Neo Ultra Mike
Creeping Shadow of "15000"+ Posts
My thoughts on OP 893
Cover Page: Continuing on with the Leo arc, the dwarves check out they're ship some more... huh now I'm reminded of when the Gorgonites were given a ship by Alan at the end of Small Soldiers to search for they're homeland except here it's going to be dwarves just searching for adventure. Though 5 points if one of them while sailing out goes "I hope we don't get hit by an iceberg" or mentions Encarta... remember when Encarta was a thing? Cause I do.
Review: At first I was honestly kind of wondering how to feel about this chapter. As this is the first time in OP where we actually get the old shonen cliche of the "this is a manly fight to the death between two men we're fighting with our honor and pride" between Luffy and one of the villains that actually showed the villain in a sense being honorable about it. I mean the whole battle of men thing was kind of mocked or made kind of as a joke with Franky vs Senor Pink in the battle of Dressrosa when they kept tosing the word around and making over the top ridiculous speeches about it while launching stuff like baby bombs and nipple lights so it was sort of a lampoon. This isn't the case with this fight as at least this part isn't supposed to be a joke and at first kind of seems odd for someone like Katakuri to do. Who is shown yeah to not be like the most vile or horrendous monster in comparison to how evil and backstabbing most of the rest of his family is, but is still someone who is about efficentley wiping out a threat as quick as possible with his future sight and moving on. However when thinking about this whole entire encounter and this particular part I realized something that made it work. And it wasn't just the "haki is built up fighting stronger opponents" thing or whatever Rayleigh that honestly does feel kind of there to justify Luffy getting stronger without really training here. But rather something that connects at a character level and honestly does raise Dogtooth up as a character, even as a villain;
The pride of doing the job himself and wanting to see it through to the end.
Because honestly on one level, taking this blow and ending the fight here should still be a perfect mark on Katakuri's record. The only reason Luffy lasted so long is because of how many time he's run away or how other people have gotten in the way like the whole "hiding out to regain my haki" strategy seen with Brulee. Really feels only natural for karma to come back around to Luffy to loose a fight in a sense at the beginning he had no chance of winning and kind of lucked into lasting this long. However to Katakuri at this point having fought Luffy for so long and having constantly seen him evolve and get stronger and survive his assault over and over, is more determined to ever to win on his and only his terms. It's obvious he doesn't particularly care how the rest of his family see him at this point and even before he seemed to hold up this image more for the sake of just generally being left along and wanting to do things in his own way. And even though he would still hold claim winning the battle this way, he doesn't see it as that if someone else got in the way and made him deal a critical blow he didn't earn. Honestly it's like going through a level of Bloodbourne and at the very end someone hacking they're way into the game to deal a strike on a foe you've been trying to hack away for hours: even if you hate that foe and want him to die you want it to be on your terms and not have your victory cheapened by the actions of an outsider. Most other main villains wouldn't care about such a thing but to people with a pride of they're strength and abilities to do anything I can see this bothering Katakuri and honestly him spearing himself and removing his mask to tell the others not to interfere does make a lot of sense and honestly does explain Flambe's role in this fight: she was here to really show the difference between Katakuri and the rest of the family in terms of how they deal with problems. The others probably would just seize on the Straw Hats or anyone else in an instant of weakness not caring how much it was earned but Katakuri wants the fight to be his own and wants the win to come from him. Especially from someone who has proven now to be on his level and not just a lot of the weaker opponents he can instantly house in a second. It does work and showing bits of his pass and him walking and thinking as Flambe is either praising him or dissing his looks work especially the ending of the two unleashing conqueror's haki to knock the others out.
So honestly this chapter is actually fairly solid for what seems like it going with this shonen cliche as it actually in a sense deepens the villain a bit more and makes this battle feel more important. I've been championing before that Luffy vs Katakuri should end in a loss for Luffy so they can have a rematch battle in Elbalf (again obvious the Straw Hats will get away and the Big Mom pirates will wind up chasing them there and be the major villains of that arc as that just makes too mense for them not to do) and I still feel that way but having it end in a way where Katakuri wasn't satisfied and felt it was fully earned so he would also welcome a rematch fight makes sense now so kind of hoping that happens but still solid chapter. Really I don't know why people are getting bored with this fight since other things are happening in chapters that don't focus on it and the ones that do are actually quite good.
Review: At first I was honestly kind of wondering how to feel about this chapter. As this is the first time in OP where we actually get the old shonen cliche of the "this is a manly fight to the death between two men we're fighting with our honor and pride" between Luffy and one of the villains that actually showed the villain in a sense being honorable about it. I mean the whole battle of men thing was kind of mocked or made kind of as a joke with Franky vs Senor Pink in the battle of Dressrosa when they kept tosing the word around and making over the top ridiculous speeches about it while launching stuff like baby bombs and nipple lights so it was sort of a lampoon. This isn't the case with this fight as at least this part isn't supposed to be a joke and at first kind of seems odd for someone like Katakuri to do. Who is shown yeah to not be like the most vile or horrendous monster in comparison to how evil and backstabbing most of the rest of his family is, but is still someone who is about efficentley wiping out a threat as quick as possible with his future sight and moving on. However when thinking about this whole entire encounter and this particular part I realized something that made it work. And it wasn't just the "haki is built up fighting stronger opponents" thing or whatever Rayleigh that honestly does feel kind of there to justify Luffy getting stronger without really training here. But rather something that connects at a character level and honestly does raise Dogtooth up as a character, even as a villain;
The pride of doing the job himself and wanting to see it through to the end.
Because honestly on one level, taking this blow and ending the fight here should still be a perfect mark on Katakuri's record. The only reason Luffy lasted so long is because of how many time he's run away or how other people have gotten in the way like the whole "hiding out to regain my haki" strategy seen with Brulee. Really feels only natural for karma to come back around to Luffy to loose a fight in a sense at the beginning he had no chance of winning and kind of lucked into lasting this long. However to Katakuri at this point having fought Luffy for so long and having constantly seen him evolve and get stronger and survive his assault over and over, is more determined to ever to win on his and only his terms. It's obvious he doesn't particularly care how the rest of his family see him at this point and even before he seemed to hold up this image more for the sake of just generally being left along and wanting to do things in his own way. And even though he would still hold claim winning the battle this way, he doesn't see it as that if someone else got in the way and made him deal a critical blow he didn't earn. Honestly it's like going through a level of Bloodbourne and at the very end someone hacking they're way into the game to deal a strike on a foe you've been trying to hack away for hours: even if you hate that foe and want him to die you want it to be on your terms and not have your victory cheapened by the actions of an outsider. Most other main villains wouldn't care about such a thing but to people with a pride of they're strength and abilities to do anything I can see this bothering Katakuri and honestly him spearing himself and removing his mask to tell the others not to interfere does make a lot of sense and honestly does explain Flambe's role in this fight: she was here to really show the difference between Katakuri and the rest of the family in terms of how they deal with problems. The others probably would just seize on the Straw Hats or anyone else in an instant of weakness not caring how much it was earned but Katakuri wants the fight to be his own and wants the win to come from him. Especially from someone who has proven now to be on his level and not just a lot of the weaker opponents he can instantly house in a second. It does work and showing bits of his pass and him walking and thinking as Flambe is either praising him or dissing his looks work especially the ending of the two unleashing conqueror's haki to knock the others out.
So honestly this chapter is actually fairly solid for what seems like it going with this shonen cliche as it actually in a sense deepens the villain a bit more and makes this battle feel more important. I've been championing before that Luffy vs Katakuri should end in a loss for Luffy so they can have a rematch battle in Elbalf (again obvious the Straw Hats will get away and the Big Mom pirates will wind up chasing them there and be the major villains of that arc as that just makes too mense for them not to do) and I still feel that way but having it end in a way where Katakuri wasn't satisfied and felt it was fully earned so he would also welcome a rematch fight makes sense now so kind of hoping that happens but still solid chapter. Really I don't know why people are getting bored with this fight since other things are happening in chapters that don't focus on it and the ones that do are actually quite good.