One Piece Log: Fish-Man Island Saga

Episodes 19-20

Episode 19 of One Piece Log: Fish-Man Island Saga is one of the heaviest hits with the most thematic ideas to chew on.

This is one of those moments where the clock slows down long enough for everyone to say their piece before the final battle kicks off. The Straw Hats are battling with Hody's pirates, while Hody defeats Fukaboshi and pursues Shirahoshi/Luffy. Everything else in the episode is talking, mostly along the lines of character revelations, all of which take place in the heightened time awareness of these big action sequences.

That's not a negative in the slightest, because there are a ton of great moments here. Almost every member of the Straw Hats gets some cool moment, great one-liner, or interesting personal development in the turmoil. Zoro's “You can't even kill my boredom” bit, Chopper revealing that he wants to become a monster for Luffy, Robin calling Jinbei handsome… there's a lot going on here and I love all of it.

The greater themes of the arc come into focus for the audience too, particularly around the nature of revenge. The line about a grudge being an illusion nurtured by the living is incredibly poignant, and Fukaboshi's observation that surface-level optics can't change deep underlying grievances is spot on. Of course, things get a bit murkier here as, again, the World Government's ongoing oppression still looms large in the background, which makes the moral issue a bit tougher. Until the thorn of the World Government is removed, the Fish-Men are in a spot where they can't “do it right” so to speak, but the larger theme of carrying on generational hatred is still worth ruminating on. Ultimately, whether Hody's actions could be righteous or not doesn't matter, because he's visiting violence on the very people he's supposedly trying to avenge: the innocents of Fish-Man Island.

Episode 20 serves as the capstone entry for the arc while continuing the themes of the prior week. The Straw Hats keep tearing up Hody's crew with reckless abandon. There are some real winners, like Usopp being allowed to flex his capabilities - the young boy who always cried wolf has come a long way from his days in Syrup Village. There are a lot of the other Straw Hats doing big attacks too with a variety of icy and fiery effects, and it's morbidly funny that Hody's Fish-Man cronies all end in ways that run the gamut in terms of meal preparation/temperatures.

Hody himself is down for the count, so the final drama centers on the descent of Noah. Luffy is pushing himself, Shirahoshi is weeping, and we move into a kind of legendary timescale with the Neptunians' arrival. It's great seeing these resonant echoes with Gol D Roger and Luffy's power, and it feels as though for every answer we get another question or two naturally springs into its place.

The metaphor of blood at the end draws together many of the saga's themes in a poignant way. There's a lot here to ruminate on: blood as a sign of violence and how it all ends up the same regardless of who is being harmed, blood as a sign of life and mercy, as well as a means of connectivity that bonds us all. It works because really at the end of the day the details come out in the wash: we should be focused on giving blood rather than shedding it, preserving life rather than taking it, and breaking down the barriers that separate us. This caps off with Luffy asking Jinbei to join his crew. It is the moment we've all been waiting for, and it's wild to think how long ago this was in our real-world timeframe as far as the arc is concerned.

One thing that did stand out to me was the interspersed bits about Joyboy during Luffy's machine gun punch attacks on Noah. I… honestly don't remember that happening in the original, and part of me thinks that was a new addition to foreshadow current events. But then again, it has been a few years since I've read the original, and maybe - in true One Piece fashion - this is just the perfect excuse to go back and reread it all.

Rating: Rating: One Piece Log: Fish-Man Island Saga is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.