Captain M Entertainment

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.

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

Here we are. Final chapter of triple digits. Next chapter, I find out of the filenaming scheme for my offline archive holds up to the new digit, or if I’ll have to go back and add an extra 0 in front of every previous chapter number.

The Jump cover is a nice tribute. I’m not reading a whole lot of other ongoing series at the minute, only Hero Aca and Dr Stone, so I don’t recognise most of the artists, but the variety of character choices is great. Only real letdown is Boichi choosing Ace, because come on man, we already know you can draw Ace. Give us something new!

First half of the combined colour spread looks great. It’s so detailed! Where’s the other half? It’s painful to have this come up with the Christmas break. Just painful.

Yamato’s flashback gives us some Onigashima layout weirdness. The jet of flame in the establishing shot would have you think they’re fighting at the entrance, but then on the next page they’re in the middle of the Performance Floor (which in this time period has no less than three bridges over the middle corridor that just aren’t there in the present), and then a page after that, Mihal is talking to Ace from the docks. The dragon gate that Yamato smashes also seems to be outside. At least with Mihal’s bit the double panel boarder indicates a jump forward in time after Ace notices Yamato’s handcuffs. Now that I’ve reread it a couple of times, it’s clear that the sequence of events is Ace and Yamato fought outside first, then reached a standstill in the Performance Floor, Yamato told him Kaido was gone and stood down, actually standing by to let Ace save the children (I don’t even want to know what Kaido wanted to use those kids for), and then Ace goes back and restarts his fight with Yamato after the ship was loaded up. It was hard to follow initially because despite the movements in time and location, the dialogue is written like it could be one unbroken conversation and the one actual signpost of a transition is subtle and easy to miss. This all could have been drawn a lot clearer, but it would have been hard to do so without adding more pages to it, which probably wouldn’t have been worth it over all.

The gate that initially held the dragon statue, like the bridges over the Performance Floor, also doesn’t seem to be there anymore. It should have been visible in the establishing shot in chapter 978, but it isn’t, so I guess Kaido tore the whole thing down when he gave up on the statue.

Ace forgetting Cavendish’s name when in what was meant to be Cavenwhatever’s prime, before the Worst Generation stole his spotlight, is a great little gag, and getting timelines for some of the other Supernovas hitting the seas is a nice little lore thing. Ace’s faith in Luffy is heartwarming as well. He was a good brother. I always forget how charming he was until he actually comes back onscreen.

It would have been nice to have these scenes mentioned or at least as hinted at in the Ace novels. Without them, the books already feel dated. And speaking of, I’ve seen people in different comment sections talking about this flashback and the one with Tama at the start of Wano “canonising” Ace’s crew from the novel, as if they were created purely for the book. That’s just not the case. Go back to chapter 552 and compare the people with Ace when he fought Jinbe to the sketches at the back of the novel. The manga art is pretty low-res, but there’s the right number of people and nearly half the crew is distinct enough to be recognised as themselves even from this distance.

Ace’s crew has always been canon. They just got a bit more room to breathe in the novel.

Going back to the present, and we can see that the storeroom Momo and Yamato are hiding in is actually inside the skull dome, just below the lower half of the Performance Floor, on a path branching off from the stairs that led up from the skull’s mouth.

Robin and Brook are going up through the castle, where one of them will presumably… sigh… save Sanji from his current predicament. I’m praying for a twist on the formula, but I’m not holding my breath.

We get another little Ace flashback in the middle of the chapter purely to explain why Whitebeard didn’t act against Kaido sooner. This is all stuff that could have been intuited from what we knew already – the slow movement of info to and from Wano meant the didn’t hear what had happened until after, and given the scale of both Whitebeard and Kaido’s crews, the collateral damage and loss of life isn’t worth a symbolic act of vengeance. (the fact that Kaido is about to colony drop a freaking island on a populated area just because he felt it would make a better capital for his empire and Whitebeard coming close to completely sinking Marineford back in the day make it clear the kind of mutually assured destruction two Emperors bringing their A-games would be in for). “But Whitebeard left the people of Wano to suffer as slaves!” Yeah, and he’s also left along the common-knowledge slave culture of Mariegeoise and the slave markets of Sabaody. He leaves Tottoland alone even though Big Mom’s lifespan tax is (despite being voluntary) ethically questionable at best. We’ve never heard about him going out of his way to topple the Doflamingos or Wapols of the world’s monarchies. One man can’t fix all the injustices of the world on his own, even one as powerful and idealised as Whitebeard.

I’m surprised this is as controversial of a reveal as it is’s proving to be. From not chasing Teach to his strategic back and forth with Sengoku at Marineford, Whitebeard has always been portrayed as pragmatic. He’s is a father to his men and fiercely protective of those he takes under his wing (a position Oden voluntarily left) but he’s also extremely aware of his place in the world and the potential consequences of his actions.

I agree that it would have been nice to see Whitebeard weighing these two sides of his personality a little more before coming to the decision he made, mulling over the contrast between his respect for Oden and the feeling of betrayal that Oden left him and his found family to chase knowledge and glory with Roger, but there would have been no way for Ace to be part of that conversation. Remember that Oden had been dead for more than a decade by the time Ace joined Whitebeard. Even though it took “several years” to find out he died, Whitebeard, Marco and Izo would still have had at least another several years to grieve and make their peace with it by the time of this flashback.

I dunno, I’m sympathetic to people who had a specific interpretation of the character they now feel has been betrayed, but I’m struggling to see it the same way. This makes sense with what we knew. It adds layers rather than creates contradictions. It strengthens the worldbuilding if even the strongest man in the world is forced to weight the cost and benefits of even his most unambiguously well-intentioned actions.

Getting back to the chapter, the spread of King and Queen transforming doesn’t give us much new for them art-wise, but I did really enjoy Queen’s ridiculous mouth-gun.

Yamato pulls out the journal, I deliberately haven’t been getting my hopes up for any long-term mysteries being resolved for chapter 1000. Just the start of the final battle would have been good enough. But between this and Law reflecting on it in the basement, do I dare hope for to learn what the D stands for in the next chapter?

Zeus and Prometheus are recharging themselves on the roof. Zeus drawing power from the storm clouds makes sense, but what is Prometheus eating there? I doubt Kaido would make extra flame clouds just for him, and whatever it is is drawn like an explosion that wasn’t there in any previous chapters.

Oh, and where are the bodies of the Scabbards? Weird that they haven’t been in any of these shots even though we last saw them spread out in front of Kaido.

Looks like the final battle really is going to be Big Mom and Kaido together. I can’t wait to see what it takes to get the alliance through it. While I thought the wording was a little clunky, having them declare their intent to get the One Piece together really drives home how high the stakes are right now. Between this and yesterday’s comment about Shanks making a move in the new year, it’s really starting to feel like the end is coming.

Kadio’s fruit being a Fish-Fish fruit is absolutely brilliant. Very Oda. I know I’m not the first to make a Gyarados comparison, but holy carp, he’s a Gyarados!

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

Pretty light chapter this week, albeit one with incredible art.

It was easy to expect Marco to be a deus ex machina for the ice oni plot, bring a fire doctor dealing with an ice virus, but thankfully he’s just being used to add some minutes on the timer rather than resolve things completely. Chopper may still get to do something for the plot! His attack name, Phoenix Pyreapple is an inspired pun as well. Unfortunately, Marco’s spread is by far the weakest one of the volume. Marco is drawn too small and sketchy to work as a focal point, so aside from the infected pirates in the foreground the page just looks like a vague spread of swirly lines. Doesn’t look bad, there’s just hard to read anything other than negative space out of most of it. I think this is one that will improve significantly in the colour version, where they can play with different hues in the flame and empashise the lighting.

The panel with Drake is a great show of the Onigashima battle damage continuity I talked about when I mapped the Performance Floor a few chapters ago. In the background of that one panel you can see the tower Zoro cut down when he first appeared, the hole in the wall Big Mom burst through when she arrived and the place where King and Sanji crashed during their little clash, all exactly where they’re meant to be relative to each other. Always love being able to catch this kind of attention to detail!

Jinbe overestimating the crew’s ability to not get lost, not start trouble and prioritise dangerous opponents over women has been a fantastic gag so far. His unwavering faith in the team despite how unfamiliar with them he is warms my heart.

Franky seems to have brought out the General Shield in his battle. Wonder if it was any more use against Sasaki’s goons than it was against Baby 5. It’s starting to look like we’re getting confirmed battle matchups as Sasaki reveals his devil fruit against Franky. An armoured dinosaur against an armoured pirate. Fits well enough. Not much more you can say besides that the art for the reveal is fantastic, and that’s going to be a reoccurring theme.

Black Maria looks great in her hybrid form. I don’t know if it’s just me, but the text introducing her fruit seems really light and hard to read. Just one or two shades of grey darker would make a big difference here. I have no comment on how Sanji’s handling himself so far. All I can do is hope Oda’s got a plan for this.

The fourth floor as a giant cat cafe is brilliant design-wise, and I’ll be interested to see what role that design plays in Jinbe’s fight against Who’s Who. All those very cat toy-like climbing perches we see in the bit with Jinbe and Luffy would give a cat a lot of mobility and highground advantage against someone like Jinbe, who thus far has seemed really heavyset and grounded. Who’s Who looks great in his cat form as well. The hint that he’s someone Jinbe’s seen before has interesting implications, but I’m not yet convinced he’s someone we the audience has met. He just doesn’t physically match up with anyone unaccounted for.

Ulti and Page One have made it outside the dome, but it’s not yet clear where they’ve burst through, why they think Usopp and Nami are out there, and where those two actually are relative to them. This is the only other kinda weak spread besides Marco’s one. These dinosaurs aren’t anything new, and for a pair of ancient monsters bursting through a wall, it’s not the most dynamic of panels. More space could maybe have been given to the panel showing a fallen Hihimaru. I’ve still got no idea what part of his body I’m meant to be seeing in that shot.

Yamato starts building up Ace’s time in Wano again. I guess it wouldn’t be too bad for the chapter 1000 event to centre around that. It looks like at least some of chapter 999 will be this flashback, given the creeping blackness in the gutters around that last panel. Maybe we get a chapter of flashback and in chapter 1000 we go back to the present just in time for Luffy to reach Kaido, or the battle matchups to be fully locked in with Odaboxes.

We’re so close to the big milestone! Assuming the site I used to use for getting things from Japan as opened up international shipping again, I might try to get my hands on the next two issues of Jump for my collection. Can’t wait!