Chapter was awesome. Overall one of the best in the series for me, from sheer hype level.
Zoro’s part was excellent. Ashura looked awesome after so long, and awakening CoC was really cool as well, feels gratifying to have that come around after the parallels between him and Rayleigh have been present for a long time now.
To me though, the best part of Zoro’s scene wasn’t Ashura, nor even the CoC. As I said in the spoiler thread, it was what he said about Luffy to Kaido. That stuff gets me every time, especially when it’s from Zoro or Nami. It hits differently with them because they’re his two closest companions, part of the original trio, and the two most important crew mates. It’s part of what made Nami’s moment a few chapters ago so special, and this was no different. The only person on the crew that comes close to that impact in those scenes is Jinbe.
Another plus was Law. Law got a really good character development moment with what he said about his plan, and it shows how he and Luffy have that relationship that Roger and WB had, of friendship and mutual respect high enough that Law wouldn’t intentionally hurt members of Luffy’s crew. Plus, he damaged Kaido with a mid level attack of his, and ranked a Thunder Bagua. Really good from him, and despite Luffy’s statement, we know Law isn’t going to drop down, likely only going to transport Zoro. He’s one of Luffy’s two rivals among the Supernova, and told Luffy earlier that he doesn’t take orders from him. Law isn’t going away, and I don’t think that Luffy is quite yet the level to solo Kaido.
All that said, Zoro and Law had great moments, but Luffy absolutely outshined both. The panel of him standing back up in shadow was epic, as was when he dodged Kaido’s attack. Utilizing the same level of CoC that Roger and Whitebeard were using was amazing, and bludgeoning the high hell out of Kaido using only that *in base form* is nuts. It’s ridiculous to think that out of all the attacks that Kaido has taken, including Zoro’s strongest attack, the ones that have damaged him the most is one from Luffy who wasn’t even using any gears.
Luffy is in another realm now. He’s absolutely a top tier, I’d put him above the admirals, and he hasn’t even started incorporating CoC into his gears yet.
Great chapter, my favorite of Wano so far. Can’t wait for more, but with what we got today, I’m not even slightly upset there’s a break. Just outstanding.