573-574: "Finally Time To Go! Goodbye, Fish-Man...

573-574: “Finally Time to Go! Goodbye, Fish-Man Island!” and “To the New World! Heading for the Ultimate Sea!”

One Piece fans watching episode 574.

According to CR, I have officially reached the end of the Fishman Island arc! Cue party hats and confetti. ^_^

Goodbye, Fishman Island!

Episode 573 opened in Madame Sharley’s Mermaid Cafe. Now Hordy is yesterday’s news, the cafe is open for business, ready to take advantage of the imminent tourist influx!

Camie dropped in to say hi and to ask if the girls could have the day off to say goodbye to the Strawhats. Sharley’s crystal ball lay on the floor, shattered. Camie was shocked (and so was I). What happened? Sharley broke it herself. She no longer needed it. The vision of Luffy surrounded by fire haunted her. If she never saw that vision again, she would be happy.

In an otherwise happy couple of episodes, it seems Oda has thrown in some foreshadowing here. It’s stressed so many times throughout this arc that Madame Sharley’s visions are accurate. Camie pressed this point again. Sharley’s vision may not happen tomorrow, or any time soon, but there was no reason to believe it was false.

I guess the Strawhats had been so kind and had risked themselves to save Fishman Island that Sharley couldn’t face the truth of her vision. I still can’t see Luffy being the cause of Fishman Island’s destruction (at least not by design. Maybe due to a third party or by accident) but I am now certain there will be another huge, Marineford-scale conflict in the future of this story.

Maybe the Marines will target Fishman Island, as one of Luffy’s territories. Maybe Blackbeard will burn Fishman Island to get back to Luffy. Maybe the Revolutionary Army will have a new commander. Who knows? I just thought that scene was ominous and super, super intriguing.

Pinky Promise!

It is official! Fishman Island now loves not only humans, but raccoons, robots and skeletons. Truly, it has taken giant steps towards becoming a cosmopolitan, egalitarian destination for all.

Shirahoshi crying ugly tears as her newfound friends were about to sail off to the New World was endearing. I really like Shirahoshi. She’s a sweet, determined, brave girl, who I have no doubt will mature into someone strong and capable enough to bear the burden of being an ancient weapon of legend. All thanks to a certain rubbery pirate captain who took her out for a stroll. :)

The pinky promise moment was weirdly touching, when she asked Luffy to take her out for another stroll some day. “Do you want to visit your mother’s grave again?” Luffy asked. “No, I want to go somewhere further next time. A real forest above ground.” (It really shows how much the Strawhats have affected Shirahoshi’s life for the better. She is no longer a prisoner in her own home.)

Luffy offered to take her to a real forest one day. Nami and Brook cautioned him. “A promise is something you have to keep,” Brook said (and I immediately thought of Laboon - not knowing what was to come). But this was no bother for Luffy, or any of the Strawhats. If that was Luffy’s decision, they would help him honour his promise to Shirahoshi. They all added their pinkies to the promise. ;_;

It reminded me of Vivi, in a way, right back in the Alabasta arc. Vivi was obviously tougher, more worldly wise than Shirahoshi, but the Strawhats helped save her country too. It’s good to know there are nobles out there who won’t run nations into the ground (and who might stand up against the Celestial Dragons in future!)

Neptune and his Minister worrying about the explosive Tamate Box was hilarious. They were about to tell the Strawhats, honestly! It’s just Usopp and Chopper were still bummed at the news a Yonko wanted to kill them (understandable). It was unfortunate but telling them just wouldn’t have been good timing. xD

The Minster also handed Nami a cool new Log Pose: one specially adapted to the freaky magnetic terrain of the New World. Apparently, you need a triple needle pose because islands there alter their magnetic waves so frequently - some disappearing altogether. The more erratic a needle’s movement, the more dangerous the island. The triple needle pose allows a crew to choose the lesser of three evils.

Of course, Luffy took one look with his stretchy, yokai neck (that was golden) and immediately chose the most dangerous place. Why? Because, “That’s where the party is!”

Oh, Luffy. It’s good to see the past two years have not dented your gung-ho enthusiasm for flinging yourself head first into terrifying situations. xD

The scenes when Luffy and Jimbei smiled and nodded to each other - one strong pirate to another - across the crowded dock made me hopeful for the future of the story. I have no idea how Oda is going to work this (Jimbei is an experienced captain himself and I’m not sure how his introduction would affect the dynamic of the core Strawhats. If Jimbei can take Luffy’s lead and convincingly slide out of the leadership role, that would be effective. Another way of getting round it would be to retain Jimbei as captain of the Sun Pirates and have him act as a “squad commander”, like Ace and Marco did for Whitebeard.

The scene with the random kid asking his dad for a straw hat so he could pretend to be the hero was awesome. At first, the dad said, “Hell no, they only sell those above ground and nasty humans live there. But he choked on his words, realising what he’d just said. “Well, um, of course there are good and strong humans like Strawhat too.”

And Jimbei offered to convince a merchant to import a bunch of hats.

He really is the best Uncle Jimbei there ever was. :)

Fishman Island Verdict

Once the Strawhats pulled away from the harbour in 573, it felt like the arc had truly ended, despite what CR was telling me, so I thought this would be a good place to jot down a couple of thoughts of my final impressions.

Overall, I liked the arc. It was different from what I imagined it might be. I know you guys mentioned some OP fans expected an arc on the scale and scope of Water 7, considering how long it had been teased. Weirdly, I always imagined the Strawhats just visiting Fishman Island in passing, having a cool time, before hard plot kicked in. So what I did get was more than I expected.

I didn’t mind that it was a post-timeskip showcase for the Strawhats’ training. Oda must have been conscious of this, as he had Zoro say at one point, “Yeah, this is just a warm up before the New World.” Plus, I’m the sort of optimistic kind of human who likes to see people do well (so I felt oddly proud of them all. Is that weird?) That said, I get why people would be against this. If an arc is just a laugh and a warm up, it kills any sense of threat. I’m not sure where I am on this one because some light relief was needed after the hell hole of Marineford. But this was not a light relief kind of arc.

Yeah. Conflicted there.

Also the Big V was problematic: The Villain. (Not problematic in a Tumblr sense, before you all run a mile.) I like villains. The big ones drive forward the plot and the charismatic ones wring reactions from you. Hordy was different. As you guys remarked, he’s not a shallow villain, he is an empty, shallow person. He was a cipher for the themes Oda wanted to address and was nothing more than that. Then again, would you want to glorify a person like Hordy with a charismatic, vindictive, OTT personality like Spandam’s? The issues he represented were real and ugly and his personality matched them.

The one thing I cannot spin is Hordy’s Plot Induced Stupidity. As some of you pointed out, this was a guy who orchestrated a military coup over ten years, kidnapped an army of slaves, planned and executed a political assassination and had the intelligence to lurk in the shadows and play the long game. Then, as soon as the Strawhats show up, the chessmaster status recedes and he becomes a Fish Roid Enraged Dumbass.

I mean, everything can be explained away. The Roids affected Hordy’s ability to make rational decisions. The Strawhats were the first strong enemies Hordy ever faced. Jimbei came home too. Bad timing. Still, it was one thing I didn’t like. I thought he’d be cleverer for longer.

Themes definitely saved this arc. Oda handled them well. I remember fearing Oda might pull the “outsider comes and saves the day for the stricken, marginalised culture” trop. But he didn’t. Kudos to him for that. Fishmen and Merpeople were involved in saving themselves. Shirahoshi stopped Noah from falling. Fukaboshi played a huge part in letting Luffy kick ass. Jimbei was his usual excellent self.

He also made the Fishmen’s distrust justified. Humans earned their hatred. Those flashbacks were 10/10 would watch again. Same as the Noland/Calgara flashbacks of Skypiea. Oda does sweeping, national tragedy through the lens of personal tragedy very well. Fisher Tiger’s death was a cruel injustice. Koala, the little slave girl, was… yeah, that was hard to watch. And Otohime… what a waste of a beautiful soul. Great stuff. Powerful too.

Not sure where I’d place it on a list. It’s on a par with Skypiea (which had a villain I didn’t like much but excellent flashbacks). YMMV, though. Feel free to go at it in the comments, now the arc is over!

Cannot Handle Those Whales

Loved all the light-hearted deep sea scenes here. Luffy and Usopp with their escalating Russian doll fishing car-crash. Nami and Chopper discussing personal hygiene (Chopper didn’t need to use Shower Tempo because he’d brushed himself two days ago.) Nami frying Sanji and Brook to a crisp. xD

They almost met a sticky end due to a rogue deep-sea whirlpool. But before Sunny was dashed into a million splintered pieces, guess who saved them?

A HUGE EYEBALL!

No. Not really. It was even better than that.

IT WAS LABOON’S POD.

You have no idea how excited I was about this. I still have an odd, protective instinct when it comes to that whale. At first, I honestly thought it was Laboon when I saw those scars. I flailed and hollered just like Brook! But Zoro dashed my hopes. The scars on their faces were similar to Laboon’s (I wonder if they had been trying to break the Red Line to rescue Laboon?)

Brook crying out to the whales was one of the most wholesome things I have ever seen.

“Are any of you related to Laboon? Anyone looking for a calf who got lost fifty years ago? Don’t worry. He’s doing okay on the other side of the world. According to Luffy-san, he’s very big now! So please don’t worry.”

To top it all off, he sang Binks’ Sake for the whales… AND THEY UNDERSTOOD HIM AND SMILED.

Excuse me while I dab at my eyes with a tissue.

Whales are clearly a thing. Cannot handle a sad whale at all. [Mental note: never watch wildlife documentaries.]

At any rate, thanks to Laboon’s family, the Strawhats popped up into the New World like a wine cork. That sweeping, romantic violin OST kicked in behind the flashbacks of everything the Strawhats have been through for the past two years. It was a wonderful way to end an arc.

Goodbye, Fishman Island! It’s been real! :)

NEXT UP, PUNK HAZARD!

Gomu Gomu no Rokurokubi!