Captain M Entertainment

This text was originally written for Arlong Park forums’ discussion thread.

Oh man, I’ve been waiting for this. I thought the month hadn’t been that long up until I started seeing evidence of spoilers floating around, then I realised how hungry I really was for more of this story.

A colour spread for the return from the month off was a given, but we also get a long-awaited new volume cover. I’m honestly not the biggest fan of this one. It’s a decent selection of moments, Big Mom’s absence notwithstanding, but the layout doesn’t quite work for me. It’s too empty in the middle for how busy it is at the bottom. I think it might have worked better if the whole thing was scooched up a few notches until the moon is close to centred on the logo, with Nika Luffy leaping in front of it. Then either space out Kaido, Kid and Law a tad further, or emphasise another character or two.

The image of Nika and the moon has already left a mark on the fanbase’s consciousness, so I get wanting to advertise it and slap some official colours on it as soon as possible, but just don’t think the bottom-heavy layout is all the way there.

The colour spread is pretty tame by Oda’s standards, but its simplicity goes a long way to sell how far Luffy has come. Look at our boy go! Seeing the way these characters are juxtaposed on the halves of the spread helped me realise the two pairs of opposing colours among the Four Emperors. Red and Blue on one side. Black and White on the other. I’ve never doubted that Blackbeard would be the series’ final boss, no matter what Sakazuki was up to or how many Im figures were introduced, and putting him and Luffy in direct opposition like this only makes me more certain.

But it really shouldn’t have been surprising. Oda has been pressing Blackbeard and Luffy as the same but inverted since Jaya.

I don’t think this means Shanks and Buggy will fight though. I’m interested to contrast them in this final stage of the story, given their connected origin, but I’m not vibing real conflict just yet.

Going into the actual chapter, it’s amazing how reliably the party-distracted capital was able to spot Aramaki’s approach and how quickly the Scabbards were able to mobilise. How many people here ho aren’t part of that group would be able to recognise a Navy admiral for the threat he is, given how closed off the nation is. But I suppose they would all be on high alert for any kind of move from the remnants of Kaido’s crew.

Oda uses Aramaki here to turn subtext into text, telling the readers outright the things about the state of the world he’s been hinting at for years. 170 member states out of millions of islands on the sea. Celestial-ranked nobles that operate on an entirely different set of rules even to regular nobility, only 50 world leaders – less than a third of of the World Government’s total membership – get to sit at the Reverie table, and of course we see regular nobles abusing their power over the common man all over the place. The whole world is a towering system of haves and have-nots, where the classes are divided not just by their means, resources and levels of luxury, but what laws and consequences are applied to them. And we can see now that it’s not a natural order, the people at the top are aware of the inequality built into the system and work to keep it there.

It’s easy to keep on living and not be too envious of those who stand above you when you can distract yourself with thoughts of “at least I’m not that guy” but on the flip side, it’s also easy to submit to exorbitant taxation and dehumanising political bargaining when there’s a lingering threat of being made into “that guy”.

Stop me if you’ve already figured out the real world stuff this applies to. Oda’s many things, but subtle isn’t one of them.

I wonder how the World Government feels about one of their top military officials saying the quiet part loud to the people of a nation they’re planning to take control of.

All the politics aside, this is just a magnificent set of pages as well. I absolutely love the two fist trees rising out of the ground here, a great and memorable touch. I’m sure Oda had a great time designing and drawing it all.

Momo’s doing great here. It really sunk in when Luffy asked him what else he could have to fear. And it doesn’t seem to be the only thing he picked up from Luffy. [spinny legs comparison] But dispite Oda making note of improved physical strength in Momo a few chapters ago, the facts laid out during the battle, that adulthood doesn’t instantly give him perfect technique or control over his powers holds true.

Do we dare compare Kaido’s response to Momo’s bite and Aramaki’s? Some will use it for powerlevel trolling, claiming it proves Aramaki is stronger than Kaido. Others will analyse, claiming that Kaido was perhaps struggling to keep his haki all the way up after so much fighting while Aramaki is coming in fresh and all juiced up after draining the wounded Beasts Pirates officers. I’m here to tell you it’s because dragon is super effective against dragon and only neutral against grass. Problem solved.

I’m very curious to see the what logic in asking only Yamato not to fight is. If it were all the Scabbards being asked not to stand down, that could be a new leader trying not to start a war, but I’m scratching my head over why it could be just Yamato.

And then we get Shanks! Shaaaanks! Is he making his move at last, or just teasing us again, as he’s been doing for 25 years now. I’ll admit, as exciting as his big declaration at the end is (and the follow up to Barto’s cover story), this is more of a Shanks recap than anything else. We’re not learning all that much new from his perspective of the Gum Gum heist. The dialogue surrounding the fruit remains vague enough that we still can’t know if the fruit is something Shanks was specifically looking for or if he knew its true nature. Remember that even after stealing the fruit, Shanks made at least one more voyage from Luffy’s town and returned, so his work in the East Blue wasn’t done yet.

There are some interesting tidbits here though. Who’s Who’s horns are apparently something he naturally has. What’s up with that? Shank’s ship retains its chapter one appearance, confirming it was upgraded or changed out at some point in the past dozen years. This might have been confirmed in a databook or something previously, but I wouldn’t have questioned it if the design had just been retconned as a relic of the simpler art style of the early days. We also see that not every member of Shanks’s current inner circle was present for chapter one. This makes sense, given how many random crew members we see there that don’t appear in the present and weren’t canonised in the volume 101 SBS. We saw in Oden’s flashback how much Whitebeard’s crew changed over the decades, so it seems fair enough Shanks’s group would shift too.

The need to hunt down Bartolomeo so Shanks can keep his standing is seemingly at odds with his philosophy from the opening chapter. Will we learn that this is just the weight of the years and knowledge on the captain’s shoulders, making the once-cheerful mentor figure cynical? Or will it be that his choice to only act to protect his friends has become more complex, with shows of weakness inviting attacks on his territory and more danger for people in it that he cares about? What will Luffy think of the change in him?

The New Marineford section of the chapter is where the juicy stuff is. We’ve spent three weeks in-universe in a country where no info flows in or out, and it seems we’ve missed a lot. Cobra killed, Kuma rescued, Vivi disappeared, Charlos unfortunately only nearly killed, trials and tribulations in the land of gods, a glimpse of how the Celestial Dragons who live above normal laws deal with conflict among their own. Oda gives us so much new information to chew on but at the same time holds so many details back. I am hungry for more of this.

I think it’s interesting that Cobra’s death would spark so much chaos. Of course the slaying of a Celestial Dragon is the kind of defiant act that spreads like wildfire through your average dystopia, but when Doflamingo revealed that the Nefeltaris were a World Government founding family who neglected to ascend I had figured that was a secret to the world. Like they were fully committed to the idea of the Celestial Dragons being descended from gods, and wouldn’t dare admit they just came from founders who had been normal royalty previously. Maybe the founders became deities in the act of doing the founding. That seems easy enough to make a religion out of.

Many Sabo detractors over the years have claimed with varying levels of fairness that he’s just Ace 2.0, and that the story hadn’t justified him as anything more than a way to partly bring Luffy’s brother back. I never want to hear any of that again. Sabo’s role as the face of a global uprising is one that Ace could never have filled. His legacy as Roger’s child, as much as he raged against it, made him ill-suited to capturing the public’s sympathy the same way. This truly feels like Sabo coming into his own.

And hot damn, catch that guillotine behind Sabo’s hype guy at the end. There’s even a bit of blood on it already, no messing around! We’re doing this revolution the old fashioned way. Given the decidedly french name of the World Government’s holy land, it’s pretty obvious where Oda’s getting his inspiration for the power to the people scenes.

I definitely don’t believe Sabo killed Cobra. I think it all has to do with Im’s attempt to erase a light from history, possibly Vivi. And I think he’s probably with Sabo right now. But that’s all low-hanging fruit as far as theories go.

I really don’t know what to expect from the next chapter. Any other part of the series, I’d tell you outright you’re a fool to think we’re coming back to global events as big as the revolutions or machinations as important as Shanks’s anytime in the next few months, maybe even within the year. Oda draws this kind of worldbuilding out and always leaves us wanting more. But this is the final saga. Maybe it’s time to start following up. Whatever’s to come, I’m so excited for the series to be back, and extremely pleased Oda has such a banger of a chapter waiting to return with.

This text was originally written for Arlong Park forums’ discussion thread.

I’m glad we get at least one chapter of proper post-arc before the break. It’s so refreshing to be back in this phase of Oda’s story structure and I’m glad to know there’s more of One Piece’s best on the horizon. I had the impression going in that this week’s colour spread would be Oda’s recently revealed Film Red poster, in much the same way his Stampede poster opened chapter 945, but we get a full spread for the Odyssey game instead? Neat! Interesting that Odyssey gets this treatment when other titles Oda contributed character designs to like Unlimited World Red and World Seeker didn’t. Maybe Oda just wanted to show off his monster designs. Can’t really blame him for that.

I’m loving that Morgans is now totally rogue after his falling out with Cipher Pol over the Reverie’s details in chapter 956. Given how quick and easy it was for the World Government to alter the news as part of Doflamingo’s scheme at the start of Dressrosa, we can assume that Morgans was the Government’s mouthpiece for a long time before the past few weeks. We don’t often circle back to Luffy’s greatest strength being his ability to win people over to his side, but this is a super underrated example of it, him unintentionally drawing in the best hype man he could have hoped for.

It’s also cool to see the Government trying to give Luffy the same treatment they gave Roger – subtley retconning the D initial out of the public consciousness. It’s obviously not illegal to have a D, though some families definitely choose to keep it secret, but it makes sense to see the downplay it if someone starts to too much embody the folklore about bringing forth a storm.

Oda’s also doing a quick job of wrapping up the loose ends people have been talking about. What happened to Big Mom’s crew? They crossed paths with the incoming World Government fleet and had a little bit of a battle. That’s pretty logical considering the pieces in play and where they all were, I’m surprised I didn’t see it pop up more often as a theory.

Three billion each for the captains, with some great new pictures to boot. I guess the random panel of Guernica fleeing Onigashima in chapter 1049 was to set up him having been in the right place at the right time for that picture. I’m a little surprised not to see four billion, given the number of the Film Red tie in volume, but who’s to know the mind of Oda. It’s cool that Luffy, Law and Kid get to remain rivals in at least some sense here.

I almost feel a little bad for Jinbe having his fancy meal alone waiting for the others. But he seems happy, so I guess festivals just aren’t his thing. I hope the events at the end of the chapter don’t keep them from reaching him. Cool detail: this seems to be the same room from Orochi’s introduction scene in chapter 929, the start of the party at which Hiyori and Denjiro would eventually fake Komurasaki’s death.

Luffy’s new kimono and Jinbe’s new cape have pretty similar motifs with the hexagons. That’s a cute detail. Wonder if the colours will match too.

The kokeshi dolls and the Poneglyph under the palace were first mentioned by Brook back in chapter 934 after he scoped out the place in soul form. It’s important to remember that this isn’t the country’s Lode Poneglyph – but I imagine it’s being kept alongside Pluton, wherever that is. Hitetsu’s identity is one we were definitely given enough information to guess. The question of where he was all those years and why he didn’t seek out Oden is immediately answered with the revelation he was imprisoned until after Orochi had fully consolidated his power. I feel like I saw at some point that something in the Vivre Card databook made this reveal impossible, like it gave Hitetsu and Sukiyaki different birthdays or made Hitetsu too old or something, but when I look back over the information we had I can’t find anything that could possibly have brought anyone to that conclusion. It might feel a little cheap to have Sukiyaki alive after all this time, but since Momonosuke was never taught the art of crafting Poneglyphs or writing in the language used for them and Sukiyaki presumably was, there’s a very good narrative reason to have kept him around.

Aramaki makes a commanding first impression for the series’ final admiral. I’m not even talking about him attacking the leftover Beasts Pirates, just look at the establishing shot of the prison mine. Compare the environment around it to how it all looked in chapter 946. That would be a tremendous and terrifying amount of power even without all the pirates he beat.

He’s got a fantastic, memorable design as well, but it strikes fear into my heart that he seems so dead set on capturing Luffy and winning Sakazuki’s approval. I don’t think Wano has another full-scale fight in it and I don’t think anyone wants to see Aramaki beaten by the combined powers of the alliance immediately after his introduction. So what’s happening? Will he be talked down? Driven back for political reasons by the new shogun standing up to him and declaring Wano’s sovreignity and protection of the pirates? Or maybe something out of left field like Luffy fleeing all over Wano, leading him around so his out of control plant powers can bring greenery back to the land.

It’s cool to see Luffy sticking with his not being a hero thing even now. It’s obviously as much for Momo’s sake as it is self-serving, letting the new dynasty start with a win the citizens can feel their new leader is responsible for, but it’s still nice. Goes a long way in justifying not putting Kaido’s defeat where the citizens can see, something a lot of people were expecting.

Absolutely loving the spread of Luffy and Kid dancing under the fireworks. That’s a moneyshot as far as post-arc party scenes go. It’s gorgeous! I can’t wait to see the colour version! And so great to see all the crew and their allies celebrating alongside them, including Kin’emon and Otsuru reunited at last. It’s one small panel for the last two, but it’s surprisingly heartwarming after all this time.

And then the end of chapter stingers – the new Emperors and the admiral’s approach. It must suck for Law and Kid feeling left out like that, but it makes sense. The Emperor position isn’t just about might, it’s about territory and influence. Luffy, having claimed Fishman Island, invaded Tottoland and inspired the Straw Hat Grand Fleet (including Bartolomeo running around trying to conquor other Emperors’ territory in Luffy’s name in his cover story) is legitimately much more representative of an Emperor than the other Supernova captains, who’ve kept their sights much more squarely on Kaido without getting distracted. Buggy is… well I saw people speculating it during the week, but I never thought they could be right. The obvious answer is that he somehow united the other betrayed Warlords behind him, but I’m very interested to see the truth. Aramaki hints again that the status quo outside has been shaken up big by the Reverie and the aftermath of the World Government’s attack on the Warlords. I’m so excited to see what that means, and so hurt for a month off to happen here of all places.

So what’s next? I can’t wait to see what Pluton really looks like and confirm another Lode Poneglyph for the set! I want to see the new geopolitics! I’m looking forward to seeing how the crew and the locals handle Aramaki! This is such a massive, frustrating cliffhanger for a month off. And given the next chapter is likely the last of volume 104 it’s all the more reason to be on the edge of our seats for it.

Horrible place for a break, but at the same time maybe the best time for it. I know my hype is going to stay strong during the gap after this banger chapter, rather than the lingering concerns of a few weeks ago when the end of the fight didn’t quite touch the series’ other emotional peaks and it was starting to feel like the post-battle lore dump would never come. Better to be left on a high note than a low one I guess is what I’m saying. Looking foward to seeing what Jump fills the next four weeks with, doing a reread of Wano up to this point during the interrim and of course getting back to Aramaki and the festival in a month!

This text was originally written for Arlong Park forums’ discussion thread.

Okay, we’re officially in the postarc! We made it, no more room for doubts! I’m glad to be here, but it’s hard to keep the break and final saga announcements from overshadowing this milestone and sowing concern that the long-awaited lore dump will be cut short.

My prediction is that the next chapter will end with the Act Three concluding and curtains closing on the shogun and samurai of Wano now that their arcs are all more or less concluded, but we’ll remain in Wano after the end of the play for the focus to shift back to the Strawhats and their interests. The start of the final leg of the story will be the Wano lore and poneglyph setup. I think we’re fooling outselves if we expect every lore and worldbuilding question raised by Wano to be answered in Wano, because One Piece has never, ever, ever worked like that, but I’d be surprised if the crew is ready to leave after just one more chapter.

Pictured below: how Oda answers lore questions:

People seem to have high expectations for Wano wrapping up absolutely everything, but it’s easy to forget that One Piece lore has always come in the form of like one sentence worth of concrete information per arc alongside a lot of vague implications leaving us to piece together everything we know like a drip fed puzzle over the course of 25 years.

But anyway, the chapter. I’m very interested to see why the Five Elders thing the timing is bad for the Emperors to start falling. Did their Order 66-ing of the Warlords not turn out so well? Is the big thing with deaths and Revolutionary attacks at the Reverie trigger some political strife? Is Imu’s command to erase a light from history likely to create a delicate public relations situation?

Zunesha vanishing without even driving off the WG ships is a bit of a disappointment. Oda could have put a tiny bit more effort into at least pretending there was something going on there besides confirming the Joyboy thing. Hell, with the Five Elders cutaway during the fight to namedrop Nika, even that probably wasn’t necessary. I’ve seen it suggested by someone here that Gear Five should have been left a mystery during the fight, giving us months of time to predict how it fits in and what it means, with those confirmation scenes saved until around this time, and I have to say that does currently feel like it would be better.

That said, Zunesha’s disappearance seems to confirm to the Elders that Wano will stay closed. Interesting. I wonder if we’re going to find out a little more about what opening the borders actually entails – if Zunesha has a role to play in maybe tearing down the rock walls or opening a more convenient way up than the waterfall. If the World Government was expecting the country to literally open in that kind of way, it explains why they’ve brought a fleet only to hold it back. Big Mom’s crew showed us twice how dangerous a contested waterfall ascent can be. The WG feared the worst, but thought it would give them an easier way up, and don’t want to risk the casualties of doing it the other way.

Ordinarily I would have rolled my eyes at Hawkins seeming to die in the immediate aftermath of the fight, but in the same chapter that confirmed the demises of Izo and Ashura, with every sign pointing to Orochi and Kanjuro also staying down, I’m willing to actually believe it. Hell, a part of me wonders if Drake is supposed to be succumbing to his injuries here as well.

I really like Oda circling back to the kids of Wano being taught propoganda in school and showing that one of the first things done under the new regime is to start correcting that.

Hey so how’d the people of Wano hear the name Joyboy? As far as I remember, it’s only come up between Momo and Zunesha since we’ve arrived. Who’s spreading the story?

Izo and Ashura’s deaths are surprising and sad, but also emblematic of Oda’s odd handling of death. Kiku and Kin got near-perfect dramatic death scenes with big, memorable last stands, but still pulled through. Ashura and Izo died fighting, but not in ways you’d expect a character’s final scene to play out. In some ways this still manages to enhance the feeling of an all-out war. When you have so many people wagering their lives in so many different skirmishes, with so much chaos and the spread of information so difficult, you’re not going to find out everyone who lost the ultimate gamble until after things calm down and the casualties are tallied. There’s a grounded sense of randomness to who gets to come back from the battle and who doesn’t. Even having seen as much as we did thanks to our omniscient viewpoint as readers, it feels somehow like we missed Izo and Ashura’s deaths due to our inability to be everywhere on the battlefield at once.

We go straight from that somber scene into a whole lot of humour and fanservice. I’m not massive on Momo suddenly being super resistant to physical blows after the last chapter’s narration tried to sell the idea of his strength being nothing to write home about, but I’ll let it slide for the gag. Luffy and Zoro not recongising Momo is great, but Momo trying to be a perv using his age as a defence is a very played out kind of manga humour. And I like Luffy taking Yamato’s “prayer” at face value. Still don’t know if I’m sold on the crewmate angle, but every good interaction between Yams and the crew helps. The highlight of the scene has to be Zoro immediately attacking Sanji based on their last conversation.

The bath scene, while blatant fanservice, is legitimately so much more inclusive than I usually expect to see. No one has an issue with Kiku and Yamato bathing in the area that reflects their identity.

Although Yamato’s identity really is only complicated after the Vivre Card emphasising that he’s a woman with him continuing to introduce himself as a son last chapter and joining the men’s bath this week. My stance remains that if someone introduced themselves to me like Yamato typically does and used the men’s bath like this, I would guess they want to seen as a man and base the language I use for them around that. It’s really hard to say what Oda’s perception of Yamato is meant to be with all this in mind, or what the plan for his development out of the Oden phase is (if one even exists).

It’s cool to see the time being taken for repairs after the battle, although I’m not really sure when the Polar Tang would have taken damage. Kid’s ship also didn’t get hit onscreen, but it’s easier to believe it could have happened during the initial sea battle. I would have liked to see how the Sunny and Kid’s ship got from the bay of Onigashima back to the oceans though.

Man, Apoo’s gotten off real easy for all his betrayals and the damage he did as an enemy. I have the impression he skuttled off after Onigashima landed and this is the first he’s been seen since then. The lack of concern about is presence is mostly because he wouldn’t stand much of a chance against everyone at that port anyway, even with Inbi backing him up. He hinted during the battle that he has ties to the media, and now he seems so proud of how his reports ended up. I wonder if we’re being set up for some kind of a fakeout where Apoo downplayed or embellished the actions of certain groups to fit his own agenda…

Ryokugyu at the end is a fun surprise. The theories about plant powers were reasonable enough, but I never really thought the theories tying him to Wano were based on anything solid. I guess we’ll find out shortly how personal his presence is. Oda definitely seems to setting up a character who could help or hinder the crew next week.

I feel like we’re unlikely to hit as natural a stopping point as the timeskip before the break starts after the next chapter, but I’m glad it’s confirmed we’ll at least see bounties and who the world sees as having Emperor status before that. Should give us a lot to chew on a speculate about for a month. It’s also rough to have a month off right when I was getting excited to move onto the post-battle stuff – but I’m trying to keep in mind that this only has to be dealt with once. The arc will flow smoothly over this gap on every reread.

This text was originally written for Arlong Park forums’ discussion thread.

This week we continue out post-battle wind-down with the necessary crowning of the shogun and conclusion of Momo’s decade-long character arc from the scared and starving child who ate a devil fruit accidentally in an attempt to steal food on Punk Hazard to a grown man (at least in appearance) offering abundant food and water to an entire nation. He’s still not my favourite ever One Piece character, but it’s hard not to feel proud of the kid making inroads on the titanic legacy Oda set him up for.

The Scabbards seem to be mostly alright despite the battle damage some of them took, but I don’t think I’ve found Ashura Doji anywhere in the chapter, strangely enough. Denjiro and Hiyori ended their bit of the battle near where he fell, and we’ve established that she has some first aid talent, so they should have been able to fix him up… as long as he was still alive. I’m not holding my breath for a casualty, but the absence sure does stand out.

Yamato is still introducing himself as Kaido’s son, and later Kozuki Oden, even with the battle over and the need for an Oden extinguished. I’m seeing a lot of people very excited about his declaration that he’ll join the crew, but I think Jinbe has the right of it: it’s not settled until Luffy says so, and Luffy has not said so. Robin reacting with a heart in her dialogue is pretty unusual. Not unheard of, but I definitely wouldn’t have expected it from her here. Personally, I’m not huge on the idea of Yamato joining longterm yet. There’s just something kinda lacking here. At the very least, I want the scene where Luffy demands Yamato be his own man before things are settled.

Introducing a new character to the crew’s dynamic at 25 years in is a huge deal. Even Jinbe needed to spend multiple arcs as a supporting character/honourary crewmate cementing himself in the group before he got to officially and permanently join up. I don’t care how big his tits are or how well it fits anyone’s powerscaling mentality to have another fighter that could stand up to Kaido on board, or any of the other reasons people are for him, there simply hasn’t been enough screentime to justify him sticking around full time.

I definitely feel like I’m in the minority on this one, but the bottom line will be Luffy’s reaction when he gets up.

Tama’s scenes were surprisingly cute here. I wonder if Oda got any messages from people concerned about the morality of her brainwashing that he wanted to respond to. Nice of Speed to choose to stay, though I hope she’ll have the chance to think it over between doses of dango. I doubt it’ll convince any of the people who claim that Tama is doing a slavery and actually evil, but I think it works as a way to tie off the loose end.

Also Tama says the turn of the lunar cycle is the time limit for her power, and Usopp confirms that to be a month. Interesting, given that the time between the Whole Cake Island and Wano full moons is a little over two weeks. While Oda uses real world months and dates in the SBS, I don’t think they’ve been used in-universe (aside from the Baroque Works day of the week code names) so it could be that the One Piece world has a different perception of a month based on their faster lunar callendar. (or I just care about the phases of the moon more than Oda does, which is completely reasonable)

Remember the theory that Tama was a secret Kurozumi descendant? Her flashback here seems to put that one to rest. It was never particularly strong evidence-wise, but I liked what it might have added to Wano’s themes. Oh well. But the mystery of Hitetsu’s identity deepens…

Adult Momo looks really damn good. Not sure where he got such a stylish kimono in his size at such short notice, but he’s certainly pulling it off. And hey, is it just me, or do the spirals and flames at the bottom look incredibly similar to the way Oda drew the fire under Oden’s execution pot? I think it’s important that the narration reminds us that he’s still only eight years of age, and that he’s not gotten strength for free from the ripening process. There’s something bittersweet in a boy so young needing in so many ways to be a great man, carrying so much duty on his shoulders. That could be a whole story of its own, but the narrator also makes it clear to us that one way or the other, he’ll manage to pull it off. The future of the Wano shogunate is secure.

The final page feels like a great place to break away from this scene and either show what’s happening in the outside world or jump forward to Luffy’s awakening and the crew’s celebration feast. I’m almost certain it’s the right time, but after all the emphasis that’s been placed on the dawn – Toki’s prophecy, Oden’s fall and Kaido and Orochi’s rise starting out with a sunset, the day following the Fire Festival marking a return to the life of slavery – it would be odd to end this sequence without the sun rising. Oda might be saving it for something later, but without it I’m not getting my hopes up too high.

This text was originally written for Arlong Park forums’ discussion thread.

And it’s done. For real this time with no doubt remaining. While this still isn’t the best of Luffy’s finishers or Oda’s arc climaxes, I believe in choosing ‘done’ over ‘perfect’ and would rather be looking forward to seeing how the next arc builds up than I would be spending another six months trying to course correct Wano’s finale. I’m hoping for a more streamlined follow-up arc that doesn’t have to squash and stretch itself to make key moments line up with milestone chapter numbers. I will stand by this being the right place for Wano to end, bloated and imperfect though it was.

No shocker that it’s Germa in the cover story, though Ichiji and Reiju sure did make it from Cacao to Whole Cake quickly. I wonder if they found a way to hijack the mirrors.

I would never have guessed Oda would use magma as the means of ending Kaido and Big Mom. Even back in chapter 1040 when Big Mom was falling I didn’t read the bright spot she was seeing as lava (even though plenty of people said it at the time). It feels like an uncharacterstically fatal way for Oda to end two characters – especially seeing Kaido revert to human form, confirming devil fruit rules are in effect, even for molten rock. It also certainly seems ominous that the Marines’ top devil fruit is magma-powered and Oda chose the same substance to dispose of two of the strongest pirates in the world.

Even so, I’m not completely convinced of Big Mom and Kaido’s actual deaths. We know how crazy durable both of them are (with kaido seemingly coating himself in lava for a final attack anyway), and we can see from the silhouettes their bodies weren’t instantly melted the same way a normal person would be. Plus, there’s the eruption to justify them getting out of the underground and being flung far away from Wano, neatly resolving the issue of how to drive off or restrain them now that the battle’s done. While I’d be happy to see them stay dead, there’s not a bone in my body that would be shocked by a Kaido and Big Mom cover story in the future.

What if they get shot to the moon to see Enel?

The rest of the chapter moves like clockwork through the post-battle catharsis of celebrations, announcements and the remaining enemy underlings throwing down their arms.

I did like seeing Chopper being inundated with requests for medical attention, keeping his core skills relevant, and Brook and Franky showing off that they’ve got gas left in the tank since Brook only got an assist battle and Franky did all his important fighting from inside his mech.

Momo doubling down on not opening the borders is a good choice. I praised him back in chapter 1041 for making strides to becoming his own man, not just blindly following his father’s will and goals, and I stand by that. Oden was many great things, but a skilled politician he was not, and with Wano in turmoil and the World Government right outside I think it’s probably smart to not just recklessly open them the way Oden might have. The addition of a “yet” to what he was saying in 1041 shows the right kind of acceptance that the opening will eventually be necessary. But if it’s going to hurt more people than it would help, it’s fine as a long-term goal.

Interesting that the point of keeping the citizens of the captial in the dark during the battle seems to have been the Kaido/Momo dragon form mixup and the ability to do a sudden, surprise reveal of the Scabbards’ and Hiyori’s return to annoucne the new shogun. I wonder if there’ll be more to come of this, because it doesn’t feel like it was quite worth it as things are. There was one take I saw in the initial discussions that I liked – that the secrecy of the raid left things open for the citizens to wish for Kaido’s fall using the lanterns and have their wishes granted seemingly instantly, but does that totally flow? I think I’ll have to wait til after my whole-arc reread to say for sure.

I’m not really concerned about the prophecy about the dawn not being fulfilled with the end of the battle or whatever. It fits just fine for the sun to rise alongside Momo’s adult form reveal, signifying the return to a rightful ruler, not just the toppling of the wrong ones. It’s cathartic to see Kaido and Orochi done with, but the return of the Kozukis is the thing that will bring about real change for the common people of Wano. (Monarchist that I now apparently am)

While this week is really just a transitionary chapter between battle and aftermath, it had a couple of extremely nice spreads and it’s done its job in building my anticipation for the lore, the poneglyphs and the glimpses of outside Wano to an all-time high. We’ve spent two years on Onigashima and four in Wano. I’m ready for the next thing! Bring it on!

This text was originally written for Arlong Park forums’ discussion thread.

It’s over! Oh god, it’s finally over! I’m plugging my fingers in my ears and refusing to hear any speculation to the contrary. Kaido’s down. The battle is over. The conflict resolved. Act three has had some tremendous highs and muddled itself into some equally rough lows, but it’s done now, and we get to move onto the history and the lore and the next arc. Ugh, I’m not going to rest properly until the narration confirms it after the break, am I?

The cover story gets more and more curious. This can’t be related to the figures at Cacao, especially if they really are Reiju and Ichiji. For them, it would have to be Judge in the research facility at Whole Cake, and it feels like a stretch for him to get there so far ahead of them. So either it’s a different group, or there’s a third party freeing the siblings.

Kaido, for all his meatheaded battle lust in the present, turns out to have a pretty interesting past and some coherent and relevant personal philosophies to think over. “Why does everyone have obey those Celestial Dragons anyway?” “Why should I be a Government lapdog?” “Don’t use me as some political pawn!” “(paraphrased)The pampered noble-born rulers take the safety of their ivory thrones for granted!” Excellent points, and all the more terrifying for the authorities coming from someone too strong to be restrained. We even learn more about the World Government’s awful powers and beliefs as it happens – they can forcibly constrict individuals from member states into their own navy and don’t give citizens non-member states their full human rights. Both of those things could have been intuited previously, but it’s good to see them set in stone. Kaido sees the injustices of the world more clearly than I’d given him credit for, but he’s learned the wrong lesson from them. Instead of empathising with others who were oppressed and fighting for their equality, he takes the world’s unfairness as an unchangable natural law and treats it as a competition to be won – where the prize is to be the oppressor instead of the oppressed.

I’m very interested in Higurashi recruiting Kaido to Wano the same way she sucked in Orochi. The old lady seems to have a lot of knowledge and Devil Fruit access she really shouldn’t. Who was her backer? What was her endgame? I hope we get to see how she died at some point. What did she think of Kaido ordering her death after making this deal so long before? Has she got anything to do with Wano’s Lode Poneglyph not being in either of the obvious locations of Kaido’s basement or the Shogun’s palace? This is the kind of thing I’m eager to dig into now that the fghting is wrapped up.

I love the sudden two panel sequence of the last CP0 agent just peacing out of this whole mess. Pretty fair response after everything that’s happened. I look forward to seeing who his report reaches.

I love the spread of the water bursting out of the castle wall all at once and crashing down over the Performance Floor. The castle, from looming over the start of the battle, to going all the way up in flames, to spilling out the life-saving water has been an commanding presence in the Onigashima battle. I think it would have been cool if it had been allowed to totally collapse, but I’m glad everyone inside gets out alive. And a clever convergence of plot threads to have the water extinguish the flame clouds as it drains, forcing Momo to finally act.

I’m a tad surprised that the lanterns didn’t end up serving a practical purpose in this sequence. It’s neat symbolism having them embody the wishes of the locals right as they’re fulfilled, but all the build up had the expecting more. I guess I overthought it.

The final blow on Kaido was spectacularly drawn. And I love seeing how the beginning mirrors the end, the first blow matches the last. It’s like poetry. It rhymes.

I need more clarity on where exactly Momo set the island down. Did he plug the holes that either Kaido or Big Mom fell into? And where’s Luffy going to land, given how high up he was and how badly he seems to have been burned in the final clash?

While I’m sure debates and opinions will rage about tension and awakenings and no one using the skyscraper-sized sword, I really do feel like this is the right place to wrap this battle up. There’s been a lot to love in its duration, but it’s also been an absolute marathon. An obvious emotional peak has been reached – the wishes, the threat of the falling island, the threat of the fire and Momo’s emotional arc converging alongside the final blow – and whether or not it worked for every reader it doesn’t make sense to draw things out beyond this point. There’s nothing substantial left to run in parallel with any conceivable last hurrah for Kaido, so it would only feel like an anticlimax by comparison. So this is it. Personally, I’m excited to see the transition into Wano’s postgame, and look forward to rereading the arc in full in a couple of months (at least) after it properly ends and the crew departs.

This text was originally written for Arlong Park forums’ discussion thread.

Back again for what feels very, very much like the penultimate chapter of Luffy and Kaido’s exhausting battle, moving all the pieces to their final destinations and reminding everyone of the emotional stakes. But first there’s the cover story, which suggests but does not explicitly show the obvious Vinsmoke solution. Interesting. Could be a big misdirect. Still isn’t Blackbeard any way you slice it though.

Kaido’s enormous, seemingly-magma coated final form is an incredible bit of art, one of the coolest things Oda’s drawn. There was a moment where I felt a little disappointed that it’s so similar to King’s final attack, but it actually makes for an interesting show of King’s loyalty to Kaido for saving him, that he would develop moves in his captain’s image. Kaido’s tail burning off the tip of Onigashima’s other horn is a return to symmetry we’re nearly fifty chapters overdue for.

I really like that Luffy’s training with Hyogoro is still relevant in this final stage. The two big upgrades – conqueror coating and Gear Five – that came up during the Onigashima fight quickly overshadowed the skill that it took all of Act 2 to figure out. All those chapters might have felt wasted if we didn’t have a moment here to make it completely clear that projecting haki off your body is a totally unique skill that hasn’t been folded into the CoC coating, and without Kaido pulling out an ultimate move that would slag Luffy’s arm without it. I don’t know if I’ll ever consider Wano to be the series’ most graceful arc structurally, but Oda’s commitment to remembering the fine details and bringing them full circle is forever admirable.

I don’t think there’s much really worth commenting on in the flashbacks here aside from how grim the scene with the noose is. It’s all been shown before. It can feel a little redundant going over it again from a weekly perspective, but every panel adds weight to what’s coming next week. This chapter should breeze by on the reread. It is nice seeing the “fool of a lord” comment turned back on Orochi, if nothing else. I wasn’t even expecting that to come up again, but Oda brings it full circle just the same.

Oden having a son does feel like something Kaido should know, even discounting the likelihood he wouldn’t have been able to hear the face hag’s words in the heat of battle. Maybe it’s a translation issue? Like the original line is less ‘so he has a son’ and more ‘so they’re going for his son,’ both of which could be expressed through just ‘his son, huh?’ and extrapolated. Also on the translation front, it seems weird that sound effect behind the Scabbards as they flee Oden’s execution in the flashback is translated as the dramatic Doom and not the gunshot sound Blam when it seems to be representing Oden getting shot by Kaido.

Orochi being finally slain by Denjiro is what I and many others have been saying for like half this arc. Having the Scabbard who spent years keeping his head down in the monster’s employ be the one to deliver the finishing blow (as he must have dreamed of doing so many times over the decades) is exactly the right ending. Credit where it’s due, though, I’ve been wondering for weeks what the point was in keeping Orochi around as long as he lasted, but timing it alongside the lanterns going upwas the right choice. From a narrative perspective, we all know Kaido is and always was the last boss, but to the people of Wano, Orochi is the face of their oppression. That he falls only after they wish for it makes for a great dramatic moment.

I think this all ends next week. Maybe Kaido’s defeat isn’t confirmed by the narration until 1050, but Oda is leaning too hard on this giant fist for it not to be the finishing move, and there’s no way it’s not coming down next week. Most of the chapter probably focuses on Momo finding his courage and shifting the island, with a page or two to finish the sequence of the water flowing through the castle and out onto the Performance Floor, but then we wrap this bad boy up. Apoo and Inbi and that last CP0 guy can scuttle away and be fully dealt with in the post-battle section, like Caribou was on Fishman Island. Kaido’s flashback, whatever kind of one he gets, can come as he blacks out like it did for King. But all of the story’s momentum right now, especially with this week’s straight up anticipation chapter, is behind that fist and its imminent fall.

This text was originally written for Arlong Park forums’ discussion thread.

We’re back with a gorgeous, summery colour spread. Wish I could be there, but it’s only getting older where I am. I wouldn’t be surprised if this whole spread grew from Oda wanting to experiment with those palm frond shadows, but I think the effect paid off.

We reiterate the pressure on Momo, which I think is something more for the weekly readers than those of us who’ve known this since Zou. Kin’emon feels uncharacteristically harsh on Momo here – and I don’t know if his comment suggesting shame is the worst thing that could happen holds water following Oden submitting himself to public humiliation for a worthy cause (even if the outcome of that was pretty bad for everyone).

Kaido: Abilities alone cannot conquer the world! … Roger didn’t have any fruit powers!

Me: Yeah!

Kaido: Only Haki can transcend all!

Me: No!

It’s a fun action back and forth between Luffy and Kaido here, but I hope Kaido isn’t being Oda’s mouthpiece on Haki. I don’t think any singular ability should be the one on top. It should be about how a fighter specialises, and how they use what they’ve got to get around their enemy’s specialties.

Is Kaido launching his breath attack directly onto his spinning body to catapult it upward? For a moment I thought he was just throwing slashes directly out of his spine, but I think he’s actually just bouncing it around.

Back in the capital, the lanterns are finally going up, which means the end must be close. If I had to guess at their purpose at this stage, I’d say they’ll give Momo the final boost he needs to properly move the island. Maybe they all press up against the side and get him thinking all the people of Wano are behind him, pushing as well. It has the potential to be a really nice moment.

The scenes with the samurai on the Performance Floor are a much better version of the “place to die” philosophy we’ve been going back and forth on in this arc. No one here wants death as their conclusion, but they’re at peace with having put their lives on the line for the people they love back home. It’s a subtle difference from the resignation Usopp called out from the Scabbards, but it makes all the difference in the world.

Orochi continues to not surprise at all, coming loose from Hiyori’s trap and having only one head left. The island’s shaking dislodging the nail feels like a weaker reason than the water would have been, but I can hardly complain when his flaming hydra form looks so damn cool. Next chapter, I assume, Denjiro finally finishes the job. The beats of the Orochi subplot all make sense, but for the life of me I can’t see what’s been gained by making it last all the way to the end like this. Hoping for a good reason he didn’t go down around the same time as King and Queen at the latest.

Luffy really seems to have set up his final final final attack in the closing spread. The giant fist coming down on Kaido’s snaking dragon form looks absolutely incredible and makes a fun bookend with the first attack Luffy hit Kaido with all the way back in act one. I think he’ll feel this one a bit more though.

The pieces of the finale are all in play – Kaido takes dragon form and becomes untethered from the island. Momo moves the island out from under him. Luffy dunks the dragon. I’m expecting one last clash, or a short delay to wrap up the Orochi stuff and let the water finish flowing through the castle, and then it all ends. But where does Kaido land? We seem to be a little way back from the capital still, as nice as it would be for him to land in the streets or crash through Orochi’s palace for all to see. Maybe into the pit with Big Mom? There’d still be room to drop Onigashima on top of it to seal them in, if Oda wants to go that way.

It’s good being able to feel like the end is so close after all this time, even if it might be another two chapters before we actually get there. Add another chapter to properly land Onigashima, wherever that ends up happening, and the fight is done by the halfway point of volume 104, leaving the back half of the volume open for the rollercoaster of post-battle reveals and lore dumps.

This text was originally written for Arlong Park forums’ discussion thread.

I think it’s safe to say from the shifting focus here that we’re back to the start of a new volume. Some people definitely won’t like the change of pace, especially on the weekly read, but it was almost definitely a necessary step to wrap up the billion subplots of this battle, and hey, the art is pretty nice throughout.

Let’s not be too quick to assume the mysterious figures in the cover story are Blackbeard’s men making their move. He’s still going to be at his home base for another week from when the cover story is taking place. The Reverie hasn’t happened yet, and an invasion of Big Mom’s territory by Blackbeard would definitely have made the news at some point during that arc. More likely it’s some combination of a Germa counterattack, Pudding’s play to help Sanji’s family, or Pekoms (and a mysterious other party left over from the battle) stepping in.

Hopefully Luffy’s declaration puts the idea of possession to rest, even Zunesha insists it hears Joyboy.

I really enjoy the action here with Luffy and Kaido’s attacks both totally reshaping each other’s body as they fight. It’s somehow ridiculous and brutal all at the same time. The smoke from the fires down below only just now starting to billow up feels like something of a lost opportunity. Imagine the rooftop atmosphere with billowing smoke and clouds of embers whipping past during the dramatic pauses. Still, doing it now makes for a surprisingly smooth segue to the rest of the chapter.

I keep saying this, but Onigashima is one of the series’ best locations and being able to slowly track its deterioration and destruction toward the conflagration we see cutting back to the castle has been a joy. I can really emphasise with Chopper’s panic over the size of the fire and feeling helpless not knowing where his friends are or if they can get out. We’ve seen how much time and fighting it took the alliance just to get a relative hold over the terriroty of the castle with its complex, multi-floored layout – there’s no chance at all for an evacuation effort. And when we do get interior shots for the characters trapped in there, the foregrounds are cluttered with flaming debris, the backgrounds showing pieces of the ceiling still falling, the flames closing in claustrophobicly from every side. The place is literally coming down around them and they’re trapped. It’s a very real feeling disaster scenario.

Brook being mistaken for a really gnarly burn victim is hilarious though. A fantastic gag in the middle of an tense set piece, as One Piece is meant to be.

And it’s a really clever solution to combine Zunesha’s showers, Raizo’s scrolls and Jinbe’s water manipulation. That’s thinking outside the box! I’m sure some are disappointed that Nami and Zeus were dismissed as an option so quickly, but I think it makes sense. Maybe a supercharged Zeus could fill the roof of the dome, but the castle is the main source of the danger, and it goes all the way to the ceiling. We’ve never seen Zeus get amorphous enough to fill in every room of the top floor of a building that big or generate enough rain to put the whole thing out, so I think it’s fair to write him off for the task. And I love that the Jinbe solution gives the impression in paces of the water crashing down between panels. It’s a really fun bit of art.

Oda, of course, doesn’t care about the idea that that much water moving that fast would probably be just as deadly as the flames, and neither should anyone else. What I am wondering about, however, is what the water means for Orochi, currently burning to death. I guess the slimy bastard is getting another lucky break, only to be caught and finished off by the still-absent Denjiro at the last minute. In fact, it might be the safest bet for next chapter’s focal point.

I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a tad frustrating that the final pages bring us back basically to the mid point of chapter 1027 – Luffy and Kaido’s fight entering an apparent final phase while Yamato and Momo realise they have to use Momo’s flame clouds to save the island from falling. Twenty chapters of wrapping up subplots and secondary fights while Luffy and Kaido push and pull and Momo flip flops on how best to help. There have been plenty of fun, memorable scenes within that time, but god damn this arc is long.

The final page is a real banger though. Definitely good to show some elements of the fanbase that Gear Five can look decently menacing as well as just fun. And I think the contact with the lightning proves that Luffy is still the same kind of rubber he was before, even with all the new powers. Can’t wait to see what he does with that bolt.

This is the kind of chapter that is the exact reason I started staying out of spoiler discussions. You see a summary of it and ask ‘why would we cut away to something so irrelevant in the middle of the climax of Luffy and Kaido’s big fight, sounds like a shit chapter.’ But in context, it’s actually one of Oda’s stronger cutaways. Kaido poses a problem to Luffy – while they slug it out, his friends and allies will burn to death down below. The danger to his friends and allies should be a devastating threat to Luffy, possibly even the distraction that would cost him the fight, but Luffy gets a strong charcter moment in announcing his faith in his crew, and Oda immediately proves him right by showing how his well-chosen friends and allies handle the situation themselves. It’s a well-structured chapter that makes a whole arc problem into a Luffy vs Kaido problem just in time for the solution to serve both sides of the story. You can’t find that sort of heart and soul in a summary, particularly not the super early partial ones. Execution is everything, but so many people seem to want to make their minds up as quickly as possible.

This text was originally written for Arlong Park forums’ discussion thread.

I feel like now that the big reveal’s done, Oda’s just trying to see how far he can push this thing – and it’s so fun! I don’t think we’ve seen this much creativity in the way Luffy’s body changes shape in literally years. What can you say except that there’s nothing in the world quite like One Piece. Although, I’m curious to see how this whole sequence holds up on a reread. Without having to wait a week for each chapter, things are going to swing extremely fast from an optimistic move into the final stage of the fight, to the surprise KO and Luffy’s apparent death, and back to the lightest and funniest things have been since the raid begun. What are future readers going to think of the tonal yo-yo at the end of volume 103?

The painted look on the Jump cover is pretty cool, but I was hoping to see Gear Five in full colour. We’re told in the chapter that Luffy’s hair and clothes have turned white – but does that include his shorts, sandals and the sash at his waist too, or only the shirt that’s the only thing to have visibly changed in the black and white version? The colour spread is a tad understated, but still has a few cute details like half the crew chasing Luffy’s hat while Robin grabs it effortlessly, Zoro seeming to sit cross-legged while actually hanging off the side of the truck, and an extra stylish new kimono for Jinbe.

Kaido noticing that some of Luffy’s abilities aren’t typical to the stated nature of his fruit and spelling it out very clearly is the kind of detail I would have liked to see more of before the reveal. One Piece is so generally goofy and so flexible with the definitions and limits of its powers that it was too easy to dismiss unexplained special moves as just part of Oda’s style and move on.

It is amazing how quickly the weather’s been changing over the course of this fight. When Luffy got beat, it was overcast. Last week, the sky was totally clear. On page three of this chapter, there’s a few clouds circling, and by page six, it’s completely overcast with flashes of lightning. We did see back in Act One of Wano that Kaido’s dragon form tends to bring its own storm as it flies around, but Oda’s definitely just doing whatever he thinks will be most dramatic. It wouldn’t be a problem if the Minks’ Sulong hadn’t made the changing amounts of cloud clover a big plot point several times already. (Marineford went from clear skies to all clouds over the course of a chapter but no one would notice or care because no part of that arc draws your attention to the sky – except maybe debates about whether people whose shadows Moria took during the battle should have died right away in the sunlight)

Luffy going Giant and falling from the sky is an amazing spread and will definitely go down as a defining moment for this arc and the future of the series. Whatever your opinion on the latest chapters as a whole, that’s not a panel anyone’s going to forget anytime soon.

What I think is interesting about the whole Giant sequence is how Oda manages to mostly avoid showing the straw hat while Luffy’s big. The best we get is a scribbly silhouette while he plays jump rope with Kaido (seen below) but it’s too vague to say if it’s grown to fit him or not. Why’s that important? Well, a few years back there was that one really big hat that might just fit on the head of a guy Giant Luffy’s size. But on the other, the rest of his clothes grew along with his body no problem, so we don’t have that much reason to think the hat wouldn’t too. Oda must know what he’s doing making it so ambiguous.

I like that Oda gives us a moment of calm in the middle of all the fighting, and a bit of downtime from the silliness. Luffy runs low on energy, but so does Kaido, grunting and panting and leaning on his club for support. It’s such a small thing, but it speaks volumes about how far Kaido’s been worn down already. The difference in the two fighters’ philosophies is great too. Death completes a man, but wouldn’t you rather be an incomplete man than a complete skeleton? It reminds me of Usopp’s speech on Bushido a little while back. An ideology of life and doing well with your time on the earth, not just your ending, trumps a desire to simply die every time.

I’m a tad worried for Luffy after this fight. Not only has his body been abused worse than we’ve ever seen, it’s pretty likely that Gear Five has some severe consequences. Gear Two burned his lifespan more quickly. Gear Three shrunk his body after use. Gear Four burned out his haki. What fuels Gear Five, and is it connected to Momo noticing Luffy’s voice fading when he slips out of gear during the reprieve?

I haven’t written about the actual beat by beat action of this chapter much because what can you say? It’s some of the most creative and visually unique fighting to ever grace a shonen manga. I’ve never seen this kind of playful rubber hose cartooniness mix with a series as story-drive as One Piece before. But it is a tad difficult to analyse by any existing metric. Luffy obviously feels pain from the huge blow that reshapes his head, but it’s harder than ever say how much damage and of what kind it really is. Taking one of Kaido’s swings head-on is never good, but I have no idea if it’s still as capital B Bad as it when we first arrived on the roof.

This chapter marks the first possible end point for volume 103, which is going to be one hell of a meaty volume for big plot developments. That said, I do want to see what the next chapter looks like before I call this volume spoken for. The cartoon fight and Giant Luffy make for an incredible climax, but I think we could go for a bit more drama for a final panel.

While I still obviously have a couple of reservations about the big Gum Gum development, a week to stew on it and this chapter’s incredible visuals have gone a long way for my appreciation of what it is and what Oda is trying to do with it. Luffy is still Luffy. This is just a Luffy with his strength, flexibility and control over his body amped up to the absolute maximum (hey, could he have achieved similar results with Cipher Pol’s Life Return technique?), plus a wave of euphoria that definitely has something to do with Joyboy, but also that you can imagine anyone feeling if they suddenly got a second wind and burst of strength after being beaten as soundly as Luffy had just been. (Point of comparison: Luffy smiling, jumping around and clapping after Kuma took his pain, even though his last conscious memory should have been an overwhelming enemy bearing down and the whole crew’s survival had not yet been confirmed.) Different interpretations and fan translations that exaggerated the influence of Luffy’s imagination to make him feel like an actual reality warper really muddied the waters last week, but this chapter goes a long way to make clear what Luffy’s current powers are and where his influence ends. The value of waiting and seeing.

I think next week we’re going to start seeing the setup for the Momotaro scene everyone’s been anticipating for. The fight is definitely not over yet, no more than the Doflamingo fight was when Luffy completely dominated him with Gear Four for two chapters. Kaido’s probably going to start adapting to Luffy’s new way of fighting and making his final push (or find some other way to raise the stakes back up, like revealing that Onigashima is in place over the capital and ready to drop), which should ease the minds of those complaining that he doesn’t feel like a threat anymore. Whatever happens, I’m strongly looking forward to it, as always!