One Piece 1038-1039 Review: Happy Mother's Day

One Piece, Chapters 1038-1039

A very action-packed pair of chapters! I'm sorry if I haven't been super active on the blog lately. I've been super-busy, and a lot of the articles that I've been posting have been pre-written a while back. Real life's been kind of busy, so I do apologize if some of my posts for the next couple of months will be a bit more sporadic. I have been keeping up with One Piece very much, though, and these two chapters have been causing quite a stir in the community!

Chapter 1038, Kid and Law vs. Big Mom is... it's exactly what it says on the tin. For the last five pages or so. We do start off going to a bunch of other fights first, with one of them being Raizou and Fukurokuju -- who are both on fire! It's kind of interesting since I'm actually in the process of watching the Oden flashback in the anime right now, and one of the moments that stood out to me was that during the Hour of Legends, Raizou actually had a moment of weakness where he complained about the heat and one of his comrades chewed him out for it. And so this is kind of his redemption, I guess, where he's keeping silent even when he is burning if he can take out another enemy. 

We check in with a couple of other characters like Jinbe, Franky and Chopper, but then we get to a scene that baffled everyone. Right after Chopper talks about the risks of the magic Mink drug poses to Zoro, we get Zoro being unable to move, facing off against the goddamn Grim Reaper itself. One Piece has always been a manga that doesn't really have anything overly supernatural -- the most we ever got was Brook coming back from the dead. Which is why this is so interesting and unexpected! Obviously, Zoro's not going to die, but it's kind of interesting to see where we're going to go from him clearly having a near-death experience here. A lot of theories abound, from the 'Grim Reaper' actually being Enma's Bleach-esque Zanpakutou spirit, or that Death itself is enraged at Zoro's blasphemous claim that he'll be king of the underworld, or that the borders between the land of the dead and living are weakening due to the Fire Festival... any of these would honestly be cool to me, and I look forward to seeing what this is. 

Another very interesting scene is Izo, who's apparently injured after having to fight way too many Beasts Pirates mooks than he expected to. And then he meets... CP0! So this is the CP0 fight we're waiting for? After the Drake fight got offscreened, this is something that I'm happy to see. Izo hasn't really done anything on his own throughout the Wano arc (outside of flashbacks, of course) and I do really like this moment a lot. Especially contrasting it with the Usopp/Izo conversation last chapter about sacrifices, and how CP0 is actually willing to ignore Izo and pretend they 'never saw each other' because they're specifically hunting for Nico Robin... yeah. Izo fighting CP0 would be a badass fight for sure. 

We get three pages of Kanjurou's giant Kazenbou demon-blob thing making its way down to the giant arsenal in the basement, where apparently Kaidou just has a bunch of giant Looney Tunes bombs. We get to see Yamato show off some more of her powers, freezing the bombs and whacking away the giant blob with her kanabo. It's... it's something, I guess? I really didn't expect Yamato's huge moment in the arc to be fighting a giant blob. 

And then, of course, we finally cut away to the huge Big Mom vs. Law and Kid fight, which takes place through the back-end of this chapter all the way to the entirety of 1039. Big Mom seemingly takes out Law and Kid, blows away their crew with a lightning attack, and starts talking about how she's getting tired, and how Kaidou is taking his sweet time in the rooftop. 

But then Law attacks with his K-Room again, piercing Big Mom from the bottom all the way to her head, and... well, that panel really looked like it hurt, doesn't it? Big Mom screaming 'no, not that' before Law unleashes a Shock Wille straight to her head? Kid then summons all the metal beams homies that Big Mom brought to life, transforms it to a giant spiky bull called 'Punk Corna Dio' and bashes Big Mom to the floor again. 

Thankfully, that's not all there is to the fight, because 1039, Top Billing, continues on with the fight. There's a hilarious dynamic between Law and Kid, where Law gets pissed off for Kid using his attacks as an 'opening act', making it look like Kid's the winner. It's kind of hilarious, very much so like people arguing about kill-stealing in an online game. I absolutely love moments like this for the normally serious Law, where he gets to crack loose and show his competitive side. We get to see this on the rooftop battle as well. Also a hilarious bit where Law mocks Kid's Punk Corna Dio attack, asking him what animal he's going to make next.

Admittedly, though, Law's attacks really does seem to be more impressive, with what he does in 1039 and how afraid Big Mom is of his Shock Wille in 1038. Big Mom also acknowledges the danger of Law's moves in this chapter, noting how it has damaged her body and even broken her arms. She just uses her soul powers to somehow mend her broken bones? How does that work? She does a variant of the Maser Cannon called the Maser Saber, slashing Kid's giant metal bull. Except, of course, it's just scrap that Kid can magnetize back together.

There's a genuinely badass boast on Big Mom's part here, too, where she gives a boast about how she and the other Emperors have been reigning for decades, before these young upstarts were born, and how she's sunk so many wannabes before. But then Kid just does a pretty cool North/South pole assigning, trapping Big Mom in place for his bull to pierce... but then Big Mom just stands up and rips up the tower Kid sticks her to. That's badass! Big Mom then does an attack called 'Mother's Visit Cannon: 3000 Leagues of Misery' where she... well, she basically makes a Stand, doesn't she? The flames and lightning from Hera and Prometheus just transforms into a ghostly copy that seems to be modeled after a younger Big Mom, and Misery just rampages through the battlefield. 

And then Law! Law drops another tower on top of Big Mom's head with Tact, stabs her in the chest... and Law's sword extends so far out that it pierces all the way to the mainland of Wano itself. That's some Ichimaru Gin shit! There's a very, very cool shot of showing the other fights, like Yamato in the basement and later on the long shot of Momonosuke being baffled at 'where did that crater come from' from the sky. Law does a massive attack called 'Puncture Wille' that causes a massive shockwave that blows up a crater in the bottom of Wano and causes Big Mom to cough up blood. 

In the process, though, Big Mom has wailed on Law with her massive fists, and Law seems to conk out. But, again, Kid ends up delivering the finishing blow, having created a giant railgun and unleashing the mother of all laser beams on Big Mom with the attack called 'Damned Punk', with both Kid and Law yelling about how Big Mom's era is over. 

Very epic fight! I do feel like I enjoyed this a lot more than the Sanji/Queen and Zoro/King fight, if I'm being honest. Admittedly, there is a kind of disappointment on my part because I really don't think Kid and Law had too much of an emotional stake in defeating Big Mom... but it's still a pretty badass ending as well. I think once the arc is over we can go back and discuss whether Big Mom's inclusion in Wano ends up being a huge distraction or not, and if the arc would've been better with her in it less... but... but you know what? I can definitely admit to enjoying a good fight. Pretty fun pair of chapters all around. 

Other Notes:

• The cover story for 1038 shows that Niji and Yonji are actually captured by the Big Mom Pirates and are stuck on one of Mont D'or's books. I'm 99% sure Mont D'or was among the crew seen on the ship that went to Wano, but we do see notably Oven and Pudding among the crowd watching the two captive Germa boys. It's neat, I guess the Germa 66 didn't quite make such a clean escape as we thought they did. 
• One of the funniest random theories about the identity of the Grim Reaper is that it's just Brook trolling Zoro. That would be such a disappointment, but man, I would've really found it funny if it turned out to be the case.
• It is interesting that the other two very climactic moments in Zoro's life -- his fight with Mihawk in the Baratie and the 'nothing happened' moment with Kuma -- the Grim Reaper never showed up. I mean, I guess Zoro did tank blows from Big Mom and Kaidou even before the fight with King, but... I dunno. It's just the presentation, I guess.
• There's a short scene of Momonosuke at the beginning of 1039 where he realizes someone's calling out to him. I'm assuming this is Zunisha, whose random appearance at the end of 1037 or 1036 hasn't been followed-up on yet. 
• Corna means 'horns', and specifically means that hand-sign in heavy metal. It's popularized by Ronnie James Dio. And there's your metal reference!
• Big Mom's '3000 Leagues of Misery' is a reference to an old anime called '3000 Leagues in Search of Mother'. And there's your mama reference!