#op ch4

[settingsailforop]

zoro introduces a theme here that will run throughout the series — that of living by your own conviction so that you might live without regrets. a lot of characters grapple with this throughout the story, but zoro might be the most singular and unflinching representation of it.

also, i wonder if luffy was reminded of ace when zoro said this.

[salteytakesonmanga]

Zoro always loses his cool when he spots a bully

I noticed this earlier, but that's fresh blood on Zoro's face. He hasn't just been chilling there the past 9 days. Helmeppo (or rather, marines following Helmeppo's orders) have been beating him up regularly this whole time

[salteytakesonmanga]

It didn't really strike me until now that this is maybe kind of a big deal? Less so in terms of Koby's development, though it's cool to see him start to grow from the guy who always says things are impossible into someone who says something like this with such determination. But also because you can tell who Luffy's nakama are because they all believe - I mean BELIEVE - that Luffy will become the king of pirates.

Every single member of the crew has a dramatic scene where they state their faith in Luffy, and it turns out Koby is the first one to do it.

[salteytakesonmanga]

I love when Luffy is surprisingly polite after being an absolute chaos gremlin

[salteytakesonmanga]

Oda gives these very "normal" sounding ideas to villains and characters that turn out to be totally unhinged as a way of gradually undermining them.

Also lmao it took Morgan that long to become a Captain? Koby did it in two years

[salteytakesonmanga]

Zoro, I hate to break it to you but you're going to be doing this a lot from now on.

[salteytakesonmanga]

This fucking translation and its useless, thirsty attempt to jazz up the language? Luffy doesn't talk like this! What he says is "face me yourself!"

There's another line on this page, "he's not worth hitting," that also deserves a dishonorable mention. Luffy just punched him! The translation makes no sense! What he actually said was "it's useless hitting a guy like that again." As in, no matter how much you punch that sort of person they'll never learn their lesson. Which is a much more Luffy-ish thing to say.

Side note, the fonts they're using are all over the place - I think every cover has gotten a different font? Infuriating!

[salteytakesonmanga]

Buddy, you ain't seen nothing yet.

This chapter actually doesn't have a cover page?! This may be the only time it happens! A JUMP chapter is 19 pages and I think Oda just absolutely could not cut or rearrange anything else so he sacrificed the cover to so he could use the full page count.

Now that I'm looking closely at this panel, it's interesting to note that Oda put a lot more care into it, probably because it's acting as the cover. It has 6 planes (hat, Koby and Luffy, Helmeppo and the soldiers, the crowd, the buildings, and the clouds.) It also has what I think of as the One Piece characteristic of exaggerated perspective to create dynamism - Luffy's left foot is so far forward and his right is so far back it's almost like he's straddling the planes between the hat and the crowd.