Captain M Entertainment

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

This is a hell of chapter with some big hype behind it. Everyone here mainly for the fights is eating well. I had a great time reading it, but there were two little things that didn’t sit spectacularly with me. But I wanna get some miscellaneous thoughts out of the way first.

I enjoyed Law saying outright he’d consider the plan a failure if anyone died. This has always been his character, but as recently as this arc he still trying to project this edgy persona saying anyone who got captured should be prepared for torture and death (before running off to sacrifice himself for the first people who got captured).

Big Mom and Prometheus cutting Zeus off confirms more than ever that he’s going to make it back to Nami and probably be a permanent part of her arsenal.

I don’t think Kid and Killer taking on Big Mom is the final matchup for her. It doesn’t feel climactic. It doesn’t feel personal. Kid’s had his skirmishes in Big Mom’s terrirory, sure, but that doesn’t feel like enough. There’ll be something else here, I’m sure of it. Maybe the currently-opponentless Sanji will show up and get a chance to ask her what she ddi with his family. Or after their individual matchups, the Strawhats come in to challenge her as a group, proving they’re still in the ballpark of what Luffy can take on.

Zoro brings out the long-neglected fan favourite Asura, wounds Kaido and is all-but confirmed to have Conqueror’s Haki. It’s an amazing showcase for a character who’s had some great moments but hasn’t really been challenged since the timeskip. Prior to this, I could have gone either way on the theories about him having the haki, so I appreciate that Zoro seems to feel the same way. Being the lucky one in a million with the special haki is immeterial to him and his goals. He’d be shooting for the top one way or the other.

As good as the last sequence is, it’s where I have some misgivings about the chapter. Is it just me, or would the moment where Luffy stands up again have worked much better if we’d had the panels showing Luffy was unconscious in the last chapter, directly after Ragnaraku? Without seeing how much damage he actually took at the time, I didn’t feel all that much tension about Luffy’s status and whether or not he’d be up again this chapter. Even accounting for haki, enduring big hits and bouncing back is Luffy’s whole deal. If Oda wants me to think Luffy’s in trouble after an attack, he’s gotta sell it a tiny bit more. Even just that one whited-out-eyes panel is enough to send the message, but not if it comes up this late.

If we’d had it last week, not only do we get to spend a whole week speculating on when or how he’ll get back up, or if he’ll need medical intervention to get a second wind, but having Luffy be definitively down before it starts would make the operation to remove Big Mom feel all the more critical. Luffy having been down for a week would make Zoro and Law’s last stand feel even more desperate. We feel more satisfied when Luffy finally does get up because we’ve had to wait all that much longer for it.

But maybe I’m overthinking things. I haven’t done a proper reread of Onigashima since it started so I’m only taking about the week to week pacing. It’ll probably feel better on the volume reread, as is often the case. When you’re doing these things a chapter at a time, it’s easy to loose track of the forest among the trees.

And the other point of contention here is the Conqueror’s Haki revelation. I think CoC worked better when it mostly was just a fodder filter and a way for top level fighters to dickmeasure about their ambitions before they smack each other around. Sure, it’s always had a physical component – Shanks’ haki warped and broke the Moby Dick’s deck; Luffy and Katakuri’s combined use cracked the floor and shattered pillars in the Mirroworld; and Usopp’s lie about his haki causing earthquakes was broadly deemed believable – but this is the first time we’ve seen it used directly for offence.

I think they way the powerup is portrayed muddies the water a lot with Luffy’s last powerup – the haki projection and injection he learned from Hyogoro. We know Luffy picked that up because we saw him destroy the collars, blow up the tree before the raid and do substantial harm to Kaido with his regular attacks, but the dialogue here feels like the move only truly clicks when you add offensive CoC to the mix as well. Even though we know they’re two different things, Oda hasn’t made it distinct enough where CoA ends and CoC begins, or if Luffy’s using just CoC instead of both at once, or any other way it might be, which makes the initial advanced armament powerup feel a little cheaper. And it feels like the highest level techniques are only for the one in a million with the special haki (plus training to be one of the “handful of the very strongest” on top of that). We’ve yet to see anyone without CoC do the clash-without-touching thing.

It’s definitely always been a little bit of a thing that Luffy was born special (CoC, Voice of All Things, Will of the D, liniage of the Navy’s hero and the Revolutionary), and that’s not inherently a bad thing, but it has so rarely felt like those factors are so much of a leg up over any other pirate trying to get by on guts alone.

There’s definitely more we have to learn about all of this, and a few quick remarks in the middle of combat aren’t the best way to learn about a new skill, so I’m going to reserve my final judgement on it until we get some post-battle or SBS elaboration. We don’t know how much of an edge CoC gives over reaching advanced CoA the hard way. We also don’t know if there’s a secret interaction between CoC and CoO as well, which would at least make things feel better thought out than a straight last-minute offensive boost. But for now, it’s not sitting quite right with me.

And that’s the chapter. The final panel is a great callback to a highlight from earlier in the arc and should definitely be remembered as the moment there was no longer any possible doubt about the raid succeeding and Kaido going down, at least from a narrative standpoint. But as climactic as all this feels, there’s no way this is the final stage of the fight. Even though we’ve had the traditional small fakeout defeat for Luffy and a come from behind with a new technique. There’s too much still happening down below to wrap up the main event. The pendulum has to swing back Kaido’s way at least one more time. Which means there’s probably a more substantial near-death moment for some more new skills (probably a new Gear form implementing the new haki) for Luffy at some point in the future, but probably after another status update from the characters fighting inside.

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

Cute, classic-feeling colour spread with the whole crew together. Presumably, from the architecture, the trees and the very Japanese statues, this one’s taking place in Ringo. I feel like it’s fairly rare to be able to suscribe a colour spread theme to a specifc known location like this, but I can’t be bothered running the numbers to see if that’s true. Love the outfits for this one especially. Robin’s leather jacket and jeans combo is great, the horns on Brook’s hood are amazing, and Franky’s “CYBORG HENTAI” speaks for itself.

Not sure about using the Japanese Naraku as the title for this one. I can see the reference to the Buddhist Naraka, but it’s not the most intuitive thing in the world to research. The wikipedia page for Naraku is only the sixth result in google, and even that’s a disambiguation page. How many people, particularly among the casual readers, are actually going to pick this one up at all? I get that we’re in the One Piece version of Japan, but I think at least shifting it to the better-known Buddhist name would have made the reference more accessible.

The spread of Orochi losing all his heads to a combo attack from the Scabbards is something I expected his arc to end on, and certainly not what I thought would happen this soon. As of this chapter we’re only seven heads down out of eight, so there’s obviously more to come, but now I’ve got no clue what Oda’s endgame for both him and the Scabbards is.

The scabbards also depart into the burning part of the castle fairly casually, and we can see the Beasts Pirates fighting the fire, so it’s hard to say how much of a factor that’s going to be going forward. Interesting that we’re getting another Scabbard set up for a solo fight as well. There can’t possibly be enough opponents left for all of them to have one, right?

Combo attacks and tag-in-tag-out fighting are what I’m living for in the rooftop clash, so this was a great chapter. I do think, however, that Kaido and Big Mom’s combo attack suffers a little bit of poor conveyance. It’s hard to say how much of what made the attack so impossible to dodge was speed and how much as size. It seems like it’s Law’s teleportation that saves them in the end, but given that it’s essentially instant, speed shouldn’t be an issue, right? I could accept that it takes him a moment to spread a room further than the radius of the attack, but we don’t see him setting that up. I usually don’t complain about “talking is a free action” as a shonen trope, but it’s definitely had an impact on my attempt to visualise the action here.

It’s also hard to tell what kind of attack is actually being used. Is it a flying slash-style air pressure shockwave? Haki? A miscellaneous energy thing, generated in the same way Luffy and others make fire with no better explanation? The similar attack used by Dorry and Broggy on Little Garden seemed like just air, but Big Mom’s version on Tottoland got an interesting purple filter in the colour manga. Unlike the anime, the colour manga doesn’t usually add that kind of flourish on its own, so I consider it worth taking note of. Oda uses the kind of screentones he would for a bright light in this chapter, even though he didn’t in Big Mom’s Tottoland version.

What I do think is cool is how easily Kaido matches Big Mom’s move. She was raised in Elbaf, so it makes sense for her to use giant fighting styles, but where did Kaido learn it? From her while they were in Rocks? On his own journey to the giants’ homeland? Through his apparent ancient giant heritage? He also references the Norse Raknarok in his later attack, and we all know the giants are the Viking-inspired people of One Piece. There’s so much we don’t know about this man!

Luffy goes right back on the offensive, and Kaido… dodges? That’s interesting. It not new information that the three captains are capable of harming Kaido, we learned that in the opening chapters of this fight. What this really tells us is that the damage being done is starting to add up. At the end of the last chapter, captains were talking like they’d been landing a lot of hits offscreen but couldn’t tell if they were dealing lasting damage. Which means Kaido’s been straight up taking the hits and acting like they’re nothing, but if he’s dodging now, he’s starting to feel like he can’t afford to keep doing that! So before the inevitable complaints of the fight ending too quickly and too easily for the alliance, here’s our first clue that the boss’s health pool is draining.

I almost feel compelled to wonder from this point how much of Kaido’s reputation as an invincible creature, only damagable with super advanced techniques, is an intentionally cultivated image, created by no-selling big hits whether or not they actually do damage. I’m not denying that his scales are tough, but at the same time his fall from Balloon Terminal rattled his insides enough to cause a nasty headache, so who knows when and if he was taking chip damage from things like Luffy’s original Gear Four salvo.

I said last week that I thought Kaido’s hybrid form being underwhelming was largely a presentation issue, and this chapter has absolutely proved me right. I love the way he moves in his skirmish with Luffy here. His musceleman body coils and twists like the dragon form, and the tail whipping around behind him has a great effect on the apparent speed of his movements. The unhinged jaw for the mini blast breath has a great, truly demonic look as well. This is the Oda-style motion and posing I was hoping to see!

The play to remove Big Mom from the fight is definitely going to go down as a highlight. It’s a great sequence that shows the strengths of the fighters and the weaknesses of the enemy perfectly. It’s something for anyone who thinks One Piece fights have become powerlevel spam following the introduction of haki. Our boys aren’t just fighting hard, they’re fighting smart, and you love to see it. (Although, even if Law can’t teleport Big Mom or Kaido around, this maybe raises the question of why he hasn’t been moving her homies away from her more often, or taking the club out of Kaido’s hand.) Zeus in a box all but confirms his return to Nami’s hands. When Big Mom first took him back it became questionable if Oda was going to let him stay part of her arsenal long-term, but I don’t think there’s any more doubt. Zoro confirms himself for Smash. It’s meant to be a game character only zone, but he got a little lost. Killer’s bit with Napoleon looks a little ridiculous. We couldn’t have the sword fighting on its own or something to let the guy look a little cooler? Kid takes a hell of a hit, and Big Mom goes flying.

She seems to think there’s only sea underneath, which doesn’t track with what we saw of Mount Fuji a couple of chapters ago. Maybe she was paying too close attention to the battle to be on top of the island’s location, or maybe this is jut going to be another thing like the Noah falling on Fishman Island where it’s as close to its target as it needs to be in any given chapter.

Hard to say where Big Mom’s plot goes from here. If there’s really just sea below, I can see that being it for her in Wano. I’d be very surprised to see her left without a clear defeat to menace another arc. Hitting the surface could result in another O-Lin episode. Or she could just not fall at all. She made a flying carpet homie for Pudding, so who knows what she could do with her kimono with some quick thinking and a fragment of soul.

I hope we don’t cut away from the rooftop too quickly next week. I want to see Kaido’s reaction to Big Mom’s fall, and what Oda can do with him in this new form in a focussed five on one. This is great. I’m living for my weekly One Piece fix lately.

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

I’m glad the Oden thing got wrapped up right away. Still felt like it was drawn out too long, purely by virtue of coinciding with a break, but I think the answer was about as good as could have been hoped for. Having Hyori heal the Scabbards first as a red herring was actually a pretty smart move in hindsight, making everyone believe the fake Oden had to be in cahoots with her. I had my money on Onimaru mainly based on that, but I was actually starting to enjoy the potential of it being a ghost/spirits thing by the end. But instead we get the return of Kanjuro in what has to be the cruelest possible way for the Scabbards. Hopefully he gets a more fulfilling end this time. And where did Hyori go after playing medic?

While brave and shocking, I definitely don’t believe Ashura was killed in his sacrifice. He’ll probably find the strength to stand up for one more attack, probably to help with the final Orochi-head-severing. There was a time I might have believed some or all of the Scabbards could potentially meet bittersweet ends during the battle, but that ship sailed when they escaped the roof with their lives. Maybe we’ll see another limb go before it’s all over, but that’s as much as I’m expecting.

Orochi’s back too, shocking no one. If his plan works and the whole interior of Onigashima goes up in flames, how sick is the island going to look flying through the air with fire coming out of its eyes and mouth? I assume it’s going to take a group Scabbard effort to fell him, with one samurai taking out each head. Are they all going to get a chapter to their name before it happens though? Between them and the Strawhats, and supporting cast members like Hyo and Tama (kinda) also getting name chapters, maybe this battle has more juice left in it than I gave it credit for.

Oda once again hints at Momo getting a Kaido-size transformation. I feel like he can have a role to play in the battle without such a huge and sudden boost, but we’ll see how it’s handled when we get there.

Kaido’s hybrid form is definitely a bit of a letdown. I don’t think that’s totally on the design of it – it’s the standard and expected arms, legs, tail and cowling model used for most hybrids already – but the presentation. Look at him; he’s just kinda standing there awkwardly. I can understand flat posing on regular Kaido, with his brick shithouse body and tree trunk arms. That version can only be so flexible before it starts to get uncanny. But the hybrid model is thinner in the limbs, giving them a greater range of movement. It would have been so much easier to draw him coiled to strike, or brandishing his weapon, or visibly reveling in the thrill of battle, but Oda’s just left him with the most neutral body language possible. Maybe it wouldn’t stand out so much if he wasn’t right next to Big Mom, who’s looking a hell of a lot more like you expect a One Piece villain to. Her manic energy and raised weapons are a stark point of contrast to the dull lizard man. The anime doesn’t have to touch her for you to see the flames dancing in her hair and the lighting strobing around her fist. It’s all drawn so energetically that your mind fills that stuff in on its own. Now that’s a villain with some character!

Kaido has been a weird mixed bag of a character/villain for the Wano arc. Only a few weeks ago I was praising the battles against his dragon form as some of the most artistically impressive action in the series to date, but now I’m complaining he’s underwhelming. I could tell you a lot of his personality traits – he’s a messy, emotional drunk, he’s suicidal and wants a glorious death, even if he has to start a war to get it but despite this and being borderline invincible he shows clear trauma over being seriously wounded in the past, he beats and imprisons his child but is seemingly willing to respect it when that child decides they want to be a son instead of a daughter – but he rarely feels like he actually has a personality when he’s onscreen. On paper, the contradictions in his feelings about battle and death and treatment of Yamato should make for a compelling character, but in practice he ends up this grim, stony-faced monolith. Why introduce fun drunk Kaido if the first hit of every battle “sobers him up” and prevents him from interacting with anyone in that state?

At least he’s connected to enough interesting lore for a possible flashback to be a Wano highlight regardless of how he does in the present.

Anyway, decent chapter even if it feels odd to suddenly set up more stuff right when it felt like we might start building toward conclusions instead. It’s a shame to have a Kaido reveal fall short of expectations after spending eight years building up this battle, but these things stand out mainly because Oda usually does them so well. We seemingly have a decent chunk of Onigashima left to go, so there’s plenty of time to put the new form to good use or even reveal another, more visually interesting one.

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

This chapter feels like half of a really good chapter and half of a really meh one. Chopper’s big moment and the talk about Punk Hazard and the artificial fruit were great, but the opening pages feel like they’re going around in circles, building up the threats of the ice oni and the yakuza taking each other out again and again even though that was made perfectly clear at the end of the last chapter. Queen’s big evil speech in that section is definitely necessary to emphasise why the Waiters and Pleasures swapped side, but I can’t help feeling it could have been done in half as many pages. And then there’s the stuff at the end…

Since we’ve seen battles raging in basically every indoor area of Onigashima at this point, it’s hard to say what percentage of the surviving Beasts Pirates were on the Performance Floor for Queen’s speech and the ice oni debacle, but considering it seems to be the main battlefield, I’d say the losses are significant. It’s interesting how Kaido and his executives keep talking about betrayal to the Straw Hats and their allies, but recent chapters have had their underlings turn on them one after the other. Oda’s obviously building this up as a theme, but a full analysis of that kind of thing is best left until the arc is done and we’ve seen how far he takes it.

Chopper getting to save the day is well-deserved. He’s been a very backgroundy mascot character for a long time, but here he gets to make a stand for his beliefs, show off visually with his personalised mushroom cloud and reaffirm how necessary his two years of training were. No one’s going to be underestimating this little raccoon ever again. And, of course, he gets to land a blow on one of the big name enemies, which is a first. I doubt Queen is down for good, so hopefully we get to see a little bit more of a Monster Point battle in the future. And hey, Monster Point really lives up to its name. Maybe I should have known after he was withstanding the kind of Big Mom hits that sent Jinbei and Luffy flying away back during the Tottoland escape, but still, what strength!

The talk of Momo’s fruit being a failure obviously sets it up to be the exact opposite of that, and probably in a way that will save the day, but what exactly would that mean? Momo’s fruit doesn’t have the jank that Smiles do, he just seems to be unable to control the transformation. Will something change to make it act like the real thing? Will he gain control over his changes? Become a full-size dragon like Kaido?

But the really interesting part is that Kaido’s Bloodline Elements specifically were used to create Momo’s fruit. While we knew all the way back in Punk Hazard that Bloodline Elements were a factor in artificial devil fruit creation, we didn’t know how direct that was. And this has implications! Firstly, devil fruits alter the user genetically on such a level that the fruit can be recreated from their blood. Good to know. Think about how Big Mom got her fruit from eating Mother Carmel. Does eating a fruit make a person on some level become the fruit for that to work? What about Blackbeard’s ability to use his gravity to remove a fruit entirely – not just block the ability to activate powers like seastone or hit a true body despite transformations like haki, but remove even one-time transformations like Luffy’s. What exactly is his power pulling on to make that work? And what does it mean for his ability to steal powers and use multiple powers? What about how people can’t eat two devil fruits at once? Suppose the human genome can withstand one devil fruit mutation (which is essentially what they are, apparently), but a second alteration changes your genetics too far beyond humanity to continue functioning. Look at Judge using Bloodline Elements to give his kids superpowers, or how Vegapunk was able to replicate Kizaru’s lasers. How much of that do you think came from copying devil fruit genetics? The implications!

Better still, if you subscribe to the genetic chimera theory for Blackbeard, this is a strong point of evidence in its favour. We’ve been given all the in-universe setup and terminology we need to say “he has an odd body with more than one kind of Bloodline Elements, and each fruit he eats affects a different set.” Obviously this doesn’t change much about the actual theory, but it saves finding a way to insert the wikipeadia entry for genetic chimeraism into the manga by giving the characters the ability to say it in their own words.

Now to be fair, making devil fruits genetic mutations does feel like it stops one step short of midichlorians, but I think it still works with what we know so far.

Oh, and while we’re on the topic of Punk Hazard, wonder what else Vegapunk tried to do with those Kaido Bloodline Elements, hmmm?

That head shape, the horns, the nostril shape, the round spots separating the hide from the underbelly…

And even more on the topic, how much does a zoan fruit make the user’s genetics similar to the animal the fruit is based on? Could that have something to do with why all the Smiles ended up being zoan types? That easy access to Bloodline Elements that match those of the fruits being made?

And you know, the island did have a suspicious amount of spare animal legs lying around for Law to use to make centaurs out of Caesar’s paralysed staff…

I reckon Punk Hazard is going to go off on a reread. It’s going to have that Skypiea thing where it’s kind of unappreciated in its time by casual readers but the further we go the more apparent its importance becomes.

And after that absolutely fascinating bit of lore, we get to the final two pages. There is no doubt in my mind that Oden is dead. Onimaru and Kanjuro are the most obvious suspects, though the motives remain murky in either case. And because of how impossible it is, the whole scene feels pretty cheap as cliffhangers go. And what a place to end for a break week. The subreddit is going to be intolerable until the next chapter hits.

Oh, and finally, this means Momo, using the dragon powers that came from Kaido’s Bloodline Elements, would have at least a passing genetic similarity to Kaido. Could this play into the climax of the arc in some way? Most would agree Momo doesn’t have the size or strength to lift Onigashima on his own, but suppose he could hijack and redirect Kaido’s flame clouds, given that he’s essentially using a cloned version of the same power. Could we end up with a battle of wills to move the island where it needs to be, or at least buy time, while Luffy and co fight the final stage of their battle?

AND FINALLY, how we still don’t know much about Kaido’s resemblance to the legendary Ancient Giant race and how much of a factor that is in the experiments done on him. Remember that Punk Hazard was once used for efforts to create artificial giants, and how it had that one room full of frozen giant corpses?

Let’s look at the Numbers, who we know originated on Punk Hazard, and are a bit too monstrous to just be giants, but a bit too human to be dragons. Suppose they were early efforts, the results of inexperienced geneticists being unable to separate Kaido’s ancient giant heritage from the dragon mutation from his fruit. Juki even has a little bit of that elongated head shape that was so familiar between Kaido and the guard dragon. It all fits together just a bit too well.

And I know most of what I’ve highlighted here isn’t new or original theory, but I’m just excited that Oda’s confirmed a major connecting thread and locked in the in-story terminology for it.

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

A full villains colour spread isn’t something we’ve had in a looooong time. You might even be able to say it’s unprecedented. The Warlords spread for chapter 532 wasn’t technically all villains, and the Baroque Works one all the way back in chapter 160 still managed to sneak in Luffy and Eyelashes. The other ones that have featured villains (Arlong’s crew for chapter 82 and Cipher Pol for chapter 377) also had the Strawhats lined up against them. Part of me is worried the choice to do a big colour piece of the villains here means they won’t get the cover for volume 99, but we’ll see how we go.

The overhead shot in the first page after the spread actually shows that the bridge that ran across the middle in the establishing shots of the Performance Floor was knocked down. We still don’t know by who and at what point in the battle, but it’s nice that Oda actually acknowledged it. That said, it’s kinda one step forward two steps back for Onigahima’s interior layout, as what we see of the lower half of the Performance floor doesn’t really seem to match the map. Look at the map oriented with the birds eye view here:

There should be another structure next to the bathhouse that isn’t drawn at all, even when we see that area from below as Yamato and Perospero approach it later in the chapter. Oda hasn’t even left any room for it to fit.

And speaking of those two, Yamato’s group is seen ascending toward the Performance Floor early in the chapter, then disappear. They don’t pass through Marco’s fight or Hyo’s rampage, which should have been in their path, but they’re also not there anymore when Perospero catches up to the same place near the end of the chapter. Did they take a detour around the main battleground? Or were they picked up by a certain individual with a quick movement speed, high-tech stealth gear and the ability to fly while carrying several grown adults? I think that’s gonna be my guess on Sanji’s choice.

Outside, Carrot and Wanda have fallen, which is a damn shame. I hope Carrot’s able to pick herself up and get at least some catharsis and closure before all’s said and done. I really enjoyed her presence as a supporting member of the Tottoland cast so it stings that she’s been sidelined so hard through Wano. There was a time she even had crewmate potential, but I think that dream is dead at this point.

I like that we got a glimpse of buff Hyogoro in a background shot last chapter, without any of the context to set up how he got like that. It’s those kinds of little details that can only be fully understood on the reread that make this series worth revisiting as much as I do. And it turns out Hyo was a beast back in the day. I figured he’d be no slouch, having enough skill to train Luffy, but wow! He seems to have singlehandedly tied off the Oniwabanshu and Mimawarugimi plot threads in the battle, though Fukurojiku remains at large, presumably doing something nefarious.

Queen shows up in an unexpected place, down near the end of the upper level of the Performance Floor. Last we saw him, he was up on the castle balcony. He couldn’t have got to where he is without going past Chopper’s group, so either he doesn’t see the antivirus plan as a threat, or he just considers Marco (or moving in Yamato’s direction) the higher priority. I also really appreciate that when we see it, his gun still shows the damage Zoro caused to it. Does that thing still work as a sawn-off?

Marco seems to be taking a leaf out of Hawks’ book (from My Hero Academia) using all those feathers the way he does. No complaints here, Hawks is one of my Hero Aca favourites.

For spacing reference, King is last seen being dunked into the bathhouse, which is the same location Usopp and Nami were originally fighting Page One and Ulti a while back. Queen is kicked from the roof of the bathouse into the side of the closest building on the upper level. Then Marco descends to near the stairs leading out to be seen by Perospero.

The chapter ends on a pretty tense note for old Hyo, but there’s no doubt in my mind Chopper’s going to come through with the antidote at the last moment.

I really enjoyed this one overall. We’ve got heroes falling and running out of stamina rapidly, potentially leaving some of the heaviest hitters on the island (who all seem to be in better shape) free to wreak havoc among the rank and file. And with the Sulon-empowering moon out of sight and the Flower Capital dangerously close, this feels like it could be the start of the battle’s darkest hour. I’m on the edge of my seat.

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

I’ve said more than enough about Sanji’s current direction already, and I can’t be bothered going over it all again. Bottom line is I just really don’t vibe with what Oda’s been doing with him. I’m sure for people who are on board with his New World depiction the moment where he can’t even turn on his haki for fear of hurting Black Maria’s (brass knuckle-equipped) hand is a hilarious new extreme for his chivalry, but on my end it feels like an eyeroll-inducing new low after seeing the same character at least be able to meet Kalifa and Big Mom’s attacks with his kicks for the sake of self-defence in the past.

But I can forgive it this time. For two reasons.

a) Even though he probably should have done so sooner, choosing to call for help and rely on his crew instead of just flaming out like he did against Kalifa does show some actual growth both from that moment and from his self-sacrifice attempts in Tottoland.

and b) it set up the Robin and Brook tag team fight I’ve been missing all my life.

Oh, and one more bit of credit I have to give the Sanji/Black Maria scene is that it’s drawn and framed really well. I love how Oda uses the webs in foreground layers to break up the panels.

This battle is something that’s long overdue for Robin and she comes in with such style. She’s been one of my favourite members of the crew since Ennies Lobby but it feels like she’s given the spotlight so infrequently. Brook was the MVP in the last arc so I wasn’t expecting anything as big for him here, but hell, I’ll take him coming along for the battle. He’s another underrated fave, so it really just comes together perfectly.

Black Maria choosing to fight topless (well, naked, I guess, it’s not like the spider half’s wearing pants) is an interesting choice from Oda. She’s still got her hair up, which is gonna make it hard enough to Godiva it in manga form, let alone what they’ll have to do to keep it from going outside the anime’s age rating when it all has to actually be in motion. I don’t get why she needed to strip to fight in the first place though. Was she hiding that weapon in her kimono?

And speaking of, if I had to guess the flow of the fight, the fire on that thing is going to make it hard for Robin to handle no matter how big she makes her arms. Lucky she’s got Brook there to chill it out first.

In other areas of the battle, we can see Marco getting pushed to the lower level of the dome by King, back toward the entrance. I’ve seen a few people incorrectly place them at the base of the castle, but you can see the ledge, the stairs and the upper level bridges and buildings between them and the castle.

Yamato explains the spying animals. I don’t know if Marys was the right choice for their name. At first I thought it might have been intended as “Merries,” making the unit possibly an offshoot of the Pleasures. Stephen goes into the Japanese version and decision making on Twitter here, and I would have preferred even the most basic attempt at a pun. As it is, Marys sounds almost like it could reference a bunch of things (Black Maria’s name and a play on Queen Mary, assuming a certain Lead Performer created them, being among the suggestions in the Twitter thread), none of which are even close to the mark. Even something as simple as Walls-have Eyes (thinking along the lines of Wonder Egg Priority‘s Seeno Evils) would at least not lead people in so many wrong directions.

It doesn’t look like Momonosuke actually got in Yamato’s shirt in the escape panel, which begs the question of where he is. While we know Momo has to at least speak to Kaido before the battle is over, Yamato’s narrative endgame isn’t quite as clear. Opponents worthy of a 1v1 are quickly running out, with Sanji seemingly being set up to fight Jack for his redemption. If they go left they’re tracking to get involved in King and Marco’s battle. If they go right, it’s Wanda and Carrot’s fight with Perospero. I think both of those matchups are fine without having to throw Yamato into the mix. Queen feels unaccounted for at this point, but he’s on the opposite end of the island and I can’t see Yamato taking Momo across the heart of the battlefield just to set that up.

I’m still not quite sure where we are in terms of the end of volume 99 and the start of volume 100. It’s almost a shame we can’t justify wrapping volume 99 with chapter 1003, because literally everything else feels anticlimactic by comparison. I think if I had to pick one, the mystery figure from 1004 feels a lot more like the kind of cliffhanger Oda would end a book with than the fight setup here. 12 chapters remains an outside chance, but it’s never safe to bet on that.

I think we’re going to spend a little while in this phase of focusing on the crew 1v1s before we get back to the rooftop, so I’m looking forward to seeing which fight gets the spotlight in the next chapter. Maybe Carrot and Wanda, given how long it’s been since we checked in with them. I’m also pretty keen for the digital volume 98 and colour volume 93 coming out on Wednesday. They feel so close and yet so far away, but they make this a good week for One Piece stuff.

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

If this turns out to be the final chapter of volume 99, it’s a pretty underwhelming note to end on after the extremely artistically impressive and exciting rooftop showdown. If it wouldn’t have made the book too short, I would have said the last one was a perfect place to leave off. Maybe we’re going to get 11 chapters for the first time in a while, just to get a better chapter in the end.

I had to go back to the earlier chapters to check if Tama’s power had always been translated to millet dumplings in the official. Kibi dango had just been too reinforced by the community, I guess. I don’t share the doom and gloom feelings a lot of others have about this development. Its been inevitable for a long time. It seems to only work on Gifters. We’ve been told there are only 500 Gifters, which is less than 2% of the 30,000 enemies on Onigashima. The control doesn’t seem to overwrite the Gifter’s real personality or cast them into some kind of Get Out sunken place, it just shifts their loyalties (which is still a violation, don’t get me wrong, but far from the borderline evil complete mindwipe others are saying it is). It’s a necessary development that brings back and pays off on earlier setup and contributes to the scales gradually tipping in the heroes’ favour. It’s good to see Daifugo again as well. He’s a bit part, but I really like his character design.

Franky’s fight in this chapter didn’t quite work for me. Love seeing the crew fight, but compared to the spectacle and readability of the last few chapters, this is weak. Unlike the Kaido fight, which gives its huge main enemy space to breathe, the panelling here is incredibly cramped and doesn’t always scan well. We don’t see how Tama’s Gifters disengage the armoured squad from Franky’s legs, and as a result I’m not sure who it is that Sasaki charges through on the page 10-11 spread. His own guys? Tama’s ones, who she just kamikaze’d to save Franky? (oh wow maybe there’s more of an ethical image here than I thought) A mix of both as they fought? We almost need a visual clue to tell who’s been dumpling’d and who hasn’t.

Also it looks like Shueisha didn’t scan the page properly. Where did this panel border go?

I liked seeing Nami deal a bit of damage to Ulti. After skipping to her and Usopp already being beaten before, having some of the back and forth onscreen is welcome. The need for stronger lightning implies she wants to take Zeus back, but it’s hard to see that happening now. I’d rather she pull out something new Usopp invented or find something in the environment to use to up her voltage and win the fight that way. Keep Nami fighting smart, not just taking Big Mom’s power again!

Sanji is doing Sanji stuff again. I don’t care for this part of his characterisation, but I’ve said it all before. I’m done hoping for him to get over it. I could live with him not hurting women if he found other ways to dispatch them and worked around the issue, but here he is, easily beaten. Again. At least his vote of confidence in Robin is a good moment. Hell, the idea that Robin might go up against Black Maria is a pretty exciting one. I just wish we didn’t have to go through this to get there.

The location of the Scabbards is really unclear. We’re told “castle exterior” in the same panel they’re placed on the second floor of the castle. Black Maria says her area is connected to where they are, and the castle isn’t connected to any other structures, so in what way can the Scabbards possibly be exterior? Is this a translation issue?

King seems to be fighting at ground level in the middle of the Performance Floor. Likely making good on the threat of the executives wiping out hundreds of samurai at a time.

The obvious solution to for the Scabbards’ helper is Hyori. The size, shape, emotions expressed and choice to use beng instead of doom for the sound effect don’t really allow it to be anyone else. For a moment I had hope it would be the striped-kimono stranger who showed up with Marco and Neko (after having tea with Crocus), but the shape doesn’t look like a match. I honestly can’t tell how many of the people saying Enel are memeing. Some of them seem pretty serious about it.

So yeah, hate to be negative, but this is definitely the weakest chapter we’ve had in a while, and it definitely leaves a bad taste as the potential end of a volume. Fingers crossed we can get back to the high standard set by the last few weeks in the next one.

This text was originally written for Arlong Park forums’ discussion thread. These two chapters were reviewed together because the forum was offline on the week of chapter 1002’s release.

I wouldn’t say I’m here for the fights (it’s absolutely a worldbuilding/long term narrative thing for me) but I’m really enjoying the clashes with Kaido. The artwork for all things to do with his big dragon body is incredibly impressive every time, and the sense of scale is really good. Not since Oars have we seen Luffy up against an enemy this much bigger and more monstrous than himself. It has a great sense of spectacle to it.

I like that Oda’s taking the time to show there’s multiple ways to take on the top tiers as well. Even though we know Luffy’s going to be the last man standing, it’s clear the battle’s not just about who has the bigger haki dick. Throws and slams to rattle the brain, penetrating surgical attacks and sonic blasts are just as viable ways around Kaido’s defences. It really goes a long way toward keeping the fights unpredictable and engaging.

For most of 1002, I had this creeping feeling of dread that the Supernovas were doing a little too well. Like with the Scabbards before them, the other shoe had to drop eventually. And that’s just in their efforts against Kaido. The fact that Big Mom has been almost completely ignored by the young captains while they focus their damage output on Kaido definitely feels like it’s going to bite them in the ass.

Wonder if we’re gonna see that horn Zoro cut off again. Is it blocking the side path on the outside of the dome now? Did it fall into Wano? Are we even over Wano at all yet, or is it all sea down below? How fast is Onigashima moving anyway?

Chapter 1002 really feels like it could have benefited from the extra spread available when chapters were 19 pages long instead of 17. The amazing panel of Big Mom and Kaido watching on as the lightning falls and the big moment of Luffy enduring a Blast Breath through force of will alone are battling over some fairly limited pagespace. These kinds of panels need more room to breathe than they got here.

1003 delivers more breathtaking spreads – I love the one with the dragon twisters moving around Kaido’s body – and an increase in tension as the Emperors start unleasing more and more devastating attacks while exhaustion mounts on the Supernovas. It wouldn’t shock me if there’s no one else (or close to no one else) left standing by the time Luffy recovers his Haki, leaving him alone to capitalise on the damage done so far and finish the fight.

The CP0 scene was a good, and likely necessary, recap for the rest of the battle. When you’re dealing with a warzone filled with literally thousands of battling troops on each side it can be difficult to conceptualise casualty rates and how quick each force is being depleted without an excuse to just lay the numbers out directly. The comment about the officers being able to eliminate hundreds of soldiers at a time is a big part of why I think the Pirate Warriors series was a good choice for One Piece games. They don’t nail every aspect of the series, and there’s a few big flaws inherent to the Musuo framework, but they’re a great fit for size of the fodder armies and the strength of the big name fighters in the manga currently.

The Yamato and Momo panel is the most interesting of the montage of in-progress fights. They’re obviously still in the storeroom they were in a few chapters ago, but it looks like something’s happening. Did someone find them? If so, who? There’s not so many enemies left unaccounted for that I’d expect to worry Yamato.

(also, I really don’t know where I stand on the pronoun/gender issue for Yamato anymore. The reinforcing of “Kaido’s daughter” in the volume 98 cast page and the whole shojo magazine heroines spread (which I understand to be an official promo bit) are painting a picture of what Oda and his editorial staff have as canon, and we really don’t know that much about how Yamato handles the dual identities of Yamato and Oden, due to them being introduced in the middle of a battle with much more pressing priorities than explaining what their whole deal is. I hope in the volume 99 SBS someone is able to ask directly what the hell is up with the mentions of Kaido’s son before the big reveal if it’s all getting turned around now.)

Next chapter is very likely the end of volume 99. Oda’s going to have to go big for it not to be overshadowed by so many back to back action chapters so high in the holy shit factor. We’ll see what happens. The new hybrid form and the potential damage it could do are a very exciting prospect.

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

Chapter 1000 was great, and the start of the Kaido and Big Mom fight is unquestionably a momentous event, but there was, in hindsight, a feeling that the chapter wasn’t completely for us, the up-to-date dedicated readers. Oda chose to restate important themes and goals for the series, the Will of the D, the rise of the next generation and Luffy aiming to be King of the Pirates in a way that was fitting and appropriate, yeah, but also likely went a long to illustrate to new readers who flipped through to see what was going on with all the chapter 1000 hype what the heart of the series is, and remind readers who fell off the bandwagon before but checked back in for the milestone that it hadn’t lost sight of what it was always meant to be. It was a great story showcase chapter, which was a good choice for one that would get so much attention. Chapter 1001 on the other hand, is pure action fanservice for the longtime fans from start to finish.

Strange seeing Kaido so happy for most of this chapter. With the moustache there, some of the close-ups of his mouth were giving me Roger vibes. It’s good seeing him show a bit more personality as well. The strong guy who gets caught up in the thrill of the battle and even encourages his opponents when they pose a challenge is hardly a new anime archetype, but it definitely suits One Piece more than the stony-faced immovable object Kaido has been for most of this arc.

Zoro stealing Kin’s move was a nice throwback to Punk Hazard. I wonder if we’ll see him go up against Kaido’s blast breath as well. Also loved the bickering between the three captains.

I’m not as huge a fan of Kaido asking Big Mom to stand back for half the chapter. I’m curious to see more of this fight as a real multi-threat team-up battle. It’ll be a lot less exciting if one of the big hitters is literally just waiting her turn on the sideline. Hopefully it’s just for the power showcase in this chapter though.

And what a showcase it is! The art is pretty unclear about how much damage Zoro and Killer were actually able to do, but from pained grunt and subsequent congratulation on the next page, I’d say they managed cause him pain, even if they weren’t able to break the skin. Could end up being like Luffy vs Katakuri, where they’re on the cusp of developing the skills they need and pull themselves up over the course of the fight. Kid and Law have their own approaches to Kaido’s defences. Kid seems to think that even if his skin doesn’t break, crushing wounds could do internal damage, and my initial reaction to this was to think he should know better after witnessing Kaido survive the fall from Balloon Terminal. How could he expect to to apply more pressure than the moment of impact after a sky island fall? But Kaido did get out of that crater with a splitting headache, and he makes another pained noise here, so there’s some genuine merit to the approach. Haki levels are rarely the be all and end all of fights in this series, so it’s good to see Oda showing other possible approaches even at this late stage. Law is taking a similar approach, but it remains to be seen what it takes to repel the energy-based Gamma Knife. It got inside Doflamingo without leaving a wound, but Kaido’s dragon scales and haki are both far beyond anything Doffy could pull.

Also, is it just me, or do the fingers on the left hand of Kid’s (absolutely sick looking) mech look pretty unfinished in the panel where he crushes Kaido? Looking forward to that getting fixed up in the volume.

The final spread is already one of my favourites of Wano. The scale, the detail, the nightmarish threat level of Kaido and Big Mom as a tag-team. I could look at this thing for hours. I was expecting the many social media artists who usually colour their favourite bits from new chapters to be all over this spread, but I’ve yet to see one that does it justice. Maybe it’s just taking a while because of the level of detail. I think this one’s going to be great in the digital colour manga when it finally gets here.

The Odabreak is a bitter pill to swallow after all the Christmas and New Years delays, but hey, one more off week and then the schedule should start looking a little more normal.

Oh, and wasn’t the final version of volume 98 cover meant to drop today? I kind of expected it to be put out at the same time as the chapter, but here I am, still waiting…

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

Chapter 1000. Wow. I don’t think there’s likely to be another manga with the ambition to make it this far anytime soon, and I doubt there’ll be another that catches my attention the same way. It’s no exaggeration to say One Piece has to be one of the most ambitious works of fiction ever created in terms of scale. I never would have thought when I was a little kid finding the 4kids pirate rap actually kinda catchy that the dumb cartoon I was looking at then would become important to me in ways I would struggle to fully articulate, but here we are.

Let’s talk about the big multiple-of-a-hundred event. Some were expecting a big lore reveal, the One Piece, the Dawn, the Will of the D and so on. I’ve cautioned lower expectations than that for weeks, but I’ll admit Oda managed to get my hopes up a little for the Will of the D. Maybe we’ll get it at the end of the arc. But even though the start of the battle with Kaido and Big Mom is smaller scale than that, it’s still an absolutely momentous development. Look at how many years of setup have gone into this moment: It was first revealed that Luffy and Law would be targeting Kaido in chapter 696, released in January 2013, eight years ago. But Kaido isn’t the only factor here. Luffy first invoked the wrath of Big Mom in chapter 651, which was released on January 4 2012, nine years ago to the day. Oda’s been building to this battle (and I’ve been waiting for it) for almost my whole adult life. Let’s not undersell the importance of it finally starting.

What else can you say about this chapter? It’s good to see the Minks are still in the battle to at least a small degree. They have as much reason to want to see Kaido fall as anyone, and we’ll likely see a lot more moments like Shishilian’s tears when the deed is done.

Queen being a cyborg, or, more of one that initally expected is an odd surprise, but it does explain the gun from the last chapter. I feel like it would take a bout with either Franky or Sanji for the techology inside him to be fully explained. Shame those two are both otherwise occupied for the moment.

Yamato says someone inside the castle must have saved Oden’s journal. This seems like one of those things that’s either going to be a big deal at the end of the arc, when someone we didn’t expect to be that close to Oden reveals they did it and explains some otherstuff (Hitetsu maybe?) or something utterly mundane like Kawamatsu or Hyori tried to save it but it slipped out of their pocket in the river.

More talk about Luffy’s real dream here, but still nothing substantial enough to guess what it actually is. The phrasing “at the end of his dream” sends my mind racing, but it feels like the kind of hint that’s only going to make sense in retrospect (or could only be translated in a way that gives a proper hint by someone who actually knows what the answer is). Also I don’t think that spit of rock Yamato and Ace are drinking on in the flashback actually fits anywhere in the Onigashima establishing shot, but let’s be real, there are more than enough people around who could have demolished it if they didn’t want it there anymore.

Glad Kin is still holding on. Wonder if any other Scabbards are going to turn up with lost limbs, or even if anyone’s going to turn out to be beyond saving.

God, that final attack is satisfying. I know they won’t all land that easy, but right now I just want more of that. I actually peeked the spoilers for this one, given the length of the wait for it and saw when the attack name was originally understood as Red Rock, which I actually really liked the potential of. Pre-timeskip, Luffy named his attacks after pistols, bullets, bazookas and other weapons he would have seen hanging around pirates as a kid. Post-timeskip, it was animals he trained with. I actually liked the idea of the mid-Wano training being important enough that he decided to draw from the quarry he did it in, and that we might see Gum Gum Pickaxes or Gum Gum Menhirs or who knows what else throughout the fight. But, no, Roc was probably the best choice for this one. A mythical bird for fighting legendary opponents.

Next chapter (another two painful weeks from now) the real battle starts. I can’t see either side of this face-off having particularly good personal synergy, so the safest prediction is chaos and bickering across every front, in and out of both teams. It’s been a pleasure making it through 1000 chapters with you all, here’s to at least a couple hundred more.