'One Piece' Just Let [SPOILER] Save The Day

One Piece may have taken an anime hiatus this week, but the franchise made up for the absence with a stellar manga update. Not long ago, Weekly Shonen Jump issued the latest chapter of One Piece to bring the 'Whole Cake Island' arc a step closer to its climax. And, in its final moments, fans watched as a surprising team appeared to save Monkey D. Luffy and the gang.

Obviously, spoilers below!

One Piece just released chapter 897, and the new issue followed Luffy as the captain prepared to exit the Mirro-World for Cacao Island. All of Big Mom's top forces gathered at the island to greet Luffy if he managed to outwit Charlotte Katakuri, and that is exactly what went down. The Straw Hat leader defeated the Sweet Commander in battle, leaving him with no choice but to run the gambit of Big Mom pirates as the crew destroyed every other mirror on Cacao.

Luckily, Luffy received help in his escape thanks to Pekoms. Sanji also rushed forward to help his captain when Big Mom's crew rushed at him, but the two heroes were no match for the massive fleet. That is, until the duo were saved by reinforcements in the form of Germa 66.

Yes, the massive military fleet is still alive and well despite Niji Vinsmoke's trick against Mont-d'Or. The royal army arrived as an armada to blow up the ships docked at Cacao. Big Mom's crew was not expecting the sudden assault, but Niji, Ichiji, and the rest of the gang were ready to step in and take the crew down.

Of course, fans of One Piece will know just how intense the Germa 66 fleet is. The mercenary force is sworn to protect the Germa Kingdom under its ruling family, the Vinsmoke Clan. The army was once aligned to Big Mom when Sanji was still slated to wed Pudding, but the deal fell through after that wedding was revealed by to a sham. Germa 66 went into hiding to trick Big Mom's crew after the family fled the wedding chateau, and it seems the fleet is ready to exact revenge against the Charlotte family.

Eiichiro Oda's One Piece first began serialization in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump in 1997. It has been collected into 87 volumes, with a few chapters yet to be included. It has been a critical and commercial success worldwide with many of the volumes breaking printing records in Japan. The manga has even set a Guinness World Record for the most copies published for the same comic book by a single author, and is the best selling manga series worldwide with 430 million copies sold worldwide.

Are you excited for Germa 66 to let loose on the Big Mom Pirates? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics, k-pop, and anime!