 Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review, your source for everything one piece. To date we have a manga review of chapter 925, blank. And that title is initially completely misrepresentative of the chapter itself, which is incredibly packed with amazing content, so much so that I really don't know where to begin. So let's just go ahead and say the word Blackbeard. I was fully expecting to move elsewhere in the world after Act 1 concluded last chapter, but hitting up the big man himself and having a bounty reveal out of nowhere was kind of overwhelming actually. First of all, that number, 2,247,600,000 berries. That is the biggest mouthful of a bounty I have ever had to say. It's a really weird number as well, very specific. One day I really hope we get a gauge as to how these sorts of bounties are calculated, because I just think it's interesting that we have odd numbers like 600,000 tacked on, which is so seemingly irrelevant in the greater context of the number. In any case, after my head stopped spinning from the announcement of that ungodly number, I started to wonder why it would be revealed here. For the lifespan of the series really, Blackbeard has been deliberately kept as a mysterious figure, and I didn't initially see how it serves his character to have this information outed to the reader in an arc that may not even involve him. The only reasonable explanation I can think of is that it is a preemptive reveal, because by the end of Wano, we are most certainly going to know what Kaido's bounty is, and I think that it will be much more than Blackbeard's. So if that's the case, then flagging Blackbeard's bounty here not only provides a natural escalation to Kaido's number, but it also prevents Blackbeard's bounty from seeming underwhelming in comparison, which is what would have happened if it were revealed after Kaido's. Plus it provides one hell of an interval performance between X1 and 2 of Wano, so I think it was a very good storytelling decision from Oda to plonk this information here. It's also kind of hard to believe, but this is Blackbeard's first proper appearance in the series post-timeskip. No more silhouette nonsense, here he is in all of his surprisingly flamboyant glory. He actually looks a bit reminiscent of Barbosa from Pirates of the Caribbean. I'm loving the beard and the detail of his outfit in general, but I do kind of miss the Marineford era Blackbeard design. He felt a lot more intimidating and ominous there, whereas here he just feels a bit like a party bro. And just on that for a second, this is the first time I've ever found myself questioning Blackbeard's motives, because yeah he wants to become Pirate King, but why? And the answer to that may be as simple as using that power to turn the whole world into a giant party, which might make sense because in that little drawing we saw of him as a child, he looked really lonely, so yeah maybe the guy just wants to make some friends and is going about just in a very, very twisted way. But the appearance of Blackbeard is far from the only world-shaking nugget dropped this week, as we have a very surprising character appearing in Blackbeard's territory who is fan-favorite Gecko Moria. I'd also like it noted that I said fan-favorite in quotation marks, indicating sarcasm. Oddly enough, I do really enjoy the idea of Moria possibly joining the Blackbeard Pirates though. I think it would be cool if Blackbeard, like Luffy, collected an army of formerly prominent characters so that by the time the straw hats do end up clashing with the Blackbeard Pirates, it will be a huge conflict that will involve the entire history of the series coming into play. Although someone who we know for a fact will not be participating in that conflict is Absalom. To be honest, I never really liked Absalom at all. I thought he was one of the huge detracting aspects of Thriller Bark with his constant attempts at trying to kidnap and marry an army. Plus, he had one of those designs that never really gelled with me. But I have to say that I feel really bad that the guy is dead. A lot of that might have to do with the fact that Absalom had become quite a prominent background character floating about doing his invisible reporting stuff and I quite like that he was putting his skills to use there. So yeah, it feels like a genuine loss of a character and the very idea of it hit me much harder than I ever would have thought possible with Absalom. But it is what it is and his devil fruit, the suke suke no mi, has been inherited by Shilu, which confuses me slightly. Invisibility is cool and all, but the Blackbeard Pirates are supposed to be collecting mass amounts of devil fruits, so why would Shilu choose this particular one? I suppose we'll find out in due course, but it did make for an excellent reveal that Absalom was dead and in addition to that we also have a new devil fruit entering the ring. A mythical zoan type held by a certain Katarina Devon which allows her to transform into a nine-tailed fox. I'm sure that most of you who are even vaguely familiar with general anime know by now that in Chinese mythology foxes were depicted as possessing magical powers and generally using them to become glorified tricksters. So who knows exactly where the limits of this fruit play, but at the moment it seems like a superior version of the mani mani no mi held by Blanclay. Well you know not technically because it's a zoan type, but it seems to be a fruit that incorporates the power of that fruit into it. So that's pretty directly superior. In any case, Katarina Devon also has a uh much more piratey design now. She definitely matches her captain blackbeard. Surely when the other hand seems to have maintained his more classical look, which I'm very very glad about, although I guess we already knew that because he appeared after Dressrosa along with the feat. And actually you know who I really miss? Doc Q. I don't know why but I'm very curious to see what has become of him during the time skip, but back to something more relevant this chapter provided us with confirmation of something I was hoping for, the idea that we are not moving back to the reverie. Now a lot of people are going to complain at great length that the events of the reverie were not shown, but personally I believe it is much better to have it occur off screen. One piece is at its best when it dangles mystery and intrigue right in front of us, activating our imaginations rather than satisfying a temporary lust to see something. Another great example of this is when we found out that Kuzan and Sakazuki had their 10 day battle on Ponk Hazard. We didn't see any of it, but having known those two characters we can vividly imagine it, and as much as I may want to see it in reality that would probably only detract from the legend of the event. And it's the same with the reverie. We're going to find out what happened in great detail eventually, and seeing it just wouldn't be anywhere near as satisfying as sparking the imagination of the reader. But just in case all of this wasn't enough, Act 2 of Wano also began this week, and the most immediate result of this is that Arshiro Doji will not immediately be joining our efforts. From a meta narrative perspective I find that really annoying, because it means that we're going to have to undergo a character arc with him, which is going to take time, but yeah I can see where the character is coming from. The title of the chapter refers to the two decade blank representing the absence of the Kozuki clan, but you know I feel like if Genomon had perhaps attempted to explain that they time travelled against their will, then maybe we wouldn't have to go through all this. Then again this wouldn't be a great adventure without delving into characters like this, so I guess we really have signed up for the long haul here. But to cap off this chapter something very theoretically exciting happened, which is the introduction of the last two calamities, King the Fire and Queen the Plague. And I have to be honest about King and Queen, their designs are kind of underwhelming. Well maybe that's not fair actually. I do see a lot of potential in their designs especially Kings, but they were both introduced in such a casual manner that I can't help but feel underwhelmed. I mean Oda usually goes to a lot of trouble to introduce key characters like this, generally showing off a supremely weird quirk, skill, or particular facet of strength that makes us as readers take note of them. But in this chapter it feels a bit like oh yeah King and Queen are also there. Hi. Furthermore I don't think it helps that their introduction was used to cap off an absolutely massive chapter. After showing everything with Blackbeard in his crew, the final two page spread with King and Queen, who was pretty much destined to end on a much lower note than we commenced. I'm still very much looking forward to seeing them in action, especially King, who appears to be a swordsman, Hinton Sorrow. Although he also appears to be the result of what would happen if Gladius and Pika had a love child. And speaking of looks I guess, Queen appears to be a very morally escapcoma, and as a result I've seen a lot of discussion surrounding the possibility of Queen versus Sanji, because of the idea that Sanji might get a comma triggered and might try to take out some anger for his two years spent on the Kambaka Kingdom. It's an interesting idea, and I am hoping that Sanji gets a decent fight on Wano because I think he very much needs at least one in the New World era. One final thing to touch on this chapter is actually the very beginning featuring Mihawk and Pirona. It was kind of a shock to move from the cover page to immediately seeing them in the actual chapter. The idea of Pirona becoming relevant again is something I've never really considered, and it's always nice to see Mihawk. Still very much wondering if the two of them are married now due to the certain wedding that Shanks attended on a previous cover story. Mihawk seems to care for Pirona quite a bit which is very unusual for his loner style character, and so the speculation continues. But that pretty much does it for chapter 925. If you enjoyed this video then feel free to like, favorite or subscribe, and if you are in any way inclined to help support this independent channel then please do check out my Patreon, Discord server or Twitter, the links to which are in the handy description below. And finally please do comment with your thoughts on the chapter. This has been the Grand Line Review, and I'll see you next time.