One Piece #69-95

One Piece #69-95

Originally released in 1998

Written by Eiichiro Oda

Art by Eiichiro Oda

Revisiting an arc in a manga went well last week, so I thought I'd do it again. A lot has happened since the defeat of Buggy - Luffy got two new additions to the crew (long-nosed sharpshooter Usopp and chivalrous chef Sanji) and a proper ship, Zoro challenged the world's strongest swordsman "Hawk Eye" Mihawk to a fight only to be badly wounded, and Nami stole the ship and sailed off with a bunch of treasure, leading to the crew splitting up to pursue her. (Usopp and Zoro went immediately; Luffy and Sanji had to fend off a pirate attack at Sanji's former place of employment first)

As Luffy, Sanji, and one of Zoro's bounty-hunting friends (Yosaku) follow Nami, Yosaku is pretty sure she's heading for Arlong.  A notorious pirate who has experience on the Grand Line (a dangerous stretch of water that attracts the most powerful people due to the One Piece treasure being hidden somewhere in there), Arlong has ties to one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, a group which includes Mihawk.

The silhouettes that appear behind Yosaku prove to be wildly inaccurate once the Seven Warlords appear in-store - two of them are roughly twenty two feet tall, and only one of them (Mihawk) uses a sword.  Yosaku's description of Jinbei proves to be equally inaccurate, making him seem like someone who was cruel enough to intentionally let Arlong loose on the East Blue. When Jinbei is introduced hundreds of chapters later (it's a popular saying among the fandom that Oda never forgets; all sorts of briefly-referenced characters return after extended absences), he's much more level-headed, and the only reason why he didn't put a stop to Arlong's actions himself is because Arlong bribed local Marines to keep word from spreading.

Arlong is introduced shortly afterwards, bribing a Marine captain named Nezumi before welcoming Nami back to Arlong Park.  Nami is an officer in his crew, though it's a strained relationship - Nami acts friendly to them, and they need her for her excellent map-making skills, but Arlong's crew is largely bigoted against humans, and Nami secretly despises them for entirely justifiable reasons.

Usopp, Johnny (Yosaku's partner), and Zoro track down the Going Merry, the Straw Hat Pirates' ship, but they're spotted by fishmen. Usopp and Johnny abandon ship, while Zoro (who was tied to the raft because he wanted to fight the fishmen) is captured.  Once ashore, Usopp and Johnny see the aftermath of one of Arlong's rampages.

Usopp is saved by a local woman who reveals herself to be Nami's stepsister.  Meanwhile, Zoro is brought before Arlong, who reveals the truth about Nami and how she's working for him, but cracks start to form in her mask when Arlong brings up her past.

When Arlong heads off to deal with rumours of sedition in a nearby town, Nami frees Zoro before heading off to meet her stepsister, Nojiko, and her father figure, Genzo.  She reveals that she's been saving up a hundred million Berries (the setting's currency) from her thefts in order to buy her village from Arlong, naively believing that he'll keep his end of the bargain. (There's seemingly nothing stopping him from raising the price, though what he actually does is arguably much worse)

We get some good development for Arlong and Luffy's crew.  Notably, Hatchi, an octopus fishman, isn't as bad as the rest of them (he's naive or dumb, though not a bigot), and Sanji is compassionate enough that when a massive sea monster shows up, he concludes that it's hungry (which is true) and is having trouble foraging for food, so he tries to feed it. (Though he kicks it away when it tries to eat him as well as the meal)

The sea monster, Momoo, is Arlong's pet, and getting hit by Luffy and Sanji is enough for it to bring them to Arlong's territory rather than risking further attacks. Usopp is captured by Arlong's pirates, and to avoid having further suspicion being placed on herself (since they found out that the captive that knew Nami was Roronoa Zoro, who made a name for himself as a pirate hunter), Nami appears to stab Usopp before tossing his body into the sea.

Luffy, Sanji, and Yosaku crash-land into the island, bumping into Zoro, and it turns out that Nami stabbed her own hand rather than stabbing Usopp. The Straw Hats have mostly reunited, but to try to get them to leave, Nojiko attempts to tell them about Nami's backstory and why she's working with Arlong. (Luffy and Zoro aren't interested, walking off and falling asleep respectively)

When Nami and a young girl, she and Nojiko lived with their adoptive mother Belle-Mere. They didn't have much money, but they were a happy family.  Unfortunately, this was before Arlong and company arrived.

Upon his arrival in the East Blue, Arlong takes over the island that Nami's village is on, demanding that the inhabitants pay him 100 thousand Berries per adult and 50 thousand per kid each month.  Belle-Mere doesn't have the kind of money to cover herself, Nami, and Nojiko, though thankfully, her house is outside of town, so Arlong's crew missed it.

...except for the fact that Belle-Mere was cooking a special meal for her kids, so the pirates spot the smoke from the chimney. Before she adopted Nami and Nojiko, Belle-Mere was a Marine, so when pirates show up, she can defend herself - she manages to get the drop on Arlong, shoving a rifle into his mouth, but it's not enough.

The strength of the fishmen proves overwhelming, and even with her savings,  Belle-Mere only has a little over 100 thousand Berries.  Arlong's crew doesn't know that Belle-Mere has children, so if Nami and Nojiko flee the island, she'd be safe for a month, at least.  However, Belle-Mere tells Arlong that the 100 thousand Berries is for her kids.

Even when I know exactly what's coming, this flashback was heartbreaking.  There had been a few tragic flashbacks before, and this was shorter than I remembered it being, but Nami's flashback set the bar really high when it came to tragic backstories, surpassing the ones that came before it and serving as a tough act to follow for ones that come later. (Though there are plenty of great flashbacks to come)

Nami doesn't want to tell anyone but Nojiko about her plan to buy back the village, worrying that they'd be killed like how Belle-Mere was, so she's seen as a traitor.  She doesn't care, though - as long as she survives and the village is safe, that's the important thing. As Nojiko's story ends, Luffy makes it to the village where he encounters a shocking sight.

Arlong said that he'd rather slit his own belly than break a promise, so Nami figures he'd honour his word, but if the Marine that Arlong's been bribing "just so happens" to find where Nami's hidden her savings and "coincidentally" chooses to confiscate it all, leaving Nami with nothing, then that's just bad luck and she'll have to start over.

Nezumi, the Marine in question, is a rat-faced scumbag - he gets some come-uppance, but not nearly enough. (He gets to stay a captain, and the Marines seemingly never find out about his actions or punish him for them)

When the realization hits that she'll never be able to earn her village's freedom, Nami breaks down, finally allowing herself to cry for the first time in the eight years since Arlong arrived before stabbing his mark that's tattooed onto her own shoulder. She's stopped by Luffy, who she tearfully asks for help. Considering that Nami's spent the entire series up to this point trying to do everything to save her village on her own and only fully trusting one person, it's a powerful scene.

Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, and Usopp set off for Arlong Park. After confirming which one of the fishmen is Arlong, Luffy punches him in the face hard enough to send him flying, in what is still probably one of the top five most satisfying punches in this series. After seeing characters get away with acts of cruelty, either in flashbacks or the present day, Oda is generally great with having those people subjected to cathartic beatdowns, either at Luffy's hands or the hands of those that they wronged.

From this point on, the arc follows a common formula in shonen action manga arcs - Luffy and his friends get into a series of one-on-one brawls with Arlong and his top enforcers.  The rest of Arlong's crew, along with Momoo, tries to interfere, but Luffy takes them out of the action, though doing leaves him open to being thrown into the water.  As a Devil Fruit user, he sinks like a stone, though even if that wasn't the case, he'd sink anyway because he smashed his feet into the stone floor of Arlong's lair when he attacked, and they got stuck. (Luffy isn't the brightest sometimes - 99% of the time, really, but he's usually smarter than this when it comes to fighting)

Zoro faces off against Hatchi, who proves to be a powerful swordsman who uses a sword in each of his six arms, while Sanji takes on Kuroobi, who had been the most suspicious of Nami.  The highlight, however, was Usopp's fight with Chuu.  Usopp is cowardly, a liar, and lacks the monstrous strength of people like Luffy, Zoro, or Sanji, while fishmen are ten times stronger than a human on average.

There's a point where Usopp could have faked his death and gotten away, but as he's rubbing dirt over himself to make it look like he's heavily wounded, he reflects on how the Straw Hats, the villagers, and even Johnny and Yosaku are willing to put their lives on the line and he feels disgusted with himself.  Even though he's outmatched and just saw Arlong throw a house like it was a toy, Usopp still stands up to one of the Arlong Pirates and wins.  By this point, we've come to expect that Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji are reliably strong, but it's a great character moment for Usopp to stand up with them and put his life on the line when he has little more than a slingshot, a hammer, and his wits.

Once he's freed from the water, Luffy rockets back into the battle, with him being the only thing that stands between Arlong and his domination over the East Blue. (the Marines in the East Blue don't stand a chance against Arlong, and the Marines in the Grand Line are too busy with the problems there to get involved) Arlong certainly talks a big game, ranting about the superiority of fishmen compared to humans, but Luffy remains unimpressed by Arlong being able to bite through stone, since there are a lot of ways to break rocks.

During the fight, Luffy admits that he can't use a sword, or navigate, or lie, or cook - without help from a lot of people, there's not much that he can do.  Arlong laughs at a captain admitting his own weakness, and wonders why his crew bothers putting up with such a burden.  Luffy has one simple response to that:

Throughout the fight, Luffy continues to act silly (when he sees that Arlong can pull out sets of teeth to use as melee weapons and regrow his teeth instantly, Luffy grabs one of the discarded sets to use as pointy dentures), but upon seeing the cartography room where Nami had been forced to make maps and hearing Arlong brag about how he was using Nami infuriates the rubber man. Stretching his leg high into the air, he brings it crashing down on Arlong, smashing him through several floors and causing the entire building to collapse on top of him.

With Arlong defeated, the people of the island are finally free after eight long years. (Nezumi shows up to try and take credit for the whole thing, but he's swiftly beaten up and kicked off the island), and there's a patch-up for the injured and a big celebration.

Nami had travelled with the Straw Hat Pirates before, but she kept her distance, insisting that she hates pirates and was only traveling with them to get money.  With the source of her trauma dealt with, she fully joins the crew as their navigator, leaving her hometown (and stealing whatever wallets that she can as she leaves - she left the roughly 100 thousand Berries that she had been saving behind to help rebuild, but she's still going to be a thief) to sail with the crew and fulfill her dream of mapping out the whole world.

This was an amazing arc, start to finish.  I zoomed through the chapters much faster than I expected, and the arc still holds up extremely well on a re-read.  If anything, details added later on in the story (such as the types of humans who inspired Arlong to act the way he does, the way of life on Fishman Island, and seeing characters like Jinbei who were only hinted at here) make this arc even better, as we can see Oda planting the seeds with the apparent plan to revisit those plot points later. (Even if he likely didn't intend for it to be as late as it wound up being - One Piece has been going on for twenty seven years and counting, and it still has several story arcs left in it) This is where One Piece is generally considered to hit its stride, and it only gets better from here.