 Jinbei is a man of great, unwavering, profound honor, a man who wears his decisions proudly on his chest, much like his trademark tattoo, which he uses to encourage people to subscribe to the Grand Line Review. For regular One Piece content, upload it straight into your YouTube feed. Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review, your source for everything One Piece. And today we have a review of chapter 977, The Party's Off. And this chapter, honestly, is pretty much exactly what I've been waiting for ever since the Wanoak began. And to be clear, there's nothing particularly, you know, world-shattering about it, no massive developments or even story progression, really. However, what it does have in exceptional quantities is the straw hats just being the straw hats. They have three major scenes during the chapter, and they each feel almost nostalgic, because for the first time in far too long, we get to see the entire crew interacting with one another, as well as clearly showing why they are rapidly becoming one of the most infamous pirate crews in the world. And that is really all I need to make this week a satisfying experience, because in the end, as much as One Piece is known for great plot twists and incredible action, what really sells this series is the chemistry between our protagonists. And I feel kind of dumb for saying that because it should be so obvious that it goes without saying, but then again, after you spend a huge majority of the new old era without protagonists physically divided, it's almost like exploring a brand new idea again. Having everyone here feel surprisingly fresh, and when I say everyone, I guess I'm also including Karat, because straw hat or not, she is very, very present, especially in that first group panel, which is just magnificent. It's one of those panels that really makes me slow down and go from character to character to see their unique expressions, and you can just feel the history of the series in it as well. So for example, you have most of the Whole Cake Island crew being Luffy, Nami, Chopper, and Karat, just leaping right onto Jinbei, due to their experiences with him in Totterland. And then interestingly enough, Sanji has this shocked expression, which kind of confused me slightly at first, because he obviously should not be all that surprised by Jinbei, but then I realized that the shock must have been because of how easily Nami and Karat embraced Jinbei, and thus Sanji here is actually kind of jealous. Which is a nice touch. And then you move on to Frankie, and he's just like, oh, another big blue guy? Well, that is just super. But in general, I just love how accepting of this everyone is. Nobody is truly shocked by the fact that Jinbei has properly joined their crew, and it's just a lovely panel in general. One that I spent many, many minutes scanning for the sheer pleasure of it. And just while we're here, I did mention Karat before, and I should say that this is definitely, you know, one of those moments that gives the Karat for Nakama movement quite a boost, because she admittedly fits in here very naturally. And I honestly don't think that the idea of her joining the Straw Hats after Wano is completely out of the question. Although for her to do so, I was assuming that she would need to have quite a pivotal role in Wano, which thus far has not turned out to be the case. But it's very difficult to forget the inherited will that she has from Pedro, as well as the very direct interest that she has in seeing the Straw Hats succeed. But then again, Karat also does not appear in the following two classic Straw Hats scenes, at least not that I can see, which is nice because it means that we do get to spend some time with just the official members. And one of those scenes happens to be a pretty awesome sequence of action, where this powerhouse crew just casually takes matters into their own hands and defeats a set of, I guess now, miscellaneous members of the Beast Pirates. And every single panel that we are treated to in the sequence is nothing short of a brilliant work of art, with my favorite rather predictably, being the one featuring Zoro. But I really love its composition. It's just such a great angle that conveys the sharpness of movement incredibly well, and it also allows Oda to showcase some nice sword close-ups, one of which being Enma, which you know we can never get enough of in this early stage of its use. And many of the other Straw Hats have similar panels to this, with a nice masterful angled touch, another of which being Robin, who I am so glad was mixed in with the action for a change, because I feel like it would have been so easy to leave her out of things, as is often the case, kind of like our Nami, Usopp and Chopper were. But instead, Robin ends up looking like an outright boss, and someone that you would not want to mess with under any circumstances. And I guess, yeah, I just love any time that Robin gets serious, which is epitomized by her amazing facial expression here. And then again, in stark contrast, I also have to highlight that Sanji panel, because just wow. I love how completely chill he is about this whole situation, just casually sending a devastating kickback, whilst enjoying a tasty cigarette. Or at least I'm assuming it's tasty, I don't smoke. And the fact that he's dressed so formally only adds to this overall impression of superiority. And actually, you know what? This is one panel that immediately justifies what Luffy said on Zo, about needing Sanji because he is super strong. And from the perspective of the Samurai, I would say that this moment makes the entire Holkekalen Detour completely worth it. So yeah, this is the sort of thing that we spent 78 chapters to accomplish, and I'm thrilled to be seeing it in action. And finally, for this section, I also want to highlight Usopp Nami and Chopper, because this was another one of those things where at first I didn't quite understand why they weren't getting in on the action, because you know, usually in these straw hat fortified scenes, you'll have a token shot from Usopp firing a pop green, like Nami, shocking people with the climate attack, to even Chopper transforming into whatever mode, let's say Kung Fu. But upon swift reflection, they were kept out of things to once again reforge that classic straw hat group dynamic. You've got the supercharged powerhouses taking care of business, while the weak trio kind of cower and observe, and actually not only that, but after everything is over, they emerge and congratulate everyone as if they had some sort of integral role in what had just happened, which I found very funny, as well as very nostalgic. It gave me these wonderful pre-timeskip one-piece feels. Harking back to the days where Usopp and Nami had almost no combative ability, or at least not to be able to face opponents on this level. And even though it doesn't make technical sense now because they are both wildly powerful in the modern day, it was just nice to see these classic roles in play. And everything came together really nicely as well in that final straw hat-centric scene, where everyone is standing victoriously over, I guess, Wap Haas as for a battlefield, with Zora looking far happier than I have seen him in an awfully long time, all thanks to the discovery of alcohol. And as it is set up, here is the moment where I thought that we were going to do the toast, because that is the only bit missing from Jinbei. After that toast, he is locked in for good. There is no escaping the straw hats, but of course, as close as they come, they don't actually do it, which does give me some pause and concern. I know that Luffy's reasoning is that they should do it after beating Kaido, but I don't know, I just have this thought lingering around in my head over Jinbei's ultimate purpose, and if some sort of dramatic sacrifice may or may not be on the cards during the Sark, which would prevent him from being solidified as a crew member in the traditional ritual manner. And as always, I'm probably just considerably overthinking that, and the chances are that after this whole battle is over, we will just have one glorious Jinbei-rific moment, but it just sits with me as a bit strange that Oda would go to the trouble of almost making this happen, and I'm really left wondering what he's conjuring. Speaking of conjuring though, a lot of people commented on my review last week with a thought that I had but quickly decided was foolish, which is the idea that Jinbei may not in fact be Jinbei, and is some sort of elaborate Kandro ink drawing. And I do think it's an interesting idea, but I dismissed it pretty much entirely, because Kandro has never met Jinbei, and I don't think he's ever been in a position to even see an image of Jinbei either, let alone understand his connection to the straw hats. And no, it's not impossible, because a crazy set of circumstances could have happened, like Big Mom informing Kaido, who then informed Dorachi, who then informed Kandro, but it requires such an insane course of mental gymnastics to get to. So the idea is pretty out there, but at the same time, there is, you know, a chance that something else may be up, because once again, this is just me reading into things far more than is healthy for any human, but the way Jinbei appeared in the last chapter was very much the epitome of the word casual, and I was expecting there to be at least a brief explanation of his time between the end of Holkake Island and reaching Wano, specifically in regards to how he escaped from Big Mom, but there really wasn't. Now that we've had this sort of toast tease on top of that, I don't know, I guess I'll leave it to the theorists, because chances are that this is just crazy overthinking. Jinbei appeared, he's clearly capable of using Fishman Karate at high level, and Kandro couldn't possibly know about him, so this must be our whale shark. Now before I move away from the straw hat, because there was other content in this chapter, surprisingly, there is a splendid panel of Jinbei, assuming his roll aboard the Thousand Sunny and taking up the helmsman post, and he just looks so happy to be there, as if the weight of the world that he had been carrying all this time had been lifted from his wail-y shoulders, and he can now do what it is that he personally wants to do, which is to join Luffy and help him become the Pirate King. Blast Chopper is also here and as adorable as ever, so another brilliant panel in this chapter, full of brilliant panels. Moving on though, I said in the beginning that this chapter wasn't too intrigue-heavy, but that doesn't mean that there was none at all, because the last two pages delivered some fascinating ideas, one of which is that Kaido is claiming to have a son. And funnily enough, this idea was spoiled for me as well, as things often are, because as soon as this information was leaked, before the official release, I started getting comments on a video that I made way back in 2017, which was a theory that Charlotte Oven was the son of Kaido. And yeah, this was back in the time when I was trying out the whole theory video format, before deciding that no, that wasn't really for me. But with that said, I am very much thinking that this may pay off here, and perhaps not with Oven specifically, because what I neglected to mention in that video is that Oven is part of a set of triplets, with Katakuri and Daifuku. And Oven just seems to be the one who shares the most distinct physical similarities with Kaido, but if Oven was Kaido's son, then obviously the same would be true for Katakuri and Daifuku. And we definitely haven't seen Katakuri since Holkei Kailand, I'm not sure about Oven actually, but Daifuku was certainly present on Wano because he was aboard the Queen Mama Chanta when King attacked it. So I'm actually feeling pretty good about this idea at the moment, and I think that it would tie things together so brilliantly, making the climax of Holkei Kailand in retrospect look like a Luffy versus a Mini Kaido, and the way things being portrayed in this scene, certainly does make this father-son relationship look quite strained. So it might even open up a Luffy and Katakuri Alliance possibility, which right now is beyond my wildest dreams and also quite possibly delving into the realm of unreasonable fanfic, but here we are. In the end, this is all making a lot of assumptions though because Kaido's son could be anything, you know, a member of the Beast Pirates or an inhabitant of Wano or whatever else. So we'll certainly see, but this is intriguing nonetheless. And I should also touch on the fact that the end of the chapter features the introduction of our complete set of flying six, or at least the complete set of their feet, which I'm sure does excite one particular niche of every fanbase. And as much as it doesn't present us with a lot to digest, it is pretty effective in creating some excitement for these guys, who I'll be honest, I had almost completely forgotten were a thing. Lately in my mind, everything has just been like Beast Pirates, Big Mom Pirates, Calamity, Sweet Commanders, Numbers, Vassals, etc. So yeah, it was a nice reminder that there is another group of potent individuals around, one of which you can clearly identify as Diaz Drake. And page one would assumably also be there, if I had to guess I'd say that he was the guy right in the back, but he could also be the other guy not quite in the back, but still around the back, if that makes sense. In any case, page one would be by far the least interesting character to consider. But the only other two things that we can really determine from this image is that one of the Flying Six is a swordsman, and one is a woman. Oh, and I guess one of them also likes wearing really nice shoes. The guy in the front that is, who I guess will be acting as something of a leader. But this gang is still interesting to consider, because obviously, Drake has his own game going on as a member of sword, so I do wonder if he has infiltrated the Flying Six, or if this entire group is secretly working against Kaido. All I know is that this was a very cool introduction panel that makes them all seem like bad asses, so what I'm actually expecting is that when we do eventually see them, they will be a bunch of goofy comical figures, as is often the case in One Piece. And the final thing I should mention is that after some questionable absence from these events, Killer has finally reappeared in a teeny tiny panel that does make me wonder why he was so deliberately left out of more recent chapters, especially the one where we got to see all of the straw hearts, all of the heart pirates, and all of the kid pirates, except for Killer. I thought that Oda might have had a grander plan for his reintroduction, but I guess not really. He's just here and ready to roll, equipped with his trademark mask, and I am very much looking forward to seeing the chaos that he will cause, along with everyone else. And that pretty much shows up for chapter 977. But what do you guys think? Please do leave your thoughts in the comments below or even join my Discord server. And if you'd like to see more videos like this, then please do check out some of my other content or even subscribe to the channel for more glorious One Piece business uploaded straight into your YouTube feeds. But for now, this has been the Groundline Review and I'll see you next time.