One Piece 776 Review: Kind of a Generic Fight, Honestly

One Piece, Chapter 776: The Colosseum's Hero

I dunno, I just feel that the recent batch of enemies just seem... underused? Doflamingo aside, they're all just one-trick ponies despite having some of the wackiest powers ever. Baby 5 only summons guns, Senor Pink only does suplexes, Dellinger only does random high heel and bull helmet stabs... and Diamante with his Flutter-Flutter Fruit is definitely one of the most exotic powers in One Piece. But while he does display some additional attacks beyond making himself, his sword and the ground all fluttery and shit, for something that's been builded up since what feels like forever, the final battle between Kyros and Diamante just feels... so fucking generic. It's like every other generic anime fight scene, and definitely towards the end it feels like one of the cliched 'Friendship is power' fights and 'Redundant flashbacks we've already seen' from some animes.

Granted, I don't really have that much problem with the chapter itself despite my ranting. It's just that the end of the Doflamingo arc has been dragged on for quite some time with most of the minor enemies' fights being done one-per-chapter and while it's cool, it's also so formulaic that when a theoretically major and personal villain like Diamante gets taken out in a single chapter as well, it kind of loses any tension it should have.

Anyway, the chapter starts with another of Jinbe's cover story where he explains stuff to the Sea Kings. Whatever. We also get a bit of Franky, around one page, ordering the Tontattas to tear the SMILE factory down before collapsing in exhaustion himself.

Diamante then does this big attack called "Half Moon Glaive", which has the interesting visual effect of slicing Diamante's own word bubble into half-moons, but otherwise is just a big slash. Diamante himself is just kind of reduced to a generic 'mwahahahaa I'm so evil I killed your wife mwahahahaa' big hammy villain that, while entertaining... is not quite that interesting compared to the many, many colourful characters in One Piece and indeed this current arc. He's just been reduced to generic petty villainy and that makes me not really care for him at all.

Diamante flutters away from Kyros's slashes, before mocking his one-legged-ness and acknowledging that he only has one leg, has been running around the country, and is fighting on uneven ground... and then pulls out a bunch of thin papers that transform into firework mortar things, which launches confetti that is actually flutter-ified spiked balls, which is called 'Death Enjambre', I think. Which is kind of cool! I expected more of this kind of application of Diamante's powers, not just big sword slashes because not everyone can make that look cool.

Robin remembers that she's, you know, around, so she does this big Mille Fleur thing where she slices off a shit ton of the sunflowers and makes it into a big umbrella to cover herself and Rebecca. Which is odd that it actually works, but I guess it'll stop the momentum? Kyros is all under the power of BURNINGU SPIRITU and plot effects, however, so he just slashes away all those spiked iron balls and charges Diamante. Diamante then pulls out a gun and shoots Kyros in the leg, which would be a big 'damn that cheap fucker' moment... except later on Diamante completely forgets he has a gun, doesn't think of finishing Kyros off by shooting him in the head... and just watches as the spike-balls rain down on Kyros.

There's a bit of screaming on Rebecca and Diamante and generic 'I killed your mother mwaha' dialogue, Kyros just getting pelted by iron balls, Kyros standing back up, Diamante not doing anything, and then flashbacks! Kyros does have the little dialogue saying how Rebecca's hands must not be sullied by blood since up until now they have been Scarlet's hands, similarly unsullied by blood... which is kind of makes the whole 'no Rebecca you cannot fight' comments actually make some modicum of non-sexist sense. Kyros charges Diamante, talking about how he's the anger of Dressrosa personified and shit, and when Kyros is down Diamante is about to unleash his Half-Moon thing again, but Kyros charges and does this 'Trueno Espada' attack and takes Diamante down.

It could've been a lot better, y'know? Obviously Kyros is going to win, and while I thought this would work better as a two-parter I also appreciate wanting to wrap this up quickly. But at the same time... Robin could've used her flower fruit to distract Diamante while Kyros is standing up. Or slap away the gun. Kyros could've been less 'NOTHING CAN HURT ME EVERYTHING ONLY SLOWS ME DOWN A LITTLE' and actually use some strategy beyond just tanking everything Diamante throws at him. And Diamante can definitely do more with his flutter flutter ability.

Eh. Whatever. I assume next week's going to be Zoro versus Pica, which I hope will wrap up in one chapter as well because there's really not much emotional attachment to that particular fight and it's been going on for a while.