100% Blind ONE PIECE Review (Part 2): Arlong Park - Loguetown

all right so I just got done reading the material for this week's video and why didn't no one tell me that this story was like the best thing ever on a number of occasions during the read-through this week I pause either to cry or to cheer and after every subsequent cheer I was reminded that I was sitting alone in a dark room our grandparents fought in the Second World War and now I'm reading one piece every generation has its big challenges and this is mine I guess I've still got over 900 chapters to read and as I've said since last week I've been reading through chapters 69 to chapter 100 oh and to ensure I remained spoiler free anime AJ everyone's favorite Mouse wielding good boy has been on my behalf reading your comments and sending them to me this episode marks my second step into my one piece journey and as many of you fans of the series already know this week were in for a treat I'm totally not mark and this is my review of one pieces are long Park and Loeb town [Music] our long Park chapters 69 to 95 I want to get this out of the way first this arc is to an absurd degree superbly written and I say that not because Oda has done anything revolutionary in isolation but because he's executed so many small isolated scenes that exchange is leading up to this arc It's Made executing this part of the story look effortless in terms of writing what would Luffy do in the situation we don't need to have that explained or justified to us because we've already seen Luffy develop across this adventure for the last 68 chapters we know him what would Zorro do in this situation it's obvious because we too know this character in and out I touched him this in the prior video but it's worth repeating because I think it's the key to why this arc worked as smoothly and supremely as it did every character that's part of Lupe's crew right now is completely understood by the audience without reading a single word of the hour-long Park arc try saying that 10 times fast and if I didn't make it clear already this is the best act of one piece I've read so far without question our long park deals largely with the character of Nami who if you paid attention to the last review video was the only character of the main five not to receive a somewhat clear backstory Sanji was it cooks apprentice that met a nice pirate guy got hungry and turned into an emo chef with a hankering for kicking Zorro was always the second best swordsman as a kid in his village and found on his rivals grave to become the best swordsman in the land Luffy was a headstrong kid that learned a valuable life lesson about sacrifice thanks to a friend too bad that happened after he stabbed his face and whose Upland how to be a more honest person both to others and himself and while nanny's story in orange town with buggy did have something of a resolution it was intentionally left open by Oda for the specific purpose of exploring it right here and it's amazing this particular section of the story called hour-long Park picks up right after the events of the last one and follows a fleeing nami as she returns home after attempting to leave everyone behind and the story that's told here is nothing short of spectacular for those of you that are familiar with my reviews you'll know that I'm rarely this nice so why does this arc work as well as it does for me in a word it's focused the entire plot of this arc centers around Nami her journey back to her Island home the tragic backstory she has and the resolution that follows no point as the plot deviate to something that is impertinent to the story in one form or another and every piece of dialogue in typical oda fashion either in forms or furthers the story be it through carefully crafted exposition or world building whether it be through nominees initial unveiling as being an actual pirate officer working under our allah i did not see that coming or the guys discussing and revealing more about the grand lines seven warlords and the baggage that comes with that it gets me pumped to see what's coming next because i know i likely won't expect it which is a super nice thing to experience when reading a shounen manga especially when you consider this one was written in the 90s when nami herself arrives on the island it's revealed that a set of communities live there also and particular care is taken when explaining where these places are in relation to one another the main stronghold of the island and home to the villain of this arc are longg is called hour-long park it's a repurposed one-time naval base now leveraged by our long to bribe the governing bodies of the east blue to remain an official presence in that region this isn't necessarily dealt with in detail in the arc but this is our first hint of politics in the story and there's more to see here I'm sure immediately next to airline park is cocoa village this is where Nami grew up in a small house surrounded by a tangerine growth on the outskirts of the larger cocoa village town this is cute because I love that the very first time Luffy sits down to talk with Nami back in Orange town she says that she likes two things money and tangerines I remembered that fact and when I saw the woman living in that home I knew that she had to be connected in some way to Nami given that she is surrounded by tangerines it's simple about little things like that acting as clues for the future are a nice touch I think in the coco village town there's a strong sense of community there as we learn that our long enforces a protection tax on the local similar to how the Mafia and other gangs across the world imposed their will on their communities in a nutshell if they don't pay bad stuff happens and that bad stuff is not told to us but shown to us in the rules of their neighboring town and furthest village from our LAN Park ghosa with our long Park Gosa and cocoa village we quickly get a firm grasp and understanding of the dynamic and power structure at play in this story through the ending of the last arc with Nami looking at the bounty picture of our lung were led to believe that she's going to claim that bounty for herself and make off with the money however we quickly realized that not to be the case when it's revealed that she's an officer working under our lung which as I alluded to earlier took me completely aback and I thought it acted as a really nice little subversion it's here we are introduced to our lon the character with which the park he resides in is named after and the namesake of the arc itself he's immediately built up as this monstrous threat and the most intimidating villain our heroes have dealt with yes he's responsible for the destruction of ghost village and is extremely elitist with regards to his race of people considering himself and his army of fish men several rungs above that of humanity with their abilities to breathe both on and off land as well as an increased level of strength that far out matches our own he considers humanity a lesser being that naturally needs to serve Him hearing this I was very interested to see what this character and his subordinates had to offer in the way of combat for the rest of the cast and in addition to that the dialogue that Arlen himself spouts is filled to the brim with everything from quiet confidence to explosive anger he's most definitely an interesting character that I was eager to explore I'd hear from more and all that information we do eventually get to explore is provided through the lens of Nami story and life which I thought was an inspired choice the real meat and potatoes with this are comes in the form of Nami as I alluded to earlier with the most eye-opening segments for us being that offer origins story how she came to be in Cocoa Village and her expressed motivations that have driven her to work for this despicable sea scum known as Arlen through flashback Oda uses this as yet another opportunity to reinforce the characters and area of cocoa village that have already been introduced to us those being Genzo and more importantly logic Oh Nami stepsister but also to widen the scope of the world just that little bit more using the character of Bella mare an ex-military soldier who on returning to the island did so on the verge of death carrying in her arms a baby Nami and a three year old no Chico the flashback details the circumstances surrounding Nami no Chico and her adoptive foster mother Bella mare during which a somewhat large conflict emerges between Bella mare and the young Nami before she eventually storms off shouting that she's sick of being poor and that Belle isn't her real family or mother when she reaches the center of the town she encounters Genzo who in a number of words explains to her how much Belle Amer loves her and her stepsister the emotions Nami is feeling here are obviously just a combination of frustration and childhood naivety but eventually this choice manifests itself into one of the biggest mistakes of her life as Nagi ko goes to bring Nami back home our along arrives to collect the protection tax fifty thousand berries for a child and one hundred thousand berries for an adult knowing full well that Bella Mara doesn't have even remotely enough to pay for both herself and the kids she decides to instead of pretending she doesn't have children outs herself as their mother their real family and pays to protect them leading to her unfortunate death at the hands of Arlen it's a tragic scene and in discovering that Nami has a talent for mapping lands and ocean charts which had been revealed earlier in the flashback hour-long elects to keep Nami by his side and from that very young age Nami decided to lean completely into this role Arlen has provided for her on the condition that if she can come up with 100 million berries she can buy her villages freedom this choice of course forces her to turn her back on everyone to pretend that Bella mares death meant nothing to her all in a humble effort to try and control the situation and work towards a solution for her community and from the very beginning of this arc from the moment she arrives at Arlen Park she resumed her work alongside Arlen and his forces exuding the demeanor of everything is under control but things are most definitely not under control despite her at times genius efforts to preserve the status quo she is operated under for the best part of a decade the interruption to the status quo of course takes the form of Luffy Zorro who sought Sanji as well as the two bounty hunters along for the ride yo suka and Johnny and this is by far and away my favorite aspect of this tale the conflict that emerges between Nami and the straw hat crew after they arrived to rescue and help her at the beginning of this story we know that Luffy is travelling a little behind everyone we know that Nami arrived from the island first and we know that the raster is a ship right behind Nami however through high jinks and bad luck the group consisting of Johnny Zorro and a sob gets split up leading to us as Oro and Luffy all being separated towards the beginning leading to them individually meeting Nami acting under our lock which ends up being intensely interesting the Zorro is first up as he's thrown in front of our along and eventually Nami the dialogue between the two is tense but fascinating with my favorite part coming from Zorro testing Tommy's claimed that she was always lying to them and that she never really cared about them by throwing himself into the water front to drown this naturally forces Nami to come to his rescue proving to him that she really isn't as bad as she said that she is laying the groundwork for a perfect little bit of dialogue between the two Nami saying if you mess with me again you're dead what's with all these bandages Zorro then she Cleary marks I ran out of clean laundry which is a wonderfully character appropriate but subtle callback to an exchange the two shared acts ago I love that later in the story Musab is also placed in front of our line at herself in a similar circumstance although this time OSAP has been apprehended after trying to protect a pounds person from danger in Cocoa Village in this scene things become even more heated as not only is yousef not as emotionally intelligent as Zorro and therefore can't see Nami as anything other than a traitor but the army of Fishman beneath our lawn now don't fully trust Nami due to her out of character rescue of Zorro chapters prior and so to prove her loyalty she seemingly attacks and stabbed Zeus up drawing blood before throwing him into the waterfront to drown and bleed out when I saw this my jaw hit before I flood believe that she actually did this but in actuality it's later revealed that she stabbed her own hand in an attempt to get her reputation back and to protect us up from danger this reveal then was made all the better by the fact that the manga gave me tons of opportunities to notice her bloody and gloved hand before it's eventually revealed what it actually happened know that is some great stuff but by far and away the best character interaction in this entire arc comes right after this and it is I actually don't even have words I've mentioned this a number of times throughout this review so far but the entire story surrounding this arc has been through the lens of Nami and how she herself is doing everything in her power to control the situation so that no one else needs to die she's terrified of are alone but she's smart enough to find a way around us and throughout this arc when faced with situations by Zorro and Asaf she has found genius ways of navigating this and you could only imagine what else she must have done throughout the last eight years she's dedicated her life to our line and over the course of this regrettable career she's had has amassed almost a full agreed amount of money to buy her village and her own freedom from him however she makes a fatal mistake when she lets all know that she almost has the full amount and should have the remainder very soon in hearing this he sends a corrupt naval crew to reprimand Nami and in doing so takes every last bit of her savings as she goes back to confront aerilon about this luffy is having his own issues after finally arriving and reconvene with his group he is confronted with accusations of nummies betrayal and utter dislike of their group Luffy definitively never believes a single word of this and even when asked straight up to leave by Nami herself he elects to fall flat on the floor to sleep he isn't leaving things continue to unfold an hour long exposes that he has no intention of ever allowing Nami to go free and that's when the reality of the situation crushes her causing her to run away now in a flood of tears crushed by the weight of her circumstances realizing that she's pushed everyone away for seemingly now no reason at all and that all of this effort has completely 100% been a total waste of time she collapses to the floor overcome by emotion trying to cut off the tattoo she got to demonstrate her allegiance to our lon and this is when Luffy walks up to her one last time her initial reaction is to scream at him to leave to do what she says Luffy acknowledges this but still does nothing she pauses and in a final moment of what I could only describe as complete and utter desperation she turns to him and cries for help [Music] this lion hit me so hard because you know that this is said only out of absolute despair and what makes it all the more powerful is that despite being told to leave being told that Nami doesn't like them anymore and that despite her insistence that she doesn't need them or him Luffy without hesitation places his hat on Nami's quivering head reassuring her that he will see to this being fixed he makes his way back to the crew who clearly have all this time been waiting for the go-ahead from Luffy they are a loyal group that are there to protect each other loving friends to the bitter end no matter what happens this exchange is possibly the most pure and wonderfully touching thing I've ever read in manga and I think a goes without saying brought quite a few tears to my eyes made all the more touching when I remember when he first met Nami he said not to touch his hat and yet now he elects to give it to her to keep safe indicating visually to us that she has his complete and total trust and given the things that she said to him earlier in this arc that act is made all the more poignant and this brings us up to the fight scenes and oda manages to give each character in the crew fighting for nami a utility in this mini story and battle that are not only fulfilling for those characters but specifically don't make them feel like Luffy's lesser which i think is vitally important especially in a show like this and what i find to be the most impressive is two moments from this fight scene actually got me to jump out of my seat and say yes so let's jump it immediately following that reaffirmation of friendship and trust comes a massive fight scene to cap off the arc if I were to divide it into sections I'd say Luffy's opening statement would be the first the second would be the gang support and backup followed by and finishing off the arc with luffy's final battle with Darla and by far and away the most interesting and compelling moments from this fight for me have to be the contribution supplied by Sanjay's Oro and OSA with each character serving a critical part of a narrative in this scuffle what aspect I am always terrified of whenever I read Shonen or experience the genre is that of the secondary character effect Xaro and sanjay both have strong fighting abilities but with them not being the main characters themselves oftentimes it falls into the lap of the main character to clean up their messes or supplement their limitations in other words in other Shonen they are often there to be the sidekick to the main character to make them look better but one piece doesn't do this in the slightest or at least hasn't done so yet Zorro fights bravely and finally while also having a tilted excuse of still healing from the attack from Hawkeye in the player and Sanjay pretty much single-handedly saves the damn day by freeing Luffy from the rumble beneath the water while also dealing with Dishman but what order does it Pusa is my absolute favorite as the character up until this point had yet to be presented with a moment to truly prove himself throughout this arc he has stuck up for other people but always ran away not because he didn't care about these people but because he was genuinely terrified and that's sort of the key to who's up for me I was totally sold on his character after his introduction during the syrup villager but during Barrett a he barely participated as Sanji was receiving center stage treatment as well as all the crazy stuff that happened then so when he got his chance to shine in this arc it really helps solidify him as one of my favorite characters in this series he's a terrified regular guy that sees the danger in everything he has his talents and interest sure but he is by no means a physically gifted fighter meaning by acting as the others do despite being terrified and not as well prepared it makes him the most courageous character in the entire series and when he finally got the win in this arc against the fire stronger opponent using his clever tactics I actually left from my seat and shed a tear for him because I knew how much it must have meant to him I am aware that he's a fictional character but it did mean a lot to me in that moment how he finally felt validated as a warrior taking his first step towards his dream despite all of these wonderful things orders successfully performed here I do find one aspect of this arc to be well I don't want to say lacking but not nearly as good as the rest of it has been and that's the fight scene which ended this arc between luffy and arlo when it comes to scripting a fight scene Oda is once again very good but I wouldn't say exceptional like he is with character writing dialogue even previous fights and world building during the battle with our lungs some of the set pieces were interesting like him jumping into the water or launching himself out of it at Luffy but apart from that I don't really think anything stands out to me in direct contrast with that we have his fight with Don Creek inter ovum between these bursts of battle between the two characters were other fights character introductions schemes strategies personal pride and the story of Luffy proving himself to Creek and that's ignoring all the other backhand forts and struggles throughout that final conclusion but with the fight with are long it felt distinctly one-dimensional to me especially when you compare the two side-by-side I am pression was that Arlen was supposed to be this imposing impenetrable force something unlike anything Luffy has ever experienced someone to really push him and give him a challenge but it didn't really feel like Luffy was given that much of a challenge with this guy at least compared to the last main arc battle with don krieg who pushed him to his limits now there's the obviously compelling motivation Luffy has to fight him as well as me the audience actually caring about it but apart from simply fighting him there wasn't much else to it and unfortunately in addition to that during this fight see I found some of the panel's despite being drawn perfectly fine to not flow very well for my taste and in one or two cases sort of confusing but even if I was to ignore all of that I think the most obvious shortcoming within this final fight between Luffy and our lungs for me comes in the fights climax within the cartography room that Nami drew up all the maps and ocean charts for the evildoers throughout the years no not true there would of course be a place that Nami did all of this work that she despised and was abused in however we don't really ever see or hear about that but like the rest of owners writing in this chapter this room has no emotional through-line for the readers and viewers or at least it didn't for me and for the climax to come from Nami quietly saying thank you while crying in response to see Luffy destroy the room and ultimately liberate her it's a sweet gesture and I did enjoy it but it had nowhere near the impact I thought it could have had and while the presence of the room is perfectly fine the story didn't really spend any time building that up but one place it did spend time exploring and familiarizing ourselves with was the village Nami grew up in Cocoa Village what if instead of destroying a single room our along had gone berserk and vowed to erase Coco village from the face of the earth he already went berserk in the fight but very little changed before and after he did go berserk really Coco village was the place she spent almost a decade as a slave to protect imagine if she was faced with that threat and imagine if Luffy was the only thing standing between her home and certain destruction there's tons of emotional resonance with that and it could have even involved the townspeople to stand up for themselves alongside Luffy it's just a thought off the top of my head but I thought it could have worked better than a cartography room we had never been exposed to before no I'm totally aware that this might seem like a small nitpick and that's honestly because it is but I think it stood out to me as worth addressing because it stands in direct contrast with an utterly spectacular arc as a whole however with all that said despite my small issues with it our long park is easily the best outing so far in one piece and is composed of a series of profoundly and massively handled moments conflicts and scenes that truly touched me and I'm sure will stay with me long after I finished reviewing this series [Music] he gave Luffy his lucky straw hat was it OSA shanks or Sonic lo coun arc chapters 96 to 100 what's funny about this short but dense arc is that while I was starting to believe I had any grasp on the scope of Oda's writing he swerves me yet again with something I alluded to in the last review and I think this particular choice an idea illustrates exactly where owed his proclivities for action and story lie for him it's very much substance over style and nothing demonstrates that more than the cover art for each chapter he's released for instance when it came to Dragonball by Akira Toriyama his cover art would be simply representative largely of what would be happening in this week's chapter or something unrelated but Eiichiro Oda has decided to tell his own secondary story and subplot using the cover pages of his chapters and if you line them up side by side and one after the other they tell the story of bugging the clown after his defeat the hands of Luffy how he came to meet a new business partner and how he regained his foothold as a threat in society it's funny it's character rich and it's a whole lot of work and not to mention vital for this story arc to work and I say vital not only because it's necessary for you to understand Bucky's presence in this arc with the new and improved lady Evita but because this is the mini arc that showed me that I really have no idea what the hell is gonna happen whether it be through character rich dialogue was always buying swords that reminds him of his childhood rival and friend the intimidating reveal of Captain smoker and that's not a joke name that's actually his name the reintroduction of an older more grizzled red haired shanks and the unveiling of a mysterious gentleman that has an invested interest in the progression of Luffy and his gang to say this arc has a lot to cover is an absolute understatement I had to read it twice to make sure I got everything and spoiler alert I didn't again thanks to cover art we are reminded that this isn't like a typical manga where villains and characters get forgotten about once their arc is done this is a fully realized world and the characters who are off screen are mu around living their lives too and because of this one pieces world feels so alive I have no idea what's going to happen next two Zorro's got new swords Luffy was rescued from gold Rogers shopping block and the next stop is the grand freaking line and they're sailing during a storm that was started by a man that I think has the power to control the weather maybe he's one of the seven warlords of the grand line that was mentioned at the beginning of the r-la arc yeah I remember that one of it this series is absolutely not in the best way possible and I honestly have no idea what's next I have so many questions at this point in the story like who are Luffy's parents and why haven't we seen them what does the D and monkey D Luffy stand for who were nabis biological parents in fact we don't really know anything about any of the group's parents apart from us ops whose father we know still operates with shanks I have no idea what's to come on this journey would probably end up cycling through all the seven wards at some point during the Grand Line and I'm sure a variety of devil fruit would play a large role - maybe you can stockpile them who knows aside from my crackpot theories at this point I can see why so many of you are excited for me to discover these arcs of the show there's a very real feeling of progression increased stakes and an emotional maturity that the shown in genre of that age often didn't and in a lot of ways still doesn't employ in fact the more that I read one piece the more I'm convinced that it's actually an adult's emotional comedy disguised as a children's action manga and that's not to say that kids can't love this series - it's just typically things don't get this nuanced when it comes to emotional punchlines in a series of this type and in the case of the Ireland Park Ark for the entire thing to hinge on the delivery of chapter 81 emotional send-off I think it takes a lot of confidence in your writing which I'm sincerely happy oda has i thought the decision for the ark to largely center around nami struggle with allowing others into her life to help her situation was an inspired choice creating for me one of the most beautiful page turns i have ever in my life experienced trust is a really compelling theme to Center a story around and I loved every moment of this one and its execution but at the end of the day I was only reading this story alone in my dark room at the twenty-eight and it still managed to evoke emotions from me I haven't felt since I was a young kid watching the story that would later change my life and because of that while I do appreciate this story immensely I can't begin to imagine the impact a story like this with the lessons morals and dialogue it has had on those of you watching right now that grew up with it I can't wait to see what's next I've been told not Marc and thank you so much for watching [Music]

Channel: Totally Not Mark

Views: 1,006,687

Keywords: 100% Blind, One Piece, review, part 2, arlong park, loguetown

Id: cHZ1aOpunB4

Length: 26min 43sec (1603 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 04 2020