 Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review, your source for everything one piece. Today we have a review of chapter 939, An Old Horse Knows the Way. And before launching into it, let's just address that title. This is a pun, so it was unlikely to translate well into English, although I do think it turned out surprisingly well all things considering. Basically, as the old proverb goes, an old horse knows the way. Except in Japanese, a horse would be uma, and in this case it was replaced with the word hyō, which happens to mean leopard, which is pretty cool because we very recently examined that word specifically when covering the neconeconomy model leopard to the devil fruit encyclopedia. But of course it's also the name of old mate Yakuza, so it's a delightful pun in Japanese anyway, and a weird hyōs word for us in English. But as the title implies, the crowning moment of this chapter is Old Man Hyō, demonstrating that he actually knows how to perform the alma mataki technique that Luffy is seen used by both Santomaru and Ray Lee. And yes, it's pretty convenient that he has this knowledge right at the moment where Luffy is focusing intently on learning it, but it's not too unsurprising. But the amount of respect behind his name, Hyō should be capable of some impressive feats even in his advanced age. Honestly though, the part that I found more interesting was when he began talking about being able to cut the thickest of steel or not cut the thinnest of paper, depending on the desires of the swordsmen. Seems like a very familiar thing to hear, right? And it all but confirms that Zoro was using haki all the way back in alabaster in order to strike down Da's bones. As well as confirms that Koshiro, the dojo master of Shimotsuki Village, is a haki user as well, given that we actually saw his demonstration of not cutting a piece of paper. Of course in Wano, it isn't known as haki, and it seems to be used pretty exclusively within the art of swordplay, which is very cool because I don't think I'll ever get tired of seeing wider applications of haki use. It just adds a bit more depth to a power system that kind of scared me when it was first introduced because it seemed very straightforward and very well, like my haki is stronger than yours so I win sort of thing. And we see another versatile use of haki in this chapter with a nice sort of moment of Luffy engaging in future sight to allow Hyō to combat the alpaca smile user. I absolutely loved this moment because it made me feel like the incredibly long slog battle fought against Katakuri was worth it for the first time since it ended. Like we're now actively seeing the benefit of Luffy putting himself through all of that pain and it's just very satisfying. That is more or less it for the Prisoner Mind stuff this week though. I think progress here is starting to feel a bit slow though to be honest, but I think that's just the nature of having what five weeks of real time since the great Sumo Inferno tournament began with no real progressive development until now. So despite the nice moments of this chapter I'm very keen to get to a point where Luffy is actually facing some sort of challenge because you know in the great words of Silver's Rayleigh true development of haki will only come as a result of extreme situations in battle or something along those lines. So look there's even a canon training reason for moving along here and to stop dealing with these photo smile guys. Although admittedly the two featured in this chapter were pretty cool. I'm a big fan of the design of Armadillo Man and his smile fruit actually looks quite useful unlike a lot of other really weird mixes. I mean like his contemporary the alpaca man who seems to only gain the head and neck of an alpaca which gives him the grand ability to spit forcefully. And the other portion of this chapter continues the Zoro branch of the story with some interesting bits of information. I particularly like that we now know for a fact who the nine red scabbards are even if we haven't met all of them yet and I appreciate that Neko Mamushi and Inorashi are included within them. Altogether when you think of people like Azure Adulji and Kawamatsu they would add up to an incredible fighting force so no wonder the Shogun is afraid. I mean we're talking about at least three individuals capable of facing off against Jack, two of whom will go absolutely berserk at a full moon and that's already enough to put a decent dent in the beast pirates. Speaking of the scabbards though Kawamatsu has become a bit more of an intriguing figure as he is allegedly a kappa. So a couple of reviews ago I posed the idea that because Kawamatsu has been deliberately hidden for so so very long he's either going to be the most badass character we've seen in this entire arc or his design is going to be so ridiculous that continuously hyping him up for this reveal is destined to result in comedy gold. And I'm definitely leaning towards the latter right now. I think that this guy is going to be one of the craziest designs we've seen amongst these already strange strange samurai and I also thought it was quite adorable that when we did see his silhouette in this chapter that he was just pining over wanting to fight in the sumo tournament as well because fun fact apparently kappa traditionally loves sumo wrestling as well as removing mythical organs from the anus of humans you know standard stuff so let's all mentally prepare ourselves for a crazy kappa like creature well actually you know what I wouldn't put a pastoder to make Kawamatsu a regular human who just so happens to look like a kappa and as a result that's what he claims to be but he clearly isn't and that's the joke either way we have some strange times coming up finally we do also have some nice Hiyori lore popping up this week and I quite like the explanation of why she wasn't sent into the future with Momonosuke the whole argument of taking multiple paths to preserve the bloodline is pretty compelling and Hiyori herself is becoming a very enjoyable character as I really liked her reaction to finding out that Nekoma Mushi and Inorashi were alive as she clearly remembers them as adorable pet friends now whether there is still a massive like Zunisha sized elephant in the room because this whole Komorasaki thing has yet to be addressed and consequently I can't help but think of that while I feel like I should be becoming invested in Hiyori and the things that she is saying but I just can't shake the whole you know a couple of chapters ago you were almost literally a completely different person and you may or may not actually be dead why are you suddenly alive and why is your personality radically shifted and I mean like really radically different because this character appears to be amongst the highest levels of innocent and gullible whereas Komorasaki could have played the Game of Thrones and probably would have won and I'm sure there's going to be a decent explanation possibly involving more time travel but at the moment it's just really jarring whenever I see her in a panel and really difficult to go with the flow and enjoy the story as presented but that pretty much does it for chapter 839 if you enjoyed this video and the content this channel produced 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 also do check out my Teespring store if you're interested in shirts, hoodies and other miscellaneous items with the proceeds going directly to support the channel as well 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 shenanigans takes 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