One Piece 924 Review: End of Act 1

One Piece, Chapter 924: Huh

Well, that is a very interesting chapter for sure. The chapter ends in a Japanese drama style curtain closing with the words "End of Act 1", and having the premise of the story being set up, leading to a huge obstacle for the hero, is basically the definition of the first act in a three-act structure. 

Ultimately, after all of the hype of "ZOMG LUFFY FIHGT KAIDO NOOEEE" has worn off from the previous two chapters, it is pretty obvious where the story is leading to. The writer's not going to kill off the main character and every single one of his allies relatively apropos of nothing -- that'd just be bad writing. It's not that they can't conceivably die, it's that if he's going to kill off characters, the proper way to do so is with proper buildup and narrative structure. 

Kaidou seems to have been holding back in some degree while fighting Luffy, apparently noting that "of course" he is still conscious. We also get to see Kaidou while he's completely sober, and sober Kaidou is apparently just a grumpy man who just really doesn't give a lot of shits, in stark contrast to his destructive angry drunk form. He respects Luffy enough to "break" him and make use of him as a soldier, similar to what he's doing to Kid, and I do like how a fainted Luffy is still able to exude enough Conqueror's Haki to knock out some of Kaidou's men. We also get confirmation that Kid is also able to use Conqueror's Haki.

Trafalgar Law gets to fight against Hawkins for a bit, who apparently weaponizes Seastone nails for whatever reason, and re-establishes that Seastone originates in Wano. Law escapes, though whether this is because of Hawkins' manipulation or if it's just genuine. I do think that Hawkins directing Kaidou to attack Oden Castle may or may not be because of his own fortune-telling, knowing that doing so would lead to the least casualties out there because, hey, apparently everyone in the Alliance fine, who'd guess it. I honestly do think that the fake-out deaths are just there to put the audience in Luffy's shoes. We know they're fine because we know it's a story and that they're main characters, but Luffy doesn't. 

Apparently Shinobu has the powers of the Juku-Juku fruit that allows her to mature things, essentially allowing her to rot the ground and create a gigantic hole for everyone to fall down into. 'Kay then. Also, Inuarashi comes across O-Tama's injured body, which... yeah, I'll just handwave it as Kaidou being half-assed when beating down Tama and Speed. Oh, and Kin'emon sees his wife, noting that she "hasn't aged", which is interesting. And confirms that Shutenmaru is indeed Ashura Doji, which is practically common knowledge at this point. 

And then we get the montage of the Straw Hats infiltrating Wano getting the news, and we get to see these GLORIOUS faces on Franky, Robin and Usopp. Mostly Robin. There's just something hilarious about an implacable woman like Robin making that sort of face. Interestingly, Zoro finds out about this, but we don't actually get to see his reaction? Hmm.

The final scenes of the episode basically surrounds Luffy being dragged away to prison, with the establishment of a prisoner who's only being fed poisonous fish every day without bones, otherwise he'll spit out the bones at guards and injure them, which I don't think is Kid? There is a 'scene break' sequence of panels trailing off between the bone prisoner to Luffy being thrown into his cell next to Kid. And that particular bit with Luffy and Kid is basically what everyone guessed was going to happen. 

Anyway, it's... it's an interesting chapter. Luffy being defeated and having to find a way to crawl up to fight the arc's main villain is nothing new. He had to do a similar thing to Crocodile, Rob Lucci and Blackbeard, after all. It's just that it's been quite some time (basically since the time skip) that Luffy's self-assured confidence in his power has ran out, and this time around it's because of his own lack of thinking or foresight. I'm pretty sure the "god why are you being so stupid" train of thought that the writer has implemented in the entire fandom is meant to be reflected by the characters in-universe as well, due to some of the writing surrounding Zoro.

You see, one of the scenes back prior to the Whole Cake Island arc was Zoro telling Luffy to man up and not cause any more trouble in getting Sanji back, because Sanji had left on his own accord and they have this whole Kaidou storyline to go through, with an offhand threat of "or I'll be next to leave the crew". Throw in scenes of Zoro being specifically excluded from the reunion with the Whole Cake squad, thus delaying that particular confrontation, as well as Zoro's reaction here to Luffy's defeat not being shown... an arc where Zoro loses faith in Luffy is definitely something that's up on the horizon, and would definitely be a far, far more emotional and interesting twist compared to "Luffy just needs to get stronger". 

Overall, a neat end to the first act of Wano! Definitely have been pretty m'eh about the arc's earlier parts, especially when we're just introducing one supporting character after the next. This little shakeup to the plot is definitely what the arc needed.