One Piece 1047 Review: Countdown to the Finale!

One Piece, Chapter 1047: The Sky Over the Capital

We have been spoiled over the past couple of chapters, huh? And this one reverts a bit back to a setup chapter, which... is kind of unfortunate since it's kind of stuck between two break weeks. It's all right, though -- as you guys could see, I'm enjoying the Wano anime immensely, and we're about to hit Roof Piece soon in this week's episode, apparently! I'm so excited!

So this chapter begins with Momonosuke focus and... and we've been going back and forth to Momonosuke for quite some time ever since he became a dragon. And... and I think in the next couple of chapters we'll have a proper payoff to all of this? We get to see a flashback to the past where even before jumping through time, Momonosuke was bawling his eyes out because 'he's a child', while Kin'emon is in tears begging Momonosuke for a chance to 'die as samurai'. Again, I'm pretty sure all these themes aboutj 'dying as a samurai' or 'living to struggle another day' that has been brought up by the Scabbards, Kaido,  Usopp and Yamato will all come to a head in the next couple of chapters. 

The actual Luffy-vs-Kaido fight this time around honestly kind of feels more of the same, although to be fair nothing's ever going to top the insanity of chapters 1045 and 1046. The main thing here, of course, is Luffy just casually being able to rubberify even lightning itself, grabbing one and chucking it at Kaido like he's goddamn Zeus. He also vaults around a lightning bolt like it's a pillar at one point when Kaido whacks him around. 

There's an interesting bit of dialogue where Kaido confirms that Gol D. Roger doesn't have a Devil Fruit and yet somehow manages to conquer the ocean, and Kaido claims that Haki is everything -- which I suppose is true since Wano has been an arc all about Haki -- Ryuo and Conqueror Haki infusion and all that. I guess there's a contrast to how Luffy fought Kaido in his base form earlier in 'Roof Piece', doing Haki infusion without transforming? While now he's transformed into Gear Fifth but isn't actively infusing Haki or something?

I also really like that Kaido isn't just... immediately overwhelmed. There's still a goddamn fight even with Gear Fifth. Kaido still manages to speed-rush Luffy and bash his head in while shit-talking him. He unleashes an attack called "Destroyer of Death Thunder Bagua" -- another attack named after a Buddhist deity, this time specifically Daiitoku/Yamantaka. Luffy gets whacked around and there's a fun panel where he rubberifies Kaido's chest and tries to drag him along with him as he gets thrown into the skies. Kaido unleashes some Demolition Gust attacks and highlights that Luffy is still vulnerable to slashing attacks -- and we actually get to see him bleed. So yeah, there are still ways to hurt even the Sun God, then. Again, I really like this. As cathartic it is to see some shonen anime protagonists basically be invincible, that's just... just kinda boring when you know the hero can just effortlessly curbstomp the enemy, y'know?

Just like the Momonosuke bit earlier, we actually get another shot of the people in the Flower Capital. It's... it's something that we've seen time and time again throughout the arc, a constant reminder that, hey, these people are celebrating in their once-a-year festival and they have no idea that there's a literal war in a floating island above their heads. We get to see them finally letting the candle-balloons into the sky as they celebrate the dead. I did really think that we do cut to these people in the capital a bit too much over the arc, but it is important to highlight this, since it's finally building up to the entire citizenship of Wano finally, finally witnessing Luffy and Momonosuke fight Kaido in the skies. 

Likewise, we get a short scene of Hyogoro and the other samurai reaffirming how they are 'ready to die' and all that. Again, not super crucial, just a bit more buildup. I really do like that there's the themes of sacrifice and death consistently throughout this arc, something that I felt was kind of lacking during the Dressrosa arc's equivalent to this where everyone's just yelling at Luffy to save them without too much of a unifying theme.

And then Orochi... gets his nail knocked off loose, and he's looming over Hiyori. Not going to lie, I am kinda pissed off against this, but I guess that's just because I was really invested in Hiyori killing Orochi? But that is a cool panel of him transforming into serpent Orochi wreathed in fire (and notably he only has one visible head now) and Denjirou has been MIA for literally the entire year, so it's kinda telegraphed that this is going to be his big moment. Oh well.

The chapter ends with seemingly what's telegraphed to be The (tm) Final Blow, with Luffy creating a gigantic fist similar to that King King King Kong Gun from the Stampede movie, a giant fist that oversizes even Onigashima itself, and yelling at Momonosuke to move the island. With everything essentially set up for all the final parts of the arc to finally move, we're fully into the endgame -- I'm going to assume the writer is shooting for a 1050 ending? Pretty cool stuff, I'm eagerly awaiting Wano's conclusion for sure. 

Random Notes:

• Yeah, that fucker Kanjurou's among the crying Scabbards next to Kin'emon. Fuck him!
• Luffy lobbing lightning at Kaido is called "Gomu Gomu Lightning", which... yeah, he has trouble coming up with new attack names apparently last chapter, so I suppose he's just keeping it simple. I guess even Luffy has to do some research to look for an appropriate obscure firearm. 
• Speaking of attack names, I did some research into the "Wisdom Kings" or Myo'o deities. There's a subset among them called the 'Five Guardian Kings', and so far Kaido's used attacks named after four of them -- Kosanze Ragnaraku (after Gozanze); Gundari Ryuseigun (after Gundali); Kongo Kabura (after Kongoyasha) and this Daiitoku Raimei Hakke (after Daiitoku). 
• The fifth missing one is Fudo Myoo, or Acalanātha, who represents the center while the other fourth represents the four cardinal directions. So I guess whatever Kaido's final attack is going to be is going to be named after him. 
• Once I get caught up with the One Piece anime, it'll be kind of free-for-all on what I watch. I'm either going to catch up on My Hero Academia, do one of the superhero TV shows, or maybe do a single-season watch-through of... either Demon Slayer or Jujutsu Kaisen. Both shows that had received great animes, but also ones I'm more familiar with from the manga. It really depends on my mood.