One Piece Chapter 1194: ALL THINGS ARE IN FLUX

I’d like to dedicate a portion of this review to something rather momentous but also something I imagine most readers will either not notice or not care about. This chapter, 1194, marks the Post-Timeskip era of One Piece being officially as long as the Pre-Timeskip era. The direct middle chapters of the series now mark the direct midpoint of the story, the crossing of the threshold into the new world, the rise from the ashes after the worst defeat of all. I’m sure many people have felt the Timeskip era has already felt much longer, and in terms of real life years, it has been. A combination of less chapters per year, longer sagas with less location changes has definitely led to this era feeling hefty, but as you can see, it is only now reaching the same length!

The way that Shueisha organises the manga into box sets is not common knowledge so I will discuss it briefly here. The sagas, designated as boxes, are as follows: East Blue, Covering the obvious, Volumes 1-12. The second is the Alabasta Saga, 13-24. And the third, for Sky Island, 24-32. These three sagas are designated as the first “part” of the series, and I think this makes a lot of sense, the status quo is shaken up a lot going forward, and the groundwork for the Paramount War is laid in the designated part two. Which itself is split into Water Seven (33-45), most interestingly, Thriller Bark (46-53) following through to the end of the Amazon Lily storyline, which makes some sense as the arcs that all feature Bartholomew Kuma, and before Luffy starts his journey to save Ace. The third set for this second part is naturally the Paramount War, (54-61) That 61st Volume however being primarily a Fish Man Island volume, but I suppose it is transitional. No box currently contains less than 8 volumes. I think It helps to view the pre-timeskip with these six divisions, and rationalises the lengths of the post-timeskip sagas. Especially Water Seven, putting it among the longest even to this day.

I think many people like to follow the popular opinion “One Piece Sagas are so long now” but I don’t think we need to view every location change as a new storyline, Wano featured travel to Onigashima, much like Water Seven did to Enies Lobby, Oda provided unique arc divisions (the three acts) without these, I’m sure many fans would have considered Onigashima as separate storyline. For posterity, the remaining  BOX divisions are as follows, Part Three: Fish Man Island (62-70, including Punk Hazard, not pairing it with Dressrosa as many seem to think), Dressrosa (71-80). Whole Cake Island (81-90). The final part, as it stands, Land of Wano (91-104). The uncollected volumes for the 11th box pose the question, are Egghead and Elbaph one storyline? This remains to be seen, but I could easily see it being the case, with a clear throughline of the Giants throughout.

Thank you for bearing with me, now onto the chapter proper. Zoro and Sommers continue their battle, Sommers is in shock, but can clearly tell that Zoro has not yet figured out how to use Supreme King Haki effectively. Zoro doesn’t relent, using the old trial and error on Sommers, which he says takes guts. Gaban’s words ring in Zoro’s ears, he needs to figure this out, in order to support Luffy, he has to be able to understand all forms of Haki and use them to their fullest. At this moment, it clicks. The force of his attack slashes through the ship (calling to mind Mihawk’s introduction). It seems the win condition for this fight is to actually destroy the ship, leaving Summers without a plan to transport the children. This is an interesting wrinkle to add to the story, as it definitely indicates to me the arc will wrap up soon, without the villains being fully defeated. Sommers yells at Zoro, he does not believe he has the qualities of a king. We learn through Mihawk’s words, what truly defines a King. It is having a defined sense of self. I love this, I love this so much. I think it basically says that anyone can attain Supreme King Haki, you just need to have an unwavering belief in who you are and your dreams. This definitely shows in all the confirmed characters to wield the power, all have either figured out who they are, or have always known who they are. I think this bodes well for Sanji, but it will take self love and acceptance to achieve, which is no small feat. It also opens the door for other characters whose arcs are not yet complete. I think what really shines through in the recent chapters is how much fun Oda is having with the fights, Sommers is such a wildly expressive character who you just wanna see taken down a peg, and Zoro is scrambling through his proverbial toolkit to find what will work, while still being on the defensive. Sommer’s thorn powers have also been much more fun than the concept alone may seem, with some kind of thorn-launching eels manifesting. The chapter being so short is a bit disappointing, though I think it’ll fit better in volume format.