 Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review, your source for everything one piece. And today we have a review of chapter 965, the Kurozumi Clan Plot. And really this flashback just continues to be amazing in every way. There really wasn't a single part of this week that didn't have me hooked the entire way through even the Archie stuff. And that's usually by far the weakest material of these Wano flashback chapters and actually modern Wano chapters as well. Before we get to that though, I need to begin as I often do right at the end with one of the most glorious two page spreads. I think this series has ever offered us featuring the Roger Pirates in full casual mode after a skirmish. And I love this because we so rarely get to see this crew in their prime. And when we do, they often aren't doing much of consequence, so this is a very nice surprise. Roger in particular looks like an absolute beast. I think that Oda going for an open shirt look really helps in that regard because it immediately gives you that tangible cue that compares him to characters we know like Whitebeard, Kaido or even Luffy. All of whom are also famed shirtless powerhouses. My favorite figure on this page is undoubtedly Shanks though. It's quite adorable the way he's pulling off that double hat look, not only wielding the straw hat, but also looking after Roger's backup hat. He actually kind of reminds me a lot of Usopp in this spread, looking like a kind of goofy but clearly highly trusted companion. And the parallels to the straw hats are even clearer, looking at Ray Lee, who is giving off the stronger Zoro vibe I have ever seen outside of a non-Zoro character. It just makes me want to see so much more of this crew. Like honestly, give me an entire series focusing on the journey of the Roger Pirates in the same way that One Piece does with the straw hats. These characters are captivating enough to helm that sort of thing. And the last few chapters very much prove that. I mean, where at what now? Five chapters since we've seen a single straw hat and this has been some of the greatest stuff that Wano has had to offer. It's so rare that a world behind a series can transcend its main characters and take on a living, breathing form of its own. In fact, as much as I really want things to progress on Wano, at this stage I'm not actually looking forward to going back into the modern timeline because there is so much to enjoy in this period exploring Roger Whitebeard Odin and this older world that feels simultaneously familiar but also like a completely new adventure. But back to the scene at hand, it's just nice to see because Roger has never really been showcased in combat mode. He's always this generally well-dressed maniacal, moustached pirate king. But here he makes me believe that he could successfully throw down against Whitebeard. So I'm very much looking forward to the potential of that conflict in the next chapter. I'm not sure if it will actually happen though because Roger's fighting style has been kept a secret for the entirety of the series really. And I'm not sure if this is the right narrative moment to delve into it in any substance. If something does happen now I suspect it will be another one of those one hit clashes we're also familiar with. Like when Odin quote unquote introduced himself to Whitebeard or just on that perhaps we'll even be treated to a similar situation in which Odin just decides to take on Roger because, which given his brash personality seems highly likely. And given the pace that this flashback is going it looks like Odin will have entirely possibly joined Roger by next chapter which is incredibly exciting. Very keen to see how that goes down. But for now, Odin and the Whitebeard Pirates were another huge highlight of this week. Although I don't know if the word highlight even has meaning anymore. Because like I said, everything about this chapter was just so damn solid. In any case, there was some heartwarming comedy right off the bat with Odin and Toki having in a little bit of a flirt about the Moby Dick which in a matter of panels rapidly resulted in the birth of Momonosuke who looks simply elated about being brought into existence. Later on we also see baby Hiyori as well. So Odin and Toki were definitely getting quite busy during this time with the Whitebeard Pirates. By far the best part of these scenes to me though was that one panel where young Marco, Jozo and even Vista were blushing whilst watching Toki and Odin. It's just so incredible how Odin can take these established tough guy characters like Marco and especially Jozo actually and then turn them into these wonderful sweet comedic elements. Young Marco is probably my favorite incarnation of Marco actually. He just has such a zest for life and it's really fun to see him messing around in his Phoenix form. Something else I really enjoyed though is that we got to see the inception of Whitebeard's divisions which understandably comes about because their crudges keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And of course that came along with another classic Odin disgust face when he was told to command the second division. These faces will never get old, please keep them coming. But speaking of how the crudges keeps enlarging we have a cameo from a young Marshall D. Teach which even though it was just a single panel shot sent shivers down my spine because this seemingly innocuous event is what will eventually bring down the entirety of the Whitebeard Pirates. And it's just so crazy to see a panel where they're so casually accepting of him hopping aboard. It also makes the betrayal of the future hit that much harder because we knew that Blackbeard had been aboard for an awfully long time but the fact that he joined when he was a desperate child, that kind of hurts. It makes me wonder if Teach was already plotting his future at this early age or if somehow along the way he became disenfranchised with the Whitebeard Pirates and sought an alternative route in life. Although I suppose given the fact that he is a D he was always destined to do whatever it is he goes on to do. But also speaking of disenfranchised little shits I now present Orochi. Probably the thing that I appreciated most about this chapter was that it gave me almost exactly what I was looking for in terms of Orochi which was a slightly more three dimensional motivation to become the evil prick he does. In several recent chapter reviews I think I'd very much resigned myself to the fact that it looks like oh well Orochi is just evil for the sake of evil, I guess. But I really enjoyed what Oda did here by tying his involvement in this flashback thus far together as some sort of retrospective master plan which answered a lot of the questions and criticisms I had regarding Orochi's use thus far. For example, I remember directly questioning how Orochi just suddenly ended up working for Tsukiyaki and I found it incredibly unlikely that someone like Yasu would have recommended him for that role. Which we confirm is definitely not the case this week because Orochi blatantly robbed Yasu and vanished. But with the introduction of the mysterious former user of the money money no me everything falls very neatly into place as Orochi and his compatriot were able to use Odin's likeness as a character reference. And just on that of all of the things I never expected to come out of this flashback heavy or any involvement of Bonklai's devil fruit was certainly amongst them. This is one of those moments where One Piece gets to enjoy and build upon the extensive groundwork it's already laid and introduce an amazing bit of intrigue based solely on a property currently held by a fan favorite character in the modern day. It also does what One Piece does best and brings up so many questions. In fact, weirdly enough, despite this being a chapter that contains extensive content with the white beard pirates and an amazing spread with the Roger pirates the user of the money money no me is what has my mind on fire. With inquiries like who could this be? Will we ever find out what their original form is? Are they affiliated with the beast pirates or maybe the rocks pirates? And is this the first step to Kaido's Wano conquest? Or are they a member of the Kurozumi clan? And possibly most intriguingly how is this individual eventually going to meet their fate? Because here's the thing, we know that whoever consumed this fruit does eventually have to die in order for the money money no me to reincarnate and be consumed by Bonklai which is kind of a shame in one way because I think it would have been really cool to introduce this element and then leave it lingering. Like perhaps in the modern day it gets revealed that one of the red scabbards is this person in disguise and that's why Orochi has been able to predict the movements of the allied forces. Still, it's really interesting that this person was able to transform into Odin and Tsukiyaki meaning that they must have been trusted to a level to get close enough to touch both of their faces. Although I also guess that they could have just impersonated someone close to Odin or Tsukiyaki and then use that to touch their faces. I mean the money money no me is just such a fun fruit like that. And you know what? I suppose this could also be used to great effect to help portray the downfall of the Kozuki clan. Kind of like how Bonklai used his guys of cobra on alabaster. So this mysterious person could wield Odin's image to cause all sorts of horrible incidents. Not only that, but I also think that for the next few weeks we'll be in danger of a whole ton of one piece theories popping up because of this mysterious person. I mean there's just all sorts of crazy crap that could spawn from this like perhaps the idea that Odin isn't really dead and the person who was executed was somehow this man or woman. Thus putting the money money no me back into the world and giving the appearance of Odin's death. I don't subscribe to that idea or anything close to it but it just goes to show how easy it is to come up with clickbait as a result of this chapter. So let the flood of theories begin, I guess. And also just on a weird tangent I was sort of spoiled to the presence of the money money no me in this chapter because all of a sudden out of absolutely nowhere a ton of new comments started appearing in my devil fruit encyclopedia video on the money money no me. So I definitely knew something was up which is a very interesting and unique phenomenon that happens from time to time with a channel that tries to cover everything one piece. That isn't even the only piece of devil fruit intrigue in the chapter though because mystery do debt is the one who provided Orochi with his mythical Zoan, the hippie hippie no me model Yamata no Orochi. And it's kind of strange because I didn't even register this as a devil fruit at first. It really did take me a second to stop and go, no way that has to be what it is. Because unlike every other devil fruit we've seen in the series thus far this mythical Zoan has no trademark swirls and that seems like far too important to detail to be a simple drawing mistake by Oda. There is almost certainly a reason why this aesthetic decision was made and I don't know maybe that's just how mythical Zoans are. They're so much rarer that they need to be identified by other means. Probably some sort of unique feature for each fruit. I will also say that it's always nice to see new devil fruits in their actual fruit form in the series because it's pretty insane but after more than two decades of publication we've only had a total of 14 fruits visually depicted. And even then four of those 14 came from one piece magazine rather than the manga itself. But back to the point I was making about a billion years ago I am liking that Orochi has some solid motivation behind him. I mean, it's far from identifiable and he's still a prick but this is really all I wanted. A genuine reason for his actions and family revenge works just fine for me. Even if Orochi himself is likely being manipulated to some degree. And at this point I'd also like to bring up the fact that Yasu is being far too calm about this situation. He has every reason in the world to suspect Orochi including the coincidence of the goal disappearing as well as understanding Oden to the point where Yasu knows that he would never consider someone like Orochi as a brother. And then you add in the discovery that he's part of the Kuruzumi clan and we have a recipe for pure alarm. So as much as I love Yasu, he's kind of dropping the ball on this one. But that pretty much does it for chapter 965. If you enjoyed this video and the content this channel produces in general then please do consider donating to the Grand Line review Patreon because the support of all of your amazing people is what continues to make this channel possible. And if you'd like to see more videos like this but applied to other anime manga series then please do check out my second channel New World Review for all of your wider needs. And if you'd like to join the fun at any time then please do head over to my Discord server where a wide array of shenanigan retakes place on a daily basis. 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.