One Piece Vol 13

[sara_tanaquil]

From Whiskey Peak to Little Garden.

Volume 13

109

Mr. 8's comments here about how the Boss entrusted them with Whiskey Peak makes me wonder if they took their duty to protect the town more seriously than the Boss intended.

It becomes pretty clear later that their primary job was to command the army of bounty hunters who would lure in and kill pirates newly arrived on the Grand Line, but it seems like they all (especially Igaram and Vivi?) took it that it was their job to make sure the people of the town were taken care of, dealing with the food shortage and what not. You can't take the noblesse oblige out of the hired assassin spy, it seems.

Miss Wednesday summons her giant spot-billed duck mount Karoo to join the battle. (KAROO!)

Mr. 9's attack names combine puns on acrobatics with puns on baseball (a game with nine players, get it?) because they both contain the word "bat." *rolls eyes*

Am I correct that 熱血ナイヌ根性バット is potentially obscene? ("Hot-blooded bat of guts," literally "Hot-blooded nine cojones bat"?)

I had forgotten that the battle between Zoro and the Baroque Works agents was such a Keystone Cops affair. (Mr 9 trying to do acrobatics and falling off the roof. Karoo never being able to get any of Miss Wednesday's orders right: "I said come, not shake hands! Who told you to sit?" Zoro: "This is just embarrassing.")

EVERYONE should call Zoro "Mr Bushido." (Also, LOL at Karoo placidly sipping from his cask while Miss Wednesday is trying to make a dramatic entrance.)

Miss Wednesday threatens to kill a sleeping Luffy. (Zoro: "Bastard could at least wake up when he's being taken hostage." Pot, meet kettle?)

Zoro bounces off Luffy's stomach into order to take the last agent down. Always make good use of your fellow nakama's assets!

110

Luffy wakes up. ("Why does my stomach hurt all of a sudden?") Then he rolls over and goes back to sleep.

Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine make their entrance. (Ugh, we're back to the ranks of the boring and annoying villains.)

When Mr. 8 crawls out of the rubble thinking he can't fail in his mission, I suspect that the mission is not the one we think it is.

Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine have been sent to "the front lines" to eliminate a double agent from "a certain kingdom" who has infiltrated the ranks of Baroque Works.

LOL, Mr. 9 immediately thinks they're talking about him. ("I'm not a REAL king, honest!")

The double agents are revealed to be Igaram, head of royal security for the kingdom of Alabasta, and Princess Nefertari Vivi.

(Really love that in Japanese, it's impossible to tell from the lead-up what the gender or number of infiltrators is, so right up to the moment of the reveal, you don't realize that Igaram is reacting to protect Vivi, not himself.)

Zoro takes advantage of the confusion to haul off a still-sleeping Luffy.

Hee, Mr. 9 immediately starts kowtowing to Vivi because she's a princess.

I thought his ~ de araseraremashita was a joke (= deshita), but googling informs me that that is actual sonkeigo (SUPER sonkeigo, like for the imperial household).

I might think assassinating people with boogers was funny, if I were five. And a boy. At least now I know why はな空想 (pronounced "nose-fancy" in katakana) is supposed to be funny. [Hana-kuso = nose-crap (booger), hana-kuusou = nose-fancy (fancy = daydream). The Viz manga translation of "Nez-palm" is actually pretty funny.]

SO much love for Mr. 9 for jumping in to defend Vivi, even though he hasn't got a clue what's going on. "Bye bye, baby." *hugs Mr 9*

Go, have lots of bounty hunter kids with Miss Monday! They're so cute!

Igaram begs Zoro to escort Vivi to Alabasta. (His keigo is SO adorable. Must be my loyal retainer kink showing.)

The promise of a reward gets Nami's attention.

111

Nami, like Zoro, was only pretending to be drunk. ("I can drink WAY more than that!")

There's nothing Nami won't negotiate -- which makes it all the more endearing when she decides money doesn't matter.

I think my favorite moment is when she was willing to spend everything they had to bid on Keimi in order to rescue her from the slave auction on Shabondy.

LOL, Nami's argument with Zoro when she's trying to talk him into doing her dirty work. Poor Zoro, sometimes I sympathize with his complaints about Nami being a manipulative witch. But at the same time, there's an undercurrent of affection in their bickering. Nakama sound a lot like siblings when they fight.

Miss Monday is the second person to step in and try to give Vivi a chance to escape, aw. It's amazing how one selfless or loyal act can completely change my view of a character. I initially found her weird combination of muscles and femininity ("atashi"? Really?) to be more creepy-sexist than funny; now I think she's adorable.

Love how Vivi freaks out when Zoro shows up to defend her, thinking Zoro's come to take another crack at killing her.

Igaram answers a few of Nami's questions about what Baroque Works is and what their goals are (supposedly, to create an ideal Utopia, in which the agents will become the new nobility).

Luffy finally wakes up enough to jump to the conclusion that Zoro attacked their hosts without provocation.

112

Luffy's fight with Zoro (while everyone else is standing around going ???).

This scene comes uncomfortably close to being a comedic parody of the far more painful fight with Usopp on Water 7. A real, non-comic fight between Luffy and Zoro would be terrifying.

I was half expecting the Nightmare Luffy storyline to go that way, though in the end it went in a different direction.

Vivi's reactions to the bizarrerie of the Straw Hat crew just never stop being funny.

Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine can't figure out whether Zoro and Luffy are trying to get in their way or not.

Hee, Miss Valentine getting ticked off when no one pays attention to her speech about her devil fruit power -- that's pretty much her only amusing moment.

Even when Zoro and Luffy are fighting, they form a united front against Mr 5 and Miss Valentine. "DON'T INTERFERE WITH OUR FIGHT!"

113

The epic nakama battle-to-end-all-battles ends with one punch from Nami.

Vivi explains that Alabasta is one of the great ancient civilizations of the Grand Line, but is currently suffering from civil war. Vivi entered Baroque Works because she got wind of the fact that the organization was secretly fomenting the revolution. (Civil war --> no money for Nami to extort, alas.)

Baroque Works' true goal, unknown to all but the Boss: to occupy and overthrow the kingdom of Alabasta.

It cracks me up that Luffy calls Igaram "The old dude with hair like hollow fish-paste rolls" (chikuwa no ossan) -- no wonder the English had to translate it to "hair rollers".

Reading this chapter was the first time I realized that (almost) every one of Luffy's nicknames has "Ossan" [old dude] in it.

I think my favorite is "Ice no Ossan" from Water 7.

Vivi kicks ass. I like that Zoro immediately recognizes the spirit of a fellow warrior in her (威勢のいい王女だな: roughly, "There's a princess with guts.").

I'd love to see her come back into the storyline at some point. (As Queen of Alabasta, very likely.) Hee, for some reason, now I'm imagining a meeting between her and Hancock. That would be hilarious.

LOL, Vivi blurting out the Boss' true identity (in front of the Unluckies!) two seconds after saying that she can't risk their lives by telling them. Vivi's moments of ditziness are all the more endearing because she's such a strong character in general.

The cat's out of the bag: Mr. 0 is Crocodile, one of the Shichibukai.

LOL more: Nami mad enough to kill Vivi for getting them involved with a Shichibukai, while Luffy and Zoro are in the background going "A Shichibukai? COOL!"

Luffy, Zoro and Nami's faces are now known to Baroque Works, thanks to the otter's excellent artistic skills. (Note: Usopp's and Sanji's are not, because they were still sleeping.)

IGARAM. MY EYES. MY EYYYYYEEEEES.

The Viz translator at this point apparently didn't know that Shichibukai, by definition, have their bounties lifted. The Japanese says "Currently, as a Shichibukai, he has no bounty," but the Viz translation had "Right now, there's no bounty on the boss, even though he's one of the seven warlords of the sea." I don't envy the poor translators, having to keep pace with Oda's crazy rules when they haven't even been spelled out in the text yet. (The Japanese is just ambiguous enough to be easily misunderstood: 今でこそ七武海である彼に賞金は懸かっていません.)

Crocodile's former bounty (80 million) four times Arlong's.

Eternal Log Pose: a log pose that is always oriented toward one destination, no matter where you are.

Igaram’s plan: to fool the agents of BW into following him in order to give Vivi and the others time to escape.

Igaram's ship explodes in the harbor.

I was so upset when I thought Igaram really died, the first time I watched the anime. T_T

Love Vivi not shedding a tear. Did I mention she kicks ass?

The Nami profile in One Piece Red compares Nami hugging Vivi is to Gen-san hugging Nami, in the scene where he tells her she's fought long enough. "Those four saved the East Blue all by themselves. That Shichibukai won't stand a chance!"

(Incidentally, I wonder how much input Oda has into those data books. I'd assume a lot, to the point where I'd assume that this observation comes from him and not some random editor, but it's hard to tell for sure.)

114

OMG, it took me this long to figure out Karoo got his name from his species, "karugamo" (spot-billed duck).

"A decoy, how silly."

Are we supposed to think at this point that Robin's talking about the other dummies, not Igaram himself? In retrospect it's obvious that Igaram's body was a dummy too, but that certainly wasn't clear in the anime, and it seems like the manga is trying to keep it ambiguous as well.

Miss All Sunday (Mr. 0's partner, second in command) suddenly appears on the deck of the Merry.


I had totally forgotten Robin shows up this early! Also, curses, do I really have to call her "Miss All Sunday" for the next six volumes?

As with Nami at Arlong Park, it's freaky to see her acting the part of the hardass villain. And then I remember she's been keeping this facade up for twenty years, and my heart breaks just a little. Oh, Robin.


Miss A-S implies that she was responsible for Igaram's death.

It is probably part of her armor to encourage everyone to think the absolute worst of her at all times. T_T

Vivi and Igaram discovered Crocodile's true identity by tailing Miss All Sunday -- or rather, Miss A-S allowed them to tail her, and then informed Crocodile that his identity had been discovered. (What was her game, indeed.)

"A princess determined to save her kingdom, even at the cost of making an enemy of Baroque Works -- how utterly absurd!"

It would be interesting to see some sort of backstory explaining even half of what went on in Robin's head during the years she was surviving on the run. She mocks Vivi's love for her country here, and yet we know she would have every reason to empathize with a powerless young girl whose homeland was threatened. Did she toy with others to distance herself from her own pain? Is she genuinely trying to help -- but only insofar as it won't jeopardize her own survival? Is she simply an agent of pure chaos, the ultimate trickster figure? (The latter seems the most likely to me, often.)

"Could you not point those dangerous things at me?" Miss A-S is evidently using some sort of devil fruit power here, but it's not clear what the power is (compare the first use of Buggy's devil fruit power in vol 2).

Luffy is madder about Miss A-S stealing his hat than anything else. (LOL, Usopp yelling at her from behind the protection of the main mast.)

Miss A-S offers them a shortcut: an Eternal Log Pose leading to Nothing Island, the final stop before Alabasta, so they can avert the dangers awaiting them on Little Garden.


I spent an absurd amount of time after re-reading this wondering what would have happened if they'd taken Miss A-S up on her offer of the shortcut. Would they have actually gotten to Alabasta faster (if only so that Crocodile could kill them sooner)? From a story point of view, it would obviously be a disaster (Usopp would never have met the Elbaf warriors; Nami wouldn't have gotten sick; they never would have gone to Drum Island and met Chopper), but was she really trying to do them a favor, or was she luring them into some nasty trap? ("Island of Nothing" doesn't sound promising.)

ETA: this question is (mostly) answered in ch 129. LOL FOREVER. Leaving the previous paragraph of speculation in place as a record for posterity.


Love that Luffy understands instantly that it's the journey that matters more than the goal, and wants no one to interfere with it.

Very reminiscent of his response to Rayleigh on Shabondy, where he threatens to call the whole thing off if Rayleigh tells them about One Piece.

Miss A-S rides off on Banchi (the amphibious turtle-thing).

LOL Zoro telling Vivi not to worry herself about Miss A-S, because "We're used to scheming women around here."

Poor Usopp and Sanji, they just got dragged on board ship half-asleep and still have no idea what's going on.

Sanji (who’s been fawning over Vivi): Jealous, Nami-san?
Nami: Not particularly.

Usopp (proudly pointing out the back his head on Luffy's wanted poster): "Word has it the 30 million bounty on this poster is mostly for me."

Luffy and Zoro:
Luffy: Wonder if it'll snow.
Zoro: Course it's not going to snow.
Luffy: It could snow. You were asleep, you don't know.
Zoro: ?

Vivi: ......

(Oh, Vivi. You're in for an interesting journey.)

115

Cover arc -- hey, Coby's starting to look a lot more manly there. (Helmeppo's hair is still ugly, though.)

Vivi explains that the first leg of the Grand Line is by far the most chaotic (weather and navigation-wise), because all the magnetic lines are struggling for predominance at the point closest to Reverse Mountain (but, she says, that doesn't mean they should drop their guard).

Nami tries to coax Vivi to relax a bit and enjoy Sanji's frou-frou drinks. (Again, One Piece RED points out that Nami sees a lot of herself in Vivi -- way too much responsibility taken on too young, wound way too tight.)

Karoo can hold his liquor! I wonder if that's a cocktail he's got in his little cask the whole time. Just like a St Bernard, except he drinks all the brandy himself.

Arrival on Little Garden (which, they discover, is an overgrown jungle occupied by giant creatures).

Luffy smells adventure, and Vivi wants to go along.

Vivi: "I'll be fine. I have Karoo!"
Nami: "He doesn't look very sure of that." (LOL Viz: "That duck's scared quackless." Original: 本人、言葉にならないくらい驚いてるけど. Poor Karoo looks completely terrified.)

Both Usopp and Nami observe that Vivi would have to have more than her share of guts to infiltrate an organization like Baroque Works.

Zoro and Sanji declare a hunting contest.

Nami remembers reading about "Little Garden" somewhere...

... and Luffy and Vivi meet up with a dinosaur (a veggiesaurus, from the looks of it).

Vivi explains that because of the difficulties of navigation hampering movement on the Grand Line, some islands are hyper-evolved, while others are stuck in the prehistoric age.

"To its inhabitants, this island is but a little garden. Let us call it Little Garden, the island of giants." Brag Men, by Louis Arnot.

An SBS in volume 42 points out that Brag Men was one of the books saved by the scholars of Ohara from the destruction of the Buster Call. It got its name from the fact that most people believed the incredible stories it contained about the Grand Line were all lies.

116

LOL Zoro facing down a triceratops. "Is this thing edible?"

Broggy finds the Merry (guarded by Nami and Usopp), and wants to have a feast. (He's got the dinosaur meat, they've got the sake.)

Luffy falls into the dinosaur's throat, and gets rescued by Dorry. ("Hey, c'mon over to my place!")

SO much love for Dorry and Broggy. I don't know why I love them; I just do. Their warrior code of honor. The way they laugh. Their friendship. The way Usopp looks up to them.

The fact that Oimo and Kashi still remember and miss them.

Nami is horrified to learn that the log pose will take a year to reset, and they'll likely be dead before that ever happens (too many dangerous things on the island).

Dorry tells Luffy about their home town, the "village of Elbaf," somewhere on the Grand Line.

Trivia: Elbaf is "Fable" spelled backwards. (Make of that what you will.)

The law of Elbaf: to accept the judgment of the god of Elbaf (the survivor of a battle is adjudged righteous).

This sounds like generic warrior blah-blah here, but given what we learn about gods later... maybe not so much. I wouldn't be surprised if the God of Elbaf turned out to be a historical figure.

Dorry and Broggy have been fighting for 100 years, and neither of them remembers what caused the fight in the first place.

117

On "Vacation Island" (Kyuuka-shima):

Mr 3 is more badass than I remembered. I think maybe the anime plays up his comic side so much that you don't notice the sinister side of him -- the cunning, the arrogance. Like Kuro, he thinks very highly of his own intellect and relies on his strategic intelligence to triumph over others.

Speech quirk: Mr. 3 adds -kane or -gane to nearly every sentence (-gane if the sentence might have ended in ga or nda otherwise; -kane if it would have ended with ka). It's especially noticeable in writing because his -gane and -kane are always spelled in katakana. This is pretty much impossible to translate, but tends (along with his vocal delivery in the anime) to give his speech a whiny or indecisive cast.

Mr. 3 is another character that has significantly grown on me. I disliked him intensely in Little Garden, but found him hilarious in Impel Down. His eye-rolling skepticism made such a good foil for Buggy's vain self-importance.

Mr. 3's snarky remark when he finds out about the takedown of Mr. 5 ("Wish they'd taken out Mr. 2 while they were at it") is the first reference to the manner of promotion within Baroque Works -- lower-level agents are promoted if the agents ranking above them are killed or removed.

Back on Little Garden:

Usopp is awed by the giants' all-out fight to the death, purely for the sake of their warrior honor (while Nami finds their battle and their warrior code absurd and incomprehensible).

Usopp wishes one day to visit the village of Elbaf.

The match ends in draw #73,466.

Back to feasting. Broggy shares the sake he got from the Merry with Dorry, and they each return to their respective camps (and Strawhat guests).

Dorry says they only have one eternal log pose that points to Elbaf, but they're fighting for possession of it now. (Luffy says that's no good, since they only want to go to Alabasta.)

Dorry jokes that maybe they should just sail off at random and see where they end up. "With luck, you might just get where you're going." Luffy thinks this is hilariously funny.

While Vivi clearly thinks the conversation is ridiculous, and it can easily be read as a silly joke ("No matter where you go, there you are"), I wonder if it isn't meant to be a bit of a philosophic hint at a way of life. Luck (un) is an important concept in the One Piece universe.

Broggy explains to a star-struck Usopp that giants care more for honor than life or money, because giants live much longer than humans do. (As I recall, their potential lifespan is three times that of a human, but where do we learn this? I don't think it's mentioned here.)

"Death with honor" is "the eternal treasure handed down (uketsugareru) in the land of Elbaf."

The sake that Dorry is drinking explodes, severely injuring him.

Dorry initially suspects the Strawhats of planting the explosive, since he knows Broggy would never do such a thing.

Luffy gives Vivi his hat to hold while he prepares to fight (they know Dorry won't believe them if they plead ignorance).

Comments

[wednesday-10-00.livejournal.com]

<-- Miss Wednesday ^_~

Am I correct that 熱血ナイヌ根性バット is potentially obscene?

Probably.

Nakama sound a lot like siblings when they fight.

Yes! <3

The Viz translator at this point apparently didn't know that Shichibukai, by definition, have their bounties lifted.

I am with you that translating an ongoing series (especially one with as much foreshadowing as One Piece) can't be easy, but I think this one is just sloppy; they should have been paying attention during Yosaku's lecture about the Shichibukai a couple volumes ago.

As I recall, their potential lifespan is three times that of a human, but where do we learn this? I don't think it's mentioned here.

If not here, then in the next volume, I think. It's definitely in this arc somewhere.

[sara-tanaquil.livejournal.com]

Hugs Miss Wednesday! (LOL, three people will get that joke.)

Re: Shichibukai, I double-checked the scene with Yosaku, and he never says the bounties of Shichibukai are lifted. I mean, yeah, you could probably guess that from the fact that they are "recognized" by the government and allowed to operate freely in return for a cut (what would that mean if the government were willing to pay a bounty for the heads of those same pirates?), but nothing is said of bounties being officially cancelled until later.

[wednesday-10-00.livejournal.com]

Yeah, sorry, I didn't mean to imply that Yosaku had specifically said their bounties were lifted, but "despite being a government-sanctioned pirate, Crocodile has no bounty" just doesn't make any sense. I'm pretty sure the translator just forgot what the heck "shichibukai" meant. And besides, it's not like the series was only a few chapters ahead in Japanese when Viz was first publishing this volume. Do your research when you're translating something, sheesh.

[sara-tanaquil.livejournal.com]

And besides, it's not like the series was only a few chapters ahead in Japanese when Viz was first publishing this volume.

Excellent point. >.<

I'm really trying not to rag on the Viz translation too much, because I am grateful that there is any English translation at all (especially now that it's so current and so much higher-quality), but some of those early volumes, damn. At least they dropped that practice of having random characters speak in piratese ("Swab the deck, matey!"). Oh god, that was AWFUL.

[wednesday-10-00.livejournal.com]

I remember people complaining about the pirate-speak when it was first coming out in English, but I'm convinced that if there was pirate-speak in Japanese, Oda would be using it. (I mean, look at all the other weird speech patterns.) Still, I haven't read any of OP in English, so it's hard for me to judge whether it really is awful or not.

[serrende.livejournal.com]

When I re-read this it does seem to me like Robin's advice to the crew really is potentially helpful, rather than leading them to a trap. Whether she just wants to spread chaos or is in some ways hedging her bets - and perhaps actually finding Vivi's situation rather sympathetic - is another question. She's probably already intrigued by Luffy for his having the letter D in his name, like Saul and Roger did. (Robin would likely know his real name was Gol D. Roger, not Gold Roger.)

In any case, we know she's not reporting this to Crocodile, at least not all of it, as he still didn't know of Sanji and Usopp being in the crew before Rain Base

About the age span of giants: Isn't that mentioned by Oimo and/or Kashi when they talk to Usopp?

Personally I always thought Dorry and Brogy were acting really irresponsibly. If they had just been individual warriors wanting to spend 100 years bashing each other, okay, but they were both captains. And them going on for so long did bring problems to Oimo and Kashi as they set out to look for them. I accept that giants and Usopp wouldn't share this view, though.

About Mr 3's speech quirks, does it have anything to do with money in Japanese? Stephen's fan translation has him using money-based expressions a lot. The Swedish translation doesn't have that, instead making him add "då då" to the end of his lines (literally, "then then", as in "okay, then" but doubled). This does make him sound rather whiny and a little prissy, but has no money connotations.

I liked that little bit with Vivi's adventurousness and how Usopp and Nami remark on it.

ETA: Luffy's nicknames work surprisingly well in Swedish a lot of the time. You just put the word "-gubben" at the end (="old man", informal), making a believable slangy nickname. Iceburg is "isgubben".

[sara-tanaquil.livejournal.com]

Mr 3: it never occurred to me to connect his speech quirk with money, but I could see how that might work. By itself, -gane or -kane are fairly meaningless filler phrases (the Swedish translation is a pretty close parallel), but when it's repeated every single time, it really starts to stand out. "kane" sounds like the word meaning money (金, kane), so it could easily sound to a Japanese speaker like he's ending all of his sentences with that word.

(Random, but when I first noticed the speech quirk while watching the anime, the phrase that stood out to me was the -gane rather than the -kane, and I thought it had something to do with wire (=harigane in Japanese), because the 3 on his head looks like a coil of wire. I'm sure this was a complete misunderstanding on my part, but it shows how my head tried to translate a meaningless sentence-ending phrase into an actual word.)

Isgubben -- too cute!! (I might just call him that from now on.)


Oh, good point that Robin's attention would have been caught by the D in Luffy's name (of course, the reader at this point has no idea that the D means anything). And yes, definitely not reporting to Crocodile, so she's playing a lone game of some sort.

I figure she was never in the habit of sharing information with people like Crocodile if it wasn't necessary to guarantee her survival. Information is power, always.

A lot depends on whether Nothing Island is actually on the route to Alabasta or not (I don't think that is clarified in ch. 129). If it isn't, the crew would have been up s### creek without a paddle (literally, LOLOL Robin), even if they weren't in any immediate danger. If it is, then one could argue that Robin was actually trying to help, since she presumably knew that they would be stuck on Little Garden for at least a year (she knows the book Brag Men, after all), if not killed before they could ever leave it.

[serrende.livejournal.com]

Whoops! Apologies for leaving out an inadvertent spoiler.

[sara-tanaquil.livejournal.com]

No worries... I appreciate everyone being careful with the spoiler tags, but some things are bound to sneak through.

[manga-crow.livejournal.com]

I honestly hate the fight between Luffy and Zoro in this volume - as awesome as it is to see it go down, it still makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. I will continue to chalk it up to Oda's fanservice :p

Nami's reaction when Igaram's ship blows up is Nami at her absolute best - I love those rare moments when we get to dispense with her usual snarky nonsense and see her underneath feelings.

I love that the entrance to the Grand Line and the entrance to the New world are basically the same. Immediately declare war on a member of the most powerful group, while half the crew prepares to die

I like Little Garden, although I don't have a lot to say about it. I do like that this is Sanji's first real "doing secret agent-y things in the background" moment.

[sara-tanaquil.livejournal.com]

Nami's reaction when Igaram's ship blows up is Nami at her absolute best - I love those rare moments when we get to dispense with her usual snarky nonsense and see her underneath feelings.

Yes!


There's a similar moment when the news of Ace's death goes out. She goes from being a manipulative jerk who's trying to put one over on the nice old men on Weatheria, to breaking down and crying for what Luffy must be going through, and just for a moment you see the real Nami.

I suspect both she and Robin share, in different ways, the inability to ever completely drop the almost lifelong habit of self-protection through concealment, manipulation and deceit.


Agreed that Little Garden is not that exciting plot-wise. By far my favorite part of it (apart from Zoro!) is the giants (and really, I can't account for why I love them so much, because normally Klingon Viking warrior macho ethos does zero for me).

[manga-crow.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the one you mention may be my favorite Nami moment of all time.

All of their reactions are awesome, but Nami and Usopp in particular are heart-rending. I especially love the follow up to that where she's openly bad-mouthing Luffy to Haredas, while in her head she's remembering "The Moment" - the "this time, it's my turn" gets me every time

[mangaroo.livejournal.com]

I have to go back to your reply to my comments on volume 12 before I write up 13, but let me just say that you and a certain weekday cat are EVIL for trying to tell me that I could skip 14. We exited on a giant cliffhanger. (Hee. Didja see what I did there?)

Fortunately for both of you, I got vol.14 from the other municipality's library. Also, they wrap their paperbacks in transparent protective covers. Their One Piece is much nicer to touch than my library's One Piece.

[sara-tanaquil.livejournal.com]

Oops! I should have thought about the cliffhangery aspect. I am glad you had volume 14 in hand after all (and that there are fewer grubby fingers involved).

[wednesday-10-00.livejournal.com]

Hey, I never suggested any such thing!

[mangaroo.livejournal.com]

Don't know what I think of the transformation of Miss Wednesday into Princess Vivi without her expressing any regret on the Laboon issue. You did bad things to sweet whales, Vivi. Feel the shame.

Miss Monday is the second person to step in and try to give Vivi a chance to escape, aw. It's amazing how one selfless or loyal act can completely change my view of a character.

I didn't really have a view of Monday to change, but I did like the indication that these Baroque Works agents are more loyal to their immediate associates than to the organization. I think the bigger impact is that between this and the cruelty to Laboon, Vivi is giving off a Saving Private Ryan vibe. She needs to earn the sacrifices everyone is making for her.

Igaram answers a few of Nami's questions about what Baroque Works is and what their goals are (supposedly, to create an ideal Utopia, in which the agents will become the new nobility).

Weird that Igaram gave the "official" Baroque version of their purpose, when Vivi infiltrated because they are supposedly trying to take over her kingdom of Alabasta. Maybe with the same goal in mind, but the latter does seem the more important version of the story to tell.

Luffy finally wakes up enough to jump to the conclusion that Zoro attacked their hosts without provocation.

You are suspiciously comment-free on this development (unless it's under those spoiler cuts in chapter 112). It's disappointing that Luffy would leap to that conclusion, don't you think? Especially Zoro, since I have a 13-year-old-girl's crush on him Luffy has witnessed his suicidal heroism. (Though I do like that Luffy would punish one of his own for behaving inappropriately.)

skippity skip skip skip

I love that Karoo was already waiting on the Merry Go. (Also loved the very early scene in this volume where Vivi wanted to escape from Zoro and Karoo just plopped his ducky butt down. Oh, Karoo.)

What the heck kind of a name is ALL Sunday? All? Like Vivi only had a claim to a fraction of Wednesday?

Love that Luffy understands instantly that it's the journey that matters more than the goal, and wants no one to interfere with it.

I thought it was more an interesting contrast to his willingness to let the decision to take Wednesday-Vivi and 8 to Whisky Beach determined which electromagnetic line they would follow. And, again, accepting the Alabasta Eternal Log Pose from Igaram…which changes their route, right?

"Word has it the 30 million bounty on this poster is mostly for me."

Sometimes Usopp's self-delusion is a little adorable.

Luffy: It could snow. You were asleep, you don't know.

I love everything about this conversation. The silliness. The fact that Oda pays attention to what characters miss when they're sleeping. The fact that characters can sleep through huge amounts of exposition.

Zoro and Sanji declare a hunting contest.

So far, no slash vibe for these two. More flyting, my lads, or I'll need Oda to bring in someone else for Zoro. Love that Zoro is only thinking about the hunt when he encounters his dinosaur.

neither of them remembers what caused the fight in the first place.

Do we ever learn?

(As I recall, their potential lifespan is three times that of a human, but where do we learn this? I don't think it's mentioned here.

In the translation, it comes when Dorry is telling Luffy that they've been fighting for 100 years. Luffy's shocked, and Dorry says, "Aw, that's nothing. Our life spans are three times those of humans. Ho ho ho ho ho!"

GIANT EXPLODING BEER SAKE CLIFFHANGER.

[sara-tanaquil.livejournal.com]

Don't know what I think of the transformation of Miss Wednesday into Princess Vivi without her expressing any regret on the Laboon issue.

I love that you hold One Piece characters accountable for their sins. <3 (I mean this seriously! I tend to forgive characters all too easily when they do questionable things under duress. I think it's interesting to focus instead on the fact that sympathetic characters in One Piece sometimes do -- or at least have done -- some not so nice things.)

I was wondering -- how much do you remember of your previous encounter with One Piece? I seem to recall (incorrectly?) that you did watch a bunch of the anime back when 4Kids was butchering it, and I thought I even remembered that you knew, at one time, that Miss Wednesday = Princess Vivi. Tell me if I am completely hallucinating this. If you remember anything at all of your previous impressions, I'd be curious to know how the current read-through compares.

To return to the whaling issue, I was struck by the fact that one of the characters (Sanji?) basically says something like "I'm not gonna get involved in talking about the ethics of whaling." I suspect there's a bit of hint there at the fact that whaling is still very much a live debate in Japan -- an essential way of life for some, a cruel abuse of intelligent and sensitive animals for others. Were the people of Whiskey Peak entitled to hunt whale meat to address their food shortage?

She needs to earn the sacrifices everyone is making for her.

I'm curious to see what you think when you've had a chance to get to know her better. (Has your view of Nami mellowed, or do you still have issues with her? Even "redeemed" Nami has good & bad sides to her personality.)

Miss Wednesday/Princess Vivi is interesting in that I think she's the first character to be introduced into a villain before shifting to become a friend and ally (she won't be the last). Nami was morally ambiguous, but never really a villain, even when she was revealed to be one of Arlong's crew; it was always obvious that she was being coerced. Miss Wednesday definitely appears to be one of the bad guys when she first appears in the story. Even her appearance changes when she reverts to her true identity.

(skipping ahead because Karoo & Vivi go together)

I love that Karoo was already waiting on the Merry Go. (Also loved the very early scene in this volume where Vivi wanted to escape from Zoro and Karoo just plopped his ducky butt down. Oh, Karoo.)

Karoo is the BEST. (Love him standing behind Zoro waving.)

There is a running joke in the Miss Wednesday/Karoo/Zoro fight early in the volume that the Viz translation almost completely missed, which makes me very sad, because it is freaking hilarious.

#1:
Vivi whistles for Karoo.
Karoo quacks loudly and obligingly sticks his wing out.
Vivi (Japanese): ’お手’じゃなくて　ここへきなさい!!! (Not "shake"! Get over here!!)

(I absolutely cannot look at that panel without dying laughing. Karoo looks so hopeful, waving his wing and waiting for her to praise him.)

#2:
Vivi: Show him the powers that put a panther's to shame!
Karoo: *plops his butt down*
Vivi (Japanese): 誰がお座りって言ったのよ!! (Who told you to "sit" (o-suwari)!)

Vivi's been with that duck for (spoiler) years, and after all this time, she still can't get him to learn the difference between "come," "shake" and "sit"? Oh, poor Vivi.

[mangaroo.livejournal.com]

Were the people of Whiskey Peak entitled to hunt whale meat to address their food shortage?

I might be more sympathetic if the people of Whiskey Peak weren't a bunch of Baroque Works agents luring bounties. But I agree that Sanji's hand wave on the whaling debate was interesting. I would rather have seen a strong stand against it, but that would be odd coming from a guy who wants to go to the seafood ocean.

Has your view of Nami mellowed, or do you still have issues with her?

Not really. I like that she stopped the boys' fighting with a single punch, and I agree with her about the nonsense of the giants' purposeless battle, but her avarice is unattractive, as is her manipulation of Sanji.

There is a running joke in the Miss Wednesday/Karoo/Zoro fight early in the volume that the Viz translation almost completely missed, which makes me very sad, because it is freaking hilarious.

OMG, they did totally miss it. For #1, the Viz translation has "Don't just wag your tail...MOVE IT!!" Gah.

Honestly, I remember almost nothing of the One Piece episodes I saw broadcast. A bit of Nami's backstory (but nothing of Nojiko). I didn't recall Miss Vividay at all, but I recognized Karoo. And I know her kingdom is a desert kingdom? And Chopper...would commenting on Chopper stuff here be considered spoilery? I think I remember the most about Chopper, but I could discover that I remember it all wrong once we finally get to those bits. No memories of Buggy or Smoker or Arlong. Or Mihawk or the guy they fought off the Baratie. Yeah, if you had asked me to recount One Piece from memory before I started reading it, it would have been something like "Luffy wants to be King of the Pirates. He ate a devil fruit so he's stretchy but can't swim. He abuses a nerdy kid so the marines will let the nerdy kid join them. Chopper!" And then, thanks to Japan 2011 TV-watching...SPOILERS.

[sara-tanaquil.livejournal.com]

but her avarice is unattractive, as is her manipulation of Sanji

Much as I like Nami, I agree completely with both these points. (To be fair to her, I think it's less avarice than a deep-seated obsession with control and security, but that doesn't make it any more attractive. Now, Buggy's obsession with treasure is pure avarice.)

I agree with her about the nonsense of the giants' purposeless battle

Interesting, because I'm kind of with Usopp on this one: their battle has a sort of gallant romance about it. I won't argue that there is any logic to that view, though. (Really, why do I like the giants so much? It makes no sense.)

He abuses a nerdy kid so the marines will let the nerdy kid join them. Chopper!

LOL, I totally had you pegged for a potential Chopper fan (I had forgotten you got that far into the anime before). Not that I disagree, because -- CHOPPER!

It really is too bad we spoiled you so badly in Japan. :-( It was all my fault. I was traumatized by *spoiler*.

[mangaroo.livejournal.com]

It really is too bad we spoiled you so badly in Japan.

Don't feel bad. My library lists the volumes by title rather than number in their catalog (i.e., One Piece. Instinct), so to reserve the volumes in order, I have to use a wikipedia page listing all the manga volumes. GIANT SPOILER is the title of one of the volumes.

TL;DR Part 2 (how long can I string this out?)

[sara-tanaquil.livejournal.com]

Weird that Igaram gave the "official" Baroque version of their purpose, when Vivi infiltrated because they are supposedly trying to take over her kingdom of Alabasta. Maybe with the same goal in mind, but the latter does seem the more important version of the story to tell.

Can you explain more what you mean by this? I'm not sure I completely get your point, but I am interested to discuss it more.

If I'm understanding you correctly (your question is, why Igaram gives the official line on Baroque Works' goal when he knows the truth about Crocodile's secret goal), I wonder if he regards the true story as classified and is too loyal to Vivi to reveal it without her permission.

Vivi didn't actually know Mr 0's true purpose when she infiltrated the organization; she only knew that her information suggested that BW was behind the unrest in Alabasta, for some unknown reason. She and Igaram only recently discovered the truth of Mr. 0's identity and his plans for Alabasta, and a lot rests on them being able to get back to Alabasta in time to reveal the truth to the people.

You are suspiciously comment-free on this development

Erm. How do I answer this without getting into spoiler territory? And even by hedging, I'm probably giving you entirely the wrong impression about what sort of spoiler I'm protecting. But definitely don't click on the spoiler tags, because there are some things you really shouldn't be spoiled on.

manga_crow expressed dislike for this scene, I think for much the same reason you are expressing: it seems out of character. Luffy should know Zoro better than that.

It does appear that Oda means for the scene to be a bit of comic relief, even if it's at the expense of character consistency, but... there is an underlying current to it that is very far from comic.

Though I do like that Luffy would punish one of his own for behaving inappropriately.

You are getting closer to the heart of the non-comic aspect of the scene with this comment. For all his idiocy, Luffy takes his responsibility as captain very seriously. Integrity, loyalty and trust are not a joke to him.

Like Vivi only had a claim to a fraction of Wednesday?

Hee! I think it's in an SBS somewhere, but Oda explains the ranking of the holidays later on. They run in descending order of importance. "Miss All Sunday" (0) represents all the Sundays in the entire year. (What could be more festive than that? Especially since I think in Japan, Sunday is often the only true day off.) The other days of the week are just regular old weekdays.

Of the other high-ranking agents, Miss Doublefinger (1) (= two fingers held up side by side, i.e. 1/1) is New Year's Day. Bon Kurei (2) is Obon and the days leading up to the last day of the year, combined. Miss Goldenweek (3) is, well, Golden Week. Miss Merry Christmas (4) and Miss Valentine (5) are self-explanatory. The lower-ranking "holidays" have much less signficance. (Would you want to go through life as Miss Monday? Yeesh.)

Re: TL;DR Part 2 (how long can I string this out?)

[mangaroo.livejournal.com]

Can you explain more what you mean by this?

You got it: "why Igaram gives the official line on Baroque Works' goal when he knows the truth about Crocodile's secret goal." The only bit I would add is Crocodile's goal to take over Alabasta could be part of a larger goal to create a Utopian society. The two do not necessarily exclude each other, although Vivi's description suggests they do, and at this point I assume Vivi reflects Oda's plot.

Anyway, if your explanation as to why Igaram gives the "wrong" version of the story (even though the wrong version kinda makes Baroque Works look good?) is correct, it's kind of hilarious that he is better than Vivi at keeping important information secret.

The lower-ranking "holidays" have much less signficance. (Would you want to go through life as Miss Monday? Yeesh.)

Just call me Miss Arbor Day.

Re: TL;DR Part 2 (how long can I string this out?)

[sara-tanaquil.livejournal.com]

it's kind of hilarious that he is better than Vivi at keeping important information secret

So true! I have no idea how Vivi survived two years undercover, because she sucks at lying.

Maybe she's already starting to relax and revert to her real self as soon as her undercover identity is blown? Or she instinctively senses that she can trust the Strawhats.

TL;DR Part 3!

[sara-tanaquil.livejournal.com]

I thought it was more an interesting contrast to his willingness to let the decision to take Wednesday-Vivi and 8 to Whisky Beach determine which electromagnetic line they would follow. And, again, accepting the Alabasta Eternal Log Pose from Igaram…which changes their route, right?

Actually, I think it's not so much a contrast as a consistent world view. Luffy believes in a combination of instinct and luck. Having decided to cast his lot with the course that began with Whiskey Peak as the first stop (because instinct told him it was the right thing to do?), the rest is for fate/luck to decide.

I remember thinking this was a bit unclear when I read it, but they don't take the Eternal Log Pose pointing to Alabasta from Igaram; Igaram takes that, because he calculates (correctly) that BW's agents will follow the ship that heads straight for Alabasta. He tells Luffy and the others to just follow the normal magnetic course continuing on from Whiskey Peak, which will bring them to Alabasta a few stops further along.

Miss A-S, by contrast, is suggesting that they depart from the magnetic course by taking a shortcut that will get them to Alabasta faster (assuming she was telling the truth about the destination she wanted to send them to, which remains an open question). If you think of One Piece as a video game, she is suggesting that they cheat and skip a level. Luffy wants no part of it.

Later they do find an Eternal Log Pose pointing to Alabasta, but that's arguably a different kind of situation, so I'll leave that discussion for later.

(Sorry, that's a silly-long answer to your comment, but I do think this issue of luck, fate and the journey is more important to the story than you'd think.)

Sometimes Usopp's self-delusion is a little adorable.

You misspelled "always" there. ^_~

(Actually, I'm kidding -- Usopp's self-delusion is more than a little adorable, but it also masks some pretty serious self-esteem issues.)

I love everything about this conversation.

Me too! One of the things I'm enjoying about the re-read is that there are so many small exchanges that get funnier the longer I look at them. Especially when it comes to the most trivial interactions among the crew.

So far, no slash vibe for these two.

After reading far more fanfic than is good for me (why do I do this to myself?), I can see it up to a point (especially if you like rival slash), but... no. The way these two are portrayed in canon, it would never happen. A fanfic writer has to skew one or the other of their characters ever-so-slightly to make it work. (Unlike, say, SGA John-Rodney, which is just plain canon that never made it into the actual script of the show, and you will NEVER convince me otherwise.)

(flyting = flirting + fighting?)

Eeek, I'm late for karate! More later.

Re: TL;DR Part 3!

[wednesday-10-00.livejournal.com]

Usopp's self-delusion is more than a little adorable, but it also masks some pretty serious self-esteem issues.

*Thriller Bark snicker*

Re: TL;DR Part 3!

[mangaroo.livejournal.com]

they don't take the Eternal Log Pose pointing to Alabasta from Igaram

Thank you. I totally misunderstood and thought Igaram was giving it to them to get Vivi home faster.

trivial interactions

That's the word! Trivial. I think I loved it most because it wasn't directly advancing the plot or even providing exposition, since the reader didn't sleep through the last snow storm. At this point, that particular conversation feels like nothing but a character-wallow, and I love wallowing in characters.

The way these two are portrayed in canon, it would never happen.

Well, I'm not so much ruled by canon. Mostly, I just need lots of little cute moments between characters that I think are attractive. Maybe the problem is Zoro sleeps so much that he only interacts with villains?

(flyting = flirting + fighting?)

Flyting. But the wiki explanation doesn't include the context in which it was first introduced to me -- by a renaissance lit instructor in grad school who was furious his class hadn't heard of it (hee, if he had been young and cute, it would totally have been a "Demon Instructor Kamijou" moment) -- as, well, flirting + fighting. So, yes.

Re: TL;DR Part 3!

[sara-tanaquil.livejournal.com]

At this point, that particular conversation feels like nothing but a character-wallow, and I love wallowing in characters.

There are times when I feel (happily!) that all of One Piece is nothing but a giant character wallow with a surprising amount of plot.

Flyting: oh, wow, thank you for the link! I never heard of that at all.

That web page actually describes Zoro and Sanji's relationship surprisingly well. Except, perhaps, that there is more straight-up punching and kicking and less with the witty exchange of insults. But some of their insult wars are pretty funny.

Has Sanji gotten around to routinely calling Zoro "marimo" yet? (This sometimes gets into English as "seaweed head.") Or better yet, "kuso-marimo." Zoro retaliates with kuso-kokku (shit-cook) or ero-kokku (love-cook). I don't think either of them ever actually calls the other by name.

I often suspect the anime of playing up the rival slash to please the fangirls. It's there in the manga, but it's definitely accentuated in the anime.

Last one!

[sara-tanaquil.livejournal.com]

neither of them remembers what caused the fight in the first place

Do we ever learn?

Yes. <3 (Volume 15.)

Thank you for the catch on the giants' lifespan! (Note to self: ch. 116.) It was bugging me that I couldn't remember where that came up.

I enjoyed the narrative technique where the conversation kept switching back and forth from one giant to the other, but it did confuse me a bit; I kept having to backtrack to see who was talking to whom.

GIANT EXPLODING BEER SAKE CLIFFHANGER.

I really wonder if the giants are drinking beer or sake (since the Japanese is ambiguous). It seems like you'd expect pirates (quasi-Viking pirates, at that!) to prefer ale, but who knows?

[wednesday-10-00.livejournal.com]

Sometimes Usopp's self-delusion is a little adorable.

I was going to say something to this effect in the last post, in response to your comment that Zoro's quirks are way more adorable than Usopp's or Sanji's, but now it seems more appropriate here: IMO, Usopp's quirks get way more funny (and, as you say, adorable) as the series goes on. Sanji, on the other hand, I often find very trying. I like him when he's not talking to or about women...which is not very often.

Random:

I love that Karoo was already waiting on the Merry Go.

Do they call it "Merry Go" in English?

[mangaroo.livejournal.com]

So far, I only really "liked" Sanji when he was telling Luffy about the All Blue. (So cute!) The rest of the time, he's been all crap or creepy ogling. (See how I've already blocked out the part where he fed Gin? Okay, I have liked him twice.)

Do they call it "Merry Go" in English?

Yes. Merry Go = sheepy boat. What is the name in Japanese?

[wednesday-10-00.livejournal.com]

ゴーイング・メリー号 "Going Merry Gou" = The Going Merry. It's a pun in Japanese because "gou" is used to designate a ship name. (Like "HMS Going Merry" or something.) So "Merry Go" isn't wrong, I guess...but it sort of is.

(side note: forever sad that I was IN Japan when there was a real Going Merry you could ride, and somehow I missed it. whyyyyyy )

[sara-tanaquil.livejournal.com]

Wasn't Speed Racer's car (Mach 5 in English) named with a similar pun? The family's name in Japanese was Gou, I think, and 号 can be a car model as well as a ship name, and it was the fifth one (五). So, Gou Gou go "Gou Model Five". (Go Speed Racer, go!)

I kind of like Merry Go, even though it's not quite correct. (In Japanese, they're usually saying "Going Merry" or just "Merry".)

[wednesday-10-00.livejournal.com]

Huh, you know, I've heard that the car was called "Go Go Go," but never knew enough about Speed Racer to know what the whole pun was.

[sara-tanaquil.livejournal.com]

I like him when he's not talking to or about women...which is not very often.

He's like the living inverse of the Bechdel Test. ^__^

(I am kind of inordinately proud of the fact that I encountered the original strip that inspired this trope long before the Bechdel Test entered the popular vernacular. Dykes to Watch Out For remains one of my all-time favorite long-running comic serials.)

Back to Sanji -- I agree. I really want to like Sanji, who can be awesome when he tries, and I wish Oda would stop making him act like an idiot every time someone with female chromosomes walks into the room.

[wednesday-10-00.livejournal.com]

He's like the living inverse of the Bechdel Test.

lol, too true. And, hey, I totally didn't know the origins of the Bechdel test.

I admit, Sanji's fight in Thriller Bark made me laugh a lot. But the one in Enies Lobby pissed me off SO BAD. And the fact that his "chivalry" is presented as a good trait, just...ugh. :/

(What is going on in your icon??)

Don't read this comment in email (spoilers)

[sara-tanaquil.livejournal.com]

I tried to find an image of the original strip online ("The Rule"), but unfortunately I couldn't track one down. It was so funny. In the strip, the speaker refuses to go to any movie unless it can pass her personal test.

"The last movie I was able to go see was Alien. The women talked to each other about the monster."

You should totally check out DTWOF sometime (it is available in collected volumes -- I wonder if they're still in print?). I had to laugh at the quote in the wikipedia article where Bechdel herself described it as "half op-ed column and half endless, serialized Victorian novel," because that was such a perfect description. The only thing that makes me sad is that not every relationship ends happily, in fact, probably most of them don't (it's satire, not a HEA romance novel). But the overall tone is very "life goes on" upbeat.

Re: the icon: I really probably shouldn't use that icon, because the answer is a spoiler for the Punk Hazard arc. But the image makes me giggle like a loon every time I look at it, so I couldn't resist.

On Punk Hazard, they run into Trafalgar Law, who uses his ope-ope fruit to scramble their personalities, so approximately half the crew are body-switched for a while. That's Chopper in Sanji's body (note the wide-open innocent eyes). The little badges on their foreheads were Nami's idea, because she said they would never be able to keep each other straight otherwise. I cannot TELL you how funny this running gag has been. It's like the gag in the anime where their voice actors were switched around, times one million. Also, not to spoil you even worse than I have (if you're reading this), but the Strawhats are not the only ones who get their personalities switched, and that gag is even funnier.

Re: Don't read this comment in email (spoilers)

[wednesday-10-00.livejournal.com]

I tried to find an image of the original strip online

It is, in fact, linked in the TV Tropes article you originally linked.

You should totally check out DTWOF sometime

I like this idea in theory, but in reality...too many hobbies! :(

OK, I will pretend I never saw that icon. I wasn't even sure if it was Oda's art or not.