Posts made by Kaworu

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.

So I think it's important to remember that the title is subjective, not objective. There's no need to "lay down the law" on this and treat it as indisputable truth.

Anyway. I find his treatment of Nami and Usopp obviously the worst. Things were going well for a while with them but their battle(s) were resolved in a very iffy manner.
Everyone else though, some have had their best battles ever (Robin, Jinbe), have done crucial things at some point in the arc, usually multiple times (Chopper saving Luffy's life, the Frost Oni antidote), or just got an entertaining battle that was suitably challenging.
Brook did some endgame important stuff in WCI so that's probably why he's taken a backseat.

There was a lot of side character focus in this arc for a long time. But that's toned down ever since the Scabbards were defeated by Kaido, and the Straw Hats have taken a much more central role since then. I find their portrayal and actions in this arc the best since Enies Lobby.
Everything in this post is of course my subjective opinion.

Decent chapter again. Nothing really stood out to me besides the final few pages. I feel like this chapter was restricted by the pacing, Oda wanted to end it on the "arrival" spread, but there could've been more meat to this chapter if that spread was allowed to be earlier in the chapter.

There's no reason to be secretive about Snakeman at this point, I would've liked a better view.

This should be the end of the chapters I just find decent (1024 and 1025), every piece is where it needs to be to go full thrust now.
I'll like this chapter more when I can just immediately get to the action of the next one.

Loooved this episode. Saying the One Piece anime has bad pacing is like saying "Water is wet", and not only that, saying "Water is wet" for 15 years. It's pretty obvious. Saying water is wet won't suddenly change it into a solid.

I'm really liking the relatively new style of movement where they're making tiny adjustments the whole time, reduces still shots a lot and looks more fluid. Also the lighter linewotk was nice.
9/10 episode for me, always loved the Luffy vs Ulti skirmish.

Decent chapter for me. I'm one of those who still very much needs to be sold on Yamato, so this helps. Like Yamato's neat and all, but the last chapter pretty much confirmed gods exist in One Piece so… yeah lol. I'm much more excited about that.
Besides the Void Century, Kaido's my most anticipated flashback because his character just keeps getting better and more depth by the chapter. So Yamato getting a flashback surely gets us closer to his.
"There are no easy answers in this world." Love it, it's a line I've thought many times before Kaido said it.
Last spread was as usual incredible.

@joekido:

Well at this point, I don't care anymore. In fact I'm more to see this series end then to continue until Oda is 90 or something. The man is sick and aging, the series has grown tired and Oda cannot continue this any longer. If One Piece ends 10 years or more then fine. But just remember Oda has said similar things in the past and the pacing continues to be dragged out. If One Piece is at the final phase, great. Time to end the series and have it expend into othe forms of media once it is done.

Vehemently disagree, the series has felt fresher than it has in a long time to me. It felt tired when it was in Fishman Island through Dressrosa. From Zou onward it's felt like it got a breath of new life, especially in Wano. Two subversive arcs followed by a traditional mega version of the Alabasta-style arc. But yes, the man deserves his rest, the fans deserve a conclusion.

@TLC:

I think we also need to pay a visit to God Valley and Mariejois at some point. Also is Enel ever coming back from the moon?

Oh absolutely. He has to. And not just for "cover story characters come back most of the time", he's really important. (Rather his DF is).
Toei made a huge blunder when they didn't adapt that cover story. Huge implications for One Piece all the way back in 2008, and when the anime-only people see it they might think it's out of nowhere.

Okay, certainly couldn't miss commenting on this chapter even though I'm late. This is one of the best chapters of One Piece pre- or post-timeskip. The only ones that beat it are the real heavy hitters, Declaration of War, Ace's death, etc. But this has just about everything that makes One Piece what it is (nearly, we're not in the adventure portion of the arc). Intriguing lore – including both lore of a new race and the direction things have to head, towards gods -- great tagteams, mid-battle complications (from Sanji's raid suit, though some seem to think this'll work in his benefit), inventive fighting, great action, when things are so serious that both people are willing to fight dirty to come out ahead, multiple fights heading towards their climax... My lord. And then the spread at the end absolutely stealing the show. In terms of sheer variety of good content, I'm going to have to give this one a 10/10. I see no discernible flaws.

Davy Back is a controversial arc in general, I'm one of those who leans more towards liking it, but what it DID have that was for sure good was the Zoro/Sanji set their differences aside tag-team. This is that, but in a much more serious context against one of the most powerful pirate crews ever. Oda knocked it out of the park with King and Queen, before Wano I would've imagined that Kaido's top commanders would probably be just powerful beast dudes, powerful lion DF user, etc. But he added a lot more traits to them to spice it up.

This SHOULD be the finale of Wano now, or final climax. But I have a feeling it'll be much longer than most think.

Something I've seen on this forum specifically is disappointment with the Tobi Roppo from some people, and I've gotta say I can't relate.

I had Officer level expectations for them and they gave me that. They pushed our Straw Hats finally, sometimes to the extreme in Nami and Usopp's case, and got devoted 1 chapter fights and most got spread out dialogue and fights before that.
Any disappointment I had with them is greatly outweighed by them pushing the Straw Hats and letting them finally show off what they can truly do and shine.

A notable exception is Page-one, he definitely got shafted.
Ulti however was an absolute tank, getting up after many powerful attacks and a Yonkou internal damage move.
Who's Who also didn't get enough panel time before his fight.

Other than that though I am on the whole satisfied with them. Oda can only focus on Officer level characters for so long.

I really wanna have more to say than just "Great chapter" but good action chapters mostly just speak for themselves.
I wanna talk about King's fire race but there's just not much to be able to confirm there. I highly doubt they're just a "fluff" race though, they were introduced really late in the series. Pudding's three-eyed race ended up being really important (and we still haven't seen a "proper" three-eyes), so King's should be too.
I'm sure someone mentioned it but it does seem to go against the Red Line being artificially made.

Anyway. Raizo vs Fukurokuju was like, decent. I'm glad the Straw Hats took the center stage 'cause yeah most Scabbard fights have just been decent.
Besides them vs Kaido, that was awesome.
Every spread in this chapter felt very weighty and really highlighted Oda's creativity, can't wait for the penultimate fights!

It's also GREAT timing that we get no upcoming breaks for a few chapters. Really keeps the momentum going on a high.

Really loved her fight. It practically makes her fight vs Yama a non-fight, she just kind of rolled him away lol.
This is really creatively inspired stuff that is just such a unique combination. Demon hand-making archaeologist vs Half-spider brawler escort woman.

I saw some people get upset that her wings were pointy. To me it's the same logic as "Why can Sanji light his leg on fire?" "Why do the Marines' coats always stay on?" "Why are Luffy's teeth not made of rubber?"
The series just does not abide by strict real world logic and never has. I'm just happy her Demon Child epithet is being manifested.

But yeah this is easily my favorite Flying 6 fight so far.

I figured Shinobu would use her Rot fruit on Momo for a while because I couldn't figure Bonney coming to Wano and knew he needed to age up so yeah, no issue from me.

I had such a huge smile on my face from this chapter. Robin's "fight" against Yama in Skypiea is pretty much the only 1 on 1 thing she's ever gotten, and like it was fine, but this is so much better and so much more impactful. Wano's now not just correcting post-timeskip issues, but even pre-timeskip.
I don't know why but I found her line about Sanji pretty emotional, it was a really sweet scene.

Just gotta hope for Brook here that he does more than just assist on some goons but right now that doesn't look super likely. But still plenty of arc to go. These chapters being back to back like this is so, so necessary because it's really hammering in that, yes, there was a lot of focus on the Scabbards, but the Straw Hats are still the main characters.

Also what's with Oda's "corrupted memories" thing with this arc? Oden from Kanjuro, Robin's mom and Saul. Kinda interesting, possible theme? Or just Oda liking to do multiple takes on one concept.

Not too much to say about this one but it's just a really needed chapter again, like a glug of water after being in the desert for a long time. Franky's last fight was in 2014 or 2015 so he really needed one where he goes all-out. I would've been freaking out if I saw a fight with a concept like this pre-timeskip (a giant robot vs a triceratops Zoan), so I'll apply that same standard here. And again, this shows that worrying excessively about Nami/Usopp's fight being the norm for all the rest was silly.

Yamato's Zoan looks so unique and pretty, love it. If she is to join, well, there goes her "looking like Nami" whenever she's in that form.

Really enjoyed this one. The fight felt intense, the discrimination angle gave it some extra oomph, two interesting styles to see go head to head, and just some sorely needed real action for Jinbe.

I guess we'll cross the Gomu Gomu no Mi being important bridge when we come to it, for now all we can tell is it was being guarded and Who's Who was imprisoned for a long time. Other than that, we're just left to assume.
I can deal with the fruit being important, but I don't want it to be one of the best fruits. To me that gets rid of the whole underdog angle that this series has had for many of its arcs.

CP0 was very interesting this chapter. "His information is outdated so it doesn't matter if he leaks it?" Hmmm.
But they'll still kill him anyway. Also, "It doesn't matter to us who wins?" Vegapunk's new invention must be insanely powerful.

I'm not really looking to get into a long drawn-out debate about this, but I find the very notion that the Worst Generation vs The Established Generation is fanservice or drawn-out to be… odd.

It's a conflict that, somewhat unbeknownst to us, has been building since the Sabaody auction trio panel. We didn't know exactly how that would culminate, but it's obvious that the "big moment" it was culminating to is them fighting Yonkou, the new generation trying to overtake the old. With that said and all of this long-built importance on this, a short bout wouldn't have been satisfying. One Piece is already extremely long, we're long past the point of 2 to 3 chapter battles being able to be satisfying for the ones that have been built-up for a long time. I can get that for henchman battles, but I think you'd get one of the largest uproar the fanbase has ever had if Luffy vs Blackbeard is like, 3 chapters. And the Supernovas vs Kaido/Big Mom is just one peg below that on importance.

@hideoushorrendous:

What she has done in Udon was perfect, But to play a major role in the big crucial war? I just don't accept it

I like Otama but her ability is making the alliance so lucky is just a dumb fucking scenario.

I find it quite charming. The good guys are heavily outnumbered in numerous ways, they needed something to turn the tide. Even just Kaido and Big Mom alone are wrecking them, not to mention some of them are outmatched in their fights like Nami/Usopp. Sorry, but I just have no issue with some fodder getting converted.

I've had 0 issues with Otama, her ability was brought up at the beginning of the arc. Is she not supposed to use it?

Kind of random interjection here, but I think it's too early to call much about Wano. I can for example call the offscreening unsatisfying, that's fine. But to say it has no chance of being perceived as a masterpiece, it's just too early to say. I wouldn't have called Marineford one of the best arcs until the last 6 chapters. I also think it's illogical to assume Nami's fight is indicative of how the rest would be, when that's already been pretty much disproven with Franky.

@Riddler:

Oh right like the ten other times you proclaimed that the battle was basically over and that Oda was making the Strawhat win easily and ruining his manga, and then something happens that turns the tide again.

Like, I don't know, two chapters ago.

Seriously, how has this been easy exactly for the Strawhats?? Can somebody explain that to me, maybe? Usopp and Nami couldn't do shit against Ulti and PayPay with their normal attacks. Chopper, even in his super strong Monster Point, could barely harm Queen, merely stall him. Sanji has been beaten to a bloody pulp by Black Maria. Kaido has been battling the Scabbards, the 5 Supernova and Luffy 1v1 by now and he doesn't seem exhausted or anything at all. How are the Strawhats easily beating their opponents, exactly? I mean, sure, if you thing of the Strawhats as complete scrubs who shouldn't even be able to lay a scratch on anybody, I guess I can see where you are coming from…

And I mean, Zoro is in an absolutely horrific bodily state, only comparable to like, Kuma and Mihawk. And who caused that? The main source of tension and danger this arc.

The "why didn't Khalifa just Shigan Nami in the neck" angle is dicey. You have to start asking lots of other questions.
"Why didn't Kizaru just laser Luffy through the head in Marineford?"
"Why didn't Kaido just kill Momonosuke in the flashback?"
"Why didn't Kaido just make sure Luffy was dead on his second defeat?"
"Why didn't Crocodile just dry out Vivi and kill her?"
It's because Oda wants to put our main characters in dangerous situations where they're beyond what they can take on so that it's interesting, but he doesn't want to kill them so early on, so one has to use suspension of disbelief. I've always seen all these types of moments as a positive for the series, not a negative. I knew he wasn't going to kill a Straw Hat at that point in the story, but I'm just happy he let it get so far.

This type of question really tears apart a ton of media, so there's a reason suspension of disbelief is a thing. In Hunter X Hunter.
"Why didn't Neferpitou just kill Gon before he transformed?" There was time, she's incredibly quick, he was doing a whole transformation sequence.

@Nouryoku:

If those people open a shonen magazine they will usually see manga of spokon, gag, rom-com/harem and other genres. Even Hadashi no Gen is shonen.

Exactly. Shounen spans a wide variety of genres, it's not just action/fighting. It's the demographic. People would have a much easier time arguing it's action-adventure, that I can get behind. And something I find is often missed when discussing genres is how important mystery is to One Piece, I would put that as a genre it's in too, an important one. Not just the mystery of the One Piece, the way Oda tells arcs themselves chapter by chapter lends itself to mystery greatly.

@Nouryoku:

With "battle manga" people mean nekketsu. Shonen is just a demographic but nekketsu is an actual genre which One Piece belongs to. Death Note is not a nekketsu.

I've met plenty of people I've had this debate with who think shounen means battle, and is not in fact a demographic like you said. Not you, of course, but it happens so often that I felt the need to specify. Genres One Piece are also in are Adventure, Comedy, etc. But yeah I can agree that it's a nekketsu, from what I've read about that loosely, never personally heard that term myself. But I'll still stick with "Adventure is the main driving force of the story." Chapter 1 is called Romance Dawn, also readable as Dawn of Adventure, not Dawn of Fighting.

@Cockycent:

Wouldn't this imply that BM had no reason to attack Ulti since you're using Lucci as an example? There's a whole setup to earning Zeus that led up to this where Nami and Lola connected, BM is supposedly this heartless monster that can never show a gentler side, and Ulti being a stepping stone while also showing resilience because not everyone steps to BM or gets back up from her attacks.

All 3 of their dispositions are highlighted with Tama as a catalyst and it's getting dismissed in this discussion because "we didn't get our fight and it's a slap in the face to the characters". When it's the opposite and Oda is choosing to highlight their characters with the fight as a backdrop and not the star of the show.

There wasn't a 1:1 comparison I could use, Wano's dual Top Level Antagonist the crew is supposed to ostensibly defeat thing is unique. I was thinking of having Aokiji show up randomly to freeze Khalifa and pierce her with an ice lance in my example, the point isn't character motivations, it's how overwhelming of a force nerfed the villain.

I can forgive some offscreening (usually, has to be logical how point A skipped to point B), hell I even like the running because the crew is actually struggling which I love, I like everything about Nami and Usopp vs Ulti and Page-one prior to Big Mom's involvement. I don't see it as "the crew is failing, oh no!" I see it as "Thank God the crew is actually failing and struggling." It would've been fantastic if it still resulted in a win, without the equivalent to a natural disaster force piercing Ulti.

I want to believe the blast didn't affect her that much from the panel someone pointed out in some thread where the laser seems like it grazes her… and to give them some leeway, Zeus only assumes it SHOULD have affected her. We never get a confirmation that it actually did affect her, and no hole in her is shown. But, it's reasonable to assume that Nami's lightning finishing her off serves as the confirmation that it did affect her.

@Robby:

One Piece is absolutely a battle manga. It's an adventure first, yes, but battle is its bread and butter, always has been.

Otherwise we wouldn't get entire years dedicated to the crew being in one spot taking out minions while Luffy fights the biggest one.

Adventure first, agreed. With battles.

@astagadragon:

Yes. OP is still a shonen battle manga. It never changes genre.

I'm gonna go ahead and disagree there and say it's a shounen manga centered on adventure. Adventure is the primary thrust of the series, it's why Luffy wants to do anything. If someone's in the way of him becoming Pirate King or causing problems, he'll fight them.

But it's not subtle that this manga is about romance/adventure, although there has certainly been less of it post-ts. I'll agree that battles are an aspect of the series.

Death Note's a shounen, shounen is not synonymous with battle.

@astagadragon:

Yeah, that's why I return to AP forum again and again even if my interest in OP wanes lol. Ppl here are so chill and mature compared to social medias (then again, seeking chill and mature "fans" at social medias is my own fault lol).

I guess most ppl out there don't even want to criticize OP, they place OP and Oda on pedestal. Even on my native forum there are many ppl white knighting what Oda has been done in this chapter (and Wano in general).

Aaaanyway, all this discussion about Nami's battle is kinda funny though. Some weeks ago when I posted that OP is a battle manga, I was laughed at, saying that OP IS NOT A BATTLE MANGA. Then this chapter arrived and there is a battle scene and everyone discussing about it… it seems like... OP is a battle manga after all, huh?

Because there was a fight, OP is now suddenly primarily a battle manga?

Another issue with this is just how blindingly obvious this is to avoid. Just try to imagine this happening during Khalifa.
"Hmmm, Khalifa is too physically strong for Nami, how do I resolve this?"
Lucci comes down from his fight with Luffy, impales Khalifa with Shigan for some reason
Nami who was previously having trouble now easily disposes of Khalifa's half-dead body with one Thunder Lance Tempo
Audience:

Not trying to say every audience member is like that about this, that's far from the case taking the whole Internet as a whole, but yeah still, I think this is the most I've ever seen people call something out from Oda, including myself. And it's just so obvious to avoid as a writer. It's just such an instant tension drainer, and moment deflater.

@Robby:

I really hope that's not what he's doing. A lapse in judgement is one thing, doing that intentionally?

To the entire crew?

For the arc capping off the last 10 years?

It would be pretty bad.

Make em struggle, make em win with some luck and some help, make it clear they're getting through this by the skin of their teeth, but don't have the entire crew be just… ineffectual.

If the crew were slightly smaller I'd almost be okay with it "okay they're getting their warmups then they'll all attack Kaidou and be the 9 shadows" like the fight against Oars, but...

There's a lot of conditions that led to Nami and Usopp being the way it was, first of all, it's 2 of the Weakling Trio vs 2 Tobi Roppo. Whereas you have the Black Maria fight where it's, say, Brook and Robin vs Black Maria. Or Franky vs Sasaki where Franky mostly had the upper hand at most points and was consistently damaging Sasaki.

I think it's just too early to jump the gun and say all the fights will be like this when the Nami and Usopp fight has a lot of special conditions to it. I'm more than miffed at the way it turned out, because it's a case of "less is more", all Oda really had to do for me is NOT do a lot of the actions he did around 1013ish. But I'm one of the ones who thought we got plenty of solid content before then from the fight, there are some where that also would not have been enough.

I've been thinking in my head that this is a very very difficult situation to fix. One of the only ways I came up with that would patch it up is Page-one HAS to wake up and become the second opponent for Nami and Usopp, and they defeat him. The damage would be done with Ulti, but at least they would get another win on an opponent of basically the same caliber. I dunno. This just never had to be like this. It's a case of Oda valuing chaos over the type of fights he knows we expect.

@Shiebs:

As much as I would love to see everything not come down to Luffy being fated to be the savior, Oden's flashback makes it pretty hard to dismiss

all I'm saying is I think, if Luffy is the reincarnation of Joy Boy, and the Straw Hat Im had belonged to Joy Boy, that Oda is either A: referencing the fact that Joy Boy is 25 Feet tall or B: Maybe Luffy's Gear 5 or Awakened form is 25 feet tall

also to clarify, when i said Joy Boy is a giant I meant in terms of actual people in real life, not actual giants in One Piece, which are considerably bigger, I can see where that might cause confusion

Luffy is without a doubt going to do what Joy Boy passed on, I will agree to that.
Yeah man I don't want you to think I'm dismissing your idea, it's a possibility for sure like I said. I've talked to 2 irl friends who thought Gear 4 would be Luffy becoming giant before they got to it, so something's planting this idea in people's heads.

Just trying to mainly think about how this would affect combat and how it looks. Lots of human-sized, or somewhat bigger than human, opponents to come.

@Shiebs:

Oh man!!!!! Just thought of something!!!!

Twice in the manga, after the time skip, Oda has had characters see Monkey D Luffy and state that they thought he was taller, but he gives a very specific size both times, Twenty Five feet tall, I’m having trouble finding the first mention but the second one is in the beginning of 786

There it says “But he looks scarier and rounder than the face in the paper! Is that really him? But I heard he was a 25-Foot-tall Monster!! He can’t be more than a dozen”

I took this as Oda foreshadowing Luffy’s next gear 5 being even bigger, 25 feet tall

But then I got to thinking…. So gear fourth which is huge!!! isn’t even half the size people mistake him for!!

That person would have to be giant right!

Then I thought, how big would the Straw Hat have to be to fit his head….. and then I thought of the Straw Hat that Im had

Now I think it might be foreshadowing that Joy Boy may be the owner of that hat who Luffy is most likely the reincarnated version of, was in fact actually 25 feet tall

I mean this seems like standard Oda foreshadowing! Oda thinks about everything he puts in the manga, and to have two regular people mention they thought Luffy was 25 feet tall not once but twice in the manga (I’ll look for the first time they said it, I can’t seem to find it now but I know it’s there somewhere) means he has to have a reason, and I think that coupled with IM’s giant Straw Hat and Luffy being the reincarnation of Joy Boy may prove that Joy Boy was a 25 foot tall giant

Or my original theory was right and gear 5 makes him 25 feet tall

It's not like ya HAVE to find the second dialogue bubble, Oda has foreshadowed with only one tiny dialogue bubble before.

Not saying I buy all of this BUT it's an interesting train of thought. Luffy has expressed interest in "gigantifying" parts of his body before and done so, so there is a possibility he can become giant. I just like the aesthetic of the underdog look he has right now though, the thought of a guy much shorter than Kaido tangoing with him is really interesting to see play out on panel.

It could just be that Joy Boy was a giant and Luffy will never become giant. Luffy doesn't have to literally embody everything about Joy Boy, he can just inherit his will. Oda will hopefully stave off the reincarnation angle.

Joy Boy and fate/destiny are often linked, so let's talk about how Blackbeard believes everything is determined by fate. I think this may be the case that Oda actually goes ANTI-fate, subverting a lot of expectations about Luffy being destined to be Joy Boy, because the "natural fate of the world" or whatever you might call it isn't in our protagonists favor, so Luffy has to go against it. I cannot see Luffy and Blackbeard seeing eye to eye on fate when their battle comes. So that's Oda's golden opportunity to go the unexpected way with the Joy Boy stuff.
To be clear, I think Luffy will inherit Joy Boy's will or has. But I don't think he'll go exactly along with destiny/fate. And I think Blackbeard will elaborate a lot more on what the fate of the world is and why.

@RomanceDawn:

Everyone's on about the misogyny comment while I'm over here wondering uh oh, does Greg want to quit One Piece?

In that very same tweet he loved a part of the chapter, so it's unlikely. That's typically not how someone speaks when they're about to drop something forever. And his recent tweets about OP are mostly positive, with constructive criticism here and there, and he's undoubtedly one of the people who analyzes One Piece the most so that's cool to see. Trying not to speak for him, just going based on what I've seen.

Re: if other fights will end up like Nami's/Usopp's

The special ingredient for why their fight was so lackluster was they had THE force of forces tear through and nerf their opponents, a Yonkou. Big Mom is now thankfully occupied by Kid and Law, so it'd have to be some weird-ass shit where Kaido just decimates Sasaki for no reason.

If it had just been some mid-strength character who just punched Ulti or something, that could've easily been shrugged off both by the readers and her. So if something like that happens to one of the other fights, it's much more palatable. They are generally Ancient Zoans after all, extreme durability.

That and, let's be real, Oda does have a team of editors and it's clear they pay attention to social media. This is a clear misstep for most and they'd never let Oda repeat a mistake like this again for all upcoming fights, not that he would. It's just an outlier that's gonna suck to deal with, so now Oda has to do some heavy lifting for Nami and Usopp, which he shouldn't have had to do in the first place.

I think I see Oda's thought process. Problem: Usopp and Nami are too far below Ulti. Solution: Weaken Ulti. The problem is he just went way, way too far with the force he used on the solution.

Another thing is Nami and Usopp are much weaker than Ulti, whereas the gap between the other Straw Hats (beside Chopper, kinda sorta, gotta remember Monster Point) is much closer to the Tobi Roppo, so they won't need help. It's just an unfortunate byproduct of them being too weak. My solution? The Tobi Roppo don't all need to be a uniform strength, just have Ulti and P1 not be so ridiculously strong.

@electricmastro:

I mean “real main focus” implies that the focus on Oden was fake focus. I don’t think Oden was ever meant to fake anything. Sure Luffy is the leading main character, but that doesn’t mean other characters can’t take the spotlight every now and then, even if Oden is meant to help enhance Luffy’s story at the end of the day.

Oden's a focus for the arc, but he doesn't carry precedence over the Straw Hats. The Straw Hats and their allies are who will succeed at what he couldn't do. Him and the Scabbards are important, they're what attempt to get you emotionally invested in the arc and setup a lot, but yeah they're not the main characters and Worst Gen. Real main focus for the show, as I said, not the arc.

@Lord:

"The budget and manpower" certainly has not been an issue thus far in the two years this arc has been going on for. One Piece is Toei's biggest flagship and after all these years they are finally treating it as such.

Also I would argue going super extra with this sequence was very much justified. Entire anime series have had the time to start and end just in the time it's been since we last saw Luffy in action. Treating his return and team-up with two other super powerful and super popular characters with all the splendor that they could muster makes all the sense in the world to me.

Yeah like, there were actually many reasons to go so hard on this moment.

In no order:

1. A moment like this has been building up since Sabaody. Ever since the three of them stood together, we've been waiting for them to "wreak havoc in the New World." Most of us couldn't comprehend back then that that would mean going against 2 Yonkou at once.

2. This is the first action sequence of the start of the raid on Onigashima, a huge moment for the series in general.

3. Like you said, we've had a HUGE flashback and also downtime in action since Luffy, the main character, and the Straw Hats were on screen. This episode is returning us to the real main focus of the show in a big way. There were also fun action moments from a lot of Straw Hats.

@wolfwood:

I know i'm just opening up myself for ridicule here, but this chapter honestly makes me question what OP will be like going forward.

Here? Of all places?

–-

Said my thoughts on the chapter many times in the spoiler thread, the Ulti stuff would've been good but Big Mom interfered in a big way, Pageone is just a huge nope. Nami's powerup is awesome and inventive, as if her weapon ate a Devil Fruit, so that helps things a lot. This fight would just be infinitely better if Big Mom never interfered, and somehow Pageone gets put to sleep or distracted until the Ulti fight is finished. And then you never injure Ulti besides from Usopp/Nami.
Certainly not a chapter that "sucks all the tension out of the arc", that makes no sense since Kiku and Kin'emon died a chapter ago (unless you believe they'll be revived), but yeah, certainly sloppy.

Dear lord, the segment of the Worst Generation attacking the Beast Pirates was just absolutely insane animation. Anyone not watching the One Piece anime now is seriously missing out, they've seriously overhauled it. The only thing that's an issue is the pacing, but it's been that way since at least 2006. And that filler with the crew banter was wholesome.

@electricmastro:

Quite the cover too.

https://i.ibb.co/B4CjchR/37-B314-C5-4-DED-4974-90-D8-02-ECF2-CD185-A.jpg

Thank goodness, I was really hoping for a huge Luffy feature.

Could've been a better cover, it is volume 100, but still, great cover from what I can tell so far. Now I can finally get my expectations back to normal. For my money, Oda mostly delivered with volume 100. A few slow chapters but also a lot of bangers, and most importantly bangers with series-wide implications.

@RoboBlue:

Thanks Shift.

This chapter really made me doubt if there was going to be a full raid failure and reset, but it would definitely be more interesting if there was one.

Same. It's really tough to say, Oda keeps making me flip flop lol. I'm gonna go with no at this point, just heavy suffering to get there. The battles will just spread out over Wano, I think. Which makes me wonder how Onigashima will land safely because it's basically already there.
I mean this assumes it has to land safely in the first place, it might not. People can mass evacuate.

–---

Great chapter, I think this will be the one to end 100 if Oda decides to push the length a little. Much more hopeful end.
Sanji gets a MUCH needed cool moment, legit funny comedy with Sanji's human beatstick.

Sooo, the deaths. Given the track record of the series I understand hesitancy, buuut given the pattern of most fake-out deaths (the injury is off-screen), whereas I thought Kin was just heavily injured last chapter, I now think he's dead. I'll give that small benefit of the doubt because Chopper's potentially freed up. I also think Kiku's dead.
It's important to remember Yasu died before the war even began, and that's with both Chopper and Law on Wano.

The final character shown in the opening update looks doooope, deliciously fluid animation.

I also did not mind the recap, it was pretty short-lived and there's just so much context to everything. I'm just happy to be back in the present, Onigashima's one of my favorite parts of the entire series. It's something the New World needed so, so badly.

@Seafarer33:

Disclaimer : I don't know where we are with volume 100 chapters count. But, for more impact, would that volume ender not be instead an official end-of-act-3 chapter ? One that wraps up the current sequence, before we take a detour to either a Kaido/Rocks flashback or the outside world.
With a couple more Scabbards going down - or all of them if there is enough time - and possibly a recap by Completely Passive 0 to drive home how desperate the situation of the alliance is. Then Bam, close act 3., close volume 100

I like what you've suggested. That neatly wraps it up IF Oda can manage to fit it in. What we currently have works for me as a Wano volume ender, it's just not what I was expecting.

What's cool though is volume 92, which was our last act ender (o_o!), has the act end right in the middle of the volume, so luckily we're not stuck with any requirement that it's right at the end of the volume. And yes I'm very much down for Kaido's flashback to start basically the second it feels like things are at a good stopping point. There's a lot of eccentricities of his character I'm interested in, like why the suicidal tendencies? Is it because he feels he never got the true battle he deserved with Oden? Is it just as he's said, boredom (so kind of Saitama-esque, minus the suicidalness)? What even IS he? Was he experimented on? Why's he so interested in his death being legendary? There's just so much we still have left to find out. It's possible I'm overthinking things though, because Big Mom even at age 5 was just as the chapter title said, "a natural born destroyer." So we'll see!

All I'll say is I'd really love it if a Scabbard was actually dead. And Yasu has died, so it's not impossible. Just as others have brought up, we do have a lot of healers. So it's rather hard for Oda to write. I think if he was gonna do it, the way to do it is "Damnit! We couldn't get there in time!!" Cuz Kiku has what, a minute before bleeding out? Kiku's not a monster with infinite blood like a main character would be.

Act 3 ending is gonna be bittersweet for me. That means we're stepping up right to the start line of the last saga of the series. I've considered us to be unofficially in the last saga for a while, but it'll be official very soon.

@Monquito:

Zoro's wounds do oftenly matter actually, probably the only wounds that ever matter in the series…

And by the end of the day, Zoro always comes out with stuff like 'If only Mihawk didn't beat my ass', bassically claiming he could achieve much more if not for his wounds.

Makes you wonder, if Zoro is already that state of; 'I can't do my very best now' but he still fights and defeats a Calamity.

Yeah, that'll make Luffy look like a complete loser for having so much trouble with Cracker and Katakuri.

Yeah like, Zoro's as patched up as he's going to be for one of his worst injuries in the series he's had so far.
I think 909 is worth a reread for some people, Marco specifically states his healing only has a small effect on others. He's at best a single target healer for minor wounds. Though, not to be disingenuous, he does say it speeds up natural healing speed of the target. But, when he healed the injury of the sphinx, he says it should be able to use its injured foot by tomorrow.

Anyway, Zoro's injury's an interesting case, because Law's already done what he could, so I dunno I guess Chopper could do something more?

Really good chapter, and highly likely to be the volume ender. Given that, I actually think it's a rather odd volume ender, it makes sense for Wano but I would've thought Oda would've wanted 100 to be more triumphant within the broader context of the series. It could go to 1015 but the last time that's happened is a while ago. So I'll actually say within the broader context of the series as a whole, this is an unexpected and subversive volume ender.

• Kaido's disappointment at his challengers never fails to be amusing.
• Chopper power-up! Cool! He's holding up surprisingly well given that he's getting shot by Perospero while fighting a Yonkou Commander. Any Chopper attention is much appreciated, he's one of post-timeskip's areas that most need improvement.
• I love that Kaido lets you serve under him. He's so unconcerned about being defeated that just yeah, you wanna join, feel free. If you take a swing he'll just swat you away.
• It was a tiny panel so I guess that's why it didn't catch my attention the first time, but I wonder what Momo's VoAT is going into overdrive about. He's panicked so, you have to question if he'd panic about Zunesha's presence?
• Even if Kiku lives or dies, I still really liked the scene. I dunno. That scene hits hard, Kiku gave a death speech, and the injury was on-screen. I initially dismissed it but the scene is a candidate for a death. Yasu died while Law and Chopper were still on Wano. All I know is if Kiku's gonna live, healing has to come pretty much immediately. Every healer's tied up doing something except Law right?
• Kin'emon takes another serious injury in an awesome spread. His swords broke so yeah that pulverized him. That attack looked a few notches shy of Ragnarok. He may look even worse than we saw him in 1000.
• Seeing Luffy fall into the water unconscious and injured is grim, like sinking into the quicksand against Crocodile grim. I think we'd still all appreciate a flashback of what happened versus him and Kaido, and I hope we get one when Luffy's conscious again.

@Barkworm:

The drunk dragon did, yes. That chapter was great because it showed Kaido as a fun and scary character at the same time. Sadly, thinking about it just reminds me of the fact that all the things about Kaido which were initially fascinating have been largely absent from the story for a while. For about a year he has just been "menacing strong dude".

I think that's underselling Kaido's personality. This isn't the first thing that comes to mind when I think of a "menacing strong dude". When did Crocodile or Enel for example do anything like this?

Major pro of the chapter:

• Luffy getting knocked out again. What's interesting about this one is Oda got well over 90% of the fandom, including me, to really believe Luffy could win this time.
  So while it does fall under the "Luffy loses to strong opponents" aspect of this story - which is one of the best aspects of One Piece - it's also a loss that caught most off-guard.
  It's a testament to how Oda knows how to PORTRAY something a certain way showing select scenes to get you to think a certain outcome is going to happen, but the reality of the situation is different.
  It's like we're being tricked with what the camera shows, basically.
  Oda did a very good job of making it look like Luffy was just going to win, period, because many take Luffy's "I'm gonna kick his ass this time!" as word of God, especially when backed by other Straw Hats.
  Kaido's just such a threatening and supremely monstrous villain that, nope, it doesn't matter if you said the magic words.
  One of my favorite writing decisions from Oda ever. The Yonkou are truly living up their name. And that's a major undercurrent of One Piece: "The Grand Line is tough. The New World is a nightmare." The Yonkou are the ultimate culmination of that for the New World, so the success of that major theme depends on them being shown to be incredibly strong and punishing.

Major con for me:
I'll forever maintain that Ulti shouldn't have been injured that badly.
Luckily Ancient Zoans have extreme durability (and even healing right? Kaido at least does), but if she goes into her main battle like this, not a fan of it.
But if she does somehow get healed from this, then I'm fine with this decision.
Big Mom's move just seems extra powerful from typical piercing moves we've seen.

I'll be very surprised if the next chapter doesn't have a major Luffy development, because it should be the end of volume 100, and I doubt Oda wants to end such a milestone volume on a grim note.

Judging this within the context of volume 100, this chapter was very much just "fine" to me. I liked the Hera development, that was really cool and pretty much solidifies Nami getting Zeus, which is awesome. The Kaido vs Luffy pages were cool looking but didn't really move anything along. Hope Oda will end volume 100 with a bang. It must suck to be in Oda's shoes sometimes, I can't imagine volume 100 of Hajime no Ippo for example got this sort of scrutiny, but that's what happens when you're still writing high quality scenes of such a long-running iconic series.

Someone was discussing Usopp's pop greens, yeah I'm glad we're getting back to those, those are one of those things where Oda's post-timeskip vagueness works against him. We all kind of assumed he'd eventually get to the actual parameters of everybody's training, but that never really happened with Usopp. He's just constantly like "here's this green that works for this specific situation! here's this one! and this one!" and it's just kind of insane the amazing utility they have for such a wide variety of situations. It works with the plant theme but it's just one of those things where suspension of disbelief is cast to the wayside, I personally think Dressrosa is the absolute latest we should've understood everything the timeskip training offered the Straw Hats, so Usopp has multiple moments where he uses the greens there, and has some moment like "I've used all my greens! There's nothing else in my arsenal!" As it is now it just kind of is what it is, and there were still moments in pre-timeskip where he'd like, pull out those shurikens vs Luffy for example and we didn't know about those, but still. I'm making this out to be a much bigger problem than I really feel it is with all the text, but it still is somewhat irksome.

Super late comment, I'm sure everything's been discussed.
This is one of my personal favorite chapters of the entire series.
Luffy's will should be the strongest, and now he can manifest it the most directly he's ever been able to.
What'll be interesting is how strong is Kaido's will in comparison? It can't be much weaker than Luffy's, but perhaps it's the whole "I'm starting a world war because I'm bored" thing won't have as much of a solid foundation as Luffy wanting to achieve a childhood dream and make Shanks proud.

Oda's got me. I initially was one of those who thought Luffy would be defeated again, but now I don't believe so.
The art this chapter was also breathtaking. Kaido just has such a presence when he's on panel, it's so satisfying to see something like that take actual damage.

I now think volume 100 lives up to its significance in the series, just based on these last few chapters.
The Straw Hat moments actually round it out very well, won't be surprised if we move onto Jinbe soon.

Oh and I have 0 issue with Luffy learning this CoC utilization, this is how he learned Soru, and he already has access to Conqueror's and knew the concepts of Ryuuou. Very natural powerup.

Mom and Kaido's combined attack is fu**ing galaxy mind. And no, not just a callback to giant attacks. Here's why.

覇海 Hakai
The first thing that will come to mind for anyone reading in Japanese is 破壊 hakai, 'destruction'.

This should remind readers of ond of the themes of Kaido's crew, natural disasters. And if you follow my work, you know that Kaido is a literal embodiment of the tongue-in-cheek Japanese saying 'jishin, kaminari, kaji, oyaji' or 'earthquakes, lightning, fires, and fathers'

Meaning 'the scariest (most destructive) things on earth'. Kaido is or has all of them. Kaido is a living, breathing, all-mighty embodimemt of natural disasters. And what do they cause? 'Destruction'.

But we're not nearly there. What about Mom? Mom previously used an attack that (curiously) called to mind the attack that Dorry and Brogy (they're references to the Funk bros. wrestlers btw) used on the Island Eater. So from WCI we knew her attacks were based on giant techniques.

How it called this to mind was in the use of 'Ha' or 覇. Guess what? This 覇 is the same 'ha' in 覇気 which you normally read as 'haki' in One Piece. Yes, that haki. While it means ambition, it also suggests that the attack proper is imbued with haki, a commonality for giants.

WE ARE NOT DONE!!!
So what about 海 or 'kai'? The kanji means sea. Pirates, sea, makes sense. So 'ha-kai' literally 'Sea of Haki' but read together as 'hakai' calling to mind of any Japanese reader as 'destruction' makes it 'Destructive Sea of Ambition'.

AND THERE'S MORE!
海 kai… isn't that part of Kaido's name? Yep!! Kaido is always written in katakana so we can't know for certain (also 'Kaido' or 海道 was the name of the famous song in Z) but yes, kanji or otherwise, 'kai' should remind of us Kaido. But what about Mom?

And here's the icing on the cake. 'Ha' is also arguably a reference to 母 'haha' meaning….MOTHER.

So….
'Big Mom and Kaido's Destructive Sea of Ambition'.
どどーん！！！！！

Clearly you can understand why this particular case wouldn't fit in a footnote (^○^)

This makes it all 100x better, thank you.

@Deicide:

That's my guess as well, but we just don't now enough to be sure. They mention it briefly just in the chapter that they perform the Hakoku on the island devourer.

The Red Line is what you're meant to think it is, but giants have a super long lifespan so maybe there's a legend that's passed down about it being a red serpent, or maybe a giant from a long time ago saw it and it was actually a serpent and he passed that down.

Whatever it is I don't think it was there hundreds or thousands of years ago, because of the Pangaea references in OP. But it'd also have to conveniently dry up like that and not decompose.

Could be a metaphor, could eventually be literal, who knows!

@Seafarer33:

So I'm not dreaming, it is the same attack (or stance, if the name differs) that Dory and Brogy used all these years ago to force open a passage for Going Merry ? Awesome, then.

Yeah, though interestingly they have different names, the Giants' one is Hakoku, the dual Yonkou one is apparently Hakai. Still a clear reference visually, I think it'll all tie up neatly at Elbaf.

Dang, that's some attention to detail you guys have. Haven't seen anyone else talk about the fact that it may have been One Piece all fogged up. When I tilt my screen it looks like I'm looking at a giant building? So that immediately gets rid of the idea that One Piece is a giant pile of gold, for the few who still thought that at this point.

Loved the episode! Memories worked for me, the last thing I wanted was for them to use a generic OST. You can't beat the iconic manga spread but whaddaya gonna do.

Wow. This is the first chapter I felt truly was a Volume 100 chapter. Above and beyond that, actually. I've liked and appreciated moments from the previous few likely vol. 100 chapters, but this was orders of magnitude better than them. This is the type of chapter I wouldn't have even known Oda was capable of producing had you shown me this back in early One Piece.

I love the callback of Ocean Sovereignty, and how this was a fantastic way to show the truly dominating force that Emperors are. Most powerful attack in the series that I can recall. Can't believe Zoro even attempted to block it. I actually very much got Sabaody vibes from that moment, that's how dismal the chances for the good guys seem. I feel that Oda balanced this well, Zoro blocked the attack for JUST a moment, and still ends up worn out, heavily injured and coughing up blood from it anyway.

I was not getting good vibes from Kaido's Ragnarok attack. From what I've seen from Roger and Whitebeard's attacks, that looked exactly like them, streaming Haki behind it, besides the fact it physically touched Luffy. So I'm pretty sure Luffy just took an attack of that force, which is the top level seen in the series so far. Bagua's one handed, Ragnarok's two-handed, as well. Another terrifying thing is that this of course reveals that Kaido can use Armament Haki – top-tier Armament. I've been wanting that "reveal" since forever, so he truly does only use it against opponents he sees as worthy. For my money, Luffy's now in the state Zoro is or worse... he will not be shrugging off an attack like that.

The fight choreography with Big Mom's section was also brilliant! The delayed impact from Kid felt great. Hopefully she is actually out of the scene for a while, Hybrid Kaido's just too much and still completely unscratched in that form, with much more powerful attacks to boot.

One of my personal favorite chapters of all time, having seen the last few as "pretty good yet needed".