I was sick for almost two weeks so I hadn't been able to do the reviews of the manga I read weekly, but I feel quite better now and I'll start with the One Piece manga. This week's chapter was pretty good, with great moments of epic and surprising, but maybe a chapter that will not be liked by Sanji's fans, but if the fans of Zoro, because once again Sanji falls victim to an enemy attack in the most pathetic way possible and in turn, Zoro showing him why he is considered as 2nd in command in the band.
One Piece 997 "Flames" begins by showing us Sanji going to a place where he had heard the voice of a woman in danger, and as a good simp that he is, Sanji is going to his salvation, however, as expected all this was nothing but a trap by the subordinates of Black Maria, who using the powers of their Smile fruits, trap Sanji in a spider web, immobilizing the Straw Hat in the most pathetic way possible.
They change the scene quickly and in just two pages, they show Luffy and Jinbei going up to the 4th floor and wondering where Sanji went, they are interrupted by some samurai who point out some stairs to go up to the 4th floor more quickly, completely ignoring some pirates from Kaido who were waiting for them. This part of the manga I think was too much and could have been a little longer, but the following is more interesting.
This time the chapter shows us the other battlefield, exactly the place where Queen used her plague bullets against everyone, in this part we are shown that Big Mom already went up to the roof where Kaido is and at the moment of going up, in the hole that is in the center where Big Mom went up, Zoro visualizes an "object" that falls, when seeing this object Zoro has an expression of fury and his aura changes completely, he looks annoyed. All this happens while Queen is still laughing because of all the chaos she has caused due to her bullets and while X-Drake is still chasing Apoo to take away the antidote, however, in the most epic moment of the manga, Zoro gets serious, adopts an attack pose and cuts Apoo in the most epic way possible, taking away the antidote and defeating this despicable character once and for all.
Before the perplexed eyes of all, they see how Zoro defeats Apoo in a single attack, after which the swordsman gives the antidote to Chopper, who meets Brook and the latter is holding a torch next to Chopper. After this, Chopper speaks out to all those affected by Queen's bullets and says that he will find a way to cure them, both friends and enemies, and that the way they can counter Queen's virus is with heat (that's why Brook is holding a torch next to him).
However, before these words of Chopper, Queen is about to attack him with his weapon, but once again, demonstrating who is the protagonist of this chapter, Zoro attacks Queen, cutting his weapon in half and declaring that he is here to fight against the one who proclaims himself as the strongest in the world, that is, Kaido. Before these words, the whole place begins to tremble, people think that it is Zoro's fury that is provoking this, even Brook thinks that Zoro is using Conqueror Haki, however, Zoro himself says that he is not doing anything.
Robin appears and tells Zoro that she understands how he feels, since she also saw it fall. And what they saw falling is the arm of Kiku that Kaido cut off some chapters ago, it was that which awakened Zoro's fury at not being able to be upstairs helping his friends in the battle. Zoro wants to go up but he knows that having King and Queen imposing him is not going to be an easy task. And before changing the scene and entering the last stages of this chapter, Marco appears and tells Zoro and Robin that they need his help.
The chapter changes to different parts of the island and shows us the characters feeling the great earthquake that is shaking Onigashima, we see Nami, Luffy, Jinbei, even the crew of Law, Kid, and Black Maria mentioning something that suggests that she knows what is happening.
Almost at the end of this chapter, we see Yamato carrying Momonosuke and Shinobu, Yamato is looking for a way to take them off the island, that's why he is looking for a boat, however, there is no boat nearby and even no sea and we see some strange shapes underneath them. And at this moment Yamato gives a quite important relief, since she says that when a Dragon flies, it leaves some "clouds of flames" scattered.
So that means that Kaido is making the whole island of Onigashima rise in the air and plans to move it to The Capital of Flowers. In front of a quite impressive image, we see the huge island rising and to one side we see Kaido, who says he has defeated Oden's disciples and now he will start "A world of madness". Thus ending the chapter.
An excellent chapter this week, with great epic moments by Zoro and with a quite unexpected end. Unfortunately next week there will be no chapter, so we will have to wait two weeks for 998. Being even closer to chapter 1000, which is expected to arrive in early January.
