Category: East Blue

Sanji is pretty obviously shown as Straw Hat protagonist material by his very nature. He is passionate, has a sense of personal honor, and is shown as an outcast from the rest of the kitchen staff. Even though the cooks have a reputation of violence, they judge Sanji as a problem for being violent. From Sanji’s perspective, he is just standing up for the kitchen staff and the integrity of the food, and that attachment to success is what attracts Luffy to invite him to the crew.

Sanji has some sort of emotional ties to working on the restaurant ship, and it makes sense that it would take something “emotional” such as falling “in love” with Nami to break his obsession with working for the old man, but I hope they don’t play this up a creepy angle. While there is some value, narratively & comedicaly, in the unrequited love cliche, it is quickly overdone.

Last note, Luffy appears to be taking the attitude of doing a task so poorly, he is not asked to do it again. I learned this technique from Calvin & Hobbes and it is true. People much prefer important actions to be done by people with an attention to detail and an interest in positive results. Hiring Luffy under duress ensures that the tasks will not be done perfectly. A workforce needs to feel valued & appreciated if they are going to work to the best of their abilities.

I really enjoyed the previous 2 episodes being one-off self-contained adventures with deep philosophical meanings but we are back on a multi-episode arc to gain a new crew member. Again, I am just assuming that because this new character, Sanji, is featured in the opening song animation so I assume he is going to be a crew member. I suppose we will see. I actually thought it was Luffy in disguise during his first scene.

We are again shown the Marines to be cruel liars, and the captain character is especially rude & selfish. However, as the show progresses, it seems that most sailors are more or less villains. All we ever really see are Marines & pirates, and they are all, more or less, evil. This emphasizes what a revolutionary act it is for Luffy to be so filled with kindness & compassion.

Last note, I appreciate that they addressed scurvy & nutrition while spending long periods of time at sea. It is an interesting note in human history that the cure for scurvy has been lost & forgotten multiple times over generations passed. If we are thinking the One Piece world is a post-apocalyptic earth, this is just another time where some people have forgotten the knowledge of how to survive at sea.

I want to start this post by just mentioning that I totally called it that they would keep just lucking into bigger & better new ships to sail on. When they find the cannon, we again see that Luffy has no experience, much less expertise, in any pirating or boating skills, and he is still ultimately just the kid that Shanks knew way back when. I like that Usopp is good at aiming the cannon because of his slingshot skills, and it continues to show how much value he adds to the Straw Hats even if we, at least me, continue to underestimate him. As we see at the start of the flashback, Zoro was also once just a dumb kid doing everything his own way, endlessly determined to succeed regardless of the adversity he faces.

This episode got pretty thick & intense with the gender philosophy right out of the gate. Kuina’s father is directly engaging in performative feminism in which he speaks well of his daughter in public, and to strangers, as well as offering her publicly desirable opportunities to show off her skills, which makes him appear to be a supportive father to other people. However, behind closed doors, discussing serious business topics, he makes it clear that he does not trust her as an equal to a boy, which is indicative of systemic misogyny in which women are unable to earn the success they deserve because of men with power working together in secret to prevent women from growing and developing their lives & goals.

We also explore gender dysphoria, and this was way back in the year 2000, with Kuina wishing she was a man so that she could attain the same level of success as a boy. She has internalized much of the misogyny she has been taught by her father, even subconsciously, and it prevents her from feeling comfortable in her own body or social role. Zoro continues to show his extreme honor and commitment to justice by insisting that Kuina is as good or even better than any boy and that she can still grow up to be the world’s best swordsman, regardless of what her father says. I cried so much while Zoro was crying in the dojo.

Last note, I appreciate that Zoro is apparently inventing the 3 sword technique from scratch, not learning it from a rare master or something. I also think it is worth noting that there must be a psychological effect of battling with real swords versus the wooden training swords, but it did not appear to affect the duel between Kuina & Zoro.

Usopp’s lack of life experience really shows in this episode as he is completely terrified of the stormy weather while the rest of the crew is entirely nonchalant. I think this continues to reinforce the diversity of the crew Luffy is trying to assemble, and even Nami & Zoro wanted Usopp to join them even though they were aware of his immature tendencies.

We see everyone’s lack of experience in the supernatural when they discuss what actually constitutes a god and what qualifications a being has to have to be considered a god, and this is great world building that doesn’t assume a standardized culture of religion but instead a disparate colloquial folk knowledge of things beyond the understanding of normal people. There are clearly remnants of religious culture poking through, but the unclear definition of godhood points at a post-apocalyptic setting in which the echoes of past beliefs are still reverberating in current conversations & emotions.

The character of the Jack in the Box guy is solid commentary on the concept of some people who take their prison with them everywhere they go. He has grown into his uncomfortable situation to such a degree that it would cause him physical pain to leave his box, but being stuck in the box ensures he cannot reach the treasure he so covets. However, he still doesn’t want anyone else to get it, because he considers it his, even though he cannot utilize its value in a way, shape, or form. We then see that after he learns there never was any treasure, he feels free again, even though nothing has changed about his situation, it is only perspective. He is still stuck in the box & has no treasure, but because he has seen the truth & the truth was empty, he is able to move forward with his life and focus on what is actually important to him.

This episode was a bit of a rare glimpse into Luffy confronting that pirates are typically pretty evil. The dissonance between his experienced reality of piracy & the theoretical concept of piracy he holds in his heart causes the eponymous anger within him, but he wins the battle and moves on, as expected. When Luffy states “I’m gunna be King of the Pirates!” and the Black Cat crew is like, “Really?” they seem genuinely to believe him, though, and I think that’s interesting.

This wholeass episode mostly just focused on Usopp leaving the island, which I guess makes sense as this is essentially the conclusion of his origin arc. I feel like the opening credit animation thing is a bit of a spoiler cuz I guessed he was going to be a permanent crew addition based on that, and now I will expect the same in future episodes with other characters in the intro animation. I think an important & clever detail that wasn’t explicitly mentioned was that Usopp is leaving his children pirate crew behind to pursue a life of piracy in a very similar way to how his own father left him behind for a life of piracy.

The giant backpack was clearly a metaphor for Usopp’s baggage in life, mentally, emotionally, or otherwise, and it was an impactful sequence of scenes seeing how leaving his house with all the baggage left the home in shambles, and then propelled him even faster to the ship, but then became possibly dangerous, until his new friends were easily able to help calm him down & keep him safe; more excellent storytelling that utilizes the advantages of animation. 

We do see that Usopp’s “lying” is ultimately shown to “pay off” in a sense, but it makes me wonder, is it better to keep the people in the village ignorant to the facts of the situation? It probably was, all things considered, if they had never been otherwise attacked by pirates before. The people on the island would be much happier and calmer if unaware of the dangers of reality, but is that a morally superior position? Soren Kierkegaard would say something like being ignorant of despair is worse than despair, but is he correct? Again, these answers are much deeper than “yes” or “no” and this episode explores potential results from varied approaches to these dilemmas. This philosophical dichotomy is emphasized by another perspective on the value of reputation by contrasting how most of the village views Usopp with the way his close friends on the island view him: both are true but each one is more useful to each one who holds it in this scenario, and there is no absolute truth to be held.

I am posting this after midnight but I watched this episode on my 36th birthday, the 26th anniversary of the first episode of One Piece airing, with my wife & my mom who is visiting, and what a trip of an episode to be my birthday episode to watch with the family by sheer coincidence. So many quick paced scenes and flashbacks and exposition and unattached dialogue bits, I honestly wish more of the show went at this pace more often. I’m curious if anyone has stitched together nothing but 1000+ of the recap scenes at the beginning of each episode into an abridged version of the show, it would likely be over 24 hours long but maybe still more approachable somehow.

Last note, how did Merry survive? I thought for sure that dude died and it was part of the power of that episode but I guess he is alive and maybe that doesn’t take away from the power because the feelings of fear and loss Merry & Kaya were feeling in that episode were still valid even if Merry was ultimately okay. The trauma of the unfortunate events is not invalidated by survivorship.

I really enjoy the slightly subtle fact that the children are more keen to copy Captain Usopp’s actions than they are to listen to his words. They acknowledge that his words are both lies & useful advice, but still choose to just do what they think is the right thing to do because they know their captain would just do what he thought was the right thing to do. This is a great lesson for all of us.

I think there is a lot to be said about Kuro trying to delete his reputation from existence. While other characters are trying to build their reputation, or utilize their reputation to their advantage, or disguise their true reputations temporarily, Kuro is attempting to walk away from his. It is quite fascinating how the show, through multiple episodes, explores the complexity of one’s reputation and how important it is to carefully develop a reputation because of how seriously they stick with a person.

Kuro continues to belittle, insult, & threaten his crew before quickly dispatching them, and mentions how they are pawns, a chess metaphor. Chess lingo has such a romanticized reputation of its own, being somewhat impenetrable to outsiders, but rather simple for people who are familiar with the game to understand. There is sort of a stereotype that chess players are elitist & pretentious, and we also see a lot of ego from Kuro in this episode when he is so enraged by the insults of Luffy, a person he has never even really met before. The idea that anyone would ever insult him as Kuro is outrageous to him, even when he was calmly taking criticism from Usopp as Klahadore only days before. I think it is pretty obvious that Klahadore was a false reputation he was not attached to, but that insult to Kuro, his true reputation, cut something deep inside him, even as he is desperate to rid himself of the Kuro reputation which he has decided does not serve him any longer. These are the deep introspections that I believe many of us, not just villains, must deal with every day.

Last note, we see that Usopp & Zoro are bad navigators when running lost through the woods, struggling to identify directions or follow sounds or tracks, which seems to confirm the usefulness of Nami as a navigator for the Straw Hat Crew. Conversely, Jango does seem surprised by how close behind him Zoro & Usopp are, but that could also be a result of Jango being lost for a while trying to track down the Usopp Pirates.

Alright, well, in the last couple of minutes, more or less all of my previous questions were somewhat addressed, I really do appreciate the detail of detail in this show, which I guess is why people enjoy it so much leading to me watching it today.

Usopp reminds me very much of a Bard from Dungeons & Dragons. Being able to not only lie, but use his wit to entertain Kaya, and what’s more, giving valiant battle speeches that fill his followers with honor & confidence. There are some of the exact mechanical devices the Bard class has in edition 5.5, and I have always appreciated that the Bard is a class most rooted in adding narrative & story value to a campaign while gaining in-game benefits. That is to say, a genuine criticism of D&D is simply that the elements of exploration & narrative do not, strictly speaking, have any codified rules or game mechanisms associated with these pillars of gameplay. In a show in which most of the dialogue is very straightforward and much of the problems are solved with sheer violence, Usopp using language & charisma to handle a situation is a refreshing splash of flavour that, again, really defines this show as engaging & entertaining.

I love that the trio of children goes straight for Klahadore without any fear because they recognize the true source of power & difficulty in this situation & waste no time bothering with anyone but the person in charge. Children have such an insight & wisdom that adults would do better to heed. I also appreciate that Captain Kuro & Jango are so calm and patient as the children & Usopp speak to each other. There is, of course, a certain sense of condescension layered on top of that, but it is still a fun experience as the big bad guy just allows the kids their time to do their little thing.

Last note, I actually kinda missed a lot of this episode cuz I was feeding my daughter a can of raw garbanzo beans. Her name is Speed Racer cuz no matter what, we are on her team.

We finally get the insight into why Klahadore is so dead-set on not only stealing Kaya’s fortune but doing so legally and without suspicion. It is almost sad, to be honest, that he wants nothing more than a quiet happy peaceful life among these island villagers yet believes that the only way to obtain this is to murder a young woman in cold blood. We can only assume that Klahadore has experienced extreme trauma in his youth which inevitably shook & damaged his entire worldview into a place of extreme violence & isolation. It is pretty clear that Klahadore had already gained the trust of the family & and the island and could have genuinely enjoyed a peaceful life without this murderous plot, which I think is true irony that the failure of his plan is what will take away the possibility of which he dreams so much.

We also gain some insight into the politics of the Black Cat pirate crew, which, to be fair, resembles the sort of generic trope we are often served of pirates or other villains or even tribes without ill intent. Similar to the Sith in Star Wars, or the Wakandans in Black Panther, there is an element of ”might is right” for leadership in which the leader can be justly overthrown by being defeated in combat. In Black Panther, the tribes all join in combat to determine the leader of the country. In Star Wars, the Sith lords follow a ”rule of two” in which there is 1 master and 1 student and when the student is powerful enough to kill their master, they do so and become the new master. In One Piece, for this pirate crew at least, like in many other pirate medias, we see that the Meowban brothers are dissatisfied with the leadership of Captain Kuro and challenge him to a battle so that they can become the new captains of their crew. 

It has been 3 years since Captain Kuro was with his crew, and during this time, Jango served as a sort of substitute captain of sorts, but it is clear that he is still subservient to Kuro & that the crew still sees Kuro as their rightful captain. What is noteworthy to me is that, if the crew as a whole felt that Kuro no longer deserved his station as captain, they could have sailed wherever they wanted to and simply not responded to the call to come to this island to help their captain with his plot to murder Kaya. However, these inner politics of the crew demand that they continue to follow Captain Kuro until either he dies or they stage a successful mutiny against him. Even a pirate has certain codes and creeds they follow, and these types of details helps the One Piece world feel more complete and filled in without unexplained background details.

Last note, I find it somewhat humorous that the crew, upon seeing Kaya, wants to just kill here then and there, more or less oblivious to the actual intent & mission their captain has set out to fulfill. All they know is that she is the woman they are supposed to kill, but they cannot keep straight why & how or the big picture at all. It is also clear that Jango is not much of a side-kick, either, as he was supposed to hypnotize Kaya to sign her will before the pirates made her death appear accidental, and they all just sort of blundered the entire operation because of mostly Zoro, one guy. I honestly think Captain Kuro is right to rid himself of this somewhat incompetent crew, he almost certainly would be more successful on his own, but perhaps that is another glimpse into his true desires for connection.

Attachment to belief is always a difficult concept to broach. Cognitive dissonance is a mental discomfort that happens when 2 of our own ideas conflict with one another. We see this happen to Kaya in this episode when Merry tells her that Klahadore attacked him, and Kaya does not believe him at first because of how strong her belief that Klahadore is a good guy is. Especially after pushing Usopp away for saying the same thing, and now seeing Merry covered in blood trying to warn her, she hesitates to accept this new belief that contradicts a previously held one. This is a very important topic for young minds to become familiar with because an inability to overcome cognitive dissonance is synonymous with an inability to grow and develop as a human being.

In his dying moments, we see a new side of Merry than was previously portrayed, full of deep wisdom and compassion. He urges Kaya to stay calm and think through her options with pragmatism, insisting she give her family fortune to Captain Kuro without a fight in order to ensure her own survival. My immediate thought here is how did he not sooner identify Klahadore to be an evildoer before this when he is apparently such an intelligent and well-adjusted character. I suppose that it simply goes to show the depth of Klahadore’s scheme and his great ability to deceive.

Last note, we get another new twist on the concept of reputation in this episode in which the Meowban brothers pretend to be weak & afraid in order to lull their opponents into a false sense of security. By playing the part of scaredy-cats who don’t want to do battle with Zoro, they are able to get the jump on him and gain the upper hand in the battle. A false reputation can be advantageous if properly curated.

Kalhadore mentioned the crescent moon, so I guess that answers that. I really should have guessed he was some sort of cat or had a cat ability or weapon or whatever those sword claws are, based on the name of his crew, and I guess I will continue to watch out for that type of nomenclature. I find it very strange that he is so focused on inheriting Kaya’s fortune in a legal manner versus just killing her and the staff & looting anything of value to set sail on the East Blue sea. As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, where does this wealth & power draw from? Who was Kaya’s father? Is there some sort of deed or noble rite involved that would grant Captain Kuro more than just money by legally inheriting the estate? I imagine we will explore this topic in future episodes.

We do learn that the other staff of the house are not in on Kalhadore’s secret identity & plans. The servant that shot Usopp in the back is not a pirate or villain in any particular manner, just an employee who really hates Usopp & takes his own job very seriously.

I like that Usopp seems to have a firm grasp on the theories of The Art of War, a favorite book of mine. His ideas to use oil & caltrops to ”cheat” on the battlefield are exactly the type of thing Sun Tzu would say about controlling the field & imposing his own will on his enemies. At one point, Usopp makes a joke about hiding during the battle, something Sun Tzu would suggest if the day called for it, and we see the otherwise jolly & lighthearted straw hat crew become irate & furious at even the suggestion. While Luffy is a very fun, silly, & optimistic captain, this scene makes it clear that part of the reason he is so adept in battle is because it is something he in fact takes very seriously.

Something Luffy does not seem to take seriously is navigation skills. He was previously very excited & impressed that Koby could navigate the water so well, and then pretty desperate to get Nami to join his crew as a full-time navigator, because he is self-aware enough to recognize his own lack of navigational ability. He is very easily lost when left to his own devices, Luffy can’t even find North on his own, but this is also why he is so focused on assembling a highly qualified crew of individuals that can each specialize in their own roles, making the entire crew stronger than the sum of their parts.

Last note, I thought this was just a Nami idiosyncrasy, but apparently a ”berry” is a commonly recognized unit of value or currency. This is an interesting fact because they still have gold & treasure in this society, and there is plenty of commerce & business happening, but there has not been any real currency shown or mentioned, in my memory at least. It is not unusual to use a consumable resource with intrinsic value as a form of currency, real world examples include eggs, tulips, bread, & fish, but the One Piece universe’s fascination with berries extends from currency to also the Devil Fruits themselves, and I am left wondering if the impact of the Devil Fruit, either contemporaneously or historically, is why the modern culture puts such a specific value on the more common varietals of the same fruit.