One Piece 1162 Review: Za Warudo!!!

One Piece, Chaper 1162: God Valley Battle Royale

Another God Valley chapter, and another one that's accelerating all over. With the main Shakky rescue plot being more or less done, we're back to the rather frenetic jumping from one conflict to the next, nicely showing how utterly hectic God Valley really is. We start off with a showcase of Rocks and St. Garling fighting randomly, with a cute little Oda map... and that could have been a whole chapter in and of itself, right? But it's just something that primarily happens off-screen and mostly just informs what Garling is about to do next. 

We then get to see a bit of what the Roger pirates are doing, with the crew covering Rayleigh as he evacuates Shakky in a bridal carry. Again, the audience knows that this is something that is going to lead to a happy ending for the two of them, so after showing the big dramatic moment that was chapter 1161, we don't really need to dwell on this for too long and I approve. I love the random panel of Shiki even kicking one of his presumed allies in the back of the head because attacking Rayleigh right now would hurt Shakky. Bless you, Shiki, you utter mad lunatic, you. 

Everyone else also ends up running around for treasure, and we get a bit of a remix/redraw of the scene of Kuma and Ivankov finding the fruits that were supposed to be the prizes in the God Valley tournament. I was comparing it to the chapter from the Kuma flashback, and it's nice to see that none of the art is redrawn or retraced, and it's all in different angles. 

More scenes of fighting! Minor Rocks pirates beating up random pirates! Civilians running and getting cannonballed by Marines! And finally, finally, we get Garp's reaction to the massacre going on. He has been utterly distracted by the fighting going on against the powerful pirates, but now that he's got a chance to sit down and breathe, he's seeing all the dead civilians and as he and Bogard (Bogard!!!) runs through the battlefield, Garp is very much disgusted. Apparently his comprehension of 'the Celestial Dragon's field trip' appears to be exactly that, since he has no idea about the whole humans-as-video-game-prey deal. 

Again, this is kind of important. It's one thing for Garp to be completely ignorant of what's going on in God Valley and other purges, because I can buy that and that has honestly been how I thought Garp has been -- I've always thought that he's never actually seen the 'dark side', or underestimates how depraved the World Government is. Turns out that he knows... and I am curious to see how Oda's going to write Garp after this to show how he's dealing with the moral dilemma of working with the Marines and World Government. Because unlike Dragon, Garp stayed. Garp stayed for decades more. Again, Garp has always fascinated me as a character since the story and the author clearly wants us to view him as likable-but-flawed, and I'm curious to see how the story is going to handle this Monkey patriarch. 

And now we're back to Rocks, who is being pursued by Garling, a woman Knight-of-God, and a bunch of demonic silhouettes that corresponds to Domi Reversi... which raises a lot of question. Is this even Imu? Did Imu possess Gunko, or another Knight-of-God? Or is this a power lent to Garling or Garling's partner? Whatever the case, these guys are the members of the Davy Clan who were Domi Reversi'd, including people who appear to be Rocks's grandparents. 

Garling and the lady God's Knight with a lance are actually at the back-foot, with Garling being wounded and complaining that it takes a while to regenerate from Rocks's attacks. And Rocks has been doing all of this one-handed, since he's holding his wife Eris with one of his hands. Eris forces Rocks to put him down, telling Rocks that if worst comes to worst... she's going to kill herself and Teach rather than be caught. Which is very badass, but also very fucked up. 

It's a whole lot of interesting stuff in the discussion between the two of them. Eris is confirmed to not be a member of the Davy clan before, and essentially married into the clan. She's also previously a pirate. And we get a nice little moment where Eris tells Rocks that if she's just a meek woman who just clung to him, he wouldn't have fallen for her. Again, in a couple of short panels, we do get a nice fair bit of characterization for a character that I assume is going to die in this flashback. Also, Eris notes that she's going to escape to Lulusia, which raises a whole can of worms!

So it does appear that Imu might not have picked Lulusia at a whim; and remember that Lulusia first appeared in the story in the Ace cover story... when Ace was looking for Blackbeard. Was Lulusia where Blackbeard escaped to, then, and Imu has been nursing a grudge against Lulusia because of its ties to the Davy Clan? 

Rocks mutters something about 'being the one saved', and then as Garling taunts him, he launches an attack we see from a far, a gigantic slash that seems to bisect the half of the island he's on, as he gives a huge badass boast. Pretty cool scene... 

And we cut away to Big Mom, gloating to absolutely no one at all that he's got the Fish-Fish Fruit, Model: Azure Dragon. She specifically notes that she's going to feed it to Katakuri, which puts Katakuri in a very interesting exclusive club belonging of himself and Ivankov of "people who could have had the dragon fruit". But then Big Mom gets absolutely whacked in the face by a giant iron club as Kaido jumps in. It looks like it hurts, too, with that zoom in to Linlin's face. And as the fruit falls out of Big Mom's head, Kaido just eats it mid-air, and she has the best shit-eating grin as he chomps down on the fruit. 

Big Mom rages and creates a gigantic explosion; while we get a two parallel scenes of Dragon and Eris, both holding babies, as they run from the chaos. Again, interesting parallel if this is Shanks and Blackbeard. We get a montage of scenes, with the Roger Pirates getting the rest of the loot; Gaban fighting against Ganzui; Marines charging; Garp being angry at the lack of anything making sense; Marines bombing civilians; Kuma saving the civilians (and we see each of them take the time to thank Kuma); and a badass scene of dragon Kaido rising to the skies as everyone on the ground is watching. 

While all this is going on, Saint Saturn sits cross-legged on a cliff, watching everything go on. Someone (who could be Imu or another Gorosei member) talk to him telepathically, asking him if Rocks is dead. Saturn talks about how everything seems to have spiralled out of their expectations, and if 'this intense destruction continues, we risk something else being unleashed'. And I don't think it's just Kaido's dragon form rising into the sky. I wonder if there's something specific about God Valley? That it's not just the Davy Clan being there, but something a lot more sinister? There must be a reason it's gone, right? 

And as Kuma and his fellow civilians escape the chaos, we get a massive explosion of Haki that attracts the attention of the battle's three primary players: Rocks, Garp and Roger. 

And we cut back to Rocks, silhouetted in black and his eyes glowing... and he's utterly and extremely decisively beaten the fuck out of the army of God's Knights and Domi Reversis that were sent after him. Garling is on the ground, coughing up blood... and it's genuinely surprising that for how much the Figarlands have been built up all this while, Garling... seems to just be tossed aside like that? Rocks is just that good, I guess...

And in an awesome and unexpected 'Avengers Assemble' moment, we get the arrival of Edward "Whitebeard" Newgate, the future Strongest Man in the World, arriving next to Rocks. Where the other Rocks Pirates seems to have dispersed, Whitebeard tells Rocks that he's still going to help for the simple reason that he's always been drinking on Rocks's tab. And in another unexpected arrival, the coiling form of little bro' Kaido, the future Strongest Creature in the World, coils in above Rocks and Whitebeard, acting like an ecstatic little kid because he finally got an ability. 

Again, Kaido being actually one of the few people there loyal to Rocks is interesting, but quite in-character, I feel, since the present-day Kaido is defined by his malaise which seems to have arisen after a certain betrayal...  and I feel like we're going to see that here. The sheer amount of Kaido focus in these chapters is much appreciated, since I've always felt like there's just something lacking with Kaido's flashback in the Wano arc.

Whitebeard asks Rocks what the heck they are up against. Previous panels seem to be implying we're 'just' going to fight Saturn in his Gyuki form. But then we get to see the silhouetted monster lurching towards the pirates, and it's not just Saturn's Gyuki form... but with a rising pyramid in the shape of Imu's silhouetted form rising up from it. It's a Gyukimu! We get to see Imu's eyes, too, so I'm going to assume that Imu is parasitizing Saturn the way he's doing to Gunko in the present day. 

Garp and Roger are also reacting to this monstrous incarnation of Imu/Saturn, and Rocks answers Whitebeard's question, saying that it's "The World!" Which might be handwaved as a cute little metaphorical answer, if "The World" wasn't already used in a rather ominous moment before in the story... when Van Augur and Catarina Devon confronts Saturn in Egghead and tells him that Blackbeard's goal was "The World". 

Exciting stuff, exciting stuff. Again, I absolutely love everything about God Valley, and the fact that we're tying in a lot of character development -- for Blackbeard, for Kaido, for Dragon, for Garp, for Whitebeard, for Imu... it's all so exciting, and I'm just happy to be on this wild wild ride. 

Random Notes:

• Yamato Cover Story: ...and it ends, with a whimper as Yamato and the rest of her supporting cast pose in front of Wano. It's been probably one of the more bland cover stories, in no small part due to the fact that there was so much expectations on... on anything, really. Some discussion about the sunken Onigashima shown at the beginning of the arc. Some resolution about Ryouma. Some resolution about the Kurozumi clan and Tama. Yamato setting off to look for the Straw Hats. Anything at all. All we got was... what? Ulti and Page One joining Yamato; and the Kozuki Moria twist? It feels so bland, kind of a disappointment overall, really, especially with how long it was stretched out. 
• Big Mom previously told us that Kaido 'owed her a debt' in regards to him receiving his Fish Fish Fruit. While this chapter shows us that, no, Big Mom definitely did not willingly give Kaido that fruit... we also know that throughout her character arc, Big Mom has had a long, long history of twisting past events to suit her preferred reality. Essentially gaslighting herself that she's always been in control. So yes, in Linlin's mind, she totally didn't get blindsided by her little brother figure and got beaned in the face with a kanabo, and she totally let Kaido get the fruit 'as a favour'. 
• As Rayleigh is saving Shakky, we get a nice cameo from the meme, the legend, the man himself, Roger's interrogator Millet Pine, the scruffy dwarf-viking-looking guy who's just whacking people around him with a giant mace. 
• Stussy is doing something! She's shooting people with a gun! Woah! She's not a complete deadweight! 
• Also among the cameos, kicking Silver Axe in the face is a guy that the fandom seems to collectively decide was Marco's dad? ...I don't know if my eyes are just bad, but I don't see the resemblance?
• There was a brief theory going around that Imu hates the D. Clan and/or the Davy Clan because they are immune to his Domi Reversi powers. This chapter debunks the latter quite definitively. 
• I keep forgetting Garling rides a fucking Chocobo. Bless you, Garling. 
• Katakuri is half-eel, by the way, something that so many people forget, so him having a serpentine fish-fish devil fruit would have been super-appropriate for him. 
• I'm always a fan of how One Piece always remembers the fear and terror that its previous villains struck in the past. Sure, both Kaido and Saturn might be 'old news' in the current story, but it doesn't diminish the fact that they are both still very, very powerful fighters. This is no 'Frieza is no longer relevant after his arc' thing going on.