One Piece 1062 Review: Six Paths of (Vega)Punk

One Piece, Chapter 1062: Adventure in the Land of Science

So, yeah, after the huge bombshell of Dr. Vegapunk being revealed last chapter, we quickly clear out through this chapter and reveal that this is a Naruto-Pain situation. I mean, it's not the only time that this trope has been used, of course, but the fact that there are six clones and a seventh 'true' body does cause a lot of people to raise comparisons with One Piece's fellow Shonen Jump cousin. But that sure was a pretty neat little plot twist, huh?

The sexy lady Vegapunk we see last chapter is number 2, or Vegapunk-Lilith. Robin actually did what most of the fandom does and talks about how the information she's heard about Vegapunk was that of an old man. It would have been a pretty cool twist for this to be the 'main' Vegapunk, I suppose, but the twist of what we got here is pretty neat too! Franky and Usopp fanboy over the giant robots, and Sanji drools over the hot chick. But Vegapunk -- or rather, Lilith -- talks about how she's not the 'main' or 'Stella' body, and demands the pirates relinquish their valuables. She summons an army of cyborg Sea Beasts around the giant robot holding the Sunny.

And then Lilith gets a call from Punk-01, Vegapunk-Shaka, who stands for the quality of 'logic'. Because all the Vegapunks have their own quality. Shaka berates Lilith for dropping her guard and thinking that she could single-handedly take on a Yonko crew, and... and I absolutely love that Shaka points out how Zoro basically already has his hand on his swords, and that Lilith is already in-range to be ended in an instant. Shaka also points out Nico Robin as someone who's ready to fight and can defeat Vegapunk. Which has to sting for poor Sanji... but he's way too happy in goofing off to really realize that, I wager. 

Speaking of revelations, we get the very casual reveal from Bonney that she is Bartholomew Kuma's daughter. Yep, after literal years of speculation whether she is Kuma's mother/sister/wife/daughter, we finally get the answer! There's a bit of darkly funny moment when Luffy hears "my dad's turned into a cyborg", and... you have to forgive the guy since the only cyborg he's really met is Franky, and Franky's totally fine with his super cyborg upgrades, so Luffy does the most insensitive thing and goes 'it's awesome!'

Speaking of awesome, Luffy and company arrives in this completely insane Tomorrow-Land location. Very wacky place with giant alien dragons, kaiju-sized robots, flying whales, bubble buildings and rockets... and as Luffy, Chopper and Bonney find out quickly, all the giant wacky things in the place are holograms. I do find it interesting that Bonney and Jinbe are a bit more well-learned about the world and at least have an idea of what a hologram is, while Luffy's straight-up offended at the fact that there is delicious fruit before him that he can't eat.

At this point, Punk-05 (or 06 depending on some translations) shows up, and she's a giant metal robot child drawn in the style that reminds me of something like Astro Boy. She is Punk Atlas, representing wrath, and immediately beats Luffy straight across the room when he tries to punch her. Atlas is very easily pissed off, being angry at how her inventions (like a any-food-maker, or the island aircon) is so hard to mass produce. She's able to actually punch the hologram alien-dragon, because she has a pair of Photonic Gloves that allows her to punch light.

...GEE I WONDER IF THE PHOTONIC GLOVES WILL BE AT ALL USEFUL IN THE FUTURE, IF THE STRAW HATS NEED AN ADDITIONAL EDGE TO FIGHT A MAN WHOSE LOGIA POWERS ALLOWS HIM TO LITERALLY TRANSFORM INTO LIGHT, WHAT A VERY SPECIFIC CIRCUMSTANCE THAT TOTALLY WON'T HAPPEN IN THE FUTURE EVER ahem kizaru ahem

And the scene closes with... unexpected characters! CP-0, in a World Government ship, going off to Egghead. They're there to eliminate Vegapunk, and Lucci is completely bamboozled at the whole 'multiple Vegapunks' thing. Kaku gives us a handy-dandy diagram about how the core Stella Vegapunk has split himself up into six satellite bodies. The other three we haven't seen are Edison (representing 'flair'), Pythagoras ('wisdom') and Yoke ('desire'). They also have a Seraphim Kuma that they have to return to Egghead, which Lucci calls a 'problem child', and they have to eliminate Vegapunk without damaging the island's assets. 

It is very interesting to note that Lucci is speculating on the reasons why the government wants Vegapunk -- a very useful asset -- eliminated, as if they needed to silence Vegapunk. Kaku and Stussy quickly hush Lucci down, and... I do wonder, really. It's something that bugged me ever since they showed up as CP-0, but Rob Lucci's whole deal is that through their cover story series, they swore to be independent and refused to come back with the Marines, but then after the time-skip they're back to being World Government dogs again. I wonder if Lucci's willingness to brazenly question the World Government is going to come into play in the future?

Regardless... man, if Lucci comes back as an antagonist, then Egghead's going to be awesome. We're getting so many payoffs with Bonney and Vegapunk, but each payoff raises even more questions, as it should be. Very fun chapter overall!

Random Notes:

• The cover story shows... Chocolate Town being frozen! So it is Aokiji! So those two random shoes we saw in that one cover like so many chapters ago is actually the Blackbeard Pirates! Huh! Okay, this storyline needed a plot twist like this to make it feel a bit more relevant. 
• I think it's actually the first time we get acknowledgement that Franky is a straight-up fanboy over Vegapunk. We know he learned from his (their?) work in Baldimore, but we never really acknowledged what he feels over Vegapunk the person.
• We don't see Shaka's face, but he does have a getup that gives me strong Tokusatsu vibes.
• Bonney knows what happens at Reverie and actually thinks about telling Luffy about Sabo, but the moment's passed because they got distracted by the hologram town. 
• I love the visual gag of Luffy very nearly going straight into his Gear Fifth form because he got pissed off at the food being fake. 
• A lot of people compared the similarity of Lilith to Uta... well, Atlas shares Uta's split-coloured hair!
• Luffy actually remembers Vegapunk! From what Coby told him! I am genuinely impressed.