On my first quick readthrough, I thought this looked like a bit of a bridging chapter, but rereading and taking down notes scene by scene I found a pretty decent amount of meat on its bones. Not much new in the cover story, except in the background, is that a random samurai claiming Who’s Who’s mask as a prize or something? Maybe forcibly unmasking him? Are we going to see the guys real face in the next installment?

And the next curiosity is Saul’s familiarity with not just the Holy Knights but their apparent immortality. I would have thought that was a closely-guarded Marie Geoise secret. Although, I guess you only have to hit commodore to be able to see the Five Elders’ powers, so it’s not out of the question a vice admiral would have had clearance. And as a giant, the higher ups must have taken a special interest in Saul, so maybe he was given a chance to see the ability in action that way. Either way, this flashback with Saul providing extra reasons not to fight is exactly what I wanted last week when I was saying Robin and Chopper’s surrender felt too abrupt.

I’m surprised Gunko went out of her way to capture all four of the Strawhats from Collun’s mission. Really looked like those guys were all going into freefall, and fairly spread out from each other as well. Really gives you an idea of how much speed, precision and range she must have with her powers.

Well, it gives us a chance to see Brook and Gunko interact. I’m very curious about Book’s like that there’s ‘something about that woman.’ The scans interpreted this very directly as him recognising her from somewhere, while the official translation keeps it vague. I’d love for someone with the raws and some Japanese skill to clarify it. Leaping off from the recognition angle, did she come to one of his concerts during the timeskip? Or maybe (extreme longshot) we’re going to go into discussions about immortality over her having been around since before Brook’s death. Probably not, given that Garling has visibly aged during his Holy Knight tenure, but catching up with an unchanged immortal would be a really fun way to use Brook’s powers. I loved seeing Brook declare his loyalty to Luffy here. Funnily, Gunko clutches her chest after the first time she kicks him – is it hurting her heart to attack her favourite singer? Not that it stops her from laying into him in the following panel, so maybe I’m overthinking it. And what I’m glad to see about this scene as a whole is not a single mention of panties. So many people speculated about Gunko and Brook’s meeting and how he’d react to her pantsless state or if he’d be the origin of that fashion choice. But honestly, from discussions of the female Egghead outfits to here, I think ‘panties’ is a word the fanbase uses a little too liberally for any kind of minimalist bottomwear. Despite the visual similarities, a bikini bottom or the lower half of a leotard or one piece swimsuit aren’t the same thing and don’t carry the same connotations as actual underwear. That’s meant to be the whole thing with the Japanese panty obsession, right? Seeing something private that would be taboo to reveal publicly. Something designed as outerwear, even with the same amount of skin showing, isn’t going to give a perv like Brook the same voyeuristic thrill. Like don’t get me wrong, Gunko’s outfit is still ridiculous, and so were some of the Egghead design choices, but it feels like an exaggeration calling every frame of them ‘panty shots,’ you know? Anyway thank you Oda from not taking the low-hanging fruit, please don’t immediately prove me wrong next chapter.

Going back to the battles across the island as Sommers starts his broadcast, I love that we’re still getting more nightmare designs as the set piece plays out. A dog spider, a pumpkin-head man (who’s missing the normal shading in his first appearance), a sea serpent, a griffin and a kraken join the fray. The variety and designs are wonderful.

We get names and a little snippet of characterisation for the ten captive kids as well, which is a good start on making their rescue/escape something we as readers are invested in. Collun’s already setting himself up as a leader among them, following his expected arc. Johanna’s line seems to imply she’s an orphan or something. And that with her having black Ancient Giant horns like Loki and Harald. Could be something, could be nothing. I’ll be keeping an eye on her.

On the Great Erik, it’s curious how they talk about the ship leaking. You wouldn’t think that matters much on a svar. Maybe just a weird translation of talk about a hull breach. The wives and mothers being the thing to take the giant warriors down is hilariously unexpected. I don’t think anyone pegged that when we were laughing about one kid picking his mum as a fear and her showing up in the corner of the sleeptid reveal spread. What’s really interesting is the mums here using fire and lightning powers. We know Elbaph isn’t a friendly nation to Big Mom, but even so (or perhaps because of that) her powers have obviously become synonymous with a mother’s wrath.

Hey, we’re at the map drawing stage of the set piece already. That tends to be a big landmark on the way to the climax. And it’s just good to have confirmation of relative positions.

And in all the fun of the escalating battle, Oda has to slip in something real. Subjugation through the destruction of libraries and schools, the malleability of an uneducated populace. A time-honoured tactic of fascists and dictators everywhere. And very, very reasurring after the early chapters of the arc played up the decline of warrior ways and the school and library as the pet projects of a then evil-seeming king. I think we can say with confidence now that this won’t turn into a ‘new generations soft’ kind of narrative. And I love Robin’s intensity when she stands up to resist this. She’s had a great start to this arc and it looks like she’ll keep being one of its central Strawhats. Now we just have to find Usopp’s role…

What of Gaban though? I wouldn’t say he’s been particularly death-flagged, but this is the kind of spot the pros of the last generation take one for the team so the actual protagonists can shine.

The arc is feeling well set up as we move toward the middle chapters of volume 113. I’m looking forward to seeing Robin in action and what Collun and the other kids do now that they’re awake and aware of their situation. And there’s Luffy and Loki’s eventual arrival to wait for as well.