Manga: Chapter 735 (SPOILERS!)

SPOILERS!

Read One Piece each week in Weekly Shonen Jump! For hardboiled readers only!

The finals at the Corrida Colosseum are about to commence as the crowd goes wild for Diamante's surprise appearance.

Inside, Rebecca finds Lucy to tell him how she made it to the finals but Lucy seems...different. Obviously this isn't Luffy because he is with Violet, Zoro and Kin'emon right now. But with the giveaway that Lucy seems to call Dressrosa a facade and similar to the country he was raised in, this is obviously Sabo filling in for Luffy. Will be interesting to see how this plan progresses.

 It would be a funny twist if this actually WAS Luffy

Luffy and the others arrive at the lift in the Royal Plateau which will lead them to the palace. Wicka the Dwarf pops out of Zoro's disguise happy to see Violet although she knows all about the dwarves raising Rebecca alongside the Thunder Soldier.

Violet uncovers the hidden entrance to the lift, but how do they use it? Zoro suggests that Luffy stretches to the top and hold onto a boulder while holding onto the chains so that the lift will rise to the top. This plan sounds crazy, so naturally Luffy agrees and they all prepare to make the lift operate. Something tells me this isn't going to go so well.

Luffy, you don't ask those questions to ladies!

At the House of Toys, Franky continues his attack on the guards and they all start running away except for Senor Pink...who brushes his teeth with a shoe brush....oooookaaaaaay. He gets blasted by Franky without any conflict. He claims this is because he swims (this is part of his powers) when he feels like it, but the guards take this as wanting to protect them.

Regardless of whether that was true or not, the big hairy Machivise tries to crush Franky but misses. The fighting stops because Vice Admiral Bastille and a group of Marines shows up to arrest Franky. Anyone else think that this will go similarly to Luffy and Zoro's fight at Whiskey Peak? That would be funny.

Speaking of Marines, at the Palace, Doflamingo is talking to Fujitora. He says Fujitora made the wise decision but Fujitora says that he assembled the Marines to simply protect the citizens from Luffy's attacks and that stopping his destruction is Fujitora's personal look on Justice and he'll be dealing with Doflamingo later.

 Now THIS is smart

We get a grandiose desire from Fujitora; he claims that he took on the position of Admiral because he wanted to make several changes and one of those is to abolish the Warlords of the Sea! He also claims (although not directly) that he knows about Doflamingo's hijacking of Dressrosa and that it is his rampant behavior that the country is the way it is right now. (Mikey's Note: I believe Fujitora is referring to Crocodile's attempt to take over Alabasta.) The balance of the Three Powers will be broken and Doflamingo's bounty will rise higher and higher.

Doflamingo tries to attack and kill Fujitora but he is blocked. Fujitora tells him not to be hasty and remain as friends for now. He'll protect Dressrosa but claims to Doflamingo that a stable world will not be possible because this is the year of the Reverie (remember this from Alabasta and Fishman Island?).

Back at the Corrida Colosseum, Koala arrives just as the finals are finally about to begin. The chapter ends with "Lucy" entering the arena and in his mind, he asks Ace to watch over him.

 This made me grin like a monkey (no pun)

The build up is still continuing but personally I think that it WILL be worth it in the end. While this chapter wasn't exactly perfect, I did like a lot of it. The standouts being Sabo as Lucy, a rather bizarre fight and Fujitora's understandable motive for being an admiral.

Particularly that last one because in my personal opinion, putting powerful pirates in a position of power in the World Government seems like an incredibly stupid idea no matter how desperate you are although Fujitora himself may have personal reasons but thats not very clear right now.

I realise I've been saying this for a while now, but I really want to see how this will all come together soon. All I can say is, I hope the arc keeps the momentum going since I'm really enjoying this. Thats all for now, see you all next time!

Sabo plays Luffy a little too well