One Piece 1000 Review: It's Over One Thousand

One Piece, Chapter 1000: Straw Hat Luffy

This was supposed to go up a bit earlier, but I procrastinated. It's... it's kind of an interesting one, in that it's the big chapter 1000 that we've been building up to. Now knowing the pacing of the arc, I know that we really wouldn't get anything particularly huge. Nothing about Big Mom and Kaidou is going to be resolved, and, if nothing else, all we're going to have is the beginning of said battle -- which we got. Everyone else online was speculating about how we're going to get something huge about the Will of D, or some outrageous revelations regarding Imu or the Reverie or Ace or Kaidou or Yamato or Blackbeard or something... none of which, of course, happened. Or a new power reveal, which... honestly, has never been that hype to me. And even more think that the huge Chapter One Thousand (tm) is going to feature the 'downer ending' of the third act of a kabuki play with the Scabbards dead -- something that I never believed would ever happen, because, well, it's One Piece and Shonen Jump. Plus, simple marketing -- most people here are adults reading this comic, but how terrible would the blowback be if the headlines ended up reading "One Piece disappoints fans and makes children cry by killing off nine characters on a momentous chapter"?

Anyway, that is to say that while I did expect something amazing, my expectation really was only about the big set-up of a Kaidou/Big Mom/Luffy fight, and I didn't really expect much other than that. And that's more or less what we get. It's not exactly disappointing, but at the same time... I would like to be surprised and see the manga actually do something to surprise everyone. 

It's a pretty nice moment where we basically celebrate Luffy as a main protagonist, and... and that's more or less the case. Even the brief scene between Luffy and Shisilian does highlight what's important about Luffy -- he might not remember the names of every single person on his journey and he's an airhead, but he remembers their sacrifices and will fight for them. 

And it's basically a gathering of Supernovas and stuff. Marco chokes Queen and King with his phoenix fire limbs, and then lobs Zoro into the rooftop. We get a brief talk between Momo and Yamato about the journal of Kozuki Oden and basically is an excuse for Yamato's monologue to be a bit of a background speech for the chapter. We get a brief flashback of Ace and Yamato talking about Luffy's dream back when they first met each other and got drunk together. And there's always this conspiracy theory how Luffy's 'dream' is something that's going to be different, but honestly? It has and always been "I wanna be Pirate King" (which is reaffirmed here), or, failing that, "a free pirate" or something along those lines.

Ace's flashback moment is pretty nice, though, with him defending Luffy's dream and saying that he and Sabo are the only ones allowed to laugh at it, while they secretly believe that Luffy can make it happen. Yamato also notes that it's the same thing that Gold Roger said, although I did like the subtle nice moment where Yamato only says that it's "a great man" that said the same words, and Ace goes all "ah, what a great man" without realizing that it's the father he hates so much. 

And as Yamato's monologue continues in the background about great men in the history and how Luffy's dream is the same as the Pirate King's, we get the buildup of most of the Supernovas there arriving to meet Big Mom and Kaidou. Law has arrived, Zoro has been launched up, Kid and Killer has arrived... it's pretty neat, showing the five of them against Kaidou and Big Mom, just as Yamato's monologue talks about how in the future (and now present) powerful pirates leading the next generation will strike down Kaidou. 

There is the pretty badass moment of Luffy just walking past Kaidou and Big Mom, surprising the two of them, and completely ignoring Kaidou's angry "hey, boy, say what you said again" line to talk to Kin'emon and do his whole your-fight-is-my-fight spiel. And... it's a pretty Luffy thing to do, you can imagine him doing this to any antagonist in the series... but as expected as it is, Kin'emon crying about how he has nothing to show Lord Oden in the afterlife but his shame is pretty well-drawn. We get a pretty two-page spread of Luffy going Gear Third and getting flashbacks of scenes leading up to the Wano arc. 

And then Luffy just punches Kaidou right in his face with a "Red Roc" (to those uninitiated, rocs are giant legendary birds, so a bigger 'red hawk') and bashes Kaidou's face to the ground, and announces how he's going to surpass everyone to be the king of the pirates. 

And... again, I don't really think it's a power-scaling thing since Kaidou has been beaten to the ground multiple times. Luffy did it to Kaidou's dragon form once, and the Scabbards seemed to really fuck him up in one of the chapters leading up to this earlier... but it's still a pretty badass Luffy moment. Perhaps not the most badass one, but still, even if it's not something that lives up to everyone's expectations about the Big Chapter One Thousand (tm) it's still a pretty dang solid chapter. Next up... show me the battles!