Manga: Chapter 594 (SPOILERS!)

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We start out this week's chapter with Sengoku and Garp eating rice crackers and stacking them like a game of Jenga (also with pwngoat! X3). The Five Elder Stars are discussing the actions that Luffy, Jinbei and Rayleigh have caused as well as discussing how they want an influential person to fill in missing Warlord positions and how Blackbeard's actions in the New World have led them to believe that he may want to become one of The Four Emperors or discussing how the either the emperors or the remaining Whitebeard Pirates may be the only people capable of stopping him. 

Back in the Holy Land of Mariejois, we meet Pan Fleet Admiral Kong for the first time, discussing that Garp has now stepped down from his position as Vice Admiral (although his record and title remains to influence younger marine officers). I really can't blame Garp after all thats happened, I just want to know where he's going to deal with all this. Kong also states that if he wants to quit, then the same will occur with Sengoku. Its interesting to see how this New Age is affecting top Marine Officer's positions as well as the Straw Hats, but I still want to see how Garp and Sengoku would play out in the story from this point. Sengoku also recommends that Aokiji to become his replacement. I think he made an interesting choice as Akainu would be WAAAAY too vicious if he had that amount of authority and Kizaru is a bit too..."out there" (kinda hard to explain, sorry). Speaking of Aokiji, we cut back to him at Marineford discussing a recent incident involving Luffy, Jinbei and Rayleigh with Smoker (which will explain the Five Elder Star's discussion at the beginning). It is something involving 16 Rings (which we'll get to in a minute), but Smoker disregards it and is more curious about his desire to reassign to the Fifth Branch of the Grand Line marines (G5) which is apparently in the New World. 

Smoker: "Better to keep your targets close"

If you know the character by this point, then you'll know this means that Smoker still intends to follow Luffy to capture him, even if it means facing the dangers of the New World. We go to the Medical Building at Marineford to see Coby and Helmeppo talking to a doctor about how Coby became unconscious due to Haki which he now apparently possesses. Coby panics about this while Helmeppo is jealous as Coby is now more powerful than he is (by the way the doctor they are talking to is chewing on a dead fish bone...yeah...really). 

We then cut to the Agenda Chamber where some Marine officers are discussing the incident Luffy is involved with, apparently he showed up with Jinbei and Rayleigh at Marine HQ, AGAIN! I never expected this. This is the incident the crew have been finding out about in the newspaper these past 2 chapters. I thought it was going to be a new bounty, but this is really surprising. Apparently Luffy and the others escaped pretty easily and actually sailed a whole ring around Marineford (which is a ritual for a "Sea Burial") and Luffy went into the plaza all on his own and rang the  "Ox Bell" 16 times (which explains the 16 rings) he even threw a bouquet over dead bodies and prayed in silence! This is stuff we NEVER see Luffy do. I think this is foreshadowing for the fact that he is now becoming more mature and not taking out his frustration with violence. Obviously this is a complete humiliation for the Marines and more importantly, those 16 rings that Luffy used with the bell is now a declaration of war! Again, this is unusual that Luffy didn't just go in gunsablazing and kicking some ass. This chapter is showing a great development in Luffy's character even though we don't see that much of him in this chapter.

We then go to an unknown island in the New World where we see Eustass Captain Kidd and his crew  reacting to the events explained before. He in particular is pissed off that some pirates only want to come to the New World for "paradise". In regards to Luffy's bounty, it looks like one of the ways to get a higher bounty is to defeat Kidd. Since he gets a couple extra pages rather than the other 2 Supernovas we will see in a second that he may or may not pose as a future threat to the Straw Hats. We cut to another unknown island where we see Capone Gang Bege and the others being sucked into the gravity of another island floating upside down. Even though thats all we see of them, its pretty cool getting teases that the islands of the New World will get even crazier.

A future threat for the Straw Hats?

We cut to the Kuja Pirate's ship where Luffy is getting his rubbery skin pulled by the girls again (lucky guy).They also pull at Jinbei and Rayleigh (which I think is hilarious) and Rayleigh saying that the Straw Hats will surely get the message Luffy was trying to get across when he returned to Marineford. Surely enough they all get it. All the Straw Hats are still in the same locations as before (except for Brook who is now at a sideshow/circus lol and Franky's face and torso are singed beyond belief which makes me both laugh and feel sorry for the guy).

...this picture speaks for itself XD

We then go to another New World island where Basil Hawkins and his crew encounter Brownbeard and they get ready to fight each other. We cut to the final island of this chapter (again, in the New World) where Urouge and his crew are afraid to go to an island where lightning is constantly shooting down (possible Eneru location?)  and the crew encounter an old man in a cloak who asks if they need umbrellas (it didn't work for Wile Coyote so why would it work for them?) all while the narrator ends with this line:

Narrator: "All men of valor who step foot into the "New World" say this about the first half of the "Grand Line" - "That ocean, was paradise" 

Ah Oda, always keeping up the suspense. A LOT has happened in this chapter; we've seen character development, plot development, foreshadowing we got answers and now we ask more questions. In terms of foreshadowing, I love how Oda is teasing how the New World will be even more dangerous than the first half of the Grand Line and that Luffy has now become a more tactical adult, rather than a reckless teenager. I also want to see how some of the Straw Hats will get out of their situations (mainly Brook and Franky) and how the Marine force as a whole is going to fight and function with these new repositions.

Thanks for reading guys and stay tuned for the new chapter next week!