Where last week’s chapter was all the slow setup, this one is 100% slow payoff. It’s the turnaround for all of Egghead’s tension, and Oda lets it breathe for an uncharacteristically long time, giving us pages and pages of relishing the Buster Call fleet’s destruction and the ultimate demonstration of Kuma’s love for Bonney. And I think this truly is the end for the Egghead Arc – Luffy’s back on his feet, the Pacifista are completely under control, the giant robot is moving and the freaking giants are here for backup. For Saturn and Borsalino to overcome all of that and put the Strawhats on the ropes again would be a reset on par with Wano’s legendary ‘raid failing’ theory. There’s a bit still to do, but it’s time to start wrapping up and winding down.

My favourite thing about the Luffy scenes in the opening pages is the gang of Marines who try to cuff him being knocked straight up off the island for their trouble, seen from a great distance. It’s such an Asterix gag, and I have tremendous nostalgia for Asterix gags.

The slow lead into Vegapunk’s big reveal puts all the weight of the arc on this one moment where the love of a father proves more powerful and is given the chance to overcome the world’s greatest authority. In isolation, it’s perfect for everything we’ve seen from Kuma and Bonney, and just the right final act of defiance for Vegapunk to gamble on. The build up of all the inner monologue last chapter about the tragedy of a father being made to kill his daughter only to find that the very same thinking was the inspiration for Vegapunk to turn that possibility on its head. Many have speculated that lineage factor or something like it would lead the clone Pacifistas into joining the original Kuma in defending Bonney, and having it be a deliberate choice from Vegapunk, brings the little found family of labrats from the flashback full circle. On paper, you couldn’t do this better. In context, however…

In context, these great ideas are soured slightly by how hit and miss the Pacifista authority settings and Saturn’s scientific vigilance have been the whole arc. It’s cheapened by Vegapunk pulling out a secret act of defiance already last chapter. Frankly, if I was doing a rewrite I’d scrap the whole self-destruct bit – just make it a shutdown switch implemented as directed and overcome by Kuma’s will. Saturn never threatens to check for scientific deceptions, Vegapunk’s big choice is only a secret final person at the top of the authority hierarchy and it comes out all at once here. What we have now is one thing too many, and it doesn’t let the one that really matters have the power you would want it to.

But either way, it happens, and we spend several pages revelling in well-earned carnage. The destruction of the fleet is beautifully rendered and full of lively detail.

Punk seems badly wounded when we cut back to him, but come on, this is One Piece. I’m not unhappy with the way Gear Five’s euphoria overwhelms Luffy’s traditional instinct to get mad if his friends get hurt in the way some others are, but it is a noticeable change. I can’t help wondering if there’s a story beat building over this. If Luffy is properly enraged, or saddened, or otherwise torn from the driving Nika emotion, would he lose access to the form? It would also be interesting to see a scenario come up that can’t be resolved unless Luffy calms down and takes it seriously, but with Gear Five’s incredible ability to warp the environment and people around it, I have a hard time of thinking what that could be.

Whatever ‘s been going with him up to this point, Borsalino is done playing. His promise to end it quickly demonstrates some sympathy to Kuma and Bonney left in his system, but he’s all in at this point. But with a direct order, right in front of his boss, there wasn’t really room for hesitation on this front.

Luffy is back and fully revealed and identified as Nika at last with some great, fun bouncing backgrounds. It’s a significant moment for Bonney to finally witness this, but I’m not sure what I expect her to make of it yet. Will she follow him? Idolise him? Or perhaps this little girl is going to be frustrated her god couldn’t appear sooner, especially if her father’s wounds prove fatal. But that’s for the future.

And then, yes, the giants arrive. Dory and Brogy back in action some 900 chapters after Little Garden. Triggers are being pulled on some of the series’ longest-haul setups. Very, very curious that they’ve already fully identified Luffy as Nika, presumably just based on a bounty poster. I would have guessed they were only following Saul’s will to prevent another Ohara, but it runs deeper. Seems like we’re going to learn a lot about Nika and Joyboy on Elbaf.

As Egghead reaches this conclusive point, I find myself reflecting on story structure in big serialised works like this. Conventional wisdom says you need a darkest hour followed by a turnabout leading into the climax. But it’s hard to do that on 20 pages a week with obsessive fans like this. Ideally, the reversal of the situation would happen all at once in a big, sweeping heroic moment, but when your cast is this large and this scattered, and your page time this limited, the reversal comes as more of a cascade, one problem being solved after the other. But that takes weeks in real time, in which people are going to complain that the tension is gone, and then talk themselves into thinking that’s because that wasn’t the real lowest point yet and it’s still coming. Dispelling the tension in a single chapter – with a single moment, without the arc drawing on after and without it being so predictable that everyone sees it playing out – can be done (Shanks arriving at Marineford and Merry appearing at Ennies Lobby are the best examples) but the setup it takes is intense.

Wano suffered really badly for this. So much going on that by the time we start unpicking knots and resolving fights there’s still three and a half volumes of content to go. Egghead’s conflicts are at least a little more concentrated, so it should be smoother sailing.

And as a final note, the giants’ arrival makes the Blackbeard Pirates’ ship’s presence even more mysterious. I imagine they’re being opportunistic, planning to salvage one important thing from the ruins while everyone else is distracted with each other. Oda did allude, in his end of year statement, to having an outline that skipped over Elbaf though, which makes me wonder if Blackbeard was originally going to be used to force the story into a final stage post Egghead and has now been replaced in his role by the giants…

Well whatever. Elbaf is coming, and I can’t imagine a more anticipated arc outside of Laugh Tale itself. The next few months are gonna be awesome.