One Piece, Chapters 1019-1020
Chapter 1019: Heliceratops
Between the Olympics and some other breaks, One Piece has been pretty inconsistent as far as chapters go. But the couple that we got definitely were pretty fun! Last where we left off was the Jinbe/Who's Who fight, so it stands to reason that the next couple of chapters are going to deal with other secondary Straw Hats fighting against their opponents. We get a montage of other things going on that really don't show much progression, but the primary focus of 1019 is Franky fighting against Sasaki. And... and I'm not sure how I feel about this fight? It honestly feels like the fight is rushed, but on the other hand it's not like there's anything particularly interesting about Sasaki as an antagonist. I know there's the weird theory about how Sasaki's secretly Kokoro's son or whatever, but until that plot point is brought up, Sasaki's not a very interesting antagonist. So at least the series makes him the obligatory super-wacky minion, I guess. The Kaku of the group.
I'm sure that the writer intended for a lot more wackiness with Sasaki, because what we got seemed to be a barrage of ideas on what Sasaki can do. The multi-panel showcase of the 'Trick Mechanism Screw Sword', basically a spinning drill katana... then the utterly unexpected and WTF moment of Sasaki's Heliceratops mode... and I think that part is what the chapter focuses on the most. Rightfully so! No one, and I mean no one, looks at a dinosaur like a Triceratops and goes 'hmm, maybe the frill can spin around like a helicopter'.
We've got some goofiness like Sasaki accidentally propelling himself backwards and pretending that it's totally what he intended to do. Or the ridiculousness of Franky's "General Shield" being actually smaller than the arm of his robot. But then after a suplex or two, we get into what seems to be an honestly pretty obligatory face-off as Franky does a huge move with his General Cannon, and then he ejects out of his Franky Shogun to seemingly win the fight with a Franky Radical Beam. It's cool since we haven't had a Franky fight in a while, but at the same time... it also feels like there's something missing, you know? With Jinbe versus Who's Who there's the running theme of prejudice against the Fishmen and the whole history about Who's Who in the background of the fight. With Robin and Black Maria in the next chapter, there's the whole incident with Robin calling for Sanji's help. I felt like this fight really could've benefited a lot from something, anything, to make it more than just a 'Franky does an ultimate move, the bad guy is down'. Eh.
Anyway, the chapter ends with Kaidou and Yamato fighting, and our first showcase of Yamato's full hybrid Zoan look. Turns out that Yamato ate a Devil Fruit that Kaidou found to be exceedingly valuable...
___________________________________________
Chapter 1020: Robin vs. Black Maria
...and it turns out that the fruit is the Dog Dog Fruit, Model: Okuchi-no-Makami. I remember everyone was speculating a lot of Japanese mythological creatures (my favourite among the speculation was probably the Kirin/Qilin, but that would admittedly be a bit too obvious for a Japanese audience). As far as I can gather, the Okuchi-no-Makami is pretty obscure, but it's basically a guardian dog deity. Interestingly, Kaidou does respect the Okuchi-no-Makami's status as a guardian spirit of Wano, and he's absolutely pissed that he lost it to someone claiming to be Oden. And that he wants Yamato to still use its powers to guard Wano for him? Kaidou is such a weird character, honestly, and there's so many things that he's claimed to be his primary goal that I'm waiting with bated breath for Kaidou's flashback so that we can put his seemingly contradictory views in context.
Yamato also has ice powers! Again, the Yamato/Kaidou fight sadly just takes place over a couple of chapters -- it's another thing that I wished was extended into a full chapter, but then we'd be in Wano all decade long. Again, it's something that makes me glad that I'm actually actively watching the One Piece anime now, since these moments would at least be extended to feel like they have much more of an impact.
We then cut to the titular "Robin vs. Black Maria", where we start off with... Robin meeting illusions of her mother, Professor Clover and Saul. I'm not sure who is creating these illusions, if it's Black Maria or these random individual SMILE minions, but Robin just very casually Tres Mano's them and one-shots them. It's interesting that the fight, again, seems to be intended to probably play on a bit longer, but at the same time I'm kind of happy that Robin and Brook aren't caught in a pretty boring illusion trap?
I do really like the little moment where Robin and Brook bond over their sad backstories, though -- Brook even mentions that after 50 years of being stuck alone on a ship, illusions of dead friends aren't even something that can possible affect him any more. That is so fucking depressing when you think about it, and when we consider Brook's backstory, we've even seen him hallucinating in his madness.
Black Maria shows up, giant spider-drider-woman that she is, and starts swinging her giant Wanyudo fire staff weapon. And... and we get the revelation that the Wanyudo staff... is actually like a hamster wheel, powered by 'Wanyudo', a Pug SMILE user. In that he's got the body of a tiny pug that runs and presumably powers Black Maria's weapon, while his gigantic bearded human head pokes out and grins to make the form of the Wanyudo ('wheel monk') Yokai. It's so over-the-top bizarre, and way less cool than just a regular fire spirit... but on the other hand, pretty much on brand with One Piece.
Just as Black Maria is setting fire to the battlefield, Brook shows off another ability, where he just sends his ghostly soul and uses it to freeze Wanyudo's stupid pug body and his flames. We're slowly giving Brook's Yomi Yomi no Mi, and I'm definitely happy to see Brook actually being able to show off some new things! Unlike poor Franky last chapter. Sure, he did some cool stuff, but it's also the same stuff he's been doing since Fishman Island.
Again, as I alluded to above, this fight has a bit more substance because Black Maria was disparaging Sanji "luring" Robin into her trap, mocking Sanji as a spineless coward -- something that a significant portion of the fandom certainly did. Brook and Robin most certainly have words to say about this. Black Maria mocks Robin as the baggage of her crew, how she's just a target for larger figures. But Brook and Robin really don't give a shit about Black Maria's mocking. Brook goes off to fight against the rest of Black Maria's retinue, while Robin, once more, reiterates that Sanji isn't (entirely) being a wuss, but is rather relying on her for help. Perhaps it's been a while, but I did reread Enies' Lobby recently and the one thing in Robin's backstory that has been consistent is that until the Straw Hats show up in her life, no one trusted or cared about Robin at all. And we get to see Robin basically summon a gigantic facsimile of herself, complete with several tentacle-like hands. That is badass, and I'm assuming we're going to continue this and wrap up the Robin/Black Maria fight next.
1020 ends with Luffy and Momonosuke talking with each other a bit, with Momonosuke in despair and Luffy telling Momonosuke to not cry until the battle's over. Luffy for one would know about breaking down in the middle of a battle and becoming a burden to his allies. Luffy wants Momonosuke to take him up to the floating Onigashima. Oh, and Caribou's there for... for some reason? Okay.
___________________________________________
Random Notes:
- 1019 had a pretty cool little nod to the primarily Franky-focused content when Sanji fights Queen and he cracks a comment about how Franky would've loved Queen's lasers.
- Zoro is still being cured by Chopper and Miyagi. Still think it's a story point that could've been foreshadowed better. Luffy, meanwhile, just wants meat after the Hearts Pirates recover him from the ocean.
- I'm sure Sasaki mowing down the Gifters that have switched sides would be a bit more impactful and drawn-out in the anime, but here it's just something that kind of just sort of happened in the background. At least we focus primarily on this one stag beetle Gifter dude, so there's a consistent face.
- Wanyudo, Nure-Onna and Tenjo-Sagari are all Japanese Yokais, I believe. What I'm confused is why these ladies get name boxes, but Franky's stag beetle buddy who we have even seen fight Zoro before didn't.
- Also, among the snake people that Robin one-shots is a Number called Kunyun. Man, the Numbers are just getting absolutely no respect, huh.
- Pugs are called 'human-face dogs' in Japan, I believe, which adds another layer to the pun.
- I do like Black Maria's line here mocking them about how they're clearly 'dreaming' and hallucinating in their belief that they can beat Kaidou. It ties to the whole illusion thing pretty well.
- This does seem to mean that Brook isn't getting a full fight of his own, but since he's already the MVP in Whole Cake Island, and I really did like his dynamic with Robin here, I didn't mind it as much.
- By the way, fucking Bleach is back! I read the 75-page anniversary chapter that turned out to be a stealth pilot to a brand-new arc. I was already considering covering the Vandenreich arc when it comes out in the anime (which itself is surprising). I'm not sure if I'll cover the manga when it comes out -- I don't think I have enough to say about the anniversary chapter beyond just reacting to 'oh, this is a cool setup' and 'um, I kind of forgot who these characters are', but maybe I'll do a two/three-chapters-a-review thing like One Piece? We'll see.
No comments:
Post a Comment