Volume 88 is upon us, and whenever I see the number 8 in something Japanese I’m reminded of the famous movie “Hachi”. Have you guys seen that? It’s based on a true story about a loyal dog named Hachiko that followed his owner to work every day, and continued to wait for him to return even after his owner sadly passed away. A statue was built in the dog’s honor and you can still go and see that to this day. Anyway, here’s volume 88!
The crew minus Luffy is still in the middle of their daring escape. With Perospero barely surviving Pedro’s suicide attack and Big Mom still in the middle of her hunger pangs things are looking incredibly dire for them. Luckily Jinbe knows the waves like no other and he manages to get them both to safety and out of sight by hiding within the wave. It seems like the chase is off for the time being. The crew breaks the rest of the mirrors after telling Luffy to meet up with them at Cacao Island where Sanji, Pudding and Chiffon are currently working on a replacement cake for Big Mom. And now it’s time for the big fight.
Luffy is outmatched by everything that Katakuri does. His Haki is on a completely different level from Luffy’s and it shows. Oda has said before that Haki was his way of adjusting the power scaling and you can look forward to some other interesting twists coming in the next arc about the power scaling in One Piece, but let’s not get too far ahead. Luffy gets crushed beneath a mountain of mochi and Katakuri retreats into his happy place. Luffy then eats his way through the mochi and interrupts Katakuri’s alone time, revealing that he’s actually a goofball who loves donuts and is self conscious about his mouth being a very wide open monstrous thing. A little body dysmorphia in my shonen manga, stop making things too real. Either way, the fight continues.
Elsewhere – on Cacao Island – the remainder of Big Mom’s forces gather under Oven. Even Pound has shown up to talk to his daughter but he gets chased off by Oven. Poor guy. Oven then finds Chiffon and holds her hostage while Bege and his gang come over to get her. It seems like the procession around the cake is about to turn into a bloodbath. Everyone seems to be coming together near Cacao Island and the crew seems to be far from safe for now.
Katakuri and Brulee seem to be the smartest ones here as they truly understand how dangerous it is to let Luffy and his gang run around free. They’re right, Luffy has this mysterious power to make everyone like him and respect him as you can see in how Bege, Chiffon, Pudding and Germa all abandon their old loyalties to help the plan be a success even though running away would have been a much smarter thing to do.
Then we get to the sad conclusion of Pound’s life. He was married to Charlotte Linlin, Big Mom, all those years ago, but was brutally pushed aside when his twin daughters were born, never even allowed to hold them. He has been miserable trying to see them again and after all these years he managed to help his daughter, her husband and his own grandchild escape before being killed by Charlotte Oven. I know they’re the villains, but a lot of the Big Mom crew are really heartless bastards. It’s why people like Katakuri and Brulee so much, for how horrible their family is, they seem to be relatively respectable people. But with the cake now on the firetank pirates’ ship, the sea chase continues while Luffy returns to face Katakuri.
Finally, we focus on the great escape and one of my favorite moments in the entire arc: Carrot’s Sulong form. Staring into the full moon causes some minks to turn into powerful fighters. Well, they all turn into powerful fighters, but you need training to be able to effectively wield this Sulong power. And Carrot has gone through this training. With lightning speed she takes out the steering wheels of all the ships in front of them, causing them to drift off to the side. The cake, the straw hats and Big Mom are all heading towards each other as we reach the conclusion of this volume. Will Luffy win his fight against Katakuri? Will the cake be good enough to knock out Big Mom? And most importantly, will the entire crew be able to escape from Big Mom’s territory? We’re nearing the end of Whole Cake Island and I can’t wait to see the conclusion with all of you! Thanks for reading.
Opal Kaharis 