User blog comment:Gourd Roger/Chapter 910: An Appetite for "Nostalgia"/@comment-24850639-20180710174922

Oda threw a book's worth of traditional Japanese references at us this chapter, and it's little disheartening to see all the "meh" reactions. Makes me quite worried about how much is going to go over people's heads when we REALLY start getting into the geography and history of Wano. Also a little disheartening that people are questioning if this is Wano.....Jesus, where to start.

Bonsai Trees - The short, weirdly-shaped trees that were all over the mountain structures. Classic, rather hard to miss sign of Japan. Oda has included these in literally every panel of Wano that he has shown so far.

The Octopus - The octupus wearing the hachimaki (headband) is another rather classic sign of Japan. You should be familiar with Hachi (who represents an Octopus) and his Takoyaki business. A red Octopus with a white hachimaki on its head is often used as a logo for Takoyaki shops in Japan. Apparently, it's also a rather famous logo for some certain naughty parts of the internet, but I'd know nothing about that of course. (x_x)

The Waves & The Clouds - You should notice that this isn't regular water, or clouds. The way it is drawn here is based off a traditional Japanese art style known as Ukiyo-e, which really blossomed during the Edo Period of Japan. Wano obviously being based of off Edo Period Japan........ya know, if you couldn't tell from the whole Shogun/Daimyo/Closed border stuff......You can literally google "Edo Period",  and the picture used on the Wikipedia article is one of the most famous Ukiyo-e paintings of all time. It should look familiar, because page 9 is a frickin carbon copy of it! This painting specifically was made towards the end of the Edo Period, a possibly even more subtle jolt of symbolism with how the Straw Hats will bring about incredible social change in Wano.

Kin'emon's Warning - If you know your world history, you know that the Mongol Empire was one of the fiercest militaries in history, period. They attempted to invade Japan twice, and in both cases they were hit by an incredibly powerful typhoon that sunk their ships. Even the warning of the country being surrounded by incredibly dangerous natural phenomena is a nod to Japan.

The Sound Effects - The sounds effects used throughout this chapter weren't the traditional ones Oda uses, they were in fact the sound of a shamisen playing.......like last chapter's intro to Wano. But that one wasn't intuitive. what should have been, is the sound effects that the Octopus made. These were the classic drums and "Yoooooh" of a Kabuki performance, which you have definitely heard before, if you haven't seen. Given that I know most of you played and fought against E. Honda on Street Fighter, or watched the Naruto anime, you've heard these sounds before, and should be thinking of Japan when you hear them.

The Carp - Japan has a famous folk hero known as Kintaro. Kintaro often fought gigantic creatures, and he is quite famously depicted fighting a giant carp. The panel of Luffy latching on to the first one is somewhat similar to the painting. Morever though, the Carp and the Waterfall. There is an old folk tale in Japan of a "Dragon's Gate" atop a waterfall, and Carp that manage to make it up to this waterfall are transformed into dragons. It's moreso used as a proverb to describe that only a few have the necessary work ethic to reach the top, but here its another blatant reference to Japan and eastern Mythos. I hope you look at the Pokemon Magikarp and its evolution into Gyrados a little differently now.

The Mountain - When Luffy and the Sunny land on that shore, you see a gigantic mountain in the background, the exact same one that we saw last chapter off in the distance. That should seal that the rest of the Straw Hats have made it to Wano now, if not for more Bonsai trees and strange clouds. It seems a little too skinny to be Oda's version of Mt. Fuji, but I'm willing to bet it's significant to the geography of the island somehow. It seems pretty off in the distance, but it also seemed pretty off in the distance when we saw Zoro's group last chapter, so it's unclear just how far away Luffy is from the others.

The Animals - The Dog-Lion creature is a Komainu, and that's about as traditional Japanese as it gets right there. The are often depicted as statues protecting Shrines, but they appear in a lot of Japanese art as well. The babboon it's harder to get something solid on, but you can get some interesting results searching for either "Hihi" or "Yokai", or both.

All these Japan references all chapter, and Luffy figures it out by seeing a creature hold a sword. Gotta admit that was pretty gotdamn funny. Sure, people are craving for an action-packed chapter after what we've been getting in Reverie and the intro to Wano, but you guys should have known Oda would break away from that at some point to show us how the hell our main character is going to end up in the country of question. We saw nothing about how Law/Zoro's group got here, so of course we were gonna get our chance with Luffy & co. The action is back to full swing probably as soon as next chapter, but you guys should know by now that these arcs start off with info dumps and exhibition to set up the arc's plot points. Seeing the bit of Zoro get in trouble was just a teaser.