Captain M Entertainment

Things really feel like they’re getting back in gear this week, proving that the last chapter’s burst of energy wasn’t just a one-off. And no more break either, to keep the momentum going.

While it’s not the Egghead material I think many were hoping for, the opening Marie Geoise flashback does show a willingness to return to events parallel to the cutaway sequence in their own random breakaways from the current story. I would guess we need to see this now to be ready for Kuma to burst back into the main story in a few weeks. But why? What is he doing and what is his mission? One theory states that his push can’t send things past the Redline so he had to climb it himself to get to the other side, but that doesn’t explain his choice to attack the Celestial Dragons. If it was just getting over he’d have blipped away as soon as he reached the top. Some say the programming of the giant robot in Egghead has been put in his body and it’s repeating its attack from 200 years ago, but then why give up so quickly, even in the face of Sakazuki? I’d have wanted to see more struggle between the real Kuma and the robot to foreshadow him wrestling control from it. The prediction I’ve liked most is that he came looking for Bonney in her last known location and has bailed after getting enough of a look around to know she’s not there. I don’t think he would have a way to track her specifically, but he’s almost definitely coming to Egghead now, if only just to get repaired before continuing his search.

All I know is that the repeated emphasis on there being no will or mind left inside him makes it all the more certain he’s clung onto himself somehow.

And back at Egghead, in the present, Luffy vs Borsalino is on. I enjoy that Luffy’s lower gears still get to come out despite the marketing dominance of Gear Five following its reveal. And it’s a strong showing for Borsalino as well – if Snakeman’s speed and unpredictability was revealed as a counter to the literal future sight specialist, it backs up the admiral’s lightspeed claims to be able to keep up with it so effectively. The ability to hit and run from such an enormous range really shows how annoying Borsalino’s fruit can be when he gets serious.

While Borsalino’s expression doesn’t change much as all this goes down, the memory of Vegapunk’s pride in Vegaforce 01 speaks to something going on under the surface. I think it’s a shame to see Vegaforce go as well, but I guess we can’t have him overshadowing the arc’s other big robot.

Gotta appreciate Bonney and Franky’s willingness to throw down with an admiral the way they do. Franky especially for boldly choosing to fight lasers with lasers. We get a little more on Bonney’s change of heart as well, that her anger with Vegapunk isn’t gone, only shifted to another target. But who? And where are they? And should we have expected already that Borsalino would act so familiar with her? There are a lot of gaps to fill in with the inevitable flashback when Kuma arrives on the scene.

Ah, but where is Bonney after that kick? Borsalino was able to send Luffy through the impassable barrier, but that was with much more of a wind-up. And if she did make it through instead of being thrown back, the Fabrio-phase is occupied by the Marines currently, so with her laser damage on top of being worn out from the offscreen death game, she could be in a really rough situation.

The last spread is a great bit of Gear Five insanity to take things to the next stage. I’m fine with the giant Luffy big damn hero moment grab becoming a Gear Five icon, but Oda should probably hold back on the next use a while so it doesn’t get run into the ground. At least one arc without it from here, please. It has to give Borsalino some pause to know Luffy can make it in and out of the barrier on his own, so that he can’t just attack safely from outside like he did with that first kick. Sure, Luffy takes damage with each trip, but when has something like that every stopped him?

The robot in the Fabrio-phase powering up is surprise though. It didn’t do that when Luffy and Lucci were fighting. Or at least, we weren’t shown it doing that at the time. Whether or not this is an oversight I guess will depend on if it just lights up while Gear Five is active, waiting for a command, or if it actually moves on its own.

As we shift into the (presumed) back half of volume 108, Oda seems to have his pieces in place for the climax. Luffy and Borsalino have skirmished to test each other, but with the latter’s determination to do his job and the former having seen how quickly he can reach Vegapunk if left alone, the battle can only escalate. Meanwhile Kuma is coming, with more hints being built for the flashback, and Bonney potentially in danger to give him a hero moment. The only outlier is Saturn. Whether he’ll enter the fight to increase the pressure on Luffy, or be the extra opponent that forces the exhausted Strawhats to retreat, or who even knows what. I could see volume 109 being the last of this arc, or at least the last full one, if things go forward quickly enough. But maybe it’s too soon to make such a bold statement… Let’s just see what the next stage of the fight has in store.

Oh wow, it’s happening! And to be completely honest, until Oda started setting up that Borsalino was going straight to where Luffy is in the last chapter, this rematch wasn’t something I’d really seen coming or expected. Sure, Borsalino was instrumental in the crew’s crushing defeat at Sabaody, but even that was overshadowed in the same saga by Sakazuki’s slaying of Ace. In my mind, that put him at the top of the Marines as the boss for Luffy to fight, with the three admirals under him the opponents for Zoro, Sanji and I guess Jinbei. Luffy getting a taster against a single admiral first, like his fight with Blueno before Cipher Pol, or Katakuri before stepping up to the Emperors for real, just hadn’t crossed my mind the same way.

Which is crazy in hindsight, because this chapter goes so far out of its way to impress on the reader how much of an impact that loss had on the Strawhats, and how long coming a shot at redemption has been. Even looking back over Marineford, even though it’s Sakazuki who strikes the final blow to Luffy’s spirit and scars his chest, Borsalino is a much more consistent thorn in the young captain’s side as he tries to cross the battlefield, repeatedly kicking him back and sabotaging his efforts with long-range laser shots. Oda must have known even then that he wanted these two to collide again eventually, and he wanted it to be cathartic when they got there.

But that’s for later. Starting out we have a beautifully cheesy colour spread. Just last chapter we had Luffy and Bonney talking about getting pizzas for the road as they left the island, so I guess Oda’s had a craving lately.

I’m so happy to see as much of the Marine invasion of the island as we do. It’s subtle in black and white, but you can see the flash of light from Borsalino’s attack on Sentomaru from the end of last chapter illuminating the island from the centre, shadowing the tops of the clouds, signalling the wider attack. The spread of the Weaponised Sea Beasts attacking the fleet is gorgeous and chaotic in every way you could want from a vingette of a battle. The lion best with tubes and cables complementing its mane and the visor showing onomatopoeia for its actions is a standout design in a classic Oda way. We technically did see it already, when the crew first met Lilith in chapter 1062, but I didn’t appreciate it enough then.

I don’t feel a strong emotional attachment to Borsalino and Sentomaru’s fight. It’s nice that Sentomaru gets a better chance to show his stuff than the earlier encounter with Lucci allowed. It’s interesting to know that a backstory being summarised in an SBS doesn’t necessarily exclude it from being shown in the story as well (and maybe the SBS’s accidental spoiler on this relationship gives us a hint of how many things Oda holds in his mind at once, insure if he’ll get to put them in the story for real or not. But yeah, as sad as it is on paper for Borsalino to have to take out Sentomaru after training him and knowing him since he was a kid, it takes a little more interaction than just affectionately calling him ‘old man’ to tug at my jaded heartstrings. And speaking of who’s emotionally impacted here, it’s interesting that only Vegapunk Stella has tears to shed for Sentomaru. Obviously the others would have access to the memories of Sentomaru’s upbringing, but I guess the sentimentality didn’t come with them.

Gotta agree with Saturn that it’s a shame to lose the Weaponised Sea Beasts. And I don’t think he and I would agree on much.

There has to be some commentary later on how Lucci ended up uncuffed long enough to pull a move like he does. Even if it’s just something dumb like the crew’s idiots assumed that fighting side by side meant forging some kind of bond. Well, it’s good on Lucci to have been so patient about choosing the moment when his enemies were most distracted to have the best chance of success.

I’m not sure how much of a fight to expect from Lucci and Zoro, but it is technically a loss from back in the day that there was never personal payback for, just like Luffy and Borsalino. Maybe they should’ve brought Kalifa along too, so Sanji can also show how far he’s… what? He hasn’t worked on the shortcomings that lost that fight for him at all? Alright, yeah, let’s just forget that one.

And with that, the fights are on. The vice admirals are going to be invading the mainland unimpeded, but despite their convenient numbers and likable designs I doubt they’re going to make it to the Labophase quick enough to get full, dedicated fights. Maybe a few panels worth of skirmishes while Luffy finishes up with Borsalino and the final preparations to launch are made. Well, however it plays out, just having the significance of Luffy and Borsalino’s rematch sink in fully this week has combined with the live action release to give me a burst of One Piece energy! It’s a great time to be a fan, break week or not.

Well the breaks are killing me and I’ve officially given up on trying to parse Egghead’s structure with all the cutaways, but the larger conflict here is building up in a satisfying way in this (likely) middle stage of volume 108.

Seeing Kuro on the cover is cool! Hopefully the live action has put it in Oda’s head to do more moments like these with the ancient East Blue characters. Give me anything to reassure me that Gin’s still in this thing, Oda, anything.

I really enjoyed the pre-battle atmosphere of this chapter throughout, from the radio negotiations that are more of an excuse to try and trick the enemy into revealing information, to the commanders callously weighing up acceptable losses, to the building tension as the order to go to battle stations moves down the blockade of ships before the operation commences. The part of me that’s been really into Gundam the past few months enjoys the militarism of it all. It makes me excited to see how this battle to take the island plays out, even if we’re more likely to skip most of it in favour of the Frontier Dome’s events.

I’m glad to see Lucci’s just biding his time and doing some spying on the side. It wouldn’t have made sense for him to have had a full on change of heart at this stage. Although why no one thought to cuff him again after the fighting was done is beyond me. Curiously, he seems to confirm that Shaka and Pythagoras are for real dead. I’ll believe it when the Stella says they can’t just be restored for a Punk Records backup. Another really nice moment in this scene is Nami jumping in for Robin’s sake when York mouths off about Ohara. Love to see the crew giving a shit about each other.

The three panel flashback of Luffy and S-Snake is weak coverage of how the death game situation got turned around. I hope there’s more for us to see than that. Especially considering the bubble gun turned out to be the ultimate solution for them after S-Snake shrugged it off so easily the first time. I’m ambivalent about the idea of S-Snake inheriting Hancock’s crush on Luffy. Could probably have seen it coming with S-Shark knowing Fishman Karate, but it was never the funniest gag or most compelling character trait even in Hancock, so eh.

So, Elbaf, at last. We’ve been waiting decades for this one, but I’m also not holding my breath. Fishman Island was the “next destination” for years before we actually got there, and ditto with Wano being signposted as the site of the next big event for so much of the New World. Anything could happen during the battle and escape from Egghead, so I’m not going to get my hopes too high until the crew are actually departing by sea.

Vegapunk’s disbelief of Franky’s cola power is the kind of thing I hope to see more of if the doctor’s actually out to spend some time with the crew. Maybe he embraces the cola power and makes some unsolicited upgrades to the Sunny or the Soldier Dock or even Usopp’s workbench.

Borsalino, last chapter’s ‘cog in the machine,’ surprised me by putting his own spin on the orders here. He’s a hard man to figure out, but so interesting to watch. I don’t think that his respect for Sentomaru’s convictions made for a very long battle though. You can see the light particles coming up past Luffy’s face in the final battle. He’s coming straight up. And I’m excited to see it! We’re two Emperors down, it’s time the Strawhats show what they can do against an Admiral. The Borsalino rematch I think is just the kind of thing to really put some emotional oomph and fan investment back into Egghead after so long away from it.

Hopefully this is the last break before we get back on a normal schedule. There’s a lot of potential in the next few chapters, we just need them at a steady pace like they used to be. This post was honestly a challenging one to write, even with a lot of things I like in the chapter, just because I’m so out of my One Piece rhythm.

But hey, the live action drops before the next chapter, so that’s something to discourse about in the meantime.

This was a cool way to bring things back to the “main” plot, however we’re quantifying that at this stage of the story. It’s a very recappy chapter, but it uses the time it’s taking to go over everything to set up and subvert the reader’s expectations. I think we all knew we weren’t going to come back to Egghead exactly where we left off. Even as far back as Dressrosa it’s been apparent that when Oda does back and forth cuts, time continues to pass offscreen and fights develop even while we’re not looking at them, and through Wano it was extremely obvious. The mix-up here is that where I think most of us were expecting to come back to a worst case scenario, we instead find the Strawhats completely on top of things. York’s message builds up the expected scenario, walking through her villainous demands like she’s got her way. The only hint something’s amiss is the blood and dirt on her face in the close-up. And then we twist it around and show the reality of things. It’s genuinely very well executed.

But I have structural questions. Because don’t I always. Is there still going to be an escape (the Stella still has his backpack ready to go), or is the bigger picture for this arc to stand and fight? I still don’t see why the cutaway happened at the moment it did. It feels random. Where it would make sense to change scenes and build suspense at a darkest hour, only Franky’s group and Vegapunk Stella were truly in dire straights when we last saw them. I’m trying to pin down what mood, or what emotional impact Oda was going for when he chose that point to spend a volume away from that moment and I’m still coming up blank.

But I feel confident we’ll be getting at least a dot point version of the Strawhats’ lost day in the coming chapters. Questions like why Lucci is still on their side and what happened with Bonney in Kuma’s memory beg answers, even if we’re not going to see the full Seraphim battles play out.

And from the perspective of volumes, this wouldn’t make a bad opener for volume 108, should the previous one stretch out to 12 chapters. But I’m still not betting on it. It works just as well as a reintroduction to Egghead after so long away, whether at the front of a book or not.

Anyway, it’s always nice seeing more of the world and the ways they react to the bigger picture stuff. In particular because there’s more going on than just a bounty update. And I’m a big fan of showing explicitly that the WG’s eleventh hour super weapon has devastating global consequences that will follow ever single use of it from now on. That’s good, stakes raising stuff. Gives a way to threaten all the scattered locations we’ve become attached to all at once. And hey! An explanation for the Ennies Lobby ocean hole! I was so ready to write that off as just a piece of One Piece weirdness, but all these years later we’re starting to see the deal with it.

Now, the claim from its arc that Ennies Lobby has stood for centuries rules out it being the former site of God Valley, which is an easy first connection to make. But we can also rule out God Valley’s disappearance being a Mother Flame (hey, Viz updated their translation here, wonder if they got word from above) thing at all, given that the narration confirms the earthquakes resulting of Lulusia’s destruction are unparalleled in recorded history. So there’s another way to get rid of an island out there. Oh, and the one big difference between Ennies Lobby and Lulusia: the eternal day. I wonder if that represents some inherent difference between Vegapunk’s version and the way this weapon was used in the Void Century.

It’s not lost on me that the World Nobles, high up on the Redline, are more or less immune to the results of their own weapon. The sea level won’t reach them without thousands of activations, and we can see in Imu’s panel that the reverberating earthquakes are more of a light trembling.

It comes to mind, especially with Momonosuke’s panel in the chapter, that old Wano’s walls might not have been to repel invaders as much as they were to future proof against the rising sea. What irony then, that they ended up flooded by the very barriers designed to keep their feet dry.

The vice admirals that have shown up here are a fun bunch of designs. Everyone online loves Doll and the chin guy, but I’m a big fan of the dude with the stripe in his beard, especially seeing his… uh… headpiece? Franky-style haircut? Half a chakram just lodged up there? Hope there’s room in the arc to give these guys some screentime and personalities to match their appearances.

Borsalino’s little flashback gives us another strange example of a One Piece character whose hair has darkened as they age instead of lightened. First Kin’emon in Oden’s flashback, and now him. Could be that they both decided to dye it, but is blackening hair really that far outside suspension of disbelief for a world like this? Either way, Borsalino remains true to his motto of lazy justice. He has to know the scenario is unfair. He has to feel something about being ordered to kill Vegapunk and Sentomaru. But to openly care, to make yourself into something other than the order-following blunt instrument of tyrants, means putting the effort in to stand up and speak up, and living a harder life unsupported by the system. True justice is hard work. It takes the effort of thought and interpretation just to decide what you think it’s meant to be. Justice bound by the word of the law rather than the spirit, and directed by higher authorities with no room for interpretation by its enforcers? Well, that’s easy. Don’t even have to think about it, just have to do it as directed.

I don’t have much to make of Saturn’s dismissal of Bonney, but I’m sure it’s sunk a few theories about her heritage or true age or plans to use her fruit to be immortal or something. But wait, what benefit did she have for them before?

We covered York’s message and the reveal in the opening paragraphs, so I just want to close by acknowledging what a great final spread we have here. It does a great job of painting a picture of an arc coming to its end, even though there hasn’t even been an arc yet. Really well composed and drawn.

I’m really happy to be back with the Strawhats from next chapter, whether we’re pushing forward with the battle against the Government or flashing back to see how we got where we are now. And I’m very much looking forward to being far enough into this arc to look back and have a better understanding of why it’s been cut and broken up the way it was.

This is more the kind of chapter I expected to come back from the break on. Colour spread. Jump cover. A meaty 19 pages. The climax and conclusion to the cutaway sequence and a promise of seeing the Strawhats in the next chapter. What else could you want?

While this would make a fantastic finale to a volume, the full 12 chapters just doesn’t feel likely given the breaks and how much they must push releases back. But seeing how the battleship bags paid off across two chapters, I don’t think it would be right to split this chapter up from the previous one. We’ll see though. Volume 107 is a long way away, no matter what chapters it’s meant to hold.

The colour spread is a great throwback. Is it wrong to hope for the live action series’ success just to see more spreads that tribute past sagas like this. Actually, Oda should do more of these whether the live action version succeeds or not. I guess this confirms Krieg really is gone though, just like the trailer suggested. It’s cool seeing the early character designs redone in Oda’s current style. Luffy and Sanji in particular actually look a lot younger here than they do in the present day manga, which is fun.

While he’s certainly not gone for good, this chapter still feels like a sendoff for Garp, and it all happens in true Garp fashion – the man is sometimes hard to agree with, but he’s always easy to like. Take the opening flashback to his lecture, Garp’s “right” answer feels cruel and overly utilitarian compared to Koby’s heroic ideals, and I personally can’t get behind his thinking on it. But at the same time, Garp comes across far less hypocritical than his fellow officer that tries to claim they see all lives as equal. The Marines’ bosses higher up in the World Government sure as hell don’t, any of their underlings pretending otherwise are lying to themselves. Garp at least wants to channel the inequality in a way he thinks benefits future generations. And most importantly, he puts his money where his mouth is. When it comes time to choose between the geezer and the youth at the end of the chapter, he sacrifices himself without a second thought, laughing as he does it. You just can’t hate this guy.

This isn’t just Garp’s chapter though, it’s also Koby’s. Just like in the exercise from the lecture, Koby decides the heroic thing is to save everyone except himself. The Amazon Lily scene demonstrates the use of SWORD and the frustrations the regular Marines face over the bureaucracy involved in picking a fight with an Emperor. It’s a good follow-up to the SWORD explanation from a few chapters ago, giving a practical example to make it clearer. Something I’m not seeing Koby being given enough credit for here is how hard he played Blackbeard in this hostage exchange. On a surface level, trading 800 nobodies from the rank and file for a big shot hero must seem like a great deal for Blackbeard, but Koby being SWORD makes him useless as a hostage and bargaining chip. Eight hundred Marines who haven’t signed resignations, who the Government would have a harder time writing off, would actually have given him more to work with. Well, it would have been a smart play, but Koby didn’t count on Garp coming to act out his own philosophies in the real world.

The action here, as we build up to Koby’s really, really big moment, is beautifully drawn and clearly panelled. The spread with Garp punching open the island’s skull has to be one of the best of the year. We get to see a little more of the difference between Pizarro and Pica’s powers here when he takes real damage from the island being hit. Definitely feels like more of a weakness than a boon, but I’m still glad to get more distinctions.

Another flashback brings the battleship bags full circle, and I love how Oda has handled these over the past two weeks. We get them once at the start of the last chapter to hype up Garp and Kuzan’s strength, then a repeat near the end of the chapter that instead uses them to show how the pair’s relationship grew. And that would be enough for a one-chapter gimmick idea. Good enough that you figure they’re done. But then, rule of threes, we get them a final time to show how Koby is on the same path as the two monsters who were fighting last week. And you realise that’s what they were really introduced for and it finally feels truly complete. It’s just good storytelling.

And yeah, Koby smashes Pizarro’s hand and it’s very cool and well drawn. Great moment for his character. The line about living up to his expectations is a banger. Love that Garp can only laugh about it. But the biggest highlight has to be Helmeppo diving in so desperately to save him after. Genuinely very sweet considering how their relationship started.

While Garp’s final scene here looks pretty damn bad, the lack of obvious blood on the icicle makes me wonder if he’s truly impaled on it. And of course he’s just “missing in action.” People seem to be mad about this, adding it to the list of Oda’s frustrating fakeout deaths and whatever. But come on. He couldn’t have done more to tell us that Garp isn’t dead short of an editorial line specifically promising the dude’s return. Where’s the fakeout meant to be? I don’t love how Oda handles death either but this is one of the most honest character sendoffs of the series.

And then, finally finally finally, we make it back to Egghead for the next chapter. I’m so excited to see how the situation’s developed there and see the crew again. Haven’t had a canonical Strawhat appearance since freaking March and I miss them! Looking forward to seeing you all there after the break.

It is well and truly good to be back! May we never have to go so long between chapters again. There’s nothing particularly special about this return chapter – only 15 pages, no colour spread to save it for the anniversary next week – it really just picks up where the series last left off and moves forward in exactly the way it had already been. Which means yes, the cutaway sequence is still oddly placed in the Egghead story, and I’m still itching to see the Strawhats again, and it’s very weird to get to the (likely) end of volume 107 without checking in with them. Actually I don’t know where my gut lands on volume 107 currently. It’s never safe to bet on 12 chapters, but the 9, 10 and now 11 chapter marks haven’t felt like they’re wrapping things up or establishing that big ‘come back next volume’ moment to close on.

But on the other hand. Garp VS Kuzan for real! Look at them go!

I forget what rank Jango’s meant to be now, but damn, he’s doing well for himself to be having a casual chat with Brandnew (the guy so high up he sets the bounties) and trading gossip about figures as important as Garp and Kuzan. It’s definitely interesting that Kuzan is being set up as such a bruiser here. He’s a really skinny guy and always has been! You’d kinda think that was what Haki was for, but it turns out he can arch the keel of a battleship with just his physical strength alone. But sure, why not? Far from the weirdest thing One Piece asks readers to swallow. It’s also worth remembering that despite the illusion of equality the opening panels give, Garp and Kuzan did not start on their battleship bags at the same time and we don’t know how long they took to reach their final state relative to each other. It also seems that Kuzan is using both Haki and his Devil Fruit in the chapter’s climactic cross counter, so there’s definitely some mitigating factors to keep me from thinking Kuzan has just been magically jumped up to Garp levels of raw, unaided might all of a sudden.

What is nice here is Brandnew throwing out that the kind of strength it takes to compete at this level goes beyond what anyone is born with, you still have to train and earn it. Should appease some concerns that areas of the fanbase have picked up around special birth powers and destinies as of late.

There seems to have been a small retcon on the effects of the Isle Isle Fruit here, with the great big Fullalead skull now having more detailed teeth and actual eyes in the sockets when Pizarro controls it. I wonder if we’ll see at least the eyes edited for chapters 1080 and 1081 when the volume release comes around?

Whatever the case, Garp’s devil may care attitude to the pirates’ attacks is a joy in the early pages of this chapter. Enough that I’m not too concerned about how his ship got out to sea. Given everything else we’ve seen, I’m totally ready to believe he picked it up and chucked it. I want to see a Boggard scene though. Just a little acknowledgement of the dude. Look at the panel where Garp, Grus, Koby and Helmeppo line up. Wouldn’t it have been more balanced with two guys on either side of Garp? Missed opportunity!

The parallel with Whiteboard in Garp’s injury is hard to miss. I wasn’t convinced we were really going to see the death of a legend so soon, but now I’m starting to wonder.

Debates will rage (and have been raging since the spoilers) on the topic of Observation Haki and Shiryu’s cheap hit, but it’s not like Garp is taken completely off-guard here. We can see him with his hands firmly on Shiryu at the same moment he takes the hit, before the invisible pirate is revealed. It’s not a stab and then a quick reaction before Shiryu can retreat, the stab and the grab are information given to us at the same time. Of course there is ambiguity in that, as reading a manga is always going to involve some level of personal interpretation to fill in the movements between panels, but in my mind the need to shield Koby was a bigger factor than the invisibility in making this trick a success.

A little more Cross Guild operational info is nice. I’d been wondering about how the crowns compared to the stars. People are making a big deal about Garp directly calling Dragon his son, but I always felt the idea that he wasn’t was conspiracy theory territory anyway. I think we’re well and truly giving up on the idea of Kuzan as a SWORD plant as well. I was having my doubts back when we saw how he joined the crew, but this parting of ways with Garp feels real.

The final spread is gorgeous, and while Pizarro’s powers borrow a lot from Pica both conceptually and in how Oda has detailed and shaded the giant reaching hand, but the bulbous head and twisted up bundle of limbs he’s made the island into give this version enough of its own flavour to keep me quiet. At least for the moment.

I think we have to see the end of this sequence next week, whether justice truly will prevail or not (“of course it will!” thanks, Doflamingo) because it just wouldn’t do to have an anniversary chapter without getting at least a glimpse of the main crew. I’ve missed them, and I genuinely want to explore more of Egghead and learn the different things Vegapunk’s been working on. I want to see how inanimate objects are made to eat Devil Fruits, damn it! Well whatever happens, I’m just happy to have my (almost) weekly dose coming in again.

You know what? This is enough to satisfy me for a month’s hiatus. It’s plenty. No complaints, and I hope Oda’s recovering smoothly from his eye surgery. Beams and everything.

We’re three for three of really likable Jump covers lately, and I really enjoy seeing characters other than Luffy share these things. I hope all these nice bits of art find their way into the volumes in one form or another. And hey, Luffy’s shorts seem to be a different shade here compared to the Onigashima orange ones. I guess this is the post-Wano outfit. The colour spread is a gorgeous bit of work as well with a lot of cool artistic flexing in the rippling reflections and slick water colour on the raincoats. Beautiful stuff.

The flashback wraps up in fairly short order with some expected confirmations and some big surprises. My read on Wapol’s bit with Morgans is that the king brought the scoops to the bird completely fresh. But if it wasn’t Morgans’ snail in the throne room, how did he get the picture of Sabo? And if it is all based on Wapol’s account (with Vivi’s input) how did Sabo end up blamed? Especially considering Morgans declined to work with Cipher Pol on the two big Reverie controversies. Something about Sabo’s accusation doesn’t add up here.

I really feel for Igaram in the montage of people looking for Vivi and Cobra. It’s a terrible situation and I hope the Alabasta squad didn’t make things worse for themselves in their desperation.

It’s interesting how the Elders note how surrounded by Ds Sabo is. I wonder what they’d think of Luffy trying to give him one when they were kids. But the real meat here, aside from the names and roles (we’re up to nine out of twenty Celestial Dragon names revealed now, but how many of the remaining eleven will there be room for in the story?), is this Mother Frame weapon being a Vegapunk weapon. Depending on who holds the keys, this could be the very thing that justifies such a big cutaway in the middle of the Egghead arc. I was never fully sold on the theories it was an Ancient Weapon, and this being the weapon’s first test firing closes a lot of questions about why such a thing wasn’t used sooner. We also a little later learn it isn’t anything as crazy as an orbital weapon or some long range blast from headquarters. The darkness behind the clouds was just ambiguous enough to leave doubts in chapter 1060, but now we know for certain this is a large, physical thing that has to get in place over its target. I’m caught between a traditional flying saucer and a death star for my design expectations. Maybe leaning toward the saucer based on this one panel from that first chapter.

And the frame/flame translation debate is just another part of this setup to keep an eye on.

The last few Seraphim were not a reveal I expected in the flashback but I’ll take it. Weird for the Crocodile one to still have his scar.

And for all my talk of ambiguous wording last week, we learn fairly completely that Nerona Imu was one of the original monarchs, and is probably a man as well, since he’s described as a king in the history books. Neat. Even though it doesn’t add a ton, I enjoy Sabo, Dragon and Ivan speculating about what it all means. We can sound a lot like that on the forums sometimes, can’t we? The Op Op immortality operation is the first place a lot of us went for Imu so it’s satisfying to see in-universe characters reaching the same conclusion. But that doesn’t mean they’re right! The scene ends with Ivan and Dragon convincing themselves that the new weapon is more likely to be an Ancient Weapon than one of Vegapunk’s machines, even though we the readers have already been told that isn’t the case. I think it’s always a nice humanising factor when characters are allowed to jump to wrong conclusions and get mistaken about their own world’s lore like this.

And then holy shit, that ending. Have to appreciate the historical irony of the Revolutionaries’ supply blockades leaving the nobles with nothing but cake. Let them eat it then. Garling makes quite an impression, both visually and in his ideology. And in being the ruler of God Valley. Since when did Celestial Dragons hold land and titles below those of Mariejoa? File that away as having something special about it we don’t know yet (or being a translation issue, as some are suggesting).

The Holy Knights having enough authority over the Celestial Dragons to execute one is shocking. I mean, I first pegged them as mediators for disputes among the world’s most untouchable group, but this is the next level. Even more shocking is the sentence having already been carried out. Of course in One Piece you have to take these kinds of things with a grain of salt, but that last panel paints a pretty bloody picture. No last words, no Kuma rescue after his climb, this character is gone. And the method as well – a scaffold and two men with blades has been shown as the standard so far, but here’s Mjosgard, crucified on a World Government symbol and seemingly done in by a firing squad. And so, the Celestial Dragons purge the sole redeemable figure from their ranks.

Despite how weighty all of this feels, I don’t think we’re at the end of volume 107 yet. Not until we’ve seen the Strawhats again, even if it’s only on the last page. Shame we couldn’t quite get over the finish line on this one before the hiatus though. If I recall correctly, volume 104 and the last break were the same way. What can you do?

And that’s it I think. A month of downtime, but we should have the volume 106 cover reveal and full release both in the coming weeks, so it’s not like there’ll be no One Piece to talk about. I’m going to try and keep a new review or essay coming out on the blog every Monday like usual, all different topics.