One Piece Vol 13
Jul. 2nd, 2012 10:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sara_tanaquilFrom 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).
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.
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*
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.
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 ???).
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.
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.").
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.
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."
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.
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!"
"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.
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.
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.
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).
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'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).
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Re: TL;DR Part 2 (how long can I string this out?)
Date: 2012-07-17 12:49 pm (UTC)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?)
Date: 2012-07-17 03:44 pm (UTC)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.