This was amazing as a standalone chapter, but would be bittersweet if this is truly the end of Egghead. First off, huge shout out to Emeth, a true homie! "Hey Luffy, thank you!! You let me hear that nostalgic rhythm one last time!! Don't die! I won't let you die!!" and his flashback scene with Joy Boy got me dusty
And of course Buggy being the best character in One Piece as usual.
I’m also pretty sure we’ve just been introduced to the GOAT of the verse (until Luffy surpasses him). His CoC is so massive that it’s solo splitting the sky and disabling other users' demon forms 900 years in the future. The best CoC feat in the series so far. Imu being shook was funny, but I’m still not entirely sold on him. I hope Saturn staying behind will somehow lead to his death here so Catarina can disguise as Saturn, help Blackbeard infiltrate Mary Geoise, and kill Imu. I prefer Blackbeard as the final villain at this point. But I know there's no chance that's happening.
Speaking of Saturn, that's really why this is a bittersweet ending to Egghead. As an arc, it had some of the highest points in the entire series. Kuma and Bonney’s flashback built up such emotional baggage that it needed a payoff here. It feels cheap to use the emotional beats of a good character dying only to bring them back, and equally cheap to build up a fantastic villain arc only to have the climax be a Luffy and Bonney tag team attack in Nika form. It needed a legit Nika vs. Saturn fight where Kuma and Bonney get to see their idol kill Saturn, who made their lives hell. I guess I'll settle for Emeth killing Saturn since he's still Nika affiliated, but the lack of a proper payoff and postponing the Gorosei defeats to the final arc makes Egghead feel like an escape mission, lessening its overall quality for me.
Anyway, I still thought it was really good overall.
Oda negs your favorite mangaka. One Piece negs your favorite manga. Nika negs your favorite character. And JoNdule is the greatest powerscaler of all time