One Piece (Reverie)

Reverie or Levely?

The Reverie (Levely?) arc of the One Piece anime is potentially my least favorite arc/saga of the series. Before this arc, I would have said that East Blue or Dressrosa was my least favorite. And while I still think those aren’t good arcs, Reverie is bad for a different reason.

At only 12 episodes long, you’d think that Reverie wouldn’t really be an issue. I tend to prefer the shorter arcs of One Piece, and this is certainly short. And its length makes it a bit difficult for it to really ruin anything considering the pacing of One Piece.

But, the problem with Reverie is that it’s even shorter than it seems. The majority of the episodes are mostly recap. I don’t remember which episode it was, but one of them literally had less than 3 minutes of new content.

What sucks about that is that Reverie is an arc from which we could have gotten a lot of lore. Reverie is the name for the meeting of the leaders of the countries that make up the World Government. Every 4 years, they come together in Mariejois to discuss the state of the world.

One Piece doesn’t focus too much on how the World Government is structured, and this was a glimpse into that. We even got to see that the royal families who make up the World Government aren’t actually the ones pulling the strings.

Another, minor issue I have with Reverie is that I don’t know if it’s Reverie or Levely. The official translations say Reverie. But a character in the series holds a sign that says Levely. So which is it? Of course, this isn’t the only name in One Piece that has multiple readings.

Mjosgard Donquixote

One of the more interesting characters to be featured in the Reverie arc is Mjosgard Donquixote. Yes, of the same family as Doflamingo Donquixote. However, Mjosgard’s side of the family never left Mariejois as Doflamingo’s did.

Normally, I wouldn’t say that a Celestial Dragon is a very interesting character. I mean, nobody’s going to argue that Charlos adds much depth to the series. And while Doflamingo is technically a Celestial Dragon, he’s really not. He’s a pirate who’s locked away in the lowest level of Impel Down.

Anyway, Mjosgard is neat because he’s the same Celestial Dragon who found himself shipwrecked on Fishman Island 10 years before the start of the series. He had gone there to recapture his escaped fishmen slaves. But, after being saved by Queen Otohime, his entire worldview changed. He freed all his slaves and now considers himself a regular human.

Going back to Charlos, Mjosgard appears in the arc to stop his fellow Celestial Dragon Charlos from kidnapping Princess Shirahoshi. While nobody else can lay a hand on Charlos to stop him, Mjosgard can because he too is a Celestial Dragon.

Now, at first, I thought it was odd that Mjosgard would continue to live in Mariejois as a Celestial Dragon after renouncing his “godhood.” But, it actually makes a lot of sense when you consider what happened to the other side of the Donquixote family who did that.

Mjosgard wouldn’t be accepted anywhere else in the world if he left Mariejois, except for maybe Fishman Island. Even then, it would be kind of awkward since he owned fishmen slaves.

But, we also need to consider that by staying as a Celestial Dragon, Mjosgard keeps all of his power and influence. He can then use that power and influence to do good, as we see him do during Reverie.

Im, Ruler of the World

By far, the biggest reveal of Reverie is that there’s a shadowy figure (literally) referred to as Im-sama who rules the world. Im is the one to whom all the Gorosei answer and is the only person allowed to sit upon the “Empty Throne” to which the kings and queens of the World Government swear loyalty.

Because of this, we can reasonably assume that none of the kings and queens know of the existence of Im. And it’s possible that even the other Celestial Dragons don’t know about his existence. If they did, surely Mjosgard would have told someone.

But, one thing we do know is that Doflamingo has some secret information regarding the World Government that would be damaging if it got out. This information could have to do with the Void Century, Im, both, or something else entirely. All we know is that it’s important enough that Doflamingo believes they’d try to have him assassinated to hide it.

Another thing about Im is that the Gorosei ask him which “light” of the world should be extinguished. It’s implied that the lights they’re referring to are Luffy, Blackbeard, Shirahoshi, and Vivy.

Now, Luffy and Blackbeard make sense for Im to want to have killed because they’re both members of the D clan who have rapidly risen to power. Although Luffy and Blackbeard are complete opposites, both would want to destroy the World Government, and therefore Im, for their own reasons.

Shirahoshi also makes sense since we know she’s the ancient weapon Poseidon. And while Vivy could make sense as the next ruler of the Nefertari family, formerly a Celestial Dragon family, I think there’s a better reason for getting rid of her.

I believe Vivy is Uranus (or Pluton if Momonosuke is Uranus).

Conclusion

I think I have to give the Reverie arc of the One Piece anime a 4/10. The new content isn’t bad. But the fact that the arc is mostly filler instead of giving us lore about the One Piece world makes the arc bad.

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My review of the Wano Country arc is available now.