One Piece Diaries #56: Little East Blue Arc
by Anna Lindwasser
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: 426-429 – Little East Blue Arc
It looks like I unintentionally lied to you – I’m not covering Impel Down next, I’m covering Little East Blue, a filler arc jammed right into the introduction of Impel Down in order to promote the movie Strong World.
I don’t know how this worked when the series was originally airing week by week, but this arc did not make me want to check out Strong World. Even if I’d loved it, it still wouldn’t, because I don’t like being interrupted by filler when I’m in the middle of an exciting story. Plus, it wasn’t all that interesting.
When I first read the summary for the arc, I was actually kind of excited. I was born and raised in New York City, which means that I have a lot of experience with “little” communities that mimic the various countries the immigrants came from. Most of them aren’t called Little Whatever, but it’s the same concept.
The arc didn’t really dig into the culture stuff in the way I would have hoped. It was less about the culture of East Blue and its diaspora and more about people obsessing over the Straw Hats and their exploits. There were a few funny jokes, but overall I wasn’t really all that impressed. Maybe I’d have been more amenable to it if it weren’t interrupting the experience I was already having with Impel Down, but honestly, I don’t think so.
Why? Because the plot felt like a rehash of the previous filler plots, complete with some very confusing and uninteresting villains who were weird kinda-racist caricatures of Mexicans for some reason.
So as not to be completely negative, I’ll end with a few things I did like about the arc. I appreciated the way that Yoko’s hatred of pirates paralleled with Nami’s. I did think that it was handled a bit too subtly – I got the point, but I did want to see a little more depth. Still, it was a good use of filler time because it highlights the main characters. I also thought that Largo’s Net-Net Fruit was a cool idea, even if he himself was pretty lackluster. I was also pretty intrigued by the parts that hinted at Strong World. I’m not sure if I’ll actually watch it, but the idea of someone trying to take over the world with weird hybrid animals sounds like fun.
Next time, I will actually be talking about Impel Down. Thanks for sticking with me, and I’ll see you then!
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For more of my work, check me out at Ranker, at Medium, on Twitter @annalindwasser and @sinistealatte, and on my website annalindwasser.com. If you like my writing and want to help pay for my Crunchyroll subscription, you can donate to my Ko-Fi.
