The flashback continues, driving home the point that humans are wretched beings who enslaved fishmen, but that fishmen themselves aren’t so goody good either. Most of the example of fishmen being just as “evil” as humans is piled onto Arlong, who can’t have a single panel where he acts like he even has a heart. On the other hand, Fisher Tiger represents the leader of justice, firmly stating that they will not kill anyone, revealing that he pretty much shares the same sentiments as Otohime, and is in essence, a “good” character. The fact is, he realizes action must be taken against humans to rid corruption, whereas Otohime’s method is “communication and peace will win.” Again, it’s not exactly the most captivating of developments, and if you can see the stances every character takes, it becomes a bit predictable.

This is also because most of the time, the flashback has been glazing over and rushing through the “cause and effects” of fishman discrimination. When it started focusing on Koala, the little human boy, emotions suddenly ran high and felt a lot more immersive. Having the fishmen see a human slave right before their own eyes, young and completely conditioned, is probably the best showing of who’s the real enemy here. It’s not the fishmen, it’s not the humans, it’s the World Government. This trip to take the kid home might be the one where Fisher Tiger meets his fate.

18 Comments

  1. I felt pretty sick looking at how Koala was conditioned to automatically perform work when ever anyone’s angry. The fact that he repeats that he doesn’t want to get killed makes me hate WG even more. I am glad that Fisher Tiger is doing something about it and hopefully Luffy will finish the job once he becomes king of the pirate.

    Shadiic
  2. I really do wonder wat did jinbe mean when he said hes de one to release arlong wild into de sea. He doesnt seem to share fisher tiger’s sense of justice yet… Can’t wait to see de upcoming developments!

    Flappy
  3. This arc got interesting for me at this point, with the human child. Once again the story delivers.

    Also, I thought the child is a girl and the scans were mistranslated?

    InstantNoodles
  4. I’m really wondering who the real villain of this arc will be, since the whole “seeing Hodi & friends as kids” part of this chapter makes them even less intimidating than before.

    I’m also wondering if Kizaru will become the antagonist of this flashback, since his appearance was unexpected. Maybe he’s the one who mortally wounded Fisher?

    caramel_cod
  5. I can’t get it off my mind that the innocent child they picked up is going to be the reason to Fisher Tiger’s demise, one way or another, and I’m leaning towards a sell-out. Which would be sad because everything seems so innocent right now 🙁

    Jello
  6. Last chapter Arlong tried to stop Jinbe from hitting an unconscious marine. I was bewildered too!

    Something that is putting pressure on me each chapter is that I know that the fates of the queen and Tiger are sealed, maybe this chapter or the next one. You can’t escape the flash back.

    Kizaru tried to join the L.A. Noire cast and got rejected, now he’s pissed.

    Lectro Volpi
  7. I’m noticing quite a strong allegory for 20th century US and what black people had to go through. You’ve got Malcolm X and MLK, Fisher Tiger and Otohime. And Arlong is just like all those people (who some even claimed themselves to be followers of X or MLK) back then who thought extreme violence was the only solution. Oda, you are beastly. This does beg the question, though: How much of American history do Japanese students learn in schools?

    Bossun
  8. I wonder if that boy will show up in the current timeline, it’d be a pretty big deal for a human with a sun pirate mark to show up (if you look closely at the branding iron, it’s pretty obvious it’s the sun pirate one and not something else to just scar over the mark).

    Although I have a hunch his fate might be sealed by the time we finish the Fisher Tiger story.

    Necromas
  9. Just thought I’d point out that there was a translation mistake and the boy is actually a girl. In the Japanese script, she refers to herself through Atashi which is a female pronoun.

    Neratune

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