One Piece 1063 Review: You Get A Devil Fruit, You Get A Devil Fruit...

One Piece, Chapter 1063: The Only Family I've Got

Okay, this one was also unexpectedly huge! I came to this chapter, reading it, and expecting it to mostly be just more exploration about the Vegapunks. Not that it's not interesting, of course, because I am all for the Egghead arc! It's got a much, much stronger opening than basically the previous... honestly, it's probably the most excited I've been to read the beginning of a new island for a long, long while. 

But I thought that the big eventful thing is just going to be the cover story, which I normally save for the 'random notes' segment, but I have to talk about here. We've got a big enough *gasp* with the revelation that Aokiji had attacked Whole Cake Island in the pervious chapter, but this one shows that he's been successful not only in beating poor Cracker, but also in kidnapping Pudding! We often forget that Aokiji's technically affiliated with Blackbeard for now, assisting him to betray him later on (presumably) but... man, Big Mom's operations are being absolutely fucked over, huh? The problem is now what this will mean for Big Mom, or more specifically Katakuri. Surely that mutual punch with Oven won't do much but bother the dude, right?

Anyway, back to Egghead, we get to see a bunch more wacky stuff, although mostly just on the team Luffy side. Atlas goes back to do her work, and we get to see that Egghead actually has some human (or maybe robotic?) inhabitants. They're just hiding when the pirates came along. Luffy, Bonney, Chopper and Jinbe run across a clothes-fabricating machine, giving them some cool futuristic outfits. Or, well, the first three got black future outfits, anyway -- Jinbe got a Hawaiian shirt, and... man, I just love Jinbe more and more now that he's allowed to engage in many of the wacky stuff that the other Straw Hats engage in as well. 

But then they get assaulted by a Pacifista dressed up in police clothes, which detects Luffy's gang as theft since they took the clothes without paying. As Luffy looks at the Pacifista and decides to do some self-defense, Bonney kicks Luffy square in the face and starts begging him not to attack Kuma, revealing that the 'daddy that turned into a cyborg' wsa actually Kuma, shocking our heroes. Again, it's going to be a Bonney/Kuma heavy arc, it's just that the revelations in this chapter isn't particularly huge to the audience.

...what is huge, though, comes with a huge dose of ZEHAHAHAHA, because Blackbeard's been busy! We thought that his fight with Hancock and Coby was the big requisite 'Blackbeard does something insane' quota of this leg of the story, but no. He's fighting Law! Bombarding Law's submarine from his big-ass log ship!

And we cut to Law and he's a she! And she's a sexy lady! 

Rule 63 fetishes and gags aside, though, for a moment I thought that poor Ivankov had been killed offscreen and his Horm-Horm Fruit had been taken by Blackbeard crew. But no. Law quickly counters the effects of the Devil Fruit ability with a strong burst of his own Haki, reverting back into a man. 

And we cut to the one that caused the gender-swap... and it's Doc Q! Doc Q has the Sick-Sick Fruit, and that was the effect of one of his plagues. Then Van Auger is revealed to have the Warp-Warp Fruit, and he warps Jesus Burgess to the island that Law and his crew has been hiding out at, and Burgess reveals that he has the Buff-Buff Fruit, allowing him to wield a big-ass mountain with ease. Devil Fruits for everyone! And... a lot of these are obvious powers, sure, but I am honestly quite happy to see a lot of Blackbeard's minions weaponizing powers and seeing what they can finally do. 

And then we get to see Blackbeard in his big fat glory, riding Doc Q who is riding Stronger. And Stronger is a proper Pegasus now, not like Pierre from Skypiea. Stronger has consumed the mythical Zoan Horse-Horse Fruit Model: Pegasus, though... well, carrying Blackbeard is taxing the poor animal.

But Blackbeard has been basically camping out here, waiting to take down whichever member of the Supernovas will cross their way in order to harvest their Lode Poneglyphs. And in a nice tie-in with this chapter's cover story, we learn that, of course, Aokiji kidnapping Pudding might be a way for Blackbeard to finally read the Poneglyphs!  So yeah. I don't really see this turning out particularly well for Law, and I would say that despite his over-powered status, I don't really see Law winning against four other Devil Fruit wielding combatants... especially since most of Law's crew doesn't seem to be particularly good fighters. It is kinda terrifying, too, considering how much Law relies on his Devil Fruit powers in combat and Blackbeard's whole deal is to disable Devil Fruits... and I don't really think that Blackbeard will be the type to pass up on getting the Ope Ope no Mi. 

...and I don't know. Will Oda kill off Law? I mean, Blackbeard is already taken Coby (and Pudding) prisoner so I guess he could take Law prisoner too, but I don't know. It doesn't really seem to be a particularly likely event and would feel forced unless Law could bullshit a way to Blackbeard to make him spare him for a certain benefit. But man! This was completely unexpected. I thought the major revelations would be taking place on the side of Egghead, not elsewhere in the world! Devil Fruits on Devil Fruits on Devil Fruits, everyone gets a Devil Fruit!

Random Notes:

• A very understated joke is Atlas looking at Luffy and co. and commenting on their bulging bellies after they eat the food from the food-fabricator... and Jinbe deadpanning about how "my belly was already like that."
• Chopper points out that Sanji wouldn't like the food-making machine. Yeah, I actually do wonder how he would feel about these delicious food made by a machine 'without heart'. 
• So last chapter's official translations have a bit more affirmation, particularly of Shaka's title as being more accurately translated to 'Good' or 'Justice' instead of 'Logic'. Atlas is also now consistently drawn as PUNK-05 throughout this chapter. 
• Aw, that little shot of flashback Kuma holding baby Bonney! Poor Kuma. 
• People are starting to gripe about how a strong burst of Haki can negate Devil Fruit powers, but didn't everyone realize that when it turns out that Law can't Room/Shambles or do the soul heart swap thing on Big Mom and Kaido? I kind of think that this affects the effects of Paramecia Devil Fruits specifically, not the rest. 
• It is a bit hard to tell, but it seems like after fighting Sabo and probably the other Revolutionaries, Burgess now has some metal implants on his face.
• So I guess Blackbeard's entire crew is going to get a Devil Fruit of some sort, then, to contrast with Shanks's crew being noted to not have a single Devil Fruit user. 
• With Lafitte already being implied to have a Devil Fruit with his wings, and Sanjuan Wolf's size being confirmed to be a Devil Fruit ability from databooks; we're waiting out for Avalo Pizzaro and Vasco Shot's fruits.