It’s starting to feel very end-of-volume over here, isn’t it? Especially considering that if we end here, the big chapter 1200 and whatever Oda has planned for it could potentially be the finale of volume 117. There’s not much particularly surprising in this chapter as far as story development goes, but Oda manages to make a gratifying scene out of the obligate mentor loss.

It is slapstick as hell that the branch falls just right to pop the two swords out of Luffy’s chest. Even by One Piece standards of injury management, Luffy being able to writhe and scream so much right now is astonishing. But he only starts this after the swords, with their vitality draining properties, are gone, so that gives an indication of how much of a difference they were making. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of change Gaban’s wake up call speech makes to Luffy’s war face going forward. On Wano, when Kaido tried to shake the carefree confidence of Luffy’s Gear Five by reminding him of the fire down below, Luffy was able to say he trusted his crew to handle themselves. On Egghead, after the Government bigwigs got involved, this was more challenging. The moment Luffy’s attention left Kizaru and Saturn, people were in danger. And we saw some big, shocked reactions when Vegapunk got hurt, but it didn’t truly cut through the form’s euphoria. This feels a little bit different. It’s not impossible to be an Emperor that protects weaker subordinates (we’ve seen that Shanks operates that way) but I think this is the first time the stakes of doing that have really been driven home. Luffy has a bit of a tantrum about this, you can tell it touched a nerve, but surely he also realises the truth of it.

After all these years, it’s surreal to see a member of the Pirate King’s crew and Imu himself talking candidly about Joyboy. I think Gaban’s lines here are reassuring in terms of the overall story direction, giving the feeling of a inherited legacy and something he’s doing for the man he knew, rather than blindly following directions or prophecies from centuries ago. Imu’s pesky mention of destiny is a spanner in the works, but even that comes with the acknowledgement that being in the right place at the right time could be enough to set someone up with the appearance of a Joyboy, plus Scopper’s point that Imu’s choice to target Luffy as if he were the real thing galvanises support behind him. I think it’s the best trajectory based on the info we have now that any successor to Joyboy will be made (both by himself and others) as much as he is born.

Also hey, when Gaban talks about seeing his captain’s dream through to the end, is that the secret dream that Roger and Luffy share? We know Luffy think it’s something he can’t do without the prestige or power of being Pirate King, but does it make it something even more lofty that Gaban would bring it up in the same breath as Joyboy’s legacy and his history with Imu?

I like that Imu’s reaction to all this is being reminded to instantly target Luffy again. While he’s not undistractible it really doesn’t feel like he’s messing around either.

While it makes for a magnificent page, the readability of Gaban’s Gate of God move isn’t great. Is he attacking directly with the haki lightning? That would be a new move with big implications. And yet, the cuts in the branch seem like normal flying slash ones, not directly aligning with the other bolts. I don’t love the idea of haki being used to throw energy blasts so directly.

The following spread with the fall of the branch more than makes up for it. For a lot of this arc so far, that canopy area that takes up so much of Elbaph’s space has the look and feel of rolling, forested hills. We got a little glimpse of a more branchey surface when Imu withered the leaves away a couple of chapters ago, but seeing the loose segment fall onto the ones below and finally crash through and drop toward the Underworld really sells the size and complexity of it. Having part of it smash through a mountain below is a breathtaking demonstration of scale.

It’s too bad about the arm for Scopper. But on the bright side, this is the point in the story where mentor figures are liable to be killed off, and he can always go to Shanks for tips on getting by. So where do we go from here? Luffy’s already looking a bit more together. Loki has to be close to getting back on his feet, thanks to the magic bandages of One Piece medics. Whether Luffy fell with the other two, or even if Imu stayed on the branch for the whole drop is currently unclear. Anyone’s guess what realm the fight will pick up in, or if we’re due to spend some time with Zoro and Sanji to ease into a new volume instead.