Chapters · Thriller Bark › Thriller Bark

Chapter 461: Ghost Buster

Arc: Thriller Bark · Saga: Thriller Bark · Released:

Summary

The split Straw Hats push deeper into the Mast Mansion toward Moria. Luffy, Robin and Chopper run into Dr. Hogback, who recognizes Chopper as a Zoan and sets his zombie maid Cindry on them; Robin blocks Cindry’s flying dishes, and Chopper stays behind to face Hogback while Luffy and Robin race on. On the lower ruins, Zoro, Sanji, Usopp and Franky are dwarfed by the giant zombie Oars — who, holding Luffy’s stolen shadow, talks and fights exactly like Luffy, jams a piece of building onto his head as a “captain’s hat,” and announces he’ll be “the rotten Pirate King.” Franky throws up a makeshift bridge so the group can cross toward the mansion, where they walk into Perona’s room. Perona reveals her Hollow-Hollow Fruit: her ghosts are pieces of herself, and her Negative Hollow empties a person’s heart, dropping Zoro, Sanji and Franky into grovelling self-loathing despair. Only Usopp is immune — he is already so hopelessly negative that the ghost has nothing to add — and he stands tall, fires a salt attack, and rallies the crushed crew back to their feet to go save Nami and Brook before squaring off against Perona himself. Meanwhile, across Thriller Bark, Absalom’s wedding to Nami is already underway in the church.

New reveals

• Hollow-Hollow Fruit (Horo-Horo no Mi) named and explained: Perona conjures ghosts that are “a part of me,” and Negative Hollow “empties human hearts,” inflicting paralytic depression (pp. 12-13).
• Usopp is immune to Negative Hollow — his baseline personality is “extremely negative,” so the ghost can’t make him more so; “no human is immune… but this guy” (pp. 16-17).
• Oars carries Luffy’s shadow and so carries Luffy’s will: he mimics Luffy’s speech and fighting style and proclaims himself the future “rotten Pirate King” (pp. 9-10).
• Hogback IDs Chopper as a Zoan Devil Fruit user and wants his shadow / to make him a marionette; commands Cindry to attack (pp. 3-6).
• Absalom’s wedding to Nami is in progress at the Thriller Bark church with a zombie officiant (pp. 18-19).

Foreshadowing seeds planted

Payoffs (seeds from earlier chapters that resolve here)

Mentions / appearances

• Characters (shown): Luffy, Nico Robin, Tony Tony Chopper (vs Hogback), Zoro, Sanji, Usopp, Franky (vs Oars / Perona), Nami (church, bride), Hogback, Cindry, Oars, Perona, Absalom
• Characters (mentioned only): Gecko Moria (the boss they’re rushing to reach “before he moves”), Brook (to be rescued along with Nami), Enel (cover story)
• Groups: Straw Hat Pirates
• Devil Fruits: Horo-Horo no Mi (VIZ “Hollow-Hollow Fruit”)
• Locations: Thriller Bark — sub-locations shown/labeled: Mast Mansion (Moria’s Dance Hall, Moria’s Bedroom, Perona’s Room, Wonder Garden, the freezer where Moria’s shadow-room lies), the broken bridge, the Thriller Bark church

Notable panels

• Page 1 — Title page doubles as the cover-story art: Enel’s Great Space Mission, Vol. 27 — “Gratitude for Avenging the Doctor” (VIZ on-page spelling “Eneru”). Enel with his Spacey automata.
• Page 2 — Labeled cutaway map of the Mast Mansion (Moria’s Dance Hall, Moria’s Bedroom, Perona’s Room, Wonder Garden) tracking the split crew’s positions; Luffy: “I’m going to find that giant onion guy and beat him up!”
• Page 9-10 — Oars dons a building as a hat — “Oh. That fits just right!” — and declares “Now I’m going to be the rotten Pirate King!”; Zoro notes “he’s got Luffy’s fighting skills… that’s dangerous.”
• Page 12-13 — Perona, lounging amid her ghosts, reveals the Hollow-Hollow Fruit and Negative Hollow.
• Page 14 — Negative Hollow effect: Zoro — “I apologize for even standing on the same ground as you guys…”; Sanji — “I’m dumber than a mackerel! I should just die.”; Franky reduced to wishing a stray dog would stomp him.
• Page 16-17 — Usopp immune: “…extremely negative!!!! I’m already…” over Perona’s “It can’t be! No human is immune to the negative hollows!”; the crew rallies — “Get up, guys!”
• Page 18-19 — Absalom’s wedding to Nami at the church; zombie priest, cheering undead crowd.
• Page 20 — SBS Question Corner page bundled in the scan: Oda confirms Captain T-Bone is human (not a Zombie General); a Negative-Hollow “what would you come back as” gag; a question about Nami’s pants color differing between chapters 445 and 446. (SBS — defer to SBS specialist.)

Open questions raised

• Can the crew reach the Mast Mansion and stop Absalom’s wedding before it completes?
• Will Usopp — the only one standing — actually beat Perona one-on-one?
• Can Chopper defeat Hogback (and what happens to the shadows Hogback covets)?
• How is Oars, who has Luffy’s shadow, fighting style and dream, to be stopped at all?