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

I’m pleasantly surprised to see some real fallout and consequences from the sea battle from the end of Whole Cake Island. Now this cover story has my attention. Will Judge go back for Niji and Yonji? How will the timeline for a rescue mission line up with Big Mom’s departure for Wano, which should be only a couple of days after the fight? I’ll be waiting eagerly for the next part.

Raizo and Fukurokuju is proceeding basically exactly as expected. Raizo will endure the flames until their heat makes Fuku drop his jutsu, allowing Raizo to go in for the kill. The only surprise is that it isn’t over yet. This is a lot of anticipation for a pretty obvious conclusion. Maybe Oda will find a left-field resolution to the fight instead…

Jinbe’s moment holding up the ceiling is pretty cool. It’s a small beat, but Jinbe joining so late needs as many of those as he can get. It also shows Oda committing hard to the castle coming down. If a whole floor’s caved in already, the rest can’t be far behind. It also makes for a great panel. There’s a few good shots of the burning and crumbling structure throughout this chapter (the room where Izo had been fighting is another standout). I really enjoy the sense of space we’ve had for Onigashima, and that kind of build-up makes its destruction all the more satisfying.

There’s no doubt in my mind that this Zoro grim reaper sequence is setting up a gag. I only wonder which one Oda will go with. Brook all along? Or Zoro being strough enough to fight off death, or just being shown the path to the other side and getting lose when asked to walk down it. I’d have a great time seeing this Dr McNinja bit played out by Zoro. Oh, and if it turns out Death is real, does that mean we’ll eventually be part of the Vivre Card databook? I wonder what kind of trivia there’ll be for him…

Izo fighting CP0 is one of those “sure, why not” kinds of developments. Certaninly would tie off the CP0 loose end for them to get taken out this way, but it’s way too late in the game to get invested in it as a long-term fight. Maybe Drake gets back up and helps him finish them off? I feel like that could be played with enough gravity to make a satisfying ending to the subplot.

After eight chapters, the saga of Yamato and Kazenbo is finally coming to a head. I was actually close to complaining a lot harder about how long it’s gone on, but the December and January breaks have really skewed my perception of time. I think it’ll be smoother on a binge reread. The armoury is another really great bit of environmental design. Such a detailed background! But wait, are those radiation warning symbols on some of those boxes? Under that pallet of cannon balls? Does the One Piece universe have nuclear weapons? That certainly ups the stakes if it’s true (which it probably isn’t). I bet Vegapunk had a hand in this…

And then the centrepiece scene, the eponymous battle with Big Mom. Oda’s flagging hard that she’ll be going down this arc one way or the other, but this chapter definitely isn’t the one. I don’t see Oda shortchanging her by ending the fight while enemies like Orochi, Fukurokujo, CP0 and Apoo are still running around. She has to be going down either immediately before Kaido or at the same time as him, so while it might look like Law and Kid are making their final push, they’ll have to last a bit longer for the sake of dramatic timing. I’m very curious to see what the finishing blow looks like – how to give it the same, raw knuckle-to-face intensity as if Luffy had done it himself while still letting Law and Kid share the spotlight equally. Big Mom is basically the only arc antagonist to go unbeaten, and will likely be the first Emperor to fall since Whitebeard. That moment needs a bit of gravity behind it!

This is another chapter where the final spread feels hurt by the 17 page limit. Kid’s Punk Corna Dio would probably have had a bit more an impact (and the big spread panel would have read easier) if Oda had found the space to actually show us its appearance unobscured first.

I like that we see a bit more of Kid’s crew than just Heat and Wire again. Wonder if they’ll get names in an SBS at some point. The flip side of the crews’ moment is that a lot of Law’s guys in this scene were last seen on the ground. I’m guessing we’ll get an SBS saying that this one scribble is them clinging to Momo’s tail or something.

Whatever comes next, I’m honestly just happy to be back on consistent chapters for a couple weeks. Looking forward to Oda bringing Onigashima to its finale!