One Piece Multi-Piece #2: The Grand Line, Baroque Works, & Alabasta

Article by Wilkinson D. Sean,

a.k.a. Master of Tickets,

a.k.a. Meister of Anime

Since writing the first six issues of the One Piece Multi-Piece a little over a month ago, I made it a few episodes into the Marineford arc of the anime and decided to take a break for some variety (and because a new season of Natsume's Book Of Friends got dubbed recently).

There's a lot of content to cover here, so let's just set sail for this issue by remembering to Become A Ticketholder if you haven't already, commenting at the bottom of this post, helping out my ad revenue as you read, and joining my Crew on Tumblr, Reddit, Facebook, and LinkedIn to like what you see and receive the latest snail transmissions of news on my content.

While it may be new territory in terms of both storytelling and weird locations, the Grand Line portion of One Piece's story also shows that, for the most part, the Straw Hat Crew are going to be stuck in a pattern that began in Usopp's recruitment arc, became more apparent in Arlong Park, and continued into Loguetown.

But thankfully, series mangaka Eiichiro Oda knows how to break up the monotony, as before things fall into a rhythm of "same shit, different island," our heroes enter the Grand Line by way of a gravity-defying mountain current and nearly collide with a large whale ("large" being a massilossamongous understatement of its actual size) that eats the Going Merry because Luffy is simple and selfish and likes punching stuff. So, things get super-surreal inside the whale when our favorite crew meet Crocus, a Jonah/Gepetto-type character (because old man eaten by whale) who lives on an island inside it, and has been cybernetically reinforcing the whale and painting its insides to look like a tribute to The Truman Show set over the years. Crocus reveals that its name is Laboon, and that fifty years ago, it made friends with a crew of pirates who promised to return in three years after sailing the Grand Line, but never did (for reasons that will be painfully coincidental in a distant arc that I will share my hatred for in a future entry), leading to Laboon bashing its head against the Red Line out of grief and frustration that it cannot reach its friends. So because Laboon likes concussions and Luffy likes punching stuff, he paints a Straw Hat Roger on Laboon's forehead and promises to fight it again when he becomes King Of the Pirates.

There's also some cool new technology introduced with the Poses. A Log Pose is a compass-like device that stores the magnetic energy of the nearest island over a period of time to make navigation in the Grand Line's insane ecosystem possible. Eternal Poses are similar but more powerful, as they point to a specific destination regardless of location.

With a Log Pose in hand and Mr. Nine and Ms. Wednesday in custody (they were trying to kill Laboon for some reason I forgot, but they will be important later), the Straw Hat Crew set sail for Whiskey Peak, where an ambush by the criminal organization Baroque Works awaits them. Following a satisfying sequence where Zoro solos most of the Baroque Works grunts--and a fight between Zoro and Luffy because he slept through the plot twist and he's an idiot--it is revealed that Mr. Nine (who has the most Second Amendment powdered wig of all time and an annoying habit of clearing his throat with vocal exercises every five minutes) and Miss Wednesday (who fights with razor-sharp yo-yos and is best friends with a giant duck) are double agents seeking to bring down Baroque Works on behalf of the desert kingdom of Alabasta. So Miss Wednesday (now revealed to be Princess Vivi of Alabasta) temporarily joins the Straw Hat Crew in hopes that they can help save her kingdom from "Mr. Zero." Having been on Whiskey Peak for long enough, the crew follow the newly set Log Pose to the ironically named Little Garden, but not before an unusual encounter with Zero's partner, Ms. All-Sunday, who is...helpful?

So, if you haven't guessed yet, Baroque Works is a "secret" criminal organization where the top twenty or so strongest members are assigned to male/female pairs, with the men having numeric code names that get smaller the stronger the person is, and the women having code names based on holidays or days of the week.

Before the crew gets to Little Garden, though, we are treated to a two-part, slice-of-life story about Coby and a pompous, goofy-looking boy named Helmeppo (the son of an evil Marine named Captain Morgan, who got his jaw broken in a fight with Captain Kuro from the East Blue season, and who was unseated after Luffy sent him flying with a Gum-Gum Bazooka like he did to every "important" villain he fought in the East Blue) doing grunt work and training to become Marines under a Vice-Admiral in a dog hat named Garp (he will be very important much, much later). The boys are a little annoying, but the story is sweet and falls right in with the overall, "follow your dreams" message of the series.

Back on Little Garden, we are introduced to Mr. Three, who has wax-based Devil Fruit powers, and Ms. Golden Week, who can use paint to affect people's emotions. Also, there were previous instances of this in the Grand Line part of the story, but it's important to note that Mr. Three has access to a Transponder Snail, which is this world's version of wireless, audiovisual communications equipment like telephones, wrist communicators, spy receivers, and security cameras, among other uses...but it's snails. And this particular Transponder Snail is a direct line to Mr. Zero! Don't ask me how any of it works because sometimes, the Rule Of Cool is good enough.

As for the Straw Hat Crew, Nami and Usopp stay on the Merry because cowardice, Luffy runs off, screaming about meat with Vivi (voiced by Caitlin Glass, who has also done VA work on Lord Marksman, Freezing, and My Hero Academia) in tow, and Zoro and Sanji fight over who can kill the biggest animal for Sanji to cook. Thankfully, Little Garden is the One Piece version of the Savage Land from Marvel Comics, so there are plenty of prehistoric-sized animals and dinosaurs for them to punch, kick, and slice. Unfortunately, there are also two literal giants (former pirates from the island of Elbaf--that's "fable" backwards) locked in constant combat for reasons that both of them have forgotten. This ends up being incredibly cool and giving me something to like about Usopp for once because he gets all macho about how masterful their fighting technique is and makes it his goal to visit Elbaf so he can train to further his goal of becoming a "brave warrior of the sea." But also unfortunately, and for me this time, the giants are the series' first instance of annoying and maddeningly repetitive Japanese onomatopoeia laughs, as way too much of the Little Garden dialogue consists of "Yababababababa!" and "Yackackackackackack!"

Following some great thematic character work with Luffy and Usopp defending the giant warriors' honor against the Baroque Works agents, including a few compelling life-or-death cliffhangers (or they would be, if I didn't know there are nine hundred more episodes afterward), the Straw Hats defeat the Baroque Works agents, free the giants from Mr. Three's super-hard wax, and return to the Merry. Meanwhile, Sanji, who has been wandering around on his own, still in search of something to win his contest with Zoro, gets a chance to be a badass when he stumbles upon Mr. Three's hideout, engages in some amazing social warfare with Mr. Zero through that Transponder Snail I mentioned earlier, and steals an Eternal Pose (set to Alabasta, where Mr. Zero's base of operations is located) from a pair of Baroque Works animal assassins called the Unluckies (so I'm assuming their names are Mr. Thirteen and Ms. Friday).

After leaving Little Garden with the giants' help, the Straw Hat Crew are struck by tragedy when Nami comes down with a fever, and they must head to the next island in search of a doctor...without their navigator.

Drum Island/Winter Island is honestly just another stop for our heroes, only made worthwhile by the ticking clock that Nami's illness provides, the introduction of the concept of different types of Devil Fruits (particularly the human/animal-shifting Zoan-type Devil Fruits), the addition of a new crewmate (a reindeer with human-shifting powers named Tony Tony Chopper who wants to become a world-famous doctor but doesn't know how to hide properly and turns into an egotistical pile of goo at the slightest hint of praise), and the island's overall winter/Christmas-inspired design. The villain (a pirate-turned-dictator named Wapol who attempted to privatize and monopolize the medical industry on the island, and can bite or eat anything with his Munch-Munch Fruit powers) is a comedy-relief straw man despite the horrifying implications of his powers, and the "we have to go here, but now we have to go there because we just missed our friends and they might be headed there, but now we have to go there because we didn't know we passed them, but now..." plot is a drag to sit through. Also, Luffy pretty much just stubbornly forces Chopper (voiced by Brina Palencia, of Rosario + Vampire, Spice & Wolf, Zombie Land Saga, Scientific Railgun, and MHA) to join the crew because he thinks the "freaky reindeer guy" is cool (and not because the ship needs a permanent, live-in doctor, because in all that time of looking for a doctor to treat Nami, he never figured that out?). There are some cool, arc-specific plot elements like the renegade "quack" doctors, Vivi starting to develop a friendship with Nami, Luffy struggling to get her to the "witch" at the top of a steep mountain and making friends with a tribe of giant, carnivorous rabbits who help him defeat Wapol later on, and getting to see what Chopper can do in a fight when he's serious. Otherwise, it just feels like we're back in East Blue Villain Of the Week territory.

But with Nami healed and Chopper now on the Straw Hat Crew, things get good for the first time since Arlong Park. On the way to Alabasta, the crew picks up Mr. Two, an androgynous Baroque Works agent with mimicry powers who loves ballet and wears an overdesigned swan costume that makes them look like Bjork in Burt the Bashful cosplay. Luffy makes friends with them because he's an idiot, but when Mr. Two is showing off their ability, Vivi sees that they have learned to copy her father, making her even more impatient and desperate to get home than she was before. Also, the Straw Hats devise a system to make sure they know if any of them are being copied, and Marine Vice-Captain Smoker is also headed for Alabasta after intercepting Sanji's conversation with Mr. Zero (who is really the sand-powered Warlord Of the Sea, Crocodile).

As usual, as soon as the Merry docks, Luffy runs off, screaming about meat and how he's going to kick Crocodile's ass, while everyone else dons local disguises (Alabasta is based on Egypt, so this means stereotypical Mediterranean/Middle Eastern clothing like head wraps, hooded cloaks, and belly-dancer outfits that turn Sanji into an even more horny, heart-eyed pile of goo even more often because he has a half-naked Nami and a half-naked Vivi to swoon over now) to go shopping for food, supplies, and information. Oh, and Chopper can talk to animals, so he makes friends with a horny camel named Eyelash after falling asleep in the back of a food cart and waking up in the desert. Insert hump joke here....

So, yeah; there's a lot of padding in the early Alabasta episodes as the Straw Hats split up and various circumstances and goals keep them from reuniting or getting where they need to go (which requires even more splitting up so they can keep the Royal Army and the Rebels from killing each other over the lack of rain in the desert). But from this, we get Luffy meeting his brother, Ace (who is a member of the Whitebeard Pirates and came to Alabasta in search of this series' version of Blackbeard) for the first time in the series, more awkward chemistry from Zoro and the female Naval officer, the introduction of Rain Dance Powder (which can seed rain clouds and was outlawed by the World Government for reasons that play into Crocodile's plans), more bonding with Vivi and Nami as well as Usopp and Karoo (Vivi's giant duck), underground ruins, Baroque Works escalating their plans to make Alabasta destroy itself, Luffy stoking Vivi's convictions in his signature fashion of being loud and simple, more morally interesting encounters with Ms. All-Sunday, more of Spy Mode Sanji (a.k.a. Mr. Prince) being awesome, and Crocodile seemingly killing Luffy!

But this was all just buildup, and the best part is to come with the Fierce Fighting In Alabasta arc. Now, I said earlier in regards to Nami's illness that the ticking clock didn't work for me because of how many episodes of One Piece there are. But Luffy's apparent death struck differently because we know he is vulnerable to cutting and non-projectile piercing weapons, and Crocodile put a hole in him that would make Yamcha cringe, which is way more serious than a fever. So rather than thinking, this series is over a thousand episodes long; they'll find a doctor and Nami will be fine, my reaction to Luffy's death (?) was how will he survive that, and if he doesn't, how will that affect the story? I mean, we've seen Zoro, who doesn't have Devil Fruit powers, survive getting gored by a man who can casually slice multiple ships in half, so Luffy surviving getting a hole punched through him and being thrown in quicksand to drown shouldn't feel as final as it did for me in that moment. But it did, and I wanted to know!

The answer: He gets pulled out by Ms. All-Sunday (whose Devil Fruit powers let her bloom copies of her arms, legs, eyes, or ears on anything within her field of vision, leading to some cool, but Cronenberg-meets-Geiger visuals) because she's curious about the D.

I phrased that as a sex joke because my mind is still that of an aged thirteen-year-old and it was the first thing I thought of, but Luffy and Ace (along with Gold Roger and at least two other characters in the series that I will get to in a future part) both have D as their middle initial, it is so far the only initial that any characters in the series have had, and they both have a certain quality of willpower about them that sets them apart from the rest of the world. The explanation is probably one that I haven't gotten to yet, but yeah, Ms. All-Sunday seems to have a history with people with that initial, and she's intrigued by it, so she pulls Luffy to safety and walks off.

Meanwhile, Vivi makes repeated attempts to stop the two armies from fighting each other (thwarted by Baroque Works grunts who have infiltrated both sides and Mr. Two impersonating her father), Sanji has an honorable kick-fighting duel with Mr. Two, Usopp and Chopper have a comedy-relief fight with a mole-woman who talks like her favorite food is cocaine and a baseball player with a dog-bazooka, and Nami squeaks out a win against the spiky Ms. Doublefinger (that's a nickname for New Year's Day because 1/1, but it also sounds dirty, and it should because she looks like she stepped out of a Blaxploitation-era bondage film) with the beta version of her new weapon, the three-part Clima-Takt staff that Usopp built for her offscreen.

This seems like the perfect time to talk about one of One Piece's biggest problems: the main characters suddenly having new moves out of nowhere that they learned offscreen so they can win fights that they normally wouldn't be able to win. Zoro is the biggest offender in this, as, outside of battle, we only ever see him sleeping, arguing with Sanji, lifting weights, or getting lost. Yet every battle he gets into, he either relies on old attacks, pulls out a new attack, or miraculously learns to do something mid-fight that will allow him to win. I'll get to what the most famous example of that is next time. But for now, I'll just say that writing a flashback to explain why Nami's three-part staff is now a goofy weather weapon full of party tricks so she can stand up to a Devil Fruit opponent is a total ass-pull that screams, "I needed to write myself out of a corner!" As for the less-famous (and seemingly never mentioned again after its use in this arc) Zoro ass-pull, he finds himself fighting a Baroque Works agent who can turn his body to steel, and a memory of something his old sword-master told him as a kid helps him figure out how to sense sub-atomic vibrations so he can cut through steel and defeat Mr. One.

But as things continue to get worse for Alabasta (including a massive, time-delayed cannon that is poised to wipe out both armies and destroy the entire capital city), Luffy, King Cobra of Alabasta (Vivi's father), Crocodile, and Ms. All-Sunday converge in the underground ruins where Crocodile's true goal is revealed: he took advantage of the outlawed Rain Dance Powder to cause a drought so no one could use his weakness to water against him, and plotted to have the kingdom destroy itself so that he could use Cobra's knowledge and Ms. All-Sunday's ability to read ancient languages to decipher a giant stone called a Poneglyph, which is purported to contain the location of an ancient weapon from "the Blind Century." Ms. All-Sunday (here revealed to be Nico Robin, a woman who has had a bounty on her head since childhood for destroying a city and several Navy ships by herself) tells Crocodile that the weapon's location is not on the stone, and we are led to believe that she is lying (though this detail seems to lose importance later on), and rather than keep her alive to torture her for the information, Crocodile wounds her and leaves her, Luffy, and King Cobra for dead in the collapsing ruins.

In terms of attacks, Luffy's rematch with Crocodile is nothing new: plenty of Gum Gum Pistol, Gatling, and Bazooka usage to knock the villain out and send them flying. But Crocodile is the perfect villain to change things up. He's a cerebral villain with plenty of surprises thanks to his Devil Fruit powers that let him summon and control sand, suck the moisture out of anything he touches, and turn his body into sand. Then there's his hook, which I spent the second half of this fight overthinking how he could have unsheathed a rigid, curved object. When unsheathed, it drips poison. So Crocodile is basically invincible compared to other Devil Fruit pirates Luffy has fought before, forcing him to fight strategically for the first time in the series by coating his fists in water or (badass!) his own blood.

Once the Alabasta Civil War has been stopped, Luffy has hit Crocodile hard enough to turn him into an honorary member of Team Rocket, and rain begins to fall from his dissipating sand-body, Smoker's Marines are faced with a moral dilemma and decide to let the Straw Hats escape. as well as have the credit for incapacitating Crocodile.

Escape proves to be a generous term, though, because Luffy likes food, Nami likes treasure, and they're waiting to see if Vivi will continue to sail with them or embrace her renewed role as the Princess of Alabasta.

I haven't mentioned this yet, but in the past, Luffy has had a habit of Gum Gumming the villain into orbit and leaving the threatened village, city, or island as it was, so it came as a pleasant surprise when Vivi decided to be responsible and Luffy respected that choice, even though I really enjoyed her dynamics as an honorary Straw Hat.

Two unexpected events come of this, however. First is that Mr. Two, a.k.a. Bon Clay, has turned over a new leaf after his brief time on the Merry and his fight with Sanji, and decides to help the Straw Hats escape by playing decoy when a second contingent of Marines show up. Second is that Luffy repaid Nico Robin by saving her from the collapsing ruins earlier, and her interest in history and The Will of D (as well as mild spite toward Luffy for not letting her die) have led her to join as the seventh member of the Straw Hat Crew. Mostly for her looks, voice (provided in the dub by Stephanie Young, who also did VA work on Magical Index, Zombie Land Saga, MHA, and Soul Eater), and suggestive fashion choices, Nico Robin is a huge fan favorite, but she also has the uncontested best character arc of the entire crew, based on what I've seen of the series so far.

I'll get more into that in the next two issues, but for now, please remember to Become A Ticketholder if you haven't already, comment at the bottom of this post, help out my ad revenue as you read, and join my Crew on Tumblr, Reddit, Facebook, and LinkedIn to like what you see and receive the latest snail transmissions of news on my content.

In next week's One Piece Multi-Piece, Luffy fights Eminem in One Piece heaven and plays competitive Mario spinoff games with Waluigi. I'm serious. Also, I'm gonna be Master of the Tickets!