One Piece 1090 Review: Death!

One Piece, Chapter 1090: Admiral Kizaru

Okay, an... interesting chapter for sure! This one is more of a setup chapter, true, but it is a pretty fun one! We start off with a scene that I really wanted to see, which is Luffy picking up the Den Den Mushi and yelling "I'm Monkey D. Luffy! The man who will become the Pirate King!" at the top of his head. Luffy threatens the Marines by holding York hostage, and after we get to see the shocked reactions of the Marines and even Morgans... and then we casually get the Gorosei asking Luffy about 'who's alive in the Labophase' and Luffy's about to spill the numbers before Robin wisely cuts Luffy off and shuts off the phone. 

...rather worryingly, Ju Peter identifies Robin's presence among the Straw Hats. Though I suppose Robin being with the Straw Hats is already kind of common knowledge. 

We cut to Saint Jay Garcia Saturn, who lists the Marines' priorities to the stern-faced Vice Admiral Doberman. Saturn wants to protect three things -- York, Punk Records and the power plant needed to produce Mother Flame. Despite his face and how he's been shown to be rather brutal before, even Doberman is shocked at the thought of sacrificing Rob Lucci and the other CP-0 agents. Saturn about how this is just prioritization, and anticipation of a worst-case scenario. Which is nice enough... but then we get a rather awesome zoom-in to his face where he then proceeds to say that 'humans are no different from insects' and how even with their numbers reduced, they can simply multiply. 

York keeps crying and trying to leverage her association with the Gorosei, but she said one thing too far and mentions Ohara, leading Nami to whack her over the head with her magic weather rod. That's a completely neat little moment that really does help build the idea of the Straw Hats being a found family. I love this moment, I love Robin's little smile as she knows just what set Nami off, and then she just brushes it off and praises Chopper for a 'don't praise me, you bastard' gag. 

We then get a group shot of the entire group, including another MIA character -- Kaku -- who's actually severely wounded by the Seraphims. Lilith, however, is mourning the deaths of the satellites, and Rob Lucci is quietly listing off the situation to presumably a hidden den-den mushi or something. Lucci identifies two of the satellites as being dead. 

The other imprisoned Cipher Pol agents are freed, though still locked up in the basement. Usopp lets them eat, but for obvious reasons they aren't stupid enough to let them run around. Also tied up there are S-Shark, S-Hawk, S-Snake and S-Bear, who are all trapped within bubbles. We get a brief flashback to how some of the characters were freed from petrification, because S-Snake inherits Hancock's crush on Luffy -- something that a commentor guessed last chapter! Okay, sure? Luffy barely pays attention to the affections of hot adult woman Hancock, so there's no worries of him reciprocating those of a little girl. 

We get a brief description about how the Frontier Dome is locked with a password that only York knows, and she hasn't uploaded it to Punk Records... which solves a mystery, I guess, about who set up the Frontier Dome. We then get a couple of pages about Stella Vegapunk discussing with Nami and Franky about where to go next, and how they plan to use Vega-Force One to escape. All of this aren't the most interesting and I won't recap every little detail, but it's nice that it's building on a lot of the details we've learned throughout the arc. More importantly, we basically confirm what everyone and their mother has guessed will be our next destination: Elbaf. 

And Luffy and Usopp are naturally excited, and we get a couple of fun scenes of them dancing in the background, but it's nice to have a confirmation more than anything. 

Franky, Lilith, Luffy and Bonney go off to set up some stuff with the Thousand Sunny. We get a fun little moment with Lilith being excited about finally getting to explore the world outside of Egghead, and then we've got a bit of an... interesting interaction. Luffy points out how 'weird' Bonney is, and Bonney seems to be happy about how Sanji is a 'great man skilled at cooking and battle'... and this really could be many things? Bonney herself does note that she's just happy that she doesn't have to kill Vegapunk. I see a lot of people guessing that this is Devon from the Blackbeard Pirates masquerading as Bonney, but I do wonder if it has something to do with her absorbing Kuma's memories. 

We then get what's probably my favourite scene in this chapter, where the Marines get ready to fight. But much more importantly, Saturn is talking to Kizaru, who previously has described himself as a mere 'cog in the machine'... but he's actually talking back a bit to Saturn, which is unexpected! Kizaru as a character has always characterized himself as 'unclear justice' and it's a running gag among the fandom that he's always high on something in every single one of his scenes. Kizaru notes how he could get through the Frontier Dome, but he's considering not doing it because the one guarding the Dome, Sentomaru, is a friend of his. 

Saturn tells Kizaru to just 'ignore' him, but surprisingly, Kizaru actually talks back to the Gorosei, saying that he can't ignore a man who's "determined to fight for duty", which is fair enough, but then says that "doing so would go against [his] ideals". That's... that's a surprising stance for Kizaru to take, and I really do wonder just what Kizaru truly believes in. Is it just simply doing one's duty? I guess that might be why, despite his reluctance here, he goes to fight Sentomaru anyway at the end of the chapter? 

Kizaru does offer an alternate excuse, noting that starting the assault would cause Sentomaru to unleash the Sea Beast cyborgs and the Pacifista army, leading to heavy casualties as the fleet is sunk. Saturn actually isn't that dumb at I guess he realizes that losing important resources, while acceptable, isn't something that one does wily-nily. Kizaru then reveals that Rob Lucci has already sent all the information that they need...

As the Marines get ready and as Luffy's friends bounce around, Kizaru activates his Yata no Kagami attack...does the same thing he did in Sabaody where he bounces around to travel through the island. We get a surprisingly detailed zoom-in on Sentomaru's face illuminated by light, declaring his intention to go at it with his 'uncle'. Kizaru stabs Sentomaru with a light-covered arm, while Sentomaru boasts that his defense is the strongest in the world. 

...yeah, I'm sorry, Sentomaru. You don't stand a chance, but kudos for having the sheer balls to stand up against an Admiral with the power of light. 

And the final panel shows Luffy being actually terrified and panicked that someone strong is coming -- a completely different reaction than just casually hanging out in the distance when the wood-based Aramaki attacked. Pretty fun cliffhanger, and I honestly am anticipating a proper showdown between Kizaru and... just any of our heroes. This, honestly, is a far more intense cliffhanger than having the Seraphims and York as the threat, and the idea that Rob Lucci is just buying time and waiting for when he starts attacking again is very fun, too! Definitely looking forward to the next chapter. 

Random Notes:

• So even the official translations seem to be calling it "Mother Flame" instead of "Mother Frame" now, which honestly makes more sense. 
• Yeah, with Robin literally just being off-screen instead of even walking around elsewhere, Oda knows what he's doing by intentionally excluding Nico Robin from group shots. 
• Oh yeah, Morgans is going to gas Luffy up. I'm not sure how he's listening in, I think that's a Black Den-Den Mushi he's holding?
• Vivi's also with Morgans. I await the assembly of the true, full rank of the Straw Hat Pirates. 
• Good god, one of the still-unnamed Vice Admirals has like twelve chins or some shit. 
• I do find it rather morbidly hilarious that in the page where they confirm Shaka and Pythagoras's death, Luffy and Bonney are just pigging out on food.
• Jinbe finds the fact that S-Snake also has a crush on Luffy to be hilarious... I forgot Jinbe and Hancock would've hung around each other in Amazon Lily right before the timeskip after they were all recovering from Marineford. 
• I am surprised Jinbe didn't actually go and meet S-Shark for a talk. 
• I love that even world-renowned genius Dr. Vegapunk is utterly and completely baffled at Franky's source of power. Cola! It's better than nuclear energy!
• If we take One Piece Film Z as a canon indicator of what Kizaru's characterization is, he was the one that ultimately killed Zephyr...