I’m not going to say much on this, I’m sure it’s been debated to death already. I can’t allow this blog to persist, however, without showing some love to One Piece for Fishman Island, which was effectively the most boring One Piece arc of all-time. This is assuming you’ve read/watched past this point, if not, SPOILERS YO.

To start, I’ll admit, Fishman Island did a lot of things wrong:

The animation was weak

The fights were disappointing

The supporting characters were practically invisible, with the exception of Shirahoshi-hime, who was entirely TOO visible

Basically, all the things you expect out of a One Piece arc were missing. Oh wait, all with the exception of that heart-warming, life changing message that Oda Eiichiro ultimately imbues in each arc.

You may be thinking, “Yo, okay, we get it. Racism is bad. Moving on.”

It’s easy to think about it this way. Most of us here, stateside, are perfectly inclined to think this way, I can’t blame you if you do. Considering the tension between people of color and caucasians in America, it’s a simple job to paint this as “Black vs. White.” It’s easy to dismiss this as just another anti-racism campaign. It was boring in that capacity. Look at it from my perspective though, and you might see a different message.

Let’s establish what we know based on previous chapters/episodes:

The Fishmen and humans have a long and storied past of hatred

Arlong was very much anti-human

Mermaids sell for a pretty penny at the Shabody Auctions

Legendary Fishman Hero and Activist, Fisher Tiger

Examine the story of fishmen racism. They are persecuted and captured by humans and forced into slavery, even in the present day timeline. Our first fishman dealings with Arlong would lead one to believe that fishmen are your typical bigots. It didn’t take long for this to start sounding a little different than your typical passion play, did it? Antagonizers one arc, victims the next? Let’s shake up the paradigm: Fisher Tiger, legendary fishman hero and founder of the Sun Pirates shares some pretty obvious parallels Django of Django Unchained, as well as The Boondock’s Catcher Freeman. You probably realized that the first time around, if you’ve watched either of the above named movies/shows. It is my sincerest belief that Fisher Tiger was indirectly (or possibly, directly) inspired by the story of Nat Turner, the black slave behind the rebellion bore witness to the death of over 50 whites on plantations in Virginia. I’ve always thought Django to be a modern day amalgamation of Nat Turner and the spaghetti Django of yore, so it naturally I thought that was where the connection ended; Escapes slavery, becomes badass, frees slaves, dies at the hands of the white man.

Jamie Foxx as Django, bounty hunter and possible inspiration for Fisher Tiger

Further examining the parallels between Nat and Fisher, I see that both had heart of compassion and mercy: Fisher freed ALL the slaves at Mariejois, not just the Fishmen, and preaches human tolerance and non-violence, and Nat ultimately spared a few poverty stricken White homes, sympathizing with their struggle just to survive, thinking that such people probably think no better of themselves than they do of him. Both had the capacity for mercy toward other demographics, but both carried a deep-seated flame of hatred within themselves as well. It was this hatred that drove Nat to rebel, and drove Fisher to form the Sun Pirates. Fisher himself alludes to the darkness within him being the most fearsome of all. Nat and Fisher’s actions both had nigh-irreperable consequences: As a result of Nat Turner’s rebellion, Across Virginia and other southern states, state legislators passed new laws to control slaves and free blacks. They prohibited education of slaves and free blacks, restricted rights of assembly for free blacks, withdrew their right to bear arms (in some states), voting, and required white ministers to be present at all black worship services. Fisher Tiger’s activities with the Sun Pirates ultimately spat in the face of Fishman Queen Otohime’s tireless efforts to forge positive relations between humans and fishmen, and his refusal to accept a human blood transfusion had a massive ripple effect on the fishmen’s community, including planting the seed of hatred in the youth of the Fishman District, which contradicted Fisher’s desire for the hatred to end with his generation.

Catcher Freeman, another possibly Nat Turner-inspired character from The Boondocks.

Fast-forward to Hody Jones, just another kid from the hood, who reveres Arlong and the pirates. Some people looked up to fireman, others to basketball players, some to politicians, and some even to preachers. Some people looked up to the Al Pacinos and the Robert De Niros of the world. Positive and negative rolemodels exist, but the line is easily blurred. A drugdealer is just doing his job, he only becomes the villain when he’s selling heroin to your 15-year-old son. A politician is just doing his job, but he’s also carrying out the objectives of his party, as well as his own. Hody is a product of his environment, and as such, he doesn’t need a grand reason to hate. He just hates. That’s what we do, as humans. We hate. Racism is easy to understand; You’re different than I am, so fuck you. Doesn’t take much thought. Fishmen are 10x stronger than the average human. They can live on land, but they thrive in water. Easy for a couple of Fishmen to think they’re superior, just because.

Hody Jones, antagonist and conspirator of the events on Fishman Island

Hody believes humans should not coexist with Fishmen, so he hatches a scheme to subjagate the human race by usurping the Fishman throne, attending a meeting of world leaders, and assassinating said leaders. Sounded good, but the inevitable security at the meeting would ultimately stop him before he would be able to do any serious damage. I get that it’s a stupid plan, and obviously poorly thought through. This seems to be the common complaint I’ve seen in regard to Hody. L’est we not forget, Hordy’s ultimate goal is not world domination, it is the ultimate separation of the fishmen from and the subjugation of the human race. Any action he took to get there were wins in his book. Assassinating Otohime, for example, and framing a human, served to obvious effect.

Hody shares Stokley Carmichaels (above) passion for separation rather than integration

Radical, I know, but let’s compare Hody and the New Fishmen Pirates to the other radicals of the Civil Rights movement, like the Black Panther Party, and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. I’m not calling Hordy an “evil, ‘roided-up Stokely Carmichael fishman,” but I will say that all of the above named factions did a fantastic job of dividing their representative populations in the struggle to unify all populations, and promoting self-reliance and anti-intergration ideologies.

Hody had no qualms with harming his own people to satisfy his own hatred. What we’re looking at isn’t the standard paradigm we know and loathe from our history textbooks in America. We’re looking at reverse racism. We’re looking at the struggle of the Burakumin and the Okinawans who are discriminated against in Oda’s motherland Japan to such an extent that they’d discriminate against each other just to live a normal life. We’re looking at the black-on-black crime that has ravaged black communities for decades.

I, for one, will applaud this anime for making this, probably the most boring arc in all of One Piece, possibly the most culturally relevant.