One Piece, Chapter 1022: The Stars Take The Stage
A bit of a shorter review. I debated doing a two-chapter review, but then I decided I had some free time and wanted to do this one. This is... an interesting chapter? We start off with a bit of a recap, and basically the secondary members of the Straw Hats are pretty much victorious. I think there are many parts of the fandom who think that the Tobi Roppo are going to get up and continue fighting, but I really don't think so. We have way too many characters and this arc has been going on for quite a while. And while I do think that characters like Who's Who might have some more story left in them, I think this chapter really emphasizes that, no, their big moment was the fights they had against the likes of Franky, Robin, Brook and Jinbe. That's neat.
We also get a bit of a re-affirmation that Luffy is just eating and ballooning up on the ground while Caribou and the rest of the Hearts Pirates are watching... although we don't really get anything on the Momonosuke front. We do have a timer for when Onigashima is going to be dropped on top of the flower capital -- fifteen minutes -- but honestly, the time's really not going to matter, is it? This is a shonen manga.
Interestingly, this chapter basically goes through fights that are a lot less prominent. One of which is something that I genuinely thought was going to be off-screened and left for the anime. It's Raizou fighting against Fukurokuju, and their fight isn't the most impressive thing ever. Raizou just uses his clone jutsu while Fukurokuju is using his ninja art to... manipulate his extended earlobes? There's a neat little discussion here, where Fukurokuju is just someone loyal to the position of Shogun, whoever it is, and he mocks Raizou for essentially following a ghost. There's an actual neat argument of their convictions going on here, with Fukurokuju admonishing Raizou for being too emotional to be a real ninja, demonstrating it by insulting Oden and causing Raizou to reveal himself among his clones. And while we don't get anything too much out of Raizou in the manga (he's probably one of the least-developed Akazaya samurai?) his backstory is of a disgraced ninja. 
Raizou gives a pretty cool speech about how the Red Scabbards themselves are also ghosts because who they are died alongside Oden, and all they are fighting for is to put Momonosuke back on the throne. Interestingly, the manga cuts to show the other Scabbards -- including Denjiro, who has been MIA since the Orochi scene... he's running somewhere? It also shows the fallen bodies of Kin'emon, Kiku and Ashura Doji... and I don't know. I really want this arc to have some consequences, so I do want to see these characters die, but... again, One Piece. There is a bit of a dilemma here where the manga can't realistically show deaths that are too gruesome, but the sheer amount of characters that had gotten back up again after being shown bloody on the ground and seemingly dead is way too much.
We the cut off to another fight that's a bit more minor in the grand scheme of things, Hawkins versus Killer. Still really like Hawkins's new straw-man technique with the octopus-like legs, and apparently this battle between Supernovas have been going on for some time, with multiple dead voodoo straw dolls strewn all over the place. Hawkins admits that he's more or less outmatched in combat against Killer... but then quickly reveals and gloats that one of the last voodoo-lives he has within him is actually connected to Kid.
To emphasize this, we even cut away to Kid and Law fighting Big Mom, where Kid keels over when the cut Killer did to Hawkins appears on his body. It's... it's an interesting bit that has always been something hanging over our heads with Hawkins. I really didn't expect him to be someone who fights Killer of all people, but he's always been one of my favourite Supernovas and it's neat to see him show off more of his abilities. Hawkins's characterization has admittedly been a bit all over the place throughout the Wano arc, but I guess he's fully invested in believing that the cards tell him to follow Kaidou no matter what?
Also, the fact that this is Kid, who has a prosthetic arm, means that there's already a pretty obvious point that Killer can attack and do lots of grievous harm to Hawkins without hurting his captain.
The final segment of the chapter is a pretty cool partial two-page shot of King and Queen looming over the allied Gifters, with probably the most menacing that hybrid Queen has ever been. They're burning some of the recurring background Gifters, including this one butterfly woman that was part of the team that blew up the Sunny. Even Marco and Sanji have apparently been finally taken down by King and Queen, and Zoro still hasn't recovered from the deus ex medicine.
Sanji tries his best to hold back Queen, not aware that he's being sniped by Perospero and his candy arrows. Perospero apparently blames Sanji for causing all of this mess that dominoed from the events of Whole Cake Island... and, of course, as foreshadowed before, Nekomamushi shows up and knocks Perospero halfway across the room. Honestly, Perospero is a bit of a tank, isn't he? The sheer amount of damage he's accumulated over this arc, I'm surprised he's still even standing at all.
Meanwhile, King is hutning down the bandaged-up Zoro and actually almost has him dead to rights... until Marco stands up and uses a giant fiery shield called Undying Thistle to block King's fire punch. Marco also finally puts to rest all the theories about King's race, identifying him as a member of a flame-controlling race that lived on top of the Red Line.
King and Queen get ready to attack Marco, but then he gives a pretty cool speech about how he gives up, and how he's going to take a rest and leave it up to the next generation... and then we cut to Zoro's bandages exploding apart, and we get a dual combo attack between Zoro and Sanji -- a Purgatory Onigiri and a Diable Mouton Shot. They also give a pretty badass boast, acknowledging that if they win this, Luffy's basically one step into being the King of Pirates. Pretty cool, and definitely a very hype final panel.
Also, I think the implication is -- and it's a bit hard to tell with the art -- it's Marco's flames that truly rejuvenated Zoro? I am not a huge fan of the surprise magic Mink super-steroid injection as the thing that cures Zoro. Having Marco be the one to do it feels so much less of an ass-pull to me. Anyway, a pretty cool chapter.
Anyway, the arc has been keeping the fandom kind of second-guessing as to who Sanji, in particular, is going to fight in this arc. And I'm thinking that the next chapter is going to deal with Zoro and Sanji against King and Queen, before we wrap Wano up with the climax with Kaidou? And... I don't know. It seems a bit too clean, so to speak? At this point in the story I don't really buy the whole 'the raid ends in failure' part of the community, but I do wonder if this arc is going to truly explore Luffy dealing with more of his allies dying? Anyway, fun chapter.
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