One Piece, Chapter 1055: New Age
So picking up from the previous chapter, we sort of tie up the post-Wano arc with Ryokugyu, and... and it's something that I'm pleasantly surprised is able to be done as neatly. And a lot of this, I felt, hinges on Momonosuke's actions in this chapter. He's stopping Yamato from attacking Ryokugyu because he wanted to prove to the Straw Hats (of which he considers Yamato one now!) that the guardians of Wano can handle their own territory. When I read chapter 1054 last week, I was a bit worried on whether we're going to be rushing a confrontation with a brand-new Admiral, but I feel like these two chapters, despite all odds, ended up being very well-paced.
I'm not sure if there's a specific scene from One Piece itself or another shonen manga that this is reminding me of -- that a very specific person has to show that he/she is capable of defending himself/herself despite there being much more viable combatants in the field, but it's pretty damn cool. Ryokugyu, as much as a jackass he is, ends up being pretty damn cool, too. Raizou gets to use a fire release (presumably a Katon jutsu for all my fellow Naruto fans) but then Ryokugyu shows that he's able to utilize a certain technique called Fireproof Forest, allowing him to block that obvious weakness. Poor Raizou then gets drained of his water, though I'm going to assume that he's absolutely fine. The other Scabbards present -- Nekomamushi, Denjiro, Kawamatsu and Shinobu -- don't exactly get taken down, but they're immobilized by the wood tendrils.
Skipping a bit ahead in the actual chapter, Ryokugyu rants about how Kaidou's tyranny has been a deterrent that kept other predators from attacking Wano... but then it's Momonosuke's time to shine. He talks about how Yamato has been waiting to go off to sea for so long, that he's been relying on Luffy and the Straw Hats for too long... and it's about god damn time that Momonosuke, newly-crowned shogun of Wano, defend his own country in order to prove that, yes, Wano is a country that can stand on its own.
Which leads to the very badass moment where Momonosuke's Blast Breath from the previous chapter... actually succeeds, and he sends a whole goddamn Hyper Beam straight through Ryokugyu's giant wood man form. Is this the worst actual damage that a Blast Breath has actually done to a character and not just the terrain?
And after Momonosuke's speech and his character development over the course of the Wano arc? You know what? I'm really liking this kid. I'm still pissed that we never really quite got a 'Momo raises Onigashima like Oden raises the pot' moment properly highlighted in the manga, but this? This scene of Momonosuke giving a speech about protecting Wano while fighting in the shadows, ostensibly away from all of his allies? This is badass.
Ryokugyu isn't exactly defeated, even though the... the vessel? The avatar? The wood-form? Got roasted to hell by Momonosuke. There's a cool shot of a little sprout growing back and recreating Aramaki's full body -- which is a very cool visual. Ryokugyu is about to go all serious... but then a blast of black lightning emanates from the ocean, and it's Shanks. Yes! Okay, okay now we're talking. I was a bit miffed that last chapter Shanks shows up and does nothing, although that "we'll get the One Piece" line is pretty shivers-inducing. But he ends up unleashing a blast of Conqueror's Haki that freezes Ryokugyu in the spot and essentially sends him running away from Wano with his tail between his pants.
Shanks has an absolutely badass angry expression on his face as he says "does the New Age frighten you that much?" and... and, shit, clearly Ryokugyu is frightened of the old age, because Shanks sending his Conqueror's Haki is enough to get him pissed off and running away.
And that's cool. That's badass. Momonosuke gets his badass moment, Ryokugyu gets to be an antagonist but gets disposed of in a way that is believable but doesn't make him look too bad (he was still ready to rumble), and Shanks gets to be relevant and look so fucking badass by stopping a Marine Admiral just by literally flexing.
And, the best part of it? We get the revelation that Luffy, Zoro, Sanji and Jinbe sitting on a cliff overlooking the whole conflict, ready to jump in to help out Momonosuke if he's actually in danger, but content to let Momonosuke do his fight and protect his values and his people. After all of Luffy and Momo's interactions, and Luffy recognizing things like allowing the Scabbards to be the one to strike the first blow of the Onigashima raid and all that? It really does feel very much in-character for them to do that. Very cool sequence, and a nice way to make everyone involved feel competent.
The middle portion of the chapter has more to do with some exposition. Robin and Sukiyaki are joined by Law, who's joined the group off-screen and... and I'm not going to repeat every single part of the exposition here since a lot of it has to do with Wano's unique topography, but essentially, 'opening the borders' for Wano involves literally breaking apart the gigantic earthen walls that have served as a ginormous bowl that has been keeping Wano's internal 'ocean' intact. It's always something that the arc has basically told us since day one of the arc when we were scaling the fountain up the mountain into a secluded area, but the fact that it was man-made and that it relates to the 'borders' really is something we should've put together a lot earlier.
Sukiyaki notes that Kaidou's group was able to see the bottom parts of the oceanic parts of Wano, including the old-Wano of 800 years ago, because they had Jack the fishman on their crew. Sukiyaki shows the Lode Poneglyph to Robin and Law, and it's the penultimate Poneglyph before we can draw the big X to the One Piece... and Sukiyaki notes that while he doesn't know the specifics, if they go a bit deeper, yes, Pluton is in the depths of the ocean.
And I wonder. Since the other two Ancient Weapons are Poseidon (Greek God of the Oceans) and Uranus (Roman God of the Skies), then Pluton... Pluton's named after Pluto, Roman God of the Underworld, but one of the domains of Pluto/Hades is the deep earth itself. Is Pluton also a weapon able to create the giant earthen walls that creates the huge earth-walls of Wano? Is Pluton the thing responsible for creating the Red Line, if the Red Line does turn out to be artificial?
A lot of great questions! But the Ryokugyu stuff really does a great job at being a little post-Wano excitement. We got a lot of Revolutionary set-up last chapter, and Ancient Weapon set-up this chapter. Shanks! Yamato joining the crew! A lot of great moments. Honestly, I've really been enjoying this post-Wano arc... all I really want now is some confirmation about Kaidou and Big Mom's fates, and then we're golden for sailing to Elbaf or wherever we're going next!
Random Notes:
- I really haven't been paying much attention to the marketing behind Film: Red, but that is meant to be Uta in the montage of flashbacks, right? The left-most panel where there's a figure in silhouette?
- This chapter also comes with a one-page manga prologue to Film: Red, starring Uta.
- Despite what Pokemon teaches us, there are actually fireproof wood. Or rather, wood with high fire resistance. Like birch or cedar! Hell, regular plants themselves tend to have high enough water content in them that unless it's extremely dry or the fire is extremely hot, they don't catch fire as easily as Pokemon might have you believe.
- Wait, so Conqueror's Haki also lets you communicate through distances? ...okay, sure.
No comments:
Post a Comment