One Piece 1027 Review: Dragon Wars

One Piece, Chapter 1027: An Unbelievable Disaster

Feeling a little burnt out in general, so I think I'll be taking things a bit slowly over the next couple of months. I still have some articles I have scheduled to pop up, and I think I'll still be doing the One Piece manga and some Kamen Rider stuff, but I think I want to sit down and just... enjoy some TV shows and video games without having to review them. I just figured that I'll tack this on here instead of making a whole new post of its own. I'll probably come back with some 'entire season' reviews of some shows I'm planning to watch.

Not sure about reviewing monsters -- none of the games I'm currently playing (am replaying Mass Effect 2 and experiencing Deus Ex for the first time) really has a particularly fun bestiary to talk about. 

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Anyway, this chapter picks up after the previous one, and it feels very much a set-up. It's kind of needed in-between larger hype chapters, of course. We check in a bit with the Minks, a little bit with the Luffy/Kaidou fight, and a bunch of other random places in Onigashima, but I really don't think there's a huge focus anywhere in this chapter. 

Turns out that Yamato's nowhere as closely matched with Kaido as the manga sets her up to be -- she's starting to feel the after-effects of Kaido's repeated Thunder Bagua attacks. I know that the power-scaling members of the fanbase is getting so much material to discuss with the whole Luffy/Kaido/Yamato trifecta, but I think the previous chapters have been pretty clear how Kaido still overpowers Yamato in terms of strength and skill.  

I do really like that Momonosuke still retains his child-like mind, and that the writer is really conscious how unrealistic it would be if Momonosuke suddenly became super-duper-badass like the adults after a literal magical shortcut. After all, it's just his body that got a growth spurt, not his mind. To really emphasize on the Luffy/Kaido 1-v-1, Yamato decides to protect Momonosuke while he goes off to hold Onigashima. Chunks of the chapter kind of function as Yamato acting as a tutorial for a dragon's flame-cloud walking ability. 

Yamato and Momonosuke observe that the floating Onigashima is beginning to crumble, noting that Kaido's powers and focus are weakening. And considering that not only has he fought non-stop throughout the battle (against the Scabbards, then against the five supernovas, then against Luffy, then against Yamato, then against Luffy/Yamato/Dragon-Momo) in addition to keeping the island up? I guess Kaido's stamina and durability are starting to slowly weaken. There's a neat discussion on the multiple different worst-case scenarios -- Yamato points out that if Kaido gets knocked out, Onigashima will plummet down onto the capital. And either way, Onigashima has enough gunpowder and explosives inside of it to cause one hell of an explosion even if the whole 'giant meteor' thing isn't enough. Of course, it's all just a bunch of set-up for Momonosuke's 'hour of legends', which the previous chapter has been pretty transparent about, but the elaboration is pretty neat. 

The rest of the chapter shows the King/Zoro fight, and I guess we're not going to get the tag-team as the previous chapter has kind of set up. We get to see King's hybrid form with his arms remaining as giant blade-like wings. Kind of reminds me of Rodan! Franky gets a bit of a brief cameo, but Zoro, of course, brushes off any help. King's just unleashing these giant air-blades all over the location, while Zoro manages to crack King's mask -- something that causes King to be furious. I admittedly don't particularly care all that much about the whole Lunarian thing, but I do like how it's slowly being teased and built up over King's numerous appearances.

They clash for a bit and we get a couple of named attacks, but ultimately the two of them end up outside of the giant dome -- King's mask is cracked enough to show some of his hair and forehead, while Zoro complains about nearly falling to his death, and how that kind of a 'stunt' is unforgivable. Pretty neat stuff, although I really do wish that we get a bit more out of King as a character in the next chapter. He's so much of a cipher, I really want to know what he's all about.