While the latest few chapters have followed Kozuki Oden as he joined the legendary voyages of the Whitebeard and Gold Roger pirate crews, One Piece‘s latest chapter was a stark reminder that things have been changing for the worst in Wano Country. Oden’s perspective on Roger’s final days provided some much needed context for the past of the series, but it seems like this adventure on the high seas also left his home in dire straits. In that time, Orochi had somehow taken control of the country and became the Shogun in Oden’s absence.
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Oden’s return to Wano was initially a heroic one as he was the people’s only hope against Orochi, but when he tried to take him down Orochi revealed he was prepared for that as well. Then Oden is subjected to a terrible punishment that may or may not be a result of a Devil Fruit ability. As the series teases more powers cropping up in Wano, Oden’s punishment may be a result of this.
Chapter 969 reveals that for some reason, Oden began to strip, dance, and demean himself in publics hours after meeting Orochi. He would show up week after week to dance in the capital like this for over five years, and it began to change everyone’s perspective of him. Oden was no longer a hero, but a disgraced person who let them all down.
There’s no clear reveal of why Oden danced like this. It seems like he was doing it in order to keep Orochi from harming those he loves because he stopped it shortly after Orochi made his first move that resulted in the death of Hyogoro’s wife. So Oden doing this for years was an agreement he made of some sort with Orochi.
But with all of the Devil Fruit abilities making their way into Wano, it won’t be long before there’s some other kind of reveal about Oden’s tragic final days. But what do you think? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or talk to me directly about all things anime and other cool things @Valdezology on Twitter!
Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece first began serialization in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump in 1997. It has since been collected into over 90 volumes, and has been a critical and commercial success worldwide with many of the volumes breaking printing records in Japan. The manga has even set a Guinness World Record for the most copies published for the same comic book by a single author, and is the best-selling manga series worldwide with over 430 million copies sold.