29 Years Later, It Makes Sense

For almost three decades now, Zeph's oversized hat just seems like part of a bizarre joke. A weird design choice for a weird old pirate man. But in modern One Piece, hats matter. The straw hat itself has become one of the single most important symbols in the entire world. An item given from Roger to Shankster Luffy, tied directly to Na Joy Boy, and potentially even Emu himself, cuz he keeps a hat downstairs in the fridge. And now suddenly Oda has drawn attention back to another strange hat worn by a historical figure. Because before he became the head chef of Baratier and even before he captained his own crew, Zeff sailed the seas as the cook of an unknown legendary pirate. So just what is the significance of this hat? Well, we're going to find out because we are covering every single SPS segment of the One Piece manga volumes in excruciating detail, volume by volume, where I promise that no information will be omitted, no matter how redundant, irrelevant, or perverted. Today, featuring the absolute treasure that is the SPS of volume 10. This is where we talk about the fun hat stuff. But something weird about volume 10 in general is that it contains the only chapter in the series that is given the title of episode rather than chapter. So I guess in terms of the One Piece manga, there technically is no chapter 82. However, there is an episode 82. That never happened again. But we should start question. I am Timmy Uea from the SPS hijacking group. I will start the SPS corner before Oda Sensei can. Uh-huh. Start the SPS Oda. G. Damn. He started it first. Damn you, Timmy. Damn you. How am I going to start the SPS now? Oh, wait. It just started. This is the first appearance of the infamous Timmy UA. This is not the last you will have heard of him, but we'll get into that in a later video. Question. On page 121 in volume 8, that thing that rises above Zeph's head is a hat, right? My mother says it's too tall to be a hat. There must be a pole behind him or something. Sensei, please make this blockhead, age 44, agree with me. So, the exact panel being referred to is this iconic panel of Sanji bowing and thanking Ze before he leaves with Luffy and Zeff's hat. It looks pretty unbelievably tall. That 44year-old motherly blockhead may have a point, but Oda's reply here is, "Okay, mom, listen to me now. In this world, there are certain unyielding truths that you cannot avert your eyes from. The thing that is standing on Zeff's head is the tower of faith, supported by the spirit of the heart. It's called the cook's slice of heaven hat. That's right. I love this answer, but the reason behind this actually has its roots in real life culinary history because generally the height of your hat was to dictate your rank in the kitchen. This practice was instituted by a legendary French chef in the late 1700s. He wanted to install this military style of hierarchy into the world of cuisine. And he had a mission to elevate the status of chefs from laborers to that of respected artisans. And while there are no images of this, reportedly the chef's own hat was 18 in tall and required cardboard to support its stature. And in fact, looking back on it, I'm fairly certain that One Piece live action modeled Zeph's head after this fact because it looks about right. So, it really is that simple. The taller your hat, the more respected of a chef you are. Which is why Zeff has this hat that stretches all the way up into the heavens because he is the ultimate chef. And it reminds me of that one time when McDonald's had a crossover with One Piece in Japan. And one of their ads was this incredibly tall banner of Ze with the full scale size of his slice of heaven hat. There was also a TV ad with Ze and Sanji cooking McDonald's menu items together. It's very clever on the part of McDonald's to associate their food with Baratier quality cooking. that and giving Roger a Big Mac as his last meal right before he was executed. However, in the future, Sanji may have a hat even taller than that of Ze because we do see that Sanji begins wearing this hat in the good timeline future at age 60. However, we don't know how high his ceiling goes and if Sanji was able to top the Tower of Faith and exceed even the cook's slice of heaven hat. My bet is that by the time that Sanji is Ze's age, Sanji will have the most ridiculous hat that we have ever seen in the series. It'll be like as tall as the red line. Question. Hello, Oda sensei. You know, in volume 8, page 92, the sixth panel, you wrote, "Search for pandan." Well, I can't find him. Where is he? Please show me. So, pretty much everyone watching this video will know that the pandan is an Easter egg character within the One Piece. You can often spot him in the background. However, there are different levels to Pandaman sightings, and some dedicated readers who are Pandaman hunters because some of these Pandan sightings are so insanely difficult to find that Oda needs to leave clues, like going on a treasure hunt. And this is one of those occasions. Oda. Aha. I got a whole bunch of postcards from people about this one, a bunch of people who found him, and a bunch of people who didn't find him. And I thought that the words were so small that no one would notice to begin with. Well, I'll show you the answer. In the bottom circle is written the phrase search for panderman and in the upper right circle is the man himself. So Oda left a hidden message informing people that there was a hidden panderman. And in black and white he is an absolute nightmare to find. That's what pandas look like even when there's color. So it's much more difficult when there isn't. However, it's slightly more clear in the official digital coloring. But even if you're reading One Piece in the highest definition possible, the pandan here is nothing more than a smudge. And I do think that this is one of the most difficult and most obscure panderman sightings in the entire series. Question. When the Arlong guys and other fishermen give birth, do they lay eggs like fish? Oda. Fishermen are still mammals, so they do give birth the way humans do. There are fish women, too, of course. So, this question invokes within me some phantom pain. I can't even give birth, so I have no reference for how this would feel. But it just reminds me of Otheime and what giving birth to a baby Shiroshi must have been like if fishermen and mermaids do indeed give birth the same way that humans do. Oda did also note that fish women exist as well. However, at this point in the series, which is during the Arong arc, we had already seen one fish woman already. However, that was Luffy's drawing of fishwoman Nami, which was actually supposed to be a mermaid, but ended up being a fishwoman. And given that Luffy quite literally has the ability to bring his imagination to life, it perhaps shouldn't be surprising that fishwoman Nami actually appeared in the crowd in a panel of chapter 626. This is something that Oda would have to go back and readress though, particularly since mermaids and fishmen or mermen and fish maids can procreate with one another. And now we have this helpful diagram of the four possible outcomes between a mermaid man and a fishman fishwoman pairing. Question. I really want to know the height of all five. Nami's really cute. Oda, the main five, you mean? I'll get this one out of the way. First of all, Gon's height is kidding. I'll start from the shortest. Oda, interestingly claiming that Gimon is one of the five main characters there. Nami's height is 169 cm. Luffy is 172. Usopp is 174. Sanji is 177. Zoro is 178. So, they're all pretty much the same height. And remember that these are all pre-time skip heights. The straw hats do grow upwards over 2 years. However, reading this question did make me realize something rather important, which is that in theory I have a life-siz Zoro statue, which looks about my height. But remember that Zoro, he's cheating because he's standing on a base. And also, I'm not very tall. I'm 170 cm. So, this Zoro isn't even correct for pre-time skip, let alone post time skip. So, this one:one scale I was sold is quite the lie. Question. Of all of the fishermen, Han is the cutest and funniest. But there's one thing that bugs me. Why is Hchan's full name hotchan and his nickname Hi? Oda. A lot of Chinese people have names that go something Chan. So, it should be just fine. This is something that personally bothers me because every time I use Hot Chan's real name, which is Hot Chan, I get a lot of people in the comments correcting me claiming that Hot Chan is his nickname and that Hi is his real name. But it's the other way around. Hotchi is the nickname. And if you have a problem with that, apparently you can blame China. Because in Japanese, adding a charm suffix would be a cute way to construct a nickname. But in this case, Han's friends call him Hatchi because he's an octopus and hatchi means eight. Question. What is the thing that Usopp and a lot of other pirates in One Piece have tied around their waist? A towel? Or did they want one of Zoro's stomach bands, but they couldn't get one for themselves, so they use these instead? Oda. these things. They do all have them, don't they? There's no real deep reason for them, though. I guess pirates just like to wear these decorative sashes, but sometimes they put their pistols in them, so maybe they aren't totally pointless. So, as far as I can tell, they are definitely not pointless at all. And there's several layered reasons for the sashes. One is exactly what Oda said. They're good at, you know, hiding and storing weapons. And since pirates, you know, they're very sneaky people, it's always good not to let your opponent know exactly what you got packing down below. But apparently they also served as a method of battle identification. So when two pirate crews clash, you can always tell who's on your side because of a particular color or style of sash. And also it's been claimed that the sash has prevented shaving because pirates would often wear thick leather belts. So you really don't want that rubbing against your skin all day in the sun. Or maybe you do. I I don't know your preferences. Question. One piece is always a hurricane of emotion. This is the first time I ever wrote to a manga artist. Oda sensei is my favorite character. Oda, I'm not a character. Now, Oda says that he is not a character. However, the readers very much disagree with him. After reading this response, there was an organized effort to vote for Etra Oda himself in the second One Piece popularity poll. And whilst Oda did not make it into the top 20, he did rank in 25th place with a grand total of 97 people voting for Oda as their favorite One Piece character. Back in the day, 97 people held quite a lot of power. If you want to rank 25th these days in the latest polls, you wouldn't need thousands, maybe tens of thousands of votes. Question. A little while ago, my friend asked me to draw Shanks, so I did. Then he hit me on the head all of a sudden and said, "Why do you draw Django? Is this a disease?" Oda, yes, it is a disease. Drawing Django sickness, I believe. You're always going to draw Django. Be careful as the final symptom of this disease is when you draw Django rather than signing your name for a home delivery. So, I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this on the channel before, but Oda really enjoys these sorts of uh playful diseases. Kind of like Docu's feminization disease that turned Trafalgore into Trafalgal briefly, but whenever Oda uses a disease in One Piece, he makes sure that it is fictional. He doesn't like using real diseases because he doesn't want to upset readers that are either experiencing them or know someone who has experienced a real life condition. He also keeps in mind that his work is primarily targeted at children. And so he said that he doesn't want to scare them with the possibility of catching one of those diseases. And so Oda always makes very very clear that his diseases are entirely fictional. They don't exist. They will not afflict you. Even if some of them do take pretty close inspiration from real world conditions. Question. Sensei. I thought of a new move for Luffy Chan. It goes like this. Luffy stretches his mouth and eats the enemy. Then he goes to the bathroom and poops them out. How's that? It's good, right? A good idea. Oda, no, it's not. Well, you see, Oda says that, but he definitely thought that at least half of this attack was a good idea because in chapter 178, Luffy decided to stretch his mouth and eat a crocodile. And you know what? Luffy may even have completed the entire attack if crocodile had stayed down. All that sand need to go somewhere. However, on this occasion, Crocodile was able to escape before becoming subject to the Goumino gastrointestinal system. Yeah, the most fearsome of all of Luffy's attacks. Question. I have a question for Oda Sensei. What do you call Bare Son's haircut? Oda. That hairstyle is called Women Have Guts. You should yell it out in a beauty parlor. That is a bad idea, by the way. Do not do that because to date, each and every time that Detro Oda has given instructions on what haircut to ask for in an SPS, which has been surprisingly frequently, but each and every time that person, they end up being shaved bald each and every time. Do not ask for these haircuts or do. And if you do, let me know how it goes. I think I know. Question. I'm glad Sanji is girl crazy and not boy crazy. Oda. Uh, totally. You know, the way that Oda answers that actually gives me some doubt. Yeah, totally. Sanji loves women and only women. In fact, he had a great time on Mama Island for two whole years with all of those women. Ah, it certainly was a paradise for Sanji San. Question. When Sanji thinks about a girl, the smoke from his cigarette turns into a heart shape. How does he do it? I want to try too. Please, times 100, tell me. Oda, first of all, you have to be over 20 years old. Then you light your cigarette and take a big drag. When you do that, the smoke will come into contact with the quote feeling of love you put in your lungs beforehand. And when you blow the smoke out, it will most surely come out in the shape of a heart. It's your odor there giving a a how to smoke guide. Just make sure that you take as much of it into your lungs as possible, but also you need to preload your lungs with the feeling of love. If you don't have that, don't smoke. Probably don't smoke anyway, I think. But also, don't go slacking on your love feelings. And you know, I could be wrong, but my impression is that if One Piece was to start publication today, Sanji probably wouldn't be a smoker. Cuz you need to remember that One Piece began in the late '9s. And during that time, smoking was the easiest way to make a character look cool, ever so cool. And Sanji wasn't even the only smoker on the crew. Chopper was originally going to be a chain smoking reindeer man as well. So, it feels a bit like a relic of the 80s and the '9s. And Oda himself is reportedly or was quite the chain smoker which may be why so many characters like Crocodile Ben and Beckman Pedro and the aptly named Smoker get this habit because Oda is able to identify with it question. I can't really tell if Yosaku and Johnny are strong or not. It's definitely by a hair. To be totally straight between those two and Helmeo who can stretch further. I hope that Ka will become a wonderful doctor. So what we have here is some classic one piece power scaling. If you were to believe Johnny and Yosaku, then the two of them are quite powersome as in their own words, they lost to Arlong by a hair. But very importantly, does that mean that either of them could stretch further than Helmeo? I suppose everything depends on how good of a doctor Ka becomes. And just on that, you know, there was once a really really old theory that Ka would become the doctor of the Straw Hat Pirates. This was around before Chopper joined the crew and they really needed a doctor. Luffy even tried to recruit Crocus as their doctor during Reverse Mountain. And this might be one of the earliest examples of One Piece internet madness. Spotting some superb force skinning by story lord Etra Ooda because well what's this? The straw hats. They need a doctor. You say, "Well, Mr. Era Oda, I recall that at the end of Syrup Village, you were setting Ka up to become a doctor and her illness was healing." So, the theory was that Mary was going to build another ship like the original Going Mary and that he and Ka were going to set sail to catch up to the crew just in time for some much needed healing. But that never happened. Most of what the internet says never happens, including what I say. Question. When I read your manga, Sensei, I get the feeling that I should do what I want. So, I've gotten the urge to pursue my dream to build a gigantic bridge in America. Oda, that's nice. A boy with a dream. I like that. Well, you know what? If anyone tries to stop you, I'll like put on a pair of leather boots and kick their little toes or something. So, don't worry. Try hard. Good advice there, I think. Apart from, you know, the kicking toes. But whatever it is you want to do with your life, you go out there and do it. Actually, it's been almost 30 years since this question got asked. So, I would love I would love to know if that boy grew up. He probably did, but if he grew up to build that bridge in the United States, and you know, 50% of my audience, you're Americans. So if there was a bridge built by a Japanese boy in your state, you let me know about it. Question. What does it mean when the cook Patty says, "Excuse me, your hickness." Oda, you know the saying, "Please excuse me, sir." Well, he seems to be using hickness in the place of sir. For example, you would use it like this. Oh my, you were in the hospital for a year. That must have been dreadful, your hickness. This man has accomplished many great deeds. A round of applause for his hickness and so on. Patty is a very difficult character to convey in English because his motto is that the customer is God. And so he spends a lot of time practicing his interactions with customers, his gods. But he's from such a rough background that Patty believes that his insults are genuine compliments. But it's really difficult to translate his genuiness into English. And so often Patty just looks like he's practicing insults to annoy people on purpose. Question. I have a question. Does Usopp have bones in his nose? Because I've seen it bent many times now. Oda. Well, I've never seen that. How could his nose possibly bend? What a ridiculous thing to Wo, it does bend. And the SPS is over. And I suppose that rather suddenly and unceremoniously ends yet another SPS deep dive. And just a heads up, if you're watching these in chronological order, there is no SPS volume 11. Oda decided to take a break and draw a bunch of pictures inside of The Going Mary instead. So, the next video will be the SPS volume 12.