Oh shit we're back!

This chapter didn't advance the story that much from 993, but I really like where the story's at right now so I still enjoyed it a lot anyway.

Now 993 on the other hand… I loved that chapter. Second favorite chapter of the year next to Roger's Adventure. Every single scene there worked for me. Since the thread for that chapter is kind of dead, I'm going to gush about it here (with some of the current chapter mixed in).
-I loved the opening with the Fire Festival. To me that was the perfect time to get some perspective on what everyone is fighting for, and makes me even more anxious about the Onigashima Raid ending it failure (If it was going to succeed wouldn't Oda show Tama with them?)
-Unlike most people here I really like the Ice Oni plot so far. It's definitely a One Piece cliche at this point, but it's a very natural one compared to most others since this lines up with how Queen acted back in Udon. Also Apoo is hilarious. I don't know what it is about him, but I can watch him doing completely mundane shit like knocking on a door with his long arms and laugh my ass off.
-Speaking of comedy though, I think Briscola the Gorilla Smile might legitimately be my favorite visual gag in the entire series. The Chicken and Giraffe were great too. I know a lot of people are disappointed that the SMILES aren't as threatening as they were arguably hyped up to be, but Oda's sense of humor is really clicking with me here.
-Jinbe already fits in with the crew so naturally.
– Sanji: "I'm the one dragging Luffy along!!"
-- Jinbe: "Oh you are? Sorry..."
-The Yamato/Momonosuke plotline is probably the one I'm the least interested in right now, but it's still nice, and I'm glad that whole misunderstanding between them was sorted out. And the next scene with them fighting Sasaki should be pretty good.
-My interest in Kaidou both as a character and as a threat shot up tenfold in these last few chapters. A villain searching for a proper way to die is such a great concept, and by the time Wano is over, I think he's going to be a very fun character to reread.

Yeah, it's taken a while, but I'm officially sold on this arc.

@MiyamotoMusashi:

Or maybe the lower ranks are pretty much faceless followers for him but he has an emotional attachment to Jack since he cared for him since he was 8 years old, for two decades.

Jack being more of a son to him than Yamato would be lowkey-hilarious. I hope this is true now.

@Captain:

Examples of Kaido being an asshole to his men and kid.

I have this personal theory that Oda really likes it when characters have conflicting, borderline-contradictory character traits. So having a villain that doesn't care about his lower ranks, but is protective of his upper ranks checks out to me.

Of course, Doffy already did that, so if Oda wants to go deeper with this angle I hope he does something to distinguish them further.

That said, as far as I can remember all the soldier abuse was done when Kaidou was drunk so… maybe he still cares about his lower ranks when sober?

@Kaworu:

Dang, it's already an 8 or 8.5 with hardly any of the big moments happening yet? Impressive.

It would have been more like a 7 or 7.5, except "Roger Just Laughed" is a legitimate contender for my favorite moment in the series.

I haven't been commenting as much as I'd like lately but,

If we get a full chapter of Nami & Usopp vs. Ulti & Page One then Wano immediately goes from a hit-or-miss 8-8.5 to a perfect 10.

@MrBits:

Over the last few months I've been playing:

[…]

Judgement (currently at chapter 5): Wasn't really feeling it at first, but eventually it clicked and now I'm having about as much fun as I did with the other Yakuza games I've played. I can see this one being my favorite by the end.

Finished it and, yeah, I loved basically everything about this game. Might even be a top 10 favorite game, or at least very close. I've still got some side content to chip away at while I'm also playing…

Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin: So far so good. I've heard that this game has a lot of annoying enemy layouts of melee focused characters, so I've decided to try a Sorcery build. I'm glad I did because it makes it feel distinct for my DS1 Tank character.

That said, if the rest of the game is like No Man's Wharf then, uh, I don't know how I'm gonna feel about this by the end.

Over the last few months I've been playing:

Yakuza Kiwami: Everyone says this game isn't as good as Yakuza 0, and while I agree, the gap wasn't as large as I was afraid it was going to be. Haruka was surprisingly likable. A very good child character. I cry for Nishiki.

Death Stranding: Really unique and interesting game. Generally really great whenever you're just delivering packages, but mediocre whenever combat is involved (except the boss fight with Higgs, that was hype). Cliff was the best part of the story.

Finally, I'm currently playing Judgement (currently at chapter 5): Wasn't really feeling it at first, but eventually it clicked and now I'm having about as much fun as I did with the other Yakuza games I've played. I can see this one being my favorite by the end.

I haven't been commenting as much I as I'd like to lately, but I've really been loving basically everything since we've gotten to Onigashima. In particular, all of the new characters are immediately likable and interesting to me (except maybe Sasaki, who's still "okay"), which is a huge contrast to the start of Wano where everyone took dozens of chapters for me to warm up to, and even then I like Ulti more than everyone except maybe Orochi.

Highlight of the chapter was Robin and Jinbei though. He already fits with the crew perfectly.

I'm not sure how true this is, but I've heard that the author has deal with certain family issues, and had to hurry through the latter chapters as a result. If that's the case, I can't really get mad at any of my minor nitpicks.

Yakuza 0 is fuuuuuun. The story, the humor, characters, the sidequests, the style. Aside from a bad minigame here and there, everything about this game clicks for me. Officially a fan of this series.