A Land of Flowers | Reviewing One Piece: Wano (Part 1)

You can watch my next One Piece review (Wano Part 2) RIGHT NOW on Patreon here (5$+): www.patreon.com/Aleczandxr To follow the readthroughs on stream, you can follow me on Twitch here: www.twitch.tv/Aleczandxr/ Link to AJ's Discord server: discord.gg/Ekhz7PNuJd CURRENT TWITCH SCHEDULE: Mondays @ 10am EST: A Blind Playthrough of Judgment Wednesdays @ 10am EST: Bleach Readthrough Fridays @ 10:30am EST: SOME FRIDAYS, I do full One Piece reading streams as well. Check Discord for updates/details. Sundays @ 11am EST: One Piece Readthrough

6 years. Sanji and Zoro were separated for 6 whole years in real life and yes it was quite the wait. Also, finally seeing Kaido's dragon form completely recontextualizes Kinemon's horror back in Punk Hazard at the realization Momo has become a dragon. One more thing. Generally speaking the amnesia trope I agree is lazy but with Big Mom it's established early on that she is prone to memory loss. In fact the genesis of her transformation from Lin Lin to Big Mom rests on the crux of her not even being aware she ate her mother figure while in a state of memory loss. To this day she mourns her not remembering what she had done. So I just look at the amnesia as an extension of an important part of her character.

Really funny that you like Holdem's design that much. Maybe you already read it in the SBS, but Holdem is the reason smile exist in One Piece. His design is a reference to a series Oda really liked as a child and he had to come up with a reason to draw it.

Man reading this arc back in the day was rough, im from nicaragua and we have an orochi of our own a small, petty, greedy, pervy old man for a president who has been so for close to 20 fucking years but things started reeeally getting bad at around 2018 when he started using the police to attack peaceful student protests and fucking incarcerating, disappearing and exiling people who oppose him and reading wano with its themes of silent long wishful hope for a better day and how much this people endure people and how some just give up on that hope and seeing what im seeing in my country represented in one piece hit so fucking hard

2:02:24 Shanks' bounty being lower could also be explained by his role of regulator in the world rather than someone who goes looking for fights Big Mom and Kaido on the other hand fit that second description

I'm very excited to start this video. It was recommended to me the day it was released but I hadnt heard of AJ before. Watched about 10ish minutes of it before turning it off in order to watch every one of AJ's One Piece reviews from the beginning so I could see his reactions/interpretations evolve over time. Thank you for the videos. Your analysis is beautiful.

But AJ think about how much better Wano would be if they reminded you that Nami wants to draw a map more

While a little tone deaf, the Tamas ability works in an interesting way. She gets allies by feeding them... this kinda helps the message as well even tho is somewhat non consensual. She does mention however this ability doesnt last, and the animals can choose later if they wanna stay on her side or not, some do some dont

#AJPiece Congratulations on reaching Wano!! I wanted my first AJ piece comment to be something deeply personal to me, so here is my love letter to Jimbei. tw: depression, suicidal ideation Jimbei as a character has always been a favourite of mine since his introduction, but it was once I reached the post-war arc that he impacted me the most. When I was reading those chapters, I was in a very dark place emotionally, I was suicidal and had no hope for my future, but the way in which Jimbei supported Luffy through his darkest time, and his nature as a rock for Luffy to lean upon, helped me see the light in my own life. His line “I won’t let you go on hurting yourself”, while directed at Luffy, felt like he was speaking to me directly as the reader. This is just one moment of the hundreds, in which Jimbei has been a positive influence on my life, to him, and to Oda, I will always be grateful. (Sorry if this is a little convoluted, I sometimes struggle putting my feelings into words)

The best part of Wano is Aleczandxr’s analysis on the arc.

#AJPiece The oppression of Wano is one of the Oda’s finest works (let me explain). It could only be achieved in One Piece. The way Oda weaves world building into his story over time naturally is so masterful. Wano is what basically the entire post time skip has been leading up to, and it’s such a great encapsulation of what makes One Piece so special. This takes me back to the oppression of Wano, an epic tale told over hundreds of chapters and many years of real time. In Punk Hazard, we were introduced to the concept of SAD and Caesar’s machinations under Doflamingo’s command. Then in Dressrosa we learned about SMILE fruits but not the details of how they work. Zou gave us a glimpse into how Kaido and his gang do business - without mercy, willing to use a chemical weapon capable of devastating an entire population (which happened to be created by the same man who created SAD). Then when we finally get to Wano, we not only get introduced to Orochi and his tyranny, but the horrifying realization of what the SMILE fruits actually are crashed violently down upon us. The way the pieces of the puzzle all come together to form something so poignant is just immaculately done & the way the SMILE fruit reveal is so sickening - it’s only possible because of the layers and layers of lore that Oda organically fed us without shoving it down our throats with lore dumps. It makes for such a beautifully connected story, and it makes the buildup to Wano and the reveal of the tragedy of Wano that much more special. Oda really blew me away with Act 1 of Wano. I also really want to talk about the Oden flashback (peak fiction, GOATED character), but I probably shouldn’t make my comment any longer so. . . I am Oden… and I was born to boil! As always thanks for the content AJ!!!

Thank you for this amazing break down of Wano. I feel very fortunate because I LOVED Wano at first glance as opposed to some peoples in this comment section apparently. But even if I loved it, you make me love it even more with your videos & streams. Thanks AJ !

Good video but you forgot to mention the startling lack of panels showcasing Nami’s interest in map-making, a fundamental character trait that Oda seems to have completely forgotten about #MIDPiece

#AJPiece I’ve been listening your vods on and off sinse Whole Cake and I have to give you many props. Many other manga reviewers in general are quick to jump to conclusions that are completely different than the author’s style, or what the author was setting up, but you seem to have a really good reading comprehension and finger on the pulse of what Oda is going for. Even small moments when you say “I don’t think I’m supposed to know what this is hinting at yet” and with me caught up and knowing the answer know that you were completely correct, while other creators are quick to start shooting in the dark. I didn’t watch your Naruto vods but your few Bleach ones so far have been the same way, so it seems like it’s not just Oda but you have a good understanding of what exactly a story is trying to say. Keep it up!

People give Big Mom a lot of shit for the amnesia mini arc, but I don't think they realize what it's like to have repressed memories after a highly traumatic event. My adopted daughter went through some horrid abuse from her mother that she has heavily repressed. She has suffered memory problems all her life because of it. There's times where she will wake up the next day and forget anywhere from 30 minutes to 2-3 hours of the night before going to sleep. If anyone we're to have amnesia in this story, Big Mom makes perfect sense as her trauma with mother caramel and the heavily repressed memory of all her friends "leaving" would absolutely make her memory fragile enough for this to happen. To be fair I also don't really like the amnesia story device in most stories, but I'm just trying to add a little nuance to the conversation. At the very least it makes more sense than Sabo's amnesia.

Seeing Wano on your streams has given me so much more appriciation of it. Whilst I still think that the sheer number of plotlines Oda juggles might be too much for me to keep up with, I think it leads into some absolutely phenomenal stuff both now and later on in Wano. Oden's Flashback is one of my favourite flashbacks in any series, and the depths of how slimy and twisted Orochi, Kaido and that traitor's acts are is fantastic. Great stuff AJ!

Perhaps the "One Piece" is something as simple as Joy. Whether it be Joy found in Love or Passion of all kinds. Luffy brings Joy to us as readers even just as he does to those around him. It's quite beautiful and brings me to tears upon realizing. I appreciate your videos as always, glad I finally sat down to analyze this with you.

Hell yeah it’s time for the wano video can’t wait to all of your reactions and opinions crazy how you’re going to be caught up now

The Lowest of the lows comes from Fans that for some reason though Zoro was the one destined to take out Kaido this arc. I’m glad you already seen the light 17:18

#AJPiece I’m glad you’re liking Kid! What fascinates me about him is the way he and Law relate to Luffy as heads of the Worst Generation. Law and Luffy share the Will of D, giving them this almost cosmic luck to be at the right place at the right time. However, Law lacks Luffy’s conquerors haki, represented in the way he is hesitant to take risks and lives his life in service of others (his crew, Corazón, etc). On the other hand, Luffy and Kid share a conquerors ambition, both throwing themselves at enemies well above their paygrade, but Kid lacks that Will of D luck. As a result he’s never in the right place or with the right people, resulting in betrayal and defeat. However, true to his devil fruit, he’s scrappy and continues to push ahead. Hopefully just as Luffy helped Law find his ambition, he will be able to put fate on Kid’s side.