One Piece 1021 Review: Demon Child

One Piece, Chapter 1021: Demonio

I rarely do single chapters of One Piece anymore, but... you know what? When I release chapters 1019 to 1020 on the very same day that 1021 came out, I almost rushed into making it a three-chapter review. And then I decided that this one had enough stuff that I talk about that it can stand on its own as a singular review. So yeah, have a rogue solo One Piece review! 

Even the cover page was pretty cool this time around, with a 'what-if' scenario of what basically every one of us wanted to happen in the Dresrossa arc -- Franky and Senor Pink actually sharing a drink and sobbing over Senor Pink's absolutely fucking depressing backstory. Remember that? That's one of the best random one-off fights against a mook in One Piece, ever. That's what I felt was missing from the Sasaki vs. Franky fight! No, not every sub-goon needed a tragic backstory like Senor Pink got, but something like that to make us care about the bad guy, or some sort of thematic, emotional push to the fight... it's really bizarre how Robin had her whole 'you're not needed by your crew' verbal abuse from Black Maria; Jinbe had the whole casual fishman racism from Who's Who; Nami had her huge 'Luffy is going to be the pirate king' in the face of death against Ulti... None of the other Tobiroppo fights are realistically all that important in the grand scheme of things, but they had some substance to them. Hell, even Usopp and Brook got pretty cool moments, and they were essentially playing second fiddle to the women of the crew! The Sasaki fight is just... Franky beats the enemy. It's something that I would expect to see in a filler arc movie. He doesn't even get a new named technique, unlike practically everyone else!

Ahem. Anyway, on with the actual chapter! Robin's new Gigante Fleur form is pretty cool, just a giant naked facsimile of herself standing behind her like a giant JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Stand, and she just sprouts a fuck-ton of tentacle-like hands from all over the ground. Unfortunately, just like a JoJo Stand, if the Stand gets hurt, so does the wielder. Wanyudo is out of the battle but it's cool to see that Black Maria is just ever-so-casually using the giant... spear? What do you call a stick with a buzzsaw attached at the end of it? Anyway, Black Maria just uses that weapon to slash Robin's "Sea Serpent Snapdragon" attack.

And then Black Maria just keeps pulling more and more powers out of her ass! I know the Rosamygale is an extinct genus of spider so we really don't know too much about it. But in addition to standard spiderweb generation, apparently it's got illusion powers, and, as this episode shows, the ability to secrete venom out of her feet. Black Maria uses her "Marianette" webs to hold the Gigante Robin in place, before putting on her knuckle-dusters and proceeding to beat the fuck out of Robin. 

Robin dismisses Gigante Fleur, but then Black Maria just gives us a whole ton of attack names that are puns on 'maria'. It's sort of like how Doflamingo's attacks are all pun on 'ito' (string), and... and I don't envy the translation team's job of trying to find puns that fit. Oh, speaking of which, Black Maria's spider can breathe fire. Spiders can't do that, I don't think! Though two chapters ago I saw a Triceratops use its frill as a helicopter, so why am I questioning the biological viability of these shonen manga attacks? 

I really do love how Brook just watches Black Maria absolutely trash-talk Robin and just muses that 'ah, you really fucked up, lady'. Black Maria's just so much of a heel, just trash-talking Robin as a 'demon child' and a 'dead weight', essentially trying to hammer home that the Straw Hats only want Robin for her brain, and other than that she's utterly worthless. It's kind of self-contradictory, of course, since Robin's brain is also why Kaidou's crew wants to capture her in the first place, but we, the audience (and both Robin and Brook) knew what happened in Enies Lobby. We know the lengths that the Straw Hats would go to rescue one of their own, and that the Straw Hats want Robin to be among them because she is Robin, and not because she's the last survivor of Ohara or whatever. It's not spelled out quite as explicitly, but I really, really love that. Even after we reach the one-thousand chapter mark, I really would still call Water Seven and Enies Lobby the peak of my One Piece reading experience, and I am just so happy to see that get challenged by a villain. 

And then we get a surprise flashback! Apparently, Robin trained a bit with Koala and Sabo while she was among the Revolutionaries, and it's always so funny to see these Revolutionaries essentially idolize Robin as a big sister figure. Koala apparently teaches Robin how to do palm strikes (which the writer reminds us she used in the first post-timeskip arc), and there's an off-handed remark by Sabo offering to teach Robin the Dragon Claw Fist! The flashback also shows that Koala teaches Robin a Fishman Karate technique! And it's pretty cool. Robin does this giant palm strike to the ceiling with Fishman Karate shockwaves called Giganteum, which causes the ceiling to collapse. 

That's not the thing that defeats Black Maria, though! Interestingly, I don't think that this form has anything to do with the Koala and Sabo training, since I'm pretty sure this has nothing to do with Fishman Karate or even the Dragon Claw Fist... unless this 'Demonio' form is actually full-body (or, well, full-giant-body) Armament Haki? Would it really be surprising for Robin to know some Armament Haki? I'm not sure if this specific form is just shaded weird for effect, or if it's Haki. Another thing the anime will have to make clear for us, I suppose. 

But it doesn't take away from the fact that Robin sprouts another giant version of herself... mutated into a demon! It's basically Devilman Lady! I absolutely love the lines being spoken here. Robin, who had loathed her title of 'Demon Child' for so long, who had been loathed by the world for so long, finally decides to embrace it. "I can be a demon if I have to, for the people who are counting on me." She willingly embraces that side of her to sprout this utterly badass looking form, and then grabs the giant spider-giant-lady and does a motherfucking wrestling move on her with her demon Susano'o form. 

Considering that it's been since fucking Hammond in Fishman Island that we've really seen Robin be in a fight -- and neither Hammond nor Yama really count as real opponents, do they? -- it's so cathartic to see Robin take down a member of the Tobiroppo like this. 

The next two pages is Brook taking down the rest of Black Maria's entourage with a new move of his own (even Brook gets a new move and he's not taking down anyone important!) with Phrase d'Armes: Orchestra. He makes a huge treble clef, that's cool. This whole scene cuts away to Robin being tired... but also an ominous shot of a Mary looking at them. The Wano arc has been very, very economical with panels, so I'm pretty sure this will be important. Is this where other members of Kaidou's crew or CP-0 swoop in and try to get Robin? I really hope we don't get a 'crewmate gets kidnapped' arc so soon again after Whole Cake, but maybe it'll be another complication going on during the Onigashima raid. 

The final two pages kind of broke the fandom, too, although to be honest I personally am still more excited about the Demonio thing. Luffy is eating a crap-ton of food that Caribou just happens to be storing in his swamp. Sure thing, I guess. I really am not sure why or what Caribou is doing and why he has so much food? It's not even the meat pies from his cover story that everyone was thinking, it's a literal feast he just happened to stole from somewhere. Caribou is such a weird character... he's sort of filling the same role as Caesar Clown as a heinous previous antagonist, but Caribou is nowhere as important to the plot nor as useful as Caesar was in the two arcs that he guest-starred in. 

And then Momonosuke basically demands that Shinobu help him grow into an adult so he can fly Luffy up to Onigashima. And the fact that Shinobu actually acknowledges that she can do this means that she has done it before -- but it'll be irreversible, and Momo would have the mind of a child even though he's in an adult body -- an actually pretty terrifying thing when you think about it. Granted, Momonosuke is a lot more mature than 99.9% of children his age out there, but on the other hand, a good chunk of his story arc throughout Wano seems to be Momo trying to reconcile the idea that he's the heir of a great man... but he's also not that man. I have a feeling that there's going to be a running theme that Momonosuke and Yamato realize that they can carry Oden's will without being Oden; just as I'm going to be sure that Luffy will get the whole 'you are the destined Joyboy' only for him to spit in prophecy. But the thing is... I'm not sure if this would actually translate to Momonosuke being transformed into an adult or not, and whether it'll be treated as a good thing or not. I'm not like, on the edge of my seat because of this or anything, but I will admit to being very, very curious!

Anyway, a very good chapter! What next? Are we going to follow up on the Kaidou-vs-Yamato fight? I think all the Tobiroppo that are fighting Straw Hat members are done with, right? The only ones left standing is X-Drake, and he's on the good guys' side fighting Apoo. Are we going to focus on Sanji versus Queen next, then, which is the only 'outstanding' Straw Hat crew fight? Or maybe we'll cut to the Scabbards? Jack-vs-Inuarashi, Perospero-vs-Nekomamushi, Raizou-vs-Fukurokuju? Are we going from 'all the Straw Hats win' to 'oh shit, all the Scabbards are losing'? There's also Drake-vs-Apoo, Law/Kid-vs-Big-Mom, and Killer-vs-Hawkins. We still don't know what Kyoshiro and Izo are doing, I don't think? So many moving pieces, and I wonder which one we're going to focus on next!