#Koruzumi Orochi

[purplehairedwonder]

One Piece 1044: Looney Tunes

I am not a fan of the developments in this chapter. One Piece has always been silly, but there’s silly and then there is... whatever the hell this is. These developments undercut a lot of things I have liked about Luffy’s journey, plus they seem to create some plot holes, so I hope some of these concerns are answered in future chapters.

So, reveal #1 is that the Gomu Gomu no Mi is actually

a Mythical Zoan, much like Sengoku’s and Marco’s. However, Luffy’s fruit is based not on a mythological figure from our world like the former two; his is based on a figure from the One Piece world, which lets Oda imbue it with whatever the hell powers he wants.

So. On the one hand, Luffy’s fruit not being a Paramecia makes some sense because more than one person has commented that his fruit does things that rubber shouldn’t be able to do. Plus, being a Zoan fruit explains his insane durability that has been repeatedly commented upon.

One of the things I love about Luffy’s arc is that he takes a weird power and is endlessly creative with it. This development doesn’t change that, considering the biggest limit of the fruit is, apparently, the user’s creativity. Luffy used his fruit the way he assumed rubber could be used. This is probably how the fruit had been used by its former users without awakening it.

On the other hand, what the hell does rubber have to do with a sun god? This legit makes no sense. Oda has some explaining to do.

Just briefly, it’s interesting that Zoan fruits apparently have wills of their own. That makes it seem like the fruit may have chosen Luffy... but then that goes back to the Chosen One trope that makes me meh.

I’m also trying to wrap my head around the fact that the World Government has been trying to capture this fruit for 800 years and then... just let Luffy do whatever the hell he wanted until he was in a fight with an Emperor? Like, this is the grandson of Garp, son of Dragon, also a D., and apparently wields this insane fruit and there was never an order from the top to send an admiral after him before he got too strong? There was a period of time where he had a reputation, there was no hiding what fruit he was using, yet none of the higher ups--the same people who wanted to kill Ace as a baby just for being Roger’s son--thought about going after him for the fruit?

Also, WTF is this?

His awakened power is “freedom”? Honestly, that just feels like trying to shoehorn the idea of freedom, which we know Luffy takes very seriously, into a big ol’ deus ex machina.

Then we get the declaration that the Hito Hito no Mi: Model Nika is

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a fruit described like this. The Ope Ope no Mi, for instance, is considered the “Ultimate” Devil Fruit. It does seem to fit Luffy to have the most ridiculous fruit.

But I still preferred when it was just a lame fruit that he had elevated with his creativity. To be fair, I doubt Luffy would give a shit about this revelation, and it’s not like he even knows this about his fruit; he still thinks it’s the Gomu Gomu no Mi.

Speaking of the Ope Ope no Mi, considering Law can can control anything in his Rooms while Luffy’s awakened powers seem to give him some kind of reality-bending abilities ala The Mask, seeing those two fight would be interesting. Would Law’s control over his Room negate Luffy’s new power? Or would Luffy’s new power overpower Law’s control in his Room?

Anyway, we see that the “freedom” that comes from Luffy’s awakening (or what he calls Gear 5) is... fighting like a cartoon. We’ve suddenly turned into Looney Tunes or The Mask up in here.

Luffy goes full Popeye to pull Kaido back up to the roof:

And there seems to be some reality-bending going on because even Kaido is having cartoon reactions to Luffy’s attacks:

Which, considering the horrific things that Kaido has done to Wano, feels... off. I know One Piece is cartoony and silly, but something about turning the fight to free an enslaved country into a comedy routine makes my skin crawl. Literally last chapter, Kaido was threatening to enslave every man, woman, and child in the country and work them to death as punishment for the rebellion and now... cartoons. Talk about whiplash.

I’m ready for this fight to end and for the plot to move forward, honestly.

One last thing about Luffy’s awakening (which, I have said, I was hoping would be saved for a future fight considering so much freaking time was spent on him upgrading his haki this arc so the switch back to DFs feels a bit jarring): I really hope there are some serious drawbacks, just like we see with his other Gears. We know awakening uses a lot of Kid’s and Law’s stamina, and they both have had it longer than Luffy (though I doubt either of them have been awakened for very long either).

And then we get the other part of the chapter, which is unfortunately overshadowed because Hiyori is the best, but she’s a woman, so Oda is doing her dirty.

The first part of Hiyori’s section is great. She’s absolutely done with Orochi, and this is probably my favorite panel of the entire chapter:

This has been a long time coming. And so has Orochi’s death by...

her...

hands?

Nope.

The remnants of Kanjuro’s fire demon returns to its master and sets him on fire.

On the one hand, I saw it pointed out on Reddit that when Orochi gives Kanjuro his last order to create his last painting (chapter 1030), there’s some wording in it that foreshadows this ending:

Orochi seems to have accidentally ordered a suicide pact for the Kurozumi.

On the other hand, I wanted so badly for Hiyori to be the one to strike Orochi down; she even declared that she wanted to do so. She’s the daughter of a samurai! But Oda seems to be allergic to giving the final blow of a fight to the person who deserves it (*coughDressrosacough*), and it grates especially hard since Hiyori is a woman not getting the chance to do so.

On a lighter note, I couldn’t help but think of Game of Thrones when Hiyori tells Orochi “The Kozuki clan always keeps its promises”:

Also, hi to my favorite boy: