Hogan Reviews

Time to look at the second half of the Egghead arc, which has a hell of a flashback story mixed in with plenty of over-the-top action and some leaps forward in terms of the overarching plot that has been teased for the last few DECADES. Very pretty to look at too, though there were plenty of recap episodes and breaks to allow this, something that will hopefully vanish now One Piece is switching to a seasonal model at long last. Anyway, let’s take a look!

We start off back on Egghead (which may seem obvious but the last few episodes of the previous chunk weren’t set there!) and we see the Straw Hats have saved Dr. Vegapunk and captured York, the aspect of Vegapunk who had betrayed her fellow “kin” to the World Government and the Five Elders for a place as a Noble. As the Straw Hats and the remaining Cipher Pol agents join forces to take on the rebellious Seraphim (there’s a lot of stuff going on, I’d recommend not reading this review if unfamiliar with at least the previous one…) the Marines arrive, including Kizaru who soon leaps into action and confronts his old friend Sentomaru (which we see in a brief flashback) before defeating them and heading to kill his other old friend in Vegapunk himself, though Luffy soon arrives and thanks to his Gear 5 transformation is more than able to hold his own against an enemy that was once WAY out of his league. While all this is going on Bonney tries to escape some Admirals and Sanji, Franky, Vegapunk and some of the other, um, Vegapunks all head to save her, Zoro and Lucci begin to fight toe-to-toe (showing how far Zoro has come too!) and the Marines and the Vegapunks keep wrestling  control over the robot Pacifistas. Everything comes to a halt though as St. Saturn, one of the Five Elders, takes to the field himself and transforms into a giant Spider-like creature and captures Bonney, who recognises his voice from a traumatic moment in her past…

Luffy Hulks up!

This leads to an eight episode flashback recounting the whole of Bartholomew Kuma’s life, and boy oh boy, it was quite the life alright. Kuma’s father was a “Buccaneer”, a type of human species that for reasons yet unknown were all but wiped out by the World Government and the few that are left are “not treated well” to put it bluntly, and despite the locals at the small village that they lived in trying to keep it a secret word got out and Kuma and his family are captured, beaten and turned into slaves for the Celestial Dragons, the absolute worst “stuck up rich people” archetype I’ve seen in fiction, frankly. Kuma’s mother  dies, his father tries to cheer him up by talking about the Sun God Nika and doing a fun dance before being gunned down by a Dragon and splattering young Kuma’s face with his blood (seriously, that was just horrible. Effective, but horrible!) Kuma and other slaves were then taken to God Valley where they were used as human game for Celestial Dragons to hunt only to meet a girl called Ginny and a young Ivankov, who inspire them to try an escape. This is the same God Valley where it’s been hinted at that a major incident took place, and while this is indeed that major incident we don’t get to see the Rocks Pirates, Roger Pirates and the Marines go at it, but we do see a young Kuma eat the Paw Paw Fruit that was on offer as a prize and then use it to transport everyone to safety. Well, every slave that hadn’t already been killed to safety anyway… This led to a period of peace when Kuma and Ginny return to the church he grew up in and act like a best friends and then as a couple but Kuma doesn’t want to pass on his Buccaneer heritage to another generation. More time passes and Kuma joins the Revolutionary Army and Ginny takes to the seas as well, but sadly she is soon captured and enslaved by the World Nobles.

Awww, what a lovely scene… well, apart from the wounds and slave collars. Still though- Oh…

A couple of years later Ginny contacts the Revolutionary Army and tells them that she is now free, but only because she’s contracted a disease called Sapphire Scales and will soon die. Kuma figures out where she must be and heads to that same church again but is too late to meet her before she dies, but he does find out she’s had a daughter called Bonney… who also has Sapphire Scales and so won’t live past the age of 10. Kuma eventually causes a ruckus in a nearby Kingdom and earns a bounty, so in order to not draw attention to Bonney he becomes a Pirate and helps fight the good fight while also searching for anyone who could cure her illness. He eventually encounters Dr. Vegapunk, who offers to cure her if he agrees to use his Buccaneer body as the basis for a clone army he wishes to create, ones that he later names Pacifista because of Kuma’s pacifist nature. The deal seems to be a happy end to the problem… until the Five Elders hear what’s going on. St. Saturn contacts Vegapunk and demands that while he can continue treating Bonney the exchange is now that Kuma has to become a cyborg weapon under his control to the point of no longer having any memories at all. Vegapunk is outraged but Kuma agrees, and so the last few episodes we see Bonney grow up (mostly thanks to her Age Age Fruit powers) and escape the surveillance of the World Government to begin her search for both her father and the Nika God he kept telling her would save them. Sadly she doesn’t see him, and he keeps his distance until the last procedure that takes away all his memories in a rather heartbreaking sequence. We then get a reminder that Bonney had touched the Paw with all of Kuma’s memories in, so we see her reaction to her father’s many sacrifices and hardships (to say the least!)

Kizaru reflects on his life choices a little bit too late…

Back in the present St. Saturn has Bonney in his grasp and lays down a few extra facts, like how he exposed Ginny to Sapphire Scales as an experiment and her Age Age Fruit was also his doing. Bonney cries out but just in the time what little remains of Kuma arrives, and despite having no memories and being half destroyed enough of his original self was tucked away somewhere and Kuma delivers an extremely satisfying punch to Saturn and saves his daughter. While Vegapunk speculates how Kuma defied his programming Saturn gets up enraged and orders a Buster Call to level Egghead entirely, not just because of his enemies but because of that old chestnut of “nobody must know about the Void Century”. The call is halted somewhat when it’s revealed that the Pacifistas will follow Bonney’s orders over even the Five Elders and so they begin to destroy the nearby Marine ships, but in anger Saturn impales Vegapunk. As Bonney freaks out that Luffy’s Gear 5 transformation is clearly the Nika that she, her father and her grandfather (I guess?) talked about unexpected help arrives in the form of a ship of giants from Elbaph, headed by Dorry and Brogy (you know, from nearly two decades ago, TV airing-wise…)

Overall Thoughts:

Who would’ve guessed these two would have such a big role all these many, many years later…

The second half (ish) of Egghead serves several masters: we have the Five Elders and the general overarching plot being finally peeled back a bit, we have the more personal story of Bonney and Kuma, and then we have the Straw Hats trying to escape the island and finally head to Elbaph and frankly all three stories are very entertaining (or an emotional roller-coaster, in Kuma’s backstory’s case) and the animation has continued to impress. Yes, as always but hopefully for the last time, the pacing is questionable to put it politely and it was riddled with cut-away recap episodes, but if you’re watching these episodes with the ability to watch multiple in one sitting and skip the non-numbered recap episodes then you’ll have a great time, I think. Now bring on the twice-yearly season format, it will if nothing else make it easier to know when to create cut-off points for these reviews…

As Saturn begins to be hampered by Luffy everyone tries to make a break for it, but Kizaru callously shoots Vegapunk in the back, mortally wounding his old friend to complete his mission, but what they don’t know is that this sets off a pre-recorded message to be broadcast across the whole world by Vegapunk, where he plans to reveal several secrets. This puts the fear of God (the fear of Imu?) into the Five Elders so the other four Elders teleport to Egghead and transform as well, adding to the chaos. What follows is a couple of long sequences of the Straw Hats and the Elbaph giants attempting to escape the island via the giants’ ship and the Sunny but being slowed down by the Elders, all while Vegapunk’s message plays. What does it reveal? Well, apparently the world of One Piece is slowly sinking into the ocean thanks to weapons created during the Void Century, even predicting the use of one such weapon by Imu just recently and how that caused flooding as proof. He also confesses to some of his crimes (including creating the power source no doubt used to power the weapon) but also makes sure to lay blame at the World Government as well, and goes to mention those who have inherited the “will of D” but that bit gets cut off (of course! Don’t want to reveal everything just yet…) At the edge of the island they find out that the broadcast hasn’t come from the lab but from the giant robot from the Void Century that we saw in the first half of the arc, that by the way has come to life thanks to Luffy using his Gear 5 power and making it think of Joyboy.

The Robot unleashes Joyboy Haki… man, there’s a sentence…

The elders damage the robot enough to cease the transmission and Saturn goes to stop Bonney and Luffy from escaping on the giants’ ship but with some encouragement from Luffy Bonney realises she doesn’t have control over aging as such but instead can change her and other people’s bodies based on different possible futures and so she chooses the “future where she’s most free” and gets a transformation that’s visually like Luffy’s / Nika. Together they beat Saturn back to the island, where the robot stands up once more and we get an actual flashback to Joyboy himself, who says he’s given the robot a chunk of his Conquerors Haki and stored it in him for the future, should he ever need to use it to protect someone he cares about. The robot thanks Luffy for reminding him of his friend and then unleashes it, a Haki so powerful even admirals fall unconscious and the Elders and sent back to where they came from (apart from Saturn as he travelled via regular means) The release of Joyboy energy also enrages Imu, which is another nice tease. As the dust settles Kizaru gives Marine HQ an earful about being forced to kill a good friend (great character moment after all these years of nothing but classic lazy guy tropes!), Saturn is executed from afar by Imu for his failures and the Straw Hats have a party onboard the giant’s ship when they find out that Vegapunk is still sort-of alive, in a digital consciousness sort of way thanks to one of the Vegapunks still being alive on board. Everyone is now finally, after all these years, on the way to Elbaph…