Manga: Chapter 620 (SPOILERS)

SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!

You know what goes great with tea? One Piece manga from Viz.

Summary
Gaimon seems to have made friends with a woman named Sarfunkel who is trapped in a barrel. (Cover story)

The Neptunium army begins their raid to reclaim the castle.

Hodi's crew are forcing the people of Merman Island to steps on a fumi-e with the face of Queen Otohime on it. If they don't then they will be exiled off of Merman Island or killed.

Luffy, Nami, Sanji, Chopper, Camie and Den listen to the beginning of Jimbei's story.

Thoughts
In a way I don't want to know how the heck Gaimon got a girl to be on the island with him. On the other hand I can see it happening. That is the worse part. You know the reason is crazy but there is now a new person hanging out with Gaimon. My guess is that she was shipwrecked on the island and met Gaimon. Eventually Sarfunkel had the chance to be rescued but liked Gaimon too much and decided to live on the island with him. Then got trapped herself in a barrel to be like him.  Totally possible!

Now to the chapter....

It looks like both sides of this conflict are beginning to move. We have the Princes and the Neptunium Forces trying to get back into the castle while Hodi's people trying to kick people out of Merman Island.

It is too early to figure out what the Neptunium Forces are planning besides trying to get into the castle via the pipe thing but their little Bubbly Coral is reminding me of the Cloud Dials from Skypeia.  Another thing for that list of similarities between Skypeia and Merman Island for when this arc is over. haha

Hodi's men are as ruthless as ever by making people do what I guess is something as grave as renouncing a person's religion. Queen Otohime must have been a very popular queen if people refuse to step on her face. Still this is clearly hyping up Queen Otohime for what later comes in the chapter with the flashback of the Fisher Tiger Pirates.

Then we have no idea what Hodi is doing which also makes me wonder what happen to Usopp, Brook, Zoro and King Neptune. Hodi most likely has subdued Neptune and Zoro seeing that his men are acting as if they rule the place. Really makes you wish that Luffy would take a strong stance right now and stop being neutral in this situation.

Caribou.....Yeah.....This guy is creepy and I wonder how he plans to run off with a mermaid that is seven times bigger then normal size mermaids.

I want to know why the StrawHats have a giant tea cup.....Who in the crew would need a giant tea cup? Franky? Can't he just drink from a small one? His hands are not that big. The good thing is that they have them so Shira could drink tea. You never know when you need a giant tea cup I suppose.

Shira is pretty big by the way. Her shark is just as big as Sunny while she is towering over both things.  If anything she could ride Sunny like one of those push cars that little kids have. Still I am rooting for Shira as next crew member. haha

That is one big tea cup

The discussion about Jimbei and Arlong suddenly changed the mood of this chapter with the mention of a tidbit from Yosaku. Due to the last few chapters, the passing comment about Jimbei becoming a Warlord has been magnified. People are wondering what does this mean and who did Jimbei became a Warlord. If anything this explains why Sanji had a question mark back when we saw him after Ivankov arrived on Kamabakka Queendom. He must be wondering why Luffy was working with somebody that had once had ties with Arlong but if anything Luffy either forgot and saw that Jimbei was a good person.

Personally I think something happen where Jimbei made a deal with the World Government where he was allowed to become a Warlord and that his final act as captain of the Fishman Pirates was to send Arlong to the East Blue. In exchange the World Government would begin to treat Fishman as equals. It makes kind of sense to me with the whole "In exchange....set a terrible man free into East Blue." comment from Yosaku. This would mean that there is a reason why the World Government wanted Arlong in the East Blue. It wouldn't be the first time they set up some sort of obsolesce to stop pirates as seen with the Seven Warlords and Moria happening to be right before the place where new pirates enter the New World.

Whatever the reasoning, clearly Jimbei regrets Arlong being in East Blue as we saw on the way to Marineford and his face as Sanji mentioning that Nami had to suffer due to Arlong's rule of her island.

This little flashback to Nami's past was scary. I swore I could have heard Arlong's laugh throughout this part of the chapter as Nami recalled all the trouble and trauma she had to go though because of him. I am not sure how much of this flashback was shown for the first time but either way Nami has had a hard life because of this fishman. I know we have seen at least most of these things before such as the death of Bellemere and Arlong's cruelty towards Nami but it was painful to watch.

Apparently Arlong had a softer side during his younger years which only made his hatred for humans even worse judging from what we learned in this chapter. Little Arlong and crew only wanted to go into Sabaody Park to be like all the humans but he never got to. Something must have happen in his younger years to make him hate humans and create his own park of terror, Arlong Park.

Now we enter flashback to explain the hype of Fisher Tiger and Queen Otohime. How much of an awesome guy was Tiger who believed that fishman and humans needed to live separately and Queen Otohime who wanted to two species to live in harmony. Finally we get an explanation of how Jimbei joined the Warlords and maybe more information on Arlong.

Thing to note is that you can see all of Arlong's main crewmates such as Chu, Hatchin and Kuroobi in the beginning of this flashback. It seems like Kuroobi was rocking the fro back in the days of Fisher Tiger.

So another chapter ends and making us want more. I kind of don't want us to go into a flashback but really this is the best way for us to get some answers about what is going on such as how Jimbei became a Warlord, why was Arlong in East Blue, how did Queen Otahime died, what is Decken's involvement, and how did Tiger died. I just hope that this flashback isn't as long as Luffy's flashback from almost thirty chapters ago.

This chapter was pretty heavy with information and it took a while to read. We just wanted to make sure to absorb as much information as we could since the chapter was that epic. Hodi and his men preparing for their raise to power. You have the Neptunium Army ready to fight back. Caribou acting as a monkey wrench. Hiding in the background is Decken who is chasing after Shira. Lastly, Luffy and his crew all in the middle slowly getting more involved in the turmoil that is stirring. For now flashback.

We just have to see where this flashback leads us. Until next time true believers!

All they wanted was to go to the amusement park.