Hello kids. Today we’re talking about good ol’ fashioned racism. If you thought Arlong Park dove into this topic enough, do I have some news for you. That was only the result of a much longer conflict and although I’m sure that Oda didn’t plan out this arc back in the late 80s, it does fit really well with some of the established lore in One Piece, so let’s talk about it.
Luffy and his crew are still down on the seafloor, dealing with the Neptunian army as well as Hody Jones and his crew. It turns out that Hody and Vanderdecken have chosen today to invade Fishman Island and take control of it. Vanderdecken uses his power to hurl human pirates into Ryugu castle while Hody joins the invaders and starts sending his men into different Fishman Island districts to have the citizens step on posters of their former queen, Otohime. Why does he do this? Well, Hody is a very immature person. He learned from Arlong and never really grew past rebellious teenager who doesn’t know how to act. This becomes more and more obvious as the arc continues, but it’s pretty clear here.
Luffy and Shirahoshi – the princess – head towards the forest where Otohime is buried and there they meet up with Nami, Robin, Sanji, Franky, Chopper and Jinbe. Franky also spends time talking with Tom’s little brother who explains that fishmen genes work differently from human genes which is why family members can look very different from each other. If there’s a gene in your history, it can carry over to you. It’s good to see one of Tom’s family, he was a great character during the Water7 arc.
While all this is going on, Hody has invaded Ryugu palace and is planning to take the king hostage and change the kingdom forever. Unfortunately for him, Zoro is there and the fishman can talk about being superior as much as he wants, he’s a useless scrub compared to the right-hand man of the future pirate king. Zoro’s goals are much higher than Hody could dream of and it’s no surprise that the fishman gets bested within moments. He can be much stronger than Arlong was, it doesn’t matter. Although once the fight ends he’s quickly standing again due to a little something we call drugs.
We then get a history lesson about Fishman Island, slavery and the Sun Pirates. Personally I think Fishman Island is one of the weaker arcs in One Piece. But the flashbacks make up for it. We learn that Otohime, the former queen of Fishman Island, has been trying to broker peace between their race and humanity. Humans have long seen them as lesser beings and she wants to change this through peaceful ways. She won them a spot at the Reverie and is now trying to gather signatures for them to be allowed to move to the surface. At the same time, a man named Fisher Tiger is rescuing slaves and fighting navy soldiers, joining forces with several young upstarts including Hachi, Arlong and Jinbe. They become wanted pirates as they keep attacking navy ships and freeing their slaves.
Jinbe and Arlong have a different view on things. Jinbe believes in Fisher Tiger’s peaceful way of dealing with things. And when I say peaceful, I mean trying to avoid killing people. They still beat up those in their way, but they don’t murder humans for no good reason. Arlong on the other hand is much more bitter about the way they’re being treated by humans. He sees the horrifying things that humans do to fishmen and hates them with a fiery passion for it. Understandable, but it’s not the way to fix things. And although Arlong isn’t wrong for wanting to fight against the impression, his method is not one of fixing the world, but instead one of destroying the current world without a plan for the future. Fisher Tiger, Jinbe and Otohime each want to make the world a better place through their own methods. Through their adventures, they come across a young slave girl called Koala who has been completely traumatized by being a slave. Fisher Tiger ends up saving her from her trauma by branding her with the same sun symbol that the sun pirates have. She’s no longer branded as a slave, she’s instead a member of the Sun Pirates now. They bring her to her home out of pity and although Arlong and a few of the pirates stay bitter towards the humans, others are very happy for her. After Fisher Tiger drops her off he gets ambushed by a bunch of navy soldiers who heard he was headed here. I always liked the subtlety of this part of the story. The people from Koala were definitely scared of Tiger and showed this on their faces, but it’s not them that got him killed. They were innocent, it was other humans who called the navy on them. It’s a subtle difference but it’s very important. Tiger barely survives the ambush and although the pirates take care of the navy, the dying Tiger refuses to take a blood transfusion from a human. He – understandably – hates them far too much. He understands that there are good people out there but he cannot bring himself to become part human (in a sense). Thus the legendary Fisher Tiger dies and the crew splits off into three groups. Although Arlong gets caught by the navy, a deal that Jinbe makes with the government sees him freed once more. Jinbe wrestles with this, but ultimately lets Arlong loose on the world again, which leads to him rebuilding Sabaody park in Nami’s village as Arlong Park.
While all this is going on, Otohime is still trying her best to convince the people of Fishman Island to sign her petitions. It’s going worse than bad. The people who signed the petition in the first instance are now even coming back to remove their signatures due to the way their hero was treated. Eventually she breaks down crying. She’s trying so hard to make the world a better place but it’s not going anywhere. Then, after a celestial dragon lands in their kingdom, their luck changes. Although St. Myosgard initially comes to take his slaves back, it seems that Otohime manages to get through to him and the world government enough that Fishman Island is allowed back onto the Reverie. Things are looking up for the underwater kingdom and more and more signatures come in. That is when tragedy strikes and during one of her missions to get signatures, Otohime is shot and killed. Her sons try their best to comfort their little sister, Shirahoshi, as she has the power to communicate with the Neptunians, the giant sea beasts. She isn’t aware of this power so she doesn’t use it consciously. It’s a horrible ending to an already rather dark volume and things are looking very grim for Fishman Island’s future.
We continue the underwater adventure next week where we find out if Jinbe gets forgiven by Nami, who killed Otohime and what is going to happen with Hody, Vanderdecken and the Ryugu royals. Tune in next week again and as always, thanks for reading!
Opal Kaharis 