One Piece 1109 Review: Cymbal Go Brrr

One Piece, Chapter 1109: Termination

This chapter kind of flowed like a breeze! And honestly, it does feel a very Oda-like way to drag on Vegapunk's big, bombastic message to the rest of the world for all it's worth. 

Literally the entire chapter is Vegapunk, mid-record, going on a long tangent discussing with Shaka and Pythagoras literally discussing about how to hack snails and spread the message via transponder snails. Ultimately, they have to wait ten whole minutes -- which is our obligatory arc countdown, I guess -- before they can hack into video transponder snails as well as audio. It's... it's honestly so cheeky, I don't have the energy to be mad. 

We have the confirmation that the Marines can't cut the connection, which is nice, and throughout the chapter we see some evidence that Stella!Vegapunk has died. We get to see a shot of his unmoving face, another emphasis on the flatline monitor in the very first panel, and the Gorosei even discuss the idea that the main body has a dead man's switch. And I really hope that this death sticks, and Vegapunk's final sendoff chapter would be the chapter where we hear his full message. 

Saint Saturn finally gets to thinking again, even as Gigant Gear Fifth Luffy is wrangling him, and... turns out that thinking might be what he's been doing, as we get thought bubbles belonging to Saturn while we cut away to Mary Geoise, where he seems to be communicating with the other four Gorosei. Mars, Warcury, V. Nusjuro and Ju Peter ask Saturn what he's doing, and Saturn is confused, noting that Kizaru had delivered a killing blow. They discuss about the importance of taking down the Labo-stratum, the likely place that the message is being delivered from. 

We then cut to a bunch of people all around the world, most of whom try to set up video snails. We get Kyros, Rebecca and the Tontatta in Dressrosa; Woop Slap and some villagers in Foosha Village; Iceberg and Alice in Water Seven; the Vivi, Morgans and Wapol group; the Revolutionaries in Kamabakka; plus a bunch of towns  I don't recognize from the other Blues.

We get some Looney Tunes action, as Luffy dodges some hilarious eyeball-machinegun lasers from Kizaru, as well as a stabbing spider-leg from Saturn. I guess his spider legs are really rubbery and stretchy, and last chapter wasn't just an artistic choice. Luffy then goes nuts, grabbing both of them and unleashing a massive attack called "Dawn Cymbal", where he expands his arms into even more massive things and slams the shit on Kizaru and Saturn, turning them into wavy little flattened Bugs Bunny / Tom and Jerry shit that wiggle down with cuckoo birds over their heads.

...yeah, I'm not sure how I feel about Luffy trivializing the Gorosei so easily. I kinda want him to stick around and resist Gear Fifth with Haki a bit.

But on the other hand, I actually took a full minute to giggle at the sight of Saturn and Kizaru just flopping pathetically through the air. 

Luffy then flips the two like fucking pizzas, then launches them through the sky. Kizaru seems to be just out, being launched like a boomerang and slamming onto the side of a ship like a goddamn ballistic missile, and we just see him covering his eyes, as if he's crying. 

Saturn... somehow is able to spin like a fucking beyblade in the air, redirecting his flight path towards Luffy. I guess he takes the same class as 'epic ancient monstrosity' as Sasaki? It's bizarre. 

The other Gorosei tell Saturn telepathicaly that there's no more time, and that they have to silence Vegapunk right now. Saturn's eyes gets creepy again as he announces that he will 'start the summoning', causing a masive surge of black lightning and four gigantic summoning circles to appear on the ground, each with a pillar of smoke. That one last panel is truly very cool, with Saturn posing like a cornered spider, and four smoky pillars all the size of several of Egghead's buildings bursting out of the ground. I guess Saturn is literally summoning all four other members of the Gorosei here, which I don't think anyone expected!

And... yeah, I'm very excited for the next chapter for sure. Luffy is able to toss Kizaru and Saturn around, but will all five Gorosei be too much for Luffy? I wonder! Saturn hasn't been the most impressive, but I also have the vibe that he hasn't been really trying. We'll see. 

Random Notes:

• Finally, we've got a cover story! And it's... Onigashima underwater? Wait, what? Didn't Luffy and Momonosuke land Onigashima on the Wano mainland? 
• I guess this is presumably the cover story that revolves around Kaido and Big Mom's survival, maybe, which I never ever thought would be something One Piece covers in, well, a cover story. 
• There is a pretty cool panel of some random marine trooper shooting at a giant with a bazooka, and the giant literally just laughs it off. 
• I forgot how much I love the pun of JU PETER.
• So which one is more disrespectful? Jumping rope Kaido or Pizzaru?
• Pythagoras showing up here reminds mr that he is allegedly dead. I guess it was Caribou that killed / almost killed him.
• Iceberg's new child-secretary Alice debuted in a cover story, and I think this is her first appearance in the story proper. 
• Really love the shot of Saturn seemingly jumping backwards while stabbing his legs into the ground. Very creepily spidery. 
• Yeah, RIP any involvement of Dragon in this arc, I guess, unless he can literally superspeed all the way to Egghead. He's literally just hanging out with Ivankov, Sabo, Koala and the others in Kamabakka.