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Manga Plus: https://mangaplus.shueisha.co.jp/viewer/1009950
VIZ Manga: https://www.viz.com/shonenjump/one-piece-chapter-1026/chapter/23240?action=read
Author Comments 9/26/2021: https://www.viz.com/blog/posts/mangaka-musings-09-26-2021
**Eiichiro Oda
Thank you so much for the support and kind words for my 100th volume! I’ll keep working even harder!**
Like the Avatar? / Like the Miis?
Dragalia Lost ID: 97617932505
Haki clash cloud split enabling a Sulong one-shot against two assholes, hell yeah!
Damn, the sequence made me so happy I screamed out loud like a madman…and my dogs started barking at me 
Good stuff.
This was not a chapter. This was THE chapter. The conclusion for the Dog and Cat fights were lovely. Luffy splitting the heavens in his clash with Kaido was godly, Momo overcoming his fears and confronting them was amazing.
I reread this chapter many times already and I am sure I will be rereading it more in wait for the next one. YAY FOR NO BREAK.
I wonder if we're getting more Luffy Vs Kaido or some focus will go to Zoro and Sanji, or will it be something else?
AND WHAT IS IT WITH OROCHI? What fucky shit is he up to next? I hope Momo will swallow that mofo whole and spit him out.
Wonder if the BMP have gotten past the waterfall yet
Uh oh. Big Mom is gonna be very pissed off knowing her eldest child got taken out.
the best thing of the chapter was that i could read it in my native language 
well, i'm exagerating a little. Luffy motivating Momo was quite cool. Momo will now have the task to save all his citizens. That may be not less difficult than biting a Yonkou
The parallel of the 2 minks fight is nicelly drawn but it's true that one can feel Oda wants to accelerate the pace. It has been debated a lot in the spoiler thread. Even if i can understand Oda's choice, it is a bit sad. We couldn't even have shown us a proper panel of Jack hybrid form.
Orochi is reappearing. It is not a big surprise though what Oda wants to do with him remains quite a mystery
I do wonder if that facetious lil blurb questioning the identity of Orochi there isn't another instance of a truth-within-a-gag? What if his decapitated heads are fully regenerating into Orochi duplicates? It'd then become a valid question: who's the "real" Orochi?
Just an idle thought.
So I think this one's actually gonna be it for me. I'm either taking a long hiatus or just leaving, not sure. But yeah, chalk this up as another one lost to the cynicism of this forum just like access timeco. Didn't post much here (due to the cynicism) anyway so not some big loss.
The disconnect between the rest of the fandom and the forum here on this chapter is profound. I'm referring to the spoilers thread. Just like access timeco didn't want his/her chapters 1000+ soured by these posts, we're late enough into the series where I don't want Luffy's possible battle with Shanks tainted by posts here going "Yeah… I want to enjoy Luffy vs Shanks but, the guy with the monkey on his shoulder was defeated too quickly... Sigh..." That just reeks of focusing on the minor over the major, to purposely try as hard as possible to not enjoy something. Another example. Say you get a new car. The seats on this car are not the design you want. It's like moping around about the seats of that car instead of the fact that you just got a new car. It's completely lopsided.
The amount of posts I had to scroll through in the spoiler thread to find someone even mentioning Luffy splitting the fucking sky is just insane. Instead where is all the focus for this forum? Jack and Perospero, because that's what can be complained about. It's just like access timeco said, this forum goes purposely scavenging for things to dislike, and either outright ignores big moments or finds a way to dislike them. It's time for some of you to just admit that you've moved on from the series. You don't want it to succeed. You've picked up other manga/anime along the way, and are rooting for them, but made sure to do it at the expense of One Piece.
In a post-Covid world, I don't really have the luxury of focusing on bitterness on a widely beloved series. My mental energy needs to be focused on survival and what's still good left in the world. I have the feeling some of you tapped out at Fishman Island and just never recovered. It's a common behavior with people, focusing on first impressions, and that was your first impression of the timeskip. Times have changed. We're not dealing with that version of One Piece anymore. Major resolutions to series-wide things are happening. If you choose to just be negative all the time while this stuff is happening, that's just not a group I want to hang around when Luffy's discovering One Piece. I have a feeling even if everything with discovering One Piece is done ideally, if someone predicted how it's done, someone would find a way to complain that it was too predictable.
Croc or Enel would never.
Wanna see the "ancient civilization destroyed" thing done really well? FFXIV did a great take on it. The bar's high for One Piece to beat.
Good chapter. Always enjoyed Momo a lot more in dragon form. Him finally getting the courage to litteraly bite back is great.
Neko/Inu vs Peros/Jack… I can't care less. Not bad, not intrusive, but you could cut all of those characters from Wano and I wouldn't care. Also the doublepage wgere they're defeated is going to be AWFUL in volumes, voth Peros and Jack will disappear in the middle like that.
So yeah. Good chapter but don't care for the latter half.
Really good chapter, honestly was not expecting Luffy to split the heavens in this arc, just took it as a given that it'd happen post-Wano. But what a moment it was.
Outside of that, main highlight was Luffy having Momo bite Kaido as a way to motivate him to go and save Onigashima. It's so simplistic (Lol at all the now silly panic about Momo doing something absurd and unrealistic to Kaido in his new form), but it works. He really has nothing to be afraid of now.
So I think this one's actually gonna be it for me. I'm either taking a long hiatus or just leaving, not sure. But yeah, chalk this up as another one lost to the cynicism of this forum just like access timeco. Didn't post much here (due to the cynicism) anyway so not some big loss.
The disconnect between the rest of the fandom and the forum here on this chapter is profound. I'm referring to the spoilers thread. Just like access timeco didn't want his/her chapters 1000+ soured by these posts, we're late enough into the series where I don't want Luffy's possible battle with Shanks tainted by posts here going "Yeah… I want to enjoy Luffy vs Shanks but, the guy with the monkey on his shoulder was defeated too quickly... Sigh..." That just reeks of focusing on the minor over the major, to purposely try as hard as possible to not enjoy something. Another example. Say you get a new car. The seats on this car are not the design you want. It's like moping around about the seats of that car instead of the fact that you just got a new car. It's completely lopsided.
The amount of posts I had to scroll through in the spoiler thread to find someone even mentioning Luffy splitting the fucking sky is just insane. Instead where is all the focus for this forum? Jack and Perospero, because that's what can be complained about. It's just like access timeco said, this forum goes purposely scavenging for things to dislike, and either outright ignores big moments or finds a way to dislike them. It's time for some of you to just admit that you've moved on from the series. You don't want it to succeed. You've picked up other manga/anime along the way, and are rooting for them, but made sure to do it at the expense of One Piece.
In a post-Covid world, I don't really have the luxury of focusing on bitterness on a widely beloved series. My mental energy needs to be focused on survival and what's still good left in the world. I have the feeling some of you tapped out at Fishman Island and just never recovered. It's a common behavior with people, focusing on first impressions, and that was your first impression of the timeskip. Times have changed. We're not dealing with that version of One Piece anymore. Major resolutions to series-wide things are happening. If you choose to just be negative all the time while this stuff is happening, that's just not a group I want to hang around when Luffy's discovering One Piece. I have a feeling even if everything with discovering One Piece is done ideally, if someone predicted how it's done, someone would find a way to complain that it was too predictable.
I find it interesting that to you those feelings and takes seem like hard fought nitpicks from people who are just out to get you and not just the surface thoughts of people who enjoy and process their read in a different way from yours. But i mean if a unified community mood is important to you to the level that you feel bad from it not being the mood you'd like then i would think it is more feasible to find a more likeminded community than trying and hoping that other posters will "give up" and yield that kind of atmosphere you'd like. The people you can't understand will probably be here til the end if they stuck around this far y'know. Not that i'd want anyone to leave AP, but if it isn't fun for you anymore it sounds like a healthier thing to do. I would say that i find this all a bit serious for a rubber pirate comic tho, but that is neither here nor there
Instead where is all the focus for this forum? Jack and Perospero, because that's what can be complained about. It's just like access timeco said, this forum goes purposely scavenging for things to dislike, and either outright ignores big moments or finds a way to dislike them.
It's a good chapter in isolation. Great even.
The problem most people seem to be having with it is what didn't come before it. Which is completely fair.
That's less a nitpick or looking for a problem, and more a general entire series issue the last several years.
If Oda had given the mink fights any sort of focus earlier, even like, 4 pages between them, any time in the last six or seven chapters, that would alleviate the complaints.
But Oda IS crunching and cutting corners and that hurts the overall story.
No one wants or expects an epic 4 chapter fight for the minks to get extreme focus, but even a tiny bit after literal years of build up? Heck, if we'd seen Jack fighting the mink army 30 chapters ago and gotten that taste there, it'd be alleviated. Instead of gettign 7 chapters ina row of Luffy running up stairs and facing off against another comedy zoan design.
Or, conversely, if Cat and Dog hadn't gone sulong a couple chapters ago, then had it turned off, then turned on again… if THIS chapter the cliffhanger was them finally getting that power up with the promise of next chapter being a bit of their skirmish and then the same finishers? It'd be fine.
But its not just the minks. If all the strawhats had gotten great coverage and satisfying victories, no one would care about the secondaries. But when something goes as badly as it did for Nami and Usopp, then... you keep hoping for SOMETHING to fix and improve and make up for mistakes. When Oda spends time wiping out all the scabbards and Orochi and Kanjuro and then has them get up, wipes them out again, then has them get up again? It feels like time wasted that could have been spent on other things.
Oda picks and chooses odd priorities sometimes. Spends dozens of pages on random time fillers, ends and then resurrects plotthreads that he does multiple times, then completely off screens plot points he's built for years.
The oo stuff and the Kaidou stuff are cool. But if that's going to be the thing he focuses on, then focus on it. Don't slap dash another resolution into two pages while doing the other thing.
Another example. Say you get a new car. The seats on this car are not the design you want. It's like moping around about the seats of that car instead of the fact that you just got a new car. It's completely lopsided.
Have you ever actually bought a car? You just spent thousands of dollars on something you are going to own and use on a daily basis for YEARS, and will constantly put more money into. it's entirely legit to be upset with the shortcomings and it not being entirely what you hoped.
Yeah, complaining that the seats aren't the exact shade of white you want is maybe being petty, but "I don't feel comfortable sitting in it for long periods" is a legit thing. There's coming up with minor petty complaints for the sake of it, and then there's having real issues.
If you take this chapter at face value (aka accept the characters won’t get up again given the panels that said they’re defeated were from the narrator), this chapter is the resolution of the Mink’s story in a sense We have the two big bads of the Minks, Jack and Perospero, being defeated this chapter. This should be their cathartic moment and resolution for all the suffering that they have gone though.
If anything, from a story telling perspective, this should be a big moment, not Luffy splitting the sky with Kaidou. I would argue that Momo overcoming his fears was a bigger moment story telling wise than the Luffy vs Kaidou confrontation. Splitting the sky is a cool image, but it’s just the beginning of their epic battle (because we knew that the two could battle Conquerer’s haki on a somewhat even playing field from their first confrontation anyways)
I don't know why i keep thinking that tengu guy is going to do something neat, i mean since he hangs around the capital eating cotton candy he's probably not going to take part in any action, but his design seems to neat just to be around. Maybe he'll do some revealing once they've landed the flying rock and face punched Kaido into submission
On its own, this was a pretty good chapter. Payoff for Momo after so much time, seeing a Haki clash from Luffy and Kaido splitting the sky to show him to be on an Emperor's level, then having that pay off to allow Dog and Cat to go back into Sulong form to gets some sweet finishers in. Overall I enjoyed the chapter and definitely a stand out from the last bunch we have gotten.
That said, it definitely didn't hit as hard as it could've since the payoff didn't have a lot of build up towards it. With how bloated the arc is I do not want time to focus on every single character as that would kill the pacing of the arc. Personally I am fine with not having too much focus on Jack and Perospero since we had enough screen time for them to make their downfall at the very least satisfying. Still doesn't take away from the fact that it doesn't have that same emotional impact that you get from time to time with other take downs, but not every battle can be like that, especially in an arc like this (and even in Dressrosa, which I liked compared to others had this same problem). The bigger problem still comes down to Momo, as once again I feel his presence in this arc was mostly overshadowed until now, like there were so many other aspects going on that it had to be held on until much later, not allowing for the build up. His fear of flying was introduced all the way in Punk Hazard, and with everything going on in this section of the arc the brief part of his trauma with Kaido was a foot note. Overall the payoff was fine, but it definitely was the moment that suffered the most from the lack of build up, or how long it took to get to the payoff in the case of flying.
Still, I can't deny the smug satisfaction of Perospero and Jack thinking they finally got the upper hand only for the sky to split and get their comeuppance. The moment was only slightly ruined by being reminded that jerk Orochi is still around, but imagining the humiliation he will hopefully get from someone keeps me invested in how his storyline will end.
Is it weird that i didn't even connect the sky split as a big moment? I mean in my mind Luffy became his equal back when he blocked his club with chosen haki, and this was more a neat visual than anything representitive on my first read. Obvs it is symbolic and all, i just had moved past it to the point of thinking well duh of course he is lol
Yeah I just don't really feel hype for the skysplitting. That emotion was used up when Luffy figured out CoC infusion. Generally speaking as always Oda makes sure Luffy gets everything he needs to the point it's abundant but several other things fall short.
Luffy in this raid had like 4 oh shit moments already. His roc attack, his gear 4 unleashing, his advanced armament and his coc coating. Skysplitting just doesn't really add anything for me as Luffy is speedrunning his way to be able to stand against the Yonko.
Beyond that it's also simply that I genuinely don't think this raid has been Oda's best work so far which hurts given that it had massively more buildup than some of his best arcs before. The raid has very high highs but overall falls victim to similar issues that have been present a lot post timeskip.
I think everyone understands Oda can't go into detail into everything but the corners he's cut and where he indulged instead haven't been super resonant with me.
Like flatout for me the catharsis in this arc has never been about Luffy beating Kaido. It's something I know will happen there is not a single thing about it that will surprise me or thrill me the best Oda can do on that front is delivering great action panels.
For me the catharsis will be very reliant on how Oda ties and resolves all the dozen of plot threads he's started before and during the raid.
Is it weird that i didn't even connect the sky split as a big moment? I mean in my mind Luffy became his equal back when he blocked his club with chosen haki, and this was more a neat visual than anything representitive on my first read. Obvs it is symbolic and all, i just had moved past it to the point of thinking well duh of course he is lol
Same here, I saw it happen, shrugged and turned the page. Didn't hit me it references the clashing of two powerful individuals until it was mentioned in this thread. In my defence the splitting of double pages on Manga Plus is horrible and this chapter in particular is suffering heavily from that.
Still interesting how there was no personal reaction. It was cool when it happened between other characters. Maybe I'm tired or the chapter just doesn't pique my interest. Or it could be that my Luffy-is-fighting-a-Yonko hype was satiated during the rooftop fight, because god damn did I love those chapters. Fascinating regardless.
Good chapter. I loved how Luffy encouraged Momo in a very Luffy fashion and how Momodragon still acts like a frightened child despite his growth. That's one thing Oda nailed as far as I'm concerned. Kickstarting Kaido round 2 with a sky split is neat, too.
Catviper and Stormdog concluding their fights were…a bit hasty, for sure. I might have liked a couple more panels of them actually engaging their respective foe, rather than much off-panel followed by "oh yeah, if only you'd landed one last good hit " immediately followed by "LUCK! Here it is!". But, that Oda is cutting corners and making weird narrative priority picks (Robby said it best) isn't anything new by now, so I try to enjoy what I can and let the rest slide - ain't always easy. One way or the other this is the One Piece we will be getting for however much is left of those five years, gotta live with it.
Is it weird that i didn't even connect the sky split as a big moment? I mean in my mind Luffy became his equal back when he blocked his club with chosen haki, and this was more a neat visual than anything representitive on my first read.
I reacted similarly. In fact it took reading this thread to remember that, oh, yeah, sky split is that thing we only ever saw Yonkou perform so it's not only a big deal due to Cat & Dog. It's a big moment for sure, but on the first read it left nowhere as strong an impression as, say, the first ever Gear 4 punch or Fujitora's meteor.
Luffy splitting the sky was great, and a definite sign of how far he's come, but otherwise, I wasn't a fan of this chapter. When I saw the early spoilers, I thought I might be jumping the gun, but my issues with those spoilers seem even worse in the context of the chapter.
A minor issue that I had was Momo biting Kaidou and making him scream out in pain. Given that Kaidou's skin has been built up to be extremely difficult to get through, with Luffy needing to specifically train in advanced armament haki to be able to do it, and the Nine Red Scabbards barely being able to pull it off, it seems weird that Momo can just do it without even knowing that it's a big deal. (it seems to undermine Kaidou's threat as a villain when someone who was an untrained eight year old five minutes ago, and still is one mentally, can make him scream out in pain)
My bigger problems were with Jack's portrayal and the whole Perospero plotline. When it comes to Jack, he's one of Kaidou's top minions, and yet he didn't even get a named attack, let alone a full chapter worth of fighting. (instead, throughout the arc, we've gotten a few snippets of fights that happened mostly off-screen, and the snippets that we got involved Jack getting his butt kicked) I get that he's been treated as though he's not as tough as King or Queen, but he's still a juggernaut with a billion Berry bounty - it seems weird to give him less focus than the Flying Six, or for someone like Holdem to have more named attacks than him. It would have been nice if it seemed like it took some actual effort to beat him, rather than having him go down in one good hit from a single member of the Scabbards. (I get that it's personal for Inuarashi, given what happened to Zou, but Jack's defeat seemed so effortless)
And then there's the Carrot-Pedro-Perospero plotline - what was the point of it? If it had just been dropped after Whole Cake Island, I could assume that people (myself included) were reading too deeply into a few panels, but then Perospero made it to Onigashima (the only member of the Big Mom Pirates, aside from BM herself, to do so), Carrot specifically went after him to avenge Pedro, and it seemed like the plot was actually building up to something…
...and then Carrot was beaten off-screen and mocked by Perospero for even thinking that she could stand a chance. Still, villains act arrogant in their own abilities all the time, and Perospero only won because the moon was covered up, so maybe...
...and then Nekomamushi, who had no idea who Perospero was, beats him in one attack while Carrot can only sit on the side and watch, despite the fact that Nekomamushi going into the Sulong state meant that Carrot should have been able to as well.
It just raises the question of why Carrot was involved in Whole Cake Island (if it was to make us feel sad about Pedro's death or introduce Sulong, Pekoms could have done both of those things), or why Perospero was brought into the raid when all he accomplished was allying with Marco for a chapter and occasionally attacking Marco or Chopper, or why that plotline was built up over the past year (more if we count Whole Cake Island) if all of that was going to amount to Perospero being beaten in one hit by someone who had no idea who he was a few minutes ago, while Carrot (who actually saw what happened) contributes nothing. Considering that Oda's someone who brought back the plotline of Captain John's treasure years later, across several arcs, it seems weird for him to abruptly rush through an entire plotline and two separate fights like this. (it also ends the plot on a note that's weirdly pessimistic for One Piece, with Perospero telling Carrot that she should have stayed home and never gone out to sea - that seemed like an opportunity to Carrot to prove him wrong and contribute to his defeat, but instead, we're left with the feeling that Perospero was right and Carrot should just stay in Zou instead of seeing the world)
Maybe I'm jumping the gun, and Jack will get up later to get an actual on-screen fight (he's been shown to be durable), or we'll get a conclusion to the plotline at the start of next week's chapter, but given that the narration at the end seems pretty definitive, I have my doubts.
Sorry for the rant; like I said earlier, I liked Luffy splitting the sky, but the rest of the chapter just seems like wasted potential.
I'm really surprised how likable I find Momo in this entire arc.
I was dreading Wano arc before because I knew it would put a lot of focus on Momo and how much I didn't like him (kid characters in general, really. Can never stand them and they're what I don't like about the One Piece movies).
Good job on that front, Oda.
Considering that Oda's someone who brought back the plotline of Captain John's treasure years later, across several arcs, it seems weird for him to abruptly rush through an entire plotline and two separate fights like this.
I think this really comes down to current-day Oda as an author isn't the same person he was 5 years ago, much less 10+ years ago when he did the Captain John thing. His priorities shifted and we see with every arc that he is trying to pick up the pace. He still dedicates panel time to the shiny new toys of the moment, but even this comes at the cost of other things being off-paneled. So, maybe he had grand plans for Jack and the Minks all these years ago when Wano was going to be the mother of all arcs that would have spanned 150+ chapters, but nowadays they're not so important anymore in the face of wrapping up Wano, giving key Straw Hats a cool fight and accomodating all the other toys he came up with in the meantime.
Even Carrot. It's possible that her relevance to the story shifted between Whole Cake and present day. She is maybe the Paulie of Wano saga : initially made a cool entrance, but later gets relegated to a secondary part. So the treatment she received in Onigashima can be seen as a logical conclusion to her story that wraps up the Pedro thread and also reflects how important she is for future arcs.
Things that I liked the most, its the high hopes this chapter gave me about ending Wano sooner than expected, and that my speculation about finishing the remaining villains in pairs, is looking more than possible.
I would like the Supernova pair to be taken down next, Apoo and Hawkins.
Followed by the last remnants of the Kurozomi dictaroship, Orochi and Fukurokuju.
and finally, and since Zoro is fighting against the clock, King and Queen, shouldn't last longer either.
I've decided simply not to speculate about Big Mom and the Worst Gens at all, I'll let Oda surpsise me in that one.
As I said in the spoiler thread, I loved this chapter. Just a pity that Jack never got to have named attacks. I would have loved to see some Mammoth puns.
Also, it was just one panel but I loved that back-to-back Zoro/Sanji panel. It gives a little hope that their fights might include some co-op.
Anyway, I don't mind reading negative opinions that differ from mine. It's the constant speculations on Oda's "plans" to justify something you didn't like that really bother me nowadays in this forum.
If you didn't like something and want to express it, it's absolutely fine. Just don't generalize your opinion as if it is shared by everyone.
But comments that are basically "Oda would have gone in a direction that would satisfy me but he changed his plans" or "Oda cut the fight/scene I wanted to see to finish the manga earlier or because of editorial decision" are just stupid to me.
You'll never know Oda's plans. Stick to the actual work in your criticism and stop trying to be meta about it. You'll only sound silly to me.
So I think this one's actually gonna be it for me. I'm either taking a long hiatus or just leaving, not sure. But yeah, chalk this up as another one lost to the cynicism of this forum just like access timeco. Didn't post much here (due to the cynicism) anyway so not some big loss.
The disconnect between the rest of the fandom and the forum here on this chapter is profound. I'm referring to the spoilers thread. Just like access timeco didn't want his/her chapters 1000+ soured by these posts, we're late enough into the series where I don't want Luffy's possible battle with Shanks tainted by posts here going "Yeah… I want to enjoy Luffy vs Shanks but, the guy with the monkey on his shoulder was defeated too quickly... Sigh..." That just reeks of focusing on the minor over the major, to purposely try as hard as possible to not enjoy something. Another example. Say you get a new car. The seats on this car are not the design you want. It's like moping around about the seats of that car instead of the fact that you just got a new car. It's completely lopsided.
The amount of posts I had to scroll through in the spoiler thread to find someone even mentioning Luffy splitting the fucking sky is just insane. Instead where is all the focus for this forum? Jack and Perospero, because that's what can be complained about. It's just like access timeco said, this forum goes purposely scavenging for things to dislike, and either outright ignores big moments or finds a way to dislike them. It's time for some of you to just admit that you've moved on from the series. You don't want it to succeed. You've picked up other manga/anime along the way, and are rooting for them, but made sure to do it at the expense of One Piece.
In a post-Covid world, I don't really have the luxury of focusing on bitterness on a widely beloved series. My mental energy needs to be focused on survival and what's still good left in the world. I have the feeling some of you tapped out at Fishman Island and just never recovered. It's a common behavior with people, focusing on first impressions, and that was your first impression of the timeskip. Times have changed. We're not dealing with that version of One Piece anymore. Major resolutions to series-wide things are happening. If you choose to just be negative all the time while this stuff is happening, that's just not a group I want to hang around when Luffy's discovering One Piece. I have a feeling even if everything with discovering One Piece is done ideally, if someone predicted how it's done, someone would find a way to complain that it was too predictable.
I've noticed the same on this forum for a few months now. I just skip their complaints which leads to not reading a lot of posts in their entirety cuz it's just complaining about what happened or what they think will happen cuz they cant think of a satisfying outcome. Even when some thoroughly explain their issues it just has me thinking you should probably take a break from reading One Piece weekly.
Seems a lot of ppl on here are burnt out on the series but are still faithfully reading cuz they've already invested so much time on it already. So they go on, continue to complain and have negative leaning posts until I guess they won't be able to take anymore and just start hate posting.
If worst comes to worst this will just be one big forum wide naruto thread.
Could use a bit more of that chaotic energy.
But comments that are basically "Oda would have gone in a direction that would satisfy me but he changed his plans" or "Oda cut the fight/scene I wanted to see to finish the manga earlier or because of editorial decision" are just stupid to me.
You'll never know Oda's plans. Stick to the actual work in your criticism and stop trying to be meta about it. You'll only sound silly to me.
I don't give a crap about the mink fights or Jack. But cutting them DID actively hurt this chapter. (as well as previous chapters.)
Luffy split the sky! Holy crap its a big huge epic moment!
Except that it landed flat.
Yeah it was cool but we already got Luffy being Kaidou's equal chapters ago when he figured out the haki trick. No one in the chapter commented on the sky split, there were no reactions… it was just a plot device to clear up the moon for the minks.
A moon... that had only been covered this same chapter.
So the scene falls flat... because of what Oda DIDN'T show earlier.
Really, Cat and Dog hould have just... not transformed into sulong a few chapters ago and been shown to be struggling a tiny bit more would have gone a long way. It would have made their scene stronger AND the sky split more impactful. But when its handled as less of "Luffy is doing something epic" and more "Well that's convenient... AGAIN"... something in it just doesn't click. Just a few chapters ago they had exactly the cliffhanger they needed with the sky clearing htis chapter, where yu got that two page spread of them transformed at last, and a promise of them about to kick ass. Put that same exact moment here instead, and then next chapter give them each one or two pages to kick butt then do those finishers, and it all works much better and more satisfyingly.
But that's not what we got.
And that sucks. I want to feel the awesome powerful badass moment but it just didn't land. I felt everything Luffy was doing last chapter with Yamato, and I thought the Momo stuff was good this chapter. But the sky split? A huge epic to-be-iconic moment? Just didn't leave an impact like it should have.
The corner cutting, on top of the random finishing threads then repeating them, (How many times have we finished Orochi now?) is getting in the way of more story points than just the stuff being cut.
No one is asking for a big 5 chapters of the minks fighting Jack on camera. No one expect that. But.. even a handful of panels over the last 30 or 40 chapters would have gone a long way.
Oda IS better than that. So when he shortchanges something to this extreme, and also drops the ball on things like Nami and Usopp's "fight", which again missed partly becaue he off-cameraed much of it, stuff starts to fall flat.
A big climax moment doesn't work if there's no actual buildup to it. It's absolutely a weakness he has now that he didn't used to. So all three o the big impact moments at the end of this chapter, the sky slit and the two KO moves... all three of them should have been big "FINALLY!" and "THAT WAS AWESOME!" moments, and instead none of them hit because they weren't given even the tiniest bit of room to breathe.
I see things are "lively" as ever in this forum section.
If I were you I would stop overthinking stuff just for the sake of making yourself feel better concerning certain issues related to the story or how Oda (who's human btw) handles certain plot threads.
Just go with the flow and quit overanalyzing things you'll have long forgotten about by the time the next chapter releases.
I don't think you get what I was complaining about. It's fine for me to say you didn't like Oda not drawing something. What I don't get is the speculation that Oda planned to and changed his mind.
And it seems to be a trend in this forum lately ever since Oda's "the end is near" comment and Greg pseudo-insider cryptic comments.
Isn't that just sprung from the idea that Oda is always on the ball and has a plan, and that any short comings would have to come from an outside factor. When it can be either intentionally done, screwed by the editor or just caused by human planning error it isn't hard to see why you might feel inclined to think that any perceived weakness must have been forced upon this generally competent storyteller
I don't think you get what I was complaining about. It's fine for me to say you didn't like Oda not drawing something. What I don't get is the speculation that Oda planned to and changed his mind.
And it seems to be a trend in this forum lately ever since Oda's "the end is near" comment and Greg pseudo-insider cryptic comments.
You should look at other places, is pretty much the same thing and in some cases even worse than that. But I'm not letting a few annoyances diminish my enjoyment.
Well my enjoyment of the manga remains fine thankfully.
It's just criticisms that I could find interesting to debate get ruined in my mind by all these "pretend to know the behind the scenes" comments.
It's something that I find elsewhere in movie or TV show discussions and I wish it wasn't getting its way in a manga discussion, a genre that has the advantage of the creation being quite secret.
I don't give a crap about the mink fights or Jack. But cutting them DID actively hurt this chapter. (as well as previous chapters.)
Luffy split the sky! Holy crap its a big huge epic moment!
Except that it landed flat.
Yeah it was cool but we already got Luffy being Kaidou's equal chapters ago when he figured out the haki trick. No one in the chapter commented on the sky split, there were no reactions… it was just a plot device to clear up the moon for the minks.
A moon... that had only been covered this same chapter.
So the scene falls flat... because of what Oda DIDN'T show earlier.
Really, Cat and Dog hould have just... not transformed into sulong a few chapters ago and been shown to be struggling a tiny bit more would have gone a long way. It would have made their scene stronger AND the sky split more impactful. But when its handled as less of "Luffy is doing something epic" and more "Well that's convenient... AGAIN"... something in it just doesn't click. Just a few chapters ago they had exactly the cliffhanger they needed with the sky clearing htis chapter, where yu got that two page spread of them transformed at last, and a promise of them about to kick ass. Put that same exact moment here instead, and then next chapter give them each one or two pages to kick butt then do those finishers, and it all works much better and more satisfyingly.
But that's not what we got.
And that sucks. I want to feel the awesome powerful badass moment but it just didn't land. I felt everything Luffy was doing last chapter with Yamato, and I thought the Momo stuff was good this chapter. But the sky split? A huge epic to-be-iconic moment? Just didn't leave an impact like it should have.
The corner cutting, on top of the random finishing threads then repeating them, (How many times have we finished Orochi now?) is getting in the way of more story points than just the stuff being cut.
No one is asking for a big 5 chapters of the minks fighting Jack on camera. No one expect that. But.. even a handful of panels over the last 30 or 40 chapters would have gone a long way.
Oda IS better than that. So when he shortchanges something to this extreme, and also drops the ball on things like Nami and Usopp's "fight", which again missed partly becaue he off-cameraed much of it, stuff starts to fall flat.
A big climax moment doesn't work if there's no actual buildup to it. It's absolutely a weakness he has now that he didn't used to. So all three o the big impact moments at the end of this chapter, the sky slit and the two KO moves... all three of them should have been big "FINALLY!" and "THAT WAS AWESOME!" moments, and instead none of them hit because they weren't given even the tiniest bit of room to breathe.
100% agree with everything you said. Well stated. The build up is simply lacking in many places and a lot of the stuff being given priority (i.e. reaction shots) could probably be better spent fleshing out conflicts or plot elements that have already been started.
Robby mentioning the randomly finishing threads and repeating them really summarizes it well for me, that one will definitely hurt in rereads. It already feels wasteful in the weekly format how Oda has been repeating himself(hence why I often mention how weird the shuffling around is because what I actually mean with that it has lead to repeating certain beats). I would assume in one go it will be even more jarring.
Luffy splitting the sky was great, and a definite sign of how far he's come, but otherwise, I wasn't a fan of this chapter. When I saw the early spoilers, I thought I might be jumping the gun, but my issues with those spoilers seem even worse in the context of the chapter.
A minor issue that I had was Momo biting Kaidou and making him scream out in pain. Given that Kaidou's skin has been built up to be extremely difficult to get through, with Luffy needing to specifically train in advanced armament haki to be able to do it, and the Nine Red Scabbards barely being able to pull it off, it seems weird that Momo can just do it without even knowing that it's a big deal. (it seems to undermine Kaidou's threat as a villain when someone who was an untrained eight year old five minutes ago, and still is one mentally, can make him scream out in pain)
Seems you assumed Kaido's tough skin had something to do with something he has done or just the way he is when it seems to be due to him eating a mythical dragon zoan.
Given that the copy of that mythical zoan was able to pierce it.
–- Update From New Post Merge ---
As I said in the spoiler thread, I loved this chapter. Just a pity that Jack never got to have named attacks. I would have loved to see some Mammoth puns.
Also, it was just one panel but I loved that back-to-back Zoro/Sanji panel. It gives a little hope that their fights might include some co-op.
Anyway, I don't mind reading negative opinions that differ from mine. It's the constant speculations on Oda's "plans" to justify something you didn't like that really bother me nowadays in this forum.
If you didn't like something and want to express it, it's absolutely fine. Just don't generalize your opinion as if it is shared by everyone.
But comments that are basically "Oda would have gone in a direction that would satisfy me but he changed his plans" or "Oda cut the fight/scene I wanted to see to finish the manga earlier or because of editorial decision" are just stupid to me.
You'll never know Oda's plans. Stick to the actual work in your criticism and stop trying to be meta about it. You'll only sound silly to me.
Yeah, its extra annoying to read ppl constantly saying this happened cuz the story is finishing soon and Oda is cutting corners
I have a confession to make. I have never really recognized Perospero as one of Big Mom's top men, and I consistently forget until the story reminds me. He has never, ever felt important or strong and it's been weird seeing him included in this arc. I'm just glad he's out of the battle for now.
Oh man, I thought like the last chapter felt like a great end to volume 101, but even though this one doesn't have quite as memorable a final page it's hard to imagine the book being complete without Luffy and Kaido splitting the sky. It's the perfect climax to the throughline of Luffy's recovery and Momo's ageing up that's been developing at a rate of like one page per chapter for most of the volume. Plus the chapter title would make for a pretty great volume name, something the first 10 chapters of volume 101 didn't have a whole lot of.
The Bellmere callback on the cover is super cute, and that's all that needs to be said about it.
I'm in two minds about the sudden weather change used to setup the core moment of this chapter. We do get the in-universe explanation that dragons bring stormclouds with them, and we've seen Kaido's dragon form ride in with dark clouds behind it when he was first revealed, but he didn't make any clouds the first time he went dragon on the rooftop, even fighting against the sulong minks among the Scabbards. So why now? I might be inclined to call the weather change something contrived in order to get the haki clash moment, but the result is so cool that I've already completely forgiven it.
The dragon battle looks absolutely incredible. Kaido's dragon form has always made for really memorable visuals, which almost makes me wish we had more time with both him and Momo onscreen. I particularly love the image of Momo spiralling aroud the blast breath. I'm sure some will complain about Momo's bite hurting Kaido because it doesn't hit their powerscaling headcanons, but I think it's a worthwhile moment. It's great that the thing that pushes Momo past his fear isn't just getting big, but standing up in a meaningful way to his greatest fear, even if he did so with a whole lot of Luffy's help. I don't think the effect of the bite means he suddenly has advanced haki or anything like that - we saw from Kid's tactics during the Supernovas' rooftop bout that Kaido's insides are vulnerable to being crushed even while his scales remain impenetrable, and any reasonable guess at the jaw strength of a predator that size says its bite would freaking hurt. Or just follow the Pokemon logic that dragon beats dragon.
And man, what great therapy it must be to make Kaido scream and live to tell of it. I'd be feeling invincible if I was in Momo's position.
As much as I love the detail of the skull's eye remaining broken where Momo broke in last chapter, I keep glancing at it and thinking it's a speech bubble, wondering why it's been left blank.
Carrot being reduced to yelling Catviper's name and not getting to help fell Perospero was pretty disappointing. Whole Cake Island made her one of the most prominent non-Strawhat characters for more than seven volumes, literally years of real-world time. It's fine for her to fall back into the fringes now that arc is over, but for her to be sidelined so hard in a fight she was present for and had such a genuine emotional stake in feels like a disservice to her former prominence. Well guess if nothing else it shows Oda doesn't feel pressured at all by poll results in making plans for his characters.
Love the panel of Zoro and Sanji fighting back to back. Looking forward to getting back to that scene.
The chapter ends with a series of truly gorgeous spreads. I love that Luffy's sky plitting moment is something that actually has an impact on the wider battle. So much of CoC prior to the coating revelation has just been a way for high level guys to dickmeasure before coming to blows.
Oh, and Orochi's still kicking, surprising no one.
I'm not the first to say it, but I think it's pretty likely the remaining enemies will continue to go down in pairs, save for Big Mom. Orochi and Fukurokuju would be a good set to take out together. I think Orochi's done trying to fight, having set fire to Kaido's house and lost seven out of his presumed eight lives already. He's come right to the back door of the castle, so I think he's just gonna creep out. My bet's still on Denjiro tracking him down, having learned to predict him through all those years as a lapdog. Feels likely Hyori could get involved as well, but I don't see Oda making her into a fighter this late in the game. That leaves Apoo and Hawkins and King and Queen, plus Big Mom. The remaining Numbers might show up to keep the fodder busy, but I'm not expecting much from them. I'm expecting these beats to play out fairly quickly over the next few chapters, leaving the second half of volume 102 to be completely Luffy vs Kaido.
Solid chapter overall with some absolutely vital moments and great visuals. I never really understood the hype surrounding Jack or the need to get another drawn out clash with him after he got all of Zou to himself, but I can understand feeling underwhelmed by Perospero's showing at Onigashima. The dude had a lot of narrative baggage pinned to him from Whole Cake Island and Oda decided to use almost none of it and instead had him felled by a character who wasn't even part of that arc. It's not as much of a miss as Page One and Ulti's sudden defeats, but it still feels like a story beat that needed more time in the oven. Regardless, I think the Onigashima battle's gotten a lot more right than it has wrong since the Supernovas hit the roof and I'm really looking forward to seeing how it concludes.
I said all about my grievances about this chapter at the spoiler thread, so now I can praise the chapter rightfully.
Finally!! I can see the ending!! Last duel of Luffy and Kaido (with Yamato on side), and a few stragglers like Orochi etc. I don't even think King and Queen would last more than 2 chapters, which is suck for Sanji and King as they really need those developments, but such is life.
Oh and did we really need those 2 early pages…?
"No more shall man have wings to bear him to paradise. Henceforth, he shall walk.." - Venat
Isn't that just sprung from the idea that Oda is always on the ball and has a plan, and that any short comings would have to come from an outside factor. When it can be either intentionally done, screwed by the editor or just caused by human planning error it isn't hard to see why you might feel inclined to think that any perceived weakness must have been forced upon this generally competent storyteller
I think the speculation about it at all is the problem.
But I guess after 20 or even 10+ years of reading, fans feel they're well versed or even experts on storytelling.
I have a confession to make. I have never really recognized Perospero as one of Big Mom's top men, and I consistently forget until the story reminds me. He has never, ever felt important or strong and it's been weird seeing him included in this arc. I'm just glad he's out of the battle for now.
Him locking down the Sunny while encasing Chopper and Brook in candy didn't do enough to make him feel like a threat? His candy monsters or candy maiden didn't either? Or how about him lying to BM just to get her to chase the SHs? All of those at least made me believe that we was on par with Cracker and Katakuri from a strength perspective, but also showed his cunning. That's why seeing him randomly show up on Onigashima and look incompetent feels like a downgrade. We've seen the kind of character he can be, but now he's a joke of a character who strikes from the shadows, gloats, and then gets defeated in one hit.
Oh and did we really need those 2 early pages…?
The two showing the Capital? Well, this chapter is either the end of one volume or the start of the next one.
In the latter case, showing the Capital again is a bookend, since volume 101 starts there, showing how much closer the deadline has gotten since the start of the book. In the former case, it's a reminder of what's at stake to the volume readers who might have gone several months since the last time they were reading. It might feel like a cutaway that doesn't add much to extremely up-to-date readers like ourselves, but I think it fits into the structural bigger picture.
Are we supposed to assume Luffy is constantly coating his attacks with conquerors Haki? Or only when Oda indicates it?
I was looking forward to see how strong his gear fourth attacks were going to be with Conquerors haki coating, but he's done a few gear 4th attacks, some gear 3rd attacks and just regular attacks that all seem to be doing the same amount of damage, it's really hard to tell what's effective and what's not
and now that we have three types of haki coating, we have regular black haki coating, we have ryou coating, and Conqueror's haki ryou coating….. basically I'm lost
Am I the only one having trouble with this?
Seems you love when the thread burns
Neko being stuck with candyman instead of being part of taking Jack down sucked.
Really like the Momo Luffy par Luffy getting Momo to do something rash to get him motivated then shipping him away to help lift the country is pretty nice. Still need that third character for the pheasant. So Hiyori or Marco?
Wow. One Piece is getting good again! Best chapter I've read in a long time.
I love the focus given to Momonosuke in this chapter. The past few months for Momonosuke has been an age of terror, grief and unfamiliarity. The heart mourning the loss of his parents still remains entrenched in the dread of darkness blanketing his world from that day. Such a trauma compelled him forward but is also haunting him with his inabilities. Twenty years may have passed but for Momonosuke, the death of his mother and father was but moments ago. Sorrow still fresh continues to overwhelm him. Now face to face with Kaido and in a position to stand against such a terror, Momonosuke fights off his fears and thanks to Luffy’s words and support, commits himself to a path of resolve.
With the wave of courage now washing over Momonosuke, he should be able to fly according to his own direction. Yamato will likely assist Momonosuke in this task - by guiding Momonosuke in using abilities Momonosuke may not know he possesses in his Dragon form. The imagery of having a Dragon and an Oni save Wano Kuni will surely be a transformative one after such forms derived only terror and despair for the people of Wano. With the Fire Festival going on, the Flower Capital has been opened up to all of Wano. As such, those able and willing would be attending the festival and witness to the events about to transpire. The Wano people may not have noticed it yet but with Onigashima advancing ever closer to the Flower Capital, it is only a matter of time before the people notice. Panic and fear will set in but it will be within that darkness that they will witness the efforts of a Dragon and an Oni saving them. The symbolism attached to those forms will in turn transform from misery into something more…hopeful.
For me, I really did feel the sky splitting moment. I never considered Luffy Kaido's equal in previous chapters as I always expected Luffy to be defeated at some point to make way for the Yamato VS Kaido battle, so even when Luffy began utilising Haoshoku Haki to fight Kaido, he was still not competing with Kaido in the same realm. But this moment here is THE moment for me. Luffy truly is Kaido's equal now. The equivalence of a force matching Kaido's own should be a signal to Kaido. Their blows clashing against each other were able to split the heavens. If Kaido wasn’t willing to accept Luffy’s capabilities before, the imagery now before him may motivate him to reconsider. Luffy is now within the realms of those he seeks to defeat. And Kaido will be taken down this round.
I wasn't expecting much from the Mink battles as Oda's prior treatment of them conveyed what his intentions for them were. I have already accepted that Oda doesn't view the Mink as important within the Wano arc relative to the other major players so I didn't have much of an issue with how Inuarashi and Nekomamushi's battles against Jack and Perospero were concluded respectively. Such battles were the least interesting, so I am glad they were wrapped up within this chapter. Prolonging the battles wouldn't have enhanced the excitement for me. If Oda wanted the Mink to hold focus, he should have given them more focus during their battle against Kaido and the Beast Pirates atop the Onigashima Skull dome earlier in the arc. But it appears to me this is more an issue with Oda's intentions rather than handling. I also don't expect the Raizo VS Fukurokuju to take many pages to conclude. Ninja's have been given lackluster treatment in the Wano arc and I don't see that changing. Beside a move or two being highlighted, the climatic blow should be come sooner rather than later.
As for Orochi, he won't be done with until Hiyori shows up. If Oda doesn't intend to feature the Hebi Hebi no Mi, Model: Yamata no Orochi in later arcs, I hope he lets Orochi go berserk and unleash his Yamata no Orochi. I wouldn't mind a Momonosuke/Hiyori/Yamato VS Berserk Yamata no Orochi battle. The people of Wano could then see the fall of both Kaido and Orochi. And on top of having the symbolism of Dragons and Oni redefined in the Wano people's hearts, also witness the revival of the Kozuki Clan.
Huh, seems like Carrot isn’t meant to kick Perospero’s ass after all.
