Captain M Entertainment

I think there can be no doubt about it – this is the climax of Egghead and the finale of volume 110. There may technically be one last chapter to go at the start of the next volume as Emet makes his final play and Vegapunk signs off, but there’s no mistaking that the moment Oda wanted to build to is this.

First thing of note here is the title. People have been saying this since the spoilers dropped, so you’re probably not hearing it from me first, but the chapter’s title references part of Roger’s quote from the start of chapter 100. “Inherited will. A man’s dream. The tides of the eras.” Both previous parts, at least in Japanese, have also been chapter titles and the titles of the volumes containing those chapters (chapter 145/volume 16 and chapter 224/volume 24). The English releases, unfortunately, have not maintained the same consistency of wording between the original quote and their chapter/volume titles. I really don’t want to become the kind of content creator you come to for a simple review and have to skim over him pitching his side projects, so I won’t go on too long, but catching these kinds of things is exactly why I wanted to start my One Piece Rewrite Project for so long. This is such a powerful set of series-long connections to draw and a shame for English readers not to have, but also not something you can blame the older translators for because it would take more than 20 years of foresight to know how important it was meant to be.

The colour spread has a very pleasant, summery vibe to it with some really strong colour work. It’s the coldest, wettest part of winter here, so I appreciate the reminder of warmer weather. Off-hand, the idea of a giant Nami and a lot of ice cream sounds like its reusing the concept from chapter 1011’s spread, but in practice the two look and feel different. But having seen the prototype with the crew building a model Merry, yeah, I wish we’d gotten that instead. It would have been a much better fit to celebrate the anniversary as well. Can only hope Oda decides to take another shot at the idea at some point.

Finally moving onto the chapter proper, the first thing that stands out is Luffy’s choice to elevate Bonney. He’s winding up his own attack when he notices her feelings, and, even without knowing the backstory himself, encourages her to participate in the final blow. This shows both an emotional perceptiveness and a willingness to share the spotlight that might scan as uncharacteristic of Luffy. But it feels like character growth to me. We saw this behaviour develop through his relationship with Momo, and it seems to have stuck. And boy does that final punch feel good. Bonney’s bit about her loneliness and the family she wanted to have is tragic and moving. Saturn well and truly earned that hit, even if he’s almost definitely not dead yet.

But I can’t help thinking this might have had more impact if this had been the first time Bonney achieved the Nika transformation. Let it be the giants and/or Strawhats who team up with Luffy to throw Mars away and save Bonney for the battle that’s personal to her. But whatever. Maybe the mood would have been wrong to achieve a Nika transformation if Saturn was already on deck. He’s not exactly a figure who inspires joy.

It might also have been cool to see Kuma contribute, but that tiny little smile he offers after it’s done speaks volumes. His survival, combined with Bonney’s little fantasy spot of living with him and Ginny, feels like death for Bonney’s odds of joining the crew. She’s got a home to return to that she’s been missing. Her happiest ending is getting it.

Vegapunk sneaks a few final revelations into his closing remarks. Connections are drawn between the Lunarians, Buccaneers and Three-eyes as races oppressed in relation to the Void Century. The first two we knew about, but as much sense as it makes, what with the ability to read Poneglyphs, the Three-eyes are not something I’d thought about tying into that thread. It’s reiterated, also, that the World Government might have usurped the top of the Red Line from the Lunarians. I wonder if the oni/ogres will eventually fall into this category as well?

And of course, we have the kick-off of the final scramble for the One Piece. Given what’s been said, it makes sense for the Marines to finally consider prioritising it to keep a pirate or Revolutionary from claiming the power the decide the fate of the world.

I’m going all in on the last spread being the key figures of this last war. Maybe Law and Kid could struggle back as wildcards, but I think Oda’s telling us they’ve lost their shot at being major contenders. Plus, we’ve got an existing wildcard in the totally unknown silhouetted figure down there. People are maybe jumping the gun being so quick to call him Shanks-y with so little info, but I am personally a believer in the evil twin theory. What’s sticking in my mind though, is how many of the faces shown are obstinately on the same side presently. Blackbead and Kuzan; Sabo and Dragon; and Sakazuki and Koby, who themselves are subordinate to Imu and Garling. I wonder if the suggestion is that each of these figures has some kind of their own agenda and could end up at odds with any of the others. For some, the divide is obvious. Kuzan’s true loyalties have been the subject of debate for years. SWORD making a splinter group of good Marines is on every final arc bingo card. But Sabo embracing his new solo identity as the Flame Emperor and creating friction with Dragon could be an interesting twist.

So that’s it. The world has caught up to where the readers are and the race for the prize has been officially declared. Things can only get really crazy from here. I’m tempted to use the break week to reread Egghead in full, but I’d rather save it for when the island is definitively done with, Emet and all, rather than have to adjust opinions over a last few chapters like when rereading Wano during the mid-epilogue break month.

Nineteen pages without even the extra two added by a colour spread. Wow. This hasn’t happened since… chapter 869, back in 2017. We’re 10 chapters into volume 110 but I don’t think it’s over yet, not with the amount of 13 pagers in the run. I think there’s a pretty good chance this volume and this arc reach a climax together next week, which would be a cool pair of things to coincide with the 27th anniversary. Held back by extra breaks and short chapters, there’s no denying the broadcast chapters have felt slow on the weekly read – it’s hard to believe there’s only been 8 of them – but this penultimate release builds up a lot of momentum for the finale, and I’m genuinely looking forward to my reread of the full arc once it’s done.

I love the details of the young dragon and the Number poking its head over the gate in the opening flashback, but if you want a real continuity deep cut, you can see in the ’22 years ago’ establishing shot the same rear entrance to the lab Law uses in the Punk Hazard arc, recognisable even without the destruction and snowfall.

I’m not sure how I feel about the murder of Clover’s brother over his D. Does it track fully with what we know the the World Government would be so ruthless with them? On one hand, the Trafalgar famiy’s choice to hide their D seems to point towards persecution. On the other, Garp and Saul’s ranks in the Marines feel like a contradiction. It’s hard to gauge what the world at large really thinks of the D, if they think of it at all, and how dangerous it is to openly be one. But at least Vegapunk’s speculation that Clover was let do on the assumption he would draw more Ds out of hiding offers Oda an out for any Ds that were let live when they shouldn’t have. It’ll be interesting to see if the level of threat is clarified later in an SBS.

As expected, Nusjuro is being kept around to stall the Sunny from taking off and make sure the events of the finale happen in sync. What I didn’t expect is Atlas being the one to get the last action against him, and how tragic that would be. Man, she was my favourite Vegaclone. The big sad eyes as she says she’s leaving Lilith in the crew’s hands are rough. That childlike, Astro Boy-like design doesn’t feel like something that should be cut up and bloodsplattered, let alone killed off. But she gets to end it as a hero, saving the Sunny, the crew and one part of Vegapunk in the process. Hard to ask for a better way to go out than that.

Down below, we get some solid humour with Luffy and Emet. It’s good for Luffy stay as obvious as possible to Joyboy, Nika and their implications. At least, he should continue to not care about them. The Gear Five transformation doesn’t change who Luffy has been without the Joyboy connections up to this point, and Oda will be smart to keep the revelations from influencing the core character.

It’s a tough dose of reality for Emet’s cooler features to malfunction from the years of decay. I’m sure that rocket fist would have been cool. The amount of damage done to it here seems to suggest the robot will not be joining us for the next arc. I think it would be a little redundant for the final move it seems to be building up to be another self-destruct though. Maybe a beam similar to the Mother Flame-powered Uranus that makes an ocean crater out of Egghead?

And then there’s Saturn. I’ve said in my past two reviews that something had to happen with him to put a bow on the Kuma and Bonney story. It’s too personal. He always had to be the final Elder confronted as the crew departs. But we still can’t do lasting damage to him, and though Luffy has shown the ability to pick and throw the demonic spider, I doubt he’d fall for that twice. So who takes Saturn off the ship? The most tragic answer would be Kuma, whose presence is emphasised as Saturn lands. Can he launch Saturn from the ship, or the ship from under Saturn, without it being an ultimate sacrifice? Kuma’s had such a hard go of it, I really want him to get some downtime with his daughter one or both of them is inevitably being drawn into the final battle, but if I was writing the series I’d be seriously tossing up giving the readers one last gut punch to cement the retreat from Egghead as a costly loss for the heroes right about now.

There’s been a decent chunk of fandom negativity over the broadcast these past few months, but I think this chapter built up some solid momentum, and my energy’s high to see how Egghead concludes next week (or maaaaaaybe the week after) and I hope I’m not alone in that.

Yes, it’s a short one again and yes, there’s a break again, but I’m just happy to be back doing three chapters in a row, you know? Let’s hope things stay this way for a bit. It’s definitely a good chapter for the idea of ‘please for the love of god wait a week if something feels like it’s ruining the whole story,’ with Bonney pretty easily disproving all of the community’s most reactionary fears about her transformation in one go.

Confronting Wano’s lingering prejudices in the cover story is a pleasant surprise. I wasn’t sure there’d be a way to do it in the near-wordless cover stories, but Oda’s taking it on anyway. This choice helps retroactively justify the slow start to the story because of the contrast it creates with all the people heaping praise and assistance on them in the early installments. I did have, looking at this, a thought about Wano’s culture. Some comments are quick to call out the country’s citizens for not learning from the monster they created in Orochi by blaming blood instead of individual, and I myself was pretty hard on Hiyori on that point back when the arc ended. But we have to remember, the purge of the Kurozumis happened when Orochi was a child, and the man died at 54. So have these kids learned from what happened to Orochi? Hell no, they weren’t around for that. Even Hiyori wouldn’t have seen the events Orochi lashed out over. And yes, there may be older people alive who witnessed the full cause and effect, they might be forgiven for not passing that down fully to their kids considering what’s been happening to them for the past 20 years. You have to solve issues of life and death before people are able to ease their focus toward social problems. Hopefully Wano is now at the point where they can start doing that.

Getting into the chapter proper, Stussy’s trajectory continues to be a mystery. Given how things are going, there might be time for her to reach the Sunny and save herself. I actually feel for Kaku though in this scene. You can tell there’s a part of him that’s not fully cut out for this kind of work. He seemed to regret having to betray Galley La too, although he didn’t take that one quite as hard. Maybe he should have got out during the timeskip while he had the chance.

Mars’s “defeat” on the sea below is something I think could have been choreographed more clearly. Like, the concept works, but it’s spread over so many pages that it looks more like Bonney, Sanji and Franky push Luffy into Mars for an extended struggle before he flies away. Given that the final push seems to be Luffy fully inflating, what was the point of what the others were doing? I think this should have been something more like the launch of a cannonball, where the three hit Luffy simultaneously back near the ship and he flies out and hits Mars full force, carrying the launching power of their attacks. You could still fit the back and forth around using Haki into that in roughly the same number of panels, and the motions of it would actually make sense. Turning things that seem like the should be quick hits int physics-defying pushing struggles is nonsense when the anime does it to draw out scenes, and it’s nonsense when Oda does it too.

But luckily, this one kinda awkward clash actually isn’t the finale of the arc just yet. The Sunny’s group is being held up, presumably by Nusjuro, and the other Elders aren’t giving up yet.

The broadcast is surprisingly still creeping on, but it’s so fragmented and out of context here I’m not sure it’s worth speculating until it’s properly over and we can lay out the whole thing with the gaps exposed.

I’m worried by Atlas’s moment though. That thought to Lilith about York’s monitoring feels really ominous for her survival chances. Are all the good Vegapunks really going to die together on Egghead? I wonder if Atlas and Lilith will work together to take York out of the World Government’s hands as well, ending them all in a blaze of glory. That would be a sad; they’re fun characters, and I really like Atlas’s design. Normally with Oda you wouldn’t worry about this kind of thing, but with Shakka and Pythagoras gone and Edison implied to be down and out as well, it’s starting to feel more likely.

While they’re not outright succeeding at their objectives, I’m still pretty impressed at the Elders’ teamwork here and through the arc. It can’t be understated how bad it has the potential to be that Ju Peter just put the Seraphim back in the hands of the Government agents surrounding the Giants’ ship. Wait, can Bonney control them as easily as the Pacifistas? Stands to reason she could, but as soon as they sense she’s unable to give an order, things start to look really, really bad for Luffy’s group. But anyway, I like the combo of using Ju Peter’s big suck to hold the ship in place while Warcury charges in and sinks it.

And don’t think I didn’t notice his lack of fear about hitting the water after. It doesn’t outright confirm anything – we’ve seen a lot of Devil Fruit users make big risky jumps over open sea in the past – but it’s definitely an interesting addition to the evidence.

(Also the concern about the spat-out Cipher Pol agents “dying on impact” is pretty funny considering they’re only here after surviving the even bigger fall from the Labophase basement, but I guess the Marines on the ships wouldn’t know that.)

And what a note to go out on, that big robot panel. The shadows and shading look great, and we get a delicious little echo of the ancient past as it finally gets its moment in the sun. And the fact that Luffy has leapt back to the island means they could be fighting side by side, at least for a little bit. You can’t see it in the actual chapter because the typesetting is all caps anyway, but the chapter list on Mangaplus renders the name ‘EMET’ in capslock, which they usually don’t do. Curious to see if anything comes from that, like an acronym or something.

There’s the mystery of what makes the time right for EMET now, presumably the same thing Roger was “too early” for, but putting toegether the dots, what was it that made it seem like the time could be right 200 years ago. Have there been multiple opportunities to do whatever the One Piece was intended to do, and all we’re seeing is the one that works?

As ready as I am to see Elbaf, I’m also not going to complain about Egghead taking the extra few chapters it needs to totally put a bow on things. A climax for the remaining Vegapunks. The big escape for the Sunny’s group. A final smackdown on Saturn for all he put Kuma and Bonney through and the definitive last word of the broadcast are going to be worth it in the long run. Will the Elders be allowed to achieve their objectives of capturing Punk Records and the Mother Flame, or will Atlas/Lilith/Stussy perform one final, sacrificial act of sabotage and make it so everyone loses?

With break week nigh again, I’m going to drop volume 2 of my rewrite project at some point in the next seven days, either when spoilers would normally hit or when the official release would be on a chapter week.

A very short chapter here, with kind of not a lot to discuss besides the ending, but I definitely enjoyed it. Egghead is clearly developing to its conclusion with one escape ship away and the other close behind. It’s exciting to think Elbaf is coming so soon, after all these years.

Even with what we were just told a few chapters ago, I was still a little surprised at how far the Iron Giant had to sink in the opening pages. I’m used to the idea of real world landmasses trailing off slowly into the sea, any big shelves a way offshore. But these are mountain summits. It makes sense for there to be a cliff near enough for such a huge descent.

All evidence seems to say Edison is dead. Maybe. If York can switch her Punk Records syncing off to not be caught betraying the others and Vegapunk can do it to record his broadcast privately, there’s no reason Edison can’t also have gone dark to avoid detection. But with the giants’ ship leaving, he doesn’t have much hope of making it off the island, so there wouldn’t really be a point to misdirect us like that. Unless he’s gonna pull himself out of the rubble to start a cover story a year from now. But taking this at face value, it’s kinda similar to the Izo and Ashura situations. Who would have thought the infamously reluctant to kill Oda would now have characters quietly succumb to their injuries offscreen?

Hey, there’s something drawn kinda rough and obscured by the Sunny’s rigging in Nami’s panel. Is that Nusjuro moving between the ship and the sea? Will Zoro have to clash with him one last time to close out the arc?

Okay, so Sanji prevert gags have often gone too far without being funny enough to justify it for a long time now, but the dynamic here, where he proclaims the aid he’s going to give the women while Usopp calls out frantic reminders to save the men too, that’s a pretty good one. This is how I prefer seeing that character trait play out. And great to see Franky adding to it.

And finally, we have the Distorted Future. I’m on the record saying I don’t like Bonney’s powers having this much flexibility, but after the Niki-ish future already established, I’m not totally shocked she gets a more fully Nikafied form to cap things off. Like, I wouldn’t have guessed it a week ago, but it makes sense in hindsight. I want to wait to see her in action before I make any call on if the implications of this form being shared are good or bad. We’ve established she can’t keep a distorted future up for long, which is one limiting factor. Some people are wondering if she could distort the futures of others to make them Nika-ish too, but I think by the established rules, she would need to be able to picture that person as Nika to make them that way. Someone too serious, too mean, too restrained, or just not loose and funny enough just won’t make a good Nika.

While some will argue otherwise, I’m sure, I think this development is bad for Bonney’s chances of joining the crew. Firstly, it creates a double-up in ultimate moves, which I don’t think Oda would go for. And second, it feels a lot like the conclusion of the Bonney story. Where does she go from here for future power ups in future arcs? What else could she want? She’s chased freedom for herself and her father, and she hasn’t just found it, she’s embodied it. That’s a full circle thing. End of the journey. If she slips back to the background with her father between now and the final war no one’s goign to accuse her story of being unfinished.

So where do we go from here? It looks like Oda is setting up two final clashes to throw the Elders off and make the final escape. Nusjuuro has to be knocked out of the way of the Sunny, and Mars has to be smashed down from the sky so he can’t pursue the giants’ ship. Luffy and Bonny are taking on one. Zoro will definitely be involved in the other, possibly with any combination of the group on the Sunny backing him up.

But it can’t be totally that easy. I think there’s lingering threads with the Iron Giant, and with obvious arc villain Saturn. There’s no way the final clash happens, especially one Bonney is part of, without sticking it to him in some way. Maybe he makes spidery jumps from ship to ship to try and come aboard. Or he’s secretly in human form on Mars’s back, ready to jump down and transform. And can the reactivated Iron Giant generate enough thrust to raise itself from the sea floor and make a final move for its Joyboy? That’s maybe not a setup quite on Oda’s level, but the bottom line is that it feels like there’s one last convergence still to happen as we make this arc complete.

Good to be back on three breakless chapters in a row so we can find out the answer without having to wait.

And so ends the Broadcast Era (any Three Body readers here?) after a long few months. The breaks were certainly not kind to this sequence, but I think it will be remembered fondly. One Piece’s biggest strength is how populated and alive its world feels, and emphasising that all these supporting characters are still relevant and it’s all their lives at stake is going to pay dividends when things get apocalyptic in the endgame.

I’d be lying if I said I haven’t felt ready to move on from this bit for a few weeks now, but some of the extreme reactions to this sequence have been surprising. People have been saying for years that Oda rushes, and speculated that fights have been offscreened or cut short with the expectation the anime would expand on them. Well, now we have a moment that’s allowed to breathe and unfold at its own pace, and that’s too damn slow. There were huge (and not totally unfounded) complaints around the end of Wano that we weren’t getting enough reactions from characters who should have had an emotional stake in things like deaths, reunions and funerals, but now we get the whole series learning that their world is ending and it’s “React Piece.” The Reddit crowd in particular for this fanbase has been infuriating. None of these kids would have survived week-to-week Dressrosa.

Anyway, to review the manga instead of the fanbase, it’s sweet to see Neko on the cover page felt comfortable dropping the gun from his stump arm. Even as an apparent yakuza, things are at peace enough that he doesn’t need to be packing. Also the way Yamato’s backpack fits right between their belt loop thingies is a cute detail.

Kreig and Gin are back, which warms my heart. The story won’t be over until Sanji and Gin meet again, but I’m happy just learning he hasn’t been forgotten. I hope Gin’s become the dominant half of the partnership over Kreig since we last saw them. He deserves it. His hair’s come in nice though. And that scene as a whole strikes true to the core themes of adventure and romanticism in One Piece, showing pirates and others being inspired to take to the seas and scour the sea floor for riches. You can’t help seeing the parallel to what Roger did in Vegapunk’s broadcast. The World Government must hate seeing it happen again.

Nice to see Drake still kicking. I’d have been willing to believe he was dead after Wano. I wonder if the broadcast is going to start influencing SWORD to go finally rogue and move all the less-evil Marines into their own, easier to root for faction.

You have to wonder what Stussy’s exit plan is if she isn’t rushing to rejoin the group on the Sunny. Or if she is, no one’s snailed in to tell them hold tight.

Love the panel of Nusjuro looming over the Sunny. Holy hell these guys are huge. And an awesome moment having him clash with Zoro. Isn’t this the second time Zoro’s been thrown at an enemy at the climax of an arc? I wonder if that’ll continue being a trend, since he’s surprisingly cool with it. The presence of another Kitetsu in the fight sets up a tantalising hook for the future.

The attention to detail with the giants’ ship’s figurehead being tied back on after being cut a couple of chapters ago is great. The giants as a whole give us some really fun, evocative pages this week as they lay into the Marine fleet. And while we’re obviously not getting a full set of one on ones for this arc, Oda gives some solid moments to Bluegrass and Doll, perhaps to set them up to be bigger opponents in the future. I certainly didn’t expect Kashii to take such a big beatdown right in the middle of his triumphant return to the story.

The iron giant continues its march despite Luffy very clearly being shown to be back in normal form, which adds to the confusion about what it’s responding to. It’s initial power ups in chapters 1092 and 1106 are obviously implied to be a reaction to Luffy’s transformation, with the heart drums over it and everything. It’s not shown moving, however, until chapter 1111 after all the Elders arrive and after Vegapunk’s broadcast begins. So while it seemed to have previously gone on and off based on Luffy’s transformations, it’s now been disconnected from that and moving on its own, either something Vegapunk programmed to protect his message, or following some ancient reaction to the World Government bigwigs. It does seem to be caught off guard when the Elders attack it in this chapter though, so maybe we can rule out it sensing them…

It feels likely that it was trying to reach Luffy at the cost of all else, but then why does it only sometimes react to Gear Five, and why only at the end was it activated enough to start moving?

And how about Mars seemingly recognising the robot? Definitely gives us a hint that the Elders are older than they appear, despite previous evidence suggesting they don’t go all the way back to the Void Century.

But the final message to the people of the D. This is one of those ones where you definitely feel left out as an English-speaking reader, what with the “mo” syllable from the Japanese version being more likely to be part of a word than a name (according to all native speakers I’ve seen speak on it). But the translation gives us some word choices to chew on. “Within you” instead of the “among you” from the fan versions, implying it could be a power or a will the D people carry. Plus a singular “is” and an “a.” I’ll definitely be tuning into the prodcast this week to hear if there was any behind the scenes info provided to Stephen to help him decide his course.

There is one reoccurring complaint I do agree with, as this marathon segment wraps up: it’s kinda weird there was no visual content in the broadcast, after the emphasis placed on it with the 10 minute lead time. Maybe we take it as part of Vegapunk’s perfectionism – it just wouldn’t feel right to him if he wasn’t being seen, which would track with an artificial devil fruit not feeling right because of its colour, something on one else would care about – but that’s still a little weak. I’m sure Oda wrote out the whole speech in advance and chunked it out chapter by chapter with the cameos and action beats he wanted to accompany it, and he found he decided the preamble was necessary to get everyone where they needed. The arrival of the Elders wouldn’t have had the focus that made it so great if Vegapunk was already dropping lore bombs. Buuuut I’m sure there could have been a better in-universe justification for it. Maybe just saying he wants people to set up recording devices to preserve and repeat the message could have made it easier to swallow.

I think we can all let out a breath with the broadcast over. While I’m sure there’s still some cooldown to go, especially if the Iron Giant means to retaliate, things seem poised to wrap up here. There are multiple calls to get the ships moving throughout the chapter, from Zoro, Luffy and the giants, with the stragglers close enough to jump aboard as they go. And with Vegapunk dead and the broadcast over there’s nothing left on Egghead I can see the crew getting invested in fighting for. It’s kind of a loss for the Strawhats, not being able to protect everything they promised they would and having to retreat from foes they have no idea how to fight, albeit not as devastating a one as Sabaody. Elbaf could end up being a chance to regroup, power up one last time, and make ready to stop these unstoppable monsters in the true final battle. And setting that up is a very exciting prospect.