One Piece Diaries #53: Amazon Lily Arc #1

One Piece is one of the most beloved anime in history, but at over 1,000 episodes, it’s tough for those who haven’t been watching from the start to jump on board. One Piece Diaries tracks one writer’s experience with this daunting rite of passage. With hype for the highs and critique for the lows, this column will help you decide whether to take your own One Piece journey – or let you relive the one you’re already on. It will update biweekly every other Thursday.

Episodes Watched: 408 – 414 – Amazon Lily Arc

Let me start by saying that this review is going to be a huge downer. So far, I kind of hate this arc. I may change my mind when I watch the second half, but right now, I’m having a bad time.

The arc follows Luffy onto an island owned by a matriarchal society – so matriarchal, in fact, that men are banned. If a man is spotted on the island, they face execution. Luffy didn’t go there intentionally – it’s simply where Kuma’s attack sent him. He’s discovered by a group of warriors who think he’s a woman because he’s covered in parasitical mushrooms and most of them have no idea what men look like.

This led to one of the cringiest scenes I have experienced in a long time. After the warriors remove the mushrooms, they think that there are a few left that they can’t remove – a long one, and one that feels like a sac with two objects inside. They start tugging violently on them to remove them. This was supposed to be…funny? I guess? I can’t see what’s funny about Luffy essentially getting a super violent handjob while he’s unconscious. Actually, that’s just creepy as hell. Played realistically, that would have been sexual assault – even if not intended that way.

I’m glad I watched it at home instead of at the gym because I could not stop yelling about how much I disliked it.

Another thing I disliked was the society itself. Matriarchal societies do exist, but they typically don’t ban men. Why? Because a lot of women fall in love with men and have sons. Also, while communities vary in their acceptance of this, some people who are born female aren’t women – they’re non-binary or they’re trans men. Also, according to multiple studies, matriarchal communities are less violent, less competitive, and less abusive for both men and women, but in this world, women fight constantly and are willing to execute Luffy for simply existing in their presence by accident.

Also, in this world, women have to leave the community to get pregnant, but the father will have no contact with the child, and the child is always female. For…some reason. Seriously, that’s the explanation they give. If there were some sort of explanation, maybe I’d buy this, but with nothing to go on, all I can imagine is that they selectively abort male babies, kill them or adopt them out at birth, or force them to live as girls. Either way, it gets pretty dark if you think about it for more than three seconds.

There are reasons that women might want to create a man-free society, but so far the arc has had almost nothing to say about why. The women are operating off bizarre, off-base information about men that have absolutely nothing to do with how men actually treat women. Every time Luffy does anything that seems unusual to them, they decide it’s because he’s a man. But most of them have no experience whatsoever with men. Their problem with men is presented as comical and irrational, not due to a real problem that exists in the world. Nami’s problem with pirates was treated with far more sensitivity.

Then there’s how they dress. Every single woman is wearing skimpy clothing that reveals most of her body. Maybe that’s appropriate for the climate, but they don’t say whether that’s the case. Either way, not every woman is going to want to dress like that, and given freedom from the expectations of men, some would and some wouldn’t. Also, the clothes don’t look functional or supportive at all. Overall, it seemed like their outfits were designed to titillate the male audience, not to be realistic for women.

At least not all of them were “conventionally pretty” –  aka not the type of women Sanji would drool over. I can give them that much.

Considering how this series treats women in general, it’s not really surprising that Oda displays no curiosity about what might drive women to create this kind of community and how they might live in it, but if you don’t care then why do it in the first place?

I know it sounds like I’m expecting too much depth from this series…but One Piece can be exceptionally insightful and deep when it comes to other subjects. Just…not when it comes to women. Some of the female characters have great backstories and development, but when it comes to anything related to them being women, it falls apart. I don’t know what sort of insight Oda has into women in general, but it sure as hell isn’t showing through in his work.

The next part looks like it’s going to focus more on Boa Hancock and her sisters. I’ll talk more about them in the next review – both things that happened in these episodes and in the rest of the arc. Hopefully, the second arc will be less infuriating.

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