ODA CONFIRMED IT!

One Piece volume 12 is a landmark issue because it introduces us to Nefertari Vivi who out of the almost 2,000 named characters in the series is one of the most core nexus points of the world. Except she was never meant to be. In fact, Miss Wednesday as we knew her in volume 12 was never even meant to be Vivi. In a note about characters who became more important than he ever expected, Mr. Oda wrote, "To be honest, I have lots of characters, but if I have to choose one, it must be Vivi." No, she was Miss Wednesday. At first, she appeared as an agent of Baroque Works, but I didn't think more about her. But one time I drew Miss Wednesday with her hair down and found, "Oh, she looks like a princess." I made the plan of the Alabasta Kingdom arc a while before and then I thought, "What would it be like if this girl would be the princess of Alabasta?" That's how the Alabasta arc truly began and for that reason still beloved by fans, the character Nefertari Vivi was born. And that's why Miss Wednesday acts so different to Vivi. And why after this revelation, Vivi never does stuff like her boob hypnosis anymore. Because it's rather unbecoming of a princess, don't you think? And something I've always wondered is that sure, Oda had the outline of Alabasta in his mind, but if he didn't stumble upon this Miss Wednesday solution, what would One Piece have looked like? We probably wouldn't have met the real Vivi until after Whiskey Peak, so perhaps on Little Garden or even Drum Island. And it would also have come with the side effect of characters like Igaram remaining these one-off bad guys instead of the lovable cross-dresser who reappears every now and then between arcs, constantly worried about Vivi being abducted by a big bird, which to be fair with Igaram did go on to actually happen now that Vivi is with Big News Morgans. So all of that goes through my mind. And then I think to myself that not much would have changed at all. Design-wise, I think Vivi would look more or less the same, maybe with different colored hair. But she was always going to be based on the Nami template. And Oda clearly had her personality in mind already, which was just ironed over Miss Wednesday's initial femme fatale personality. And really, I suspect the biggest loss we would tank would be Karoo. If Miss Wednesday isn't chosen, then we lose Karoo after Whiskey Peak, and Alabasta doesn't develop its in-depth duck law. So, we have a lot to thank volume 12 for. Furthermore, volume 12 is one of the only volumes in the series to contain a full story arc, in this case, Reverse Mountain. That only happens in three other volumes, with Romance Dawn in volume 1, volume 61 with Return to Sabaody, and volume 90 with the Reverie. And the cover of this volume was drawn as a color page for chapter 1,176. This is the infamous image where it looks like Sanji is holding an erect peen, and it was also turned into a promotional image for season 2 of the One Piece live action. But, this volume starts with an important author's note from Eiichiro Oda. This is going to sound like madness, as they all do. However, let me know if this statement reminds you of a certain in-world scientist. Today, let us talk about the topic of evolution, or let's not. Let's just go. Monkey became human, as shown in the image provided. You'll probably tell by looking at it, but the form starts to straighten little by little. Now, let's discuss the future form of man. I personally think we should bring this in the direction of a backflip. In other words, the human race will slightly float in the future. I'm sure of it. And of course, Oda has provided a handy diagram of the entire history and future of human evolution, where the human species will apparently undergo a period of existing entirely in the state of a backflip. So, this is only volume 12, and this is giving us some pretty good insight into how Eiichiro Oda created Dr. Vegapunk. Because, if you replace backflips with devil fruits, this is Vegapunk's hypothesis, that every devil fruit was the result of someone's dream for the future of humanity. And if someone was so certain that humans would evolve into backflips, then there is probably a fruit for that, just like there's a fruit for everything else, jackets, etc. And in that way, all of One Piece is a battle of dreams, with mostly devil fruit users clashing against one another in a grand tournament to see which future for humanity prevails and which path we as a human race will be going down. With the hopeful winner being the dreams embodied by Luffy, with humans eventually being able to access their most free forms. That's what I love about going through these bits of extended media, because even the nonsense, the absolute nonsense, tells you a lot about how Oda thinks and how certain characters ended up being created. And in fact, more often than not, the nonsense is more useful than the serious answers. So, with that, let's get into the SBS. One of my chief criticisms of One Piece is that despite it being a story about pirates, it contains shockingly little naval warfare and even less alarming amounts of attractive paranormal activity. A problem well and truly solved by the sponsor of this video, Azur Lane, a free-to-play naval warfare game on iOS and Android mixing RPG progression, tactical fleet building, and 2D side-scrolling combat where you put together fleets of up to six ships and either control battles yourself or let AI handle things whilst you concentrate on the extremely serious strategic responsibility of assembling your collection. I like to consider myself a collector of all things, ship girls included, of course, which is why I am extremely hyped for Tales of the Paranormal, a brand new Azur Lane event bringing with it six new ship girls including two ultra rares and a whole collection of supernatural themed skins that runs from September 8th through to September 30th. Ah, I need to get on that pretty quickly then because I need those ship girls immediately. Azuchi is available through the limited construction pool alongside I-14 and Hastie. Whilst you can earn event points and exchange them for rewards including ultra rare Tiger and elite hostile, meaning both of those can be obtained through playing the event. There's also new oath skins for Shinano, Owari, and Sailor, plus a whole bunch of new paranormal themed outfits including three new live 2D plus skins for Friedrich Carl, Lion, and Illustrious, and Azuchi's new dual form skin. So, if supernatural anime girl warfare sounds like a reasonable use of your time, and I assure you it is, then you can and should download Azur Lane using my link in the description below. So, definitely check out Azur Lane. It is a crazy fun game. Love me some ship girls. But, for now, it's back to you. Me? Thanks, me. Question. Timmy O'Wedda sama of the SBS hijacking group, I beg of you, please accept me, Martha Shimada, as your follower. I'll do anything you want. So, to begin with, start the SBS. Yay! How was it, Timmy sama? I started it. All right. So, we've had a dramatic escalation happen here already. You may or may not, but may remember that Timmy O'Wedda was the guy who hijacked the SBS all the way back in volume 10. Well, he's now started a movement of other readers eagerly joining the SBS hijacking group, such as this Martha Shimada. And it's becoming a big problem as Oda recognizes with his response. Yeah, it happened again. Damn you, Timmy's apprentice. on a stick. I should note that the official Viz translation does not have Oda say, "Shit on a stick." But, instead, he says, and I quote, "Darn you!" But, I personally want it known that in the original Japanese, Oda is a lot more vulgar, as you'll see shortly, because Oda, let's go ahead and say he's been somewhat triggered by the forces of Timmy O'Wedda. Question. Hello, Oda sensei. Today, I trained hard once more at Kendo. If I continue to practice, will I be as strong as Sanji one day? So, this question is further designed to enrage Oda, as Kendo, of course, is a sword-based art form, and Sanji is a kick-based life form. This question is not at all serious, and it successfully baits a response from Oda. God damn Timmy. Are you one of Timmy's followers, too? Is that right? Wait, you're not? Oh, sorry. Sorry. Sorry for flying off the handle like that. Become like Sanji by being a swordsman. Yeah, right. What does that have to do with anything? Crap, I'm getting all out of whack this time around. Be cool, Oda. Be cool. So, Oda is still rather flustered from having his SBS hijacked multiple times now. It's like he runs a story bank and keeps being robbed by the same group of people. And while this is clearly all an act and just for fun to mess with his readers, this is also good advice to any creators out there who attempted to reply to negative comments on the internet. Do not feed the trolls. Oda here, he's feeding the trolls and it is costing us precious SBS time where we could be finding out more useless facts about fictional pirates. So, let's stop wasting time and get our first proper useless fact. Question, yo. So, this is the first time we've talked A Chan. Ahem. I'm so embarrassed. Anyway, I have a question. Buggy the Clown can split himself into pieces, right? Which means he can also do it down there, if you catch my drift. I can't get any more specific. Don't make me say it. And also, don't draw anything until you answer this question. This seems to be a pretty easy way to get Oda to answer your question by forbidding him to draw more manga until he caves to your madness. Let's get down to clown because what we're asking is can Buggy's man parts fly? And Oda says, yes, his penis can fly, too. This is the second of many, many penis questions. As of this point in the SBS chronology, we've already established that Luffy's can stretch, but from here we go on to build our own supplementary manual to the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia, chronicling how Devil Fruits affect assorted genitalia. And it's not just penises, but it is mostly penises. Question, how do you do? I like Luffy the best. I like Sanji second best. I like the way Sanji talks. Not really a question, but the reader then provides a Sanji translation guide, where he takes normal sentences and translates them into Sanji speak, such as old man becoming shitty old man or you guys turning into you And my personal favorite, which is the statement that tastes good in Sanji speak being shitty deliciousy. Pretty sure we've gone through this in other videos before, maybe even an actual SBS video before, but in English you really do not get the full scale of just how uncouth Sanji speaks in Japanese, which is a wonderful contrast to his character design because he's always presented as such a refined, well-dressed, well-groomed man. And then he opens his mouth and it's like, what would happen if a sewer could speak? And the reader actually has a Sanji epiphany after asking his question. The reader says, he's quite filthy, isn't he? Is it okay if I lower Sanji's ranking? Oda, I'm not going to argue with you on that one, right? How can you argue with that? Question, a question for Oda sensei. Why do Zoro and Sanji and Nami drink alcohol when they're still minors? Is that allowed? Oda, no. And you know what? At least he didn't give them a guide on how to drink like Oda gave that other reader a guide on how to smoke in a previous SBS. Fun fact though, this is one of the reasons why Oda almost always has his characters drinking out of those very cool wooden barrel mugs instead of glasses or cups because it makes it easier to hide the copious amount of alcohol being consumed by our underage protagonists. Although something that I find endlessly interesting about Japan is that you can seemingly get away with anything in manga. Like over-the-top violence, nudity, drugs, and alcohol. But the anime is much more strictly policed. For example, in the few instances of One Piece where barrel mugs aren't used, we have shots like this of the Donquixote family celebrating a successful raid with red wine, two glasses of which are being held by the very underage Trafalgar Law and Baby 5. But in the Toei anime adaptation, they had to change this wine into some kind of juice and or urine, I guess. I feel like they could have chosen a better color that looks less like piss, but there we go. Question, I usually don't send this type of thing, but this time I did. Oda sensei, I challenge you. Akatako ashikikenki takao ashikiken chatako ashikiken. Try to say this three times fast and put it into the SBS. So this is a tongue twister. It means red octopus like danger, yellow octopus like danger, brown octopus like danger. Oda, aha, a tongue twister. Ha, these are so easy. Ready? Go. Oda then tries and immediately fails to complete the tongue twister, but I'm also keen to give it a go. Okay, this isn't going to go well. >> [clears throat] >> Akatakowashi kiken kitatakowashi kiken chatakowashi kiken >> Oh, I almost had it. >> Akatakowashi kiken kitatakowashi kiken chatakowashi kiken. Okay, skill issue, Oda. Skill issue. I don't even really speak Japanese. >> Question: I am the president of the International Somehow Okay Hair League, which I'm just as an aside is a reference to the SBS volume 7. Restaurant owner Zeff-san's hair is a splendid specimen in color, length, gloss, everything. So, we have decided that Zeff-san shall be the 41st Somehow Okay Hair Champion. Congratulations, Oda-sensei. Any comments? >> Oda: Uh, I can't help but be curious about who the previous 40 champions were. >> And this is a curse that Oda conjured for himself in the SBS volume 7. He referred to as Zeff's mustache as a yosage, which sounds like osage, meaning braided hair, but yosage means somehow okay hair. And now, as a result, there is an annual somehow okay hair competition. >> Question: How far can Buggy separate himself? I'm so interested. I've been growing hair for 3 straight days. >> I'm not sure if I've ever been interested enough in anything to do that, but let me know in the comments if you've ever grown hair for 3 days straight. >> Oda: Buggy, let's just say there's a cutoff point. Apparently, if he's any further away from his parts after that, he loses control. But more importantly, since you're growing okay hair, why don't you enter yourself in that okay hair contest they were just talking about? >> Question: I've been thinking about something for a while. How can Arlong wear a ring on his fingers when his hands are webbed? >> So, I would strongly, and I mean strongly, argue that this is the first decent question of the entire volume, because this is something that initially confused me quite a bit about Arlong as well. I love the bling, but how does the dude put it on? Oda: That's because they go straight through his fingers, like jabbed straight through. They're more like piercings than rings. >> Question: Here is a question. When do you letters reach you, Oda sensei? Every week? For instance, if I mailed one on November 1st, when does it fall into your hands? Please let me know. >> Oda: First of all, the letters everyone sends me are delivered to the Weekly Shonen Jump editorial department. There, people working part-time separate the letters according to author, and my manager sends me my letters once a week. So, if you are lucky, it might even be the day it arrives at the editorial department. It's almost always within a week or two, though. This is a really >> cool practice by Shueisha. Back in the day, you would have been able to write to an author, and it was almost guaranteed that they would read your letter. And you probably still can do this with lesser known authors, but these days Oda has so much fan mail coming in that I imagine his editors need to curate what to deliver him to read. Because if Oda actually Oda were to read every message that fans sent, then he would never have any time to actually draw the manga. But back in the days of volume 12, he did. Oda tried to read each and every message. >> Question, in volume 7, you wrote that you wear the same expression as your characters when you draw them. But is that true when you draw Nami's sexy expressions, too? Do you wear that, Oda? >> Oda: Of course. I'm famous with the local public for my sexy faces. They think I might be hotter than a magazine model queen. This sounds like a joke, but mate, I believe it. Not that they think he might be hotter than a model, but that Oda actually makes those faces when he draws. I believe it. When Oda's drawing manga, he's often doing it with his own amusement in mind. So, when he conjures pages like the NL face, I reckon Oda can't help but try it out for himself, as well as some of the greatest faces in One Piece, such as when King showed us how to Ran and Don's used to hunt in the ancient times. >> Question, >> Bring, bring. >> Click. >> Huh? >> Hello? >> Is this >> Son? >> L- >> What's that? >> You're not >> Son? >> Huh? >> Oda son? >> Huh? >> Sorry, wrong number. >> Click. >> Beep, beep, beep. >> Oda: >> Huh? >> Now, when I first read through this SBS, I thought that was the strangest question until I read the next one. Question, episode one, help Oda baby. I think this guy named Yamada who lives next door is a fishman. I mean, he's got gills on his face. Huh, I feel a sudden chill. Maybe I turned the air conditioner up too high. I sense something there. Vroom, which is apparently the sound of a lightsaber being activated and then dramatically ends with to be continued. Oda, I won't save you. Question, this is a postcard to Oda sensei. Obviously, oh, I forgot to introduce myself. I am Timmy. My co- does the word Timmy remind you of anything? Yes. Oh, yes. Timmy Oda, I'm kind of like a sister to Oda. You might recall him from volume 10. I sent this postcard in to thank you for introducing him. Hehe. And as his sister of sorts, I will end this before Oda sensei can. Why? Because I am a member of the SBS hijacking group after all. The SBS is over. Oda. Yeah, not again. Damn you, Timmy. Damn you. And on that dramatic note of the SBS being hijacked once more, we bring this installment to its conclusion. Will at your Oda ever fully regain control of his SBS segment? Find out on the next maybe exciting episode of man on the internet reads out questions and answers from the early 2000s in the hope that he'll find something relevant and interesting to share with his audience, but more often than not doesn't. And also, you let me know what you thought about all of this in the comments below. Thanks, me.