The cogs in Law’s master plan begin to turn.

——

Luffy lands a devastating first strike on Caesar Clown, but spends the rest of their short fight just trying to avoid his gas attacks, which include some new techniques called Kara Kuni and Blue Sword. Monet intervenes with a snow shielding ability (Kamakura) before Caesar is thrashed by the tenacious Luffy. Meanwhile, Sanji continues to fight Virgo, despite the poisonous closing in on them, and Trafalgar Law puts his master plan into action by breaking into the S.A.D. production room.

Luffy and Caesar’s fights are interesting to watch because they have similarly over the top personalities. While Caesaar is clearly evil, he comes off as silly and panics in the face of potential failure. Luffy’s headstrong personality and battle style tends to fluster Caesar, which makes for some amusing as well as epic fighting. However, this chapter of Caesar and Luffy’s fight dragged on for a bit and just ended in a draw anyway, so while it wasn’t exactly unnecessary, it also wasn’t very thrilling. Rather than that, I would’ve liked to see a bit more of Monet’s powers. She’s still a mysterious character, and I’m half convinced that she’s the one who gave Chopper the note earlier. I’m hoping that for the next chapter she continues to fight Luffy instead of rushing off to stop Law.

Now this is what I’ve been waiting for. What a great cliffhanger to leave us, because the one thing that’s been itching at the back of my mind is what on earth Law is planning, why he became a Shichibukai, and why he joined Caesar. What I love most about that last panel is the smile on Law’s face (pictured below). This whole arc he’s been so serious and reserved, but now it looks like he’s returned to the old, carefree Law. Or, at least in this case, the Law with a devious plan in mind that’s got even the villains all shook up.

This chapter featured some excellent fighting as well as epic opponents. I must admit that I’d rather see Smoker battling Virgo rather than Sanji, but it’s still a decent fight. Actually, it feels a bit like a placeholder fight until Smoker can arrive because Sanji doesn’t have any other motivation for fighting other than protecting the world’s women from crying, but we’ll just have to see. Also, I’m hoping that the set-up of having Virgo in control of Law’s heart will also come into play next chapter, with some possibly dire consequences for our young rebel. Still going strong from the excitement of the previous chapter, and you can tell One Piece is gearing up for an explosive finale to the Punk Hazard arc.

GO Rating: 4/5

[KissManga]