User blog comment:AYET/Who do you most look forward to in New World/@comment-4679281-20120929085618/@comment-972068-20120929085941

If I may quote Oda, "Sabo is dead."

I would quote Kishimoto saying Obito is dead except...he never said that.

Even if you see a corpse, there's always a possibility of him being alive. We saw Pell's grave but he was fully alive and well. But when the author himself states a character is dead, then he's dead. No questions asked.