One Piece 1146 Review: Inhuman

One Piece, Chapter 1146: Movement Amidst Stillness

So this chapter is a bit more of an action chapter, and I do think it's one of those -- like many early Egghead chapters -- where Oda purposefully skips some of the background action which seem to be obvious 'hey, anime staff, please extend this' content. The primary chunk of action in this chapter is the Gunko battle, but we also learn this chapter that Franky has defeated the giant thundercloud monster with a Radical Beam; and Sommers have taken out Saul with a field of thorns. It's neat that we're moving things along, of course, although I honestly would've liked to see these scenes happen instead of just the aftermath. 

Surprisingly, Oda keeps Gunko super-serious throughout this chapter. While we do get a focus on Brook's face, Gunko doesn't acknowledge him as Soul King or fangirl over him or anything, but instead gets angry that the Straw Hats identified her as the 'human intruder'. She is, after all, a god. Gunko delivers a bit of a villainous monologue about how the children's lives are worthless, and Nami attacks with a brand-new attack: "Thunder Shark Tempo", which transforms Zeus into a shark-like entity that charges towards Gunko. 

Gunko shows that her arrow vector attacks are a lot faster than people gave her credit for, instantly turning Zeus-shark back towards Nami. Notably, despite being very conscious, Zeus was unable to control his own movement. This leads to a bit of a gag where Zeus seems to electrocute Nami into a skeleton, but it's actually just Brook. That is a hilarious panel! But it's nice to see that Gunko's arrow abilities are quite formidable against other combatants as well. 

Usopp, bless him, just loads up Kurokabuto and launches an exploding skull grass, creating a giant explosion. Usopp crows and mocks Gunko... until the smoke clears and reveals that half of Gunko's body has been outright disintegrated by Usopp's explosives. This, of course, is just a lead-up to showing that Gunko (and presumably all the God's Knights) have the same regeneration ability that the Gorosei have. As Gunko regenerates, shew continues speaking ominously about how 'no one can stop it now'. 

She points the arrow at Usopp and begins surfing down the arrow. Our Straw Hats discuss the attack, with Brook briefly noting that knowing where the attack would land seems to be the height of absurdity. Neither Nami nor Usopp are able to move the arrow physically, so Brook and Jinbe move in to intercept... but as they both unleash attacks, arrows zip in and cause Jinbe and Brook's attacks to hit each other. I especially like that Jinbe's strike on Brook knocks his head clean off. I guess those arrows aren't as telegraphic as they originally seem to be. Gunko then unleashes some of her 'arrows direct my kicks' attacks on Nami and Usopp, delivering a particularly brutal knee to the face on Usopp.

Gunko compares her arrows to a countdown... just like what's happening to the world. She notes that whichever side that the giants choose will tip the course of the war. This is showcased with Dorry and Brogy absolutely slaughtering the giant monsters, with Dorry having beheaded the dragon and parading the decapitated head around in that awesome large panel spread. 

Gunko also kidnaps Colon with very little fanfare, choking him with one of her arrows while muttering about how she doesn't care about hostages at all. She seems to be completely in a card-carrying villain mentality, which... again, with all of the hints around her character that everyone is speculating, it is interesting to see where this goes to. It's a bit hard to tell, but all the Straw Hats seem to be plummeting off of that sky boat.

Gunko, Killingham and Summers continue to discuss the limited communications system in Elbaf, seemingly going off to control the communications centers. Killingham has arrived at the Walrus School and has absolutely brutalized Kiba and the remaining teachers, in an attempt to take control of the giant Dengo Mushi. 

Meanwhile, the chapter ends with a two-page sequence with Summers, who has faced off against Saul... and has absolute advantage over the ex Vice Admiral. Saul is intent to keep Chopper and Robin's presence hidden, but he ultimately collapses, traumatizing poor Robin a fair bit. We don't exactly see how he does it, but Summers has created a giant field of spiky thorns, so I guess his devil fruit lets him do more usual druid-themed spiky plant abilities as well.

More interestingly, Summers notes how giants are supposed to be big badass fierce warriors, and he is utterly disgusted that these giants are not learning their place in the world and doing stuff like 'schools' and 'libraries'... and then mutters about how King Harald screwed up what is implied to be a deal to mould the next generation of giants into 'mercenary soldiers' for the World Government. I am very interested to learn a bit more about this, about the specifics of the deal between Harald and the World Government. Most of all, though, I am curious to learn about Gunko, and which of the assumptions we've been making about her backstory and personality are actually true! 

Random Notes:

• Inari Shrine Pilgrimage Cover Story: To the surprise of nobody, Ulti asks to join Yamato's journey as her subordinate. More ex-enemies as members of the Straw Hat Grand Fleet, I suppose!
• ...meanwhile, Loki is fat and satiated and is lying there with his bandages. Not interested in telling us more about your encounter with Rocks, Loki? No? Boo.
• Usopp name-drops Enel as someone who also talks like a god. Yay for Enel representation. I do like that Enel is the first guy that Usopp's mind instantly goes to when someone starts yelling with delusions of godhood. 
• Gunko's monologue about the world about to be destroyed and how the World Government is supposed to keep it hidden from the world until some upstarts leaked it to the rest of the world are all information that us, as the audience, knows about... but it does help serve as an ominous background rambling for the in-universe characters. 
• It is kind of disappointing that Gunko regenerates afterwards, but I suppose kudos for Usopp for creating exploding plant bullets powerful enough to straight up vaporize half a person's body. 
• Jinbe unleashes a Five Thousand Tile Strike, Brook unleashes what seems to be Gavotte Bond en Avant. Gunko's attack that deflects both of them is called 'Aroe', or Linked Arrow. 
• Killingham also has the ability to put people's bodies in 'sleep mode' or 'sleep paralysis', depending on the translation. His devil fruit really does seem to be the most powerful of the three!