One Piece, Chapter 981: Engagementl; Chapter 982: Ruffian Meets Ruffian
Another pair of chapters of One Piece, and... it's neat? We're continuing the raid on Onigashima, although I do feel that the pacing is kind of off somehow. Modern One Piece doesn't really spend too much time on chapter-long fights as it used to, and that might be it, but I dunno, I still feel like there are just parts of these two chapters that just feel off. Maybe it's the huge exposition-heavy sequences of Wano recently that really make this feel a bit off, I suppose, or maybe it's yet another Big Mom not really being used properly syndrome. Still, a pretty good pair of chapters nonetheless.
Chapter 981:
981 kind of picks up where we left off in 980, with Kid beating the shit out of Apoo, and we get a whole lot of reactions and chaos from the rest of the Beast Pirates. And I do like that the chapter at least gives us a bit of a confrontation as Kid rants to Apoo about how he was a dirty mole-slash-traitor. But the fight gets interrupted when our heroes decide that escaping is the best course of action, and we get Hacha, a member of the Numbers... and he's a drunk giant? That's honestly kind of disappointing, but since Hacha is like #8, he's probably one of the weaker dudes? I must really confess that I don't give too much of a shit about the Numbers at the moment, so I don't really care. Then Luffy, Zoro and Kid quickly figure out that Apoo's attacks can only hit you if you hear them, so, uh, that's that for Apoo, then, because Team Luffy just sort of escapes after that. I dunno. I just thought that there was going to be more to this, that we'll have something more between a clash of the hyped-up Supernovas, but I suppose it's just something we're saving for yet again, later on.
There's a bit more intrigue involving the Tobiroppo's friction against the Headliners, with us getting a focus on Who's Who, the dude with the bull mask, and he basically ignores the hunt for Luffy and Kid in order to focus on finding Yamato and apparently he wants to wipe out Queen, from his dialogue? Again, I don't really think any of the Tobiroppo are established as actual characters yet so at this point I really don't care either way, I'm just here for the ride.
The second part of the chapter highlights the group that is going along with Kin'emon and Sanji, and they end up coming to a part of Onigashima that they didn't know about, which is a brothel district with pretty trees (the artwork is on point for the locations), and it's apparently Black Maria's domain. Sanji gets drawn into the brothel by Rule of Funny, while the ladies also decide to enter the brothel to search for Momonosuke... although I'm not sure why they would think that Kanjurou would bring Momonosuke into the brothel. We get a scene of a depressed Sanji walking out of the brothel (the implication being that he saw Big Mom changing?), Kin'emon and the samurai heading away... and then the scene of Big Mom opening the window and coming face to face with Chopper. And admittedly, this scene was funny as all hell... but I don't really care for what comes next, as seen in 982.
And the final part of the chapter is the huge hype part, of course, with the Big Mom Pirates on their ship climbing up the waterfall, and it's interesting that there's some sort of argument among the members of Big Mom's crew. Perospero thinks this alliance is insane, Smoothie is just loyal, while Daifuku, Mont D'Or and Galette just wants to get on with the mission of killing the Straw Hats that disrespected Big Mom. And... of course, just as they are about to reach Wano, the very unexpected arrival of Marco the Phoenix ends up kicking the Big Mom Pirates' ship off of the waterfall, which is actually pretty funny, even though I can totally see how not everyone is the biggest fan of this development. I do still think that the Wano arc is already a bit overstuffed, so I suppose making a narrative exit for the Big Mom Pirate members is a neat one, and, well, at least it's a funny joke. The huge re-introduction to Marco is very cool, and, well, Marco's arrived with Nekomamushi and Izo.
Chapter 982:
We continue on with chapter 982, and while the previous chapter was kind of jumping all over the place, 982 sort of stops the erratic pacing and focuses its first part on Kaidou and Orochi. And it's... interesting? We see them talk about Kanjurou, with Kaidou noting just how interestingly bizarre the twist that one of the ever-loyal Scabbards is actually a traitor, and how he had absolutely no idea and he's worried that his men might've accidentally killed Kanjurou. Also, Kaidou's definitely looking for Laugh Tale, because he brings it up and notes that Oden never let anything about Laugh Tale slip, even to his subordinates.
Kanjurou makes his entrance, beating up a bunch of Beast Pirates, and it's not until this point that Kaidou tells everyone else that Kanjurou is supposed to be one of their allies. Apparently, Momonosuke attempted to stab Kanjurou with that knife, and Kanjurou beat him up and is now holding Momonosuke on his hand. We do get a bunch of interesting call-backs to the Oden flashback, with Kaidou noting that he realizes who Momonosuke is... and is disappointed that he's basically 'exactly the same'. There's Kanjurou informing Orochi about how his plan was a failure and he was totally outfoxed by the 'superior cunning' of Kin'emon... although, interestingly, he doesn't bring up anything about the Kyoushiro/Denjiro thing. Maybe Kanjurou is like, conflicted or playing both sides? What is told to Orochi and Kaidou is the arrival of Luffy and Kid, but it's apparently something that's so beneath them because Queen is taking care of it. And I definitely do like this vibe of how our heroes are considered to be so beneath Kaidou's notice that even when he's aware, he really doesn't give a shit.
Orochi, meanwhile, is still very much afraid of Oden's legacy and we get a very cool jump from Kaidou's supreme confidence to how Orochi is scared and shaking as he's holding his sake bowl. And he grabs the beaten-up Momonosuke and basically decides to want to crucify the boy publicly to bring down the morale of the Kozuki loyalists. Because, hey, if you needed another reason to really hate Orochi, here you go.
We also get a bit of a back-and-forth as Marco and Nekomamushi's crew contacts the Scabbards on Law's submarine, which is nice to see, but it's kind of mostly fluff. There's a weird bit where Nekomamushi and Marco discusses a message that Marco left for Luffy, which... I'm not sure if it's going to lead somewhere, or if it's a payoff of anything? I guess it's just sort of a lampshade on the convenience and coincidence that these two arrived at the same time or something? Or maybe a 'death flag', as people call it? Also, from the looks of it, I don't think the entire Neo-Whitebeard pirates actually showed up, and it's just Marco and Izo. Again, I certainly don't mind, I already think Wano has a bit too many characters and keeping the cast in a relatively more manageable size is definitely a smart move.
Speaking of cutting down the cast, by basically taking advantage of the fact that most of the Beast Pirates know him as Kyoshiro, Kyoshiro basically waltzes his way through a pass guarded by Sasaki, and easily chains him up to a wall. It's a bit abrupt, and I personally don't think that this is it for Sasaki, but at the same time it's not like these Tobiroppo are actually established characters just yet,m and I can honestly see this go either way, that they're going to be big sub-bosses for our enemies, or that they are relatively disposable. I'm far more interested about the fact that Kanjurou hasn't reported Kyoshiro's betrayal to Kaidou and Orochi, and I don't think it's coincidence that we randomly have a short, one-and-a-half scene of Denjiro making use of his Kyoshiro persona to trick the guards in the same chapter that Kanjurou reports things to Orochi. Although I could be overthinking it and the answer might be as simple as "well, news didn't travel that fast" or "Kanjurou forgot".
Speaking of abrupt scenes, we get... Big Mom chasing Chopper and Usopp in their tank, and this is played more for laughs than anything. Of course, it's not the first time that Big Mom has been reduced to basically a plot device. Between her random amnesia in the Wano arc and this scene, I dunno. I just really kind of wish that they give Big Mom more of a significant role? I know that this isn't her arc anymore, but I really wish that they gave her a bit of a major role. The amnesia bit ends up feeling a bit more redundant now that it's not brought up in this arc (yet, at least) but Big Mom doesn't recognize Chopper as her former buddy, but as a member of the Straw Hats. Even the cast sort of treat this as more or less a joke, with Nami going "eh, they'll be fine" to the situation.
What Nami and her little lady squad ends up encountering, however, is Big Mom's sun buddy, Prometheus, who gets absolutely pissed off when she sees Nami, recognizing her as the woman who abducted Zeus. The big question, of course, is whether Zeus will elect to stay with Nami or return to Big Mom, and that's certainly interesting.
The final part of the chapter is a two-page that sets up what I assume is going to be the next chapter's fight, with Page One and Ulti sort of dicking around as wacky childish siblings (well, it's mostly Ulti) before they crash-land in front of Luffy and Ulti and Luffy basically get ready to fight. Again, I'm not sure whether this is going to be a quickly one-and-done fight like Luffy-vs-Apoo in 981, or if it's going to be a gag that doesn't get followed up on, or if we're going to get the Blueno-equivalent fight of the arc. Either way, though, I am actually looking forward to Luffy (and his buddies?) fighting Ulti and Page One, even if I kind of think that it won't be much of a fight? Previous chapters did establish that power levels notwithstanding, it's not smart for Luffy to have a drawn-out fight with a commander like this in perhaps a similar way that the whole Marineford situation was for him.
Anyway, I dunno. I don't dislike either of these chapters, but I definitely do think that they could've been paced better. Marco's arrival was great, the potential Luffy-vs-Ulti is great, and I do like the bit with Kanjurou, Kaidou and Orochi even if that scene does admittedly go a bit too long... but there are definitely parts of this like Apoo basically fizzling off into nothing and the whole Big Mom situation. We'll see if any of these get a bit better as we move down the arc, but for now... eh?
Random Notes:
- The cover page just features the Bege family running away from marines. Sure.
- Again, there's a lot of random Gifters that look neat, particularly in 981. There's a mantis dude with actual metal scythes for arms, some dude who has cat's paws for ears, a dude whose lower body is stuck to a tortoise...
- "Haccha" is a pun on "hachi" (eight) so I'm going to assume all the numbers will have similar naming schemes.
- From one of the random goons talking in the background, apparently Orochi offered Killer the SMILE fruit because it was the only chance to save his captain. Aww, Killer.
- Who's Who's crew is neat, there's like a giant cat, a little red riding hood, a pair of sexy catgirls, a weird giant-man, and a cool ghost-esque dude with one of those ofuda stuck on his face.
- In 981, we get a weird scene of Big Mom being confused about a 'port' or something or other, but I'm not sure if this has anything to do with her amnesia or if it's just a throwaway line.
- Black Maria doens't really care about the hunt, and prefers to hang out around Kaidou. Okay, then.
- I really like the background imagined image of Luffy, Zoro, Kid and Killer with cartoonish evil grins when Fukurokuju reports to Orochi.
- Nekomamushi's ship has got a little Zunisha as its mast. I like it.
No comments:
Post a Comment