One Piece 898 Review: Germa 66 Beats People

One Piece, Chapter 898: We'll Definitely Return

Well, this week's chapter is a great one for the Germa 66 siblings, but not necessarily for Sanji himself. After a brief recap of the Germa's victory over some random members of the Big Mom Pirates, we get scenes of the Big Mom Pirates all panicking over the fact that Brulee lets it slip that Katakuri has been defeated -- and everyone's all angry and pissed off and in denial. 

And then the meat-and-bones of this chapter is  just Sanji's escape, assisted by his siblings from Germa 66... and it really doesn't particularly speak well for Sanji that the dude doesn't even get a proper knockout against one of the more recognizable Big Mom captains, yeah? As Sanji charges through the battlefield, we get Ichiji show up and unleash this "Sparking Valkyrie" that just one-shots Oven. Yonji cracks Yuen's giant club, chokes him with his cyborg arm and uses this "Winch Beheading" to use Yuen's body as a literal club to whack a huge amount of Big Mom pirates. Niji then helps Sanji to lightning-zip through a bunch of Big Mom minions with "Henry Blaster", helping to boost Sanji's speed before tossing him into the air, away from Oven's people.

And... and I guess it's cool and all, but at the same time, the sudden change of allegiances of Ichiji, Niji and Yonji to being supportive wise-cracking characters really, really feels off. It's a redemption that wasn't earned, considering all three of them were quite literally just flat "hate these fuckers" characters that rely solely on their familial relationship with Sanji to even be relevant to the story, and their sudden character change really should've been motivated solely by a "my enemy's enemy" deal... yet here it's portrayed as if we're supposed to root for the Germa? I mean, yeah, they're the lesser evil and all, but at the same time it feels really odd.

Oven calls Snack's forces to help out and shoot down Sanji, but a bazooka team gets instantly poisoned by Reiju's poison abilities. And that's really it. It's certainly a great episode for the Vinsmokes themselves, considering that a lot of their abilities other than Reiju has always felt as something that's more of an informed ability than anything -- we're told that these guys are badasses but most of the time they get jobbed by members of the Big Mom Pirates or by Sanji himself, and this is really the first time that Ichiji, Niji and Yonji actually felt like they're legitimate badasses. But this arguably comes at the cost of Sanji's own badassery since he doesn't really manage to take anyone out other than Raisin last chapter, a literal unknown before last chapter... and I really wished that he was allowed to beat Oven. I mean, while the final page does show Sanji Geppo-ing to the Sunny, we do have another chapter before the big 900, and we might have a Sanji versus Smoothie or Snack fight somewhere down the line. Overall, though, definitely a pretty decent chapter. I'm not someone who's particularly invested in the Germa side of the story, so it's not quite as impactful to me, but it's still a very decent chapter nonetheless.