The whole squad. Nami looks really cute balancing that tangerine on her head, just ignore her gigantic feet.
This volume is all about setting up Nami's backstory and building to the eventual confrontation with Arlong. Something that occurred to me, though, is that Johnny and Yosaku are also here. They're pretty useless, both in the story itself and as literary devices. They job to everybody, but their actual strength is never established so nobody looks strong by beating them up. They have identical personalities, and I think only exist so that there can just be more bodies around to convey information when the team is split up.
See, Oda likes to do this - have people run around between a few key locations, sometimes missing each other and sometimes being in the right place at the right time. In this volume alone:
Zoro gets captured at Arlong Park, escapes and meets up with the rest at Cocoyasi Village, then heads back to Arlong Park
Usopp arrives at Cocoyasi Village, is taken to Arlong Park, escapes and runs back to Cocoyasi, then heads right back to Arlong Park
Nami arrives at Arlong Park, goes to Cocoyasi, runs back to AP, then runs back to Cocoyasi, and then back again to AP
It's a lot of running about and switching places! Nami makes the trek four times! But Johnny is able to report the events at Arlong Park between Nami and Usopp to the rest of the crew, so I guess that's his purpose. But then Usopp shows up anyway and dispels the misunderstanding? And Yosaku does jack-shit. Once again, the jobber bros. are pointless.
Zoro is such a badass, you guys. We don't even need to see him kill all those fishmen, we can just assume it was awesome.
But the meat of the volume is Nami's flashback, and it's a doozy. I think one of the reasons this arc is so fondly-remembered, and why it works so well, is because it's got the deepest emotional stakes so far. Buggy and Krieg were new threats on the scene, and Kuro betrayed everyone's trust, but with them it was more about preventing their plans from happening. With Arlong, he's been terrorizing Nami's village for years, killed her mother, shanghaied her, and then destroyed all her hard work to keep her his slave. It's JUSTICE that Nami needs in her life - terrible things have already been done, and there's no taking them back. But Arlong can still be punished for his deeds, and there's still hope for the future.
that bottom panel ;_;
Now, I'll nitpick some more here: Nami agrees to join Arlong's crew, so that she can save up 100 million Berries and buy her village. But she doesn't tell the villagers this, and acts like she became a heartless traitor. So the villagers in turn treat her with scorn. But, it's revealed that they found out anyway? And continued to pretend to hate her, so that she wouldn't know that they knew, and wouldn't feel pressured to live up to their expectations?? But then they just tell her they knew all along??? Why not just talk about it, and reassure one another!
This sort of dumb "I know you're lying but I'll go along with your charade, because muh honor" thing is staring to bug me, because it keeps happening. Luffy fighting with Koby, so he could get kicked out of town (but the Marines knew all along and approved), taking the blame for Buggy's razing (but the Mayor knew all along and was thankful), the chefs of the Baratie saying Sanji's food sucked to get him to leave (but he knew all along they were only pretending), and of course Usopp's whole thing is honorable lies. And now this. It's really just the stuff in the parenthesis that bugs me, because it ruins the whole point of the act. It's enough for the readers to know what's really going on, the characters don't have to become omniscient of all the plot movements themselves, too.
Luffy seems really mean here, but he's actually in a different location, he's not directly mocking Nami to her face or anything.
At any rate, Nami is betrayed by Arlong, who's working with a piece of rat-shit corrupt Marine officer, to confiscate her accumulated treasure just before she met her goal. Arlong is a sadistic bastard and I hate him so much and that's perfect for a villain. And in the end, that's what really makes this arc work - it's super-effective at drumming up sympathy for Nami, and animosity for Arlong. Forget the quibbling about people being stubbornly honorable, I just want to see this dirty fish made into sashimi.
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Cheating a little, but this entire sequence is one of the defining moments in One Piece for me.
Nami breaking down and trying to physically remove the literal and symbolic image of her oppressor from her body is a powerful image.
It's not that Luffy doesn't care about her situation, it's that he doesn't care WHAT the situation is. Because it doesn't matter, he would be willing to do anything for her, for any reason.
Nami is the only person Luffy gives his hat to like this. Sure, sometimes he tells people to hold on to it while he does something stupid, but he never lets anyone else wear it. Giving it to Nami is both a symbol of his trust in her to keep it safe, but also reassuring her that he is absolutely going to resolve this business and come back for it. If I had to pick one page, this is it.
Luffy trusts her in such a pure way that he wasn't going to do anything until she asked him to step in. She told him she could handle it, and she has been handling it for 8 years, and he respects that. But once she does, he is 110% committed.
Check how the whole crew was just sitting around like badasses, waiting to get the word.
Zoro, Sanji, and Usopp are also just as willing to jump into hell for Nami's sake, but notice that they waited for Luffy to give the orders. He's the captain, after all.
As a bonus, this is the music that plays during this scene in the anime. I've got mixed opinions about the anime adaption (which we'll get to at another time), but this music is wonderful.
I always wondered what that face was on the background, but this time I realized it's the figurehead from Krieg's ship. Luffy looking nice and bloody, too - red = money, it's been said.
It bugs me when people say that "One Piece doesn't focus on the fights, it's more about the adventure!" because while that's sorta true, it undersells just how good the fights are in One Piece. Case in point - having got all the small fry out of the way, as well as the obligatory tragic backstory, Luffy is free to finally throw down with Krieg. And it's such a good fight!
Have I mentioned how much I like the way Oda draws gold? Somehow, you can tell that armor is not just shiny metal, but golden.
The thing that One Piece does well is that it takes terrain into account. The characters exist in a fully three-dimensional world, and they take advantage of or are hindered by that. The fight starts with Luffy and Krieg separated by a stretch of sea, and it takes Luffy three tries to cross over on a fallen piece of mast, (the same mast that was knocked down and KO'd Pearl earlier. Continuity!) because of course Kreig is gonna shoot spikes at him and stuff. Finally, Luffy gets across, and punches Krieg right through his cowardly spiked cape. If you didn't think Luffy was ballsy before, you know it know.
I still wince at this panel. I guess the spikes just slip between his fingers for the most part, but still, yowch.
They scrap some more, but the narrative is that Krieg keeps producing more weapons, while Luffy uses his agility to climb around the wreckage and avoid serious injury. However, despite a few good hits, Luffy can't put Krieg down because that armor is just too strong, and he doesn't have any room to set up his strongest attacks.
The Gum Gum Bullet reads just as well from behind as from the front or side. Powerful impact, and I like the detail of Luffy's muscles spurting blood from his wound.
Finally, Luffy starts to slow down due to accumulated injuries (homie ate a half-dozen spikes on his way across that bridge) and Krieg finally connects with his Mighty Battle Spear. Sensing an opportunity to finish things, Krieg jumps on top of the remaining mast and scatters bombs below, forcing Luffy to run up the mast to avoid them. However, Luffy tanks Krieg's final shot, and uses the run up the mast to stretch his arms for a Gum Gum Bazooka, launching Krieg into the air as the deck collapses beneath them. But Krieg's armor still isn't broken, until Luffy slam-dunks a second Bazooka into Krieg in mid-air, shattering his armor weakened from previous punches. And even then it's not over! Krieg still traps Luffy in a net, and Luffy has to give him the worst nastiest corkscrew Frankensteiner to end the battle.
One question - how is that spear just causing explosions, again? Like, shouldn't it be literally exploding itself, to have that sort of effect? Or is he just detonating charges from it as he swings?
This is how you write a good fight, people. For starters, there's clear stakes for both parties, and we've got enough emotional investment in the characters to want Luffy to kick Krieg's ass. But the fight itself is solidly plotted, with dynamic choreography and powerful impacy. It moves from long-range to close quarters to aerial combat, escalating in tension as the fight progresses. It's not Luffy just getting beat up until he somehow summons a hidden reserve of courage and wins in the final attack, they both take hits and visible damage. It's cool to see Krieg unveil new weapons, and it's cool to see Luffy find ways to counter them. The way that Krieg is literally stripped of all his weapons and armor as the fight progresses is a nice visual echo of how Luffy is wearing him down. The result is a conclusion that feels earned, not simply inevitable.
Look at that armor, breaking like a gum ball's shell.
Next up is Arlong Park, which many consider the point where One Piece truly hit its stride. There's a reason the biggest English-language OP forum is named after it. Personally I was already on board from Vol. 2, but Arlong Park is some good stuff indeed. The characters also throw out a quick reference to the Shichibukai, specifically Jimbei the Fishman. Crazy to think that it would be 500 chapters before we finally get that payoff, talk about planning ahead.
Love Arlong's design. The serrated nose is a perfect example of that fine line between goofy and badass that One Piece straddles so well.
Also, check out this editor's note - why not just edit the thing out, if you need a paragraph of "well, actually" to justify it? I'm sure 4kids did. Seriously though, the manji/swastika stuff is always awkward when it comes up in manga. It's even the hilt on Ichigo's sword in Bleach, for crying out loud. My stance is that the art shouldn't be censored, but at the same time, the Japanese artist should be more aware that their works have a global audience, and that certain things have different meanings overseas. Same with the obvious blackface caricatures like Mr. Popo, or the cockroaches of Terraformars.
What's really great is that Whitebeard's flag was originally gonna be the manji, and Ace has a huge-ass tattoo of it on his back, but Oda changed it for the final release. I can only imagine the heart attack that would've given the CEOs at 4kids and Viz.
We'll talk about that title in a sec, but I just wanna say that's some delicious-looking food, and a very cute panda-shark.
So this volume is titled "The Crap-Geezer", which is how Sanji refers to Chef Zeff. See, in Japanese, Sanji attaches the word "kuso" to the front of words as a sort of modifier. It translates to "shit", and is supposed to give him the impression of a foul mouth. Keep in mind that swearing in Japanese is kinda different from how it works in English, and Sanji's use of it isn't even conventional. When literally translated into English, and toned town to appease the censors, it becomes stuff like "crap-geezer" and "crap-cooks" and "crap-restaurant". It sounds awkward, isn't cool, and it's no wonder the official translation kinda just stopped using it altogether.
I'm not sure what I would do to localize this, maybe change it to "frickin" in stead? Eh, throwing mild-swears around like that just makes Sanji look like a 12-year old who isn't even edgy enough to use proper cuss words. The problem is that he ought to be referring to Zeff as "the old bastard", other people as just "you bastards", and other things as a "piece of shit". That all fits tonally, without going full Mangastream with the profanity, but I think that would be too much for the sort of mass-marketable localization Viz wants.
Pearl is really stupid. Dumb design, and he can generate fire from his childhood in the jungle, like Blanka making electricity. It's never explained, and he's mainly just obnoxious.
Sanji's backstory is pretty heavy stuff, what with Zeff eating his own leg, and both of them nearly starving to death, marooned on a rock in the middle of the ocean. But one part that I never really bought, and still seems iffy to me, is Sanji's dream of finding the All Blue. It seems like such a cribbing of Luffy's dream to find the One Piece and become Pirate King - some fantasy treasure location that people laugh at you for still believing in. It feels like such a flimsy reason for Zeff to risk his life to save Sanji. Fortunately I think the manga builds up a rapport between them with their love of cooking, and Zeff's new dream of an ocean-going restaurant so that no one stranded at sea ever has to go hungry again, but still.
I've read The Life of Pi. I don't need more exposition than this on the horrors of starvation, thanks.
Case in point, there's a bit where Gin is threatening to kill Zeff unless he hands over the Baratie, but Sanji refuses to give in. He can't fight back, or Zeff will die, so Pearl is just beating the tar out of him, but he keeps standing back up, saying that he knows he'll die, but he doesn't want Zeff to lose his dream again because of him. As long as he's alive, the Baratie is still alive. So he's willing to keep it alive even one second longer. But Luffy has other ideas:
Yeah, there's a limit to mule-headed honor, even in One Piece.
In the end, Gin and Sanji have to fight, and for a minor enemy, Gin is so damn cool. I thought he was named after the drink at first, turns out it's a hard G, so he's basically named "silver" in Japanese. Still cool! And he has freaking cannonballs on his tonfas, we need more tonfas in manga.
Cigarette to the eye!
Love the camera angles on these.
Actually reading it again, this fight isn't anything super great, but I remember watching AMVs of it just the same. In fact, this kick by Sanji was different in the anime - in the manga it's presented as more of a mule kick, but in the anime it comes from above, instead:
I think I like the anime's take more. It's Gin's reaction that really sells it, reminds me of how people react to a Stone Cold Stunner, the same popping motion.
The first of many Popularity Polls. Luffy tops every one of them, because the Japanese love their main characters. Seems like in the west, nobody's favorite is ever Luffy, or Naruto, or Goku, it's always some supporting or side character, like Zoro, Rock Lee, or Piccolo.
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Classic pose and line from Sanji here, also ruined in the 4kids version because they changed his cigarette into a lollipop. And probably gave him some corny line about "if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen!"
I love it when the Straw Hats wear suits! That was the best part of Strong World. But Nami, girl, what are you doing with so much bread? We know you ain't eating it, with a waist that thin.
The villainous Don Krieg shows up, absolutely starving. Even though he'll try to take over the restaurant after he's healed up, Sanji feeds him anyway. Then he says he'll beat Krieg's crew to death if he has to. It sounds hypocritical, but this sort of adherence to some sort of personal code is a hallmark of One Piece. Sanji knows all too well the pain of starvation. He can't bear to turn away a hungry mouth. That said, he feels no qualms about laying down the law after that. Yeah, he's making things difficult for himself and those around him, but in the world of One Piece that's the privilege of the strong. Because in the end, Sanji is vindicated when him and Luffy repel Kreig and his men.
Oda's humans have an upper size limit that's somewhere in the double-digits, for no real reason. Just because it's cooler for little ol' Luffy to fight big ol' dudes. And Oda draws his ships appropriately oversized. For comparison's sake, you can barely make out the Going Merry hidden behind the M there.
But I admit, stuff like this does bug me a bit. It's like Vegeta letting Cell reach his full power, or Goku not finishing off Majin Buu when he had the chance. It makes sense given their characters, and ultimately works out, but it's annoying when the main characters make stupid decisions just so the story can keep moving. Fortunately there's not too much of that in One Piece.
Check out Luffy stealthily slipping a booger into Zoro's drink, and Nami and Usopp's reactions. I love it when the crew just gets together like this.
Speaking of characters with personal codes, Zoro has a very important fight in this volume. Dracule Mihawk, the greatest swordsman in the world, shows up and Zoro challenges him. He gets his ass handed to him, but shows such courage in the face of defeat that Mihawk spares his life and tells him to train up and try again later. I wonder how many young promising swordsmen he's said that to? Does he constantly try to keep the prospects up? Or is Zoro an anomaly? In any case, Zoro swears that he'll "never lose again", hence the title of this volume.
Badass line by Zoro, and a fitting reply. I like to imagine that Mihawk is really relishing the word as he says it, just letting every syllable drip.
But the thing is, does he really keep that oath? Later in the series, he'll get one-shotted by Enel, and Kuma trounces him at Shabaody. But one could argue both of these weren't even fights, really, it was just the result of overpowered abilities that essentially end a fight before it begins. Or how do you describe getting removed from play by Lucci in Water 7, ended up stuck in a chimney? He certainly wasn't knocked out, or really incapacitated, he was just literally removed from the field of battle, and Lucci left to do something else. There's also the argument that none of these people are even swordsmen, so Zoro's oath was never in jeopardy.
It's kind of funny that Mihawk bothered to chase Krieg through the Grand Line and into East Blue, just to keep screwing with him. He claims they interrupted his nap, but I think Krieg must've said something VERY rude about Mihawk's mother. Either that, or the Greatest Swordsman in the World just loves to grief and spawn-camp newbs.
Personally, I think the crucial thing (as with many things in One Piece) is the spirit of the matter, not the technicalities of it. Zoro prefers death to defeat, and his loss to Mihawk is the only time he's felt truly beaten in body and spirit. Sure, Enel zapped him, but he popped back up as soon as he was able to. And in every actual proper duel, he's managed to summon up a reservoir of willpower (and like a few gallons of blood) to emerge victorious. And in all cases, he has never admitted defeat.
Maybe that's the most important part.
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Krieg is a fun villain because he's just loaded with weaponry. He's like an evil Franky. I love how this spread comes outta nowhere, too. It's a shocking counter-attack. The previous panel is just the cooks rushing him, then suddenly BAMBAMBAMBAM
The whole crew's on the cover again, along with the other supporting characters from this arc. It's only fair, since last volume was the villains. But wait, where's Merry!?
Luffy is still fighting Kuro, who is obviously a step up from Buggy when it comes to combat ability. For one thing, he's faster than frick, probably the only character to out-speed Luffy until CP9. For instance, observe this very good sequence here:
I didn't know Luffy's arm, when out-stretched, provided that sort of stability, but whatever. Maybe it's just happening really fast.
Kuro further explains his plan via flashback, revealing how he slaughtered a ship full of marines save for one, then hypnotized one of his crewmembers into believing he was Captain Kuro, and left the lone survivor to claim the bounty. They don't use any names, but you can tell from the artwork that the lone marine was Axe-hand Morgan! Well, I guess he wasn't called that until Kuro cut off his hand and stuff. But it's a neat bit of continuity, and explains how someone as corrupt as Morgan even got his position - riding off the prestige of a bounty he didn't earn.
Django takes a lot of attacks to the balls/ass, now that I think of it. Having a shovel stuck up your buttcrack would hurt like hell, yo
After Kuro is defeated, Usopp bids a tearful goodbye to his little gang. In true One Piece fashion, they decide not to tell the villagers they were all in terrible danger, so as not to spoil anyone's peace of mind. This means Usopp and Luffy and the rest get no reward, but the satisfaction of a job well done.
Nobody cries pretty in One Piece. It's always just a big snotty, sobby mess.
Belay that, they do get a reward. Finally, a ship! It's designed by Kaya's butler Merry, so it's named the Going Merry. Or in the English version, Merry Go. Why change it? I have no idea. When these translations were being done, 4kids had the anime license, and Viz was basically just following their lead. As a result, Zoro became Zolo (Still a cool name, but why further obfuscate the reference? It's not like Zorro isn't public domain.) and some other things changed pointlessly. I think you can make a case for translating Japanese names and terms, but if you really cared about that, it should be Captain Black, not Captain Kuro. The only explanation I can think of is that in Japanese, you refer to ships with the suffix "-go". Like how people get -san or -chan, that sort of thing. Did the 4kids translator seriously just read "Merry-go" and know less about the language than I do, and think that was the damn name of the ship??? It's sadly possible, given the shocking lack of care 4kids put into their localization.
Luffy is canonically a terrible artist, and I love it. Meanwhile, Usopp is a fairly talented artist, carpenter, handyman, and general jack-of-all-trades, in addition to being a crack marksman. It's because of his utility that he's avoided being the Krillin of the series, doomed to constant failure and mockery.
We're also introduced to Sanji and his floating restaurant, The Baratie, this volume. But since the next few volumes will be all about the chef with the curly brow, we'll leave him for later.
Oda's cartoony faces never fail to entertain. Patty looks like someone out of Aladdin.
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Get dunked on.
The title of this volume is a reference to the move Luffy uses to take out Kuro, the Gum-Gum Bell. Basically it's just a super headbutt, but DAMN do I like that impact. I like how Luffy has a few signature moves, but he mixes up his finishers. They come in two basic types - either he throws a limb out to stretch for extra reach, or he stretches out a limb back and lets the recoil snap it forward for massive damage. The former is what you see from every stretchy dude ever (Mr. Fantastic, Plastic Man, etc) but I very rarely see anybody use the latter. Creativity in movesets is something One Piece excels at.
I really like that sky. Though Butchie looks really awkwardly cut off by the frame, shouldn't he be like reaching out of it?
This volume is almost entirely about the battle between the Straw Hats and the Black Cat Pirates, as they try to stop them from getting to the village. I think this when the level of wounds started to approach "unbelievable". Which is fine, but like DAMN Usopp gets his skull cracked open with a stone hammer, Kuro leaves Merry in a pool of his own blood, Luffy gets a Chakram embedded several inches into the back of his head, and they all walk it off. Of course it's a far cry from the injuries people will fight through later in the series, but it stood out to me.
The middle panel is really good, you can tell he's in too much shock/pain to even cry out or make an expression. He's just dead on his feet.
It's a shame that Zoro never gets to fight Kuro, since they both use multiple blades and all I've always imagined it would've been a good match. Instead, Zoro has to deal with these two asswipes. I hate their designs. Siam is just faking the hunch, but still. There's also some bullshit about hypnotism making them super-strong, which I never like. It's fine when it makes people forget or ignore their wounds, but even if you believe you're super-strong, that shouldn't actually make your muscles stronger.
One Piece has great character designs on the whole, but not every one can be a winner.
But it's okay, because Captain Kuro is a great villain and totally makes up for it. He's got a unique design, and a serial killer's personality. I like the contrast between the way he calmly composes masterplans, then shows a murderous impatience with anyone who screws things up for him. Watching the villain loose his cool and become more disheveled is always fun.
In High School, I tried making it my habit to adjust my glasses like this. I guess I was hoping for someone to either catch the reference, or draw a similar badass conclusion on their own? But nobody noticed, and it's really not a natural motion, so I stopped.
Also debuting in this volume is the SBS Question Corner. Nobody knows what SBS stands for, since Oda himself forgot shortly after naming it and never told anyone. But it's a feature where he answers readers' letters, clarifying points of confusion in the story, providing additional LORE and information, or just making jokes. Almost right off the bat, someone asks him a question I think every One Piece fan has been asked by a non-fan. "Why don't people die in OP?"
Might be worth noting that the lack of death (outside of flashbacks, where people drop like flies) makes it that much more impactful when characters actually DO die.
Oda's answer speaks for itself, but I think another reason is just that as an author he knows characters are often worth more alive, than dead. He can continue to bring back villains for encore performances, or perhaps as allies. Though it's also important to note that Luffy isn't NOT trying to kill them, or anything - he's no Batman. He just operates in a world where things can get solved if someone is punched in the face enough times, so there's no need to "finish off" anybody to ensure they never cause trouble again. If it makes you feel any better, pretend that scores of fodder get killed every time Zoro cuts down a wave of enemies or whatever. But Zoro doesn't care if he kills them or not, and neither should the reader. Too many people think that the measure of a manga is its "maturity", and that maturity is defined by "how many people die and how gruesome their deaths are".
I always wondered what the heck was up with this spread. I get that's a Zoro-potato, and Luffy-onion, but is that eggplant really supposed to be Nami? And who's the carrot? Is that Shanks driving the cart? Can't be Sanji, he's not introduced yet. Shouldn't Usopp be involved, if you're gonna use four currently-relevant characters? This whole scene a mess.
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Those guys are gonna feel kinda guilty when they get back from vacation, I bet.
I mainly just like how Kaya is drawn in profile, here. Oda takes the time to draw lips, and doesn't mess around with the infamous "anime side-mouth".
You didn't read that wrong. Apparently it's finally happening, someone was stupid enough to green-light a live-action adaption of One Piece. An American take, at that. Have we learned nothing from Dragonball Evolution!?
I already hate this, and I can't wait for it to come out so I can hate it even more. In no reality does this end up being anything remotely approaching decency. It'll make the 4Kids version look like Edward Fitzgerald's loving translation of Omar Khayyam.
