Well, that was abysmal. After I defended Wano yesterday, he drops maybe the worst chapter of the arc.
I liked the small scale scene with sword guy and Toko at the start as a reminder of what is being fought for and as set up for them to be in mortal danger soon when the island drops.
The chess board, okay if unoriginal way of showing how the battle is going, but it’s not going to be interesting if the Strawhats just keep getting orher people on their sides- as the Gifters are now primed to tirn as well. That’s boring, at some point the Beast Pirates need to start wiping folk out and taking them “off the board.”
But jesus, the finale for Nami vs Ulti… at best I can say the gags were funny, but seriously, why on earth did Oda throw in Big Mom blasting Ulti, utterly cheapening Nami’s victory? And it looks like Page One really is down for good (the great loser of the Beast Pirates, him)? If he was only going to get up to get beaten in a cheap half fight with Usopp, he might as well stay down anyway.
it was just so bad, and it should have been really good. Oda had told us that Nami just needed better lightning to beat Ulti. Why add in Big Mom utterly mauling her beforehand, making this a glorified Nami vs Absalom? Just completely unnecessary. Bad enough that Big Mom seems to be the one to have beaten Page One for good and taken one Strawhat fight away, but to also be basically the reason for a second- blech.
Yamato vs Kaido, not all that interesting either tbh. Wano is special for some reason (we know that already), Yamato wants to leave with Luffy (we know that already as well, but people have been arguing against it so okay), a maybe CoC/maybe CoA clash and a break.
At least the fights are wrapping up, and the others should be better without Big Mom flying in and doing the Strawhats work for them.