Year of the tiger starting early with a frosty color spread and a very meaty transition chapter. Kid and Law defying all expecations as Big Mom is reduced to chucking girders. Yamato and Fuuga disproving Kaido's notion that Yamato has no friends in Wano. And the ninjas everyone was waiting for are doing the Oden challenge.
King of Hell (Jigoku no Ou/En-ou) Zoro to match Dark King (Mei-ou) Rayleigh. A natural conclusion of unleashing CoC is Zoro realizing he can be a king even as a subordinate. Add Fudo Myo-o Luffy, Ifrit Sanji and the Monster Trio has become the Flaming God Trio this arc. King the stoic badass swordsman still believing in his captain after Kaido himself loses faith he's Joyboy is like he's a Zoro following Luffy in a bad SBS timeline. King uses the term Pirate King making it tricky to date this flashback, it might preexist Roger circumnavigating the world. Props to King for exhausting Zoro to such an extent that the Mink medicine side effect was unnecessary. It'll be intriguing to see if it was merely an excuse for the Miyagi not to use it on everyone, or if Oda is planning long-term consequences here like Zoro being wounded throughout Arlong Park and Sabaody.
CP0 quoting the legendary WG snitch.:endthis: X-Drake the first to go down with a nasty loss followed by Zanki this chapter, can't even blame Apoo for bailing before this became a 2v1. I don't mind an offpanel here as CP0 are final arc enemies not meant to steal the Wano show, Oda maintains the mystery surrounding their appearance and abilities. The 1% man has done quite a bit from freeing Law, slaying Juuki, stalling Apoo/the CP0 from Robin and helping end Ice Oni. It's clear that Sword has an uphill battle to climb and Drake's story is not over. Apoo is looking like the ultimate survivor of Wano, getting away no matter what is thrown at him to perhaps serve a key role post-Wano. Kaido's "informant" has the cameras, the insider knowledge, the connection to Morgans, I would love to see a WorstGen help change the era as an ace reporter following Absalom and telling the world what happened inside Onigashima. Check-it-out by news coo.
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The two monsters in question:
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Interesting to note that Sanji's eyebrow returned to normal. Queen broke his sword against the exoskeleton before the eyebrow even reversed, so I doubt the power up is gone. It may have been a simple visual device to reflect Sanji's inner turmoil, overcome by kicking Germa butt in the name of Queen. It could also just as easily return whenever Sanji dials it to 11. At least the merchandising department is sighing with relief that they won't have to design Sanji toys that look entirely the same apart from the bootleg brow.
The title “The way of Bushidō is found in death” is from the book of Hagakure and brings us to a quality Usopp character moment. Nearly overwhelmed by enemies, Usopp is rightfully ticked off when his friends Kin'emon and Kiku dimiss his efforts and tell Usopp to let them die. What Kin and Kiku are doing is effectively harakiri, suicide to prove your loyalty and restore your honor in the face of failure or humiliation. What Zoro was told to do at the beginning of Wano. Usopp is a coward but he's also a survivalist, he's never fallen so low to see suicide as preferable to living on with adversity or shame like these samurai who have purposely sought to kill themselves in the name of Oden. That's not the brave warrior Usopp wants to become. It's then very fitting that Izo, the retainer who has spent the most time outside of Wano's borders, but at the same time bore the Kozuki emblem on his back this entire time, sides with Usopp and bridges the gap between samurai and foreigner. Also pretty cool that Usopp got a lesson on how to 360 an entire room with two flintlocks from a master gunman.
Joyboy giving the World's Most Depressed Creature a true non-artificial smile. The image of Luffy equaling hybrid Kaido is still quite bizarre, but thankfully it's not exactly base with Gear 3rd Roc attacks in the mix. The truly bizarre part is Luffy having a laugh with his dreaded enemy on top of a flying nuke. Kaido likes a good time and honors those who give him a fight whether it's Oden, Big Mom or using Momo's name after getting bitten. Luffy, however, seems to be continuing an earlier development:
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As Luffy faces his most difficult opponent so far, when the D is closest to death, he has to muster more willpower than ever, get back up and continue fighting with his best face. Of course it has to be a smile. Oda said to play close attention to Luffy in 2022 and I can picture a Joyboy/Sun God Nika connection getting worked in this arc as we learn where Luffy succeeds and why Kaido fell short of the legend.
