Video version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsPb6jJm6U0

Several Covers

On this week’s Shonen Jump Cover, we have rabbit Luffy and Nami along with Chopper pounding mochi together under the moonlit night sky. Oda loves to draw the Luffy-Nami-Chopper trio for covers, likely due to being a combination of the main male and female leads and the series mascot, so that isn’t surprising, but you might be curious as to what the point of this cover is about. Luffy and the others are celebraying what is known as Tsukimi (月見), a Japanese celebration that translates into “moon-viewing”. This celebration takes place in September, or in other words right now, and involves admiring the beautiful full Moon during the night while sharing delicious mochi or tsukimi dango with others, the latter named specifically after the festivity and made to be in the shape of a white round ball, just like the Moon.

There is more to this celebratory cover, however. According to myth, if you look at the Moon from a certain angle, you may see the silhouette of a rabbit pounding mochi. Now, this is admittedly a very creative interpretation of the craters on the Moon, but the shape is supposed to represent a rabbit pounding rice flour to make mochi, and is deeply tied with the imagery of the Tsukimi festival. As such, that is why Luffy and Nami are bearing rabbit ears and why Luffy is pounding mochi with Chopper’s help. If you’ve been a weekly reader long enough you might also remember that this isn’t the first time we’ve had a celebratory Tsukimi Jump cover for One Piece, as all the way back in 2017, during the times when Luffy was about to fight Katakuri, we had another cover where Luffy ran away from Zoro and Usopp on a rabbit crossing moonlit wheat fields, all while eating tsukimi dango. A cover that I similarly broke down all the way back then 8 years ago.

As for the color spread instead, we see the Straw Hats gambling their savings away on the infamous claw machines, a construct that while popular all around the world is specifically iconic to Japanese culture, being massively widespread around Japan, as even yours truly has lost many a coins in trying to attain some sweet One Piece prizes. The fun part here is that the straw hats are trying to grab many plushies of their favorite characters! Centerpiece are once again Luffy, Nami, and Chopper, with the former two trying to wrestle for possession of a Chopper plushie.

On himself, Luffy is holding many people that he sees as family: Shanks, his father figure, Makino, who always acted as a bit of an older sister to him, his grandpa Garp, his foster mother Dadan, his sworn brothers Ace and Sabo, as well as Whitebeard because he is Ace’s father. At the same time, Rayleigh is also there, which shows that since the two of them spent over a year living together, Luffy has started seeing him as some sort of parental or guiding mentor figure. Interestingly, beyond them, there’s also Momonosuke in his pocket as well as Kin’emon and Yamato falling off his arms. This is fitting because these three were the ones that Luffy said that, if they ever wanted to, they could join his crew, and so seeing them on the same level as his crewmates Luffy still sees them as family, since Chopper is the only one of the current straw hats to have a plushie here. And beyond them there’s also… uh, Gaimon, who Luffy did also try to recruit onto the crew, but maybe he just likes this plushie, that’s all. But even more hidden, behind his leg, you can see a plushie of Woop Slap falling over, as he too was a slightly familial figure to Luffy during the time he was living in Foosha Village.

Nami on the other hand is holding onto her parents, Genzou and Belle-mere, as well as her sister, Nojiko. Beyond them, she’s also holding onto Vivi, with whom she was quite close with, as well as Haredas, who was also a mentor figure for her across the timeskip.

Behind them, we see Zoro resting on a plus-sized plushie, as you can sometimes find some really massive ones in some crane games across Japan, such as the recent infamous gigantic Imu plushie, which in this case, fittingly enough, is Shirahoshi. Two other plus-size plushies are seen next to him, which are Brogy and Gerd, and at his feet is a plushie of Mihawk, which he probably picked himself. On his shirt is writing which I’m assuming might mean “rest area”, where in an arcade one would rest after grabbing so many plushies. On the other side of the spread Jinbe is also resting, laying on other plus-sized plushies of Dorry and Saul.

On the other hand, Sanji gets angry at Zoro for lazing around at this moment, likely due to what’s happening to Chopper on the other side, throwing at him a Buggy plushie which he doesn’t want. Sanji is, of course, collecting all the women, though closest to him, tightly embracing her, is Pudding, as she is the woman he’s likely come the closest to wanting to love for real. Beyond her though are Perona, Conis, Vegapunk Lilith, Hiyori, Viola, Camie, and what I assume could be Rebecca given the pink hair, though largely covered by Woop Slap. Falling from his grasp however are also Hancock and Carrot, the latter wearing her outfit she had during the tea party.

Further on the back though, in the main scene of the spread, we can see that the real Chopper got himself accidentally locked inside the machine, and so the crew is trying to get him out, before the lion on the back, seemingly hungry to snack him, manages to get him first. Franky is desperately checking his coins, realizing they only have four attempts left, Robin is praying that they are able to catch Chopper, Usopp is locking in to be able to grab him, and Brook has replaced the crane to be able to snatch him. Among the plushies surrounding Chopper we can see Hiriluk, Kureha, Tom, Iceburg, Clover, Zeff, Heracles, what might be Kaya, and a few others that are too hard to see.

Shockingly though, this time we get both a color spread and a cover story, which is pretty unprecedented from Oda himself, as the only other time I can recall one was the time we had a guest color spread by one of the Toei animators. In this one, we see Yamato, Kin’emon, and Momonosuke praying at Oden’s shrine, the latter two wearing a kimono with a kouzuki, or moon, pattern on them. Within the shrine are several lamps, like those of the fire festival, and they each hold the name of a different person on them. The central and biggest one of course reads “Kouzuki Oden” (光月おでん). To the left is “Kouzuki Toki” (光月トキ) and to the right is “Shimotsuki Yasuie” (霜月康イエ). On the row below are the remaining daimyo who were said would be buried here, Shimotsuki Ushimaru (霜月牛マル), Uzuki Tempura (雨月天ぷら), and Fuugetsu Omusubi (風月おむすび), as well as a figure simply called here as “O-Taka” (お貴). This person is in fact Hyougorou’s wife, who was only named in a recent vivre card databook, so it would be pretty hard for anyone to know it’s her if you don’t know your Wano trivia, but it makes sense she was honored here considering how much she meant to Oden. And on the next row are Izou (イゾウ), Asyura Douji (アシュラ童子), and Pedro (ペドロ), which warms my heart. Interestingly, one of the lanterns partially covered by Yamato’s horns reads as “Kuro” (黒), which may suggest it’s in honor of a Kurozumi, and thus may potentially be in name of Kurozumi Kanjuro (黒炭カン十郎). Even though he had betrayed his family perhaps they felt that he too deserved to rest alongside them. But Oda wishes to keep this detail subtle which is why he covered it. Below them are a bunch of extra kanji, and while the two central ones are covered by Yamato, the ones on the right and left read as “tsuka” (塚) and “retsu” (烈) which both mean “burial site” and “honorable death”, which make sense as kanji to adorn the grave of heroes. Furthermore, on both sides are a pair of Buddhas, which may I remind still exist in One Piece, and we know that Oden believed to some extent in Buddhism given a line he mentioned at the end of 966.

Satchels Maffey

As chaos descends on God Valley, Roger keeps searching for Shakky, while Xebec instead is searching for his wife, whom he reveals is called in katakana as “エリス” (erisu), or Eris, interestingly enough, but I’m wondering if her full name is Marshall D. Eris and if Teach got his family’s name from her like Ace did or from someone else.

Dragon attempts to flee with both of the babies, but is shot down by the tall God Knight we saw last chapter. Here we can better see that not only does she have multi-colored hair, but also this Mt. Fuji-like shape to the top of her hair. Last week, we were speculating that she could be part of the Rimoshifu family, as she looks very similar to Killingham, and thus the two could be related. Turns out we were completely wrong, as she is in fact part of the サッチェルズ家 (saccheruzu family), what is likely romanized as Satchels Family. Thus, we get yet another one of the founding families, leaving us with only seven whose names we’ve yet to uncover. As for her actual name, it’s Maffey, as we see it romanized, and if it wasn’t clear enough by her vuloptous body, the “gu” honorific confirms she’s a woman as well. I wonder if the name Maffey is meant to be a riff on mafia, given her cigar and gangster-like attitude. She tries to dispose of Dragon, but is cleaved in half by Whitebeard, supposedly killing her, but who are we kidding, she is a God Knight, so we know she’ll just regenerate. As after all, we do see her fairly calm later on as if nothing had happened. I do wonder though given how she possesses the immortality if she too has the perennial youth, given how Garling and Sommers were clearly still aging here, so I wonder if the two are connected as a package or if it’s possible to have immortality while still aging, as we haven’t seen Garling or Sommers regenerate yet here.

Still, let’s take a step back… what was that laser beam all about? One may associate it with the laser beams of the Pacifistas, but I don’t think that’s the case. For one, the beam doesn’t have the same shape and shine that the Pacifista lasers did, as those were actual replicas of Kizaru’s powers thanks to Vegapunk’s research, and had a more distinct glint to them when firing. But more than anything, the Pacifista project wouldn’t even happen for another three decades, so it clearly can’t be it as Vegapunk hadn’t even researched such technology. This however bears a resemblance to another familiar power but one you may have likely forgotten about… that of Howling Gab.

Howling Gab is an officer of the Red Hair Pirates, who in Film RED interestingly showed the ability of being able to shoot a laser beam through his mouth, though he was stopped by Beckman before he could really do anything. This ability was also highlighted in the booklet by Oda, so clearly he’s cooking something here with it, but we’ve never been told more about it. It looks quite similar to what Maffey is using here, but it’s also possible that this power is simply unique to whatever mythical power she has, as like the other God Knights it’s totally possible she might be able to transform into some other kind of demonic creature.

Rocks Pirates

Garp spots the group in the distance and thus gives them chase, calling them “you bunch of sea kings”, a commentary referring to their massive sizes. In this encounter, Dragon briefly spots him too. Linlin tries to fight back, where she uses an attack called “Heavenly Fire Blitz” (天上の火雷/ヘブンリーファイアブリッツ), a variation of her previously used Heavenly Feuer (天上の火/ヘブンリーフォイアー). The new attack combines the kanji of fire with that of thunderbolt, fittingly being a combination of Prometheus and Zeus. The attack barely scorches Garp though, who seemingly coated himself with haki as seen by the sparks coming off of him. He comments that such a fire won’t even cook a prime rib, a remark where even in Japanese he literally says “puraimu ribu” (プライムリブ).

We also see the God Knight of the Manmayer Family gunning down some of the slaves trying to escape, though we unfortunately don’t yet get her name. On her jacket on the back however we can see the kanji for kami (神), or “God”.

We see the Rocks Pirates rushing towards Shakky, including Ganzui, Gloriosa, Gill Bastar (though interestingly unlike previously seen on God Valley, he only has two arms here), Kyou and Shiki bantering once more, and Captain John, with what might be Barbel behind him too. Interestingly though, John appears to have a metal arm, much like that of Kid. What’s odd is that this seems to also be a prosthetic, but if you go back to Chapter 1096, you’ll realize that John’s right arm was actually covered by a sound effect, so we didn’t see this detail. In Thriller Bark as a zombie, John had both of his arms, but keep in mind that Hogback’s zombies were all stitched together from different parts, so if John was missing an arm, it makes sense Hogback gave him back another arm. Though at the very least, earlier in this flashback, he did have his right arm, so this is something that must’ve happened over the last couple of years or so.

Still though, the fact he can hold an arm mechanically like this seems to suggest he may have the same fruit as Kid, though it could also be possible it’s just a purely cyborg arm like Queen’s. But this connection doesn’t seem much of a coincidence, because when you start thinking about it… is this the only link he has with Kid? More than anything, now that I think about, John and Kid share a very clear connection and that is their epithet: “Captain” John and Eustass “Captain” Kid. Now, being a pirate captain is nothing unusual, but these two are the only ones with this exact same epithet. And much like how we assume that “West Blue’s Gang Don Marlon” and Capone “Gang” Bege may be related due to having inherited his epithet, it would make sense that Kid shares some connection with John and thus inherited his epithet too. And if you compare both of their faces too, you can also see some slight resemblance. So it’s fully possible that nepo piece may yet live on…

Rayleigh vs Sommers

As they all chase towards Shakky, however, Roger ends up clashing with Whitebeard and instead asks Rayleigh to go ahead. He arrives just in time to stop Sommers from killing her, as he exclaims “I’ll drag you to the depths of the Underworld”. This expression is a play on words on his epithet, the King of the Underworld (冥王), which is a term that often gets mistranslated as “the Dark King”, which while yes, the underworld is dark, it doesn’t quite really capture the idea behind it. The epithet of Meiou literally means the Underworld King, but it more specifically refers to Hades, or Pluton, the God that ruled over the Underworld (and thus in Japanese serves as the name of the planet as well). This epithet is also paralleled with Zoro who instead becomes the King of Hell (地獄の王), where the wordplay becomes more apparent in Japanese.

To beat up Sommers, he uses a new attack which he calls “Higanbana” (彼岸刃鉈). In Japanese, the higanbana refers to the red spider lily, the lycoris flower, which is a flower tha famously symbolizes death. In Japanese, higanbana specifically means equinox flower, and here indeed the first half of the kanji mean equinox. However, the second half, instead of using the kanji for flower in bana, it uses the kanji for “sword cleave”, which can technically be read as “bana” as well, thus referring to this cleave being as deadly as the premonition of a spider lily.

This also ties into the title of the chapter: 矢の雨をしのいで結ぶ恋の詩 (ya no ame wo shinoi de musubu koi no uta), which translates to “a song of love bound under a rain of arrows”. That I am aware of it isn’t referencing anything specific, but rather, is meant to sound like a poetic way to refer to Rayleigh’s rescue of Shakky. If you pay attention to the Japanese text, you might even notice it is built in 5-7-5 syllables, the structure of a haiku.

Rayleigh ges to reconcile with Shakky as we expected, though Roger and Gabin urge the two to get a room. Interestingly though, we don’t see Gabin clashing with Sommers yet, so it’s likely Sommers will come back to take Shakky but Gabin might be the one to fight him and leave him well traumatized while Rayleigh instead protects her. But with Shakky now taken care of, the Roger Pirates aim to steal the treasures and leave the island. But that also means that most of the Rocks Pirates may try to fight them, thinking they aren’t worthy of rescuing Shakky, leading to a larger conflict. But will that be the case or is there more to this story we don’t know?