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

This chapter steps on the brakes a little compared to the last two. It figures we couldn’t keep up that kind of pacing forever, but it still obviously feels like a step back. On the other hand, the official end of a main one on one fight is a big signal that the end is close for Wano, and there’ll probably be more big leaps forward like it in the coming weeks.

Also hey, I made a few good guesses last week.

I was off the mark on Nami not being able to summon Zeus in cloud form, and I don’t think anyone expected the shapeshifting aspect, but otherwise, the talk of being reborn and not being able to leave voluntarily sure sound like a new Homie’s been made out of the tact to me.

I also said “why [isn’t Tama] doing what Momo does and grabbing a Mary?”

Which turns out to be exactly what she does. Nice!

I’ve also been on team Ulti gets back up for weeks now, but that one isn’t worth patting myself on the back over.
The opening scene with Toko and Hitetsu is very sweet, but it also has two interesting details. The first is the clear skies over the capital, showing the full moon. Could we be in for a Sulong second wind in the final stages of Onigashima’s journey? Second is the bonfire built big enough to be visible from the heavans. I will be shocked if there isn’t a big moment where someone spots its light from the flying island a few chapters from now. Or if we don’t have Luffy and Momo using it as a beacon to get to the capitol on their return flight or something like that.

CP0’s battle updates are always welcome. Remember that there are only around 500 Gifters, so Tama’s broadcast isn’t going to flip a massive number of combatants. I think it’s more likely we’re going to see exactly how many normal soldiers a Gifter can be worth instead.

I’m surprised Bao Huang is so sure Momo and Shinobu are dead. Maybe I need to reread the fine details of what Shinobu was up to for 20 years, but she’s a known quantity to the Beasts Pirates, right? They know she can do this, don’t they?

I had no fear for either of them when they fell last week because aside from the plot armour angle, jumping off the island was a really logical and safe thing for Shinobu to do with her skillset.

I like the attention to detail in Ulti’s cloak consistently having a big visible hole where Big Mom’s attack went out the back. A lesser author might have forgotten to do more than just burning her top and skirt to show a tasteful amount of midriff and thigh, but Oda’s not just a perv.

I also enjoy Zues amping up Nami’s physical capabilities a level. Like, you couldn’t even say the extending trick shown off on Zou has been underutilised because that would imply it’s been utilised at all. Zeus could save it from being written off as wasted potential if Oda keeps using him like this. He legitimately brings a lot to the table as a powerup, including being a whole other character to interact with, and I’m glad she’d got him.

His rejection of the new name is a great gag, and I like him helping Nami with the targeting. It makes sense that electricity would arc to its target, right?

And that’s about where my praise for Nami VS Ulti ends. It’s definitely on the weaker end of both Nami and the series’ major clashes. I don’t even know if so much of the early stage being offscreen is the issue, like so many others have said. A few more pages of Nami getting physically overwhelmed before she made her big Luffy declaration two dozen chapters ago wouldn’t have changed the issues the later stage of the fight has.

Ulti could almost be seen as one of those Resident Evil enemies that shrugs off you attacks and pursues you while you try to solve puzzles and do other stuff, and at the end of the game you finally get access to a souped up rail gun or rocket launcher and get your revenge for the trouble they gave you. Nami is mostly focused on avoiding Ulti and solving the Gifter issue for the whole fight and is rewarded with the extra firepower she needs at the end. But unfortunately, what makes for a satisfying turnaround in a game doesn’t land the same way in a manga.

This chapter alone, the scene with the finishing blow, works fine in isolation. But trying to take all the Nami/Ulti scenes up to this point and visualise them as a full sequence, it just doesn’t work. The dialogue implies that the main cause of Ulti’s defeat was the two big blasts from Big Mom and Nami, rather than the culmination of all the hits she’s taken so far (and there’ve been a lot of them). There’s very little sense of give and take in the fight, no push and pull, no calls and responses in the choreography. None of that good stuff that makes a compelling fight. But because Nami was always running and staying one step ahead instead of being backed into a corner, there isn’t enough of a desperate atmosphere to make an turnabout from the underdog work either.

Whatever the reason, it just feels like there’s something missing from this fight, necessary though it was for it to happen. And Ulti’s still a highlight of Kaido’s crew, despite the slightly anticlimactic end.

I’m hoping for a better showing from the rest of the crew’s fights. Most of the Strawhats are standing their ground instead of running from their opponents anyway, so there’s more to build a fight out of with those anyway.
Does Bao Huang confirm that Page One is down for good as well? I guess no round two for Usopp, which is a shame. Page One staying down probably says something about something. Maybe its just his lower endurance or taking more hits from Usopp and Nami compared to Ulti. Maybe it’s the power of Big Mom’s CoC coating against an opponent who can’t respond in kind.

But there has to be something more for Usopp. Catching Bao Huang isn’t big enough to be his scene for the arc, and it isn’t presented like the climax of his story here.

It feels odd not to show Tama actually giving her order and the immediate results of it, especially with the chapter named after her. Is it not there because the chapter’s only 15 pages, or is the chapter 15 pages because Oda couldn’t fit what he wanted to do in just two more?

I like that we get a bit more of Kaido’s dragon form. It always makes for such good looking panels. We also have the clearest signpost yet that Yamato is leaving Wano with the crew. I don’t know if I’m totally on board with him in the main cast yet, but I’ve made my peace with it seeming inevitable, and we’ll cross that bridge after it’s fully confirmed I guess.

We’ve known for a while that Wano is special in the grand scheme of things. Something about the country is vital to Joyboy’s will and the much-alluded to Dawn. It’s been implied it was open to the world in the past. It may even have been an active trade partner to other ancient nations, if there’s anything to be read into about its reputation as a “country of gold” and the large amounts of gold found in Shandia without them any obvious mines or smelting ability. Kaido saying he chose Wano because it’s special somehow is just a reminder of the kinds of potentially huge revelations waiting in the aftermath of the battle.

It was a short chapter, which is always a shame before a break, but the end of a major fight always gives a decent bit to reflect on. See you all in a couple of weeks for maybe another fight conclusion, if Oda wants to use volume 101 to push Onigashima into its endgame.