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I can’t say I saw this one coming at all. I’ve been setting myself up for a siege arc, first trying to defend the beaches from Borsalino’s fleet, the struggling to hold the lab as the Pacifista and Seraphim are turned by Saturn. Instead, all of those battle lines are being used to pen the crew in for an Among Us style manhunt in the upper lab, which I think is a tremendously fun direction to take it.

The choice to silhouette the Five Elders on the cover is definitely worth taking note of. Is it to hide that they haven’t aged in the 20ish years since this flashback? Or does it instead mislead us from the fact that they have.

Early on in the chapter we get a map for the lab, and there’s nothing I love more than a map. Already what I think is interesting is tracking the damage to the structure over the past few chapters. Look at how most of the Seraphim aim low in the first attack,

presumably destroying the two small structures on either side of the entrance ramp,

but the top of Tower C is smashed open in the next chapter.

Despite the first thought that they took another shot between chapters or Oda retconned what he wanted damaged, I think the falling section of roof slashed by S-Hawk did that. (It gets hit again later when S-Shark tries to shoot Edison, but only in the already-damaged area, so there’s no cosmetic change.) And you can see that Tower B remains untouched until the explosion around Pythagoras last week, which has now blow it open.

I can’t stress enough how great it is when these details are kept track of.

I also think the floors are pretty big. See how many levels of walkways are included in “floor 3” in this establishing shot, and the scale of the crew, the entry ramp and the building as a whole.

So Usopp, Franky and Lilith are probably going to still be considered on floor 3 when we get back to them next week. Probably. It wouldn’t be unlike Oda to play fast and loose with proportions.

While light on story progression, there’s a lot of fun character moments in the different groups wandering around. Nami and Robin were great. Sanji sure is being Sanji, but at least he’s decent enough to remember she was at his wedding. Maybe this is Jojo fan levels of reference reaching, but something about a desperate guy getting called a dog by an icy government woman makes me think Chainsaw Man.

I feel like it’s a missed opportunity that Franky seems to be actually looking for Vegapunk instead of getting distracted by the tech like everyone else. Maybe he just wants it all direct from the source instead.

Pythagoras lives. No one is shocked.

York gives me something I’ve been wanting since that first awful scene with the Cipher Pol goons – an unambiguously innocent interaction with S-Snake that still leads to petrification. I look forward to the SBS where Oda outlines the new emotional triggers now that it’s not just “impure thoughts” like Hancock originally explained.

There are some definite mysteries afoot with the Seraphim turn though. We’re running short on Vegaclones that haven’t either been attacked or been in the control room at every opportunity to take control. Atlas was absent for a long time for her repairs, but one of the others probably would have said something if they took longer than they should have. And interestingly, S-Snake and S-Bear attacked Lucci and Kaku, so the enemy here isn’t in league with the government. The theory I like most is Punk Records itself achieving some kind of sentience and entering a HAL 9000/Skynet phase. It’s a fun sci fi trope, and it solves the problem of what happens to Punk Records after Vegapunk flees.

While it’s not a traditional cliffhanger, I can see Oda leaving volume readers on the question of whether Lucci and Kaku really do get freed to fight alongside the Strawhats. I hope it happens. It’s a great setup likely to lead to bickering and competition and no one being too careful about throwing attacks near their so-called allies. Next chapter could be a really fun one, especially after this one proved surprisingly satisfying for just 15 pages.

I hope we’re due a normal colour spread though. If you go over the last few lots of colour pages we’ve got… a Film Red promo, a Film Red promo, an update of an old poster, a Film Red promo, the Four Emperors, and an Odyssey promo. Give me the crew playing with animals in a whimsical new setting, Oda, please! It’s been like ten months!