thinking abt how in OPLA s2 zoro barely meets tashigi's eyes when he thanks her and leaves after she helps him with buying swords in ipponmatsu's store, and how you can see him get Mad during their fight when she mentions he's dropping his elbow to the point where he immediately ends the fight lol
The 2nd worldwide Top 100 Popularity Poll is here! Let's vote for Tashigi like last time!
Remember: you can vote for your favorite character once per day. You can vote again after the date changes at midnight (Japan time) each day. Voting closes on June 11th.
The 2nd Global ONE PIECE Character Popularity Contest is open!!! Search for your favorite character by name or story arc and cast your vote!
Remember that the higher she ranks, the more likely it is she might be included in merch, promotional material, movies etc. that is more Tashigi content! And of course it might even influence Oda who likes to expand the role of popular characters.
Let's support Tashigi! (Ofc I would support Zoro too, but I don't think he needs any more support lol)
âso the sword geek can fight too.â âbetter than you.â â one piece live actionâs take on tashigi
i am really kind of obsessed with the modifications OPLA has made to tashigiâs character and the tashigi-zoro dynamic. i think some of these changes were made because the live action isnât interested in preserving more âsingle-panel gagâ elements of the manga/anime, and thatâs fine, theyâre targeting a different audience in a different medium, but thereâs one change in particular that i think was instead made in the service of character arcsâtashigiâs and zoroâs bothâand i want to talk about it.
like, yes the âcanât see without my glasses, but i keep taking them off for no clear reasonâ bit is cute, but it would just serve as a distraction in a live action show where bits like that kill the pacing of a scene.
and yes, the meet-cute moment of bumping into each other doesnât remotely compare to zoro watching tashigi publicly kick enormous pirate ass, but as their first meeting in OPLA flows directly into the sword purchasing scene, it doesnât make sense for tashigi to have shigure with her. if we had two episodes for loguetown, maybe we could space these encounters out and have that sequence, but OPLA doesnât have that kind of time to spare. (plus, i obviously like the âso the sword geek can fightâ line a lot, and we wouldnât have that if their first meeting was more like manga canon.)
on the other hand, making tashigi very much not the novice ipponmatsu calls her in the mangaâthat does some really interesting things for us.
it removes a frustrating element of naĂŻvetĂŠ from tashigiâs character, where she could easily identify sandai kitetsu but didnât know it was cursed, while retaining the good-hearted sword nerd who was so excited to see wado ichimonji in person that she failed to notice ipponmatsu attempting to trick zoro.
it allows tashigi to provide another perspective on zoro as a swordsmanâsomething more specific and meaningful at this time than the gulf that lies between him and mihawk. sheâs not good enough to beat zoro outright, but she is good enough to immediately spot a flaw in zoroâs technique (one kuina also saw), and she can spell out both why zoro beat her and why heâll struggle to beat others: because he is strong, easily pushing and pulling her around in their fight, but heâs far stronger than he is skilled.
(go back to his fight with mihawk if you donât believe tashigi! look at how much muscle zoro uses while crossing blades with mihawk, who looks like heâs about to fall asleep holding that tiny sword out. mihawk may or may not have the physical strength to match zoro, but he doesnât need it; the bare minimum of his skill is more than enough.)
(this claim is also more or less kuinaâs puberty fears made manifest, btwâthat over time zoro would gain a physical advantage that closed the gap between their abilities independent of how hard both of them trained. i donât know if heâs made that connection, and itâs not like he ever fought tashigi as a child so he canât know whether beating tashigi now is proof he would have beaten kuina eventually... but i have to imagine it's something zoroâs thinking about. iâm certainly thinking about it.)
this also allows tashigi to unknowingly hit zoro where it can hurt most: by telling him with that face and those eyes that heâs not worthy to wield wado ichimonji.
listen. as much as i love the sexism accusation and copycat bickering, they donât actually do much for zoroâs character besides adding someone new to the short list of people that can rile him up. heâs offended by tashigiâs existence (as an indication that kuinaâs insecurities might have been based in reality, a concept he flatly rejects) and insists he isnât sexist. tashigi has no reason to believe him, and doesnâtâand the story struggles to ever move past this. itâs just he said/she said.
but tashigi saying zoro is unworthy of wado⌠now, what are the odds zoro has had that very thought before? or dreamed of kuina saying those words? especially after he lost to mihawk so completely. and, unlike the simple rebuff of âi ainât sexist, i dislike you for other reasons,â itâs more difficult for zoro to say or do something to prove tashigi wrong on this front. put plainly: thereâs character development potential here.
beyond this point iâm in a pure speculation space, guessing at what will happen in the alabasta arc/season 3, but i think another potential benefit to making tashigi more experienced is that she comes off as a bit jaded, as far as sexism goes.
manga!tashigi is bright-eyed with tears and bristling with anger about the injustice of it all, about being treated as lesser and not taken seriously. (not that we really see her being treated poorly at any point prior to this momentânot in any way thatâs unambiguously about her sex and not her inexperience, anyway. a common telling-not-showing flaw in odaâs writing of tashigi, imo.) she seems, somehow, new to this kind of mistreatment.
opla!tashigi is, i think, resigned to it. sheâs a loyal customer to ipponmatsu but zoro is the first worthy swordsman heâs seen in years. she asks zoro why he wonât kill her and when he just leaves she goes for the âunworthyâ insultâshe doesnât have any expectation of getting an answer from him. miss all sunday suggest sheâs being kept in a cage, her potential squandered, skills wasted, and tashigi doesnât deny itâher only objection is to the comment about her wounded pride. smoker tells tashigi to âwait with the other kidsâ (koby and helmeppo, who are still fairly new recruits while sheâs an MCPO). smokerâs told her to shut up about her (childish, emotional) dreams enough times that the instruction is starting to stick, even when sheâs talking to a sword guy like helmeppo, or an attentive guy like koby, who are both clearly willing to listen. her demands to join smoker on this assignment are denied until she defiantly offers a reason that he can respectâa gold roger of her own to hunt downâand even then, he doesnât want her celebrating in a (silly, girly) way he disapproves of. mr 11 patronizingly calls her dear girl and it barely gets a reaction, not the way the sight of kashu in his possession does. the way sheâs treated may be unjust, but this is just how things are. she hates it, but sheâs used to it.
(iâm not trying to hate on smoker in particular for this stuff, btw, itâs just that heâs the only higher-ranked marine we see tashigi interact withâgarp simply does not acknowledge her existence one way or the otherâso heâs the only reference point we have for her treatment by the marines as an institution. and his attitude reeks of the institutional sexism you see in military programsâof valuing strength (and to a lesser degree uniformity) above all else and subconsciously viewing the feminine as inherently weak/disruptiveâbut i donât think that means he hates tashigi. disrespects her a bit, yeah. wants to train her out of these âunprofessionalâ behaviors, maybe. but heâs probably not her first-ever commanding officer, and heâs certainly not the only marine above her in rank whoâs treated her like this, if sheâs willing to put up with this attitude from him. thatâs part of what makes it institutional, itâs found throughout the organization.)
iâm hoping this is some very intentional show-donât-tell storytelling at work, that weâre going to continue to see tashigi be disrespected by pirates and marines alike, explicitly for reasons of sex. (the show is clearly not afraid of making sexism explicit; wapol is textbook in his shitty treatment of miss all sunday.) then, maybe, we might see zoro and tashigi clash again in alabastaâor we might see zoro refuse to fight her, as the anime had things go iircâand her frustrations over this treatment will boil over, an accusation burst out of her, and that will be the straw that breaks zoroâs back and gets him to make the kuina comparison out loud.
...of course, i could be wrong. the copycat thing might be one of those exaggerated character beats that OPLA decides to drop altogether. zoro and sanjiâs fights are much less extreme/more bickery in OPLA vs the manga, so the show trading out the big shouty zoro-tashigi moment for something more restrained is a very real possibility.
that would be a shame for me as a zoro-tashigi argument enjoyerâbut i donât think that would mean the show is dropping tashigiâs frustrations with sexism entirely, not with that added scene between her and miss all sunday. that feels very tied up in sexismâespecially given that the woman from an organization with very intentional near 50-50 gender parity in its upper ranks is attempting to recruit the only named female marine we have met in present day, and only the second one weâve met at all (bell-mère being the other).
if you have thoughts on tashigiâs characterization in the show, scenes iâve overlooked or forgotten that support/counter my argument, please share! iâve been spiraling about this since the day the new season came out and i would love to talk to people about her.
"Kashu. Itâs one of the 50 Skillful Grade Swords. It doesnât belong in the hands of an assassin."
"Well, by all means, dear girl, come and take it."
Even though the dynamic between Zoro and Tashigi seems a bit meh compared to the manga and anime, honestly, Sanji asking Zoro if Tashigi is an ex feels so fucking canon-coded bc asically in the manganime every time they meet their relationship develops more like a married couple for 50 years that basically only exist to argue and/or are basically exes so the question fits their personalities perfectly lmao.
I made a collection of my favorite zotash posts that I've written over the years, and a few other posts that I love. It's mainly for blog organization purposes, but it might be helpful to new fans as well.
Iâm afraid i would have died on the spot at this point cause right after this, the way he slowly points the hilt of his sword toward her (i need a gif of that)⌠yeah that was hot. A turn on. I will not elaborate further as to why just that it was and is.
