#ch491

[opbackgrounds]

This chapter is super nostalgic for me, since this is where I caught up to the weekly serialization. People were going insane trying to figure out Duval's connection to the Straw Hats, and I have to say that this design goes so hard it makes the reveal a million times funnier than it already is

[every-sanji]

[firstloveagain]

Yasratcha:

[opbackgrounds]

Does Luffy not know that fish poop?

[opbackgrounds]

Oda has to walk a pretty fine line with Hatchi, portraying him as a decent guy who wants to run an octopus fritter shop while also acknowledging that he did some pretty heinous things in the past. Oda generally does a good job of presenting a handful of his henchmen characters as just people who for various reasons got caught up in circumstances that led them down a bad path. Not everyone needs to be a cackling maniac, but Oda maintains that balance by not shying away from the bad that they've done. As the henchman who's gotten the most development Hatchi is the most successful version of this in the series, and Oda uses Hatchi's development to show how Nami's grown as well.

[opbackgrounds]

I see Pappagu went to the Meowth school of animal speech

[opbackgrounds]

Camie has a generic pretty girl design, but she has some of *the* best face faults in the series

[opbackgrounds]

Chopper in an inflatable pool ring is very cute