One Piece, Chapter 901: Even If You Die, Don't Die
Sorry about being a bit late with manga reviews. I was kind of sick, and didn't really have the strength to write in these past couple of days -- hence my 'emergency' ration of a Pokemon movie and a Walking Dead episode review. But I'm back now, and we're starting things off with a One Piece review. And... and I'm not particularly enamoured with this one. I don't really hate it per se, but on the other hand, it's definitely a chapter that could've been done a lot better.
First up, the Straw Hats didn't die. That's a given, of course. But the whole big "oh, the Thousand Sunny exploded!" bit ended up being nothing but a huge red herring, making the ending of chapter 900 feel like nothing but a huge cock-tease without much payoff. Also without much payoff is Big Mom's big hallucination moment, because she essentially just returns to her pre-rampage body and mentality. Perospero essentially catches her up in all the happenings of the recent couple dozen chapters, and the two of them are back in pursuit of the Straw Hats afterwards, not aware of Sanji's role in making the cake.
The Sunny didn't fall, of course, and it's Wadatsumi that drags the Straw Hats' ship down underwater while the Fishman Pirates... put their old ship to get blown up for... some reason? To distract the Big Mom forces for those extra three seconds? It feels rather abrupt, and considering the Straw Hats do have things like a Coup De Burst and whatnot, it feels extremely convoluted to have all this happen just to give us a cliffhanger in the previous chapter. Oven sends a bunch of Hot Sea Torpedo's to hit Wadatsumi, and we get a brief flashback of Aladdin and Wadatsumi and the rest of the nameless Fishmen Pirates all going "yeah, we don't mind sacrificing ourselves for Boss Jinbe!" We get a brief two-page spread as Jinbe witnesses the entire Fishman Pirates fighting off the Big Mom Pirates (with a cool single panel of Aladdin actually exchanging blows with Oven).
And then Jinbe, naturally, goes "I can't leave them behind". After all, these are his crewmates, and while he wants to travel with Luffy, I'd think that it would be out of character for Jinbe to leave behind all his friends to essentially die so they can escape. Jinbe resolves to succeed and come back alive, and Luffy tells Jinbe the titular "if you die, don't die", affirming that despite leaving Jinbe behind as the rear guard, he's his captain now and he cannot be allowed to die. I am curious if this means that Jinbe's going to be a member of the crew, or if he's just going to be a fleet captain or whatever the likes of Bartolomeo are.
And, of course, Jinbe's straight-up manipulating the sea to stop the Big Mom pirates from advancing at all, in order to save every single Fishman Pirate. Of course, Big Mom herself is coming, so that might not last for long? I dunno. It feels like another complication that probably didn't need to happen, and I'm just kind of done with this entire arc. We also get a brief check-in with Bege (who's buggered off in a stolen cupcake ship) and Big News Morgans, who's shown up with Stussy, noting that one of the Worst Generation will be the 'new Pirate King'. Overall, it's a bit of an inconsistent chapter. As powerful as the Jinbe moment is, I really wished there was a bit more buildup to this, and I'm still not a big fan of how the big cliffhanger on chapter 900 was handled. Overall, not my favourite chapter, for sure.
Probrably switching ships gave them more than 3 seconds, but yeah, although It felt like a cheap false cliffhanger I kind of liked it because it fit thematically with the whole sun pirates' last stand.
ReplyDeleteDid they really need to do the whole "yeah, let's sacrifice our ship for no reason" deal, though? I feel like in-universe the Fishmen Pirates' plan could've worked just as well if Wadatsumi just plucked the Sunny underwater without the hassle of changing ships.
DeleteIt did buy more time as they actually thought they sinked Thousand Sunny, it just wasn't that effective though.
DeleteThat aside, I liked the idea of a crew sacrificing something that simbolic and important to them knowing it's a desperate move in a suicide mission for their former captain. Also, I don't think they would need it anyway.
I wonder if their ship's spirit was willing to do this trick, though.
Yeah, for like, two or three seconds? I dunno. It felt like a particularly cheap way to ramp up tension for a big-number chapter's cliffhanger. Ultimately it doesn't really matter because moreso than anything, the previous chapter really felt like it was just buying time for... something? Maybe a proper payoff at last? Dunno. Not that big of a fan of this one -- felt extremely underwhelmed.
DeleteI will agree that the strawhat flag bait was cheap, but since it's manga and time passage is in our minds I could assume that it took more time as Wadatsumi was quite far (while I don't know how fast he is).
DeleteAnyway, I found It was at least a better "I'll buy time" decision than say, Bulma flirting with Zamasu without actually dying in dragon ball super.
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DeleteYeah, I guess? It just feels extremely unnecessary in this case, though, considering how many "the Straw Hats narrowly escaped!" scenes we've had in this entire arc. There's always the unspoken promise that we're going to get some sort of payoff at chapter 900, but on the other hand for it to be another 'whoops, gotcha!' cliffhanger and a cop-out, and a particularly bad cop-out at that... One Piece does a better job at justifying these cop-outs than some other examples I could name, but this one just feels bad.
DeleteAnd, well, "better than X" isn't really much of a comparison yardstick, is it? This Wadatsumi escape is better compared to Bulma's random flirting in DBS, which in turn is better compared to all the asspull cop-outs from, oh, I dunno, Fairy Tail. Doesn't mean I'm okay with any one of them, however they stack in this totem pole of bad cop-outs.
At least with One Piece, we get a proper follow-up to the next chapter, though, so I do acknowledge that it's handled a bit better. But I didn't know that when I was reading through 901 on its own entity, so I stand by what I write, I guess.
I wonder if those hundred-chapters-promises and other chapter-numbers-eastereggs are worth it from a storytelling perspective, though?
DeleteI mean, it's kind of a neat little detail, but does Oda actually change chapters pacing in order to fulfill this shenanigan? Does it help keep things slow? Hard to say.
Definitely not, in my opinion -- the story should come first over numbered chapter easter eggs and shit. Especially since that the cliffhanger for, say, chapter 901 or 902 or whatever could've easily taken place in 900.
DeleteI think the most noticeable part was the fact that we've got a string of chapters with just "Big Mom is chasing the straw hats!", "Sanji is cooking a cake!" and "Katakuri is trading blows with Luffy!" and then we've got that once chapter where abruptly there's a 10+ hour time skip. I felt that was a bit of an indication that things got swapped around a little as opposed to progressing organically.