第46回：'Lovely coat, Mink?'

At long last we are in what seems to be the homeland of the ’mink tribe’, an animal/human hybrid race whose name was first glimpsed on a list back on Sabaody Archipelago’s auction house.

Although this is the first time we’re seeing the mink tribe in their own country, or rather, ’Dukedom’*, we’ve had plenty of glimpses of characters throughout the series who may very well be mink themselves.

When it comes to these three I wonder… Shoujou claimed to be human but, come ooon! Look at these three, they seem *way* too animalistic to be fully human and, aside from Masira, not quite animalistic enough. Well, we’ve got half fishpeople, think they might be half mink? If so, does that mean Merry and Caesar Clown might also be part mink?

*Dukedom is 公国 or ’koukoku’ in Japanese making the full name ’Mokomo Koukoku’ which when spoken *sounds* like ’moko-moko koku’; ’moko-moko’ is actually an onomatopoeia meaning ’fluffy’ and ’koku’ means country so essentially it’s the ’Country of Fluffiness’. Adowable.

Etetete! MONKEY! I probably wouldn’t have caught the joke behind this monkey’s name but for the situational shirt from Dressrosa that I featured in the 39th Greg-Sensei’s SUPER One Piece Course. You can check that page for the whole explanation but the short version is: ’ete’ = monkey. So what about the ’bari’? Well, ばり or ’bari’ can mean ’very much’ which makes sense since he looks *very much* like a *monkey*, despite Robin’s grim first impression ^O^

Here’s something I’ve wanted to address for a long time now about Nami’s attire and since this chapter finished with a close-up on Nami’s clothes, it’s the perfect opportunity!

Did you notice that the ’bandana’ Nami’s jolly roger wears is actually the same design as her…bikini top!?

Is Nami’s jolly roger wearing her own bikini on her head!? That’s some Franky’s-level hentaiism! ^_~

You guys! Warney is the best thing EVER! Alligator! Warthog! Alligator-Warthog!

"Chill out, Greg. It’s just another one of One Piece’s wacky creatures."

WHAT!? Blasphemy! Two animals in one, you’ve seen this before!!! Think back, waaay back! All the way back to East Blue. Before Arlong! Before Krieg! Before even Kuro!!! If you hit Buggy you’re too far back. Got it?

GAIMON’S ISLAND OF RARE ANIMALS!!!!

Animal hybrids are a rarity in East Blue but is it possible that long, long ago, Zou wandered the world freely and some of the creatures on it were taken away by poachers or even mink who left to live amongst people!? How cool would that be!?

YES! Did you catch the new (and much needed) touch to Doflamingo’s string based melee attacks? Although Doflamingo has a well-stocked arsenal of attacks (some of which anime-only fans still haven’t seen yet) he’s been missing an iconic flair to his attacks a la Crocodile’s grainy sand, Enel’s blue lightning, Magellan’s purple poison, etc.

So, what’s the deal with this five-colored frenzied foray? Why the five colors? Because that’s literally the name of his melee attack, 五色糸 or ’Goshiki-ito’ which means, ’Five-Colored Strings’ which was first named during his battle with Sanji.

One for the kiddies. Pica’s attack ’Charlestone’ written in kanji is舞踏石 or ’butou ishi’ which literally means ’dancing rock’.

This is a play on the popular 1920’s dance ’Charleston’ inspired by the song of the same name, ’The Charleston’. I’d love to know how that trivia tidbit found itself on Oda-sensei’s radar. I’m not sure if this attack is named because it makes stone ’dance’ or for how it forces the victims of the attack to ’dance’ around to avoid it.