Sometimes I wonder if this show could make their moral & philosophical points without all the violence, but the world isn’t always a safe & wholesome place, and what makes these ethical hero friends so inspiring is exactly that they are able to stay positive in the face of adversity and danger. When Usopp has his enlightening revelation, thinking “when you live your life on the edge, you savor every moment; that’s why they laugh so much,” it serves as a lesson for the audience as much as Usopp. The real world is full of struggle & suffering and it is our job to rise to the occasion to not only be successful, but to be happy while succeeding and to enjoy our moments being alive, even if they are difficult & scary. Freedom & liberation requires us to fight for it and it is worth the fight.
We get a similar lesson from Sanji when he is underwater and thinks to himself “if I want to save Nami, first I have to save myself.” He is stating this in a purely physical sense of protecting his own safety from the fish person before he can continue on and protect Nami, but it also applies in a socio-emotional sense of having to find our own liberation & freedom before we can adequately help others to find theirs. Setting the example of being confident & joyous during tumultuous events demonstrates to others that they, too, can maintain a positive attitude while confronting their own problems in life. There are many elements of “self-care” that express differently for different people, but finding the activities that bring us a sense of peace & serenity & optimism provide us with the proper mental state to continue helping other people. If we run ourselves too ragged, spread ourselves too thin, even if we are trying to do good, we will burn out and be unable to keep serving our communities. This symbiotic relationship counters the fish person’s claim that “your love is worthless” by showing that our ability to care for others encourages our own self-care so that we can continue to care for others and ourselves.
Last note, as much as it is a bit of a silly anime trope, I believe there is true value in the nature of characters shouting the names of their attacks during combat. Zoro often yells different attack names while brandishing his swords, not the least of which is just “three sword style,” and we also see Sanji naming the body parts he is kicking as he performs the martial art. Both of them are confident & powerful in combat, but we also see Usopp calling out his attack names with much less bravery. In the end, when he is just shouting “Usopp Hammer” repeatedly, it seems much more for his own mental & emotional benefit than to inspire fear in his opponent. The repeated phrase gives him comfort and serves as a verbal expression of his anger & desperation. The evil cat pirate butler guy also shouted his “out of the back attack” ability in a previous episode which seemed to be part of his concentration or process to enact the attack, a familiar phrase to set his body & mind into motion.