Captain M Entertainment

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

Volume 101 continuing a whole lot more endpages than normal and being a chapter short of estimates means we’re actually now at the ninth chapter of volume 102, which definitely puts the progress of the current battles in a different light. That makes me think this is actually the end for Queen, although Oda may wait until after King falls to confirm it, but that should happen in the next chapter or two.

I enjoy seeing Momo find a third option and using Kaido’s flames to move the island instead of totally making his own. I actually speculated that he could save the island by hijacking Kaido’s clouds back in March, and now look where we are.

Some will be disappointed that Oda backed down from Sanji’s attack on Osome, but it was kinda always the most likely outcome. While the end result is Sanji choosing to be okay with his weaknesses as a human being, just having him be confronted by them and having to give up the choice to change is enough for me, especially following the sequence where he calls to Robin for help. Just having to go through that process makes a huge difference to Sanji’s characterisation in my eyes and I’m happy to see it done after souring on guy pretty hard after Ennies Lobby.

Queen copying the Vinsmoke tech is pretty neat actually. It gives Sanji the chance to confront and overcome his father’s weapons that the plotting of Whole Cake Island never afforded. Queen’s Sparking Valkyrie feels a little different from Ichiji’s though. From the way they trailed behind him, I didn’t think the lights in his eyes were part of the actual attack, it seemed more like it was coming from his gauntlets, but Queen has it all coming out the eyes. I wonder if his version will get the same cool iridescent colouring as the original in the digital colour manga… And there is a question as to whether we’ll be seeing Queen’s Poison Pink, perhaps as a last ditch final move, but between the mummy bullets and the ice oni virus, I think Queen’s skill with chemical weapons is more than cemented, and it’s not like Sanji ever needed to overcome Reiju like he did his other siblings.

I wonder if Oda will talk about the more stealthy sound effect used for Sanji disappearing in chapter 1031 now that he’s established that it’s all just faster than sight movement. Was he just trying extra hard to be quiet with that move? And on the topic of stealth effects, I do really like how he drew Queens oxymoronical invisible appearance. We’ve seen that transparency effect before, but not usually for so long and with such extreme expressions.

There’s only so much you can say when the chapter’s two pages shorter than usual and almost entirely action, but I did enjoy this one. Onigashima’s been pretty good for Sanji’s characterisation overall and the weird powers and visuals made the Queen fight a highlight. Though it’s foolish to try to predict Oda with any kind of confidence, I’d bet on the next chapter being Zoro vs King and the last one of this volume, ending with narration boxes that confirm both the executives are defeated, forming a bookend with Jack and Perospero’s simultaneous defeat in the opening chapter. I didn’t expect these battles to end before Fukurokuju and Orochi went down, but this chapter had too much of a finishing move vibe to ignore. But the remaining conflicts shouldn’t last too far into volume 103 – which at this stage I’m hoping could be the end of the Onigashima battle.

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

I really am surprised the Orochi cliffhanger last week didn’t lead directly into a resolution of his arc, but instead we’re getting Lunarian lore, Shimotsuki lore and sword lore, so I can hardly complain. Well, I can a little. Despite the awesome developments and some really great panels, and contrary to popular opinion, I don’t think the actual action of this chapter flowed as well as it could have. Something in the choreography just didn’t click for me this week.

Oda’s obviously making a mystery out of King’s powers. Does he heal with fire like Marco or turn into it like Sabo? Or is his body simply impenetrable and he sparks when struck like Mr 5? It’s all very vague and I think it’s strange how it overlaps with so many Devil Fruits. And then, “jackpot” implies there’s some luck involved in what effect occurs and when. So what’s the deal?

Queen offers some actual information on King’s race and their importance. How interesting that they lived on the Redline and were revered as gods while the current rulers of that continent style themselves as the descendants of gods. Interesting too that the current nobility call themselves “dragons” now that we know the previous deity-apparents could fly and use fire as a weapon. The question then becomes if the Celestial Dragons really did descend from the Lunarians, breeding out the fire and wings over the generations, or if they usurped them violently and took their divine status for themselves. I’d bet on the latter. It’s hard to imagine a species so adaptable goes extinct without a little outside help.

The panel of Zoro cutting through King is spectacular, but unfortunately the action choreography starts to stumble soon after. King uses his Imperial Deep Pride Stake again still without explaining what’s being shot – a stretching attack like Luffy’s? An air-slash type projectile? – which makes the flow of the battle really hard to visualise. He said it’s just a pterodactyl thing, not a Lunarian one, so there’s no need to keep it an mystery the same way. And then Zoro calling it a beam only muddies the water further. But the sequence over the next couple of pages where Zoro loses his swords is where I really take issue.

So Zoro drops all three of his swords when hit, and King’s attack also damages a huge chunk of the island, building up a threat of either Zoro or his treasured swords falling off the side. Seemingly confirming this, Zoro leaps through the debris to save Kitetsu and King says he’s “killing himself” to save the sword. But instead of pressing his advantage and edgeguarding, King quickly circles around and kicks Zoro back toward the safe ground at the centre of the island, into the side of the skull dome. The framing initially suggests Zoro jumped off the island to chase his swords, but he can’t have fallen that far if he can be thrown in a straight line to the wall like that. It feels weird to me that Kitetsu was so precariously flying among the rubble but Wado Ichimonji is just conveniently planted in the ground near where Zoro lands, with Enma not too much further off. I think this sequence really needed a better lead-in panel showing the trajectories of the three swords so we have a better idea of the positioning and stakes ahead of time. But even with that, it feels out of character for King, who previously tried to end the fight quickly by dumping Zoro off the island, to go out of his way to send Zoro flying in the most advantagous direction the disarmed swordsman could have asked for. None of this is helped by King snapping rapidly between human and dinosaur forms between panels, increasing the feeling that we’re missing beats and that each moment is disjointed from the one before it.

And it’s a shame this sequence trips over its feet the way it does because we don’t usually see opponents make a dedicated attempt to separate Zoro from his swords in the middle of a fight. King tried it once with his strange mechanical blade on the Live Floor, but he doesn’t have any follow through now he’s in a spot to literally drop them off the island. And the fact that weapon theft isn’t just a gimmick, that he could still hold his own whether Zoro is armed or not, would have made him all the more unique. It can’t help feeling like a little bit of a missed opportunity.

Finally, King smashes Zoro through the floor and we end up in a basement space that’s probably the same sub-Live Floor level Yamato and Momo used to escape from Right Brain Castle after downing Hacha. Good continuity that it exists to be used at all, but I’m a little disappointed it wasn’t on Yamato’s mental cross section of the castle in chapter 1030 if it was going to come up again so soon.

I really hope to be able to look back on this fight favourably after it’s done. Maybe the rough-feeling choreography will read better after King’s explained his Lunarian and pterdoactyl powers in detail. Maybe we’ll learn a bit more about him to justify him saving Zoro from falling off the side for Kitetsu. Hopefully it’s just a blip in an otherwise robust showdown with enough good on either side to forget this one weak point. But right now the action is being carried by all the interesting exposition that’s happening alongside it. Well, that and some great impact panels, even if the steps between them don’t fully make sense.

The sword lore flashback was genuinely interesting though. The talk of philosophy behind blades, how they’re tools made for murder, feels kinda brutal, almost edgy by One Piece standards, but it makes sense. Where spears, bows and even some guns find dual use in hunting, and axes and many blunt weapons echo craftsmen’s tools, hunting swords are all but unheard of (and even when they do exist, are mostly used to deliver the coup de grace to an already-wounded quarry). Even in the near-deathless world of One Piece, swords are made almost exclusively for people to kill other people with. Putting that in words lends a gravitas to holding the weapon. And the idea of holding a sword and feeling it wanting to fulfill that purpose is a genuinely unnerving thought.

The flashback ties together a few scattered SBS details in a more concrete form, presumably both as a recap and for the magazine/anime only readers. Shimotsuki village. Kozaburo. Kuina’s heritage. (Still nothing about Zoro’s own liniage though.) I think it’s news that Kozaburo was a pirate before founding the village though. And he was apparently good enough at it to be wanted by the Navy. I think the timeline on that one would put him before Roger’s day. I wonder if we’ll hear talk of a legendary samurai crew in history books or flashbacks at some point in the future. Something to keep an eye out for.

I did also enjoy the little flashbacks for Kitetsu and Wado Ichimonji during the chapter. It’s great attention to detail that Zoro doesn’t just have three generic swords, he has swords with names and history and specific moments in the story tied to them that get remembered. The attention to detail is what makes One Piece.

Zoro confirms what was hinted on the roof and unleashes his king’s haki. I don’t think I have any feelings on it that I wouldn’t have gone through in any one of the many moments of foreshadowing, but it’s a really cool moment when he reveals it. What I find interesting is that the smoke that usually comes off Enma is coming off all three blades now. I had kinda figured it was Enma’s thing since no one else’s haki has ever produced quite the same effect. I don’t think it’ll be anything particularly meaningful, no one in a million special techniques, but it’s just interesting how unique the effect is.

And I really did like the final line, whether you take it to refer to just Luffy or him and Kuina both, it’s a sweet note to add to Zoro’s journey up to this point. Despite my complaining that the lost sword sequence wasn’t executed quite right, this chapter can’t help feeling like a celebration of Zoro and his role as Luffy’s right hand. Now that he’s found his feet with Enma, the rest of the King fight should click smoothly into place, and my expectations are high. But I don’t think it’s coming next week. There’s Orochi and Queen at least to wrap up first. I’m gonna be on the edge of my seat to a return to this fight the whole time though.

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

This one definitely feels a little slower compared to the last few. Like going back to a transitional phase of the story. I was expecting to move quickly from the Sanji stuff at the end of last chapter to a quick takedown of Queen and return to Zoro and King soon after, but it seems Oda wants to give these two battles the same treatment as the other crew fights, with an extended period of development intercut with the rest of the battle playing out. Presumably the battle with Big Mom will be handled the same. I mean, I’m glad these important fights are going to get the time they need to breathe, but it’s a slow way to handle things and I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a little bit of fatigue setting in after a year and a half nonstop fighting. A couple of months ago I would have bet the first half to two thirds of volume 102 was wrapping up these last fights with a transition into Luffy vs Kaido in the closing chapters, now I’m starting to think we’ll be lucky if the book ends on King being felled.

Marco and Izo are back in action for… something. I guess they’re joining the pack of characters rushing toward the armoury conflagration, which is a scene I have no idea how to predict anymore given how many different parties are being funneled in its direction.

Fuga being a centaur is certainly a surprise. Kinda funny that the scientists working on gigantifiation made one 20ish years before Law showed up and made the whole surviving staff into centaurs, but strange that none of the other Numbers were combined with animals the same way. Wait, did Fuga eat a Smile? It would be hard to tell if they were fed to them, given how the Numbers always seem to be laughing anyway. Whatever the lore behind this, I love the detail of his horns scraping through the roof as he tries to keep up with Yamato.

I complained in the last chapter’s thread that Apoo and Drake’s team-up was floated and sunk way too quickly, and now in a third consecutive chapter they’re back on speaking terms. Could not have picked the two of them fighting CP0 though. Not in a million years. I do enjoy how instantly self-serving Apoo’s reaction to CP0’s presence is though. I’m having a hard time getting a read on Drake’s interaction with them here. They say they know who he is, and from these top-level intelligence guys, that would presumably mean SWORD. All good, right? He’s undercover and they’re doing clandestine Government work – we’ve known about Cipher Pol’s shady dealings for so long it feels like an open secret – and all signs pointing to Cipher Pol (especially CP0) outranking Marines anyway. And yet Drake asks them what their excuse is and they try to take him out. Could this be proof SWORD is an alliance working for the greater good from inside the Marines, rather than just another branch of the same broken organisation?

King’s stretchy face doesn’t quite top Queen’s snake trick for the best stupid Zoan power, but it sure is something. And I guess he uses it to shoot a flying slash type attack? The exact thing being done here is super unclear. But hey, we got some hilarious panels out of it.

There’s a lot of talk about King’s race and his powers here, but we don’t actually learn that much about him, it’s all just hyping up the mystery. It speaks to the man’s strength that he defends so well against an attack Zoro brought out against Kaido on the rooftop though. In fact, he seems less bothered by it than Kaido did. But maybe that’s more a consequence of Zoro’s fatigue.

I was pretty dismissive of theories about Enma literally carrying some of Oden’s soul/will/haki inside it, even with Big Mom’s strange reaction to it, but its reaction to the sound of the shamisen has me rethinking that stance. There’s definitely something going on here.

And finally, we get our second chapter in a couple years that ends with the big reveal that it was Hyori all along even though everyone already figured it out a long time ago. I guess there was a little more room for doubt here than at the end of the flashback, but it would still have been a pretty big reach for the silhouette to be Toki. Ah well, at least this means the end has to be close for Orochi. I still think Denjiro’s long absence is part of the setup for this as well and he’ll jump out and have a hand in what happens next – if he didn’t go find Hyori and outright plan this trap with her.

The problem with this setup is that it wouldn’t be Oda to have Orochi drop before his right hand man, so Raizo and Fukurokuju need at least one more scene first. I think the ideal for next week would be half the chapter on them, they half on Orochi, ending with his demise. Then there’s just the whole armoury jumble to sort out, followed by Queen, King, Big Mom and Kaido, presumably in that order. Still a long way to go, and Oda does not seem prepared to rush it. As always, looking forward to seeing how he manages to tie it all together, even if i’m feeling a tiny bit tired.

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

Well, we’re about halfway through volume 102 and… am I dreaming? Is this… actually compelling character development for Sanji? That addresses the issues his women problems have created? Oda must think it’s my birthday or something. Anyway, the colour spread is a little bit of a miss for me. Love seeing more character variety in these things, but I’d rather have the usual style of them all hanging out or doing something rather than all these separate panels. Bepo goes a long way to salvage it though. And it is nice seeing a greater variety of characters than just the Strawhats in these things. But how mean is it to put a Zoro colour spread on what is essentially a Sanji chapter? The guy really can’t catch a break.

Big Mom is looking like a true monster in this chapter. People have been quick to say the Emperors don’t feel threatening enough in this arc, but I think Oda’s figured that feeling out. Law and Kid have both pulled out the kind of upgrade that would be a fight ender in most other arcs and used them together, at great cost to their own stamina, only for Big Mom to decide they’re worth her getting serious about and powering herself up. It’s true that the alliance didn’t struggle as much as expected with the flunkies and officers of the Beasts Pirates at the start of the battle, but in this late stage we’re seeing how that conflict sapped their energy and expended their new tricks, meanwhile the two big bosses have come through to the final round with strength spare. Big Mom is finally selling that “how can they possibly win this” energy readers were looking for, and we can only hope Kaido brings the same force to bear against Luffy when we cut back to the roof.

Just goes to show how well planned out all of this is. People were agreeing with Hyogoro when he said he couldn’t imagine losing and complaining it was too easy for the heroes back in the third chapter after the battle was officially kicked off by the attack on Kaido. We’re now on chapter 45 after the raid commenced and there are now comments saying Big Mom still seems too strong to believably take down here, and that it feels too likely CP0 will actually be able to capture Robin, and that any win could only feel like an asspull. It’s not unlike how most of Luffy’s fights, be especially the Katakuri one, have gone. He took more hits, sure, but he kept getting back up. It’s safe to say now we were feeling exactly what Oda wanted when it felt too easy in the opening chapters; the crew hit the ground running, but the battle of Onigashima is a marathon, not a sprint.

It’s hard to see that kind of pacing reading week by week. It’s the kind of thing that only reveals itself when you look back later on.

Oh, despite seeming resolved last chapter, it seems Drake and Apoo’s fight is back on. Sure, why not. It seems like Drake has the upper hand he needs for a quick win, but I do wonder what the purpose of their truce was, given it’s lasted less than 20 pages. In the volume readthrough, the idea of Drake and Apoo teaming up will be literally blink-and-you-miss-it. An even shorter shelf life than Marco and Perospero’s alliance, somehow. With this, we’ve got a surprising number of characters heading for the armoury. Yamato, Drake, Apoo, Inbi, Fuga, Zanki and Kanjuro’s Kazenbo. Presumably Kin’emon will find a way down there to cut fire one more time, possibly needing to be carried by Usopp to make it. Oda’s got a plan for that arsenal, but I have no idea what it could be at this point.

Cipher Pol’s move gives us nice moment between Robin and Brook and some interesting lore, though I have to wonder how this new conflict is going to fit into the already-strained pacing of the battle.

But the meat of this chapter is Sanji’s transformation. This is exactly the kind of Sanji arc I’ve been hoping for since Ennies Lobby. Whole Cake Island gave us a lot of Sanji backstory, but it didn’t force him to grow as a character at all – it turned out his natural kindness was the best thing for him all along and the skills he needed were the culinary ones he already had – leaving his post-timeskip exaggerated flaws untouched. After all of that, I wasn’t expecting Sanji to ever be confronted by the possibility he had hurt a women, or pick up some self-doubt about his humanity and heritage, or have to honestly ask himself if his inability to face a female opponent makes him a liability. While the conclusions he comes to about these points are far from surprising, I’m so glad Oda finally brought them up.

Obviously Oda’s given himself a lot of plausible deniability for Sanji apparently hurting an innocent woman, what with no one witnessing the deer directly. I’d say it’s fairly likely the scene will be walked back later, but I’m not bothered by that. Sanji just believing he’d done it was enough to get the ball rolling, and that’s all the story needed.

What I wouldn’t have ever guessed is the request to Zoro to kill him if he goes off the rails. Despite all the bickering, the trust there is real. I’m looking forward to seeing how this interaction plays out after the battle, if we’ll really get a dark Sanji who needs to be talked or beaten down (of course he won’t actually die) or if Zoro just humorously looks for an excuse to follow through on the request despite Sanji remaining in his right mind.

I love that Sanji’s change is reflected in his eyebrows. From his very first appearance, with one brow covered, to the reveal that they both go the same way with his timeskip design, to his siblings having theirs in the opposite direction, Sanji’s eyebrows are one of the series’ best long-con gags. And admirable restraint from Oda that their use has never been lampshaded in universe beyond calling them “swirly.”

It’s also not lost on me that Sanji has ended up on the opposite side of the dome to where Zoro’s fighting. The left and right wings doing battle on their respective sides and pirate king fighting on the roof in the middle. Poetic, Oda, very poetic.

Basically the chapter was a banger. The main character I’ve felt has been most mishandled over the past decade is being pulled in an exciting new direction and the tension is really amping up. I have a bad feeling every break from here until the end of the battle is going to be painful, which is a bad point to reach right before the end of year dearth of chapters. But we’ll make it through somehow.

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

Contrary to popular opinion, I loved most of this chapter, Oda’s really going all out for the climax of the battle. Colour pages next week to keep the hype going are just gravy on top of it all. The title, while poetic, was an enigma to me, even reading the wikipedia page on the story it’s drawn from, until I saw Sandman’s twitter connecting it to Orochi’s speech. I have no idea how this could have been translated that would have made the connection obvious. Even the scanlation, with its willingness to use notes to explain things, apparently missed that Orochi was quoting the same play as the title, so while it explained that the title was a literary reference, they didn’t actually explain how it connected to the chapter. This might just be one of those things where if you know, you know, and if you don’t, it’s too bad. Oh, and I’m not one to read super far into cover pages, but Brook is an interesting choice to put alongside the soldier ants. Maybe Oda hasn’t forgotten that Brook used to be a soldier himself…

The battle between Drake and Apoo resolves in unexpected fashion with an alliance rather than a defeat, and most of the conspicuously absent Numbers are there too. Most of the Numbers have been kinda underwhelming so far, but Inbi has a brilliant design. Really digging that classical devil look. The question is where this strange alliance will lead. I can’t see them wanting to be enemies to the Strawhats even after the battle. I’d never have guessed the Numbers betraying Kaido either – given their Oni/giant similarities, there had seemed to be a kind of kinship there. If Oda’s making the Numbers more independent, he may be laying groundwork for the long-speculated upon Elbaf Arc. If the goal of the Numbers becomes to peacefully reconnect with the other giants, it could be just the excuse needed to draw Luffy (and Usopp) in that direction. But that’ll have to come later…

I’ve been saying for a while that Punk Hazard is more important to the New World than any of us could have guessed at the time, but I never would have guessed Kin’s severed lowered half, talking farts and getting stuck on things to be such a vital callback. Oda does it again. So Kin, Kiku and Kanjuro are clinging to life. I’m not a huge fan of the development, but I’ve come to accept these things. Booktuber-come-One Piece fan Merphy Napier said it best in her video: “They’re basically Pokemon. When they fight they faint, they don’t die.” That’s just how this world works and while I don’t think it’s ideal storytelling, I made my peace with it long ago. The Kanjuro bit goes down easier with Orochi helping to frame it as an encore to his previous act rather than a full revival. Very fitting.

(And continuing the pokemon metaphor, I’ve always thought Luffy plays with exp share on for the crew, so they all get stronger together every arc even if they don’t get a dedicated fight to learn from.)

Despite the simplicity, I really like the look of Kanjuro’s fire spirit. Oda did a really good job with the transparency effect for a guy drawing in black and white. And the flames burning over the panel borders at the top is a really nice touch that helps it feel big and wild and dangerous. The spirit also bears a striking resemblance to Kanjuro’s look in Orochi’s memories of recruiting him, making it really seem like that child’s vengeful ghost, off to be a bastard one last time.

Yamato’s section gives us a much-needed side view of the dome’s layout. It’s a credit to Oda’s consistency that I was able to produce a comparable (albeit not totally accurate) map all the way back in May. Hey, this one even shows the hole the fake Oden blew in the roof. Love that attention to detail. Curious too, that if the map is part of what Yamato’s thinking, he seems to know that the skull has a bottom jaw buried beneath the surface of the entrance. No sign of that visually in the scenes of the alliance landing, so how does he know it?

Glad we get some more of Kid, Law and Big Mom right away. As always, I love consistent environmental destruction – the hole blown by Yamato’s handcuffs and the place Momo crashed into the wall are both still there beneath the new opening blasted by Big Mom. Oda’s really tearing this place apart, but all the damage matters.

I wasn’t expecting Awakening to be revealed so casually and by characters other than Luffy. Consistent with Doflamingo and Katakuri, the effect seems to be applying the power to things that usually wouldn’t be directly effected by it. But we’ve only ever seen Paramecia Awakenings, so who’s to say other types will work the same way, or what would happen with some of the more abstract Paramecias. Oh, and what’s with Law’s new room name? Is KROOM meant to be some Japanese medical thing that just doesn’t translate?

Getting back to environmental destruction though, it looks like the Performance Floor is going to be the final destination for Big Mom, and the fight is going to wreak absolute devastation on it. Two whole buildings have been wiped off the floor already! And conceptually, using magnetism to weaponise the scaffolding and rebar of the structure around you is really neat. This is one of those bits where I think an anime has the potential to really go above an beyond – really thinking about how those buildings would deflate and implode after their steel skeletons have been ripped out, and show that process in a much more detailed, tactile way than any manga artist could hope to show (except maybe Katsuhiro Otomo). The actual One Piece anime we have now probably won’t try to simulate the collapse in that much detail because it would take much more time and energy than their production schedule allows, but I can dream.

Great chapter, lots of fun and exciting developments building up to the climax of the arc. I hope Oda keeps up this kind of momentum next week, maybe by wrapping up Fukurokuju and Raizo and finally putting Orochi’s last head on the chopping block. We’ve very close to just Calamities and Emperors left on the battlefield. After so long, the hype is enormous.

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

Oh, it’s good to be back! The last chapter felt like it ended kind of in the middle of Sanji’s scene, not quite feeling like a natural break point, so it’s good to go straight back into it for this one. I appreciate that Sanji’s negative reaction to his new powers stems from a fear that he’ll lose his emotions the way his brothers did. Getting anxious about turning into someone else or losing your humanity is a much more existential angle than “I don’t want these cool superpowers because they have my dad’s cooties on them” and I’m legitimately curious to see the development of it. I hope this is the new Sanji angle I’ve been wanting for years now.

Seeing Big Mom in action here really emphasises how downplayed she’s been as a fighter. Whole Cake Island was mostly running away and the rooftop brawl was decidedly Kaido-centric, but she’s turning out to be great in a stand-and-fight battle. I love the unhinged look on her face, and the way her poses show momentum and impact despite her rotund, seemingly inflexible figure. If she’s to go down here, there better be a few scenes of fighting left. It makes you wonder what could have been if Oda had decided give a chapter or two to Luffy’s attempt to fight her at the wedding, rather than letting him throw one punch before the retreat.

I feel Killer is somewhat slept on by the fanbase, even after holding his own among the monsters on the roof, but this chapter makes it clear that Oda’s got a whole lot more affection for the guy than us readers ever expected. His fast, acrobatic fighting style makes for some incredibly dynamic panels.

It’s perhaps a little odd that Hawkins took damage when Zoro attacked his strawman at the start of this arc but is unaffected by Killer’s beheading of it now. But since it was powered by different cards each time, I guess there’ll be a copout SBS explanation about the Heirophant transferring damage to the user while Death does not, or only reversed taking damage if the card is reversed or something equally contrived. Takedowns in Wano have been unexpectedly but pleasingly brutal. Hawkins joins the ranks of Who’s Who and Black Maria in suffering violent finshers, but taking it to the next level with some permanent disfigurement in at least his lost arm, if not also his slashed-up face. The visual of the deck scattering around him is an obvious end point to a character who uses cards to fight, but damned if it doesn’t look great every time. Hawkins’ role in the story ends a little flat. He’s a character with some great visual design – especially his final scarecrow form, but very little of note in the personality department. I wonder if we’ll ever get back to the man with a 1% chance of survival…

With Kid and Law now ready to fight Big Mom properly, the final stage of the battle draws ever closer. I think we might get one or two pages of their fight with her next week to make it clear Kid’s a force to reckon with now that he’s not hobbled, but then we need to cut away to deal with the last of the scrubs like Apoo, Orochi and Fukurokuju. I still think it’s likely we’ll be down to just Big Mom and Kaido as enemies before the end of this volume, but Oda definitely needs to keep his foot on the gas if things are going to reach a conclusion that feels decently paced.

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

It only makes sense to go from a Zoro chapter to a Sanji one, just to keep things even. The colour spread here is definitely going to go down as a favourite. Oda would be a Smash Bros fan, wouldn’t he? A few of the costume shoutouts are obvious (and similar to the amiibo collab from years ago) but Jinbario is something I never knew how much I needed in my life.

Going back to Cipher Pol for more than just a numbers update was unexpected. My gut feeling is that Oda’s setting things up for after the battle, we’re not going to get more of this in the next few chapters. The World Government ships seem to be about as close to Wano as the Big Mom pirates (could they run into each other?) but as with Big Mom’s crew, I don’t think there’s any chance of them making it up to Wano until after the Raid is done. Still, this setup is a sign of how close the end is going to be after Wano is done, if Oda’s getting ready to immediately pit Luffy and the Government against each other. Some people are speculating they’ll succeed in getting Robin to spark a final conflict, but there’s no chance Oda would repeat Ennies Lobby that blatantly. This is more likely to call back to Robin’s faith in her friends protecting her back on Zou.

Hey, what if the World Government forces arrive during Luffy’s customary days of sleep after the big fight? Are we going to have a fun sequence in which either the Strawhats or the surviving Scabbards have to show what they can do without Luffy’s help? There’s some decent potential in that.

I’m not sure what Yamato thinks he can actually do about the explosives under the dome. It doesn’t seem like the tech in this world would lend itself to complex bombs that can be made safe by taking fuses out or whatever. Wouldn’t it be more like a big pile of gunpowder and nitroglycerin, liable to explode on impact? And weird to see two minor members of Law’s crew just hanging around up on Onigashima. It was never really made clear how many of them he brought with him. The big guy looks like Jean Bart, who I thought was down on the Wano mainland, but maybe there’s another large dude in the crew.

I’m amazed that Oda was able to top the Triceracopter so soon, but Brachiosnakeus sure has done it. There are just no words for Oda’s insane creativity. Every part of that sequence was hilarious.

Sanji actually getting Vinsmoke powers is something I didn’t expect at all. I’m not the biggest Sanji fan, so I don’t have the deepest emotional involvement in his arc of being just human with a strong heart being ruined by bloodline superpowers or anything dramatic like that, but I hope Oda’s got a plan for some future character beats following his acceptance or rejection of the new powers. Like I said, I haven’t liked how Sanji’s been written since basically Ennies Lobby, but I’m always open minded about Oda finding something better to do with him.

A slightly flatter chapter than the last few leading into the break, but Wano’s climax is building, and we’re close enough that Oda’s starting to look at what comes after the battle.

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

We get a cool, actiony chapter for the likely opening of volume 102. There’s not a lot of substance that can be said about it – all the main plot threads are just chugging along their expected paths – but that doesn’t make it a bad chapter. I’m surprised time wasn’t taken to wrap up at least one of the ongoing minor fights though. With five minutes on the clock and – I think – most people hoping to see the fighting wrap up by the end of this volume, every chapter that bit part enemies like Apoo and Fukurokuju keep standing through is an odd one.

I enjoyed Luffy grappling Kaido’s neck and wanting to have the final boss all to himself. It’s that classic Luffy levity the fights with Kaido haven’t really left room for. And I guess the Momotaro theory is off the table if it’s 1v1 to the end from here. Oh well. I’ve really got no strong feelings about that. I barely knew the classic story existed before it came up in One Piece, so I’ve got no attachment to it, interesting as it might have been.

Momo looks well and truly out of proportion near the whole flying island at the start of page 8. I don’t think the sequence tells us much we already know – in my mind it’s been a given for ages that Momo would need to use flame clouds to move Onigashima, but I’m sure the new revelation that the island would act as a bomb silences a few naysayers who were thinking Kaido just needed to be beaten early so the island could drop somewhere uninhabited. Yamato’s imagine spot of the island exploding is a pretty sick panel though. On the other hand, what does the revelation about the castle being packed with explosives mean after Oda repeatedly emphasised that it’s been set on fire and the flames are spreading…? Maybe an explosion of that kind could be just the solution Oda needs for the issue of Kaido being too strong to let live but not wanting Luffy to make an unambiguous onscreen kill. Kaido, barely conscious after being beaten up by Luffy, might even reject the chance to evacuate the island alongside everyone else (maybe onto the top of Mount Fuji) to accept it as the memorable death he wanted – after all, the sky island skydive proves it doesn’t have to be a death by battle to be good enough for him.

The flight scene gives us another confirmation that Kaido is being worn down by all the damage he’s taking. This is not new information – the moment he dodged Luffy’s Red Hawk instead of taking it head on also emphasised that the damage was racking up – but it’s a good moment for a strong reminder. Kaido’s tough, but he’s not invincible, and he’s definitely going to fall.

Man, the idea of another Zoro and Sanji tag team with them fighting back to back was too good to last. We don’t even see Sanji in this chapter. I hope Oda manages to get back to him and how he avoided King’s rampage next week. King’s presumed hybrid form is a simple but enormously effective design. Especially that imposing silhouette it casts coming out of the smoke and dust in the Right Brain Castle passage toward Zoro and Franky. I can see that slow, menacing villain walk play out in my head so easily. The way the wings themselves act as blades and smear with the line of action when he does his flying attack is great too. I hope we see more of this form.

Zoro doesn’t know about Momo and Yamato being out there in the sky when he uses his flying slash like it’s a Super Smash Bros up special. Lucky he didn’t hurt anyone! Imagine if all the imagery of Ryuma slaying dragons and Zoro mirroring him was meant to lead not to the nonsense Zoro Kills Kaido theories, but to him accidentally taking out Momo in his recovery effort. I would laugh.

King’s face becomes a point of interest along with his heritage. Skin and hair colour haven’t typically meant much in One Piece, so there’s not much to read into this top corner being revealed. I’m not even convinced his skin is meant to be read as darkened yet, if I’m honest. It might just have a screentone over it so it can be easily distinguished from the hairline and wrecked goggle – something the vein and markings could otherwise have complicated. Oda doesn’t often make a screentone a permanent part of character design. Aside from Shanks’s hair and Momo’s flaming mane, all other character models are stark black and white. Even previous darker skinned characters like Miss Monday, Caribou and the (poorly aged) Kumate Tribe have no special effect applied to their skin in the black and white art. And Wano has already taught us a lot about assuming hair colours based on the black and white art. So uh, we’ve basically still got next to zero concrete information about King’s real appearance aside from him probably having a tattoo. Skin tone could be anything, hair colour could be anything. Nothing’s certain at all!

All in all, an alright chapter, but slower and more recappy than the last few. Hopefully that’s just to set the scene for returning volume readers and we can get back into the meat of the battle next week.

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

Oh man, I thought like the last chapter felt like a great end to volume 101, but even though this one doesn’t have quite as memorable a final page it’s hard to imagine the book being complete without Luffy and Kaido splitting the sky. It’s the perfect climax to the throughline of Luffy’s recovery and Momo’s ageing up that’s been developing at a rate of like one page per chapter for most of the volume. Plus the chapter title would make for a pretty great volume name, something the first 10 chapters of volume 101 didn’t have a whole lot of.

The Bellmere callback on the cover is super cute, and that’s all that needs to be said about it.

I’m in two minds about the sudden weather change used to setup the core moment of this chapter. We do get the in-universe explanation that dragons bring stormclouds with them, and we’ve seen Kaido’s dragon form ride in with dark clouds behind it when he was first revealed, but he didn’t make any clouds the first time he went dragon on the rooftop, even fighting against the sulong minks among the Scabbards. So why now? I might be inclined to call the weather change something contrived in order to get the haki clash moment, but the result is so cool that I’ve already completely forgiven it.

The dragon battle looks absolutely incredible. Kaido’s dragon form has always made for really memorable visuals, which almost makes me wish we had more time with both him and Momo onscreen. I particularly love the image of Momo spiralling aroud the blast breath. I’m sure some will complain about Momo’s bite hurting Kaido because it doesn’t hit their powerscaling headcanons, but I think it’s a worthwhile moment. It’s great that the thing that pushes Momo past his fear isn’t just getting big, but standing up in a meaningful way to his greatest fear, even if he did so with a whole lot of Luffy’s help. I don’t think the effect of the bite means he suddenly has advanced haki or anything like that – we saw from Kid’s tactics during the Supernovas’ rooftop bout that Kaido’s insides are vulnerable to being crushed even while his scales remain impenetrable, and any reasonable guess at the jaw strength of a predator that size says its bite would freaking hurt. Or just follow the Pokemon logic that dragon beats dragon.

And man, what great therapy it must be to make Kaido scream and live to tell of it. I’d be feeling invincible if I was in Momo’s position.

As much as I love the detail of the skull’s eye remaining broken where Momo broke in last chapter, I keep glancing at it and thinking it’s a speech bubble, wondering why it’s been left blank.

Carrot being reduced to yelling Catviper’s name and not getting to help fell Perospero was pretty disappointing. Whole Cake Island made her one of the most prominent non-Strawhat characters for more than seven volumes, literally years of real-world time. It’s fine for her to fall back into the fringes now that arc is over, but for her to be sidelined so hard in a fight she was present for and had such a genuine emotional stake in feels like a disservice to her former prominence. Well guess if nothing else it shows Oda doesn’t feel pressured at all by poll results in making plans for his characters.

Love the panel of Zoro and Sanji fighting back to back. Looking forward to getting back to that scene.

The chapter ends with a series of truly gorgeous spreads. I love that Luffy’s sky plitting moment is something that actually has an impact on the wider battle. So much of CoC prior to the coating revelation has just been a way for high level guys to dickmeasure before coming to blows.

Oh, and Orochi’s still kicking, surprising no one.

I’m not the first to say it, but I think it’s pretty likely the remaining enemies will continue to go down in pairs, save for Big Mom. Orochi and Fukurokuju would be a good set to take out together. I think Orochi’s done trying to fight, having set fire to Kaido’s house and lost seven out of his presumed eight lives already. He’s come right to the back door of the castle, so I think he’s just gonna creep out. My bet’s still on Denjiro tracking him down, having learned to predict him through all those years as a lapdog. Feels likely Hyori could get involved as well, but I don’t see Oda making her into a fighter this late in the game. That leaves Apoo and Hawkins and King and Queen, plus Big Mom. The remaining Numbers might show up to keep the fodder busy, but I’m not expecting much from them. I’m expecting these beats to play out fairly quickly over the next few chapters, leaving the second half of volume 102 to be completely Luffy vs Kaido.

Solid chapter overall with some absolutely vital moments and great visuals. I never really understood the hype surrounding Jack or the need to get another drawn out clash with him after he got all of Zou to himself, but I can understand feeling underwhelmed by Perospero’s showing at Onigashima. The dude had a lot of narrative baggage pinned to him from Whole Cake Island and Oda decided to use almost none of it and instead had him felled by a character who wasn’t even part of that arc. It’s not as much of a miss as Page One and Ulti’s sudden defeats, but it still feels like a story beat that needed more time in the oven. Regardless, I think the Onigashima battle’s gotten a lot more right than it has wrong since the Supernovas hit the roof and I’m really looking forward to seeing how it concludes.

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

We’re at the first possible end point for volume 101, and what a place it is to stop. We’re also back to normal cover pages, which once again raises the question of which chapter the WT100 spread will be made part of for the volume release, if it’s used at all in that version. All at once ahead of chapter 1024 is my guess, but it’s a bit of an enigma. I wasn’t expecting to see Momo’s flight this soon. I really thought Oda would try to wrap up the remaining fights before bringing Luffy back to the island, but I’m glad he went about it this way. Luffy and Momo’s interruption of the others’ battles were a joy to behold.

Yamato’s past turns out to legitimately be pretty rough. Twenty years sneaking around the castle like an intruder, unable to leave but unable to live normally. I can only imagine that kind of tension reinforced the need to be Oden as a way to survive. After all, it was a feat of inhuman endurance that brought Oden to Yamato’s attention in the first place.

The suggestion that ogres were an actual race is a fascinating development that I wasn’t strongly expecting. So Kaido isn’t an ancient giant then? Or were ancient giants ogres all along? Or are ogres to humans as ancient giants are to regular giants. And a pretty demonic kind of people to namedrop so soon after bringing in the angelic Lunarians. I have so many questions! I’m not particularly bothered by the oni/ogre translation debate for the moment. Wano is the Japan-themed arc, justifying a lot more loanwords than usual, but Kaido isn’t from Wano, so it tracks he wouldn’t describe himself by the local culture’s mythology. Of course, this may be contradicted as we learn more about the ogre race in the future, but for now it’s not a problem. The last panel of this sequence is great. Kaido really looks like the monster he’s been built up as. His hybrid form can stil often be underwhelming, but when it looks good, it looks good.

Giant dragon Momo tearing through the dome and the castle is an absolutely magical sequence and may go down as one of the highlights of the whole arc. I wonder if all these new holes in the castle are going to have an impact on the fights taking place there – like letting Kid and Killer communicate about Hawkins’ trap for them, or giving the pirates still in the castle a new way to flee the spreading fires.

Once again, I love seeing consistent environmental damage. The exterior shots show a hole above the eye socket where Momo entered, and the wide view of the roof really makes it look torn up by the many fights that have taken place there. That’s a well-worn boss arena if I ever saw one.

Luffy and Momo coming up screaming behind Yamato as he tries to stike a dramatic pose is peak One Piece. I’m glad we get to see an encore Snakeman performance before the inevitable new form or gear that’ll close out this battle. Seems that Luffy’s a lot more able to freely go in and out of Gear Four now as well. Back in Whole Cake Island, he seemed to go into the haki-exhausted state from transforming back after throwing one quick punch at Big Mom, and now he’s in and out of it between panels with no ill effects.

Kaido says at the end that the world doesn’t need two dragons, but he’s incredibly, painfully wrong on that point, because two dragons were exactly what this arc needed. The main panel of them confronting each other in the last spread is a treat, but the one below that shows both their bodies snaking around is brilliant as well. Just fantastic work from Oda. Take your break, man, you’ve earned it!