#op ch97

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the stephen paul translation for this line is quite different from the official.

i can’t be sure which version is more accurate to the japanese, but i’m inclined to trust stephen paul, generally speaking. (the official translation for early one piece frequently does this thing where it makes things gendered when they weren’t necessarily gendered to begin with.) in any case, there’s a big difference between the connotations/themes in these translations. the official translation presents it as zoro testing his masculinity; while the stephen paul translation presents it as zoro testing his worth/ambition/destiny. and that’s such a big theme for his character, i think that translation makes sense.

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roronoa zoro autism moment.

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it’s adorable that ipponmatsu gets a little character arc in the single chapter he appears in. one thing i noticed is that, in the beginning, he’s bragging about how awesome his shop is; at the end, when presenting yubashiri, he becomes quite humble about it. witnessing zoro handle kitetsu strips away his salesman’s bravado and brings out his true, earnest nature.

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on the surface, zoro’s dream is a very individual pursuit — there can only be one world’s greatest swordsman in the world, after all. but zoro folds other peoples’ dreams in with his own — kuina’s, and luffy’s; and though he’s unaware of it, ipponmatsu’s as well. i like to think that even though yubashiri died, ipponmatsu’s dream still lives on within zoro’s.

the concept of carrying on the dreams of other people will later become formalized into inherited will. in one piece, swords present a very physical, tangible representation of this concept, especially when it comes to zoro. this is seen later on too, with shusui and enma.

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getting kitetsu visibly put zoro in such a good mood, after he was so annoyed earlier in the chapter. he’s all smiles now, it’s adorable.

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this panel sent me down a little internet rabbit hole about katana pricing. for reference: if converting berries to USD, wado ichimonji is worth $100,000 (not counting for inflation).

i learned that there actually exists a real evaluation system for real swords in japan, called shinsa. it was established by the Nihon Bijutsu Tōken Hozon Kyōkai ('The Society for Preservation of Japanese Art Swords'), often shortened to NBTHK. there are 4 ‘grades’ — tokubetsu juyo (special important), juyo (important), tokubetsu hozon (special preservation), and hozon (preservation). a tokubetsu juyo sword could feasibly cost $100,000, or more than that.

i also took a cursory look into other expensive swords, and yeah, there are swords that have sold for millions of usd.

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it’s a little strange that tashigi, a marine, would be so morally opposed to bounty hunters, considering the marines are the people who issue bounties in the first place. on the one hand, tashigi is a person with her own very strong moral convictions. on the other hand, i do think the disdain of bounty hunters is an institutional thing within the marines. after all, fullbody was pretty disdainful of johnny and yosaku, and the marines at shells town starved and tortured zoro. (and no i don’t care that they were doing it under helmeppo’s orders or whatever. ‘i was just following orders’ is never an excuse.)

the marines are arbiters of “absolute justice,” after all; so regular citizens enacting their own “justice” is an anathema to them. bounty hunting also demonstrates the opportunistism and cruelty that is fundamental to the marines as an institution — because placing bounties on people is a pretty fucked up thing to do. having people exploit said bounties to make money exposes the fact that the marines aren’t actually there to serve the common people, but to enforce the world government’s interests through fear.

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ipponmatsu’s weapon shop is so fucking cool, i wish it was real and that i could go there.

it’s fun that there’s an elbaf-ish horned helmet in the top left corner. i don’t think that there was any intentional significance to this detail or anything, oda just likes vikings. he’s said that his interest in pirates was sparked by an animated show called vicky the little viking.