第35回：May the Fourth be with you!

Trebol howls, "PGYAAAA!!!!", as Law slices through him, which is the same scream as a Tontatta’s ’death wail’. Trebol was patronizing the poor little guys as he stomped on them at the weapon shipping docks. You might have already noticed this clever callback, but…have you thought about *how* the Tontatta could react to his wail?

Leo clearly heard Trebol’s scream because he’s right below the castle but how does this account for the Tontatta in the SMILE factory? Above the din of the chaotic town, how could they *possibly* hear that? Even Franky, who was born with excellent hearing, couldn’t hear it! This almost reminds me of how Sanji can hear the teardrops of a woman and what does he excel at? Colors of Observation!

Is it possible that the Tontatta are all somewhat inherently gifted at Colors of Observation? Couldn’t this also explain why they exceed at caring for plant life? They may not call it Colors of Observation or even know about Haki, but it’s possible they use it all the time without even knowing that some people *can’t* use it!

Awwweヽ(´∇´)ノ　(∇´ノ)　ヽ(　　　)ノ　(ヽ´∇) ヽ(´∇`)ﾉsooome!!!
By the time you’re reading this we’ll all know exactly what it is. I envy future us!

The mirror of narcissism ladies and gentlemen.

And finally we’ve got these guys together in one spot again. When was the last time that happened?

Will the person with the oldest grudge get to take down Doflamingo or will this team manage it together?

GRIZZLY MAGNUM TO THE FACE! Take that ya’ ’soprano bastard’ (Is it just me or does he sound more like a ’falsetto’ bastard?)

From the start of the series until reaching the New World, the most common naming convention for Luffy’s attacks was adding an existing weapon name to the ’Gum Gum’ prefix. This was pretty slick on Oda’s part since Luffy (usually) doesn’t fight with weapons yet in his own way, he’s a living arsenal! It’s like a marketing team’s dream.

*Greg’s Imagination*

Marketing Team: "Gum Gum Pistol? We can’t have our hero use weapons. What would the parents think?"

Oda-sensei: "That’s okay! My hero doesn’t fight with weapons…and he’s made of rubber."

Marketing Team: (•̀ᴗ•́)و ̑̑

But since the New World we’ve been introduced to a new naming convention, animals! Many of Luffy’s new or improved techniques have the name of an animal attached to them. Let’s take a look!

Why did Oda-sensei add animal names to the attacks? Well, aside from the Octopus Stamp -which has so far only been used as a defensive maneuver- there appear to be two *big* reasons for his choice.

The first is that Oda-sensei probably thinks the animals themselves are powerful and that they even *sound* powerful. We’ve seen this kind of power-based naming convention before in the Color Walk art book series: Lion, Shark, Eagle, Gorilla. They’re each kings in their respective environments: savannah, air, sea & jungle. Since Luffy is king of the pirates, it only makes sense that he hangs out with other kings, right? And for the two years on Rusukaina, that’s *exactly* what Luffy did!

He spent two years sparring with hundreds of giant wild animals! It’s quite possible that Luffy gained inspiration from the animals on the island for all of these moves. I shudder to think what kind of awesome and powerful move awaits us when he gets to ’lion’.

The second reason for this naming convention is even more interesting! Even with the animal additions, some of them are *still* variations on the names of real munitions!

Snake Shot: A cartridge used in rifled firearms.

Elephant Gun: A large caliber (typically) rifled gun named because it was traditionally used for big-game hunting.

Red Hawk Rifle: A maker of rifles.

Grizzly Magnum: An extremely powerful handgun which was, at the time of its creation, the most powerful handgun in the world!

Because of this, in a sense, the naming convention from the very start of the series hasn’t entirely changed! It’s only become more specific. Can’t wait to see what other wild weapons Luffy has stored away in his arsenal!

Two points of interest this episode! One was that glimpse of Corazon much earlier in the anime than in the comic. A welcome addition since despite Law’s teasing line, we’re not going to be seeing Corazon in the story for a while more.

The other point is very important so please remember it. As readers, we tend to forget that some of the characters, like former King Riku here, are or were *leaders of entire countries* and yet here, thanks to Viola’s desperate plea, he’s made a decision to reject the Marines and trust –of all things- a pirate crew which, as far as he knows, has only caused trouble.

The choice wasn’t so clear-cut in Alabasta. Cobra and Vivi never actually
*rejected* the Marines, but here, Riku and Viola actually conclude that the
Marines are *part of the problem*, which is HUGE! It seems that there’s a
storm brewing…