This is starting to feel a bit more like it, isn’t it? Seventeen pages, five different scenes, a big lore tease and the actual feeling of a forward step. With five chapters to go to the big chapter 1200 I’m hoping this is the point where we see things properly ramp up.

Zoro and Sommers starts with a pertty similar pace to the previous chapter, but here it’s used to good comedic effect, multiple panels spent building up the traditional big clash only for Sommers to just bail. Zoro looking truly demonic with the flaming eye is just great, really speaks to my inner thirteen-year-old. The final panel here implies with its framing that Sommers is going to keep fleeing, and not toward the village. So where does this madcap chase end up? With Luffy? With Brook’s group? At the school with Robin and Chopper? Or maybe somewhere Sommers can take a hostage to inject some challenge into the final moment of the battle?

Gunko’s scene is kind of a tropey one for a brainwashed character coming back to themselves, but what can you really do about that? We see a lot of what she’s remembering as Brook approaches her, but there’s one scene that wasn’t in Brook’s flashback. Telling Imu she wants to live and becoming undyingly loyal to him feels like a twisted mirror of Robin’s pledge to Luffy. I think there’ll be good payoff for this, but it’s low on substance as a standalone scene.

Of all the things to get lore about in Biblo’s big box, I’m a little surprised it’s going to be Lily. You could probably guess that Elbaph was going to have been on the Joyboy side of the Void Century war, along with the likes of Wano, Zou and Fishman Island. And the current read on Alabasta was that they were the part of the World Government side with sympathy for the enemy, with eventually a secret alliance that saw them trusted with stewardship of a Poneglyph and Lily’s ultimate act of plausibly deniable betrayal that scattered the other stones. For Alabasta and Elbaph to have been close enough that a member of the royal family didn’t just visit but lived on Elbaph as a resident definitely changes the alchemy of these ancient politics a little. I look forward to learning what the deal with that is.

Back to the village, and Oda has chosen his final four kids carefully to give maximum pain to the supporting cast. I’m surprised little Ronja from that great scene near the start of the arc didn’t get included just to tug on the audience’s heartstrings as well, but maybe Oda decided she’s been through enough.

And we close out the day with Sanji. I’m pretty excited to see where this is going. See, I don’t really like everyday Sanji, when he’s all sex pest gags and nonsense. But every time Sanji gets a proper character development scene it’s fantastic. And it’s going to take a big moment of growth to break through the Conqueror’s Haki dam here. I like how Oda sets the stage of Sanji’s self-sacrificing moments betraying his lack of self-worth without undermining them as noble (it’s Baratie, Skypiea, Thriller Bark, Zou and Whole Cake Island for anyone who couldn’t pick it based on the outfits). Going back to Ivan is a great choice for breaking Sanji out of a slump like this. Who better in the extended cast to preach personal acceptance and self-love?

I feel a lot better after this one than I did the last one, and not just because there’s no break coming up. I think we’ll keep a Sanji focus until it’s time for the back to back finishes of the main fights. Oda probably won’t go as extreme as having him embrace a full okama persona here, but I’m sure it’ll all fit in with Ivan’s philosophies one way or another. Whatever the case this arc’s main event is coming up quick.