One Piece 1177 Review: Did I Miss A Chapter

One Piece, Chapter 1177: Fury

Mmm, not the biggest fan of this one, I'm afraid. On paper, the events that happened here should be hype and cool and all, but I just wasn't feeling it -- it really felt like there was a chapter, or at least half a chapter, that was missing. And that does fairly ruin the moment, I would say, that would otherwise be an Elbaf arc showstopper. 

Yes, sure, 'the anime will fix it'... but I'm not reviewing the anime here, just the chapter. 

The first half of the chapter is a nice continuation of the previous chapter (and I still have the same opinions about the Dorry/Brogy Domi Reversi-reversal plot twist) but with Zoro and the four allied giants going on full-ham. There is something nicely cool at seeing a barrage of moves like Gungir, Ikoku and Zoro even gets a particularly nasty 'slice a head like a pie' attack called Red Ogre: Mega Rage. Some nice little moments like Colon and the other young giant children being excited at seeing the Giant Warriors fight and everything. 

On the opposite end, Kashi is being menaced by a couple more evil giants, and he's unable to bring himself to fight them. Gaban is apparently still weakened, so it is left to little Tony Tony Chopper to handle it...  and Chopper goes to Monster Point and slaps one of the giants. It isn't even a powerful slap -- neither the art nor the giant seems to be particularly indicating that it's super strong, and it's not even a named attack from Chopper. I don't think it's part of the Othello/Reversi game either, since Chopper is clumped together with Kashi and Gaban. But the slap seems to exorcise a little demon-imp spirit out of the giant, and he gets spun around the Domi Reversi thing. 

It's a bit weird, and I am a bit curious about this, but not as much as I would've sacrificed other scenes over it. 

Jinbe, Franky and Sanji have cut up Killingham into different bits -- reminding me of how they dealt with Buggy in the East Blue (and the live-action) -- and we get some boasting from the Straw Hats about how they are a Yonko crew now. Killingham, in his sorry state, keeps ranting about how they shouldn't underestimate the God's Knights while Franky doesn't seem to be terribly impressed by these fools. Which is a sentiment that I personally do have as well. 

Luffy and Loki show up, and Luffy gets all excited about his new big dragon pal... and Nami goes ballistic and angry at Luffy for causing so much devastation in his wake. We get a hilarious scene of Ragnir patting Luffy with a ._. facial expression in his Gear Fifth form, before Luffy and Loki start yelling at each other over this. It's a bit silly, although we do get Loki unleashing a lightning blast at Luffy which Luffy just tanks no problem. 

But then we cut away to Branch 8. This is where Brook was fighting Gunko. And I don't mind off-screening that fight, as much as I love Brook. We saw the connective tissue and buildup. We saw Brook clashing against Imu-Gunko, and there's enough hints here to build up a potential backstory reveal later on. It doesn't have to be in Elbaf. So the Brook stuff, I don't mind. 

The problem is that USOPP is there. He's somehow, between 1176 and 1177, teleported across branches, and fought Imu-Gunko enough to be wounded. What? Excuse me? I actually re-read the last five chapters just to see if I'm missing something, if I missed Usopp going "I'm worried, let me go and look where Brook is" or "I'm going off to do something" or whatever. No. Usopp is just there commenting and yelling with the rest of Nami's group. I really wouldn't have complained if we had one or two lines of Usopp realizing something was wrong. With or without Haki, with or without a huge 'Usopp mans up when fighting Chu in East Blue' moment. No. Just some connective tissue. 

And that's even something you could've done in this chapter, too. Take out one of the random panels of evil giants and replace it with Usopp arriving on the Imu/Brook fight. 

But no. Usopp is just on the ground. And he finally gives his speech about the warrior's pride of Elbaf, about the humiliation that Imu has done on it, about how she should've used proper warriors to fight warriors, about how Imu should have fought them head-on. Imu manhandles Brook with some Jedi powers, and then also causes Usopp's skull-bomb grass to explode point-blank front of him. The two of them are taken out. And I'm going to rush through this a bit, but Luffy and Loki arrive in the last two-page spread and Luffy gets angry at seeing his two teammates brutalized as such. 

And... I don't really like this. On paper, Usopp's speech is good. Usopp's speech is great. But there's just no buildup. He was fanboying without much substance before this, in every single one of his scenes. To have the leap of off-screen going through all the emotions to get to this point in time? We don't even need like a full chapter of angsty crying. Even a couple of panels showing Usopp arriving, realizing what it means for the giants to be conquered by someone like Imu, and running into combat would've been much more palatable than what we got here. Instead, we get yet another two-page spread with Loki when the sheer scale isn't really that necessary to display. 

Comparing this to some of Usopp's best moments -- when he realizes that he should stand up and not rely on lies when fighting Chu. His fight with Luffy in Water Seven. Him going through lots of excuses before apologizing at the end of Water Seven. When he mans up and tries to fight Sugar even without memories of his friends. Even Stampede, a usually-panned movie, has a much, much better buildup for Usopp being this dude with plant bullets fighting against Haki-monster Bullet, being manhandled by Bullet, but proving that he's useful after all. 

This doesn't have that buildup. Usopp did nothing in this arc before this but be the peanuts gallery, and it really rang hollow as a result. I really feel like we're missing just a couple of scenes. Maybe Usopp talking with one of the giant children. Maybe Usopp talking to Saul. To Dorry and Brogy. A discussion about warrior's pride. Even a repeat of him knowing he's helpless and weak against someone like Imu (or even the God's Knights) but still manning up and fighting alongside them would have been something. I wasn't the most invested in the 'Usopp becomes a True Warrior of the Sea in Elbaf' storyline, but I felt like it was sorely mishandled here. 

Yeah. I don't know... I really don't care about the Domi Reversi mystery at this point in time now. I guess we're going to a Luffy/Loki/Imu fight which is kind of cool, but it really does feel like we're just barreling to another not-so-satisfying conclusion again.

Random Notes:

• A bunch of the background Giant Warriors get given names like DDT, Rhodes and a bunch of other wrestling-move names. Neat. 
• While we've seen most of the other giant named attacks, Stansen shows off a new move called Drunken Hammer. His hammer is a barrel of ale!
• Dorry also gets stabbed through his arm in this chapter. I think Oda's just trying to give the two giants symmetrical wounds so they are on equal footing, but there's such a thing as too much symmetry.