And so ends the Broadcast Era (any Three Body readers here?) after a long few months. The breaks were certainly not kind to this sequence, but I think it will be remembered fondly. One Piece’s biggest strength is how populated and alive its world feels, and emphasising that all these supporting characters are still relevant and it’s all their lives at stake is going to pay dividends when things get apocalyptic in the endgame.

I’d be lying if I said I haven’t felt ready to move on from this bit for a few weeks now, but some of the extreme reactions to this sequence have been surprising. People have been saying for years that Oda rushes, and speculated that fights have been offscreened or cut short with the expectation the anime would expand on them. Well, now we have a moment that’s allowed to breathe and unfold at its own pace, and that’s too damn slow. There were huge (and not totally unfounded) complaints around the end of Wano that we weren’t getting enough reactions from characters who should have had an emotional stake in things like deaths, reunions and funerals, but now we get the whole series learning that their world is ending and it’s “React Piece.” The Reddit crowd in particular for this fanbase has been infuriating. None of these kids would have survived week-to-week Dressrosa.

Anyway, to review the manga instead of the fanbase, it’s sweet to see Neko on the cover page felt comfortable dropping the gun from his stump arm. Even as an apparent yakuza, things are at peace enough that he doesn’t need to be packing. Also the way Yamato’s backpack fits right between their belt loop thingies is a cute detail.

Kreig and Gin are back, which warms my heart. The story won’t be over until Sanji and Gin meet again, but I’m happy just learning he hasn’t been forgotten. I hope Gin’s become the dominant half of the partnership over Kreig since we last saw them. He deserves it. His hair’s come in nice though. And that scene as a whole strikes true to the core themes of adventure and romanticism in One Piece, showing pirates and others being inspired to take to the seas and scour the sea floor for riches. You can’t help seeing the parallel to what Roger did in Vegapunk’s broadcast. The World Government must hate seeing it happen again.

Nice to see Drake still kicking. I’d have been willing to believe he was dead after Wano. I wonder if the broadcast is going to start influencing SWORD to go finally rogue and move all the less-evil Marines into their own, easier to root for faction.

You have to wonder what Stussy’s exit plan is if she isn’t rushing to rejoin the group on the Sunny. Or if she is, no one’s snailed in to tell them hold tight.

Love the panel of Nusjuro looming over the Sunny. Holy hell these guys are huge. And an awesome moment having him clash with Zoro. Isn’t this the second time Zoro’s been thrown at an enemy at the climax of an arc? I wonder if that’ll continue being a trend, since he’s surprisingly cool with it. The presence of another Kitetsu in the fight sets up a tantalising hook for the future.

The attention to detail with the giants’ ship’s figurehead being tied back on after being cut a couple of chapters ago is great. The giants as a whole give us some really fun, evocative pages this week as they lay into the Marine fleet. And while we’re obviously not getting a full set of one on ones for this arc, Oda gives some solid moments to Bluegrass and Doll, perhaps to set them up to be bigger opponents in the future. I certainly didn’t expect Kashii to take such a big beatdown right in the middle of his triumphant return to the story.

The iron giant continues its march despite Luffy very clearly being shown to be back in normal form, which adds to the confusion about what it’s responding to. It’s initial power ups in chapters 1092 and 1106 are obviously implied to be a reaction to Luffy’s transformation, with the heart drums over it and everything. It’s not shown moving, however, until chapter 1111 after all the Elders arrive and after Vegapunk’s broadcast begins. So while it seemed to have previously gone on and off based on Luffy’s transformations, it’s now been disconnected from that and moving on its own, either something Vegapunk programmed to protect his message, or following some ancient reaction to the World Government bigwigs. It does seem to be caught off guard when the Elders attack it in this chapter though, so maybe we can rule out it sensing them…

It feels likely that it was trying to reach Luffy at the cost of all else, but then why does it only sometimes react to Gear Five, and why only at the end was it activated enough to start moving?

And how about Mars seemingly recognising the robot? Definitely gives us a hint that the Elders are older than they appear, despite previous evidence suggesting they don’t go all the way back to the Void Century.

But the final message to the people of the D. This is one of those ones where you definitely feel left out as an English-speaking reader, what with the “mo” syllable from the Japanese version being more likely to be part of a word than a name (according to all native speakers I’ve seen speak on it). But the translation gives us some word choices to chew on. “Within you” instead of the “among you” from the fan versions, implying it could be a power or a will the D people carry. Plus a singular “is” and an “a.” I’ll definitely be tuning into the prodcast this week to hear if there was any behind the scenes info provided to Stephen to help him decide his course.

There is one reoccurring complaint I do agree with, as this marathon segment wraps up: it’s kinda weird there was no visual content in the broadcast, after the emphasis placed on it with the 10 minute lead time. Maybe we take it as part of Vegapunk’s perfectionism – it just wouldn’t feel right to him if he wasn’t being seen, which would track with an artificial devil fruit not feeling right because of its colour, something on one else would care about – but that’s still a little weak. I’m sure Oda wrote out the whole speech in advance and chunked it out chapter by chapter with the cameos and action beats he wanted to accompany it, and he found he decided the preamble was necessary to get everyone where they needed. The arrival of the Elders wouldn’t have had the focus that made it so great if Vegapunk was already dropping lore bombs. Buuuut I’m sure there could have been a better in-universe justification for it. Maybe just saying he wants people to set up recording devices to preserve and repeat the message could have made it easier to swallow.

I think we can all let out a breath with the broadcast over. While I’m sure there’s still some cooldown to go, especially if the Iron Giant means to retaliate, things seem poised to wrap up here. There are multiple calls to get the ships moving throughout the chapter, from Zoro, Luffy and the giants, with the stragglers close enough to jump aboard as they go. And with Vegapunk dead and the broadcast over there’s nothing left on Egghead I can see the crew getting invested in fighting for. It’s kind of a loss for the Strawhats, not being able to protect everything they promised they would and having to retreat from foes they have no idea how to fight, albeit not as devastating a one as Sabaody. Elbaf could end up being a chance to regroup, power up one last time, and make ready to stop these unstoppable monsters in the true final battle. And setting that up is a very exciting prospect.