One Piece Diaries #59: Impel Down Arc #3

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 be updated biweekly every other Thursday.

Episodes Watched: 439 – 445

Well, I don’t have COVID anymore, so that alone made these episodes more enjoyable to watch. But my personal health wasn’t the only reason I liked them – they’re awesome in their own right.

During this batch of episodes, we get to see Level 5.5, which I erroneously called Level 4.5 in my previous review. Level 5.5 is a hidden enclave in the prison that’s populated entirely by the Newkama – essentially, a group of queer people dedicated to playing with gender.

Unlike on Moimoro Island, where the characters were specifically designed to incite Sanji’s transphobic horror, the people of Level 5.5 are designed to form a vibrant, loving, gender-non-conforming community. People can present however they want, regardless of their sex or their identity – everyone is accepted as themselves, and everyone has access to hormone therapy if they want it. It’s an idyllic community.

Ivankov himself is fabulous. Based on Dr. Frank-N-Furter from Rocky Horror Picture Show, he’s confident, he’s well-respected by the people around him, and his hormone-based Devil Fruit is one of the more creative sets of powers I’ve ever seen. He can not only use it to alter his own and other people’s bodies to suit their gender, but he can also use it for healing – more on that, later.

There was something I didn’t love about Ivankov. The parts where he forcibly feminizes guards or hostile prisoners were uncomfortable since that feeds into harmful and transphobic real-world stereotypes about trans predators trying to force their identities on others. I also didn’t love his lecturing Sadie about what women are like… Ivankov doesn’t identify as a woman, but as someone to transcends gender…so where does he get off telling a woman about women?

Overall, the whole Newkama thing doesn’t seem like it comes from true understanding on Oda’s part, but from media depictions he enjoys. Obviously, I can’t get in his head and say for sure where he gets his influences from, but that’s how it feels. I wish he put a little more care into the subject, but overall I still really enjoyed the foray into Newkama Land.

Now, back to the thing about healing. This was a moment that I thought was extremely cool. Ivankov used his Devil Fruit to stimulate Luffy’s immune system in order to heal his injuries and his poisoned state. I’ve seen this sort of thing happen many times, and usually the way it works is annoyingly inaccurate. For example, in My Hero Academia, Dr. Shuzenji uses her quirk to do just that. In MHA, this has limits, but there are never any major consequences for ramping up the immune system.

In reality, this wouldn’t just cause healing. Overstimulated immune systems can do serious physical damage to the rest of the body. The immune system’s whole job is to destroy what it perceives as the enemy, and cranking up the power without adequate control is dangerous. Doing this too much could result in auto-immune disease, allergy development, or even cancer or death.

Ivankov’s moves helped Luffy beat the poison, but it shaved years off of his life and caused enormous physical suffering. Sure, it was condensed for drama and wasn’t perfectly realistic, but there were consequences. 

In my book, this scores One Piece some serious points. Auto-immune disease is super common in my family, so I get really annoyed when “healing powers” that harness the immune system fail to account for the damage the immune system can do.

The rest of the episodes focused on Luffy getting the Newkamas’ help to start a riot that could potentially help them escape Impel Down. There were some cool moments, but I think I’ve gone on long enough for now. My next review will most likely cover the end of Impel Down. After that, we’re heading to Marineford. I’m both scared and excited about how that one’s going to go down.

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