This volume almost concludes the Whole Cake Island storyline, but there are two chapters in the next volume that are still a crucial part of this arc before we truly move on. For this reason I’ve decided to include those two chapters while leaving the rest of volume 90 for after a little break during which I focus on NaNoWriMo and we also take some time to look back at the past few arcs and what our gang has accomplished in the New World so far. With that out of the way, let’s get to it, covering up to chapter 902.
There are a couple of major pieces that fall into place for the plan to end in a success. First of all, Sanji, Pudding and Chiffon need to complete the cake, deliver it safely and get Big Mom to eat it. They manage this by distracting her at just the right time, causing the Straw Hats to have a tiny bit of breathing room during their hectic escape. The second thing we need is for Germa to show up and help fight off the Big Mom pirates at Cacao Island. They do show up to repay their debt and we get a heartwarming flashback to Reiju telling Sanji to escape and never come back. As cold as that family is, Rejiu is a good bean.
Then next up, we see how Morgans and Stussy escape the chaos on Morgans flying ship, and he’s already planning to send out some important news articles. The final success we need is that of Luffy who is in the mirrorworld fighting Katakuri.
Their fight continues as Luffy builds up more and more experience with his haki, slowly awakening to the part of haki that allows him to see a little bit into the future. It’s the power that Katakuri has been using so far to dominate in their duel. During the chaos, Luffy gets hit by an attack from Flampe, one of Katakuri’s little sisters and the leader of his fanclub. This enrages Katakuri because by this point he’s fully invested in the fight itself and wants to win fairly. He stabs himself to make things even and shows off his angry face, without covering his jaw that he’s been covering all these years. Flampe gets mad and tells him he’s hideous, but Katakuri only looks like there is a load off his shoulders. The duel continues and in true shonen fashion, Luffy eventually beats his opponent who falls forward. He then gets back up to ask Luffy if he’ll come back to destroy the Big Mom pirates, to which Luffy says that he will. He then smiles and falls backwards. Pekoms then rescues Luffy and gets him to Sanji, while dying in the process. It is at this point that the aforementioned intervention by Germa starts and Luffy manages to get back to the Sunny.
With the escape in full force, even the Sun Pirates – now accompanied by the giant sea monk Wadatsumi – come to help out the Straw Hats. Jinbe decides to stay with his former crew to help fight off the big Mom fleet since he has an escape route because he’s a fishman. He then promises to join up with the crew in Wano. It is with the sacrifice of Pekoms, Pedro and many others that the Straw Hat crew manages to escape from the waters of Big Mom and head towards the strange land of Wano.
Elsewhere, we get one last look at Katakuri and we learn a little bit about him. He has always been a strong man, but he used to not be perturbed by the mocking comments of others. He just beat them up. It’s only after they went after his sister, Brulee, that he started hiding his face. He cares so much about his siblings, and in particular the kind ones. He would be a great pirate captain if he weren’t already part of such a heinous crew with so many terrible people. Seeing him and Brulee at the end of the arc is heartwarming and I truly hope we get to see them again. With this, Whole Cake Island is now over and we go into what I believe to be the longest arc of One Piece. Like I mentioned, we’ll take a little bit of a break between now and then, but look forward to it! Thanks for reading.
Opal Kaharis 