One Piece 1196-1197 Review: Love Yourself, King

One Piece, Chapter 1196-1197

Chapter 1196: The Love of the Suicidal is Worthless

It really does show just how much better the character writing is for Sanji than Zoro. And that's not a knock on Zoro, he inherently is a lot simpler as a character in terms of motivation and growth. But it does make for a very distinctly different style of story.

And Sanji's story is an actual character development that builds up on stuff we already know about him, on character threads that has been explored in previous chapters, nay, arcs. And it's a rarity in One Piece that this is the case. But it does absolutely make sense that Sanji's self-image problem is something that wouldn't just be handwaved in a single 'shonen talk-no-jutsu' moment in Whole Cake Island. I don't think anyone would have complained as it would be per the norm for the shonen manga format, but it is also something that is quite welcome to see be properly built up on. 

Sanji flashes back to his traumatic experiences in Kamabakka Queendom, and Sanji is in a little mental war as he tries to keep Ivankov down. But of course, Ivankov's massive head appears in Sanji's mind nonetheless. I do really like this. While we, the audience, know and love Ivankov by the time the timeskip was about to happen, it was one of those things that felt random and made just to make some 'Sanji is surrounded by okama' jokes as compared to the more serious training arcs. The 'combat cuisine' or whatever only really showed up once in Punk Hazard, and the only ability attributed to Ivankov's training, 'Hell's Memories' was treated more like a joke. 

As Sanji is yelling at the apparition of Ivankov in his head, Killingham stabs him with his lance and makes a whole villain monologue about how he's going to take away his arms that he needs for cooking and then the legs he needs for fighting... and Sanji angrily does another Diable/Ifrit Jambe kick on Killingham. He's talking to the imaginary Iva in his head! But I do think that Killingham's taunts does really help to prompt the next, upcoming argument. 

We get a couple more scenes of Sanji and Killingham trading blows, and I really don't want to spend too much time describing it. It looks cool, and we've gotten a couple of nice shots of Sanji kicking and demolishing Killingham. Killingham continues to taunt Sanji, asking him that maybe he needs to beg Luffy for help. 

This is the one line that triggers Sanji, getting him to flash back to Whole Cake Island, and he begins unleashing more and more kicks. He can't tell Luffy that he was helpless. Killingham distracts Sanji when something he says about expectations brings up a mental image of Judge in his head. Killingham then does the 'bring your nightmares to life' thing. Smoke billows... but instead of Judge, the thing that is brought out of Sanji's dreams is a dream-cryptid version of Ivankov. 

Even Sanji is surprised that it's Ivankov instead of the Germa bastards. Killingham doesn't recognize Ivankov and doesn't know who he is, just that he's what Sanji is afraid of. He jumps into the air and does a literal fusion dance with the sleeptid Iva, transforming into a fused form where we've got Ivankov's giant head on Killingham's Kirin neck. The fused form even has the fishnets!

Sanji then thinks to himself that the reason he fears Ivankov isn't because that Ivankov himself is scary. Jokes aside, he is Sanji's ally. But because Ivankov can see right through to his weakness. As Killingham-kov kicks the shit out of Sanji, he flashes back to Ivankov telling him the title: "the love of the suicidal is worthless". 

And we get a flashback to Sanji's training in the Queendom, where Sanji is in the middle of his trials, beating up Ivankov's minions to get their recipes. Ivankov then puts Sanji in a two-week break, however, which Sanji protests because he can still fight. Ivankov counters, however, telling Sanji that even though he beat Clara, he was more injured than his opponent. All of Sanji's victories were won with him taking injuries. And despite his victories, Ivankov tells Sanji that there were many hits that he could have avoided. 

Ivankov gives some really good lines. Even tiny raindrops can wear down stone, and all the little injuries will break Sanji at some point. Sanji gets defensive, of course, telling Ivankov off when he starts talking to Sanji about how little he values himself. Ivankov then points at his little okama gang and asks Sanji what they have that Sanji lacks...

And the answer is self-love. One of the random lines in the background is "I love myself more than anyone in the world does". And that is why Ivankov and company dresses up like what might be caricatures, but that's what those characters want to look like.

Sanji counters, of course, with the argument that all the love he has is reserved for the ladies; or for Nami and Robin. But Ivankov gets angry at this. "If you don't love yourself, you can't love another!" Two things can be true at the same time. Sanji wanting to protect ladies is a good quality for sure. But he also needs to love himself, otherwise that love of someone who's not even protecting himself is completely worthless. 

A string of flashbacks to Germa 66 lines go across Sanji's mind, and Ivankov tells Sanji that while he doesn't want to pry into Sanji's past, it doesn't take a genius to know that Sanji's got some familial trauma. Ivankov walks off, telling Sanji that these 'sacrificial victories' will eventually catch up to him, and if he doesn't take care of himself and care for himself, at one point he's going to fail to protect those he cares about. Ivankov tells Sanji that he understands -- there's a man that he'll do everything to protect, and give his life if needed, but not before exhausting every other possible method. 

And, well, arguably this might be a flashback that works better in the Whole Cake Island arc, but it also works nicely here because present-day Sanji thinks that he's moved past Germa 66, right? He had the confrontation, and even validation from Luffy and the crew. Sanji thinks to himself that he's about to hit a wall, and what he needs is power, and thinks to himself 'say, Iva, I think I'm gonna...'

And then the sleeptid Ivankov disappears. And this is a new thing we just learned about Killingham's dream-dream fruit, I suppose! If the fear disappears, so do the creations.

Sanji stands on top of a roof, looking down at Killingham, boasts that he's not going to take a single attack from Killingham, tells him off for invading Elbaph, and in the original Japanese, he tells Killingham to 'lower his head' with a very badass pose and expression. . 

Chapter 1197: Love is Defense

Killingham continues to mock Sanji, saying that he's secretly coveting the station of the Celestial Dragons. Sanji doesn't give a shit, though, and just takes a long drag from his cigarette. Killingham attacks when Sanji doesn't respond to his taunts, but Sanji keeps thinking now about defense. 

He speed-blitzes Killingham and does this amazingly angled panel as he swings down with Ifrit Jambe. He goes on a bit of a monologue to himself (and Iva), saying that he did want to die. He told himself that he would rather die than risk becoming like the Germa scumbags. And deep down, he always thought that he -- his body -- was 'tainted' by them. 

Sanji activates his new attack, "Collier Fortress", and does an amazing kick straight onto the speartip of Longinus, shattering it and delivering one mother of a caved-in face to Killingham. Killingham gets sent barreling through a bunch of houses, ranting about what an insult to the House of Rimoshifu. 

Sanji continues his monologue, which is really the primary thing to focus on here. His body doesn't belong to Germa. It was toughened up by Zeff, by Ivankov, and by the sacrifice of his mother Sora. And as he remembers one of Sora's lines to him about a child being born with emotions, Sanji's eyebrows revert from its Germa state to its normal one. Sanji notes that his body, his legs, are all a gift from his late mother. And he needs to be able to protect his body, otherwise he can't protect anything else. And that's a beautiful thing to end on. 

Sanji thinks of the foes he had defeated in the past, a nice 'greatest hits' of his most difficult foes. Mr. 2. Jabra. Absalom. Wadatsumi. Judge. Queen. 

And then he swoops in, all business, onto Killingham, who's wondering why his regeneration is depleting. And Sanji kicks him in the face again. It is very painful looking. And Sanji continues to attack again, thinking that he needs a stronger defense than just Armament Haki. And Sanji just spams Collier on Killingham, kicking and kicking and kicking. Killingham gets pissed off, angry that he keeps experiencing his neck bones being snapped over and over again. He's still regenerating, but a bit slower than before. Sanji delivers a cool line that since he's still figuring out this Conqueror's Haki thing, he's going to do the next best thing and make sure that Killingham just wishes that he were dead. And we get a 'Enel shocked' expression from Killingham. 

Killingham realizes, though, that Sanji is subconsciously channeling a bit of Conqueror's Haki, and is on the verge of unlocking it. So he pulls a hail mary and activates Omen, covering his centaur body in pitch-black knight armour called 'Omen Panzer'. It is so cool, actually, with the black flames flickering off of him. I really like Killingham! 

The two get some banter about the 'manners' of breaking necks, and Sanji offhandedly says that when breaking a rabbit's neck, you need to do it quickly to prevent undue pain to the animal. Sanji does a kick on the Omen armour, but it's a bit too hard and Killingham boasts that the only thing that can break Omen Panzer is Conqueror's Haki. The two of them have a clash, and when the smoke clears... the tip of the reforged Longinus shatters. 

Sanji, elsewhere, looks at his burning legs. He thinks to himself of Iva's advice that love should be defense, and that in the last attack, the defense is so strong that receiving a hit feels like he's the one landing it. In his mind, Sanji tells Zoro that he could be Luffy's sword, and he'll be Luffy's shield.

And as he does so, black lightning just explodes and erupts from the forest as Sanji properly and fully unleashes Conqueror's Haki... 

And does an amazing spinning kick right onto Killingham's face, shattering the shaft of Longinus, his helmet, his armour, and his face. Badass! And more to the point, very well earned. The emotional journey might not be the smoothest, but Ivankov deconstructing Sanji's worldview and him slowly building up to a new application of Conqueror's Haki that we've not really seen before is amazingly well done. An amazing mini-arc for Sanji! I don't think this overtakes how much love I have for the Brook arc in Elbaph right now, but my boy Sanji is a very close contender. 

Random Notes:

• Yeah, been super busy which is why even my buffer for random content have disappeared. Likely to not really change up until the next year rolls around, sorry-not-sorry.  
• I've seen some people baffled that Killingham doesn't know who one of the most prolific members of the Revolutionary Army is, but I highly doubt he even knows who Dragon is. He's a Celestial Dragon! He doesn't give a shit. 
• Ivankov and Killingham's fused form is most certainly a reference to that glorious and cursed art that Oda drew in one of the SBS of "what if Ivankov ate Kaidou's fruit". 
• I like that during his speech to Sanji, Ivankov leaps out of the window, and leaps back in. Bless you, Iva. 
• I normally don't care about translational differences, but while I appreciate the 'get off your high horse' pun, it's nowhere as strong enough as 'bow down'. 
• The Irish on Zoro's shirt in the cover image of 1197 is an Irish poem called Rop tu mo bhoile, much more famous internationally as the Christian hymn "Be Thou My Vision", which has the lines "be thou my battleshield, be thou my sword". 
• While it was a bit of a surprise that one of the super-duper-awesome-ultimate-grade swords just shattered in this fight, it gets reconstructed with Omen Panzer. Only to snap off again. I do think that the blades 'lent' to Killingham and Summers are Omen constructs, so this might not be the last we saw of Longinus. 
• Missing from Sanji's "greatest hits" are Pearl, Gin (kind of), Kuroobi, Chessmarimo and Satori. While I could understand excluding most of them, I am surprised that Kuroobi and Gin aren't in it! Sanji certainly felt like he exerted more fighting them than freaking Absalom. 
• This is one of the very rare times that Sanji calls Zoro by name! It hasn't been lost to fans that it was brought up in the SBS that Sanji and Zoro only ever refer to each other by name on really serious moments, with maybe single-digit numbers of this occurring despite their rivalry. 
• If Omen Armour is an option, is it something available to all Omen users? Is Summers (who was worried about his defense) just an idiot, then? I would buy it, Summers looks way more of a fool than Sanji is. 
• I like that Sanji compares Killingham to a rabbit. It's not something that he would know, but during God Valley, the Celestial Dragons really did get a lot of mileage calling the peasantry as rabbits to be hunted. 

One Piece 1193-1195 Review: The Bandana of the Conqueror

One Piece, Chapters 1193-1195

Chapter 1193: Still Practicing

We have a couple of chapters involving the Zoro vs. Summers fight, in a nice, rare case of modern One Piece being rather focused on a single fight for multiple chapters. And one that isn't actually just huge spectacles and hype moments either. 

1193 starts off with the aftermath of the triple-hit combo on Imu, with Gaban again wondering how Luffy is still able to manage what he's doing with all the wounds. I really do hope that there's more to it, still, beyond 'me main character, me determined' -- or at least, that we get some explanation about Haki to make this make sense. Luffy is at least wheezing and dropping out of the air and arguing with his own heart to stay in Gear Fifth, so I am somewhat hopeful that it's not going to be an asspull. 

Loki also transforms into his hybrid form, which is still silhouetted, so I don't really have anything to say here. 

There's a brief check-in with a bunch of other characters. Shuri/Gunko is starting to wake up. Biblo the Owl is starting to begin to speak to Chopper, telling his group that there's something important in a chest that they need to get out posthaste. 

And then we cut to the fight in the village, where a bunch of unnamed giants are having a philosophical debate with Jarul about whether the direction that Harald steered the country towards is good or bad for Elbaph as a whole... but then that line of thought gets interrupted by the epic arrival of Dorry and Brogy, who swings in and fights the giant rain god Zaza and yells about how if Elbaph can't fight back against a couple of demons, whatever the direction it had, it was going to be fated to die sooner or later. That's cool. We get a nice speech, and a very brief clash between Sanji and Killingham. 

But building up the next chapter is the final scene of 1194, where Summers is shooting random Omen fireballs and talking about how his sword Gram gets more powerful the more irritated he is. He's also covered Zoro with invisible thorn vines, and starts monologuing. He's just talking about the amount of pain and despair and all that stuff, and Zoro... just doesn't give a shit. 

Zoro is actually seeing the fight as a puzzle, thinking about everything that has been said to him about Conqueror's Haki, about the way to defeat these God's Knights, their iron heart, and generally just how to get about infusing his blades with Conqueror's Haki (versus Armament Haki). It is basically established here that Zoro has never been consciously infusing his weapons with Conqueror's Haki. Summers continues his monologue and goes for the kill, but Zoro just very casually slices up Summers' little thorn cage, stabs Summers in the chest... but fails to infuse his sword with Conqueror's Haki and it plinks off of his heart. He's "still practicing". Summers freaks the fuck out. 

Chapter 1194: All Things Are In Flux

Summers is freaking out even as his wounds are closing, and I love just how unbothered Zoro is by all of this. Summers didn't really feel like a threat, especially since we've already seen him get brutalized a couple of times before.... it's an interesting sequence because Zoro is really just using this fight as a way to practice his Conqueror's Haki infusion, and he just keeps doing it over and over again. The fight itself feels a bit more focused because we're not jumping around, and we get to see some more stuff that Summers can do -- like another appearance of his weird thorn hydra summon. This does make my review of this chapter a lot shorter than 1193, but there's a very nice pre-timeskip vibe to this fight that I've been missing from a lot of One Piece battles recently. 

Summers is just desperately trying to kill Zoro before he gets the hang of it, and Zoro is just doing a couple of fancy moves. He pulls out an obscure old attack (all the way from Enies' Lobby!) called Leopard Balls (heh); as well as the old classic 1080 Phoenix Pound Cannon. And Summers is doing a bunch of thorn attacks as well, like a shadowy thorn dragon skull thing... but that really isn't the focus here. The focus is a rare introspective Zoro moment where he really is treating this whole fight like a puzzle. Trying to understand just what Conqueror's Haki is, comparing it to when Luffy uses it to knock out people. 

And we get a flashback to Mihawk! At a time where Zoro hasn't lost one of his eyes! Mihawk tells Zoro that 'all things are in flux', but there's one thing that can resist all change... which is Conqueror's Haki. Mihawk tells Zoro that there is one thing that the Conquerors / Supreme Kings have that is unchanging... although we don't see Mihawk's answer, as good ol' Perona raises her hand and asks if it is 'beards'. 

Bless you, Perona. 

Mihawk tells Zoro that the Colour of the Supreme King is something so strong that the weak can't stand in its presence... it is 'a sense of self'. So yeah, the sheer identity and assuredness that people like Luffy have in themselves is what is giving him control over Conqueror's Haki. 

And I love that this Mihawk flashback is cut back and forth to a montage of Summers having all his limbs and head chopped and hacked apart. That's almost comedically hilarious... until at one point Summers starts bleeding, he tries to play it off and stick his dismembered hand back to the stump, but it falls back to the ground. 

Most importantly, Zoro finally puts his bandana on. Which means Summers, who is already fucked and kind of a joke ever since the battle started, is about to get double-fucked. Zoro's blades erupt with black lightning, and it really does seem like black lightning for a very cool final panel. So yeah, I expect the Zoro/Summers fight to be wrapped up next chapter, and maybe we'll get around 2-2.5 chapters of Sanji discovering his own Conqueror's Haki, and we'll get maybe an essay as to what Conqueror's is, and how it relates to the Luffy situation? 

Pretty fun stuff. Zoro has spent so much of post-timeskip just being 'the cool dude', without much in lieu of introspection of character development -- something that I had really wanted in Wano. But having him get a bit more to learn (while still being the cool dude) is definitely pretty cool. 

Chapter 1195: Veakness

And the Zoro stuff in 1195 is... it's hype stuff, to borrow the language of the youth, but I also felt like it's just a final nail in the coffin for the previous chapter. It really is very cool, and even if Summers isn't taken out here, he's basically out of the battle. We get to see Summers freaking out, Zoro lurking like a goddamn demon with black lightning bursting out of every blade, Zoro smirking, Summers trying to flash-step away, and Zoro chasing him with lightning bolts and a flaming eye and Summers crying like a doofus.

It's satisfying as hell, especially with how much of a cunt Summers has been, although we don't really see the battle get resolved. People are talking about pattern conventions of Sanji-Zoro-Luffy fights, but which is evidence that I hate with all my guts. But I also kind of feel like we haven't really seen Zoro kill anyone on-screen, so it would be interesting if Summers did die in this chapter (or shortly after). 

Far more interesting to me is the Brook/Shuri stuff, but I think it's quite clear that I am very invested in the Brook storyline. Shuri finally wakes up and Brook asks her name -- and she's clearly conflicted, going back and forth between seeing traumatic moments of the past, to seeing Brook (both as he once was, and as he is now). And among the flashbacks of the traumatic event in Esperia, we get a creepy scene of Shuri/Gunko on a slab asking "Lord Imu... I want to live!" so there is a missing puzzle piece there about a deal that Shuri potentially made to Imu. 

Brook basically says all the right things, tells Shuri/Gunko that he has figured things out, and even gets tears to flow out of Shuri's eyes. Brook tells Shuri that 'years can't be reduced to a few words', which is a heavy line, I feel. Brook then tells Shuri about his identity, reinforcing the things that Shuri doesn't want to acknowledge. Shuri keeps insisting that she is Gunko, presumably due to a combination of denial, guilt, or some combination of the two. She tells Brook to stay away, slashing the ground with her arrow-sword, but notably doesn't attack Brook himself, and she tries to run off. 

Oh yeah, this chapter also has another half-page with Team Chopper/Robin/Saul opening the owl's chest, and Chopper translating that a long time ago, Lili lived on this island. Nefertari Lili apparently moved to Elbaf after being exiled by Imu, I guess? I... I would be a bit more excited about this reveal if everything else about Zoro, Sanji and Brook isn't around it, and if the goddamn owl hasn't been dragged on for half a year now. 

Speaking of denial and guilt, we get a little series of headshots of the kids and parents that are still trapped by Zaza, which I felt wasn't the most necessary. Killingham isn't worried about Sanji at all, telling Sanji that it is futile. Sanji unleashes an Ifrit Jambe: Sky Table attack, which blows Killingham apart... and does another swirling 'Kick Course' attack that blenders Killingham into smoke. He does have the destructive power to kill or defeat Killingham, it's just that without Conqueror's Haki it's pointless. 

Killingham reforms, mocks Sanji the commoner, and unleashes a lightning blast with Longinus, telling us what that holy weapon does, at least. As Sanji gets tossed around by the Longinus blast, he falls down and flashes back to Gaban's words about him being burdened with uncertainty that's stopping him from having the qualities of a king. 

As Killingham looms over Sanji, he flashes back and introspects that he is 'basically torturing himself', and we get a couple of important flashbacks. Luffy telling Sanji that "you don't pay back someone by dying" from all the way back in Baratie. Sanji taking a shot from Enel to protect Nami and Usopp. Sanji trying to take the shot from Kuma in 'nothing happened'. And two shots from the Whole Cake Island arc where Sanji tried to sacrifice himself to 'solve everything', and breaking down after Luffy confronts him. 

And then as Killingham continues to beat up Sanji and have a brief mockery about surface-world food... Sanji flashes back to Ivankov, who tells Sanji that he has one hell of a serious weakness... and that it's some memories and advice that Sanji has suppressed. The Zoro stuff is really cool, but Sanji's character-driven development, particularly around Conqueror's Haki, is absolutely very welcome. I do hope that these two big character-driven power-up moments for Zoro and Sanji end up telling us a bit more about what Conqueror's Haki is, for sure! 

Random Notes:

• It is quite nice for my schedules, I suppose, that the One Piece manga is also beset with a couple of break weeks. This pair of chapters are not particularly dense either, and depending on whether 1195 is another focused action chapter or not, I might even re-publish this article with 1195 tacked on the bottom. Yeah, I did that.
• There was a not-insignificant amount of dialogue devoted to the fact that the Adam Tree has had chunks torn out of it by the impact of their attacks, so I wouldn't be surprised if one of the big spectacular things that would happen in this arc is the world tree collapsing.
• Gram is described to 'turn its wielder's wrath into strength', but Summers really doesn't seem to be a particularly angry man. Emotional and sadistic, sure. But not really angry. Wonder if Ju Peter would have a better go with the blade than he did?
• Oh, in the middle of the fight, Summers again fucks up by causing the ship to transport the children to get destroyed. The ship is leagues larger than a regular human ship, but with us having seen Zoro slice a ship a couple hundred chapters ago, it really doesn't feel like that much of a threat!
• We don't get an actual, black-on-white confirmation, but it does basically kind of mean that Mihawk also has Conqueror's Haki, doesn't it? And... and honestly, it's not really surprising. I'm not as crazy as a lot of the Mihawk fans out there, but I definitely am happy to see him finally getting some buildup after hanging around in the background for so long. 
• I do like that one of the musings Zoro has is also an assumption that a lot of the fandom, myself included, has had for a long time -- only captains can have Conqueror's Haki, right? Because they aren't subservient to another? But it seems that it isn't the case, and I do feel like the other assumption -- that you need to be born with it -- is likely to be proven false at some point as well. 
• I love Perona. I love that she's probably doing this wacky interruption for every time that Mihawk tries to seriously coach Zoro. "Beards!"
• So the wispy 'King of Hell' flames, which we've seen on Enma and some of Zoro's other swords, isn't an indicator of Conqueror's Haki, and it's still just the black lightning -- at the end of the 1194 chapter, Zoro's swords have both the wispy flames and the black lightning when Summers freaks out. 
• All of the surrounding Straw Hats -- Nami, Franky and Jinbe -- are ready to throw hands, but none of them make a move. Notably, the one that was the most trigger-happy about killing Gunko, Jinbe, was the close-up we have when Brook notices Shuri's tears. 
• The remaining children held by Zaza are the four that are really attached to important people -- Colon (Ripley/Gaban's kid), Ylva (Jarul's granddaughter), Bjorn (Rodo's brother) and Johanna, the orphan attached to the teacher ANnge.

One Piece 1192 Review: God Speaks!

One Piece, Chapter 1192: We Won't Stand For It!!!

I sat on whether I'm going to do a standalone review for this chapter or not, mostly because there isn't a whole ton that happened here. It's another combat chapter, but also one that has one rather big moment in the middle that I really liked. 

The first couple of pages of this chapter is just an action scene. And Monkey D. Luffy is back up and fighting Imu alongside Loki. (Hajrudin seems to be staying back after that Gokoku combo attack, but it's mostly understandable). There's a couple of neat scenes of Loki swinging his hammer around, and Luffy does a 'Dawn Kraken Gatling' where he twangs his arms to make Imu's little homing flame-sprites detonate earlier. Imu also shows off 'Tohu-wa-Bohu', the twin blades mentioned earlier in passing, which he uses together to create a shield.

The most important thing here, however, is the argument between Scopper Gaban... and Usopp of all people. That's right, stand down, Imu, the real god is speaking. 

Gaban is quite flummoxed -- not that Luffy is back in the fight (which I do have to call shenanigans on) but on why Luffy is still fighting. But Usopp walks up and starts listing down all the giants that the Straw Hats have made friends with. Dorry, Brogy, Oimo, Kashi, and Hajrudin's crew. Love the little moment where Usopp claims that Hajrudin's crew swore loyalty to him, and Hajrudin in the background corrects it to Luffy. Which... honestly, Hajrudin, that whole 'God Usopp' thing was your fault. 

But Luffy having friends is a reason for him to fight for a place, and Usopp knows that Monkey D. Luffy will never abandon his friends (and the homeland of his friends) unless something terrible happens. Gaban retorts that Luffy's survival is important to Elbaf's history because of all the Nika and Joy Boy and prophecy stuff, and Usopp says that Luffy -- and he -- won't give a damn about any of that. I really like the little line that Usopp yells at Gaban about how 'you've been projecting Roger onto him for a while now'. 

And in a very good line from Usopp, he rants about how people can place hopes and expectations on Luffy... but only up to a point. If those expectations threaten Luffy's freedom, 'we won't stand for it'. Usopp knows Luffy, because he sees Luffy as his friend and captain. Becoming all-white, becoming the reincarnation of the Sun God and all this other brouhaha won't change who Luffy is, and who Luffy is is someone who's going to fight for his friends. Gaban is a bit surprised at all of this, wondering where Usopp has been all this while. 

The rest of the chapter is just more action scenes. Luffy and Loki do a combo attack that Luffy calls 'Gomu Gomu Thor Bullet'. It slams onto Imu in the same way that Gear 5 cartoonishly stretches out Kaido's body a couple of arcs ago. Oh, and it breaks Tohu-wa-Bohu. Sure. The action scenes are like... it's there, I'm happy we're getting them but I'm also not the most invested in this battle due to, well, frankly, a lack of stakes in a way? 

And that's something that I do feel like I want to emphasize about these last couple of chapters. I do agree fully that Usopp and Gaban exploring Luffy's role as being 'Luffy' versus being Sun God Nika, The Prophesized One, The Next Coming of Joy Boy, Gol D. Roger's Inherited Will, etc etc etc is amazing. It works great with the themes about freedom and what it means to Luffy, and in a way we've seen this in action in a different way with Nico Robin and how the Straw Hats want her around because she's Robin, and all the Devil's Child and poneglyph-reading abilities come secondary to that. In the same vein, Usopp and company believe in Luffy because he's Luffy, and less so because of the Joy Boy or Nika stuff. And in a genre oversaturated with the great big chosen ones and parallels to the past, I really love that it's not just Luffy but also his crewmates who 'won't stand for' all this malarkey about people trying to make Luffy into Nika or Joy Boy or whatever. It's a nice and a bit overdue ever since Wano.

Likewise, I am very happy that Usopp does have his big moment! It could be a bit more grandiose, but I do really like that Usopp's big moment is to do a huge speech. I've never thought that Usopp's big moment in Elbaf should be like, picking up Ragnir and bashing Imu in the face. Even if he had a big moment a la Stampede, it would be good enough. But this is a nice moment for Usopp. I hope he gets to deliver more commentary in the next couple of chapters, and maybe get a line or two off against Imu. 

But... but the fight is really getting repetitive and doesn't quite have the same level of tension as it has before. The moment Luffy randomly recovers his stamina last chapter by thinking really hard and handwaving it with food, it kind of felt like all the tension deflated away. Usopp giving that speech to counteract Gaban is a nice clash of ideas of what Luffy should be vs. what Luffy is. And I understand that as a character with motivations, Luffy would not turn his back on Elbaf. But for him to jump straight back into Gear Fifth wackadoodle no-consequences stuff after being punished maybe four or five chapters ago... it feels very off. In an ideal world there's a way for One Piece to have its cake and eat it too, but we're leaning a bit too much into not letting Luffy learn a lesson. He can learn a lesson and be goofy at the same time, but he can't really do it if the story makes him feel invincible and protected by plot armour. 

Random Notes:

• It is interesting that Imu is actually doing much worse in the battle after bulking up and transforming. That's not how it normally goes for supervillain transformations, but Imu is also a bit interesting since he's working off of a time limit. 
• So, Thor Bullet. I feel like it would've had more impact that Luffy's doing another Thor attack if we hadn't seen him randomly do Thor Elephant Gun back in Dresrossa. Like, the movie version in Strong World is all right since it was situational and we saw the buildup with the lightning cloud, making it look like something super-special. 
• I know he did a Thor Rifle earlier this arc, but it's in Gear Fifth and also had him reach out and grab lightning, so that's a bit more explained. 
• While it's both pronounced 'Thor' with katakana, Thor Bullet has the kanji be 'raijin' (thunder god), whereas Thor Rifle and Thor Elephant Gun had 'kaminari' (lightning) and 'raisho' (thunder general) respectively. 
• Also, Loki can... charge Ragnir's attacks? It's an interesting sequence, making it look like a video game character doing a charged blast. 
• Usopp did kind of just teleport there, didn't he? I guess he hitched a ride, unseen, on either Hajrudin or Loki. It's just surprising that it's not brought up at all. 
• Usopp also wasn't around to hear a huge chunk of Gaban's speech that he's deconstructing regardless on whether he arrived with Hajrudin or Loki... but we've been having a fair amount of focus with Usopp's Observation Haki in the couple of scenes that we checked in with him, so I'm not going to hold it against him. 

One Piece 1191 Review: Second Form

One Piece, Chapter 1191: There's Still Loki

Picking up from where last chapter left off, Luffy is still struggling to get back up after his injury of being pierced multiple times by Imu's royal swords. I will straight up note that I'm not a big fan of just how quick Luffy appears to recover in this chapter -- while 1190 does have Scopper Gaban lay it on to Luffy about his lack of taking things seriously, I did wish for something more akin to the Sabaody or Marineford 'lessons'. Even if it's not quite as tragic as those two pre-timeskip stuff, I really didn't like it that Luffy essentially bounces back with some strange Gear Fifth bullshittery in this one. It's not as bad as some of the Wano parts, but I really hope this chapter is an anomaly and we get some character development for Luffy in the Elbaf arc. 

Luffy, at least, acknowledges that his wounds are severe enough that he would be in big trouble if he gets out of Gear Fifth at any point. There's a nice bit where Luffy apologizes to Gaban for 'taking the hit', only for Gaban to get pissed off at Luffy for thinking that -- he's just protecting Elbaf. Gaban wraps up his amputated arm, and tells Luffy that Imu is basically 'god'. 

We get shots of random animals being knocked out by Imu's Conqueror's Haki. Imu himself is lying on his back, not entirely unscathed from Gaban's Gate of God attack, and reflects that he should have eliminated all of Roger's crew in God Valley alongside Rocks. Imu then proceeds to transform -- into what I view as a Dark Souls style 'second phase'. His horns are larger and more ram-like, the placement of his tattoos have changed, and his arms are fully black (Armament Haki?). The general look is a more heavyset, more bulky form, and the large black wings does really make him look a lot more like a Lunarian. Imu is also seemingly larger than before, although it really is hard to tell -- One Piece has never been the best with scale. 

I do like this form a bit less than the original one, but I feel like this is the case with most villains that go through forms -- not many people care for Freeza or Cell's middle forms, after all. 

There's a brief cutaway to Robin, Chopper and Saul talking to Biblo. As what we've expected, they do want to get Chopper to talk to the mysterious ancient owl, and Biblo does go 'hoot hoot hoot'... but while Chopper does have a reaction, we as the readers don't get to learn this. Okay, sure.

We cut back to Imu in his new form attacking the wounded Luffy and Gaban. Imu and Gaban trade some barbs, including a hilarious bit where Gaban notes that he would applaud Imu, but, y'know, he's only got one arm left. Imu tells Luffy to get his crew and flee Elbaf, but Luffy doesn't want to do that, outmatched or not. 

I do think that unless we're going to highlight the 'tragedy' thing, with Gaban and potentially more of the giants dying, we won't be leaving Elbaf the way we escaped Egghead... Luffy is invested in the wellbeing of the people of Elbaf, and even if they don't get a full victory, I feel like the way to end this arc would have to be the implied timer on Imu. 

Luffy and Gaban, both in not much of a shape to block another attack from Imu, brace for impact... and motherfucking HAJRUDIN of all people comes in with Gungnir to punch Imu the fuck away. 

God bless Hajrudin. He has been theoretically one of the most important characters in this arc, being a member of the Straw Hat Grand Fleet, and the son of a king... but from a fighting standpoint, we need to remember that Hajrudin was beaten effortlessly by a Gear Second Luffy, and had to struggle to take out even one of Doflamingo's lesser minions.

But god damn it, with all of the story we've been told via Loki, can you blame the guy for trying? He just comes in with his strongest move Gungnir, and while the physical blast is impressive, I don't get the sense that Imu is injured -- just waylaid unexpectedly. And even then, Hajrudin had to block Imu's black flame-bomb attack; his arm-shield shattering in the process. 

As Imu recovers, Gaban tells Hajrudin to get Luffy away, since "there's no way to win". Luffy adamantly refuses, with some bullshit handwave about 'eating a lot' before coming here. Hajrudin protects Luffy and Gaban from another barrage of bombs. Hajrudin is prepared to die for Elbaf, noting that "if I die... there's still Loki!"

It's a nice little mini-arc going in the background of all this madness, but the Hajrudin/Loki mutual respect is slowly growing over the background. And just in cue, Loki comes in to help his big brother. That is cool! A bit less cool (and inexplicable, judging by Gaban's reaction) is Luffy swelling up and going "I'm all better too!". He still does look a bit wounded so I'm not calling full bullshit yet, but I am worried about the deflating tension from this battle when the last couple of chapters built up Imu's threat to Luffy specifically quite well. 

Loki, Hajrudin and Luffy deals a triple-combo Gokoku Sovereignty attack; the same one that Gerd, Rodo and Goldberg did earlier in the arc. Cool moment, but I felt like this really should be a Loki and Hajrudin moment and we didn't need Luffy butting into the brothers' attack. But oh well. Again, it's a nice payoff to the two princes' storyline, and I'm a fan of it being at least tied up now. 

It's a bit annoying that I'm coming back to review single chapters on what I think is the weakest chapter in this Imu battle, but it is admittedly a bit early to be going on a proverbial witch-hunt when it's just a quick single chapter. We'll see if we continue this fight next chapter, or if we'll cut away to the Zoro or Sanji fights -- which has remained conspicuously absent. I wouldn't mind it if we just have some 'hold the line' bit for the wounded group here holding Imu off (well, three are wounded, while Hajrudin's just outclassed). 

Random Notes:

• Single chapter review this time around, because I'm a bit freer this week. Not sure if this is going to keep happening, and depending on my schedule I may go back to 3-5 chapters in a go. 
• The strange panda and wolf-bunny monster, as with all Elbafian wildlife, were creatures that first debuted in One Piece: Strong World. 
• Some people are trying to map Imu's current forms to the three Zoan forms... but I feel that's not what the story is going for. Luffy, after all, is also a 'god Zoan' and his forms and gears are all over the place compared to the human/beast/hybrid dichotomy. 
• Since we do have some time, I would like to note that we did get a significant number of Imu's nineteen blades (he's missing Lily's blade) named, and most of them refer to a legendary weapon or some kind of religious meaning:
• Stigma is a term that means a 'brand' from Greco-Roman culture, usually a brand or tattoo to mark a status of disgrace. However, due to Christianity, the term 'stigma' or 'stigmata' has since been associated with the crucifixion wounds of Jesus Christ; and wounds that appear in similar places reported in some devout followers.
• Longinus, or rather the 'Spear of Longinus', is taken from extended Christianity mythos. It is stated that the soldier that pierced Jesus Christ's side with his spear was named Longinus, and the spear, coated with the blood of Christ, was transformed into a holy lance -- with many various relics over the Middle Ages being claimed to be the holy lance that allowed whoever held it to have the right to rule. 
• Nemesis is the Greek goddess of divine retribution. While often mistranslated by modern interpretations as a mere 'goddess of revenge', the original Nemesis is tasked with meting out punishments specifically to mortals that show pride and hubris before gods.
• Fragarach, Blade of the Sea God, is a magical sword from Irish mythology that belonged to the sea god Manannán mac Lir, which can cause wounds that do not heal, and force people to tell the truth. 
• Gram -- which also means 'wrath' in its original language -- is a famous blade from Germanic mythology. The blade Gram is embedded into a tree by the god Odin, who noted that only a worthy hero can pull it out. The blade would be drawn by the hero Sigurd (a.k.a. Siegfried) to slay the evil dragon Fafnir in the Nibelung Saga. 
• The Axe of Xingtian refers to the Chinese myth of an axe-wielding divine giant. Xingtian was a rebel against the supreme god, who was decapitated for his rebellion. Refusing to let a simple thing as death stop him, Xingtian survived as a headless being, using his nipples as eyes and his navel as a mouth, continuing to fight beyond death. 
• Bohu (or Vohu) and Tohu are terms from the Hebrew Bible about the void that exists prior to the creation of light by God. The subtitles for Bohu and Tohu identify them as "Blade of Nothingness" and "Blade of Chaos" respectively. 
• Honebami Toshiro is a a Japanese katana, attributed to one of the greatest swordsmiths in Japanese history, Toshiro (Awataguchi Yoshimitsu). The sword is now in a shrine in Kyoto, and gained its reputation for the ability to crush or sever bones as if 'devouring' them.  
• Muramasa is a famous Japanese swordsmith from the 14th-16th century, whose swords are well-known for their supreme quality... but also often had myths of them being cursed blades.

One Piece 1187-1190 Review: Sword Collection

One Piece, Chapters 1187-1190

Been a while since I did a One Piece review. Again, I'm doing this as a little catch-up while I juggle some IRL stuff that has been making it slow for me to blog anything in real-time...

Chapter 1187: The Root of the Problem

This one picks up where 1186 left off, with Luffy punching Imu, and there's a brief bit of macho posturing from Loki before Imu zips back up and uses the ringing Omen black flames to summon a gigantic extending black sword, "Stigma, Blade of Hatred", to stab Loki through the shoulder. This is an interesting ability and the fact that Imu has been naming his abilities based on swords becomes a bit more relevant in subsequent chapters. 

Regardless, the wounded Loki gets thrown across the battlefield, landing to where Gunko is frozen in ice next to most of the other Straw Hats. The Ragnir hammer conks down on the ice cube and starts to melt it, although Gunko/Shuri doesn't come to in any of these chapters. 

Luffy and Imu have their 1v1, with Imu doing the same 'Stigma' ability that uses bell-shaped flames to create little flame buddies that latch onto Luffy, and giant blades and pillars of black flame try to track where Luffy is jumping around. The chapter cuts away to Zoro and Sanji below, but the final shot is Gear Fifth Luffy facing off against Imu, and Imu calling him 'Joy Boy' and Luffy not giving a shit about that. 

This chapter also spends half its runtime with two battle setups, which is always cool. Zoro confronts Saint Summers, and both have their own nice one-liners. Summers is confident about Omen, while Zoro says that Sanji's going to kill the other God's Knight. Sanji, meanwhile, goes through a bit of a brief crisis because this giant avatar of Rain God Zaza is in the shape of a woman and he can't kick it... so he'll settle with beating up Killingham. 

It's a bit of a longer scene and a nice spotlight for Sanji's own complexes, but essentially we flash back to the moment where Sanji and Scopper were talking about Conqueror's Haki earlier in the arc, and Scopper says what everyone probably expected -- Sanji has the traits of being a king, or the potential to have it, but has a 'streak of masochistic instability'. So Sanji's going to get a moment in this arc as well where he's going to unlock Conqueror's Haki, and it's actually tied to his character. That's absolutely going to be welcome. 

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Chapter 1188: Vohu

1188 starts off with a strange flashback of what appears to be a phone call between Imu and Joy Boy, which might be their first encounter... although we don't really get much context about that. 

Imu and Luffy fight across these couple of chapters and it's just a nice sequence of fight scenes -- which honestly has became a bit of a rarity in One Piece these days. Imu's abilities continue to vary, with him opening up with an attack that resembles Luffy's own Snakeman with an extending fiery arm that changes direction mid-air. Imu continues to barrage Luffy with his little fireball imps, and Luffy randomly transforms into "Gomu Gomu Genie".... which is unexpected? Not sure what this form really ended up doing other than being a bit bigger than usual.  

There's a nice comedic scene where Luffy insists that "Loki's death will not be in vain", while Loki complains that he's still alive. There's a couple of shorter moments, like Jinbe protecting Loki from stray attacks (and Ragnir fawning over Jinbe); Brook speculating on the identity of Imu (as the head of the God's Knights) -- and Imu even actually recognizing Brook's identity from Esperia.

After another sequence of Luffy dodging Imu's fire balls, Imu then summons "Blade of Nothingness: Vohu" and this curved blade causes the plants all around Imu to dry up and to clear Luffy's hiding spots... and Imu charges in and stabs Luffy through the chest. "Joy Boy is not that weak!"

It's a pretty neat sequence that sets up the next couple of chapters. Luffy has been playing around a bit too much, and while I don't want Luffy to be an emo serious protagonist, I do like that we're acknowledging a little bit that Luffy hasn't really been taking stuff seriously in the New World, and he's starting to hit a bit of a Sabaody-esque ceiling. I get that Gear Fifth is something that runs on joy and comedy, but it being properly challenged like this is neat! Nice shades of Alabasta, too, with Crocodile impaling Luffy on his hook. 

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Chapter 1189: King of the World

We continue with Imu brutalizing Luffy, with Imu impaling Luffy and stabbing him against a tree with Vohu. And turns out that Imu's powers, as we find out in this chapter, is essentially something that people have been comparing to an inventory select screen. Imu has access to the 19 blades of the founding families of the World Government, and Stigma and Vohu are some of them. 

We cut away to other scenes, but Imu does a speech about Monkey D. Luffy and his hateful brothers, summoning "Blade of the Sea: Fragarach" (which seems to draw moisture from plants?) and the Axe of Xingtian. All of these are weapons based on mythologies in the real world, and we get some other weapon names being dropped by Summers and Killingham, whose Omen power-up also grants them access to these weapons. Shepherd summons his own family's sword, Gram, which we've seen briefly in the Loki/Imu battle. Killingham, meanwhile, summons the Rimoshifu family's spear, Longinus. We also get 'Tohu' and 'Muramasa' name-dropped. That's cool, and a neat little twist for the fights against the God's Knights that would otherwise be a bit repetitive. The chapter ends with Scopper swooping in to save Luffy from Imu in a very epic clash.

With the rest of the Straw Hats, however, Usopp finally does something, activating Observation Haki for the first time in a decade of real-world publication. Luffy and Imu's fight is far away, but Usopp is realizing that something isn't right. With moments given to multiple other Straw Hats like Brook, Robin, Luffy and soon Sanji, it is nice that Usopp is apparently not forgotten by the writer. There is a bit of a conversation between Brook and an angry Ragnir about Shuri, with Ragnir seeing Shuri as a threat, and Brook confirming that he sees Shuri as his daughter. 

Things are interrupted when Hajrudin, Gerd and Chopper arrive and accidentally slam down a whole-ass ship down on the already-wounded Loki. Hajrudin gets a brief flashback to Elder Jarl telling him to go where he needs to go. Loki also gets a flashback to a conversation he had right after Harald's death with Scopper and Shanks. Shanks tells Loki about Imu's status as the king of the world, and essentially tells Loki that he just isn't powerful to take down the King of the World... and the time isn't right to do so anyway. 

In the present day Loki tells this to Hajrudin, who gets a nice brotherly moment. But more importantly, this information about the King of the World has been given to our heroes. Robin also has a little cameo with Saul, calling Chopper in to presumably talk to the owl.

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Chapter 1190: Those Whose Death Brings Celebration

1190 is an unexpected Imu vs Scopper fight, following up from the previous chapter. It's a snappy one to read, mostly just showcasing some more cool abilities from Imu and Scopper. And again, the chapter moves quite quickly through the battle scene, but it is regardless still quite entertaining.

The clash that ended 1189 frees Luffy and slices up the branch that he was impaled into. And Scopper just continues to talk shit to a rather confused Imu, telling him that he is someone who 'knows the world'. 

Scopper then picks up Luffy and starts yelling at him -- saying a lot of the same commentary that was the intended audience reaction from 1188 and 1189. It is interesting considering Oda made a huge point about wanting to make Gear Fifth a 'fun to draw' form, but the depiction of Gear Fifth has been quite an unserious and wacky form that steamrolls a lot of Luffy's opponents. Scopper tells Luffy that he should be ashamed for having to be rescued by a wounded old man, and starts yelling at Luffy for getting full of himself after Gear Fifth and being crowned a Yonko. This shakes Luffy into realizing that he wouldn't be able to protect his friends if he fails here. Scopper then name-drops the chapter title, saying that getting to the Pirate King isn't a walk in the park, and it's a title "whose death brings celebration". 

Scopper then tosses Luffy away, leaving him to stew in frustration while also recover a bit of stamina. Scopper charges in with some 'mantis axe style' rotation, before mocking Imu for being reminded so much about Joy Boy. Imu is not pleased, summoning a katana called Honebami Toshiro, a bit irritated (and maybe freaked out?) that Scopper knows all of these things. Again, a nice bit that really does quite a bit in establishing Imu as an individual character.

Scopper Gaban then notes that he really doesn't care about the words of someone he's never met before... but he will make his captain's dreams come true. His captain? King of the Pirates, Gol D. Roger. That has to be my favourite panel from this whole sequence. 

Gaban then tells Imu that the sheer vehemence that he and his minions have been trying to eliminate Luffy makes it clear that Luffy is the guy they've been waiting for, and we get a multi-panel shot of other members of Roger's crew. Crocus, Rayleigh, Shanks, Oden and Whitebeard, all of whom bet on the future in different ways. 

Imu then sends another fireball imp thing at the fallen Luffy, but then Gaban leaps into the air, leading to a cool almost-two-page-spread as he unleashes 'Gate of God', launching gigantic blasts of lightning at Imu and the area around him. He's literally weaponizing Conqueror's Haki! This breaks apart the giant tree and sends the branches falling into the ground, and Gaban unleashes 'Yachi Takeru' (8000 instead of 80 Takeru, which is the skill he used against Luffy and Zoro). But Imu's Honebami attack sneaks up and slices into Gaban's arm, and as the smoke clears, Luffy wakes up to see Gaban defeated with an arm sliced off. 

That's a cool exit for Gaban, with the chapter just being quite cool in general, and a nice exit for Gaban, while also giving Luffy some much-needed character development. Excited to see where this is going to go! 

One Piece 1181-1186 Review: Brook's Tragedies

One Piece, Chapters 1181-1185

So due to my quasi-hiatus, I haven't had the time to really do the typical in-depth discussions I usually do for One Piece. But I am still keeping up to date, and I'll just do a rapid-fire discussion about the past couple of months of chapters. I know I'm missing a couple of the newest ones! Such is the case when you make some notes for a discussion while the chapters are being released, and whatnot. 

That'll be similar to how I handle the Bleach TYBW season as it comes out, by the way. Very excited about it, but due to real-life stuff I really am unable to do the reviews to the depth, detail and speed that I used to do. Anyway...

Chapter 1181: God and Devil

This one is mostly an action scene, and it's a nice setup for Loki versus Imu. I never really cared all that much for 'powerscaling' and I genuinely don't think Loki's going to be the one to take down Imu... but it's always fun, in Dragon Ball terms, to see Vegeta try and take on the big bad before Goku comes along. 

That's not to say this isn't entertaining, as Loki is really angry at Imu having the gall to act all inconvenienced at Harald's death when Harald's son and kingdom are the ones that actually suffered the most. We then have some clashes of big, over-the-top anime powers. Not a lot of them are explained; Loki has some lightning hammer attacks and does a dragon breath explosion attack at one point. Imu has some more black flames that he can mould and shapeshift. He summons a blade called Nemesis at one point. It's cool, it's neat, and just like the Rocks/Garp/Roger fight, it's nice to see a One Piece fight breathe and take the time to show off new powers.

Imu gives a nice Final Fantasy villain motivation rant, too, about the 'trinity of evil', which is neat. It doesn't really tell me anything new about him. He's anti-freedom and all about subjugation and domination. He freaks out about Joy Boy every now and then. But I can appreciate a villain speech as he's beating up the heroes. The title is 'god, devil, what's the difference', which is a bit of a background theme in One Piece. 

Not much to really discuss here and I thought I'd be happy if the bulk of the chapters of the hiatus were action scenes and I can take it easy... but it's not all just punchy punch!

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Chapter 1182: Zaza

We've got more fighting between Imu and Loki, and again, we get some more reinforcement that Imu's really having a lot of comparisons with the world of the past -- identifying Loki as Nidhoggr and being acquainted with Ragnir. We get some displays of how Ragnir and Loki combine their attacks into dragon breath explosions (which would undoubtedly be a source of the anime's fancy special effects) and Loki starts summoning more magical circles and fire bomb demons. It's very much a 'wizard duel'! I can't complain. It looks cool. 

And then we get a couple of scene-seetting scenes. We get a scene of Sanji heading off to hunt down Killingham after a bit of a flashback to establish Killingham taunting him. A bit shorter, but Zoro is also heading down to go God Knight hunting. Robin and Saul find out that the enigmatic Biblo the owl have moved the books of Ohara into a secret underground chamber. Chopper has stitched Gerd's fingers back. There's a comedy moment with Road and Gerd. Summers (or SUPER Summers) have gotten a boat to kidnap the kids...

And the final part of this chapter is an odd one, where it's the titular 'Zaza'. SUPER Summers berates Killingham for accidentally summoning the thing that he fears most... and after a buildup, we learn that this is... the Rain God Zaza. the Rain God Zaza is a four-armed woman with a kasa hat, a covered mouth, and utterly titanic as it moves around like a water elemental kaiju to grab the children. Zaza honestly did really just come out of nowhere and I kind of wished that there was a bit more of a buildup.

Or, well, buildup within the arc, in any case, since the idea of a "Rain God" has been around since Skypiea, which also mentioned the "Sun God" which would become super relevant. That leaves Earth and Forest as the two missing ones from the Skypiea pantheon. I like the idea of Killingham summoning another threat for our heroes to fight, and I like the concept of tying it into showing off the mythology of the gods that Oda is building up to... but not necessarily how abrupt it is done. 

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One Piece, Chapter 1183: Good Mor-Maid

We start off with more fighting, with Loki unleashing more named attacks, and Imu creating more giant flame blades. Very cool, one of the coolest swords in mythology, Gram, gets a name-drop. Imu also name drops someone called 'Douzan' as someone who he had eliminated before. Ominous!

We get more shots of Zaza kidnapping the kids and Ripley giving a badass motherly rallying cry... but then we cut to Brook talking with the rest of the Straw Hats there, who ask Brook what his connection to Gunko is. Finally it is being addressed! With how abrupt the Brook-vs-Gunko-Imu was handled, I was very very pleaased to see it actually be handled. In the previous chapters, that Brook/Gunko flashback the tension and mystery and confrontation rose up, it was so compelling, and even Usopp joins in... and the two are defeated offscreen. And that was a bit bad. 

But now? 

Now, we don't just get Brook sitting down (or lying down) and explaining the context about Gunko (or Shuri)... but Brook also points out that three are three personalities in her -- which we know as the original kind Shuri, the evil twisted Domi Reversi'd Gunko, and Imu possessing Gunko. Jinbe asks Brook to make the decision on whether Gunko lives or dies...

AND WE GET A BROOK FLASHBACK.

I am sorry, what?

That was so unexpected, but so welcome. Brook is in the running to be my favourite Straw Hat with really the only serious contender being Robin, but I've honestly fallen into accepting that Brook is in the secondary tier of the crew and I wasn't expecting a full flashback to flesh out the story before he joined the Rumbar Pirates. I was already over the moon that we're getting something with the Gunko connection. 

But Brook is revealed to have hailed from Esperia, a country that makes musical instruments. He's singing (which gives us the painful 'good mor-maid' title) in the city early in the morning, and Leader of the Raider Squad Brook is like the superstar of the kingdom. The knights idolize him, little tiny princess Shuri really looks up to him, and we're also introduced to the king and queen of the kingdom. The seemingly slovenly King Reuven initially looks like a typical evil king a la Wapol, but the comedy between them is basically just two brothers having a comedy routine. Brook also has an unashamed crush for the queen Candelle, even openly saying it in front of Reuven and Shuri... again, it's all a nice establishing of their wacky little family dynamic. The chapter ends with Brook doing a very long distance Arrow-Notch Slash to cut a bunch of mafia trying to kidnap Queen Candelle, which is hilariously and insanely over-the-top with how delayed it was. Man, present-day Brook need to be in more fights! 

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One Piece, Chapter 1184: We're All Bones When We Die

We jump a bit forwards in time from the previous flashback, with Shuri growing into a teenager at 14 and emulating Brook as a warrior (because Brook likes strong women). Brook and Shuri have a really nice relationship going on, bonding over music and stories. Also nicely established is that while Brook acts like his typical perverted self throughout the entire flashback, he constantly shoots down Shuri's child-like crush towards him. So the idea is that Brook does just see Shuri as a daughter-figure, which nicely avoids any creepy implications. 

We then get a flashback-in-a-flashback, which is... it's a very touching story, even if it's simple. 11-year-old Brook is a ratty little beggar who peeks into the nobles playing music, while he lives in a garbage dump and plays music with a "violin" made up of random bottles and wires. He sings songs to mock the king while singing about his dead family that starved to death. This is when he met the then-Prince Reuven, who is doing a "royal pretends to be a common folk" deal, and the two become fast friends. Brook calls Reuven 'big bro' (aniki), and gives his precious food -- random frogs and grasshoppers, but it's a cuisine because Brook found some curry powder and cooked it. Reuven is utterly appalled at the contrast between his own royal life. 

A couple of years later, Brook gets captured by some corrupt navy who thinks he's a drug runner (it's actually the Moron mafia family from the previous chapter). But then heedless of the potential implications of fighting the Marines, Prince Reuven charges in to rescue Brook... and Candelle, who is his royal bodyguard, shows up with him. This is when Brook essentially gets adopted into the castle as Reuven's charge, and this begins Brook's crush on the future queen Candelle. 

It's a very wholesome chapter, but we also know what happened to Brook and some tragedy's going to happen. This is a One Piece flashback, after all. 

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One Piece, Chapter 1185: Mindja Own Beeswax

We get more wholesome scenes of Brook bonding with Candelle, who trains Brook as her squire. There are some nice comedic moments that show Brook's a gigantic goober even as a child, and we see the genesis of his panties gag -- Candelle insists that Brook needs etiquette and has to speak politely, which is the origin of the 'would you mind doing me the favour of showing me your panties please' formal gag.

We cut to the teenage Shuri, and in a very blink-and-miss detail, as Brook handwaves the time when they grew up and Shuri was born, Brook notes a moment when a World Government ship landed on Esperia, where Candelle was 'stressed and bedridden for months', and shortly afterwards was the time of Reuven's coronation, marriage and Shuri's birth. I actually didn't realize the implications that was being told here until the next couple of chapters... which is surprisingly well-hidden by Oda and honestly one of the better ways to utilize the rape/sexual assault trope in a narrative and making it horrifying without being graphic.

The fact that it was hidden in-between Brook's stories as he explains his benefactors to Shuri, and there's also a cute moment where Shuri pouts that she also wants Brook to treat her as someone that he would 'sacrifice his life for', is cute. There's a great montage of Brook and Shuri as they grow up, set to the tone of 'Mind Your Own Beeswax', a little teenage-rebellion song that Brook teaches Shuri. Lots of cute moments here, the highlight being Shuri scaring the shit out of Brook with a halloween sheet skeleton. 

Of course, it's a One Piece flashback, so bad things happen. A couple of years later, Esperia is beset by a fog that conveniently destroys the musical instruments that Esperia's economy depends on. Everyone tries to keep their spirits up, but Queen Candelle ends up succumbing and dying to the disease. This was done quite quickly, there's a lot of great panels of the mourning Brook, Shuri and Reuven... and shortly afterwards, the country is beset by another problem -- they can't pay the Heavenly Tribute. 

Reuven declares that there's going to be a war against the World Government, and we get a cool scene where Brook just immediately nods and accepts it with no question. Reuven did explain what's going on to the rest of his soldiers, noting that the World Government demanded 1000 slaves. We get then another montage of Brook singing the 'Mind Your Own Beeswax' song. He says this to raise the morale of the citizens, and then as he leads the army to fight the Marines that come. It's such a valiant fight, but while Brook himself is badass the artwork shows just how outnumbered the Esperian forces are. 

We get Brook running through every setting that has been shown in this flashback. The castle, the garden, even the dump are on fire. And as he rushes back into the castle, he sees... a demonized Shuri licking blood off her face over the dead body of a similarly demonized King Reuven. A giant demon bird (St. Marcus Mars's Itsumade form, but shadowed) looms over it, and a God's Knight is in the background. Brook's shocked face is... appropriate. 

____________________________________________________

One Piece, Chapter 1186: One More Time

Brook is just shell-shocked at this point, unable to process what has happened. And the main thing that we learn later on? Brook at this point in his life is so secluded from the outside world that he doesn't even know what a 'Devil Fruit' is, that magical powers exist. He would also suffer from heavy brain damage and the implication from his discussion with his men is that he thought he's misremembering and exaggerating the events in his own mind... which explains why he ended up believing Shuri is evil.

But that confrontation was also horrifying. Faced with the death of his 'big bro' and benefactor. And while Brook initially thinks that Shuri is some kind of impostor, then Shuri starts talking horrible things about how she is a Celestial Dragon, how Reuven isn't her real father, and how Reuven hid the true reason of the start of the war -- the Celestial Dragons demanded her, and Reuven plunged the nation into devastation over nothing. 

St. Manmeyer Gurou also speaks up, noting that he remembers Brook as Candelle's squire -- he was the Celestial Dragon that showed up long ago, and  Shuri's biological father. There's discussion about the heterochromatic eye, and how Gurou couldn't 'awaken it' and perhaps Shuri can do so instead. Brook doesn't care about any of this heavy lore drops, more horrified about the strange betrayal of Shuri. And as Brook mentally compares the younger Shuri to an angel, and the current Shuri to a devil, he can't even raise his sword to defend himself as Shuri stabs him through the skull (giving him his distinctive skull scar) with Brook's own Gavotte: Bond en Avant technique.

(Imu also shows up, rising out of Mars's shadow-bird form, and seemingly glorps out because he doesn't care about the drama, which I thought was weird but funny. He also shows up only to interrupt Gurou for talking too much.)

As Brook seemingly 'dies', we later see him wake up, miraculously surviving having the sword hit his brain stem, and after realizing what's going on (and telling the audience the caveats above of why Brook doesn't know the real context of what happened) Brook freaks out and breaks the fuck down. 

End flashback. 

That was... that was a really, really powerful flashback. I am very biased, because I love Brook. But seeing this right after the Harald one? I like the Harald flashback, but I feel like this short flashback was also really very powerful as well! This also gives me hope that some of the other characters (particularly Usopp, mostly Usopp, okay it's just Usopp) is going to get some attention from a character development perspective.

We cut to the present, with Brook telling this to his crewmates... and noting that if the 'demonic visages' are real memories, then Shuri could be a victim and not a traitor, and Brook asks and resolves to have faith in Princess Shuri once more. Cutting back a bit to the scenes about his cute argument with Shuri about 'why would you protect me', Brook resolves himself, bows his head to ask the help of his crewmates, before running towards where Shuri was frozen in ice. 

We then cut back to the 'main' fight, and if we're being honest as much as there's the fun spectacle of Loki versus Imu, it feels almost disappointing to go back to that fight! Luffy is also here, finally having eaten his fill of food. Imu gives a rant about how he had defeated the giants 800 years ago with their children, and continues his ramble... until Luffy shows up and decks the shit out of Imu the way he did St. Charlos all the way back. Okay, that fight is happening, then... nice to see some progression there, but if we're being honest I'm not the most invested in Luffy at this point. 

Random Notes:

• Yes, there's a lot of comparisons to One Piece: Red. I don't want to make this review any longer, but I'll recognize it. 
• During the run of the chapters I remembered there being a lot of discussion about Queen Candelle actually being a God's Knight honey trap, trying to infiltrate a country or get some 'genes' like what Shamrock did with his own children's mother. Which I always thought was an insane leap even as the chapters were going on. But you should feel bad for thinking that Candele is evil! 
• St. Manmeyer Gurou was also mistaken as Admiral Kong by many people, and I would like to say that I also number among this one.
• With this arc (or the previous one) introducing the idea of bounty inflation for Dorry and Brogy, Brook having a 'reinstated' bounty from the past actually means that whether it's because of his raw 'cut some mafia members an hour into the future' sword skills or because the World Government suspects that he knows about Esperia means that Brook's real bounty might be quite higher than what it was introduced as! 
  
• Snuck in-between Brook training Shuri is Brook mentioning that Shuri seems like she could even see briefly into the future, with the wording clearly implying Future Sight. Brook doesn't seem to know what Haki is at the point in time (especially when he doesn't know what Devil Fruits are) so it might be Shuri awakening Future Sight Haki very early on because of her eyes.
• Brook's dream of piracy is actually noted by Shuri during one of their discussions, but Brook does the "I'll lay down my dream for another's" in deference to Reuven, because that's how much Brook respects him. Shuri also offhandedly makes a comment that she'll also be a pirate with Brook. Foreshadowing?
• By the way, a lot of the details in these flashbacks have been noted to be in Oda's mind since forever. Brook's favourite food being curry, Brook being stated to be the Straw Hat that wakes up the earliest, and the different artwork of Brook as a child has alternatively shown him as a beggar or in noble clothes, so it's most certainly something Oda has had in mind for this backstory!
• Knowing what we do later on about Shuri's parentage, it does add a huge layer of tragedy for poor Reuven as he keeps seeing Shuri get along better with Brook as a paternal figure. It's not even that Shuri and Reuven are estranged or fighting or anything, which honestly makes me feel even worse for poor Reuven. He really is quietly one of the best men in all of One Piece. 
• The 'Mind Your Own Beeswax' stuff is the English localization team's attempt to localize the Japanese accent that Brook borrows the slang from. I think it's the same real-world Hiroshima dialect that Akainu speaks, which Brook notes in-universe comes from 'Kamigata'. I am more surprised to learn that 'Mind Your Own Beeswax' is a real phrase that's an old slang from 18th to 19th century!
• The Itsumade is a being associated with the spread of disease, so putting two and two together, Mars might be the exact person responsible for the plague on Esperia. I mean, the World Government is definitely responsible in some way or form, but maybe Mars specifically.
• Speaking of the Itsumade, I did a quick scan through the Egghead arc, but Brook was never in a position where he would come face-to-face with Mars's Itsumade form, and even then it's glorping in a shadowy form instead of manifesting as a full bird like in Egghead. Luffy really did eliminate Mars from the battlefield quite early!
• Can I just say how wholesome -- and sad -- the cover art for chapter 1186 is? Little Loki surrounded by his animal friends drawing Ida as 'Mommy' with crayons? How fucking cute that is?  
• Jinbe of course is aligned with Brook the moment he hears the story, but I like how cold he was when Gunko was just a heartless enemy without the context, asking Brook basically for 'do we kill her or not'. 
• Franky, as always, is the most emotional of the Straw Hats, full with tears as Brook finishes his story.

One Piece 1180 Review: Wing Clipping

One Piece, Chapter 1180: Omen

A bit late to the party for this one; again, real life's going to eat up a lot of my time between now and May. 

We pick up right where we left off, with Nerona Imu having descended on Elbaph amidst a gigantic demonic circle, a horde of transformed demon houses heralding him with a theme song, and the collective hype of the entire fandom. We get a better shot of Imu's full form, and he does look quite cool.  Lots of discussion on aspects of his design -- is that an Elbaph belt? Are those dots Killmonger-esque piercings, or tattoos, or what? What are those circuitry like lines? Why does he have parachute pants like Enel? Is he a Lunarian? He has the weird skulls that Boa Hancock puts on her snake. What about those eyes on that ring on his back? 

Nothing much is explained, because Imu proceeds to ask 'who is the king of this land?' It has been quite a while for us readers, but this is something that Imu asked maybe an hour ago in-universe when he arrived possessing Gunko... so either Imu has some bad memory problems, or it is something tied to a power he has. 

Dorry and Brogy yell at Imu that Elbaph has no king, although interestingly Imu doesn't do the Domi Reversi 'you're close enough to be kings' thing again. Instead, he sees Gerd holding Summers... and in a rather cool (and Bleach-esque) sequence, he slices off the tips  of Gerd's thumbs and index fingers. This apparently happens so fast that Gerd is even more baffled than pained or shocked. 

Again, it is quite interesting that Imu makes it a point to rescue Summers, instead of punishing him for his failure the way he did to Saturn, but previous chapters did imply that it takes something out of Imu to take out someone that has carved one of his covenant marks on him. So maybe Summers is valuable because of that. Summers, at least, manages to recover his metal heart and get back to full power. 

Anyway, back to the action. Zoro zips next to Imu and gets ready to fight, but it's Hajrudin that throws the first punch, getting ready to throw a hit.... before Stansen comes in and dropkicks his own boss, yelling that they have no idea what Imu can do. As this happens, very subtly (until a second panel points it out), Imu slices off Stansen's leg. That's another one down for the count, although I really wished they made it a bit more clear that it would've killed Hajrudin. 

Zoro then charges in with a King of Hell technique, unleashing an Enma-style version of the Purgatory Onigiri... but Imu just blocks the strike with his devil tail. Imu then says 'Omen', making a pose with his fingers, and a dark energy flame burst out of his palm and knocks Zoro down. Zoro is down. 

Hajrudin goes in again with his axe, and Imu launches another Omen -- this one taking the form of a giant fireball with a cute devil face like one of those Final Fantasy bomb monsters, and unleashes a massive explosion. I'm sure he's not dead, but the shading makes it look like Hajrudin is being vaporized. 

Imu then creates a halo of dark flames and tosses it towards Summers, who recognizes it in great excitement as an Omen... but gets chastised by Imu. "There is little time", Imu says, and it appears that this is a reason for why he's not rampaging around or saying much... all that coughing up of blood and whatnot seems to imply that he's got a time limiter to be in the mortal realm. Imu and Summers fly off, and as Imu leaves the location, the animated houses turn back to normal. Not sure what their plan is -- if it's still kidnapping children, they are not going where they should to do that.

We see Imu flying around with his massive Lunarian black angel wings, and Elbaph panics. Imu sees the block of ice that Gunko is stuck in, swings around his strange glaive, and the end with the clouds kind of acts like a rifle or something as it launches another one of the Omen fanged fireballs. That creates a massive explosion on the ice block that Gunko is in. Now whether this is Imu being efficient at freeing Gunko, or if Imu is actually punishing Gunko (since he doesn't make sure Gunko recovers like Summers and Killingham) is a bit unclear. 

We get a brief moment from Gaban, who is disturbed at the strange haki, noting that it's different from what he felt at God Valley. Yep, all he's ever seen is blob-mu, not devil-mu!

Meanwhile, Luffy, Ragnir and Loki are chomping down on food. Loki has grown annoyed at the frozen food and now burnt up the library (again!) to melt the food.

Nami returns to the rest of the Straw Hats to warn them about Imu... but Imu has arrived, restoring the sliced-up Killingham with an Omen ring. Sanji gets angry that someone has released Killingham, and zips in to attack Imu. We don't quite get a named attack, but Imu casually blocks Sanji's kick with his own leg, before swinging around with a black-flame-wreathed kick of his own and one-shots Sanji in a massive explosion. 

The chapter ends with Loki arriving on the battlefield, ominous and angry, while Imu notes that he's searching for the one that killed his 'faithful servant' Harald. Loki is even more outraged about this, because Harald was his dad and the king of Elbaph, not some servant. Loki is just not having any of Imu's shit, and it seems that we're going to have a 1v1 between the two!

It's an exciting chapter. Admittedly it's a rather common trick that shonen manga does when the new big bad villain comes in and one-shots all the strongest people around. Zoro, Sanji and Hajrudin get the brunt of this and I really do feel we could've shown more (some amputations for Stansen and Gerd hardly count) but I do like that Oda just immediately went for two of the most powerful characters among the Straw Hats. It's a nice way to segue in to showcasing how powerful Nerona Imu is as a combatant, and finally, after Elbaph felt really nonthreatening the moment Luffy and Loki's team entered the fray, I am starting to get a bit more tension here. Hope this can make up for the string of chapters pre-Imu's-arrival that disappointed me!

Random Notes:

• The kanji used for Omen can apparently also be read as 'Maki', as in 'demonic aura', a probable riff on Haki. This also ties into how Imu's "Akuma no Mi" is spelled in katakana instead of kanji ('The Devil's Fruit' versus 'Devil Fruit' in English translations).  
• I get that we don't want to belabour the point, but I do find it odd that Dorry and Brogy don't also rush in to attack (and subsequently get blown away). I kind of get excluding Chopper and Jarul, but the two giant warrior captains probably should've attempted something!
• I am also quite disappointed that Jinbe isn't also being included in 'Imu one-shotting the strongest warriors' thing. I don't care about powerscaling, but the way Jinbe was hyped up when he joined the crew made him an equivalent of Zoro and Sanji at least in terms of strength. I get that this 'badass when they first joined, but got reduced to a second tier' also happened a bit with Robin, Franky and Brook when they joined respectively, but Jinbe had a lot more buildup to him. 
• Seeing Summers and Killingham at least restored to 'full power' does help make their lame defeats (particularly Killingham's) a bit more palatable, since they might get a more proper takedown after being empowered by the Omen, but I also... don't really want to see round two of those dorks fighting, over focusing on the Imu confrontation. 
• So that was the same devil tail that battled Sabo and killed Cobra in that one Reverie chapter. 
• When Imu makes the Omen pose, I almost thought that he was going to flick the flame like Mr. 5's booger bombs, but the flames appear on the palm instead of where the fingers would flick it. 

One Piece 1179 Review: He's Here

One Piece, Chapter 1179: Imu Nerona Descends

Yeah, a bit late to the party with this chapter; real life stuff got in the way... but what a chapter it is, huh? 

The entire chapter is essentially, well... the descent of Imu on Elbaph. So he actually does finally make a move, he actually does decide to show his face. And I think I can reasonably say 'he' now, and while I've enjoyed the little game we've been playing with Imu being a featureless ghostblob, I am quite happy that it is both a silhouette, but also technically a form of Imu. Turns out Oda can have his cake and eat it in terms of disguising what Imu looks like while also making it make sense in-universe. 

The entire first half of the chapter has the Gorosei -- or at least the four pre-existing Gorosei -- try and talk Imu down from actually going down to the Lower Realms. Garling, meanwhile, is a lot more apathetic, shrugging it off as a wise move on Imu's part. Garling makes some note about how Shamrock's arrival has helped to quell the unrest, but the food situation is really hurting them. It's a rather interesting choice that the manga hasn't really shown us who is besieging the Holy Land. The easiest assumption would be Dragon's Revolutionaries, but the fact that we haven't shown who's doing it has made a lot of people speculate that Blackbeard is making his move, or perhaps even an oddball like the Marines having rebelled offscreen?

We get a brief sequence of York getting some karmic fate as she's starving while Garling just tells her to piss off and do her job and get the Mother Flame up and running. Ju Peter seems to be the most hesitant in letting Imu out, but Nusjuro notes that there's way too many situations going around to be sparing Marine Admirals. Warcury even wants to head onto the battlefield himself and do some giant boar action, but Imu then goes onto a whole rant about how they've been overconfident, how they've been slothful... goes on a flashback onto a bunch of scenes that he's seen in the past... and then creates the teleportation circle. 

We get a nice reaction shot from all five Gorosei as Imu teleports away, and I've gotten quite interested in seeing how the five Gorosei differ from each other. Garling, of course, is all happy to let Imu do whatever he wants, noting that they don't have the right to stop him. Marcus Mars is the most emotional out of the five, showing the most emotion out of any Gorosei that's still alive. He's actually panicking! Warcury also looks concerned, implying a couple of times in the chapter that something will happen if he leaves the castle. Nusjuro and Peter, meanwhile, are a bit more stoic.

We go back to Elbaph and do a bunch of post-battle stuff. In something I kind of glossed over in the last chapter, Summers' heart is actually robotic! Or at least, metallic. Gerd has found Summers and is holding him apart while his body tries desperately to rejoin back together. Zoro threatens to crush the metallic heart, and by Summers' lack of a poker face, we can immediately infer that that is the Legend of Zelda boss-fight style weakness of the God's Knights. As much as I like the rest of the chapter... kind of a bad action manga writing choice to have this be randomly inserted post-battle with no buildup, instead of it being found out by someone fighting Summers or Killingham during the last couple of frankly anticlimactic battles against the Knights of God. 

Killingham is still tied up like chunks of meat from a tree by Sanji, promising bloody revenge while Sanji is acting all cool and mocking him that he doesn't even remember his name. 

Loki, Luffy and Ragnir are trying to regain their food by eating the frozen food in the school. Luffy is having trouble eating, and there's a brief bit of power lore-dump as Loki notes that only Ragnir can melt his own 'flash-frozen' ice. 

And then Imu descends. A gigantic fire pillar appears next to the castle, and four more appear. And a gigantic pentagram magic circle appears in the clouds. Interestingly, music starts to play. Music being affiliated with Imu isn't something surprising, as the opposite number of Mr. "Drums of Liberation" Nika, but the houses and trees sprouting devilish cartoon faces and dancing around reminds me of Big Mom's Soul Soul Fruit. It's interesting! What are the connections that Imu's powers have towards other Devil Fruit powers, then? 

A giant circle of flame is carved around the branch where the castle is, and a final central fire pillar slams down right onto the castle. Zoro identifies the explosion of Conqueror's Haki, and indeed we see it knocking out a bunch of the giant children. 

Imu is teleported inside the castle, and immediately coughs up blood. Is what Warcury is worried about Imu's health? Is something harming or killing Imu if he steps out of Pangaea Castle? It's also interesting to see Imu coughing in his blob-form... before he transforms, of course. 

In his transformation, half the castle explodes. The giants that are rushing towards the castle are surprised, Summers and Killingham recognize (presumably) the Haki and are terrified that the Great One is there in person... 

And Imu perches on top of the spire. He's got a pretty cool design, the sort of played-straight-with-no-laughs-cool design that I don't think One Piece has really done before, except maybe for Crocodile and Akainu. With all other villains, Oda has made it a masterclass in making them goofy in some way -- Kaido's little legs, Enel and Doflamingo always giggling and laughing, Big Mom's entire design... but Imu, at least, just looks badass. He's got dark skin (either red or dark brown like a Lunarian, people can't decide), curled devil horns, pale hair, and a devil tail that spirals around the rooftop where he's perched on. The tail has a bunch of skulls on it. He's got a ring on his back, a ring of black flames filled with more of his 'Rinnegan' eyes, to borrow a Naruto term. And he's got tattoos resembling circuitry lines all over his arms? He's also got a spear, or a guan dao, with a zig-zag blade on the end. 

I like this design. I like this design a lot. This introduction is also pretty great, and I appreciate showing off the Gorosei's reaction to Imu. Now does that make me feel any better about the last couple of chapters? No. I still feel they're rushed, and while not to the degree of some of the worst parts of One Piece, I still find them a blemish otherwise on the arc's pacing and storytelling. But Imu is here, and I'm excited to see what we are going to get next!

Random Notes:

• Garling also makes a cryptic note about the 'former navy headquarters', which could really just mean anything. Has the Marines rebelled? Has the headquarters fallen? What has happened? 
• The Marines rebelling seems to be a no-no at least from dialogue in this chapter, where one of the Gorosei suggests sending Marine Admirals to Elbaph, but it's also interesting that we haven't seen the Marines in a while either. 
• We last saw the Mother Flame in Egghead, so I guess they just moved it to Marie Geoise off-screen? Like, the whole facility with the Mother Flame? 
• The teleportation circles that the Gods Knights use can't teleport food, I guess. We've seen it teleport clothes, weapons, and Summers's lounge chair... but maybe it's an 'organic matter' thing, otherwise they would've teleported the children from Elbaph away if they could. 
• Presumably, while dismembered, Summers can't use his Thorn Thorn Fruit, otherwise it would be easy to get himself out of Gerd's clutches. 
• I like the random joke of Franky questioning if he should turn Usopp and Brook into cyborgs. Terminator Brook would be awesome! 
• I think people have agreed that Zoro's group is the one closest to where the castle is. Thanks, people in the internet, because I have very terrible character spatial presence when reading a manga!