I came into this one expecting the turning point and have instead come out with mixed feelings. Oda is doubling down on the feeling that we’ve reached the climax by giving the heroes victorious moments and the villains losses. Meanwhile the rules of Domi Reversi only get murkier.

The colour pages initially confused me – why redo vol 12? The original references the chapter 100 colour spread, which was already given a full crew redraw for chapter 1000, so he basically did it already. But then I saw the live action version and it all clicked into place as an actually really cute synergy between the two works. Plus, these redraws feel like the kind of thing Oda wouldn’t have started if the crew wasn’t complete. Nice offset to some of the implications of the latest SBS.

I’m pleasantly surprised to see Lilith getting involved with the conflict in these opening scenes. Kinda thought by this point she was just going to keep her head down in the lab until was over. Bonney hanging out with Franky was adorable as well. And Frankly finally gets to work with his hero! She acknowledges the workmanship of his internal structure and everything, even adds her expertise to him for an upgrade. We were waiting for this! I wonder if Oda held back on this on Egghead because that arc was a required loss and retreat for the crew and didn’t want any new powerups to be undercut by that. Well, better late than never. Hopefully we won’t have to wait another arc for Usopp’s Elbaph moment though.

Nami is shortchanged by the plotting this week. It sure looks like she could have handled that fire singlehanded, but Killingham has to get the interrupt so that everyone else has the chance to do their thing. Would have been nice for her to get at least one hit in with the rest of them.

Flip side, everyone else comes out of this looking great. Sanji sticking up for Jinbei is one of those things that show how he could be one of if not the coolest members of the crew of he want constantly being let down by gags and unworked-on character flaws.

In the back half of the chapter though, things get shaky. Dorry and Brogy get their minds back for a moment. Unlike Harald, they don’t have marks to damage, so it’s not that. If it was a matter of willpower, I’m sure Rocks would have managed more than to cry while he was under control. My guess is that the mental control is just weaker while regeneration is happening, some kind of energy gets diverted from the mind to the body. In addition to this, Dory and Broggy return to the way they were before the reversi in terms of health, and Rocks very much did not. He was certainly not at 100% before he turned, having fought through God Valley and faced Garling to get there, but he was far from immobile and as vulnerable as he was after coming back. Does this have to do with using Conqueror’s Haki to bypass his defences? Or is it actually a contradiction?

I don’t mind a mystery. I don’t mind connecting dots. Oda rarely lets me down so I want to give him some benefit of the doubt. Buuuuut I don’t like the feeling of Imu’s powers so far. From Saturn’s inconsistent immobilising stare, to what makes a person vulnerable to a reversi, to what influences the level of mental control, to how restoration works and what state they’re left in, to the difference between how Rocks was captured with piercing tendrils vs the giants flipping over in the ground, to the differences between Reversi and Covenant driven control and regeneration, there is a whole lot of stuff that just seems to work when and how the plot needs it to rather than by a consistent set of rules. I want to be able to look back and see it all making sense in hindsight, I really do, but there are a lot of details to reconcile, and the pile grows by the chapter.

There’s also a lesson this week about relying on leaks and spoilers for your info. The initial summary said that when the curse wore off the victim was “fully restored.” This is an obvious misreading of Broggy’s confident final page declaration, along with his stump wrist being hidden behind the shield. We can see the battle damage scuff marks on him from that first encounter with Imu, and we could see his hand was still gone when he first came back. And yet, comment sections around the internet were full of people talking like the spoiler version was true. I know I’m preaching to the choir for anyone who reads these reviews in full, but man, info from a summary is not the same as actually reading a thing. Way too many people seem to be using the spoilers as an excuse to only skim the final release, assuming they know enough, and it’s just not the same info.

I guess to go back to some positives for the ending, the visual of the double beheading was cool. Great callback to the equally-matched duels and cross-counters of the Little Garden days. I liked the attention to detail of Dory’s beard being severed and falling. And the final spread of Zoro lining up with the giants is awesome too. It “goes hard” as the kids might say. They are “farming aura”, I’m pretty sure. And it’s pretty funny seeing them try to talk about how bad they feel while obviously raring to test themselves against such tough foes.

Wonder if this gang is smart enough to attack the flanks first and try for chain recaptures? Or does that only work for the bad guys?

A break after just two chapters is a little disappointing, but hopefully it means something big is coming next chapter for the probable end of the volume. As much as it seems like things are wrapping up and the villains are on the ropes, I still have hope for an extra stage to the battle. I mean, having learned that the cure to Reversi is an all-out fight against the victim but that they come back after, it means an epic showdown with Loki is possible without having to kill him off or rule him out as an ally. Luffy can be matched against him without guilt or restraint. And I will maintain, whether it happens or not, that a final complication for the last stage of the battle is what this arc needs not to feel complete. I’ll be sitting here with my fingers crossed through the break.