SUUUUUUUPER chapter. Pound doing the Franky Butterfly in honor of Aniki returning after his long absence.
Enel is safe on the moon for another week. Poor Jack admits to his Zou failure then makes amends by bringing the mammoth boys to back up Kaido. Neko and Inu choose to focus on Kaido, good news for Jack as there's now a high chance he survives the rooftop battle. One thing I never noticed is that while Inurashi has his top 3 musketeers in Shishilian/Concelot/Giovanni, the Guardians have their own top 3 in Pedro/Rody/Blackback. I never saw why the bull and gorilla got so much focus even clashing with Luffy and bodying Jean Bart, but it all makes sense when you see these next-in-line Minks targeting Jack now. Hacha was a bit underwhelming in that he was just a regular but funny giant sporting a coconut head and a track suit, and then Nagi walks in looking like a complete Yeti yokai. The missing Yeti Cool Bro. If there's a lot more Nagis walking around, the idea that they're hiding Zoan transformations to become intimidating is in doubt. I love the flaming Komainu fur coming out of Sulong, way better than Pekom's sausage hair and quite a contrast to Carrot's more elegant and less feral apperance. Sulong's time limit is a concern as it makes it seem most of these minks will not hold out until dawn.
Sanji coming out of nowhere to do his Sanji thing and even clash with King was pure fire. Well Nami, it turns out the only prostitute who could quench his thrist was you. With Kaido gone, Jack upstairs, Orochi dead, Fukurokuju off stage, only King and Queen were left watching Momo setting up an unconventional character to step up. RS Sanji and Law with Shambles the two most ideal options here. It wasn't time for Momo to transform into a dragon yet (as all the major spectators are missing) and Sanji leaves his rescue to Shinobu. King reveals his hidden race's giant wings aren't for show like the Skypeains and takes to the air to intercept Sanji. So he can fly and he has a Flying Zoan too? Lol, his hybrid form will look so sick with 4 wings. King does an interesting move where he stabs Sanji's stomach with the beak of his beast form and nails him into a tower at mach speed. Swords? Flames? Who needs them. I feel it's too early for 1v1 match ups and we're at a messy unpredictable stage, but Sanji with the Momo save and now keeping King's attention is such a great moment for him.
Big Mom is at full power and will be made light of no more! NOPE. Brook and Franky styling on a Yonkou's face, possibly the best entrance in the series. Luffy tries to ignore Big Mom again but she makes it clear to all the samurai that there's a second Kaido running around. Yamato, far from getting to fight Kaido, is now stuck protecting Momo like an Oden should. NGL, I need to see Hiyori calling Yamato "daddy". Nami does her own stealth ops and kidnaps Zeus from Big Mom, showing us there's some type of twisted pet-owner bond between the two, and also that absolutely everyone in this chapter is a better ninja than Shinobu. Especially Franky and Brook, Big Mom completely missed that egg landing on her face and leaving skid marks. Franky did say he working on a weapon that could hurt Kaido. The Franky Rider song (sung back in Punk Hazard as a tank) is a perfect addition on top of it all. I wouldn't worry about Big Mom at all here. It's a back and forth show with her being comedy one moment and then a god-level threat, a unique dynamic no other villain presents except maybe Blackbeard.
Oda breaks take no prisoners. So Sanji essentially left the raid suit intact. Which is fine since it's such a good design to waste on only an incompleted fight, and you could just say Usopp and Franky were too busy preparing for the war. After Wano arc though, I feel Oda may follow up on that design change. Luffy is not as proactive this chapter as he was last, probably because there's still a lot of characters out there fighting Gifters even though Kaido and Big Mom have already begun unleashing havoc. I doubt they're all being saved up to get their own Brook/Franky-style dynamic entry each here. Big Mom can only take so much abuse. While the Scabbards and Minks can buy a few hours from Kaido, all the Supernovas and Strawhats should be in the banquet hall ganging up on Big Mom. The only easy way out is Perospero with a plan or X-Drake with a fleet of marines. Regardless, it looks like Oda wants to gather the Strawhats in one place first before kicking off their major fights.