This text was originally written for Arlong Park forums’ discussion thread.

Chapter 1000 was great, and the start of the Kaido and Big Mom fight is unquestionably a momentous event, but there was, in hindsight, a feeling that the chapter wasn’t completely for us, the up-to-date dedicated readers. Oda chose to restate important themes and goals for the series, the Will of the D, the rise of the next generation and Luffy aiming to be King of the Pirates in a way that was fitting and appropriate, yeah, but also likely went a long to illustrate to new readers who flipped through to see what was going on with all the chapter 1000 hype what the heart of the series is, and remind readers who fell off the bandwagon before but checked back in for the milestone that it hadn’t lost sight of what it was always meant to be. It was a great story showcase chapter, which was a good choice for one that would get so much attention. Chapter 1001 on the other hand, is pure action fanservice for the longtime fans from start to finish.

Strange seeing Kaido so happy for most of this chapter. With the moustache there, some of the close-ups of his mouth were giving me Roger vibes. It’s good seeing him show a bit more personality as well. The strong guy who gets caught up in the thrill of the battle and even encourages his opponents when they pose a challenge is hardly a new anime archetype, but it definitely suits One Piece more than the stony-faced immovable object Kaido has been for most of this arc.

Zoro stealing Kin’s move was a nice throwback to Punk Hazard. I wonder if we’ll see him go up against Kaido’s blast breath as well. Also loved the bickering between the three captains.

I’m not as huge a fan of Kaido asking Big Mom to stand back for half the chapter. I’m curious to see more of this fight as a real multi-threat team-up battle. It’ll be a lot less exciting if one of the big hitters is literally just waiting her turn on the sideline. Hopefully it’s just for the power showcase in this chapter though.

And what a showcase it is! The art is pretty unclear about how much damage Zoro and Killer were actually able to do, but from pained grunt and subsequent congratulation on the next page, I’d say they managed cause him pain, even if they weren’t able to break the skin. Could end up being like Luffy vs Katakuri, where they’re on the cusp of developing the skills they need and pull themselves up over the course of the fight. Kid and Law have their own approaches to Kaido’s defences. Kid seems to think that even if his skin doesn’t break, crushing wounds could do internal damage, and my initial reaction to this was to think he should know better after witnessing Kaido survive the fall from Balloon Terminal. How could he expect to to apply more pressure than the moment of impact after a sky island fall? But Kaido did get out of that crater with a splitting headache, and he makes another pained noise here, so there’s some genuine merit to the approach. Haki levels are rarely the be all and end all of fights in this series, so it’s good to see Oda showing other possible approaches even at this late stage. Law is taking a similar approach, but it remains to be seen what it takes to repel the energy-based Gamma Knife. It got inside Doflamingo without leaving a wound, but Kaido’s dragon scales and haki are both far beyond anything Doffy could pull.

Also, is it just me, or do the fingers on the left hand of Kid’s (absolutely sick looking) mech look pretty unfinished in the panel where he crushes Kaido? Looking forward to that getting fixed up in the volume.

The final spread is already one of my favourites of Wano. The scale, the detail, the nightmarish threat level of Kaido and Big Mom as a tag-team. I could look at this thing for hours. I was expecting the many social media artists who usually colour their favourite bits from new chapters to be all over this spread, but I’ve yet to see one that does it justice. Maybe it’s just taking a while because of the level of detail. I think this one’s going to be great in the digital colour manga when it finally gets here.

The Odabreak is a bitter pill to swallow after all the Christmas and New Years delays, but hey, one more off week and then the schedule should start looking a little more normal.

Oh, and wasn’t the final version of volume 98 cover meant to drop today? I kind of expected it to be put out at the same time as the chapter, but here I am, still waiting…