Nineteen pages without even the extra two added by a colour spread. Wow. This hasn’t happened since… chapter 869, back in 2017. We’re 10 chapters into volume 110 but I don’t think it’s over yet, not with the amount of 13 pagers in the run. I think there’s a pretty good chance this volume and this arc reach a climax together next week, which would be a cool pair of things to coincide with the 27th anniversary. Held back by extra breaks and short chapters, there’s no denying the broadcast chapters have felt slow on the weekly read – it’s hard to believe there’s only been 8 of them – but this penultimate release builds up a lot of momentum for the finale, and I’m genuinely looking forward to my reread of the full arc once it’s done.

I love the details of the young dragon and the Number poking its head over the gate in the opening flashback, but if you want a real continuity deep cut, you can see in the ’22 years ago’ establishing shot the same rear entrance to the lab Law uses in the Punk Hazard arc, recognisable even without the destruction and snowfall.

I’m not sure how I feel about the murder of Clover’s brother over his D. Does it track fully with what we know the the World Government would be so ruthless with them? On one hand, the Trafalgar famiy’s choice to hide their D seems to point towards persecution. On the other, Garp and Saul’s ranks in the Marines feel like a contradiction. It’s hard to gauge what the world at large really thinks of the D, if they think of it at all, and how dangerous it is to openly be one. But at least Vegapunk’s speculation that Clover was let do on the assumption he would draw more Ds out of hiding offers Oda an out for any Ds that were let live when they shouldn’t have. It’ll be interesting to see if the level of threat is clarified later in an SBS.

As expected, Nusjuro is being kept around to stall the Sunny from taking off and make sure the events of the finale happen in sync. What I didn’t expect is Atlas being the one to get the last action against him, and how tragic that would be. Man, she was my favourite Vegaclone. The big sad eyes as she says she’s leaving Lilith in the crew’s hands are rough. That childlike, Astro Boy-like design doesn’t feel like something that should be cut up and bloodsplattered, let alone killed off. But she gets to end it as a hero, saving the Sunny, the crew and one part of Vegapunk in the process. Hard to ask for a better way to go out than that.

Down below, we get some solid humour with Luffy and Emet. It’s good for Luffy stay as obvious as possible to Joyboy, Nika and their implications. At least, he should continue to not care about them. The Gear Five transformation doesn’t change who Luffy has been without the Joyboy connections up to this point, and Oda will be smart to keep the revelations from influencing the core character.

It’s a tough dose of reality for Emet’s cooler features to malfunction from the years of decay. I’m sure that rocket fist would have been cool. The amount of damage done to it here seems to suggest the robot will not be joining us for the next arc. I think it would be a little redundant for the final move it seems to be building up to be another self-destruct though. Maybe a beam similar to the Mother Flame-powered Uranus that makes an ocean crater out of Egghead?

And then there’s Saturn. I’ve said in my past two reviews that something had to happen with him to put a bow on the Kuma and Bonney story. It’s too personal. He always had to be the final Elder confronted as the crew departs. But we still can’t do lasting damage to him, and though Luffy has shown the ability to pick and throw the demonic spider, I doubt he’d fall for that twice. So who takes Saturn off the ship? The most tragic answer would be Kuma, whose presence is emphasised as Saturn lands. Can he launch Saturn from the ship, or the ship from under Saturn, without it being an ultimate sacrifice? Kuma’s had such a hard go of it, I really want him to get some downtime with his daughter one or both of them is inevitably being drawn into the final battle, but if I was writing the series I’d be seriously tossing up giving the readers one last gut punch to cement the retreat from Egghead as a costly loss for the heroes right about now.

There’s been a decent chunk of fandom negativity over the broadcast these past few months, but I think this chapter built up some solid momentum, and my energy’s high to see how Egghead concludes next week (or maaaaaaybe the week after) and I hope I’m not alone in that.