Yeah, I think this is the end of volume 112. Oda has lately favoured rallying moments and bits of intrigue over dire and desperate cliffhangers for recent volume endings, so Dorry, Brogy and Scopper leaping into the fray is the perfect moment to cut things and leave readers excited to see what’s coming next.

That said, it’s also starting to feel like we’re moving into the middle stage of the arc where the pacing slows for the action to play out. The set pieces are building bigger and bigger, but I’m finding myself with less to say each week because it’s just the stuff already established playing out. Which is fine, and normal, and a necessary part of any big shonen arc, and they all feel better on the reread than they do to wait on week by week.

This week’s one big lore piece is the ancient facility in the opening scene. The art here is awesome with deep shadows and overgrown detail that really emphasise the age, and that 3000 year figure almost certainly making this First World tech is crazy. I thought it would be years before we came back to that. Glad that it gives Lilith something tangible to do in the background instead of just fading away as well. What’s rough is the spoiler providers assuming this is a robot – I’m not saying there’s no chance of that, but it’s far from as certain as the summaries suggested. Yeah, that dome at the top looks a decent bit like the heads of the robots from Castle in the Sky, but there’s no body. And yet, the perception of it as one is almost certainly going to persist in the fanbase and overshadow any other theory. To shout out another possibility I’ve already seen, there was a comment suggesting the top section as a cylindrical segment of a rocket. I’m not convinced enough to put money down on that, but I still like the idea.

Usopp gets a really fun joke quietly slipping in that he wants to fight as the giants get ready to fight the nightmares. We get what looks to be a broad division of labour for the coming set piece with the Strawhats and Collun (surprised he wasn’t at the school, but he still gets to fill his expected role as the one kid fighting back, so it’s not that big of a shock) taking on the human-size intruders while the giants face the big ones. There’s some good, quick logic from Brook and Jinbei picking out the number of enemies and the fact that giants might have trouble pinning down a threat so small, as well as Nami getting on Collun’s good side to get access to a boat they wouldn’t have had otherwise.

It’s neat that Gunko is a Soul King fan. Crazy it’s taken this long for that to come up, actually. And cool that it’s an enemy instead of an ally, for that potential drama. If her pantsless state is all for his sake I’ll crack it though. And the whole conversation that follows is a fascinating reminder of how evil the Celestial Dragon mindset is. These guys have seemed pretty affable so far (outside of the whole kidnapping children thing), but reading between the lines of Sommers executing enslaved musicians for missing a note. That’s an insanely cruel pastime to so casually bring up. And the only objection at the table is for making fun of Gunko’s interests.

Attention to detail check: the Great Erik still shows the charred evidence of being shot at by Marine ships and getting ignited by Mars’ fire break on Egghead, as well as the figurehead being haphazardly tied on after Nusjuro severed it.

For all the feeling that this set piece is just starting to build, the nightmare monsters seem like they’re going down fast. Dorry and Broggy knock down three in a single panel at the end of the chapter while the other adults fell the draugr, accounting for a decent portion of the creatures from the reveal spread already. Almost too easy. Makes me wonder if these monsters are really gone, or while the children sleep will Killingham be able to pull infinite copies from their minds? How many back to back Hakoku Sovereignties do we think the captains have in them? This could be the thing that makes it properly desperate and high-stakes that the Strawhats find and take down the Holy Knights.

And I hear we’re getting another colour spread next week to celebrate the anime returning. I wonder if it’ll be a normal one, or if Oda will draw something specifically for the spot the anime’s up to, as he’s done for movies, games, the live action show, the Ryuma OVA and the Heroines novel. Maybe fully and officially coloured versions of the Five Elders’ monster forms? We can only hope.