#meme in progress

The Crocodile takes on 4 random dudes who drank poison to make them stronger, then kills another Black Panther Fruit Man in a single panel. I like this villain. Not because he killed The Idiot (because he didn't. If he had, I'd erect a fucking statue to this guy) but because he has goals and seems like an actual threat. Fuck the chapter's message though: "the monarchy actually is correct and looking out for you, rebellious working classes, the king was just being manipulated by foreign criminal elements who are also stoking up the rebellion for their own ends". Yikes. Though I do suppose that foreign nations creating artificial scarcity in order to sow dissent and swoop in to take what they want is timely...

The literal ticking clock adds to the drama, and this feels like more of a culminating arc than many before it.

All of that does not matter, however, because this chapter commits the most unforgivable sin: Right when the Crocodile Man is giving his gloating speech to the Princess and tossing her off the roof (not unlike what The Himbo wishes to do with Blades...) The Idiot swoops in and reveals he is alive, transforms into inflation fetish porn and just starts wiping the floor with the Crocodile with knowledge from off screen. Only the Crocodile uses his full extent of his powers and this Idiot cannot possibly win, only he does because... He literally says "I took a nap, so I'm better now!"

At least the Himbo has been put on the backburner, and Giga Chad shows some concern for his fellow buddies (more than our Idiot protagonist, funny that...) in the heat of the desert, particularly Blue Nosed Reindeer whom he is concerned for the health of (though that may be because he does not want the meat to spoil). Meanwhile Idiot is just being a melodramatic bitch about the water now, like his personality is determined by a fucking roulette wheel...

We have the rather boring goons of the Crocodile Man discuss their evil schemes around the table; including the return of Rodeo Stripper the most interesting one! The gang seem shocked and surprised that he is an evil pirate... Guys, in your line of work (toppling regimes and subsuming the cities from beneath them) do you think you're going to be working with many orphanages and philanthropic nuns? Fuck me, everybody in this Universe has the brain of a sock drawer... Except no, we get the best fucking guy Smoker back! He's having a drink at the bar, Cop on the Edge that he is, with his assistant Girl Uryu from "Bleach"; when Idiot and Meme in Progress Usopp come in desperate for a drink of water. It takes a while, but they notice Captain Smoker and leg it, out into the street.

Now this is something I'm down for in terms of an action sequence: we've had the King building up to his attack on Crocodile, Crocodile planning his own thing (him only knowing the existence of 5 of the crew and The Princess and not Giga Chad Sanji because he was back on the boat having a smoke and making fish is funny, and I'm glad that plot point came back, I hope that they do something with it) and the rebellion building its forces all converging. Himbo not fighting Girl Uryu was odd, but hey, it's nice character suff and I hope it also builds to something.

Then our Idiot is caught in quite possibly the easiest trap ever conceived, and praises the genius of it: ending up locked in a cage in the Crocodile Casino (which I think is a Jethro Tull album) alongside his crew and Smoker.

Are we sure that I can't swap him out for somebody else? Don't get me wrong he's not as annoying or loathsome as Chadda Darkmane (fun fact: I hate him so much I got his first name wrong) or Lelouch Lamperouge but holy fucking shit.

BUT

This kind of thing is my jam: a favourite thing of mine is "gritted teeth enemies forced to work together" and Smoker is absolutely fucking fantastic, I want way more of him, so having him team up with the crew to plan an escape (let him plan it, because fuck I think I actually actively dislike the protagonist of this series?) is fun.

Also, the princess is kidnapped by a machine gun bird and Smoker reveals the existence of magic ocean rocks which block Fruit Powers. Sure.

So the Idiot has led his crew to an isle of dinosaurs, leading me to believe we are in the "guest chapter written by the author's nephew" arc. Still, bit early to be blowing your load on the dinosaur card, isn't it Oda? Well, anyway, our crew of morons befriend a pair of men the size of Dolph Lundgren in an honestly quite nice little tale of 2 eternal warriors duking it out for centuries. Kind of like the plot of the Rocky series, to be honest. The arrival of Candle Man and (honestly, I've already forgotten who the others are) to the scene to make a fight occur is forced and honestly a bit annoying to me: I just want to watch The Meme in Progress scavenge and befriend a minature Dolph Lundgren, he deserves it! I just wanted to watch The Cartographer with a Brain Cell chill out! But no, we have to fight some fucking melty boy and his waxy crew (I'm pretty sure they were our entrant at Eurovision in 1966) after setting off gunpowder in a giant's face. Can't we have nice things? Anyway, more shenanigans happen, and the fight is just sort of flowing right through me at this point. We get some shonen shit where our crew of evolutionary dead-ends are frozen in place with magic candle wax (wut) and a woman with a candelabra for hair threatens to set them aflame, and it takes The Idiot about 50 minutes to realise that wax melts, so maybe they should use fire? The Himbo goes Guy Fucking Fieri on this place by covering his swords and fuckboi hair in fire, which was alright I guess. I still don't know what the hell these "Baroque" (yeah you said it, man, these guys go out of their way to make everyone else look basic, yet still got upstaged by the swag on Django and Kuro. God I miss the Cat Man, he ruled) dudes even want: my guy, you have magic, why do you want a Dolph Lundgren? You just fucking one shot that guy? What was your plan, to hold the world's shittest cage fight auction? To be fair I was entertained watching them fight like Godzilla, so I'm on board with that plan. You'll print money.

To the surprise of only The Idiot, this town of obviously suspiciously evil people led by a man with a violently dreadful haircut are kind of evil. But this is all a simple excuse to have The Himbo do his thing, and stretch his legs a little. A fair bit of it is "edgy shonen protagonist" stuff, but there's a zany, wacky little sequence involving a ladder straight out of a Buster Keaton movie, so that's always a plus from me, and the art has much improved this time: the author has gotten much better at drawing lunacy. I look forward to when he gives screentime to anyone who isn't the Himbo and the Idiot.

Then he has to go and fucking ruin it by bringing back The Idiot, to do whatever the fuck this bimbling barrel of buffoonery does. The joke could have been great, have him waking up to find that the town of murderous evil-doers are dead, and The Himbo just smoking a cigarette, looking to his freshly fucked blade and going "Was it good for you too?" but alas they hate my brilliant ideas, so we have this.

The gruesome twosome have another Shonen-y fight with some more weirdos, and an utterly bizarre bit where the Idiot is briefly annoyed by The Himbo apparently murdering people: my guy, those blades don't have fucking safety wheels on. Would you be annoyed at The Giga Chad for cooking carrots or Pat Sharp for being a DJ, would you? Stupid question, this character's a fucking moron.

The Cartographer with a brain cell shakes them out of it, as this is all a way to introduce what I assume are our actual villains "The Baroque Works", which seems superfluous since every motherfucker they've tusseled with has had hair like a Dutch Cathedral and outfits like a T-shirt cannon loaded with the wardrobe from "The Fifth Element". Still, the leader is named "Crocodile", and oh god I hope they fight a crocodile. OH I HOPE THE GIGA CHAD EATS A CROCODILE. He'd better eat a crocodile, Ohda, I swear to all that is holy!

Not as much to annoy me in this chapter (no fucking Dracule Mihawk, thank fucking Christ) aside from the giant duck being ready to kill The Idiot but suddenly decided to ride in the different direction because it being infected by his stupidity is the only reason the author could come up with to write his moron out of a corner.

But it didn't annoy me that much. I just want more of Giga Chad, Meme in Progress and the Cartographer with a Brain Cell. It's like dinner with an 8 year old: "No, you can't have more morons until you'd spent time with the current crop of idiots! Now finish your Giga Chad and Meme in Progress!"

The plot about a princess revolution is going to get dropped faster than that cowboy manga I read from this guy's nonce teacher ("Gun Blaze West" sucks so hard guys), so at least they're making progress in the plot...

They're now chatting to a Rodeo Stripper, and really guys? A bit of a step down from otters and duck-riding princesses and men with curly hair cannons in this town alone.

The gang (after a genuinely quite funny little gag involving the making of their flag, good character beats there) take the advice of the Himbo Trio and find a floating fish restaurant, in the shape of a fish. That's creative and fun, nice work! This series is full of surprises.