 Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review, your source for everything one piece. Today we have a review of chapter 943, Smile. And ladies and gentlemen, I am thrilled to announce that the drought is finally over. That's right, for the first time since early Dressrosa, Zoro and Sanji have interacted. Now this is pretty insane when we think about it because the last time they were even in the same vicinity was chapter 723. It is now chapter 943, so that is an incredible 220 chapter weight. Although to be honest, I didn't realize how much I missed the two of them until the incredible final page of this chapter. And first up, I just want to devote some time to how stunning that center feature panel looks. I mean, this may actually be one of my favorite panels in the entirety of the one who are thus far. Sanji looks incredibly awesome with his cross arms and one leg up pose. Along with his outfit, it feels very distinctly Japanese to me. And I love the fact that his foot is on fire. And also correct me if I'm wrong, which you know you're the internet and you'll do anyway. But is this the first time we've seen him engage in Diablo Jamba without shoes? That's just his bare foot there, you know, casually on fire. Very cool, but very interesting. And then there's Zoro's wonderfully juxtaposed crouching position, one hand clutching toco, and the other grasping his sword ready for action. This panel really is an artistic masterclass. Because Zoro and Sanji are just both so aesthetically poised to be conflicting opposites, because Sanji with his leg captures all of the vertical momentum, while Zoro with his crouching and his sword completely rule the horizontal plane. It really could not be a better artistic representation of just how different these two are. And yet they're so wonderfully held together by the smoke and the architecture in the background. And speaking of the background, one of my favorite parts of this panel is where you see Drake and Hawkins just standing there with very minimal detail. It kind of evokes the feeling that the Sanji Zoro duo is so awesome that it makes even two members of the worst generation look like fodder. On the other hand, it does seem very intentional to be placing both of them there, when featuring two of the monster trio in the foreground. I'm hoping that this is very much hinting at a nice two on two battle to come, because really Zoro and Sanji are well and deep into the shit now. They're standing in front of the shotgun in a public execution plaza, with the potential of everything still being televised actually. The nation's eyes are very much on them, and I feel like it's about time for a proper wano skirmish. We've had an awful lot of these brief encounter followed by escape sort of situations, and I'm not sure how long we can really keep going with it. If anything, I could see a situation where Zoro and Sanji are subjected to an overwhelming show of force from the wano samurai or the beast pirates or both, and thus not ruining one of the things that Yasu bought for them with his sacrifice, which is maintaining the idea that there is no rebellion occurring on wano, no none whatsoever, and if Zoro and Sanji simply escaped, then there is something obviously weird happening, and I'd imagine that Orochi and Kaido would both be put on high alert. Blast just imagining, the entirety of the monster trio in prison together is a very cool thought, but on the other hand that would just go on to extend the prisoner mine stuff, so we'll see what happens. But moving elsewhere, I'd say the main purpose of this chapter was definitely to give us some solid information on the smile fruits, and wow, they are so much more horrific than I could have ever imagined when we first heard of them way way way way way back when. And yes, we learnt about this side effect last chapter, but after having some time to think on it, having your emotions stolen from you is just terrifying. I mean imagine not having access to the ability to feel happy and being forced into a permanent depression. Well we have the inverse occurring here, but just because that's the case does not make it any less of a horrible life to live. These people have been robbed of their right to feel, which is such an integral aspect to being human. Without these feelings, there's no way to properly process things like grief, meaning that they would be living in a perpetually torturous existence. It actually makes me wonder if by the end of the arc, we'll find a way to cure the smile side effects, maybe through roping Caesar clown back into things, or you know what, even Chopper might be able to use his ample skills to heal them, but I do feel like at the very end of the arc, we are going to get some sort of big overwhelming scene where all of these people are finally able to feel once again, and they'll just immediately break down into the most soul-destroying grief imaginable. But because of how it's been set up here, it will actually somehow be a happy and triumphant moment. The whole smile explanation portion of the chapter also delivered my favorite dialogue here as well, which is the great contrast between Komorosaki's words describing this place as hell, and then Orochi going on to claim that it is akin to heaven. It's really just gut-wrenchingly sickening what Orochi has done here. In trying to craft his own paradise, he's robbed people of emotion to the point where all they can do is laugh at his actions. And then he also has the goal to go on to blame the laughter he inflicted upon Toko for Komorosaki's quote unquote death. Honestly, at this point, he is beyond Spandam levels of dickery for me. Spandam at least had a comical side, but Orochi is entirely irredeemable, and seeing him fall is going to be simply wonderful. As for other miscellaneous things about the chapter, it was really nice to finally get an explanation for the various levels of Kaito's crew in terms of what exactly the waiters, gifters and pleasures are. I mean, it does make me feel kind of bad for the pleasures, but at the same time, yeah, it was their choice after all. And the other thing I quite enjoyed in this chapter was the short flashback of Yasu. Well, quite specifically, any panel involving the younger nine red scabbards. Quite notably, Dendro and Kawamatsu are still silhouetted, but that's to be expected, I guess. And I mean, they're all just so adorable, especially Inuarashi and Nekomamushi. And they all look like such a classic group of rag-tagged delinquents. Although I was kind of surprised that Ashura Dolji was there. From the short flashback we saw earlier in the arc, it seems like Odin fought and won him over to his side much later in life, and yet here he is is what I'm assuming is a teenager of some sort. Ah well, I'm sure all will become clear in time. All except Kinamon's hair, that is. What is this? I didn't even recognize him at first, it's so light. So I'm betting he spent the money Yasu gave him to dye his hair. But that pretty much does it for chapter 943. 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