It is well and truly good to be back! May we never have to go so long between chapters again. There’s nothing particularly special about this return chapter – only 15 pages, no colour spread to save it for the anniversary next week – it really just picks up where the series last left off and moves forward in exactly the way it had already been. Which means yes, the cutaway sequence is still oddly placed in the Egghead story, and I’m still itching to see the Strawhats again, and it’s very weird to get to the (likely) end of volume 107 without checking in with them. Actually I don’t know where my gut lands on volume 107 currently. It’s never safe to bet on 12 chapters, but the 9, 10 and now 11 chapter marks haven’t felt like they’re wrapping things up or establishing that big ‘come back next volume’ moment to close on.

But on the other hand. Garp VS Kuzan for real! Look at them go!

I forget what rank Jango’s meant to be now, but damn, he’s doing well for himself to be having a casual chat with Brandnew (the guy so high up he sets the bounties) and trading gossip about figures as important as Garp and Kuzan. It’s definitely interesting that Kuzan is being set up as such a bruiser here. He’s a really skinny guy and always has been! You’d kinda think that was what Haki was for, but it turns out he can arch the keel of a battleship with just his physical strength alone. But sure, why not? Far from the weirdest thing One Piece asks readers to swallow. It’s also worth remembering that despite the illusion of equality the opening panels give, Garp and Kuzan did not start on their battleship bags at the same time and we don’t know how long they took to reach their final state relative to each other. It also seems that Kuzan is using both Haki and his Devil Fruit in the chapter’s climactic cross counter, so there’s definitely some mitigating factors to keep me from thinking Kuzan has just been magically jumped up to Garp levels of raw, unaided might all of a sudden.

What is nice here is Brandnew throwing out that the kind of strength it takes to compete at this level goes beyond what anyone is born with, you still have to train and earn it. Should appease some concerns that areas of the fanbase have picked up around special birth powers and destinies as of late.

There seems to have been a small retcon on the effects of the Isle Isle Fruit here, with the great big Fullalead skull now having more detailed teeth and actual eyes in the sockets when Pizarro controls it. I wonder if we’ll see at least the eyes edited for chapters 1080 and 1081 when the volume release comes around?

Whatever the case, Garp’s devil may care attitude to the pirates’ attacks is a joy in the early pages of this chapter. Enough that I’m not too concerned about how his ship got out to sea. Given everything else we’ve seen, I’m totally ready to believe he picked it up and chucked it. I want to see a Boggard scene though. Just a little acknowledgement of the dude. Look at the panel where Garp, Grus, Koby and Helmeppo line up. Wouldn’t it have been more balanced with two guys on either side of Garp? Missed opportunity!

The parallel with Whiteboard in Garp’s injury is hard to miss. I wasn’t convinced we were really going to see the death of a legend so soon, but now I’m starting to wonder.

Debates will rage (and have been raging since the spoilers) on the topic of Observation Haki and Shiryu’s cheap hit, but it’s not like Garp is taken completely off-guard here. We can see him with his hands firmly on Shiryu at the same moment he takes the hit, before the invisible pirate is revealed. It’s not a stab and then a quick reaction before Shiryu can retreat, the stab and the grab are information given to us at the same time. Of course there is ambiguity in that, as reading a manga is always going to involve some level of personal interpretation to fill in the movements between panels, but in my mind the need to shield Koby was a bigger factor than the invisibility in making this trick a success.

A little more Cross Guild operational info is nice. I’d been wondering about how the crowns compared to the stars. People are making a big deal about Garp directly calling Dragon his son, but I always felt the idea that he wasn’t was conspiracy theory territory anyway. I think we’re well and truly giving up on the idea of Kuzan as a SWORD plant as well. I was having my doubts back when we saw how he joined the crew, but this parting of ways with Garp feels real.

The final spread is gorgeous, and while Pizarro’s powers borrow a lot from Pica both conceptually and in how Oda has detailed and shaded the giant reaching hand, but the bulbous head and twisted up bundle of limbs he’s made the island into give this version enough of its own flavour to keep me quiet. At least for the moment.

I think we have to see the end of this sequence next week, whether justice truly will prevail or not (“of course it will!” thanks, Doflamingo) because it just wouldn’t do to have an anniversary chapter without getting at least a glimpse of the main crew. I’ve missed them, and I genuinely want to explore more of Egghead and learn the different things Vegapunk’s been working on. I want to see how inanimate objects are made to eat Devil Fruits, damn it! Well whatever happens, I’m just happy to have my (almost) weekly dose coming in again.