#ch 983

[larkreadsop]

Luffy generally trusts his Haki when it comes to whether or not people are any danger to him so it makes sense that he’s calm here even if Yamato’s just kind of carrying him around.

[ninhaoma-ya]

Chapter 1037 — Shuron hakke

It has been 84 years…

…and I completely forgot about the new chapter until now. Oh no.

But this was such a joy, I completely forgive myself!

Thanks to translator notes, I now know that the title can read “drunk dragon bagua” and “famous for booze”. Very fitting for the drunkest chapter in the whole saga so far.

The guy challenging Orochi seems a bit more polished than other background figures. An homage that I don’t recognise, maybe?

Nice touch with the Toki-sculpture in the back, to go with the Oden-one seen in the beginning of the feast. Foreshadowing, mayhaps? The dawn is near, now that Toki appears?

Prediction: people will look up at the lights and not see a fairytale prince à la Tangled, but rather the terrific view of an island hovering over them. Fun and terror, just the thing to get your heart racing after a feast.

Okay, this whole sequence is just pure gold. If I could, I’d just put it all here.So go! Go and read the chapter and rejoice at the total chaos. I’ll wait.

When Shanks stopped him before the Paramount War wasn’t a serious one-on-one fight then, just a “here, but no further”?

No wonder he’s been searching for self-destructive ways to end his life (like jumping from a cloud and crashing alliance negotiations) if he lives for the fight but can’t get anyone to fight him, the poor lizard.

And look! Just look at how happy he seems!

And the movement! Although I have Views on the direction the art style has taken, I really enjoy the flow and movement in the last chapters, the easy lines of ink lending such energy to the page.

Also, I wonder what the snaps are.

I love drunk Kaido and will choose my new icon accordingly.

Fights are usually the least enjoyable bit of One Piece for me, but this whole thing is done just beautifully.

This whole page for example is just pure beauty, even though I’ll focus on the left-hand side here:

As far as I recall, Luffy hasn’t been much of a kicking man before, relying more on arm techniques. He’s not avoided kicks to the same extent Sanji refuses to use his hands in combat, but he does rely on his hands quite a bit. This could therefore be read as another way he’s evolved: his earlier hits didn’t quite make the mark but he evolves, and a kick in the face is never wrong.

And I have to give major points for hardness of technique as well. Do you know how hard it is to hit someone properly with a back-kick? It’s not a piece of cakewalk, I’ll tell you that.

Reminds me a bit of Ulti’s headbutt from chapter 983, although with some Conqueror’s distancing going on (which we can see in the Ulti-panel, I just realised):

But back to Kaido.

First; look at how happy he is when Luffy blocks his bagua-hit with his hand. He has realised Luffy will counterattack and he is overjoyed!

He even says it straight out in the beginning of the chapter: he’s happy! He’s celebrating a great match!

Both look quite beat. Wonder how long they’ll manage yet.

And then. I really hope Oda’ll tell us how Shanks died and Sabo got captured soon.

If this is in reference to the gomu gomu-fruit I will be miffed.

Or wait… is it Zunesha that’s the specially named fruit-bearer?

Such a nice bit of continuity there, by the way! I just assumed Zunesha had continued on her ramble and the Mink warriors took another route to Wano, but looks like she carried them there! Must have been tall enough that they could just jump over, as well.

I give the chapter a cheer and a raunchy drinking song.

[aggressive-2na]

like father like son eh? YAMATO TAKES THE STAGE!!!

[kaizokuou-ni-naru]

someone sent me an ask about this awhile back, but it got buried- anyways, the attack both kaidou and yamato use is 雷鳴八卦/raimei hakke. raimei means ‘thunder’ or ‘thunderclap,’ while hakke literally means ‘eight trigrams’ and refers to the bagua, a set of eight symbols used in taoism to represent basically the fundamentals of reality.

when ulti is making fun of yamato’s version of the attack compared to kaidou’s (whilst coughing up blood), she calls it 雷鳴四卦/raimei yonke instead, replacing the ‘eight’ (八/ha) of the original name with ‘four’ (四/yon) to basically insinuate it’s only half as good. 

[shysheeperz]

[larkreadsop]

...Yeah I’d leave him, too.

[kaizokuou-ni-naru]

Hey, during the Onigashima infiltration, from chapter 981, the building where Big Mom is encountered is described as a brothel in the scanlations and a pleasure hall in the official release. A few chapters later, Sanji breaks off from the group to seek out prostitutes in the scans and just women in the official. Is the original Japanese as unambiguous as the scans make it out to be, or does it leave room for doubt like the official? Thanks!

yeah, this is a matter of stuff being censored for the official release. the words used in japanese are 遊郭/yuukaku (literally meaning something like ‘play-quarters’) which means a red light district/brothel/Place Where You Find Prostitutes, and 遊女/yuujo (’play-woman’) which is the word for prostitute. there is no ambiguity. 

also, it does make sense, given that black maria is dressed similarly to an oiran (especially visible in her hair ornaments), for her quarters to be styled after a brothel. 

[kaizokuou-ni-naru]

(1/2) Hi Jonny! Somebody asked something similar while back, but I'm going in a different direction: On page 3 of chapter 983 (panel 3) Sanji tells Carrot that "I'm not giving up on finding ladies!" in the Viz translation. In the scanlation he says "I can't abandon the prostitutes!" While he's talking about sex workers (and Viz has to work around the T rating) I'm curious about the first part. "Give up" and "abandon" sound different to me and I'm wondering how the translations compare.

(2/2) I bet Sanji is just Being Like That and I'm reading into it too much but "abandon" is making me wonder why he would leave Nami and Carrot running away from Big Mom like that. Is there someone else more important that he might have saw? Again, probably just giving My Boy too much credit.

yeah, it’s just because the original word can be translated multiple ways. what he says is おれは遊女を諦めない/ore wa yuujo wo akiramenai. yuujo does mean ‘prostitutes’ and akirameru can be translated either as ‘to abandon’ or ‘to give up on,’ which is the source of the confusion. so “i’m not abandoning the prostitutes” and “i’m not giving up on (finding) the prostitutes” would both be valid translations.