Yes, it’s a short one again and yes, there’s a break again, but I’m just happy to be back doing three chapters in a row, you know? Let’s hope things stay this way for a bit. It’s definitely a good chapter for the idea of ‘please for the love of god wait a week if something feels like it’s ruining the whole story,’ with Bonney pretty easily disproving all of the community’s most reactionary fears about her transformation in one go.

Confronting Wano’s lingering prejudices in the cover story is a pleasant surprise. I wasn’t sure there’d be a way to do it in the near-wordless cover stories, but Oda’s taking it on anyway. This choice helps retroactively justify the slow start to the story because of the contrast it creates with all the people heaping praise and assistance on them in the early installments. I did have, looking at this, a thought about Wano’s culture. Some comments are quick to call out the country’s citizens for not learning from the monster they created in Orochi by blaming blood instead of individual, and I myself was pretty hard on Hiyori on that point back when the arc ended. But we have to remember, the purge of the Kurozumis happened when Orochi was a child, and the man died at 54. So have these kids learned from what happened to Orochi? Hell no, they weren’t around for that. Even Hiyori wouldn’t have seen the events Orochi lashed out over. And yes, there may be older people alive who witnessed the full cause and effect, they might be forgiven for not passing that down fully to their kids considering what’s been happening to them for the past 20 years. You have to solve issues of life and death before people are able to ease their focus toward social problems. Hopefully Wano is now at the point where they can start doing that.

Getting into the chapter proper, Stussy’s trajectory continues to be a mystery. Given how things are going, there might be time for her to reach the Sunny and save herself. I actually feel for Kaku though in this scene. You can tell there’s a part of him that’s not fully cut out for this kind of work. He seemed to regret having to betray Galley La too, although he didn’t take that one quite as hard. Maybe he should have got out during the timeskip while he had the chance.

Mars’s “defeat” on the sea below is something I think could have been choreographed more clearly. Like, the concept works, but it’s spread over so many pages that it looks more like Bonney, Sanji and Franky push Luffy into Mars for an extended struggle before he flies away. Given that the final push seems to be Luffy fully inflating, what was the point of what the others were doing? I think this should have been something more like the launch of a cannonball, where the three hit Luffy simultaneously back near the ship and he flies out and hits Mars full force, carrying the launching power of their attacks. You could still fit the back and forth around using Haki into that in roughly the same number of panels, and the motions of it would actually make sense. Turning things that seem like the should be quick hits int physics-defying pushing struggles is nonsense when the anime does it to draw out scenes, and it’s nonsense when Oda does it too.

But luckily, this one kinda awkward clash actually isn’t the finale of the arc just yet. The Sunny’s group is being held up, presumably by Nusjuro, and the other Elders aren’t giving up yet.

The broadcast is surprisingly still creeping on, but it’s so fragmented and out of context here I’m not sure it’s worth speculating until it’s properly over and we can lay out the whole thing with the gaps exposed.

I’m worried by Atlas’s moment though. That thought to Lilith about York’s monitoring feels really ominous for her survival chances. Are all the good Vegapunks really going to die together on Egghead? I wonder if Atlas and Lilith will work together to take York out of the World Government’s hands as well, ending them all in a blaze of glory. That would be a sad; they’re fun characters, and I really like Atlas’s design. Normally with Oda you wouldn’t worry about this kind of thing, but with Shakka and Pythagoras gone and Edison implied to be down and out as well, it’s starting to feel more likely.

While they’re not outright succeeding at their objectives, I’m still pretty impressed at the Elders’ teamwork here and through the arc. It can’t be understated how bad it has the potential to be that Ju Peter just put the Seraphim back in the hands of the Government agents surrounding the Giants’ ship. Wait, can Bonney control them as easily as the Pacifistas? Stands to reason she could, but as soon as they sense she’s unable to give an order, things start to look really, really bad for Luffy’s group. But anyway, I like the combo of using Ju Peter’s big suck to hold the ship in place while Warcury charges in and sinks it.

And don’t think I didn’t notice his lack of fear about hitting the water after. It doesn’t outright confirm anything – we’ve seen a lot of Devil Fruit users make big risky jumps over open sea in the past – but it’s definitely an interesting addition to the evidence.

(Also the concern about the spat-out Cipher Pol agents “dying on impact” is pretty funny considering they’re only here after surviving the even bigger fall from the Labophase basement, but I guess the Marines on the ships wouldn’t know that.)

And what a note to go out on, that big robot panel. The shadows and shading look great, and we get a delicious little echo of the ancient past as it finally gets its moment in the sun. And the fact that Luffy has leapt back to the island means they could be fighting side by side, at least for a little bit. You can’t see it in the actual chapter because the typesetting is all caps anyway, but the chapter list on Mangaplus renders the name ‘EMET’ in capslock, which they usually don’t do. Curious to see if anything comes from that, like an acronym or something.

There’s the mystery of what makes the time right for EMET now, presumably the same thing Roger was “too early” for, but putting toegether the dots, what was it that made it seem like the time could be right 200 years ago. Have there been multiple opportunities to do whatever the One Piece was intended to do, and all we’re seeing is the one that works?

As ready as I am to see Elbaf, I’m also not going to complain about Egghead taking the extra few chapters it needs to totally put a bow on things. A climax for the remaining Vegapunks. The big escape for the Sunny’s group. A final smackdown on Saturn for all he put Kuma and Bonney through and the definitive last word of the broadcast are going to be worth it in the long run. Will the Elders be allowed to achieve their objectives of capturing Punk Records and the Mother Flame, or will Atlas/Lilith/Stussy perform one final, sacrificial act of sabotage and make it so everyone loses?

With break week nigh again, I’m going to drop volume 2 of my rewrite project at some point in the next seven days, either when spoilers would normally hit or when the official release would be on a chapter week.