One Piece 1178 Review: Popsicle Mu

One Piece, Chapter 1178: A Fading Nightmare

We kind of rush through a fight with Gunko-Imu, and while it's clear that it's not quite the climax yet, I'm not the most impressed with this chapter either. Maybe it's a residual from my underwhelmed reaction to 1177, but I just feel like this is rushing through the ending fights of Elbaf without giving me any really satisfying emotional closures for a lot of the characters, while spending time with scenes that aren't the most interesting. It's a growing problem I've been feeling since Sommers and Killingham were taken out, honestly. 

Luffy drops Brook and Usopp with Team Nami, before jumping back into action. Meanwhile, Loki launches lightning breaths while Imu gives a bit of an exposition about rumours of some large flying beast, referencing Loki's time as a pirate. As the battle continues, Imu glorps out of Gunko's body and emerges as a giant goopy shadow demon, which... feels a bit odd, considering how much she's been spending time going around possessing people and keeping her identity hidden? I guess she needs it to try and Domi Reversi Luffy and Loki, which is important to show... but it fails, of course. 

I am a bit surprised that it failed on Loki, but I never thought for a second that it would've succeeded on Luffy. Whatever the case, whether it's Conqueror's Haki or their specific devil fruits, Imu doesn't seem too surprised by this while the two are just confused and angry. Luffy unleashes a Dawn Gatling that pushes shadow Imu full of holes, and then Loki uses Ragnir and unleashes a blast of Niflheim to instantly create a block of ice that freezes Gunko and Imu within. 

Luffy reverts out of Gear Fifth, and Loki notes that he was a giant dragon for 'too long'. Okay. 

We then cut to a montage of the crisis being solved all over Elbaf, with Zeus, Jinbe and Lilith using their respective powers to put out flames. Zoro and the giants are about to finish off more Domi Reversi'd giants, but Chopper walks up and then whacks them, knocking the demons out and reverting them. Again, this mystery is still going on, and I just don't find it particularly interesting since it had zero buildup. Oh, there's also a bonus mystery that the books of Ohara and Bilbo the owl has disappeared, although it's not that hard to assume that Bilbo shrunk the books to protect them from the fire. 

Things are thankfully not over yet, and I really do hope that whatever climax next can salvage this arc. Summers's head-halves and heart seem to put themselves together, while the Imu frozen in ice disappears while we cut away to Mary Geoise, and the main body of Imu calls the Gorosei to tell them that 'The Holy Land will be without Mu for a short while'. I genuinely feel like I've checked out a little from the lack of resolution on a lot of the plot points while introducing random new quasi-mysteries, but hopeful, slightly, that there is a better climax on the horizon? 

Random Notes:

• He gets back in crazy mode quickly, but there's a nice panel of Luffy in Gear Fifth looking angry when Franky asks him if he needs backup, as he gets ready to launch himself into battle. 
• None of the giants 'slain' by Team Zoro were shown being reversed back to normal, so there was a theory that some heavy emotional component was needed to reverse the Reversi like what Dorry and Brogy had for each other; or maybe it ties to Chopper's protective nature as a doctor... but nothing anywhere as interesting happened. It's just punch them really hard, or be Chopper, I guess.