Summary
Caribou finds a group of military dress men who mistaken him for a "Captain Gobble".
Law removes the reminder of the poison from the children.
Momonosuke and Kinemon are reunited.
Nami strikes a deal with Tashigi to take care of the kids and return them to their homes.
The Straw Hats, Law, the children, and the G5 Marines have a party.
Thoughts
Oda loves to end an arc with a party and thus we have the feel good party chapter. Everybody getting together to eat, drink and be merry.
The best part is that when the party panels were showing, I had the happy party music from the anime in my head. I have to say that the anime has trained me well when it comes to these scenes.
It is quite amazing how Luffy and the others are able to party while there is danger on the horizon in the form of Doflamingo. Law is aware of this and he didn't seem up for the party. Though we do see him drinking. I guess this is prove that there is power in having a good time.
It is also nice to see Sanji showing off some of the noncombat skills he learned during the Timeskip. It isn't impressive but nice to know that Oda remembers that the Straw Hats did learn important skills during that time period.
Prepare the Nami x Tashigi fanfic now.
Though, even in the mist of a party, there are some interesting things to take from this chapter. The first thing is Nami's admiration of 'Strong Marine Ladies". It looks as if she felt a connection with Tashigi when it came to the children. Tashigi's determination to protect the children must have reminded her of her own mother's determination to protect her and her sister. It could be due to her own mother that Nami felt like they should protect the children. It would go against everything Nami's mother stood for as a parent if she had turned her back on the children.
Nami is correct concerning the parent's response to pirates rescuing their children. The Straw Hats have had rotten luck in the past when it comes to being consider as heroes. The children may not like being in the hands of Tashigi but as you see later on in the chapter that their perspective of her changes. They are laughing and playing with Tashigi during the party.
The most amazing thing of the chapter was this line though:
"Using? Who's using whom?"
-Law
That line and the follow up panels worked out great! It really gave you the feel that Luffy will be benefiting the most from this alliance. It looks as if Luffy actually put some thought before agreeing to this alliance with Law. We already know that Luffy wants to take down Big Mum and he stated in this chapter that he wants to defeat Shanks as well. If Law takes down Kaidou then that is one less Emperor that Luffy has to face. That only leaves Blackbeard.
Then we got some information concerning Kaidou. The title "King of the Beasts" is an interesting one that makes the speculation concerning him deals with robotics a little less possible. Just by title and the fact that Law wants to take him down makes it looks as if Kaidou is creating an army of S.A.D. Zoan Users. If that is the case then Oda is doing the opposite of tying things together. This is an interesting twist.
Still, it will be interesting to see what we learn about Kaidou in the reminder of this arc and from the current coverstory with Caribou.
For now, the party is on. Hopefully Doflamingo doesn't come along and crash it.
Until next time true believers!
All in all great chapter. Sanji pulling out one of the recipes he learned on Okama island: loved it. Law's reaction when Luffy shouted at everyone to party when his thoughts were on "get the **** out of here": loved it. Finding out that Kaido is the one Law is after while Luffy casually states he's ready to take on all four of them (while holding up three fingers, okay Luffy's dumb sure, but COME ON, he can at least count!): Loved it.
ReplyDeleteBut... I'm sorry, I know you liked this development for Nami Mike, but this whole hammering how Nami feels sooooo responsible for these kids just came off to me as extremely sexist. Like "of course Nami cares about these kids, because she's a WOMAN and it is a WOMAN'S job to look after children, even though both Chopper and Franky have both been established to be bighearted and considerate enough in the past that simply leaving kidnapped children behind would be completely out of their characters as well, but no let's give Nami the torch of making the right decision because...she hasn't had anything to do post time skip yet. Also in the anime, let's make it very clear that it wasn't enough for these kids to simply BEG the straw hats for help, no let's keep them more concerned about themselves, and only after the kids are reduced to tears does Nami final speak out and go 'okay guys, the brats have shown enough raw emotion now, let's throw them a bone and help them out.'" Sorry, but that is kinda how it came off in the anime this last week.
Now, if they have made it more clear from the get go that Nami felt responsible for these children because she herself was orphaned when Belemire took her in, and she was doing it to honor her mother's memory (as well as it just being the right thing to do obviously), than THAT I would have understood and even appreciated, but they did not bring that up until just now. And even now when they brought her up, it was less about what Belemire did for Nami and the impact she made, and more about her being a female Marine, and that's why she trusts Tashigi, STRICKLY for that reason, even though Tashigi has proven to be nothing but clumsy, overly emotional, was unable to protect her subordinates from the gas, and has lost four out of five fights she has taken part in the series. Yeah, I'd DEFFINATLY trust her with a couple dozen defenseless children.
Here's what I would have done. Have Nami leave the children in Smoker's care. First off, not only would that have been waaaay funnier, it could have been a very sweet callback to one of the very first scenes we ever saw Smoker way back in the Logue Town Arc.
ReplyDeleteIf any of you remember, when we first met Smoker, there was a scene where a cute little girl was walking along with an ice cream cone and she accidentally runs into him, spilling her ice cream on his pants. He gets down on a knees and says to her, "I'm sorry. It appears my pants have eaten your ice-cream, here, why don't you go buy yourself two new scoops." And then he gives her a coin and sends her on her merry way. It was really cute, and I liked it. They could have brought back that side of Smoker here and have him be like, "Alright kids, we're going to be taking all back to your parents real soon, and if you're all really good, we'll ask the blonde pirate chef (who may or may not be my new smoking buddy in the foreseeable future)to make you all some ice-cream before we go."
Note to self: Go to Hulu to watch last weekend's anime episode.
DeleteIt may look a bit sexist to make the women more concern about the children then the men. It just that I like that this whole thing with Nami was somewhat explained. Oda is good at tying up loose ends but every so often he leaves a few untied. It would have been better to have shown this when it happen midarc but half the fun in One Piece is having the explanation being done later in the arc.
I would need to reread the early chapters to see how much the kids begged.
I liked what you said and it would have been great if they had done that. Reminding people that Smoker has a softer side is nice.
Sigh...Oda really need to tend to his women better.