One Piece, Chapter 1049: The World You Wish For
Well, so much for my know-it-all "oh, the fight's gonna end at 1050, hurr hurr" in my review for 1048, huh? Though I guess it could still end at 1050, maybe there's something more to it? I doubt it, though. This chapter has the conclusion to Luffy vs. Kaido, and... sure, we don't have the Wano scorecard or whatever, but I'm going to assume that it's going to show up in 1050 after Luffy and Kaido exchange some words?
But man, what a chapter, right? I just finished watching episode 1015, the one with the legendary animation and Red Roc, and then this chapter drops, and... and I'm sorry, I'm just being a bit of a giddy One Piece fanboy right now.
We get Luffy's Bajrang Gun clashing with Kaido's giant Susano'o dragon form in the air, and then Kaido talks about how Luffy will "never be able to change the world"... and we get a Kaido flashback! A Kaido flashback! That's the flashback we're all waiting for! We get to see an interesting backstory that kind of reminds me of other characters in One Piece before. Rob Lucci, Big Mom, Whitebeard, even Douglas Bullet from Stampede... but Kaido's a young child solder that is already a menace at 10 years old, used by the king of his kingdom to go around beating up and raiding people in order to gain celestial tribute.
And even young Kaido questions this -- he's clearly stronger than the Celestial Dragons, so why does the Kingdom of Vodka listen to the Celestial Dragons? It's something that fits well with Kaido's might-makes-right personality, since he hates having to view people weaker than him as... as his superiors, basically.
He also gets sold off for navy enlistment by the King of Vodka, and it's kind of interesting that the marines guarantee the kingdom of Vodka a seat on the next Reverie, while Kaido is just utterly pissed off at being used as a bargaining chip. He's clearly a lot less happy to be a 'government dog', and ends up escaping and making a mockery out of the Marines, getting caught on purpose just to gorge on prison food. I guess that's the explanation for how Kaido keeps getting captured by the Marines? It all happens in his youth when he is looking for food?
Also, I guess Kaido being sold off as a kid and used as a weapon is why he sees a kindred spirit in King? And him questioning the morals and views of the adults of his kingdom is why he was initially disgusted with Momonosuke when Oden Castle burned down? There's a lot of story to unpack here, if we sift through it, even if the flashback is kind of disjointed.
We then cut to Kaido on the Pirate Island Hachinosu, and we get to see a bunch of scenes -- of Whitebeard asking Kaido if he wants to be a pirate and introducing him to Rocks. Of someone telling Kaido how they're going to God Valley... and, of course, we skip over all of God Valley straight to the world reacting to how the Rocks Pirates have fallen.
Interestingly, we then cut over to a couple more years later. We get to see King and what I think to be a younger Queen with Kaido. And we get to see Kurozumi Senimaru -- the old lady -- approach Kaido and talk to him about the 'Embodiment of Brutality', about how survival of the fittest is the true nature of humanity. Kaido agrees with Senimaru about the whole survival-of-the-fittest mantra, and they figure out a plan to gain the most weaponry in the world, which leads to Wano being turned into a massive weapons factory. It's... it's interesting? I still kind of wonder where Senimaru came from. If she's part of Rocks, if Kaido knew her from somewhere, if she escaped Wano specifically to seek Wano out... this doesn't seem to be Wano, after all. So yeah, Orochi is just a peon in the grand scheme of things, huh?
We then cut to a scene of Kaido talking to a bunch of his pirates about how he's going to show the world the hellish reality of war, and how "one's worth can only be gauged in battle" and Kaido kind of wants to create a world where anarchy reigns supreme, meaning everyone is equal. So Kaido really hates the World Government and wants to tear it down and replace it with a system of... of might-makes-right. So it explains why his crew is so based on meritocracy, I guess? How the Lead Performers and Tobi Roppo could go over each other's heads if they could prove themselves in battle?
We also get to a scene where Kaido and King discuss about how Yamato has learned about Joy Boy, and we get a cool discussion that overshadows the clash in the present day -- where Kaido says that Joy Boy is going to be the person that can beat him, and that it could be the 'person that [King] is waiting for'. Oblique, but it doesn't matter now since I assume we'll be having the explanation for this later.
We then cut to a hilarious short scene of the CP-0 agent with the line-eyes and the Urahara hat just Geppo-ing it the hell out of Onigashima. Which is kind of hilarious, but then, well, it does mean that the World Government will know all about Luffy's awakening, huh?
We then get a montage of the rest of the cast. Yamato and Momonosuke are still screaming. The people in the Flower Capital are still sending the lanterns up. We check in with everyone as the floods from Raizou and Jinbe's little trick a couple chapters ago start washing everyone... and it looks pretty fucking dangerous because some of the water is actually flushing out of the castle. I think some people totally got washed overboard there. We check in with basically everyone -- poor Brook and Robin are knocked out because they are Devil Fruit users! No! Apoo and that one last Number is also washed away, somehow they're still around. But I think it's just a way to gather everyone that matters in the Festival Hall. We also get a brief scene of Hiyori and Denjirou crying near Orochi's decapitated head... yeah.
The flame clouds, meanwhile, disappear, though. Onigashima drops out of the sky, while Kaido asks Luffy what kind of world he wishes to make. At that moment, Momonosuke manages to... make the flame clouds appear and surround the island? And at that point, Luffy's Bajrang Gun tears straight through Kaido's Kaen Daiko form, slams down on the true dragon body within, while Luffy roars about how he's going to make a world where his friends can eat as much as they like.
And as Luffy screams, we get this absolutely fantastic two-page spread of Luffy bashing the shit out of Kaido's dragon form and he flies down to the ground and it's a marvelous, cathartic panel.
As Kaido falls, he flashes back to his flashback conversation with King, about how "Joy Boy is the man that'll defeat me one day!" and King going "if that's true, he'll never appear". Kaido falls, all the wishes fly up to the sky, Onigashima lands safely, and Luffy and Momonosuke collapse.
Oh, there's also a big-ass giant hole that Kaido falls through, which I completely missed the first time I read through this chapter.
And... and that's the big punch, ladies and gentleman. That's the big punch that vanquishes the big bad scary enemy! And... okay, I genuinely thought 1049 was going to be a Momonosuke chapter -- focusing on him gathering the strength he needs to flame clouds the shit out of Onigashima. It's something that's been built up forever, and not going to lie, I am kind of disappointed that Momonosuke's big moment is kind of a side-note in the midst of all the Luffy/Kaido stuff. I kinda wished we had a bit more of screentime for the kid, y'know? At least that obligatory panel of him lifting Onigashima... which we didn't get, since he just kind of drags it away in the background while we focus more on Luffy and Kaido?
Of course the arc isn't done yet. We still have to deal with the ramifications of Luffy's Gear Fifth. Of whatever the hell's going on with corpse-Zoro. Apoo's still around, for what he's worth. We have to resolve whether certain characters are actually dead or not. But, overall? I just reread this batch of chapters starting from Gear Fifth. And... it's been fun, isn't it? I still don't think very highly of 1048, and there are parts of this chapter that does feel kind of weak, but... but that was one hell of a ride. I actually find it pretty cool that Luffy gave it his all, and didn't actually beat Kaido with his full retinue of powers -- he had to awaken Gear Fifth, which arguably kind of only happened because he maybe 'died' in the first place. It's been... it's been such a wild ride. I'm still riding the hype of it... I still do think the highest point in Wano is Roof Piece and the readers first experiencing the revelation of Gear Fifth... but as far as conclusions go, this one is pretty fun.
It's not the best, mind you. I'd rather have a longer Kaido flashback, obviously, and I really would've expected 1049 to focus on Momonosuke and/or Kaido and 1050 on the massive takedown? It feels kinda weird where 1048 felt like around 30% of a chapter stretched out to three times what it's really worth, whereas 1049 felt like two to three chapters squeezed together. It could be better, but... it could be worse? I'll withhold judgement until what 1050 gives us, but I think I'm pretty happy overall with this chapter.
Random Notes:
- Niji and Yonji get freed because the dissection lab got set on fire. It's... it sure is a development. We still don't see Ichiji and Reiju, so it's really kind of hinting that someone else is involved, but all this evasiveness is going to make it really anticlimactic if it does turn out to be them.
- Oh. Kingdom of Vodka. Kaido's a drunk. I get it.
- I thought Franky yelling was at Zoro being washed away, but nope, he's still slung over Franky's giant shoulders. Totally alive. Right? Right?
- I've seen some people being disappointed that Luffy ends Kaido with a giant punch... but come on, give credit where credit's due. It's an epic giant punch.
- ...to be fair, and, to be absolutely fair... we are still one Wisdom King missing from Kaido's repertoire of attacks. That does maybe lend credence to Kaido not being down and out yet for this arc, but personally? I felt like this is it as far as the 'big clash' goes. I wouldn't be disappointed, though, and would totally be excited if we get even more fighting and Kaido flashbacks after this!
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