Out with the old and in with the new. After our crew suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Sentomaru, Kizaru and Kuma, they were spread out across the world. We only learn later on that Kuma spread out the crew to save them from certain defeat, but at the time it seemed like he was a grim reaper with cat paws. After Luffy goes through Amazon Lily, Impel Down and Marineford respectively, the crew decides to take a two year break to train up so they’re ready for the new world. This was very necessary for one obvious reason. The crew was too weak. They’d started getting complacent after defeating the likes of Sir Crocodile, Gecko Moria and CP9. Unfortunately for the crew, all three of those required Luffy to be at his absolute best and to power through several defeats to get to that point. The New World wouldn’t be so kind to them. So we now have a crew that spent two years catching up with the stronger threats they have yet to face and they’re ready for whatever comes their way.
And the first thing that comes their way is racism. Sure didn’t see that one coming. I thought we’d be fighting supernovas, warlords and emperors, not a racist fishman. But here we are, at the bottom of the sea, in the middle of a violent revolution. Hody Jones as a character isn’t interesting. He never has been and never will be. Giving Oda the benefit of the doubt I want to say he was never supposed to be interesting. He is a product of his environment combined with an already bad personality to start with. What is more interesting about Fishman Island is everything besides Hody. There are different approaches to solving the racism that is obvious between Fishmen and humans. Fisher Tiger is the revolutionary figure with good intentions but ultimately more violent methods than are good. I’m not saying anything that he does is wrong, on the contrary, but I think his methods do not include enough diplomacy to work. This goes into theory about protesting that is far beyond me, and I don’t believe that shunning violence altogether – like Otohime seems to want – is the solution either. Protests are inherently violent as they’re there to overthrow the current status quo. What I think will work against someone like Fisher Tiger is his lack of demands. He seems to just attack and destroy. I don’t disagree with these actions, especially not considering what he targets, but it needs something more to back it up for an actual solution to ever be possible. I am of course putting aside the fact that the world government is evil and probably never wants to actually come to any agreement, but that’s not the point of Fishman Island. On the flipside, Otohime is just getting signatures from her people that they want to join the Reverie and have a say in the world. That’s again not a bad thing to fight for, but it would require a lot of goodwill from the human side which they have so far refused to show. Now, the sort of people they encounter are often the worst parts of society, as their home is close to the home of the Celestial Dragons, so their views of humanity will not be positive. Not to mention the fact that their country is a stop for pirates as well. The people of Fishman Island are kind of in a “damned if I do, damned if I don’t” situation. I do believe that the most effective way of getting more rights – just short of overthrowing the world government, which I still believe is how One Piece will end – is a combination of Fisher Tiger’s violent protests and Otohime’s clear demands. Unfortunately, both of them were killed while they were still in the middle of their prime, and we never got to see the fruit of their labor. As for Hody, he’s just a racist who looked up to Arlong a little bit too much. I understand how he came to be who he was, but there is no justice or goal in his actions. His aim is destruction for the sake of destruction and that’s not going to benefit anyone. It’s a good thing that him and his cronies more or less died at the end of the arc due to the side effects of the drugs they were taking. The most interesting thing to come out of this arc is honestly the premonition that Madam Sharly – who is Arlong’s sister – had about Luffy destroying their home. Many fans, myself included, believe this will happen because Luffy will destroy Mariejoas and in doing so he will create one ocean that everyone can reach, an All Blue of sorts.
But after Fishman Island we quickly move onwards to Punk Hazard, the island of snow and fire. We meet the samurai of Wano here for the first time and we reunite with everyone’s favorite member of the worst generation: Trafalgar Law. We honestly should have known that he would become an important character throughout the story by the fact that he’s voiced by the ever talented Hiroshi Kamiya. Punk Hazard as an arc is also a little bit boring, but it’s also where we set up the first steps of a large plan to overthrow the current order in the world and usurp the emperors of the sea. Law and Luffy team up to destroy Kaido of the hundred beasts. The plan is simple. Kidnap Caesar and destroy his Smile factory. Then get Doflamingo to step down as a warlord and as king of Dressrosa, resulting in Kaido losing his underground broker. Then without access to smiles, the gang would head to Wano to deal with the terrifying warlord himself. It stands to reason then that Punk Hazard feels like the setup to something bigger. There are some highlights in this arc though, with the most interesting one to me being the ethics of weapons of mass destruction. You see, Caesar seems to care more about the intricacies of his craft than about actually hurting people. That’s strange to say, I know, but I don’t think causing destruction is his goal. I believe his goal is to create something powerful that can cause destruction for the sake of being able to make it. Does that make any sense? As a fighter, Caesar is a one-trick pony that is ultimately outclassed by Luffy in every sense. We do get a few interesting moments during this arc that are worth looking back at. First, we see Zoro properly use his haki to scare Monet so much that she can barely function again. We also get the return of Smoker and Tashigi, which is pleasant as they’re fun characters. They are with the marines so for the sake of our story they’re the bad guys, but they’re not bad people. The G5 branch even gets along well with the Straw Hats, as they’re similarly spirited people. Corruption is an interesting concept which we’ll end up exploring more in later arcs so I am hesitant to talk about it too much here. What we do see at the end of this arc, is a short class between Kuzan – who is a former admiral – and Doflamingo. Kuzan is there to save his friend, Smoker and he sounds in this moment like he’s planning something. Now, this will get close to spoiler territory, so I apologize in advance if I spoil too much. You can also stop reading here, you won’t miss much I promise.
Kuzan talks with Smoker about how there are certain things you cannot do while being a part of the navy. We see several other people who work for the marines but don’t quite seem to align with their rank and file. We learn later on that this is an actual organization and it seems to be the home of many of the marine soldiers that seem to be much better people than the core organization. I am curious how Oda will handle all of these people. And most importantly, I wonder what Kuzan’s role in all of this is. He makes some questionable decisions throughout the story and his lazy justice makes him seem like he’s a good guy, but some of his other actions counteract this. Because I don’t want to dive headfirst into big spoilers, I will leave my musings at this, but I hope you enjoyed this little recap of the past few arcs. We’re heading to Dressrosa next week and I can’t wait to read this arc at a decent pace for once instead of on a weekly basis. Thanks for reading!
Opal Kaharis 