Contrary to popular opinion, I loved most of this chapter, Oda's really going all out for the climax of the battle. Colour pages next week to keep the hype going are just gravy on top of it all. The title, while poetic, was an enigma to me, even reading the wikipedia page on the story it's drawn from, until I saw Sandman's twitter connecting it to Orochi's speech. I have no idea how this could have been translated that would have made the connection obvious. Even the scanlation, with its willingness to use notes to explain things, apparently missed that Orochi was quoting the same play as the title, so while it explained that the title was a literary reference, they didn't actually explain how it connected to the chapter. This might just be one of those things where if you know, you know, and if you don't, it's too bad. Oh, and I'm not one to read super far into cover pages, but Brook is an interesting choice to put alongside the soldier ants. Maybe Oda hasn't forgotten that Brook used to be a soldier himself…
The battle between Drake and Apoo resolves in unexpected fashion with an alliance rather than a defeat, and most of the conspicuously absent Numbers are there too. Most of the Numbers have been kinda underwhelming so far, but Inbi has a brilliant design. Really digging that classical devil look. The question is where this strange alliance will lead. I can't see them wanting to be enemies to the Strawhats even after the battle. I'd never have guessed the Numbers betraying Kaido either - given their Oni/giant similarities, there had seemed to be a kind of kinship there. If Oda's making the Numbers more independent, he may be laying groundwork for the long-speculated upon Elbaf Arc. If the goal of the Numbers becomes to peacefully reconnect with the other giants, it could be just the excuse needed to draw Luffy (and Usopp) in that direction. But that'll have to come later...
I've been saying for a while that Punk Hazard is more important to the New World than any of us could have guessed at the time, but I never would have guessed Kin's severed lowered half, talking farts and getting stuck on things to be such a vital callback. Oda does it again. So Kin, Kiku and Kanjuro are clinging to life. I'm not a huge fan of the development, but I've come to accept these things. Booktuber-come-One Piece fan Merphy Napier said it best in her
: “They're basically Pokemon. When they fight they faint, they don't die.” That's just how this world works and while I don't think it's ideal storytelling, I made my peace with it long ago. The Kanjuro bit goes down easier with Orochi helping to frame it as an encore to his previous act rather than a full revival. Very fitting.
(And continuing the pokemon metaphor, I've always thought Luffy plays with exp share on for the crew, so they all get stronger together every arc even if they don't get a dedicated fight to learn from.)
Despite the simplicity, I really like the look of Kanjuro's fire spirit. Oda did a really good job with the transparency effect for a guy drawing in black and white. And the flames burning over the panel borders at the top is a really nice touch that helps it feel big and wild and dangerous. The spirit also bears a striking resemblance to Kanjuro's look in Orochi's memories of recruiting him, making it really seem like that child's vengeful ghost, off to be a bastard one last time.
Yamato's section gives us a much-needed side view of the dome's layout. It's a credit to Oda's consistency that I was able to produce a comparable (albeit not totally accurate) map all the way back in May. Hey, this one even shows the hole the fake Oden blew in the roof. Love that attention to detail. Curious too, that if the map is part of what Yamato's thinking, he seems to know that the skull has a bottom jaw buried beneath the surface of the entrance. No sign of that visually in the scenes of the alliance landing, so how does he know it?
Glad we get some more of Kid, Law and Big Mom right away. As always, I love consistent environmental destruction - the hole blown by Yamato's handcuffs and the place Momo crashed into the wall are both still there beneath the new opening blasted by Big Mom. Oda's really tearing this place apart, but all the damage matters.
I wasn't expecting Awakening to be revealed so casually and by characters other than Luffy. Consistent with Doflamingo and Katakuri, the effect seems to be applying the power to things that usually wouldn't be directly effected by it. But we've only ever seen Paramecia Awakenings, so who's to say other types will work the same way, or what would happen with some of the more abstract Paramecias. Oh, and what's with Law's new room name? Is KROOM meant to be some Japanese medical thing that just doesn't translate?
Getting back to environmental destruction though, it looks like the Performance Floor is going to be the final destination for Big Mom, and the fight is going to wreak absolute devastation on it. Two whole buildings have been wiped off the floor already! And conceptually, using magnetism to weaponise the scaffolding and rebar of the structure around you is really neat. This is one of those bits where I think an anime has the potential to really go above an beyond - really thinking about how those buildings would deflate and implode after their steel skeletons have been ripped out, and show that process in a much more detailed, tactile way than any manga artist could hope to show (except maybe Katsuhiro Otomo). The actual One Piece anime we have now probably won't try to simulate the collapse in that much detail because it would take much more time and energy than their production schedule allows, but I can dream.
Great chapter, lots of fun and exciting developments building up to the climax of the arc. I hope Oda keeps up this kind of momentum next week, maybe by wrapping up Fukurokuju and Raizo and finally putting Orochi's last head on the chopping block. We've very close to just Calamities and Emperors left on the battlefield. After so long, the hype is enormous.