One Piece, Chapter 1031: Warrior of Science
Okay, this is a good one. It still doesn't wash off the stink of the whole Kin'emon surviving in the most anticlimactic way from the previous chapter, but we finally get some payoff to some of the character build-up that we've been teased so much all throughout the series.
And it's all about Sanji. Sanji's been a character that's... been taken in an interesting way. Any discussion about Sanji inevitably brings in the comparison with the more straightforward no-nonsense name-taking enemy-killing badass Zoro, because the fandom and the manga itself has this notion of Zoro-vs-Sanji ingrained within them. I've never really cared all that much about the rivalry, because I can appreciate both types of characters -- the one-note action hero that broods and makes badass one-liners is as cool of a character as a hero that angsts about morality and choice and gets to be comedic every now and then. And while I've criticized Whole Cake Island as a whole; Sanji's portrayal and all the character development we got out of him is still one of the highlights of that story.
So yeah, it's definitely fun to see some payoff to the fact that Sanji's entire post-timeskip career has been nothing but him doubting himself, his self-worth, and generally being arguably portrayed as far less impressive than his fellow 'wing of the pirate king'. No one ever outright compares them side-by-side other than their constant gag about bounties, but the fandom has been pretty vocal that Zoro's huge moments have been joining Luffy in fighting two Yonko... while Sanji's huge moment was baking a cake. Even in this arc, we've had so many fake-outs with who Sanji's going to fight, and the Black Maria moment that was so controversial among the fandom (which I'd argue is actually a good moment if you stop and look at it... but, again, the comparison here is with The Roof, so).
So I'm going to start off this review/recap with the final five or six pages of the chapter. Sanji is being yelled at by a bunch of geisha, who are all gathered around a bleeding lady. One of the geisha yell at Sanji, noting that he was the only one there, and that whatever transpired, a geisha got injured so badly that she's bleeding. And Sanji is even more conflicted about the transformation going on with his body, remembering just how utterly disgusted about the idea of someone beating a woman -- comparing it to one of the worst things that his vile robotic brothers did. Sanji himself claims to have no memory of the specific moment, but the fact that the woman was looking at him with fear is enough for him.
A great little visual nod that I missed during my first readthrough is that all throughout the sequence, Sanji's been so transformed by the Raid Suit that his eyebrows is actually curled the other way, now, just like his brothers. Just look at the comparison between Sanji's face and the close-up to the Germa 66 flashback!
And we get a very cool badass moment as Sanji faces off against Queen. It's not about the fact that he hit the geisha, I think -- not really. It's more about the fact that he's potentially turning into the same sort of monster like Ichiji, Niji and Yonji. Even the potential of turning into something like his brothers scares Sanji so much. I love the monologue that happens immediately afterwards -- him asking Luffy in his mind whether he'd prefer a mindless killing machine at an order, or a weak, flawed flesh-and-blood man who turns into a helpless wreck whenever he faces a woman.
It's such a great moment, I feel, that Sanji actually does recognize his weakness. That he recognizes that he is, in some way, a huge liability thanks to his emotions. Sure, I'd argue that him being willing to call on his allies for help -- like Robin during the Black Maria sequence -- is positive character development in a way... but Sanji could also view his emotions as a liability. He was incapacitated by nosebleeds during New Fishman Island -- and while I don't want to do comparisons, Zoro was slicing up Hody Jones and nearly ended the arc prematurely. His whole family business and sentimentality and lack of communication is what led to our heroes being detoured into the whole Whole Cake Island thing, and he took so long to figure his shit out that he even fought Luffy.
And yet. And yet, despite all this, despite the potential of becoming a useful tool to the King of the Pirates, Sanji made a decision -- and as he pulls out his Raid Suit can, he crushes it in front of Queen. Whatever happens, it's not worth losing his emotions, his true sense of self, losing who he really is. A genuinely amazing moment, and I feel like it's a pretty well-done payoff to Sanji's own flip-flopping throughout the post-timeskip era.
(Of course, we get 'farewell, women's bath' tossed into Sanji's monologue, which is hilarious)
But that's not all! Sanji calls Zoro with a transponder snail that he snuck into Zoro's clothes, and he gives Zoro a pretty cool line. Sanji tells Zoro how they're going to win -- a fact that neither of them even argues for a moment -- but asks Zoro that if he's not in his right mind after all this, he wants Zoro to kill Sanji. There's a great bit of bro-bonding moment where Zoro acknowledges how out of place the request is, but realizes how serious Sanji must be to make such a request, and promises to end Sanji if he should change. Such a great moment for the two.
And we get the implication of Sanji being able to use Stealth Black's invisibility technique even without the raid suit... by using Hell's Memories, that one move from New Fishman Island that he learned while under Ivankov's tutelage and we never really get to see afterwards. Is that how he activates his Raid Suit powers, now? Very interested to see how this ends, and I kind of want to see Sanji fight Queen in the next chapter.
There's some other stuff going in here too. A lot of people think that a handful of pages of Law and Kid doing a combo attack is going to get rid of a character like Big Mom, but awakening or no awakening, I've never seen that as the definitive end of Big Mom -- more of a showcase of what the Supernovas can do with their awakening. I do like that we just casually get the name of Kid's devil fruit here (it's been previously revealed in a databook or something) and I love Law trying to so casually fish for information about Kid's power.
Big Mom is ripping the souls out of random Beast Pirate goons, and even notes that he's ripping a year out of his own lifespan, transforming and growing bigger and scarier. It's a pretty cool power boost, and Big Mom notes that she's not felt this kind of pain in decades. A genuinely pretty cool moment for another character who hasn't gotten the best showcase in the past couple dozen chapters -- Big mom actually feels threatening again, and I'm a huge fan of that.
Even more interesting is that singular page we get of Brook and Robin fending off CP0. The Mink musketeers who got royally beaten up by Kaido and Jack are trying to hold them off, but Robin identifies the mask-wearing members of CP0 as the most elite. Are we going to get a proper Brook fight, then? Interesting!
We also get Apoo vs Drake, which is a bit more of a minor sequence. Drake gives a JoJo's Bizarre Adventure style recap of the peculiarities of Apoo's devil fruit (it's also based on Apoo's sight) and point-blank refuses the alliance with Apoo. I do like Apoo trying to get Yamato to join up and basically just being a massive backstabber that tries to gain allies, but Yamato also really doesn't give two shits. We get some fights as Yamato is out of the loop in regards to Drake's defection, but ultimately it ends up with Apoo and the Numbers chasing Yamato, and Drake chasing Apoo. Eh is my response; Apoo's fun but not that interesting, and I really could care less about the Numbers.
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