Blackjack Rants One Piece 980
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One Piece, Chapters 986-989

I bet the Blackjack’s don’t know about you either! And then he goes and leaves you with Marine Hero Ironfist Garp. I can’t even blame the illness, moron was always making stupid decisions like that” He rants as he takes a few blood samples. “Do me a favour and actually listen to your ship’s doctor when you get one. The renowned mobster Bugsy Siegel decided to grab a piece of the action in 1946, when he opened the Flamingo – one of the first resorts to take inspiration from the glitz and glamour of Hollywood – which still stands today. After years of mobsters ruling the streets of Vegas, the first “mega-resort” was introduced to the strip in 1989.

It feels like it's been some time since I've last talked about One Piece, huh? Between breaks and me just not finding a whole ton to talk about the individual chapters, I have been kind of slacking.

Chapter 986: My Name

Blackjack Rants A repository for my reviews of TV shows, superhero cartoons, manga chapters and talk about video games. Be it Naruto, Doraemon, One Piece, Bleach.
Blackjack Rants A repository for my reviews of TV shows, superhero cartoons, manga chapters and talk about video games. Trying to figure out and piece together.

Episode 986 is perhaps one of the 'big chapters' that I remembered shocking and really shaking everyone when it first came out. Kanjuro dies off-screen? Everyone is crying? The samurai head into the palace? I don't care for Kanjuro specifically, but on the other hand having him be dispatched so easily without even a couple of panels to really showcase the moment of his death feels a bit odd. Sure, the Wano arc has been paced rather oddly, but even from a writing perspective surely this can't be it, right? I'm honestly pretty sure Kanjurou and Orochi still have a role to play at some point in the future of the arc. It's not even a 'no one dies in this manga' thing, it's the fact that the execution of their deaths is kind of underwhelming. Particularly Kanjurou.

Meanwhile, in the castle, Fukurokuju and some other punk-looking leader of the Mimawarigumi (yet another name taken from the Bakumatsu period) immediately pledge themselves to Kaidou because.. well, we've had this running theme in the background just how much Orochi is disrespected even by his own men, who talk about him behind him.

Big Mom, meanwhile.. holds Nami and Carrot hostage with her Homies (she doesn't just kill them? Plot convenience, I guess) while Shinobu goes off to free Momo. Speaking of which.. Momonosuke gets to become the huge star of this chapter in perhaps one of the coolest moments yet. Kaidou goes into a bit of a speech, asking the beaten, crucified and bloody Momonosuke the same question he asks 20 years ago. 'What is your name?' with the promise to Momonosuke about how he's even going to call off the execution and compensate him for a misunderstanding if he, in fact, is not Kozuki Momonosuke.

Then we cut away to a pretty cool montage of everyone moving towards the banquet hall. Ulti, the bull-helmet dude, Usopp and Chopper, the Scabbards, Zoro, Kid, Law.. they're just slashing through things. (Oh, and Luffy takes off Yamato's exploding handcuffs.. that sure is a thing) And Momonosuke? Sure, he's not a badass like the Luffys and Zoros and Sanjis of the One Piece world. Sure, he's a kid.. but ever since we met this bratty kid all the way back in Punk Hazard, Momonosuke.. has grown, and the character development as he declares with his half-bashed face that he is Kozuki Momonosuke, the man who will be shogun of Wano? That's stupidity. That's honour. There's sometimes a bit of a problem showcasing characters who do the whole 'honour before reason' style of things, but this? This is perfect.

I do absolutely love, too, just how much Lufffy holds back Yamato during this scene. He knows that they cannot be the ones to start the battle, because just as Momonosuke finishes giving his proclamation, the nine Red Scabbard samurai burst in and just absolutely do really badass things. Izo shoots King's sword out of his hands! Nekomamushi knocks away Kaidou's club! And we get a very cool page spread of the nine Red Scabbards all dogpiling Kaidou and stabbing him.

And, sure. it's easy to take the huge impending fight as the 'big thing' in this chapter.. but I dunno. I am legitimately into the Momonosuke scene. It was a pretty cool one! And the buildup from Momonosuke embracing his impending death, to Luffy talking about who should start the fight, to the Red Scabbards' badass entrance.. I'm all for it.

The chapter begins with the Red Scabbards pushing Kaidou off of a balcony.. and they draw blood, just as Kaidou is flashbacking to his previous confrontations with Oden. Kin'emon draws blood! Kiku draws blood! Kaidou gets tossed and slammed into the ground as he wonders why the samurai are able to use Oden's Ryuo.

Meanwhile, Grandpa Hyou and the rest of the disguised yakuza and samurai begin to shed their disguises and fighting against the other mooks. Ulti clashes against Yamato. Big Mom gets distracted by Luffy, allowing Nami and Carrot to beat up the yokai homies and escape. And.. as usual, disappointingly, Big Mom is handled almost like an afterthought. Kaidou gets these huge half-page panel spreads throughout these couple of chapters, gets badass lines and monologues and speeches, and Big Mom is just.. kinda there. I'm someone who will go on record saying that I don't care about power levels, but between the amnesia earlier in Wano and her basically being sort of treated more like a nuisance than an actual character.. sure, Big Mom's goofy, but I dunno. She feels like her threat has really decayed.

Kaidou's confrontation with the Scabbards is pretty cool. Sure, they drew blood, but he's still Kaidou, and a simple hit or not isn't going to decide a battle (no matter what the section of the fandom obsessed with power-scaling will tell you) and I do like that Kaidou gives this whole speech about how they did well gathering a resistance, but the nature of pirates is treachery and how the samurai will be betrayed.. something that Kin'emon delivers a great rebuttal to.

After Luffy gives his huge declaration, we get four glorious pages of Kaidou transforming into his big scary dragon form and rise up into the sky. All the samurai follow Kaidou into the top of the castle, while Kaidou coils around under the moon and declaring how he's finally getting serious since he's sober now. Pretty cool shot, even as Nekomamushi declares that the entire Mink tribe is gathered to go all Sulong on Kaidou's dragon ass.

This one starts off a bit slower, showcasing the random named Minks like the musketeers all going Sulong to fight against Jack and his own army of Gifters. It's nice -- we're not going to really see this fight (other than the anime, which needs filler content) but it's nice to see that the absolute Z-listers are not standing still. We don't actually see much of the fight, which is kind of a bummer, and also leads me to believe that we might just very well have Kaidou just defeat the Scabbards off-screen. I would believe it.

Shinobu, meanwhile, does the great job of trying to free Momonosuke while everyone's distracted with the fighting, but King just grabs her and tosses her halfway through the giant hall (she survives via parachute).. but then Momo's chains shatter and he starts floating around mid-air. For a moment I actually thought that this was Momo using his own dragon smile fruit powers, but turns out it's invisible Sanji! He's not wandering off in a brothel somewhere, and we get a badass moment as he and King exchange a bit of a kick-strike. Sanji tosses Momo to Shinobu so she can get him to safety, but then King just swoops and tries to impale Sanji with his pteranodon beak and they kaboom away to the side.

Finally Big Mom remembers that she's around and actually fights. Oh, hey, maybe we're going to get a badass Big Mom fight, right? Her strike is like, a huge panel where it shows Big Mom blowing a big-ass hole with his Ikoku attack.. but then, hey, Nami steals Zeus again, there's a comedy moment with Big Mom grabbing Zeus back and forcing him to obey.. and then Big Mom just gets smooshed in the face by Franky and Brook in the rhino-bike while Brook uses his soul abilities to slice Zeus in half.

It's.. eh, I

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