One Piece 895 Review: Of Snakes and Mochis

One Piece, Chapter 895: Pirate Luffy VS Sweet Commander Katakuri

Oh yes, Snakeman! This chapter is essentially a long, long fight scene and... well, despite my clear disdain about the pacing of this entire arc, it's still honestly a pretty dang badass fight. Gear Fourth: Snakeman isn't quite as mind-blowing as Gear Fourth: Boundman was back in the day, since it's still honestly just Boundman-but-faster... but it's pretty cool. Do love the smoke forming like a Japanese thunder god's cloud cloak thing around Luffy's back, and... I just kinda think that the very first punch with Luffy's punch zipping around and hitting Katakuri from the side, that Jet Culverin attack, to be rather... underwhelming. It's cool as all hell and the artwork when Katakuri figures out what's happening is awesome, but at the same time it's also a move that we've seen back in the Doflamingo fight. 

It is pretty badass to see that it's apparently accelerating as it's moving, and Katakuri's even still trying to figure out how to counter and how to fight back, giving us the sense of an equal fight that I don't think One Piece has had since... since Moira? Every other fight in the New World has always felt like Luffy was just not in the right place or just not pushed far enough before unveiling his true power, and Gear Fourth against Doflamingo was a prolonged curb-stomp. So here, Luffy unveiling his brand-new power-up form and it managing to push Katakuri but not overwhelm him felt pretty awesome. 

But you know what else is awesome? Katakuri turning himself into a donut. And then spinning around to build enough centrifugal force to lariat Luffy in the face with an arm that's transformed into a spiky flail. I saw a fair bit of comments here and there speculating about what Snakeman was going to be, and it's essentially just Boundman-but-slimmer here... but no one expected Katakuri to be the one to unveil a crazy-looking weird donut form. That's awesome. That's hilarious and awesome. 

And, well, Katakuri manages to land a huge blow onto Luffy with this Diced Mochi attack, and the two go Ora-ora-ing again with an exchange of blows. Luffy gives us the Gomu Gomu no Black Mamba, which is like the Snakeman version of gatling -- except I think he forms multiple arms shooting punches at Katakuri like that... Kong Organ?

And then the final page is a two-page spread between Katakuri reusing his Diced Mochi attack, while Luffy unveils "King Cobra" (essentially a stronger Jet Culverin, I feel) and... the chapter ends, and it's going to be on break. A lot of people are already hailing this as the best chapter ever and... I don't necessarily think so. It's good and helluva enjoyable, and the fight scenes are executed well with the amount of tension in "oh man I dunno who's gonna win" because both from an in-universe standpoint and from a writing standpoint it really could go either way. But at the same time, there's just a slight lack of innovation, I feel, about Snakeman. Perhaps it's my own fault for expecting a bit too much since this is, after all, a Gear Fourth form and a variation instead of a brand-new form, but still... I dunno. It's still an amazing chapter and I can't stop myself from grinning while I read it, though I really, really hope that this isn't the end of the fight since if it just ended with this Snakeman's going to feel somewhat underwhelming. Overall, though, as a chapter? It's pretty dang solid.