Video version: https://youtu.be/qxu6J_mbTDY

Sanji vs Killingham

Following up from the past chapter, Sanji takes a whiff out of his cigarrette and then intentionally tosses it away, causing it to trigger the explosion of Longinus before it can hit him directly. Interestingly, he decides to not pick up the cigarrette again for the rest of the fight. I could be reading too much into this, since we know how much the story often tends to keep the status quo when it comes to character flaws, but I do wonder if Sanji tossing away the cigarrette here could be seen a symbolism of him learning to take better care of his body.

Particularly, this is because across the chapter Sanji continues to say how much he hated his own body that he would have no regard for it, particularly as the bodies of the Vinsmokes are an embodiment of what makes them different from Sanji, of how they lost their humanity. This is reflected across the chapter too as during this dialogue, Sanji’s eyebrow begins to change, just as it did during Onigashima. Across the chapter, he begins when he tosses the cigarrette with his eyebrow like normal, and then during his kick it changes to a 6. Then you can see as he reflects that it switches back to how it originally was, with a sound effect to indicate these transitions, which stays that way until the end of the chapter.

As Oda explained in Vol 105 of the SBS, this is due to Germa’s lineage factor modification, which is why they have eyebrows in the shape of a 66. Interestingly, Reiju appears to have her left eyebrow in the shape of a 6, but her right one, covered up by her hair, seems to be in the opposite shape, like Sanji. This could be explained by the fact that Reiju was only partially modified due to being the first experiment.

On the other hand, young Judge as seen during the MADS days appeared to be a bit of the opposite of Reiju, with both of his eyebrows going downwards, not quite making the shape of a 66 and instead looking a lot more natural. Perhaps that is why seeing one of Sanji’s eyebrows go down like his reminded him so much of why he sees himself as a failure

As such, Sanji reflects upon how he should cherish this body that his mother has blessed him, and that people like Zeff or Ivankov have helped him toughen up further, not through scientific augmentations, but through genuine human training, real hard work. In a sense, this realization could be considered what is holding back the eyebrow to revert back to normal, perhaps a symbol that Sanji gaining control over his emotions, and as a result his haki, allows his human side to overpower the mechanical one.

Because of this, I do wonder if him tossing away the cigarrette could be seen as him learning to treasure this body that his mother has given him. I think it could be quite exciting to see Sanji actually quit smoking from now on, with this cigarrette being his last smoke as a way to contemplate leaving this part of his past behind. If anything, it makes a bit more sense why Sanji was so willing to smoke despite the very clear apparent dangers to his health. We’ve seen in cases before that he is aware of the damage smoking causes to him, such as when he brought it up during Punk Hazard in Chapter 663 when Sanji personally asked Nami permission to smoke in her body, and later even bringing up how he worried about this causing trouble to her lungs.

But if he has been so self-destructive about his body, then it makes sense that he didn’t really care about his addiction and just let the damage pile up on him, never really thinking about his own well being. Now of course, it’s hard to say if Oda would fully commit, since like I’ve said he’s often been consistent of keeping the flaws of characters present across the story, which could be argued in a lot of ways but I’d say it’s his own way of keeping the Straw Hats feeling human. But I do personally think it would be really cool to see Sanji learning to treasure his body more and thus letting go of smoking here. It may be an image change from how he’s been depicted so far, but I think nothing better could symbolize his growth. I suppose we’ll just have to see though.

Sanji uses a powered up version of Collier called “Colliere Fortreresse” (コリエフォルトレス/首肉要塞). As you may deduce, Fortresse is the french word for fortress, as the English word is derived from French. That is in turn derived from Latin “fortis”, which even in modern Italian still means “strong”, or “resistant”, and so in a way it’s quite fitting because it’s clear this is symbolizing Sanji treating his body like a fortress, a durable impenetrable wall that cannot be easily broken. As a reminder, Collier is the French word for a cut of meat involving the neck of an animal, and thus Sanji uses it to target the necks of his opponents. The reason for using Collier relates to the line he said last chapter, that his “head is too high”, so he purposely snaps Killingham’s neck so as to force him to bow down by force.

Killingham counters by donning a black armor, seemingly as he says a power of the Omen rather than his own, as he becomes covered in flames, including from the plumage coming out of his roman helmet, which matches the fact he is carrying Longinus, originally wielded by a Roman centurion. Interestingly, Sanji shatters Longinus, but the spear has regenerated, which seems to give this idea that the 19 weapons aren’t just physical items, but have somehow integrated directly with the Omen, which also explains how they can be so easily summoned. Once again I do wonder if the ones around the throne are replicas, or if they are the original but the Omen versions are either based on them or meant to be like a physical manifestation.

In an internal monologue, Sanji speaks to Zoro, thinking of him and Luffy. The Zoro panel is a bit too hard to nail down as it could relate to any banquet they’ve had before (though evidently one during post-timeskip, so given the outfit it could be the Fish-Man Island one), but the Luffy picture, despite his generic look is a lot easier to identify. Given how he’s looking down towards Sanji, the POV, I would reckon it’s Luffy’s first proper meeting with Sanji at the Baratie, where he was watching from the upper level when Sanji fed Gin. Interestingly, this is also one of the very few times in the series when Sanji has called Zoro by personal name, proving that he means this message with the most heartfelt of intentions.

His statement is that Zoro can be Luffy’s sword, while he becomes Luffy’s shield. As the editor’s message emphasizes, this is the determination of both of the wings of the Pirate King, being his sword and his shield. This relates to the cover of the chapter too, where Zoro wears a shirt that holds a writing in Irish. This reads as “Rop tú mo chathscíath, rop tú mo chlaideb” (rap thu mo hat-shi rap thu ma-hla-deb) , which translates as “be thou my battle-shield, be thou my sword”. This line is taken from an ancient Irish Christian hymn called “Be Thou My Vision”, which speaks of asking the Lord to offer us protection, with one of the lines saying “be thou my battle-shield, be thou my sword”. In this case, Oda is likely just using it because it fits, with the sword referring to Zoro and the battleshield being Sanji. The images of a warrior wielding a sword and shield is also reminiscent of some of the depictions of Nika, where instead of the sword and spear, he carries a sword and shield.

As is evident from the sparks in the final panel, as well from the sound effects, this is it: Sanji has unlocked Conqueror’s haki. And his eyebrow is just as human as he’s always been.

Imu’s Final(?) Form

Suddenly though, two powerful waves of haki can be felt, alongside the signature “bari bari” sound effects. One of them comes from a shadowy creature making monkey noises, but the other one is from the Great One. Imu has transformed into yet another form, this one certainly a lot less goofy than the other one, if anything installing a Biblical kind of ominous presence. Imu now dons a white robe, clad with three belts featuring the three skulls that, as a reminder, serve as the symbol of the Devil, also observed in characters like Oars who tried to pass off as the Devil. Part of the robe leaves the arms and the chest exposed, still showing the dotted pattern, although now far more uniform, and with Imu’s shading having changed from shaded tone to pitch black. Interestingly, the eyes have attained silhouettes like those of glyphs, and a single uniform stripe goes down his left eye.

A helmet envelops the face with both horns coming out of it, whilst the hair goes in two directions: on one side, it flows down uniform, while the rest at the top is set ablaze, similar to Nika’s hair in Gear 5th form. We’ve already mentioned the similarities between Nika’s white hair and red eyes with Imu’s own, and it seems things won’t stop here with the dark shilouette-like skin. Imu also retains the pointed beard from his previous form, as well as the omen bracelets around the hands. Speaking of which, two gigantic omen circles now form around Imu, whereas behind him is a massive omen with two gigantic wings, giving the aspect of a so-called biblically accurate angel, particularly the ophanim, often depicted as a wheel with eyes and wings. The shilouette in general is a lot closer to the one of the Devil as depicted in the Harley mural, even if that one was obviously far more stylized.

Most intriguing of all though is Imu’s new weapon, some kind of blade that appears more like a light saber than a traditional sword. The hilt is long and without a crossguard, simply having an ornate pommel like that of a katana’s kashira, while the blade appears as if made of light itself. This is evident when Imu appears to retract the light from the blade, as indicated by the “woom” (ブゥン) sound effect, representing the sound of light fading away, though it isn’t clear if Imu is consciously retracting it or if the blade is running out, particularly as Imu points to this level of power taking a lot of energy out of him, forcing him to return to the Holyland soon enough or his very life might be in danger, tying into the whole weakness that’s already been brought up several times.

Hybrid Loki

Still, this form is clearly powerful enough to easily overpower even hybrid Loki, although it is evident he was already quite injured. Speaking of which, there isn’t as much to say about Loki’s hybrid form, but it is interesting how it slightly differs from the shilouette shadow we saw when Loki was fighting Harald in what also looked as his hybrid form. That one appeared to have more of a snout, while this one retains his human face and beard, simply fusing his helmet with his head and instead keeping the dragon eyes and teeth. The helmet also extends into this jagged spine, which wasn’t seen in the other silhouette, but the sharp claws seen there are present here instead. Interestingly though, neither in this transformation nor Loki’s full form do we see a hagoromo scarf, implying that Loki’s fruit isn’t awakened, unless Oda has decided to just change it for aesthetic reasons.

Oddly enough though, the text box under Loki describes his current form as his “second hybrid form” (第２人獣型). It’s possible that this expression may be referring to the hybrid form being the second out of the three Zoan forms, but the way it is written here grammatically would almost seem to suggest that this is the second of Loki’s hybrid forms, implying that Zoans may be able to have more than one hybrid form in some cases. This would explain cases like Kaidou, who at one point his hybrid form slightly changed in design, or Killingham being able to turn into a humanoid Kirin with a Kirin head but a human body, or a centaur with a human torso and equine legs, which both appear like hybrid forms. This would also potentially explain the discrepancies with the silhouette we mentioned earlier, and may even explain more regarding Luffy’s transformation later, as well as why Imu is also able to transform into several forms too.

Interestingly, during their brief exchange, Imu demands of Loki the “ancestral technology” found on Elbaph. From the context we have, we can infer that this is likely referring to the “Facility” (施設, shisetsu) found on Elbaph, an ancient technological facility of some kind spanning all the way back seemingly during the First World, in what Lilith estimated it to be at least 3000 years old, and even that was a lowball. Not much more was said about it as our attention quickly shifted away to the invasion, but it is evidently of quite a great importance, as the First World of 3000 years ago, according to the Harley, was seemingly the first one to achieve the technology of the Mother Flame, and thus achieve unlimited energy and technology. This tech was seemingly lost during the first apocalypse that ended the First World involving the Hellflame Serpent, but then resurfaced in the Second World, which is likely how some of the ancient weapons became possible to be manufactured, or at least the ships associated with them, since at least two of the weapons seem to involve an individual (Momonosuke and Shirahoshi), a gigantic type of animal (Zunesha and the Sea Kings), and a ship (the Pluton warship and the Noah). Then it was lost once more, even by Imu who appears to retain one of the last weapons (what by exclusion would be the Uranus ship, some kind of flying ship), as Imu required Vegapunk to rediscover the Mother Flame to be able to power it. But it seems the greed of a monarch is never enough, and so Imu now demands for even more of the lost technology found in Elbaph, hoping that the facility might have some secrets within it to accelerate the production of the Mother Flame and weapons that would let Mu control the world even further. Inevitably, of course, Loki wouldn’t really seem to know much about it. The Facility is seemingly common enough knowledge in Elbaph, as Ripley knew about it, but I imagine no one on the island might know just quite how important it is that someone like Loki can’t really connect the dots here.

Luffy’s New Form

Still, as the chapter’s title suggests, this island of monsters is packed with yet another beast. As Gaban points out to Usopp, Luffy’s fruit is a Zoan fruit (which by itself is interesting, as it seems Gaban is fully aware of the true nature of Luffy’s fruit). This statement may seem vague on its own, but anyone knowledgeable enough in devil fruits should know the key defining trait of Zoan users: that their fruits possess a will of their own. As has been explained several times already, when a Zoan user awakens, they are at risk of the will of the fruit taking over. In the case the fruit takes over completely, the user’s own mind may be consumed, resulting in cases like the Impel Down Jailer Beast Guards, where they’ve become mindless beasts simply driven by the animal inside the fruit, losing all traces of their former humanity. In the case a Zoan user has a strong will however, they will resist the fruit taking over, although in some cases the personality of the fruit can still spill over. This is why we’ve always seen Luffy laughing histerically while in Gear 5th, because the personality of Nika, the mythical being residing within the fruit, is affecting Luffy’s own behavior. So in this case, Gaban is likely implying that Luffy, who already was slightly vulnerable to the will of the fruit, may have succumbed even further to it. Obviously, I doubt that Luffy will be unable to return to his normal self, but it seems that at least for a while, he may have lost complete control, which is why he seems to be acting recklessly out of his own mind. In fact, this might be why Luffy is chasing down Zaza, as I wonder if there’s a connected mythology between Zaza and Nika that puts them at odds on an instinctual level.

Regardless, Sanji comes face to face with this new form of Luffy. It is easy to mistake the silhouette Sanji sees earlier in the chapter as being Imu in the distance, but it is actually this new form of Luffy. This is evident by the speech bubble next to it, which says “kii”, which is part of the sound effect “ukiki” (ウキキ) which is the sound a monkey makes in Japanese. There’s also a version of it in which he is lauhging which sounds more like “ukyakyakya”, which is mixing the sound of a monkey with laughter. As we see more of it, we see that Luffy’s form evidently resembles a monkey. His skin is completely dark drawn with black ink much like Imu’s, though the close ups seem to make it look like black fur. Parts of his torso appear to have swirls on it, similar to the patterns of a devil fruit, although his chest scar is still present, and of course, the most defining feature, is the tail coming out between his sash and his pants. His teeth have become a lot sharper and his nose like that of a monkey, but in general it is quite evident that this still seems to be Gear 5th. This can be seen by the style of the hair and hagoromo scarf, including two new clouds around his arms like bracelets, quite similar to the omen ones Imu now bears. And, more than antyhing, it is evident by the fact that Luffy appears to have a similar moveset to Gear 5th, using cartoonish attacks to dispatch his enemies, in this case grabbing Zaza with his giant inflated hands and blowing her up like a balloon. In fact, it is evident from the first panel that this Luffy is gigantic, as you can spot a very tiny straw hat on the back of his head for size. So this seems more like a different form of Gear 5th, much like something like Snakeman would be, than something completely unique like Gear 6th (unless Luffy just decides to rebrand it as such).

The key difference thus far doesn’t seem to be so much in the moveset but rather in the behavior. This Luffy appears to fight a lot less hilariously and much more mischeviously, still like a cartoon, but more like the naughty trickster-like characters seen in old cartoons, such as the eponymous Jerry always torturing the chasing Tom. Symbolically and narratively, this also should make sense to you: we’ve been told a lot across this arc how there’s been multiple interpretations of Nika, and now it’s starting to become evident as to why. Some referred to Nika as the Warrior of Liberation, a figure of salvation almost described like the hero of a comicbook, always bringing forth laughter but still serving as the image of light. But others have referred to Nika as a warrior of destruction, the kind of mischevious kid that would pull pranks and mock his opponents with equally cartoonish moves. The form of Nika we see here is evidently much more like that latter interpretation. It is hard to say currently exactly what this qualifies as. There’s the fact that unlike most Zoans, we’ve mostly seen Luffy usually in his normal human form, simply having the passive aspect of Nika of having his body made of rubber (which despite some misinformation, Luffy’s body is still made of the element of rubber, that’s a trait distinct of Nika’s body). And separate to it there’s the awakening transformation we’ve seen Luffy turn into, what he calls Gear 5th, but if so is that actually his hybrid form? Could it be then that this is Luffy’s beast form as a Zoan? Alternatively, it’s also possible that this is a separate form entirely to his awakening, which would be unusual, but given how Imu also seems to have quite an unlimited amount of transformations, it shouldn’t be much surprise that these two fruits may be different from the rest, especially with what we said earlier with Loki.

The interesting trait of this form though is the obvious monkey motif, perfectly matching Luffy’s own family name. Even the whole series Oda has associated the monkey as Luffy’s motif animal, so the meaning of his name feels a lot more apparent now. This connection with monkeys was also already evident in previous showcases of Gear 5th, particularly Luffy’s strongest punch, the Bajrang Gun. Bajrang is quite simply an alternate name for Hanuman, the monkey deity in Hinduist belief, which historically had been associated as a symbol of defiance against oppression, symbolizing an embodiment of heroism, which quite parallels the concept of the Warrior of Liberation. This is evident in the kanji reading of the move, which reads under Bajrang as “Sarugami” (猿神), or “Monkey God”. This connection is further corroborated in the Road to Laugh Tale Vol. 4 booklet, where next to the concept art of Bajrang Gun is the katakana writing “Hanuman” (ハヌマーン) above the kanji for “Sarugami”, which seems to indicate that in this early draft, the move wasn’t going to be called Bajrang Gun, but seemingly “Hanuman Gun”, with the kanji reading of “Monkey God” remaining unchanged.

There are plenty other aspects to Hanuman that also tie a lot with Luffy, such as the myth of him trying to eat the sun mistaking it for a fruit, or the fact his father is considered to be the wind God, many of which you could tie into connections with Luffy. Furthermore, Hanuman is also believed to have influenced the creation of Sun Wukong, the protagonist of the traditional Chinese novel Journey to the West, which in turn of course influenced several reinterpretations of it, no lesser Dragon Ball, as Son Goku is simply the Japanese reading of Sun Wukong. In a way, one could see this as Oda paying tribute to the long line of influences that motivated him to create manga in the first place. Hanuman in general is depicted in mythology as being able to shift and change the size of his body, which is quite similar to the way that Luffy shapeshifts his limbs in Gear 5th. On the other Sun Wukong is often depicted in Journey to the West as a trickster, a mischevious and naughty figure who often acts impulsively and with short temper. He is also described as wielding elemental powers, being able to change size, or also transform with shape-shifting powers, so I wonder how much of those will be present in his extended arsenal, particularly things like his manipulation of clouds and his iconic staff, which also carried over in designs like those of Goku.

Conversely, Luffy’s Gear 4th form included attacks based on several different animals, but the most iconic one was the move Kong Gun, and its ultimate final version being King Kong Gun, a move that is really similar to Bajrang Gun in a lot of ways. What is interesting here is that Kong Gun’s kanji reading, removing the “gun” part, is that of “en’ou” (猿王), or “Monkey King”, while the kanji reading for King Kong Gun is that of “Great Monkey King”, or “dai en’ou” (大猿王). The interesting thing here is that “en’ou” (猿王), or Monkey King, is one of the epithets Sun Wukong attains in the original tale, strengthening the connection. Ironically though, Oda likely tried to make a connection between Sun Wukong the Monkey King and King Kong, but despite both being large apes, according to Merian Cooper, the original filmmaker behind the creation of King Kong, the name was inspired by Congo, where a lot of gorillas can be found, with the connection with Wukong simply being a coincidence Oda took advantage of. While we are at it, in the original tale Sun simply is a different reading of monkey, while Wukong means “awakened to emptiness”, which embodies a concept of Buddhism connected with meditation and the awareness of reality that heavily ties with the deeply spiritualistic messaging of the original novel.

To summarize, all that we know points to the obvious conclusion that this is Luffy losing control of his fruit, with the Nika within it taking control and making Luffy rampage in this new form, what might be either his Zoan beast form or another different awakened form, one inspired by the deity Hanuman and its literary interpretation as the Monkey King Sun Wukong. This form is much more reminiscent of the mischievous interpretation of Nika than the warrior of liberation one, while still retaining a similar moveset, that embodies the duality of Nika as a concept between a Warrior of Liberation and a mischevious trickster, leading to the ambiguous duality of whether Nika will save the world or destroy it. As we approach the end of the third world, Luffy’s own powers serve as the embodiment of one of the core narrative themes of One Piece: the ambiguous grey morality and the duality of people. Is Luffy a hero, sent by the heavens to protect and save humanity, or is he a trickster, a free willed pirate simply doing whatever he wants? In truth… what if he is both? A truly free pirate who lives life how he wants, that path leading him to saving others… what could perhaps be called the real and true embodiment of freedom.