 Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review, your source for everything One Piece, and today we have a review of chapter 988, Sorry for the wait, just kind of nice that rhymes. And usually I'd start these videos off by having some sort of quote unquote joke to prompt you into subscribing to the Grand Line Review for regular One Piece content uploaded straight into your YouTube feed of course. But as you can see or not, my subscribe button appears to be missing. Oh wait, there it is. The ever sneaky and invisible cook had it all along. And I suggest that you now press it immediately before it vanishes again. But getting into chapter 988, the key word to describe this chapter would be action. And not only that, but exciting action as well with at least one fairly unexpected matchup for me. Actually, you know what, given how the chapter ended, let's make that two unexpected matchups. But we'll get into that in due course because I really do feel the need to pick things up from the beginning because it really does continue the glorious atmosphere set up by chapter 987. In fact, the very first panel we have here is this incredibly understated shot of Kaido looming, high in the air. Full moon in shot looking wonderful as per usual and just looking down on the masses of minks that have gathered to face him. And weirdly enough, I actually like this panel even more than the full moon Kaido of the last chapter. That panel was a very central feature and detail was paramount, but this one gives us a much better scale of Kaido and lets us know exactly what we're up against because Oda is allowed to explore the full extent of Kaido through a vertical sense, which seems like a really simple feature but it's actually something we don't normally see from Kaido's dragon form because the horizontal tends to be emphasized. You know, almost squashing all that he is into this landscape format, which is certainly cool in its own right, but I don't know, I really appreciate being able to see Kaido extending up into the air and looking down upon these lowly, lowly creatures that dare to challenge him. So it really was an effective way to open up the chapter for me because it signifies that Kaido has regained control of this situation after the unexpected attack from the vassals. Kaido in general is less of a major feature of 988 though because he very much had his moment in the prior chapter and this one is more about expanding upon Jack, King and Big Mom, which I quite like because it's kind of counter to how one piece would normally operate. Usually we have to build up to the big bad by getting through and occupying their crews first. Think of the Don Quixote family on Dressrosa, Baroque works on Alabasta, or even CP9 on any slobby. On each and every occasion, we worked our way up the pyramid, but in this case we have a more trickle down effect starting with Kaido. And I actually don't know if what I'm saying makes any sense, I mean it does in my head and you know what? That's fine, that's all that matters. In any case, Jack, this has been a long-awaited standoff. Ever since we saw that frankly brutal flashback on Zo, I have been craving the moment where Inorashi and Ekumamushi have the chance to rip this man into shreds. And while it's not looking like that's how things are going to play out, it was still good to see the recognition of that grudge. And of course it is finally so long time as well, just not necessarily in the way that I'd hoped. I won't lie, it was kind of disappointing not to see Inorashi and Ekumamushi transforming as of yet, but on the other hand, it means that I still have something pretty amazing to look forward to in the future. Because thinking about it, I suppose having the two bosses transform would have taken quite a bit away from seeing the rest of the Ming tribe invoking their Suolong forms, which did end in this really cool panel of all of them roaring or yelling or whatever they're doing, directly at Kaido and his forces. And this is the sort of thing that I'm really looking forward to seeing in the anime because it's one of those moments where sound is a selling factor. And as hype as it is to see it on a page, if adapted competently, then it should be significantly better on screen. Immediately proceeding this slow, we did see some Suolong transformations of some familiar minks, one of which is the trio of musketeers, but also the guardians of the forest, which is kind of sad because seeing Roddy and Bebe, whose name I think is Blackback, but just seeing the two of them reminded me of our lost Jaguar Pedro, because he was a guardian and he should be here, but he isn't because of the actions of a Candyman, a Candyman who is here actually, which really does emphasize what a twisted, twisted world we live in. And look, I might get a bit of flak for this, but I honestly didn't feel much throughout this page of seeing these minks transform. To me, they just didn't have quite the same vibe about them as when Karat invoked her form or even what we briefly saw of Pekoms. And I think it's because it just happened far too quickly. You know, you see a small panel of normal minks and then you immediately cut to their full transformations, all Super Saiyan style, whereas Karat and Pekoms had this middle step to work with and build up some tension, especially Karat actually, who had this amazing panel that is just seared into my mind with a roar and this like spiral of hair surrounding her before her ultimate revelation. And I obviously know why this decision was made in chapter 988 because no, you can't show full transformations for the entire tribe because that would fill the entire chapter. So I guess it's just a combination of some unfortunate factors going on here. You know, we have very minor characters given the bare minimum focus for what should be an earth-shattering event. And I also don't think it helps that most of these transformations look more or less the same. They're all just big, bulky, bushy, hairy monsters just like Pekoms. So I think underwhelming is a very fine way to describe that whole page in general. Oh, and you know what? Let's complain some more because people love when I complain. And I have to say, I really do not care about this numbers guy, like not one bit. Everything I said about the sumang section is infinitely better than just squishing this guy into the chapter. He appears in the background a couple of times, then he has this teeny, tiny introduction panel, which oddly enough is kind of like a tangible cue to tell me exactly how much I should care about him. He was worthy of like one-twelfth of the space on this page. So that means he can have one-twelfth of my attention here, which honestly might even be too much. It's starting to make me fear that the numbers are going to be primarily empty characters who are only invented for the sake of giving Kaido a larger and more fleshed out force in theory anyway, sort of like what the zombie generals were on Thriller Bark. These completely unmemorable yet named existences, which is fine, I get that, but I still don't care. Both of the numbers we've seen so far are entirely forgettable existences, and in fact, I don't even remember the name of the first one. And not only that, I can't be bothered to go and look it up. All right, no more complaining now though, because the rest of the chapter was pretty amazing. But one last thing I'd like to comment before moving on is that Kaido and Jack have demonstrable knowledge of what the Sulong form is, which I don't know why I'm surprised by that. I mean, minks are pretty common as an existence in this world, so much so that they have a standard slavery price. But what this does is give Kaido that extra boost of intimidation though. I really love the idea that he is just staring down a whole army of minks, fully aware that they are about to transform, and he just doesn't care, because he is that confident in his own abilities, as well as those of his greater forces. But next up, we have probably my favorite part of the chapter, which would be Sanji versus King. And it was really great to see Stealth Black in action, managing to catch King by surprise. And actually, you know what? Since King's color scheme is also all black, this is very much a color-coded matchup. So it would be Sanji's Stealth Black versus, I mean, what's the opposite of Stealth? Conspicuous, yeah, that's it. Stealth Black versus very conspicuous Black. And the brief fight scene that ensued was quite something. I like that King wasted no time at all transforming into his Pteranodon form, taking Sanji with the utmost of seriousness and seemingly getting the better of him in what looks to be a pretty devastating attack. And just a quick thing though, because I feel like this is something that will pop up in the comments. Me liking the instant nature of King's transformation might seem a bit counter to my argument about the Sulong members earlier, but there are some very, very key differences here though. Mostly in that King's scene has this great sense of urgency about it. So it really effectively amps up the pacing to just cut to him as a Pteranodon, whereas the earlier Sulong scene was intended to be this slower buildup and the instant cuts don't work quite as well for me in portraying that. But I suppose the grand question here is whether or not King will be Sanji's ultimate matchup. And my inclination would be to say no, primarily because I don't think we're anywhere near that stage yet. This still feels like the opening chaotic skirmishes and I'd fully expect this to end with Sanji escaping using stealth black and for King to end up facing someone else. It was a great Sanji moment though. And if he does end up in an extended battle against King, then hey, I'm all for that as well. Something about this whole section that I did not expect though and was very pleasantly surprised by would be Sanji's words to Momonosuke. Probably because this would be the typical Luffy move. You know, do the whole save someone then give them some words of encouragement and proceed to beat the crap out of the bad guy. But I think it's particularly impactful coming from Sanji because he and Momonosuke have had this, you know, rocky relationship really, which is mostly due to Momos perverted nature and Sanji is in a jealousy of how successful it is. So it's really good to see that kind of comedy stripped away in favor of just some raw drama, which is where Momonosuke is very much shining brilliantly. And I really do hope he never goes back to his overtly comical perverted personality because he's come such a long, long way from there to the point where I quite like the character now. And our other figure of focus in chapter 988 would be Big Mom. And I kind of fear the fan base reaction to this as I usually do with anything and everything involving her because obviously this chapter ends hilariously, in my opinion, with Frankie just ramming her in the face with a motorcycle, which is not a sentence I could have ever predicted, I would say, in my lifetime. And I really haven't checked the reactions to this, but knowing this fan base, I think this will lead to another wave of displeasure from Big Mom critics. And I'm sure that the word disrespect will be thrown around a fair bit. And I've already talked about this a lot and a great length, so I'm not gonna dive too deeply into it again. But if you are at chapter 988 of this series and you still don't know what One Piece is and how it operates, then I don't know how to help you. I mean, yeah, she's the most powerful hag in the world and an emperor of the sea, but so what? Nobody is safe from One Piece comedy. And I obviously really love this scene, especially with Frankie's cool words capping off the chapter. And even Nami's reaction was amazing, mainly because Nami and Frankie don't really interact all that often. And when they do it, usually consists of Nami either being angry or disgusted with Frankie. So here they have an actual moment, which, yes, is played mostly for comedy, but it is a very sweet interaction nonetheless. The best part about this whole segment, though, was that it was kind of an abridged version of Whole Cake Island or at least the climax of that arc. There were a lot of parallels like Nami stealing Zeus and Brook slicing Zeus in half again that brought back some nice Whole Cake Island memories. Although I really do still hope that Zeus ends up backward Nami because he's just far too good of a feature to be returned to Big Mom. And now just as I thought this cover story may have reached its natural conclusion, it would seem that we are going to be continuing just a little bit longer. And given the situation, I'm actually pretty glad. I love that Pound is refusing to let his daughters be taken away from him for a third time. The first was by Linlin when they were babies. The second by circumstance on Whole Cake Island, sacrificing himself for chiffon. And now the third being that his daughters simply do not believe him. But it's quite touching to see Pound swimming after them and being bombarded by the Marines at the same time as well. I just hope that this doesn't end up with him sacrificing himself yet again. Although that kind of darker stuff doesn't tend to happen in cover stories. They're meant to be this nice light experience to contrast the more serious nature of the actual story. So yeah, not much else to say really. Given the circumstance, I'm liking where this cover story is ending up. But 32 volumes in, I think we might be ready to move on in the very near future. But that pretty much shows it for chapter 988. And what do you guys think? Please do leave your thoughts in the comments below or even join my Discord server. And if you'd like to see more videos like this then please do go and check out some of my other content. I'll even subscribe to the channel for more glorious one-piece business uploaded straight until YouTube feeds. But for now, this has been the Grand Line Review and I'll see you next time.