One Piece 923 Review: ワンパンマン

One Piece, Chapter 923: Emperor Kaidou v.s. Luffy

Well, shit. That happened.

The chapter begins with Luffy just hitting Kaidou so hard his head got whacked onto the ground, causing everyone to freak the fuck out. And while Kaidou seems to be briefly be downed, Luffy ends up seeing the battered and broken body of Speed, who recounts how she "could not protect her master". Apparently before Kaidou arrived in the town, he had cut off Speed and O-Tama when they galloped away. Speed's pretty wounded and we get to see a brief panel of O-Tama's bloodied arm next to an apple... 

And, y'know, just like I don't buy the Straw Hats' death, I also don't buy that O-Tama is dead, otherwise it'd be flat-out bad writing for a character that's been built up to be killed offscreen. I don't actually mind it so much if One Piece decided to take a darker tone for this arc and have Kaidou kill off a child, but if that was something they're going with, then they would've shown it on-panel. 

It does galvanize Luffy's anger, though, basically causing Luffy to go full-on rage mode, telling Law that he's basically just going to beat up Kaidou right here and right now. Arrogance? Stupidity? Definitely. But, again, Luffy's clearly not thinking straight, and unlike lesser shonen manga, the manga makes it clear by having every single person tell Luffy what a stupid idea it is to even think of challenging Kaidou. 

Luffy then announces his whole "Pirate King" shtick in front of Kaidou, who just hyper beams the fuck out of the town. And while Kaidou's drunkenness might be a cheap cop-out to have Luffy knock Kaidou out, similar to how Big Mom's psychosis was what allowed Team Luffy to survive and run rampant across Tottland... the chapter does play around my expectations pretty wonderfully. We start off the battle with Luffy unleashing an Elephant Gatling on Kaidou who just takes it and sort of topples backwards on his back, even transforming to his human form. And then Luffy goes into Gear Fourth and pummels the fuck out of Kaidou with Kong Organ....

(Although keep in mind that in addition to being drunk, we do know that Kaidou is suicidal, so maybe he's just taking on all these hits.)

And Kaidou doesn't get up. Is this it for Kaidou? Even if he's "just drunk" and will prove a credible threat later, it'd be shit for the tension of the entire arc if Luffy manages to get such an easy win against Kaidou by just rage-punching him so early in the arc.

Thankfully, apparently Kaidou was just getting his bearings, and he just straight-up one-shots Luffy with a single whack of his oni bat, taking out Luffy from gear Fourth to completely being defeated, and Kaidou just straight-up mocks Luffy -- "what kind of king did you say you were going to be, brat?" This chapter and its predecessor has been heavily criticized by the fandom, I think, but honestly, I do think that this is a wake-up call that Luffy and the manga sorely needs. Throughout the new world a common complaint about Luffy is how carefree he is, and how very little threat he's actually faced throughout the New World. He's been happy-go-lucky with the shonen protagonist mentality of thinking that he's just going to beat up anyone who comes his way... and just like Sabaody, this gets utterly turned over the head when Kaidou is still miles and miles beyond Luffy's reach. It's not a perfect way to show off Kaidou, perhaps, but I really honestly have enjoyed these two chapters, finding them to be a neat little way to jolt the plot forwards and shake things up.