ODA: "The King BEFORE Imu!"

This man was literally resurrected from the dead in one piece. Not in a Gecko Moria style zombie way, or not in a Pell, whatever whatever happened there way, but this is a proper being who rose from the dead according to an ancient prophecy. His name is the King of Anglemar, and do not be fooled by his wacky exterior, as he may be the closest thing to a deity that we have in the One Piece world. And I would bet such significant quantities of sweet cash money that most of you never even knew that this this king existed. But all of that is about to change, because we are covering every single SBS 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, how irrelevant, or how perverted. Because this is the SBS volume nine, which begins with an author's note from Eiichiro Oda. Ah, it is currently the year of 1999, month of July. This is the month that our bro Nostradamus predicts that the world will be ended by the hands of the King of Anglemar. For this reason, when the King of Anglemar wanted poster came out, the world government made this decision. His appearance is as shown in this image. His punishment is to lock him up until the month of August. And in conclusion, if you spot him, please do not attack him with moves such as the rolling sabat or the piledriver. Now, if anything Eiichiro Oda just said made any sense to you at all, then you need to go and see someone who specializes in mental diagnosis and treatment. But this is Oda's rendering of an actual prophecy from Nostradamus, which read as follows. The year 1999, seventh month, from heaven will come a great king of terror to bring back to life the great king of Anglemar before and after Mars to reign by good luck. Now, scholars have long since debated the subject of this prophecy. Genghis Khan, he's a popular choice, but the prophecy, in a manner best described as somehow made its way into Japanese popular culture into the '90s. And so, this is Oda's vision of the King of Angol Moa as predicted by Nostradamus. And so, the King of Angol Moa became another one of those obscure canon One Piece Easter egg characters who does make multiple appearances across the franchise. The King appears again in volume 11 as a bus driver, revealing to us that the King was indeed resurrected by a group known as the Great King Resurrection Squad, which we actually see happen in the game Grand Line Dream Adventure Log, where this bus driving King is summoned back to the planet Blue Star from the heavens. I guess he took up bus driving in heaven is the uh the explanation for the bus. However, because of his new found blue collar profession, the King of Angol Moa's followers immediately abandoned him, deeming the resurrection a failure. And in the game, the King of Angol Moa actually does join the Straw Hat Pirates as an official crewmate who supports them in battles. But the King of Angol Moa also appears in the credits of One Piece the Movie on the underside of Usopp's snowboard. So, there you go. The King of Angol Moa is an official Straw Hat, sort of. But with that out of the way, I suppose we should start the SBS. In volume nine of the One Piece manga, the English translation made a very curious change to Arlong that presents him as a very different character to his original Japanese counterpart. In chapter 75, when the Marines are coming to invade Arlong Park, Arlong demands that the Marines pay him 2 million berries or else he will kill them, which is very vicious and villainous. Not good. But it also happens to be the complete opposite of what Arlong said in the original Japanese. In Japanese, what Arlong does is he offers the Marines 2 million berries to turn around and go home. So, he tries to bribe them. And to me, this is a very impactful change because it shows Arlong's philosophy of money being the solution to every problem. It presents him as more of a businessman than a bloodthirsty tyrant, and it puts him on the same sort of level as the world nobles that he despises so much because they also have the same philosophy on finance. To this day, I don't know why Viz made this change, but early Viz and the Four Kids dub, they weren't a big fan of these sorts of gray area issues because they were aiming One Piece squarely in the foreheads of assorted kids. So, it could be that they just didn't want to introduce the question of bribery and instead turn Arlong into a more standard punch-drunk villain, but that doesn't really explain Captain Nezumi who was accepting bribes from Arlong, and they didn't censor or change that. So, I don't know. Maybe it was just a translation error, and the dude who was doing this got things backwards, but I do prefer the more subtle intricacies of Arlong's decision-making in the original. And also, on the topic of decision-making, question: Why did Red Leg Zeff eat his right leg? That's where his kick power lies, so why couldn't he eat the left one instead? Oda: Wrong. The base of your kick strength is actually the pivoting leg. For example, if you were to try to kick a ball with your right leg, what would happen if you didn't have a left leg, huh? You couldn't kick it, right? Why don't you go ask your soccer-playing friends. The life of the kick is contained in the leg that supports your weight. Question: To Oda Sensei, I always always have fun reading One Piece. By the way, in volume 7, page 18, third panel, the knife Sanji's holding appears to have some writing on it, but it's so small, I can't tell what it is. What's written on it? Please tell me. Now, the panel being referred to here is this one. There is a section of the fight on Baratie that involves the struggle over a knife which Sanji eventually gets, and there is indeed some writing on the knife. And this isn't something that I ever would have noticed consciously without this SBS question, especially because the kanji is so difficult to make out. So difficult that even native Japanese speakers can't really tell what it says, and apparently, yes, that is on purpose. Oda: I'm not surprised you can't tell what it is. I drew it so you couldn't tell. However, you did well to find it. I'll fess up. It says Hokuto no Ken. It was a really famous series in Jump when I was in elementary school. Do you know it? So, I do know it, but I am an old man. Hokuto no Ken is better known as Fist of the North Star in English and it was published in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1983 to 1988. So, it ended about 10 years before One Piece began and Oda was reading this as a child alongside Dragon Ball since they were in the same era and they went on to greatly, greatly influence One Piece. If you've ever heard the phrase "Omae wa shindeiru", which means you're already dead, you probably don't want to hear it. But, if you have, Fist of the North Star or Hokuto no Ken is where that came from. And as stated before, Oda took quite a bit of inspiration from it and put his own spin on various elements in One Piece. A great example of which is actually Kaido. He was inspired by the character Devil Rebirth, an absolutely massive dude who has a similar history to Kaido in that he was sentenced to execution 13 times, but ended up surviving all of them. And Devil Rebirth's very, very short tenure in the series didn't just inspire Kaido, but also a very particular feature of Big Mom, which is the idea that to control Devil Rebirth, he had to be shown a picture of his mother, which is strikingly similar to the photo of Mother Carmel in both aesthetics and a plot functionality. Although, by far my favorite aspect of One Piece that was, let's say, borrowed from Fist of the North Star is the idea of sky splitting. When two particular great fighters meet, they become capable of splitting the sky just as has been depicted in One Piece on a multitude of occasions now. And in fact, in One Piece, certain characters are even now capable of splitting the sky on their own. I would also certainly make the argument that Armament Haki has its roots in Fist of the North Star, specifically from a Fang Clan chieftain who can invoke the steel armor breathing technique that turns his skin black and gives it the properties of steel, which is very funny because Kenshiro immediately tries to attack him with a steel beam and it just folds like paper. But also a lot of the Beast Pirates in general address like Hokuto no Ken characters. You might even see a particular similarity between heart and queen. But back to Devil Rebirth though, he also uses a martial arts style known as Niouken, which takes its basis from the Niou that inspired Luffy's Gear Fourth and Gear Fifth forms. And just a small thing that may or may not be related, during Kenshiro's fight against Devil Rebirth, he claimed that his martial arts style Hokuto Shinken is the embodiment of Indra, the Hindu deity of storms, war, and rainfall. Storms and rainfall particularly interesting at the moment, but in the fight on the rooftop of Onigashima, Big Mom uses an attack named Indra as part of her suite of attacks named after assorted mythological deities and heavenly concepts. And in order to defeat Kaido, Luffy further invokes Hindu mythology with his Bajrang Gun. And I guess what I'm trying is that it's not so much that Oda goes out of his way to research this sort of stuff. It's more that he's already been exposed to it through all of the other media, the avalanche of media that he consumed as a child. But long story less long, the writing on Sanji's knife in this panel was the beginning of a long string of Hokuto no Ken inspired characters, abilities, and plot points. And I know there's probably a lot more that I didn't mention, but we do also have other questions to cover in this video, such as question, I decided I want to participate in the SBS corner, too. And this is what came out. So, listen up. Do you like crap, Oda sensei? The word pops up a lot and it's drawn on Klahadore's clothes, so I figured and personally, I love it. Oda, crap? I'd be too embarrassed to say such a naughty, filthy word. Please, stop it. This is a fine example of the quality content in this particular volume. Volume 9 is probably one of the strangest SBS segments. Question, when I read about Usopp's past told in Merry's refined speech, I accidentally started man crying even though I'm a girl. The tears ran down my cheeks and into my mouth. What do you think it tasted like? Oda, like crap. Question, I heard from somewhere that Sanji's afternoon snack is castella, which is a type of sponge cake. Is that true? After all, Sanji no oyatsu wa Bunmeido. So this is probably absolutely hilarious if you grew up in Japan in the 80s as this is a reference to a commercial for and the tagline for this product was Bunmeido is the 3:00 snack, which is Sanji no oyatsu wa Bunmeido. And of course Sanji means 3:00 in Japanese, hence why castella is Sanji's snack because it is the Sanji snack. >> [music] >> Also featured in the ads with these five dancing mascots being puppeteered and I don't know if this was ad or related, but Sanji did end up having four siblings. So I feel like you could remake this ad featuring the Germa kids being puppeted by Vinsmoke Judge. Oda had a very underwhelming reply to all of this though, he just said, "Hmm, I see." Question, Oda-sensei, this is the spirit of heart, which is what Zoro uses to speak with the sword in his mouth, isn't it? So in this case, a reader sent in some calligraphy and Oda replied, "Yes, this is a good spirit of the heart." So that was nice. Question, I went to the barber and told him a spirit of the man's heart haircut and then he said, "Okay." and shaved my head bald. Entirely the wrong look. Sensei, are there any requirements to become a Zoro? Tell me." Sob, sob. This is a continuation of a previous SBS plot line where a reader asked Zoro what to request from the barber if they wanted Zoro's haircut. And Oda said a man's heart and spirit and it clearly did not go well. It never goes well. It always ends up in whoever's asking for it becoming bald. Oda, don't cry. Stand up. There are some battles in which a man cannot run from. So, what if you got shaved bald once? When your hair grows out again, go back to that barber and challenge him a return match. I love this response cuz you know, in a way, Oda, he's right, but in another way he is goading this reader to go and get shaved bald again. But, that is a man's heart and spirit. If Zoro got shaved bald, yeah, he'd be annoyed, but he would deal with it, and so should you. It is a challenge for you to overcome. Do not shy away from it. Question. Hello, I have wine in my house, so I wondered, what country is it from? And when I looked at the back, I saw the words dry, full body. It was a bit of a surprise, but I was rather pleased. Is this the origin of Iron Fist Fullbody's name? It is, isn't it? If it isn't, I think my life might be over. So, we have an unusually high-stakes question for an SBS segment. A lot of pressure on Eiichiro Oda here to answer this one, right? But, Oda says, "It's not over. You are right. I really don't drink much wine, so I don't know a whole lot about it. But, I learned that the strength and heaviness of the taste is called the body. Every wine with a long fermentation time has a full body, and as it gets lighter, it goes to medium body, and then light body. Thus, my explanation of Lieutenant Fullbody's name is complete. Thank you very much." The funniest part to me about the answer to this question is that Lieutenant Fullbody himself knows nothing about wine. He tried to impress his date named Moody by dissecting his fermented grape juice as "delightful, a delicate bouquet from the north, from Michiot. Lightly acidic, full-bodied, dry. I'm absolutely certain it's Ithisburger Stein." So, he even used his own name as part of the description, and even then, Sanji replied that he could not be more wrong. However, Fullbody wasn't completely the bed here, as in One Piece Yellow Grand Elements, Michiot is described as probably the most renowned location in the world for its vineyards and wine production. I also kind of identify with full body not being able to tell the difference of wine. A few years ago I was out at a fancy restaurant with my wife and I accidentally summoned the sommelier. Like I absolutely didn't mean to. So he came up and he asked me what I want and all I could say was I want to drink wine. And that was not a helpful answer to him. Question, I love Sanji like that. Oda, like what? And that's it. That's the end of the conversation. Maybe it'll be continued in another SBS. I'm not sure. Question, how many debu debus is Alvida's debusa? Well, crack ah. So Oda refuses to answer this question assumedly out of fear of Alvida because we just heard the well, the crack and the ah. But the reason why Oda refuses to answer is because debu means fat. So this is a play on the questions that have been asking about how many gomu gomus Luffy can stretch and how many arrows is Sanji's power level. So the reader is essentially asking how many fat fats is Alvida's fat. And after asking the question, Alvida smacks him with her club, which is why Oda is staying quiet. Question, Oda sensei, it's awful. My friend has contracted if you don't eat a snack, you will die illness. How can this terrible terrible affliction be cured? He'll die soon. Another really unusually high stakes SBS question. Oda, don't get flustered. Get a hold of yourself. It's okay. Chill out. Calm down. Okay, next question. Question, what are the pistols in One Piece called? They don't look like matchlocks. Oda, they are flintlock pistols. The flint is a spark-making stone. So you can think of it as one step better than the fuse of a matchlock. And on this occasion, Oda drew a very detailed diagram of exactly how a flintlock pistol works, which is something that Oda does have intimate knowledge of as he reportedly has a ton of flintlock pistols just sitting around his office so that he can always use them for various piraty references. Question, where did Dandy Geen San hide those weapons of his, huh? There? Well, great. This thought is going to keep me from dozing off on the train now. This is a question that I can't help but feel that a lot of people have when reading or watching One Piece for the first time. Because out of nowhere, Gin suddenly pulls out these two tonfa to smash pearl shield and then fight Sanji. But where was he keeping them? Well, as it turns out, one clue may be in the fact that his tonfa are ball-shaped. Oda, what? Are you suggesting that he hid those weapons as his balls? As Dandy Gin's golden balls? You're going to make all the Gin fans very angry. Gin's a popular one he is. This is another play on words. In Japanese, the word kintama means both golden balls and testicles. So, Dandy Gin's golden balls, Gin's kintama, Gin's testicles. And I guess think of it in the same way that we might say family jewels in English. But yes, the suggestion here is that Gin's tonfa are indeed his own, allegedly, massive, massive balls. Question. Hey, guy who said he likes Nami, fight with me. I love Nami 100 times more than you. But I love you, too. Am I homo? Angry? Brackets, question mark. No, we're friends. You and I are friends. Oda, that's right. The guy who kept saying Nami, Nami, Nami in volume seven. Get along now. So, this is the sort of question that I would normally omit from any other video because it provides no value to anyone or anything. And I suppose it is a continuation of a plot line that started two SBS volumes ago. We've got two commenters fighting for Nami's attention and one taking the time to point out that he's not gay. And I don't know, I think I think the reader doth protest too much. But the word plot line is also very generous. And characters like this will pop up every now and then. In fact, quite frequently in SBS segments. The most notorious of which is the infamous Sanada, who I'm going to seed now because he tends to ask the most perverted questions of all. So, look forward to meeting him in the future or not. It all depends on your personal preferences. Question, in the SBS of volume seven, you said that Sanji-san's age was 19, but after discussing it with my friend, we arrived at the conclusion that this was a lie. How old is he really? Oda, it's not quite up to you to decide that. All you can do is take my word for it. It's true. So, the question here for me is did the reader think that Sanji was older or younger than 19? Because when it comes to the Straw Hat ages in general, they're actually on the older side for shonen manga. The fact that we started One Piece with a bunch of characters who are between 17 to 19 years old and most of the crew have only gotten much, much older is quite unusual considering that standard shonen protagonists are usually more along the lines of 14 to 15 in order to appeal to that core demographic reading weekly shonen jump. You know, you got your Dekus, your Tanjiros, your Astas, your Narutos, your Ichigos. I swear all of these characters started their run when they were about 15, maybe younger. And meanwhile, you've got old man Monkey D. Luffy over here just starting his journey at 17, practically geriatric. So, maybe that's why Sanji's age of 19 was unacceptable. Question, Oda-sensei, drop your pen, stop drawing manga because I have a question. My older brother and I worked together to buy the SBS, but we accidentally bought two copies of volume five. What should we do? If you answer me, you may use your pen. Oda, well then, how about go buy five more copies of volume five. Then the fact that you bought two won't really matter anymore and you can laugh about it. Can I pick up the pen now? Question, if Luffy wants a musician so bad, why doesn't he come to my house? Is it because I don't live by the ocean? Is it because I'm actually an alien? Is it because my feet have been smelly lately? Oda, it's because of your feet smell. The SBS is now over. And yeah, I think this is probably one of the most useless SBSs to date, probably not the most. It almost feels like Oda deliberately avoided taking any questions from the actual series itself, but it does get a little better from here as we are about to head into the ground line where the story really explodes with lore, and there's less and less time to have these segments answering questions about the readers feet. Less time, but never no time though. And you let me know what you thought about all of this in the comments below.