One Piece, Chapter 1092: Tyrant Kuma's Rampage in the Holy Land
We surprisingly get a cut to cut to Mary Geoise after Kuma climbs it, and... there's really not much to go on here? Kuma arrives up and despite what everyone thought, this isn't like the debut of the God Knights or whatever. We don't even get an explanation as to what Kuma is trying to do. Akainu shows up and unleashes a "Hell Hound" attack, which blasts apart part of Kuma's robotic head... but doesn't really kill or destroy him. It's cool to see Akainu face off against Kuma, no matter how short it is, but... does it really mean something when so little actually happened? Akainu launches an attack, the nearby Tenryubito yell stuff we already know about, Akainu restates some of the mysteries we are already asking about Kuma, and then Kuma blips away with his Paw-Paw Fruit.
We do finally get the final parts of the conversation that Akainu had with Jewelry Bonney all those years ago before the timeskip, and... it's just an argument about whether Kuma really offered himself up as a living weapon to the government. It's more of a confirmation about things that we could infer on our own after all the recent revelations about Bonney and Kuma, and... it's neat to have an answer to that little 'cliffhanger', I suppose.
We then cut away to present-day Egghead, with the poor, poor mechanized Sea-Beasts being destroyed en masse by the now loyal-to-Marines Pacifistas. But obviously our main focus is Luffy fighting against Kizaru. Just lie the recent Garp/Aokiji fight, the power-scaler part of this community are really enjoying this chapter because of it. But I just really, really like the fact that Kizaru actually still remains a threat even against Gear Fourth Snakeman Luffy.
The two of them seem to be fighting rather evenly, but Kizaru then lightspeeds away far away from the island. He insists that he doesn't want to kill Vegapunk, but he's still going to do it. He then launches himself at lightspeed towards Egghead, disintegrating into light and proclaiming that 'speed... is power', which is a variation of his iconic, epic line all the way back in Sabaody.
Luffy gets kicked at the speed of light and gets sent flying, and then Kizaru proceeds to rampage against the rest of Luffy's allies. Luffy gets kicked right through Vega-Force 01, the giant robot, and we get a brief flashback of Stella Vegapunk's excitement about building the 'giant robot that mankind has always dreamed of'. It's not as emotional or drawn-out as the Sentomaru flashback, though obviously the Vega-Force 01 isn't an actual character like Sentomaru. Anyway, Luffy slams onto the force field and seems to blow up, while the Vega-Force 01 crumbles.
Franky, Lilith and Bonney survive, and Kizaru zips in and comments once more about how Bonney has grown, noting how Bonney is supposed to also bear a grudge against Vegapunk. Bonney attacks Kizaru with 'Timely Thrust', but Kizaru just logia's his way, mutters about having to hurt more old friends in this mission, and blast-kicks Bonney as well, launching her into the forcefield. Interestingly, just as Franky is about to launch a radical beam, Kizaru zips away... so we don't get a laser-vs-laser fight. Huh.
Vegapunk and his two satellites finished cracking the code, enabling them to disable the barrier... but the Vega-Force 01 is no longer able to lob them off the island any more. There's a badass panel of Kizaru already just standing in the room right next to Vegapunk, which is really cool. Kizaru continues to talk in his usual lackadaisical manner about how this isn't an easy mission for him...
Right as Gear Fifth Luffy, in his Gomu Gomu no Gigant form, just casually reaching in a giant hand and grabbing Kizaru like a doll. Kizaru actually looks surprised! Luffy hangs on top of the building and starts yelling at Kizaru... but far more interestingly, the Ancient Kingdom's robot, deep within the depths of Egghead, seems to react to the sounds of the drums of liberation, and the eyes reactivate... we're about to get a whole lot of revelations about Joy Boy/Nika and the Ancient Kingdom, and I am all for it!
Anyway, pretty great chapter and we're finally free of breaks for the forseeable future! I am excited to see what we have next.
Random Notes:
- I do still have a couple of extra pre-loaded reviews for monsters and JoJo lined up for the blog, and I will try to get Bleach up before the next episode comes up, but I'm traveling a lot so don't expect any promises. Netflix's One Piece is something I'm slowly watching and taking my time to digest anyway, and I don't plan to rush through it, so reviews for that is going to be also a bit slower.
- Between Jaygarcia musing that Bonney is 'just a kid' and Kizaru nonchalantly noting that 'kids grow up so fast', there is some thought to be put into the fact that Bonney might biologically be much younger than she looks, except the fact that she actually went to Egghead several years ago as a kid so she can't be a kid then and still be a kid now... right?
- Bonney obviously won't be killed unceremoniously like this, so I assume Gear Fifth Luffy saved her somehow? Or is it something to do with the real Kuma?
- Interestingly, while the Straw Hats and Vegapunk have their eyes turn all cartoony and bug out at the sight of Gear Fifth Luffy... Kizaru remains super-stoic and regular as ever. Not even Kaido withstood the power of googly eyes!
This chapter interests me. So many little questions that tickle the brain
ReplyDeleteKizaru really embodies 'Unclear Justice'. He definitely doesn't hate Vegapunk, with the various flashbacks highlighting the strong connection he has with him. So why is he doing this? If it was out of duty, he wouldn't care, and if he does care, then why not prolong his fight with Luffy and use that as an excuse for why he got away?
The Ancient Robot responding to Joy Boy heartbeat is also interesting. Does that mean the last Gomu-Gomu user was active at Mary Geoise and that's how the government got ahold of it? Is that why Fishman Island was able to join the WG 200 years ago?
The Ancient Robot is what's really interesting to me. I didn't really think about it when I first wrote the review, but Luffy already went Gear Fifth once when he fought Lucci. Is it specifically a "Gigant" version of the Nika fruit user that awakens the robot? That would fit with the giant straw hat in Imu's basement.
DeleteKizaru is an... interesting character all right. He's someone that I don't think really believes in the cause of the Marines as fanatically or rigidly as someone like Akainu or Aramaki, but he's also someone that isn't showing how conflicted he was like Fujitora and Aokiji. It's like... he has a sense of duty, otherwise he wouldn't really execute the orders as well as he is doing. But he's also got a sense of honour -- which is why he actually argued against Jaygarcia about fighting Sentomaru a couple of chapters ago, and why he's having all these flashbacks about his strong connections with Vegapunk, Sentomaru and Egghead.
I really do think that Kizaru's being a less-fanatical version of a character like Javert, where he believes in the badge and what it stands for, and he knows that sometimes in the name of service to the cause you need to do some unpleasant things... it's just that Kizaru's kind of 'unclear' about just how much he's willing to do and how efficiently he's doing it.
It really is a different breed of character from every other One Piece antagonist. Crocodile, Blackbeard, Akainu, Doflamingo, Kaido, Big Mom, Enel... all of these villains in One Piece are always characterized by the intensity in how much they believe in pursuing their goals. Their 'willpower', or their Haki, defines the extent of what they want to do. And at this point... at this point, Kizaru really feels like he's just some guy doing his job, not really caring if he's doing 'the best' that he could do. His heart really isn't in it, just like Monkey D. Garp when he was facing Luffy on that bridge in Marineford and got one-shotted because his heart *really* isn't there to stop Luffy or to get Ace killed, but his badge demands him to do something.