One Piece 1105 Review: Bombardment

One Piece, Chapter 1105: The Height of Folly

Not actually super excited about this one, but I don't think it's easy to top the previous chapter of Kuma bashing Saturn's face in. It's mostly just moving characters around, as everyone reacts to the Buster Call. Again, I'm... not the most excited about the Buster Call since it hasn't really done anything but destroy some property, though this chapter does a pretty great job at showcasing and highlighting the amount of resources that's going to be lost. Egghead Island itself is Vegapunk's crown jewel, and it also represents a whole ton of resources that could benefit humanity. 

Vegapunk still thinks he can debate with Saturn about the 'good of humanity', but, of course, what Saturn thinks Vegapunk is doing is 'hiding something that could hinder the world government'. Considering just how much crap Vegapunk has pulled, though, I can't really blame Saturn? I'm just surprised he doesn't at least try and steal Punk Records for himself or something. 

A nice bit of cruelty -- even if I really felt like it should've involved a couple of named characters -- is that Vegapunk's forces pulled a bit of an Akainu and sunk a ship full of civilians. The random nameless scientists that Vegapunk evacuated several dozen chapters ago. Of course, Saturn handwaves this as an acceptable cost for limiting any spread of Void Century knowledge, but he definitely loved rubbing it in Vegapunk's face. 

Sanji goes off to apparently fight Vegapunk while Franky, Atlas, Kuma and Bonney evacuate, though we don't really see him for the rest of the chapter. We do see the MIA Straw Hats, with Usopp, Nami and Chopper... evacuating Robin! Apparently Robin was injured in the pre-mini-timeskip events. It's... it's really weird just how long Robin's been out of the spotlight and I don't really think this payoff is particularly satisfying? I'm not sure if "she's actually doing something" would've been particularly satisfying either, though I really am not a big fan of flashing back to the time between the revelation of York as as a traitor and the resolution of that subplot. Oh well. 

We get a fun sequence of Lilith and Brook recovering the Thousand Sunny, with Brook turning the clouds into ice and them sliding the Thousand Sunny on them. There's some slapstick comedy about Brook not thinking about the logistics of how the ship will stop, but otherwise it's another nice check-in with some characters we haven't seen in a while. 

And then the bombardment happens, with Marine ships and Pacifistas opening fire. There's a nice, sad shot of Vegapunk watching his city of the future being demolished. Meanwhile, the capsule ship that Team Franky is in gets attacked by Kizaru, who summons his lightsaber and slices the shuttle -- but no one inside -- in half. All the people inside fall down and Saturn commands all Pacifista to fire on Bonney and Kuma, focusing on them alone. This sequence ends with an ominous bit where there are the lights of cannons firing up from the surface, while Kuma wraps himself around Bonney. We get some monologues from Saturn (talking about this struggle being the titular height of folly) and Vegapunk (who's horrified at the idea that Kuma-looking clones are going to kill Bonney).

...and then we get two random final scenes. Luffy's... not been kidnapped by Kizaru, Caribou, Catarina Devon, the giant robot, Stussy or any of that stuff. He just... ate too much and fell. Extremely anticlimactic, even moreso than the 'where's Robin' one, and this, I feel, is a black mark in an otherwise rather excellent arc. 

Oh, and we get to see a bunch of Marine ships sank by an unknown party, and they're trying to report to Kizaru that a mysterious THEY are heading to Egghead. Eh. 

I dunno. I just didn't feel like this was super-epic enough? I think it's mostly because Saturn and Kizaru really barely do anything and I just didn't feel like the Buster Call or the generic Pacifistas are much of  a threat. It's not a bad chapter, just one that I felt didn't push the pedal on the tension as well as previous chapters did. 

Random Notes:

• Again, Kizaru's expressions remain super opaque and oblique. We get a zoom-in to him telling Doll and the other Vice Admirals to leave, but who knows what he really means with that order. Desperation? Getting the other Marines out of the line of fire? Resolution? 
• Zoro is still fighting Lucci online, and Jinbe has separated from the group to get them. I really can't stress just how... non-epic the Lucci/Zoro fight has became thanks to it being completely offscreen. Even if it's some epic fight, Jinbe showing up is going to really knock Lucci down a couple of pegs. 
• Doll gets a brief cameo talking to Saturn and Kizaru, but getting told to evacuate with the others with Kizaru. Still no name for the otter-Zoan Vice Admiral. 
• So who hurt Robin? York, I guess? Or is it S-Snake? I really don't remember what happened before the mini timeskip.
• Any guesses on the unknown arrivals? It could be the Blackbeard Pirates, I guess, but it could as easily be the Grand Fleet or Shanks or Cross Guild or Rayleigh or the Revolutionaries, heck, honestly anyone else at this point.
• I personally want it to be the Revolutionaries just so they do something in the story. Dragon's really been offscreen for so long that when he does something it's going to be a 'finally, god' moment instead of a 'oh god this is so epic' moment.