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

Oh man, I thought like the last chapter felt like a great end to volume 101, but even though this one doesn’t have quite as memorable a final page it’s hard to imagine the book being complete without Luffy and Kaido splitting the sky. It’s the perfect climax to the throughline of Luffy’s recovery and Momo’s ageing up that’s been developing at a rate of like one page per chapter for most of the volume. Plus the chapter title would make for a pretty great volume name, something the first 10 chapters of volume 101 didn’t have a whole lot of.

The Bellmere callback on the cover is super cute, and that’s all that needs to be said about it.

I’m in two minds about the sudden weather change used to setup the core moment of this chapter. We do get the in-universe explanation that dragons bring stormclouds with them, and we’ve seen Kaido’s dragon form ride in with dark clouds behind it when he was first revealed, but he didn’t make any clouds the first time he went dragon on the rooftop, even fighting against the sulong minks among the Scabbards. So why now? I might be inclined to call the weather change something contrived in order to get the haki clash moment, but the result is so cool that I’ve already completely forgiven it.

The dragon battle looks absolutely incredible. Kaido’s dragon form has always made for really memorable visuals, which almost makes me wish we had more time with both him and Momo onscreen. I particularly love the image of Momo spiralling aroud the blast breath. I’m sure some will complain about Momo’s bite hurting Kaido because it doesn’t hit their powerscaling headcanons, but I think it’s a worthwhile moment. It’s great that the thing that pushes Momo past his fear isn’t just getting big, but standing up in a meaningful way to his greatest fear, even if he did so with a whole lot of Luffy’s help. I don’t think the effect of the bite means he suddenly has advanced haki or anything like that – we saw from Kid’s tactics during the Supernovas’ rooftop bout that Kaido’s insides are vulnerable to being crushed even while his scales remain impenetrable, and any reasonable guess at the jaw strength of a predator that size says its bite would freaking hurt. Or just follow the Pokemon logic that dragon beats dragon.

And man, what great therapy it must be to make Kaido scream and live to tell of it. I’d be feeling invincible if I was in Momo’s position.

As much as I love the detail of the skull’s eye remaining broken where Momo broke in last chapter, I keep glancing at it and thinking it’s a speech bubble, wondering why it’s been left blank.

Carrot being reduced to yelling Catviper’s name and not getting to help fell Perospero was pretty disappointing. Whole Cake Island made her one of the most prominent non-Strawhat characters for more than seven volumes, literally years of real-world time. It’s fine for her to fall back into the fringes now that arc is over, but for her to be sidelined so hard in a fight she was present for and had such a genuine emotional stake in feels like a disservice to her former prominence. Well guess if nothing else it shows Oda doesn’t feel pressured at all by poll results in making plans for his characters.

Love the panel of Zoro and Sanji fighting back to back. Looking forward to getting back to that scene.

The chapter ends with a series of truly gorgeous spreads. I love that Luffy’s sky plitting moment is something that actually has an impact on the wider battle. So much of CoC prior to the coating revelation has just been a way for high level guys to dickmeasure before coming to blows.

Oh, and Orochi’s still kicking, surprising no one.

I’m not the first to say it, but I think it’s pretty likely the remaining enemies will continue to go down in pairs, save for Big Mom. Orochi and Fukurokuju would be a good set to take out together. I think Orochi’s done trying to fight, having set fire to Kaido’s house and lost seven out of his presumed eight lives already. He’s come right to the back door of the castle, so I think he’s just gonna creep out. My bet’s still on Denjiro tracking him down, having learned to predict him through all those years as a lapdog. Feels likely Hyori could get involved as well, but I don’t see Oda making her into a fighter this late in the game. That leaves Apoo and Hawkins and King and Queen, plus Big Mom. The remaining Numbers might show up to keep the fodder busy, but I’m not expecting much from them. I’m expecting these beats to play out fairly quickly over the next few chapters, leaving the second half of volume 102 to be completely Luffy vs Kaido.

Solid chapter overall with some absolutely vital moments and great visuals. I never really understood the hype surrounding Jack or the need to get another drawn out clash with him after he got all of Zou to himself, but I can understand feeling underwhelmed by Perospero’s showing at Onigashima. The dude had a lot of narrative baggage pinned to him from Whole Cake Island and Oda decided to use almost none of it and instead had him felled by a character who wasn’t even part of that arc. It’s not as much of a miss as Page One and Ulti’s sudden defeats, but it still feels like a story beat that needed more time in the oven. Regardless, I think the Onigashima battle’s gotten a lot more right than it has wrong since the Supernovas hit the roof and I’m really looking forward to seeing how it concludes.