My pinned post about the Wano cover arc is getting pretty long, so I thought now would be a good time to start a part two to talk about where I see the Beast Pirates going from here, due to it shifting to focusing more on the remnants of Kaido's crew.

Part one here.

Flower Capital: Kin'emon, Momo, Hiyori & Toko, Otsuru, Urashima, Nekomamushi, Hyogoro.

Kibi: Denjiro & the kids.

Kuri: Inuarashi, Shinobu, Osome & Chuji.

Udon: Tama & Komachiyo, Speed, Yamato, Holdem, Who's Who, Ulti, Page One, Minatomo, the kidnapped women.

Dino siblings in danger! Who's Who is such a jerk! Tama and Yamato arrived here at a very interesting time. Will they step in?

And Udon seemingly remains without a Daimyo. I'm curious if that has anything to do with Who's Who setting up a base here of all the regions?

Ulti: "If anything happens to Pay-Pay, I'll hunt you to the depths of hell and beat you to death."

Oh my, Who’s Who is having waaaay too much fun with torturing Ulti here. Giant dartboards are not something you see every day. Did he have it built? Or is this something that was lying around in Onigashima for some reason?

Page One in the lower corner is a very funny drawing. Out of context, it looks like he doesn't know how to feel about his head being patted as a sword is right next to him. He and Ulti are wearing new outfits too, which is fun.

Now that some time has passed, I'm wondering about the TamaYama duo, if they'll enter the scene soon? But yeah, Who’s Who is camping out in the woods being a sinister maniac, and that’s his whole plan it seems. Simply insane behavior.

"Can't see through the tears of anger."

Who's Who is really going out of his way to be as cruel as possible. This is brutal to see. I still have to wonder why he didn't just leave Wano at the first opportunity though. Why set up a base and go through all this effort to kidnap or capture and torture people?

“Give back the sword and the girls! Thunder Bagua!”

And there it is, the Thunder Bonkua. It’s nice to see Who’s Who punished for being a big meanie, though Yamato being the one to do it was pretty predictable and underwhelming I’m not gonna lie. We didn't even get Yamato wearing a cloth face covering, as basedkikuenjoyer was hoping for. I thought of disguise names and everything... Makami Mask and Dango Girl.

It could be really neat if Oda is doing a parallel with the fears of the children of Elbaf in the main chapter and Tama on the covers, a child of Wano about to re-encounter someone she is afraid of. To the Hakumai region next.

"Minatomo the carpenter and the girls are freed!"

Woah! Tama really wrecked the place and saved everyone, what a powerful and kind kunoichi in training. At this rate, she will awaken conqueror’s haki soon hehe. Nice of her to let Yamato have the credit of taking out the boss too. Tama is humble as well.

Though yeah, I like seeing her here comforting Minatomo, even though she knows Ulti, a former tormentor, is nearby. She's being very brave. And Yamato being thanked is a sweet moment.

"Pay Pay's still alive!!"

The aftermath of the assault on Who's Who's base and everyone who was captured are safe. It's neat seeing the perspective rotated like this from the prior cover. Are we about to see a big group meeting between the kidnapped people, Tama, Yamato, and Ulti & Pay Pay?

Or is Yamato done here? Content to have freed the kidnap victims, stopped Who's Who from killing Ulti and Page One, and retrieved Yasu's sword, though not willing to make amends with people who supported Kaido's oppression of both Wano and himself. Will we learn who the Daimyo of the region is soon?

Is this how Yamato becomes a Daimyo?

OH! Ulti leap! I am a big fan of the expressions of everyone looking on. The various shades of surprised or disgruntled are fun. This is good understated humor. Beyond simply asking to work for the Yam, does this imply that Ulti believes Kaido is not returning? Did she try asking the same to Black Maria/Sasaki, or are those two off her radar entirely?

Or could it be more a dependence thing? She doesn’t know what to do anymore, now that Kaido has been removed from the picture, and thinks she needs to serve another? The very Beast Pirate-esque idea that might makes right causing her to want to work for the one who defeated her captors?

Cover serials by # of chapters:

Decks of the World 48

Caribou & Grand Fleet 46

Miss Goldenweek 43

Hachi 40

Enel 38

Jango & Bege 37

CP0 & Germa 33

Gedatsu 32

Wano 31

Buggy & Kobymeppo 30

Ace 29

Jinbei 28

Decks of the New World 25

Wapol 23

SH Separation 16

And how many we've spent in each region:

7 chapters in the Flower Capital + 1 at the start showing Onigashima underwater.

3 in Kibi.

7 in Kuri.

13 in Udon so far.

The second half of OP Academy's 56th chapter brings Luffy and Jinbei's clash to a close with a sumo match! Awesome.

There are a ton of fun action panels this time. And during the match, Jinbei recounts his five-day fight with Ace prior in a fairly one-to-one manor as the main manga told it.

There is one key different however, and it's a fun one.

Mango pudding. Ace decided to eat mango pudding using Jinbei's donburi bowl! It's got Jinbei's name on it and everything! Tsk Tsk. That would have been a good time for Ace to remember the manners that Makino taught him.

Joking aside, I love this. It makes sense the reason for the feud between these two is less severe, given the more lighthearted nature of Academy, and it's so perfectly in character for both. Nicely done Sohei Koji.

The chapter then concludes with Jinbei conceding defeat, due to him breaking ground outside the ring, then making a big gesture of camaraderie in the name of Whitebeard, with Luffy and Ace.

Next update releases on the 1st/2nd of May!

Hikaru is back and dislikes tomatoes. This rules.

Very important art for the Ghana chocolate promos.

A few more have been uploaded so I decided to watch the One Piece in Love shorts.

They make good use of the format, and have many fun moments and bits of animation. I think it could do more with the fact it specifically is a One Piece spin off, to make it feel less like it could be an original thing with a few changes, but it's a cute and enjoyable enough little spin off that makes the Nami expy extra cute and funny. I will watch more if more are released.

I have completed season 3 of Mob Psycho!

Spoilers for the entire season, especially the second half.

Extremely cute cover page for Ichi the Witch chapter this week.