Another week, another new chapter that doesn't come with the volume 97 cover. If it weren't for all the breaks, we'd almost have volume 98 complete before it comes out (edit: spoke too soon, it's finally here). Lucky the chapters are so damn good then.
That Navy bombardment's really come out of nowhere on the cover. Still, better something abrupt like this than spending an installment on them showing up. At least Pez is having a good time.
I'm glad we get to see a bit of Sulong action before the inevitable cutaway from the minks and samurai's doomed battle with Kaido, and having Jack get involved is a good bit of catharsis reaching back to Zou as well. Loved the shot of all of them transforming with Kaido in the background. Of course, we don't get to see Dogstorm and Catviper just yet. My guess is that they'll be the last ones standing when we come back to this conflict later on. They way the fur on a lot of these transformations is drawn makes me think of all the koma-animals we've seen in Wano. The curls and the flame-like tips are a good visual match. Maybe there's a connection, given how Wano and Zou were apparently close allies back in the day. Could the koma-animals be mink descendents who leaned toward the animal rather than the human part of their genetics.
The Numbers continue to not really make good on the build-up of their silhouettes though. I'm sure there'll be some interesting lore behind them, but from a character and a design perspective they're just not really doing it for me at this point.
Sanji showing up for Momo is the kind of classic Mr Prince moment he's been lacking for a long, long time. I'd be more endeared to the Sanji perv jokes if more of them led to cool moments like the "chasing prostitutes" saga did with this. As a side note, King is freaking enormous. We did kinda know this, but seeing how small Sanji is on the end of his pterodactyl beak really drives it home. If this is Sanji's big fight, it's going to be interesting to see what he does to measure up against such a monstrous opponent.
Yamato committing hard enough to the Oden bit to actually call Momo is son is great. Hopefully they get some time to interact and really let the absurdity of it all play out. I hope Yamato meets the Scabbards before his character act leads him to wanting to be his own man as well.
And to top things off we get a perfect Franky and Brook moment that really does cement them as the most underrated Strawhats. Brook was a clear MVP on Whole Cake Island but hasn't had much to do in Wano yet I hope this teamup lasts.
The way things are being set up, my current prediction for the future is that Big Mom will be toppled by the Straw Hat crew working together as a team, perhaps minus Zoro and Sanji if they get caught up fighting King and Queen or something like that. Luffy delivers the last blow, of course, but if it's a group effort he can have his win feel earned without having to expend himself too much to fight Kaido in a much more direct way right after. Big Mom has been shown to be vulnerable to combo attacks a few times now, so it would be really fitting for everyone to jump in and use their unique skills to overwhelm her together. Also the Oars fight was one of the series' best and we haven't really had much like it since.
As for the big translation debate of the week… yeah, I would have preferred the flowers callback over a quip about busting Big Mom's nose. Oda's crazy commitment to continuity is one of the things I love most about this series, and while I can easily accept that some callbacks and callforwards get lost in translation simply due to a lack of context when they were first done, it feels like a huge shame to sacrifice one that could easily have been kept. I hope it gets revised for the volume release.