#op ch23

[settingsailforop]

something important that usopp brings to the crew is his narrative ability. out of all the strawhats, he’s the one who is most conscious of the fact that he’s a protagonist in an adventure manga. in a story about romance, he really pulls the “romanticizing your life” weight in the crew. and on this page, we can see usopp’s storytelling at work—instead of just plainly telling luffy, zoro, and nami about kaya’s situation, he’s spinning a tale of a lonely girl in a large mansion.

luffy is someone who has a keen narrative sense (we have to enter the grand line via the cool entrance/i don’t want anyone charting my journey for me/etc) but he’s not much of a storyteller. in this way, usopp is a great compliment to him, and he really fills this role in a way zoro (uninterested in personal history) and nami (deeply practical) cannot. while i think it’s stated somewhere that nami is the one who keeps the ship’s log, i feel like it makes a lot of sense for usopp to keep a log of his own, like kozuki oden.

[settingsailforop]

this is the first example of one of zoro’s more understated character traits — he’s incredibly perceptive of his surroundings, bordering on hypervigilant. if there’s something strange going on, zoro will usually be the one to notice it and/or point it out.

[settingsailforop]

mikio itoo is in the news! also, can’t help but wonder what the little picture in the background is of. to me it looks like a bearded man wearing a witch hat but i might be wrong on this. i do think it’s really fun how such a tiny detail is included in this small panel.

[settingsailforop]

syrup village establishing shot! so far in east blue we’ve had:

coastal farming rural village (windmill village/foosha)

suburban military center (shells town)

german town port city (orange town)

and now: pastoral village of triangular-roofed bungalows and a Big Mansion (syrup village)

[settingsailforop]

i never noticed it before this reread, but nami’s here! standing in the back, holding an umbrella

[salteytakesonmanga]

Immediate refusal. And they were so polite about it lol

I've always really enjoyed Usopp as a sort of reader-insert character. He, like Nami, is super "normal" in a crew full of totally insane people and gives voice to reader thoughts.

Whomst amongst us hasn't had a daydream about joining the crew, or some sort of isekai fantasy where you, as a totally normal person, become the hero? Usopp is a vehicle for readers like that, and the fact that he keeps rising to the occasion as the story progresses - without ever losing his personality - is something I really love to see.

[salteytakesonmanga]

No, they’re never listening. As long as someone else is around who can worry about the details (Nami) they will absolutely not pay attention to expository backstories. (They actually will listen to backstories if they’re the only one around to pay attention or if it’s about fighting.)

[salteytakesonmanga]

I know people like to track the tall tales Usopp told Kaya, many of which have actually come true by now, but I also like thinking about the situations where these smaller lies could also come true.