Category: East Blue

This episode opens with another great look into the hubris of the Marines. Captain Morgan quickly identifies the source of Luffy’s power, a devil fruit, and is almost in awe of the strength that such a thing is capable of delivering, seemingly jealously coveting to eat a devil fruit himself, and yet he still rushes headstrong to attack Luffy with supreme confidence that he can defeat a superior rival with his team of Marines. Luffy obviously kills him.

At first, the Marines actually seem embarrassed watching their leader be smacked around, but as the dust settles, they in fact celebrate his defeat, as they are not loyal ideological Marines but actually just local conscripts who have been following orders out of fear of violence or retribution against themselves and their friends and families on the island. Even still, they are real Marines and continue to insist that Luffy and his crew leave as soon as possible, although they grant him some leeway as thanks for getting rid of Captain Morgan. This type of awkward and complicated relationship is truly a deep look into real-world political negotiations and dynamics.

We get a much better look at the person Zoro is in this episode. He has his own high-sighted goal, to be the greatest swordsman in the world, and it is clear that Luffy recognizes this passion and ambition with great respect and is even more excited to add such a passionate member to his crew. There is a very wonderful mutual trust & understanding as both of them want to be the best in the world at something, and they know they have a better chance with each other helping them. What is interesting to me is that Zoro is sort of set up as a pirate hunter, but that actually has very little to do with his true character, and seems to just be his method of learning to be a better swordsman: defeating feared pirates.

Another fantastic parallel between Zoro & Luffy is how ridiculous Zoro’s 3-sword fighting technique looks at first glance, much like how weak & silly Luffy seems at first glance, but both are obviously very effective in battle.

We say goodbye-for-now to Koby in this episode, but, ultimately, his passion to follow his dream also mimics the other 2 characters. Although it seems a tad absurd that a small weak inexperienced individual who spent years serving pirates could rise up and be a mighty Marine, he is still exceptionally committed to trying his best to prove how capable he is. He also repeatedly demonstrates his compassion for others, particularly his friends, which seems to contradict the Marine culture we have seen thus far. Even more interesting is that having seen the corruption and toxicity of the Marines with his own 2 eyes at this point, he still not only wishes to join their ranks but also truly believes that the Marines are a noble & altruistic organization and that Captain Morgan is just a minor exception. I think the final interaction between Luffy & Koby before Luffy & Zoro depart is a fantastic look at the type of people both of them are, with Luffy being able to set aside his own philosophy to help his friend achieve a goal that Luffy thinks is weird & bad, and Koby being willing to do anything to join the Marines, including being assaulted & humiliated by someone he considers a friend.

Final thought, we get some very minor exposition about the Grand Line throughout this episode. Luffy discusses it with the mom who runs the island cafe, but this feels more like folklore than facts, just some things both of them have heard, or are considered sort of common knowledge, but as everyone who has tried to go there has died, I think there is not a realistic way that the average person would have any deep insight into the real truth of the location. However, at the end of the episode, the mysterious eponymous girl who we still haven’t really met is trying to steal a map to the Grand Line from the Marines, finding that some pirates beat her to it, and this seems much more revealing about what it may take to achieve Luffy’s goal: uncommon knowledge and rare information.

A shocking reveal at the start of this episode is that Luffy apparently has zero sailing skills and is fully relying on Koby to navigate their ship. This goes back to Luffy’s undying optimism in the face of difficulty, he wants to be a mighty pirate but has virtually no experience even being on a boat, it seems. The second theme that is quickly confronted is that Koby believes that any person who the Marines would put in prison is obviously an evil person, whereas Luffy just kind of ignores this sentiment towards the person he intends to add to his crew. This mirror between the 2 current protagonists is made even clearer when Koby states the infamous Star Wars line “I’ve got a bad feeling about this” in direct contradiction to Luffy’s optimism.

Upon meeting Zoro, he also seems to mirror Luffy but in a much different way. While they are both very tough characters with a strong sense of morality & virtue, Zoro tries to act rough & mean & independent while, as we know, Luffy is more fun & friendly & open to teamwork. Zoro hides his hunger until the Marines & little girl leave, he doesn’t want to be thanked or appreciated for saving anyone, and often thinks about a childhood event (that we hopefully will get more information about in future episodes) while stating he has no regrets in life even though he is currently tied to a post in a prison yard facing almost certain death.

I think what really makes this a powerful episode is that we are given a deeper look into the Marines culture & such, demonstrating that they are certainly the true evil characters in this tale, sowing chaos with no concern for the people they are meant to be protecting. People think that Captain Morgan’s son is a little nepo baby but his father doesn’t actually listen to him. However, because the Marines are regularly enacting violence against the locals, the locals assume that the son does have the influence to bring about more violence. This chaos is advantageous for the Marines to keep up the illusion that they are unstoppable, but then their own hubris causes them to leave their fortress more or less unguarded while Luffy waltzes in to try to rescue Zoro & his swords.

Koby continues to have an attitude that the Marines are moral & righteous & just, even as he sees the way they act and treat people. Propaganda is very strong and effective, and part of the Marine culture we see is Captain Morgan repeatedly calling any crime, any disobedience, any failure, etc all to be traitorous treason. By consistently referring to any who oppose him as treasonous traitors, it contributes to convincing people less familiar with the situation that his violent tendencies are necessary to maintain order and preserve the status quo. I think we see a lot of the same attitude from the current American federal government administration.

My last note is just noticing the young woman who makes a brief appearance in this episode and also had a brief appearance in the last episode. I have no idea who she is and hope I didn’t miss some exposition about her, but I am excited to see how she fits into the story in the future.

Welcome to the first entry in my One Piece Blog. I have been interested in this show for a while, and I have occasionally watched a few episodes at random just to understand the vibe better, but really have very little overall knowledge about the show besides what I have seen in some TikToks. I also own some of the TCG cards but have never actually played. This blog will be written and produced by me & sometimes by my wife, and maybe our children in a few years. The goal is 1 episode per day.

Due to recent current events, such as multiple international revolutions & protests, we have hung a Straw Hat Jolly Roger on our front porch to show solidarity with freedom fighters around the globe. This symbol has become a recognizable and powerful symbol of hope beyond the anime, which is very inspiring, and a recent poll found that One Piece has had a deeper influence on young people’s personal politics than most other shows.

So let’s get into it: at the beginning of the first episode, we are given a narrative that the pirates are the “bad guys” raiding a party boat or cruiseliner of some sort. The captain of these pirates is shown as mean and ugly and their crew is just as rude and brutish. This sort of contradicts the understanding that I previously held of the pirates actually being heroes of the resistance opposing a tyrannical government, but I guess that changes as the plot progresses. Something that was striking to me was that the first spoken line of the entire series is the captain of this ship demonstrating hubris that his boat is much too mighty to be attacked by pirates, yet the crew immediately acts terrified as soon as they see the first pirate flag on a boat much smaller than their own.

What’s really surprising to me is how absolutely happy & positive Monkey D. Luffy is right from the get-go. Idk why I was expecting some sort of character development there, or that he would eat the devil fruit later in the series or something, but his entire vibe is such a refreshing experience. He is also so trusting of Koby, and supportive of his dream to be a Marine, even though Luffy is a fugitive from the Marines. However, it still made me laugh how direct and rude Luffy was to Koby, just being brutally honest about him being a coward while still trying to befriend him. 

Ultimately, I think the most politically relevant aspect of this first episode is that Luffy is intentionally seeking a very diverse crew for his future pirate ship. I suppose he did have his own boat by the end of the episode, so maybe that will serve as his initial vessel, but in any event, he at no point asks any of the traditional pirates on the other ship to join him, even after defeating their captain, because he is not looking for a traditional crew. He takes Koby with him, presumably because he recognizes the morality and integrity that he holds, or maybe he thinks he will be an obedient crew member or something, yet he sets his sights on recruiting Zoro, a bounty hunter who chases pirates to stop them, simply because he sounds like a valuable ally. 

Without having ever met him, or heard about him before this day, Luffy is again so trusting that this character would be an asset to his crew. Luffy has his sights set on becoming “king of the pirates” and finding the most valuable treasure and I think what will set him apart is assembling a crew of unique individuals who each offer valuable skills or traits to the team. Luffy is able to recognize that simply hiring basic mercenaries or regular pirates is not a suitable route to his goal, and is willing to put in the difficult work to create a harmonic and balanced crew before even attempting to navigate the Grand Line. While this certainly shows insight & perspective, I think the biggest takeaway from this first episode is, again, his commitment to diversity by trying to recruit a pirate hunter, someone with certain skills that no other pirate crew has likely ever had, because it takes a variety of types of people to do interesting & difficult things.

After this first episode, I am really excited to see how things progress. This show has been produced across 4 different decades (so far) and I think part of the magic will be the evolving art styles and content direction as the creators grow and evolve as artists and humans. I just checked the wiki and I am amazed that the very first episode originally aired on my own 10th birthday. I am literally crying as I type these words because this feels like such a serendipitous beginning of a wonderful adventure through this tale.