It’s happening, fam. After they first learned about it 25 years ago in real time, the Straw Hats are finally going to have their dream vacation. In other words, the Elbaf arc is imminently upon us.
Even if you didn’t encounter the Little Garden arc when it was serializing in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1999 to 2000, it comes so early in the story that the profundity of this moment can’t miss it. The Elbaf arc is so early in the full scheme of One Piece, Dory and Broggy have been cast for season two of the live-action series.
Spoilers ahead for One Piece chapter 1114.
Granted, no one—even the Straw Hat crew—expected to be actively en route to Elbaf with a moping Luffy. But it’s understand our boy was upset: he promised to bring Vegapunk safely on his ship with him, and he thought that he failed. Turns out, just having one of the satellites on board means Luffy did keep his promise.
We don’t quite know the details (if we ever will), but while they’re dead in the conventional sense, all the Vegapunks’ consciousnesses are still in tact. They’re likely stored in Punk Records, AKA Vegapunk’s giant horrifying brain. We already knew they could upload their memories to Punk Records and that they could “disconnect” from it. Maybe Franky or someone could even reconstruct them.
And so, the chapter ends with a party, as it simply must. And a promise that the ship is heading to Elbaf.
I want to go to Elbaf!!
If you’ve been a fan of One Piece since near its beginning, you’ve been waiting 25 years for the Straw Hats to get to Elbaf. Unfortunately, we’re all going to have to wait a week or two more.
We know for sure that One Piece is off next week. Usually, the Shonen Jump app will have a countdown for when the next chapter releases, even if it’s the week-after-next. But that countdown is conspicuously missing, which makes me wonder if Eiichiro Oda is going on a short break to prep for the next arc. He’s made no such statement yet. But if that suspicious is true, we should hear from him this week.
The earliest that chapter 1125 could release is September 8, 2024. But we might not get it until September 15, maybe even September 22. As always, the official release drops for free on the Viz website and the Shonen Jump app on Sunday mornings.
Published: Aug 26, 2024 04:58 pm