The Fisman Island Arc continues to chug along with an extended flashback in order to set up a lot of the characters and conflict that have already been of central focus so far and completely failed to gain my interest… In fairness, the flashback does hit heavy with the theme of illogical racism that is the core focus of the Fishmen, but once we get back to the present day I still can’t say I particularly care about any of them… Which makes me sound like a Fishman racist (whatever that means in real life) but I’m just talking about the lead villains and the stuff… Anyway, Let’s take a look!
Luffy, Princess Shirahoshi, Sanji and Chopper soon reunite with Jimbei, who was actually waiting for Luffy after his promise in the previous arc, and there he begins explaining his role in sending Arlong out into the wider world, much to soon arriving Nami’s horror, plus Shirahoshi visits her mother’s gravesite for the first time. Jimbei’s revelation leads into a full on multi-episode flashback story from when Jimbei was a member of the infamous pirate group known as the Sun Pirates, under local legend Fisher Triger. A lot of the flashback is focused on King Neptune’s wife Otohime, who is extremely forgiving and kind and wishes for Fishmen and humans to coexist so they can move their Kingdom to the surface. Fisher Tiger on the other hand “heads off to the surface world for adventure” while Jimbei was serving with the Royal Army, but when Tiger returns he shows signs that his time with the humans wasn’t very fun to put it bluntly, and he soon heads to Mariejois and attacks the holy land and frees a bunch of his people from slavery, as well as others. Upon returning he is branded a hero but to the human world he is branded a dangerous criminal so to save his people he heads back to the surface to act as a pirate to make sure his actions are deemed his own rather than officially sanctioned by the Fishmen. Jimbei and Arlong are among those who join the Sun Pirates as they spend several years travelling the seas.
Fisher Tiger and his super-intimidating T-Shirt… You can see why he was such a revolutionary leader!
Arlong however turns out to be an issue as he believes they should go around killing humans while Fisher Tiger forbids it, saying it would make them the monsters they think they are. Eventually the group takes in a young human girl called Koala as she was used as a slave just as they often are but Arlong wasn’t a fan of keeping a “human pet”. When they arrive at Koala’s home island some local marines attack and fatally wound Fisher, though he would survive if he was given a blood transfusion Tiger cries that he didn’t go on an adventure he was a slave and his experience was so bad he can’t be the better man and accept human help so instead chooses to die. He begs his crew not to carry on the hatred to the next generation and keep the details of his death quiet so there might be hope of peace, but of course Arlong will have nothing of it and heads back to the island but he and the rest of the Sun Pirates barely escape when future Admiral Borsalino appears. Arlong is captured and Jimbei accepts the position of Warlord with the caveat that Arlong get released, though the two fight each other Jimbei easily beats him (I mean he did lose to very-early-days Luffy, so…) but doesn’t kill him, leaving him free to go on to haunt the seas of East Blue. Back on Fishman Island a young Hody registers his hatred for Jimbei for becoming a “dog of the human government” while Otohime is hopefully this will lead to more talks between humans and Fishmen.
Jimbei smacks Arlong around, which is always fun to see.
Eventually a Celestial Dragon arrives by accident and while the entire population want to either kill him or force him to become a slave like his people done with them Otohime spares his life, gets held as a hostage by him anyway, and then saved when Princess Shirahoshi reveals she has a hidden power that can summon massive Sea King creatures (which gives Vander Decken the idea to make her his future wife so he can control that rare power) and soon Otohime heads to Mariejois for peace talks. Turns out it goes well and all she has to do is get the majority of her people to sign a petition and all her dreams will come true… so of course all the signatures are burned and she’s shot by a “mysterious assassin” and dies surrounded by her three sons, who promise to look after Shirahoshi and not hate the assassin. Hody soon appears and reveals the body of a human who he says performed the assassination (but you know… come on now, I wasn’t born yesterday!) and thanks to Decken’s first decree of love an overprotective and grieving King Neptune refuses to have her appear at her own mother’s funeral. It’s all a very effective flashback honestly, seeing the three brothers act silly to try and stop Shirahoshi from crying despite just having witnessed the death of their mother was quite heart-breaking, really. Doesn’t really make up for them acting like knobs in the present day, mind you…
Speaking of the present day, we return to now and Nami forgives Jimbei and states she doesn’t hate Fishmen, just Arlong. This leads nicely to Hody appearing with an announcement that any Fishman caught talking with or helping humans will be exiled or killed and that he will execute the King in three hours’ time along with anyone who signed the petition back in the day, and he’ll kill Luffy for good measure after hearing what he did to Arlong, whom Hody respected. Luffy prepares to head there immediately when he reveals Zoro, Usopp and Brook are held captive, but Jimbei doesn’t want him to, saying this is a Fishman issue and a human can’t be seen to be the one who stops it. This actually leads to the two coming to blows…
Overall Thoughts:
Otohime giving a speech to the frankly weird looking residents of Fishman Island… especially the ones in the back with no face, curse them!
The flashback was a mixed bag, the tale of Fisher Tiger was a well written tragedy and a good look at racism and not passing on illogical hatred to the next generation, but the whole Otohime side of the plot was a little too heavy on the “isn’t this person really nice?” scenes. Returning to the present does a good job of setting up the final showdown of the arc, but once again I still find myself not particularly caring about any of the villains, or really any of the Royal Family either…
As Luffy and Jimbei continue to argue Zoro, Usopp and Brook are set to be drowned by Hody as his waits for everyone else to arrive at the palace. Brook reveals that part of his two year training was realising he can use his Devil Fruit power to free his soul from his body and act as a ghost, allowing him to scare Papagu into helping them escape. Also at this time Hody is taking more and more steroids to cover for the pain from Zoro’s sword wound, and it eventually gives him greater strength (and white hair) much to his delight, but King Neptune warns him that it’s a sign that his body will soon reach a point of no return. This all leads to Hody giving out steroids to his crew, allowing them to defeat the three Princes at the large plaza where they announced their intention execute Neptune, and just as planned Shirahoshi soon arrives alongside Jmibei, leading to her capture (and Jimbei as well, for her sake)
While this is all going on Vander Decken has gone completely insane after being directly rejected by his apparent love and decides to use his power to send the ancient ship known as Noah to smash the entirety of Fishman Island to bits in order to make sure she’s dead (it’s a rather immense ship to be fair, and one with a legend attached to it relating to an old pirate known as “Joy Boy” which is another one of those things that has yet to be expanded upon but it’s very clear it will be, even more so due to recent events connected to Luffy’s power…) It’s at this point Shirahoshi reveals the “shocking truth” that Hody had killed Queen Otohime and framed the human to reignite the Fishmen hatred of humans, which again, clearly figured that out already! Hody retaliated by showing he and his men have the letter from the Celestial Dragons allowing the Fishmen their rights and plan to burn it, but its here where the freed Zoro, Usopp and Brook arrive just as Luffy is spat out of the giant shark Shirahoshi rode in on (god I love explaining One Piece sometimes…) and Nami, Robin, Sanji and Franky arrive as well, reuniting the Straw Hats in front of the whole Fishman Island people.
The Straws Hats reunited! … Get ready for a lot of that in up-coming arcs…
Nami grabs the Celestial Dragon letter, Robin releases the Royal Family (who then flee) and Luffy asks the people whether they consider them to be friends or foes as they square off with Hody’s pirates…
Hogan Reviews 