Of the two kinds of gas attacks this villain could use, it just had to be the poison kind.

——

While Slime continues to spit itself across the island, Sanji-in-Nami jumps into the water to look for the samurai’s torso and Law asks the mysterious Monet to accompany him somewhere to use her abilities. The main battle continues between Caesar Clown and Luffy in which Caesar busts out some techniques, such as Gas Robe and Gas Tank. After a few close calls, Luffy collapses from the poison and, inside the lab, Law collapses at the feet of an unknown figure.

The battle really gets going in this chapter as we are exposed to the many facets of Caesar Clown’s powers. Luffy has an edge in the fight with his haki control and, as many fans had guessed beforehand, he is immune to poison after his troubles with Impel Down. However, Oda wouldn’t be so boring as to make poison attacks ineffectual; the mystery of Caesar’s powers deepens as it turns out that Luffy is affected by Caesar’s gas attacks. However, the fight wasn’t nearly as exciting as I thought Luffy and Caesar’s first encounter would be. First Luffy has the edge, then Caesar, then Luffy miraculously escapes, then Caesar pulls out hidden power, and it looks Luffy’s done for. It might be because this was just a preliminary confrontation, but I still felt like this fight could have used a bit more oomph.

Also, just a small note, I’m enjoying the gradual build up of dissension within Caesar’s henchmen. In each chapter they get at least a panel or two devoted to showing how Caesar treats them like disposable objects even though they worship the ground he floats on. It seems very clear that they will rise up against Caesar probably around the climax, and I’m thinking it’ll be a very inspiring moment when it happens.

This cliffhanger was pretty well done though the excitement is probably dependent on the novelty of the time skip trope. More than likely it will be a character the readers are familiar with and will anticipate seeing the changes in design and figuring out a little more about what happened to Law.

GO Rating: 3.5/5

[KissManga]