The end is near. A lot of the smaller fights are done after we finished last week’s volume and the big ones are coming to a close in this week’s volume as well. Let’s go through all the interesting things happening in this volume.
We’ll start with the fights that don’t take too much time. A return of the moon allows for both Nekomamushi and Inuarashi to defeat Perospero and Jack respectively. Yes I keep switching between their English and Japanese names in these posts with no regard for consistency. I’m not sorry. Izo wakes up an exhausted Marco to go after the CP0 agents who are on Wano. They’re trying to make sure Kaido doesn’t lose to Luffy and they’re trying to capture Robin. We know from experience that trying to capture Nico Robin rarely goes well, but they never learn. We also learn here that CP0 is already surrounding the island in case Kaido does lose, so they can take control of it. Lastly, Komurasaki has revived and is facing Orochi. We of course know that she was Hiyori all along and never died, but Orochi is unaware of this. After telling Kanjuro to burn down the entire place in his final act, he is now fully enthralled by Komurasaki.
Moving from the smaller moments, let’s go over each of the five important arcs in this volume. Killer is facing off against Hawkins, who is holding Kid hostage through his strange voodoo powers. After a long struggle during which Hawkins torments Kid by giving him headaches, Killer finds out a loophole. Does damage transfer to his captain if the damage is done to a body part that no longer exists? The answer is no, as he cuts off Hawkins arm and all that Kid loses is some of the metal he caught with his magnetism, no harm done. With Kid freed from Hawkins spell, the rest of the fight is easy and Hawkins goes down. This allows Kid and Law to focus on Big Mom, both using their awakened devil fruit powers to deal serious damage to the old woman, but it’s still not enough. She is definitely hurt after this one, but using her own lifespan she grows and becomes even more terrifying. Without a clear end to the fight, we move on to the next big event.
Momo and Luffy clash with Kaido, with Momo’s dragon form causing mass confusion on the battlefield as many people are unaware of who he is. Although he’s still a scared little boy, he now has the body of a 28 year old man and he bites Kaido something fierce, taking some revenge for all the horrible things he’s done to him. Luffy then tells him and Yamato to deal with the clouds that are holding the island in place, as they’re slowly getting weaker while Kaido is getting weaker as well. Luffy tells Momo he has nothing to be afraid of anymore as he just bit the world’s strongest man, one of the four emperors. Luffy and Kaido square off as Momo goes to deal with the flame clouds holding up Onigashima. Yamato quickly splits off from him to deal with the fire that’s creeping towards the weapon storage which will blow the entire island to bits. Damnit Kanjuro, just die already.
In the meantime, Sanji is facing off against Queen, his father’s old research buddy. Queen being arrogant and wanting to beat Judge in all of his research, he starts showing off moves that Sanji’s siblings could use. He really wants Sanji to wear his raid suit so that he can beat Judge’s science, but Sanji refuses, even destroying the suit during the fight. His body is already feeling strange after the last time he used it, causing him to worry that he’s already been infected by his father’s science in some way. Bit of a late bloomer, but maybe he is powerful like his siblings after all. The thought makes him angry, so he instead uses as much of his own power as he can to fight against Queen. Rejecting science but accepting cooking he turns Queen into a meal and finishes off the lead performer, causing King to be the only high ranking officer in Kaido’s army that’s left standing.
Speaking of King, he fights with Zoro and the two go back and forth but Zoro is unable to do any proper damage to King. During the fight, his sword starts to be a nuisance as Enma is testing its new wielder. We get a flashback and learn that the old man in Zoro’s village was actually Shimotsuki Kozaburo, the legendary swordsmith who made the Kisetsu blades as well as Enma. That explains why Kuina had such an incredibly valuable sword in her family. Although Zoro’s parentage doesn’t get revealed in the manga itself, we do learn in question corners who his parents are. They’re a man named Roronoa Arashi – who is a descendant of the Shimotsuki family – and a village girl named Tera. Someone from the Shimotsuki family using Enma seems like fate, and he wields the blade well in this volume. King on the other hand is revealed to be a Lunarian. A mostly extinct race of people who have dark skin, wings and fire coming from their body. They are almost invulnerable, being impervious to damage when the flames on their back are on. But to speed up, King has to let his flames go, which allows Zoro to deal some serious damage to him. We also learn that King’s original name was Alber, and Kaido saved him from a government research facility.
We end volume 102 with Big Mom and Kaido still standing, while King seems down for the count, but a defeat panel hasn’t been shown yet, which probably means he’s going to get back up. The Straw Hats and their allies are all exhausted and things are heating up – literally – on Onigashima. And with the reveal that CP0 and the nearby warships have some plans with Wano, things might still be dire even if the gang manages to defeat Kaido and Big Mom. But all of that will have to wait for next week, when we dive into volume 103. For now, thanks for reading!
Opal Kaharis 