has accumulated on top of these branches, allowing for mountains or trees to sprout. Above it are shimagumo, or island clouds, just like those of Skypiea or those artificially created by Vegapunk, having hardened thanks to the volcanic substance known as pyrobloin, also involved in the creation of kairoseki seastone. Since Vegapunk mentioned visiting Elbaph after the Ohara incident to read the books Saul preserved, I wonder if he studied the island clouds here too, which is what helped him develop the technology to many years later create the Labophase, though it’s possible he may have learned thanks to Haredas as well, who also made the artificial sky island of Weatheria. These island clouds also finally answer a small mystery from Egghead, where Bonney explained the Labophase to some giants, and they already seemed familiar with the concept of sky islands.

Across the bridge, we follow through the streets of the village, though beneath it appears to be an inhabited structure as well, explaining all this rock that paves the roads. Heading upward is the village we saw in Linlin’s flashback, and to its right is a fairly large building that appears to be quite prominent, being attached to a large tree growing atop the Treasure Tree Adam itself. Behind them is another rainbow, and to the left, at the edge of the village, are the gates to the royal castle. This castle was mentioned in Big Mom’s flashback, and was actually visible in the large view of Elbaph, alongside the gates. The royal castle, sitting atop a branch and with its own waterfall flowing out of it, isn’t as large as it seemed from the outside, but it’s still quite big, so I wonder what its interiors look like as well.

As a note, back during Little Garden, Dorry and Brogy referred to their homeland as the “village of Elbaph”. Oda here addresses that potential plot hole by mentioning that the country as a whole is often referred to as just “Elbaph”, in a similar way that the sky island was often called “Skypiea” despite Skypiea actually being the name of the country composed by a collection of islands.

As the Straw Hats arrive, all of them are fascinated by the sight of the village, with two exceptions: one is Sanji who is too busy… uh, doing his thing, and the other is Vegapunk, as Lilith has already been to this village before, or at least she was in her memory as Stella, which is why she just smiles and is happy to see everyone’s reactions.

Mystery Man Louis Arnote

The chapter ends with a narration. However, the fact it is written on journal paper, like in Oden’s diary, means that this is a journal entry. It reads:

“We are naturally fascinated by gigantic things…”
“No words could capture the magnificence of this view.”
“This is Elbaph Island’s Warland Kingdom.”
“The Kingdom of Giants, also collectively often referred to as a whole simply as “Elbaph””
“From the grass to the trees, the vines to the flowers, bugs, fish, and birds, creatures of all kinds, everything in this land is so gigantic it is simply breathtaking.”
“Oh ye adventurers, you will not regret your time spent here.”
“However… if there is one thing I should mention about this mysterious land of gigantic things called Elbaph…”
“I hope you can keep these words on the back of your mind.”
“Do not remain here for too long.”

• Explorer Louis Arnote

This name either means nothing to you or it means everything to you, because Louis Arnote is a very insignificant character in the manga so far, but an incredibly accomplished person within the world of One Piece itself.

Back during the start of Little Garden in 1999, in Chapter 115, Nami read from a book she had on the Going Merry that she seemingly took from her home in Cocoyasi Village. The book is “Fiction Romance Brag Men”, and it contained this account:

“To its inhabitants, the island truly is but a tiny little garden. Therefore, let us call it such: Island of Giants Little Garden” – Explorer Louis Arnote

As Oda elaborated in the Vol. 42 SBS, Louis Arnote was a seasoned explorer from recent times born on the Grand Line. He decided to set out to sea as an explorer and seek uncharted lands, bearing witness to many of the fantastical locations of the Grand Line with his own eyes along with his crew of fearless adventurers. He compiled the tales of he and his crew into a book, meant to give direct eyewitness descriptions of places across the world. However, his descriptions of islands were so bizarre and surreal that people believed he was actually a false adventurer passing his own fiction as reality. As such, his journal of his and his crew’s accounts was eventually collected and published under the humiliating title of “Fictional Romance – Brag Men”. Keep in mind “romance” in Japanese refers more to the adventure, like in Romance Dawn, the Dawn of Adventure, so the title literally means “Fictional Adventures of Men pretending to Brag”.

This book survived the burning of Ohara 20 years ago, and has become widely available across the world, having been reproduced many times since. This gives us a good timeframe of Arnote’s existence, as it had to have been over 20 years ago, but it also can’t have been in distant ancient times, as he did meet Dorry and Brogy on Little Garden over the past century. In fact, he was the one who gave the name to Little Garden, named after the fact that to Dorry and Brogy, who were already dueling there, the island may as well have just been a “little garden”.

Brag Men had not only been read by a younger Nami, but also by a younger Masked Deuce and Portgas D. Ace in the Ace novel/manga, where he too was fascinated about the existence of giants, but was bullied by those ignorant within the East Blue who believed them to just be fictional beings.

Speaking of quoted people, there’s also Willie Gallon, the person that made the quote of “Anything that man can imagine is a possibility in reality” when the St. Briss fell on the Straw Hats, and Jew Wall, an adventurer recording the unpleasantness of Mock Town, so I wonder if we’ll see both of those in the future as well.

Now, it’s possible that Louis Arnote may simply have been an adventurer who came and went and is now dead, and Oda is just doing a cool callback to Little Garden. However, there’s a potential way this could be read, and it’s the fact that Louis Arnote is in fact very much alive and currently present at Elbaph, being the person on the final page right alongside this message. It may be a bit hard to see, but if you zoom in, beneath the large teroguma bear there’s a person walking across the leaves. They seem to be wearing a Wano-style amigasa hat, and their hair appears to be long and spiky. They appear to have something coming out of the face, but it’s unclear if this is just a hand, a beard, a gas mask, or whatever else it might be. This silhouette fits two we’ve previously seen.

For one, it seems quite evident this is the person we saw at Chapter 1124. While hard to see, they did seem to have a hat similar to this amigasa one, and it just makes sense that Oda is teasing the same silhouette, so I think we can safely assume the same person. All we saw of this figure is that it sat by Elbaph and simply said “come”, seemingly expecting the Straw Hats to arrive.

The other one is the mysterious figure seen in Chapter 631’s cover. As we saw places around the world, we saw a rather peppy Crocus exchanging sake cups with this mysterious figure, as Laboon looked on. In the colored manga, they appeared to have a similar amigasa hat, just like that of our silhouette, and are drinking sake, just as the silhouette was seen drinking. Furthermore, this figure had spiky blonde hair, which would fit the silhouette as well. It would make sense if this silhouette was the same from Chapter 631, but… just who is this person?!! After all, they seem to be old friends with Crocus, paying them a visit recently in the early timeskip.

Well, it’s been well over a decade since that chapter cover, so people have had plenty of time to speculate. A lot of people like to think it’s Shiki, somehow back and about to get involved again in the story, but personally given his presence here I don’t quite think that’s him. Though the cape does bear a striking resemblance, Shiki has far bigger and more flowing hair, and most importantly has a massive steering wheel stuck to his skull, meaning he simply cannot wear a hat like this one.

Another theory I actually quite fancy is that this was “Calico” Yorki, the former captain of the Rumbar Pirates. We know that Yorki fell ill, with what seemed to be a disease very similar to tree fever, the disease from Noland’s flashback. Thus Yorki had to leave the Grand Line through the Calm Belt, making Brook the captain and forcing the crew to continue on their own. Someone who witnessed this told Crocus, leading him to believe the Rumbar Pirates simply ran away from Laboon, until Luffy confirmed the truth with Brook. However, we never found out if Yorki and the other infected found a cure and survived. I mean if Gin somehow survived a deadly gas toxin that should’ve killed him in an hour, I don’t see how Yorki couldn’t. They may have potentially recovered, but it does bring into question of where they went, as re-entering the Grand Line would have caused them to meet with Laboon, unless they went back through another method.

Eitherway, the theory was that this figure was Yorki, now older and with longer of his blonde hair, finally dropping by the Twin Capes to share a toast with Crocus and Laboon. Technically speaking, Brook is now 90, so Yorki, if he was slightly younger, could still be alive. But this theory still feels like a stretch in some form or another.

The most boring answer of all is that this person is in fact a new character. Some traveling figure in the Grand Line who knew Crocus in the past and is now at Elbaph. But in that regard there is a simpler connection, that this is someone we know… Louis Arnote himself. As I mentioned before, the chapter narration of Arnote overlapping with this figure appearing would make sense if they are one and the same, and it would also make sense if such an accomplished explorer knew Crocus as well after all those travels. But if so, why did this person come or return to Elbaph? What is their business here and what is the danger that Arnote spoke of?

Is Arnote the person in question, hence why he is back to Elbaph despite the danger, or is it perhaps the other way, that this person IS the danger itself Arnote spoke of, and may even be the villain or a dangerous moving force within this arc? All our answers will come as we get lost in this beautiful adventure in the land of Elbaph!