#op ch1

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benn beckman is so hot. also is this the first bounty poster we see in one piece? i really like how its kind of just hanging out in the background. bounties and bounty hunting are an established part of the world and even random little establishments put them up, almost as part of the decor. shoutout to mikio, whoever he is

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the effect of the water splatter on the sfx is an english translation original, and i actually love it. while the sfx does unfortunately obscure a lot of the lord of the coast, i can forgive it this time because the water splatter is so cool.

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in a fan translation i read, luffy does not specifically say that he’s looking for “men” and his search for crewmates is discussed in much more gender-ambiguous language. with how wonky the early viz translation is, i think the fan translation is probably right and viz is doing a weird gender thing here, though i can’t read japanese so i can’t confirm.

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with the context we now have about shanks’ backstory, the line “he acts just like i did when i was a kid” hits kind of different.

luffy declares that he’s going to be pirate king. but that isn’t shanks, at this moment. shanks gave up on finding the one piece in the wake of roger’s death. somewhere along the line, he lost interest in being at the top of the pirate world. it’s only recently that he’s picked up the conviction to seek out laugh tale again.

at this point in time it’s not revealed yet that shanks was literally adopted by roger, so shanks doesn’t say that luffy reminds him of roger, but he tells rayleigh that later on. luffy is in a sense inheriting shanks’ will as well as roger’s — or more accurately, a dream which shanks has, at this point, given up on. there’s almost the sense that shanks was holding on to roger’s will but not inheriting it — stewarding it, so to speak, so he could pass it on to the next generation.

it’s interesting to think of the 20-ish years between roger’s death and luffy’s arrival as a sort of interim generation. the whitebeard generation, i guess? a generation of stewardship, of guarding roger’s will rather than claiming it. it’s not time yet. the central players have yet to take the stage. but take the stage they will — and shanks is setting the scene for luffy.

as for why he decided not to take center stage himself even when he very well could have? idk your guess is as good as mine.

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none of the red hair pirates have observation haki CONFIRMED

higama escaping via smoke bomb is some goofy saturday morning cartoon stuff

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this panel is so funny lol. shoutout to those red hair pirates behind lucky roux squeezing together.

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i think that it’s pretty important that the first thing we see pirates do in this series (well other than stand on a ship and watch luffy stab himself) is party, given that partying is given so much focus in the series. luffy definitely models himself off of shanks here.

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appreciation for the foosha village establishing shot here. i’m particularly impressed by how all the bg characters have unique outfits on despite being tiny. i really like the dress the person with the broom is wearing.