One Piece Episode 1048, titled “For the Future! Yamato and the Great Swordsmen’s Pledge,” aired on January 22, 2022.
In my review of One Piece Episode 1045, I said that Momo still has a fear of heights that he would need to overcome in order to fly in his dragon form.
And it looks like I was right because as soon as Momonosuke took to the air, he panicked and crashed back into the ground. I guess it would be some time before the Azure Dragon, Kaido, can face off against the Peach Dragon, Momosonsuke.
Yamato vs Kaido
The chapter continues with Yamato vs Kaido, and I gotta say Yamato’s strength is no joke. She is much stronger than I initially thought. To be able to fight Kaido’s hybrid form for so long tells me that she is definitely stronger than a Yonko Commander. I’d even go as far as to say she might be almost as strong as a Marine Admiral.
Yamato flashback
We also get a bit of Yamato’s backstory, where she attacks the Beast Pirates as a kid calling herself Oden. Even as a kid, she was strong enough to knock out several Beast Pirates members with her Conqueror’s Haki.
Kaido locks Yamato in a cave with three Daimyo of Wano that were captured for rebelling against Kaido. He gives Yamato and the three samurai one month to make their decision and leaves them one portion of food.
But unlike what Yamato expected, the samurai did not resent her. Instead, they gave her the food that Kaido left even though they themselves had not eaten for several days.
After all, “samurai do not get hungry.”
There was also another flashback within this flashback showing Oden’s journey with Roger as Yamato reads Oden’s logbook.
After reading about the battle that is supposed to happen 20 years from then, the samurai decided to break open the cave and attack Kaido as they can’t wait that long.
Oden and these three samurai are the reason Yamato is currently fighting his own father to protect Wano.
Yamato’s battle with Kaido continues after the flashback, and my god, the final battle sequence between the two had movie-quality animation.
If Toei is doing this quality for these episodes, then I can only imagine how stunning the final Luffy vs Kaido battle will look.
You can watch the latest One Piece episodes every week on Crunchyroll.