Netflix's One Piece S01E06 Review: The Big Bad Arrives

One Piece, Season 1, Episode 6: The Chef and the Chore Boy

I'll try to really zip through this. Which isn't easy to do, really, because this is the episode with the biggest amount of changes from the source material. With us moving the Mihawk fight much earlier in the arc, squishing Sanji's introduction into a couple of short scenes and cutting out Don Krieg's storyline entirely, this episode is instead dedicated to setting up episodes 7 and 8... or rather, the fact that the East Blue rewrite has turned Arlong into this menacing, recurring villain. And to do that, they ended up cutting out Krieg from Baratie, and have Arlong be the menace that fights Luffy and company instead. 

The episode starts off with our heroes reeling from the Mihawk beatdown last episode, which I really do like that the episode did something that the source material kind of glossed over -- which focuses a lot more on Luffy's reaction, leading to a huge 'what have I done' expression that I don't think Luffy would ever have until Water Seven or Sabaody. It's a nice sequence of vulnerability that will tie in very well with what Nami will do in this episode. 

And then we cut -- honestly rather jarringly -- to Sanji and Zeff cutting and cooking and having their usual spat about oregano. Where I thought that Sanji was very much a bit character in episode 5, here he shines a bit better now that the episode is actually allowed to focus more on him. Again, it's perhaps the only bit of restructuring that I didn't like the best. Taz Skylar is a pretty great Sanji! It's just that his debut episode isn't as bombastic or heavily focused on him as Usopp, Nami or Zoro's debuts. 

Also interspaced between this, we get a fun scene between Garp and Mihawk, and... this is also a scene I really love. Garp tries to wave the whole 'the World Government controls you' and Mihawk just shrugs it off as him going to do whatever the fuck he wants. And Mihawk, right now, wants to see the Straw Hats enter the Grand Line. This ties to the ongoing Koby story, as he sneaks around and catches word that Garp is Luffy's grandpa (I mean, shit, Koby, don't their family names give it away?) and we get a glorious scene of Garp using his immense strength to ransack his office, while laughing maniacally. 

Again, I'll go through most of the Koby scenes here, so as not to take up space later on in the review. Garp gives a breakdown of his own backstory to Koby. Koby points out that Luffy, for all of his faults, always knows who he is and what he is, and that's a pirate... no matter how many Shichibukai Garp sends to 'scare him straight'. It's an interesting change in dynamics, for sure. 

Zeff ends up playing first-aid to Zoro, and it does make sense that such an old and seasoned pirate like Zeff would be able to do this. I do think they did a great job at incorporating Zeff into the greater story a lot more than just being Sanji's mentor/dad. This leads to a couple of great anime-original scenes that perhaps plays off as a bit more sentimental than the manga's version of the East Blue arc, but fits very well with a scene I can specifically remember from the Wano arc, right before 'Roof Piece' in Wano, when he met the Mink musketeers. Luffy is an airhead that forgets names, but he doesn't forget people and what they do to him. That line when he's polishing the "Waddi Itchy-Monkey" or however he butchered the name is amazing. Zoro never sat down and told Luffy about the connection between the Wado and Kuina and his sad backstory, but Luffy picks up on it, he knows that despite all of his joking around, this sword is very important to Zoro, and as such by association it's also important to him. He knows that Zoro likes rice balls, even if his only point of reference is Zoro wanting to eat the rice ball from that girl. 

Sanji then gives Luffy a whole spiel about how being a pirate captain isn't just a walk in the park... and he knows what he's talking about because "Red Leg" Zeff is a pirate captain. At which point we get the full flashback of Sanji's meeting with Zeff... where we get another iteration of the oregano joke. Okay. We get a bit more tlak about the mythical All Blue, and, of course, the very well-executed scene of little Sanji and Zeff on the deserted island and the two bags of food. It's a lot more heartwrenching in the live-action, I feel, thanks to just how good the makeup work for the dehydrated and starving little Sanji is, as well as the realistic fact that the bread Sanji has left has gone mouldy. We don't see anything particularly graphic on Zeff's side but that wrapped-up leg-stump really looks harrowing. It's easily, bar none, the most emotional flashback in the Netflix series. They did a great job at highlighting the passage of time and little Sanji's growing desperation. 

Again, it's not that particularly long. I think the whole flashback takes slightly more than ten minutes? But it's a really well-done flashback, and in the present day, Sanji and Luffy bond over their impossible-sounding dreams. 

Nami, meanwhile, does what Zeff tells the team, and starts reading a story -- the surprisingly very appropriate-for-Nami's-situation story of Montblanc Noland the liar. Which, taken out of the real-world context we learn in Skypiea, is a story about a liar that persisted in his lies and got executed for it. Which probably really hurt Nami deep inside as she's really a traitor to the crew. As Nami and Luffy argue a bit about the point of stories, it becomes a fight about pragmatism and dreams -- with Nami confronting Luffy for the fact that he could have stopped Zoro, but he didn't. 

Of course, through some dodgy jumping-from-the-water CGI, the Fishman Pirates. Or, at least, three of them -- Arlong, Kuroobi and Chew. Poor Hatchan and his octopus tentacles becomes a casualty of a pragmatic live-action adaptation. Arlong immediately goes and walks into Baratie and essentially takes all the customers hostage, sitting down at a table and begins eating. There's a nice little nod to the inclusion of the fishman maitre'd in the previous episode, as Arlong confronts him about using the phrase 'how may I serve you' specifically. Arlong demands that they hand over Luffy before the meal, before he starts eating the people in the area.

We get an interesting scene as Arlong starts chewing his meat, then chew the scenery as he confronts some rich-looking snobbish people about how they view fishmen. Where fishmen have always demanded equality, when in Arlong's eyes fishmen are superior to humans. 

All of this is witnessed by Nami, who knows Arlong and knows what's going on. For the second time in what's basically a 24-hour period, Nami tries to talk Luffy down from doing a seemingly-suicidal thing just for a 'gut feeling'. And Luffy (and Sanji) refuses to abandon the Baratie to its fate because the Baratie fed Luffy. It's something that Nami absolutely hates at this point because she's grown attached to these idiots, and unlike Mihawk, she knows Arlong and how savage he is. Honestly, this is an actually somewhat improved version of the original East Blue, even if this version of events does lose the fake-out where it did seem that Nami's just a cold-hearted traitor the whole time. 

Luffy and company confront Arlong, and we get the fun visual gag and revelation that it's Buggy's detached ear attached to Luffy that has been eavesdropping and tracking Luffy all time long. Buggy's just casually in Chew's knapsack, and he actually is missing one of his ears if you go back and check all of his short appearances after his defeat. 

And then we get a fight scene, and... it's okay. I think they do a rather good job at making use of the terrain to keep the understandably limited fishman prosthetics from looking too terrible. Zeff gets thrown into a table, before Sanji fights Kuroobi, and then Luffy and Arlong fight inside the Baratie before fighting outside. The fight itself is, again, pretty okay. Being in the bright light does make some of the CGI iffier-looking compared to the previous scenes where it's been in the dark, but it's not particularly terrible. Again, I don't have too much to say about the action scene here other than it's pretty neat! We get to see Luffy's determination to fight Arlong despite the difference in strength. 

Nami, meanwhile, is the last person to speak to the unconscious Zoro, and it's a brief apology because she always ends up hurting the people closest to her. Arlong gets the upper hand, splashing Luffy with some seawater before being about to rip out Luffy's jugular... before Nami shows up, holding the Grand Line Map, and stopping Arlong from murdering Luffy. We get the reveal of Nami's Arlong Pirates tattoo, and Nami tells Luffy that she's always been with the Arlong Pirates from the get-go...

And I'm of two minds about this. On one hand, this does wonders at explaining Nami's mindset and why she found it necessary to betray Luffy and company despite developing a bond with them. The fact that she just essentially lost faith in Luffy's leadership in regards to Zoro doesn't help matters either. But it does take away some of the surprise of her betrayal... though on the other hand, there's also the rather welcome contextualization of who she is betraying Luffy for. Nami convincing Arlong to drown Luffy is also a nice way to 'spare' Luffy in a way. 

After Sanji rescues Luffy, the episode then cuts to Garp on the ship with his marines assembled, and he's basically telling them that the kid gloves are off and he's about to go on full on 'Garp the Fist' on these whippersnapper pirates. We get the rather, again, unfortunately rather rapid-fire scene of Zeff and Sanji's "breakup", which I thought felt a bit rushed. It's not as bad as episode 5, and it always was a bit fast-paced in the source material, but still. 

And Luffy finally speaks from the heart to the comatose Zoro, when he's been trying to do so throughout the episode... and Zoro finally wakes up, delivering an IMO better-executed line about how Roronoa Zoro vows to stand next to Luffy regardless of who they are fighting. We get Usopp with his regular bullshit, and Luffy puts back his straw hat after the moment of doubt, vowing to go after Nami. Love the little bits of physical comedy as Luffy continues to manhandle the heavily-wounded Zoro. 

Sanji gets on board the Merry without much of a fuss, and we get a nice, heartfelt sequence of him saying goodbye to Zeff, all the while insulting his dad. Since the anime completely cuts Johnny and Yosaku (I completely forgot about them until exactly this part of the review) it's Buggy's decapitated head that's going to lead our heroes to Cocoyasi Village... which is a nice integration of plotlines. 

So yeah... pretty tightly-plotted, although I would say that some of Sanji's more emotional beats in the present day end up being a bit played down. 

One Piece Easter Egg Notes:

• Perhaps the biggest reference to future arcs of the manga is Nami straight-up just reading the whole story about Montblanc Noland the liar, and how he discovered the city of gold of Shandora and continued insisting it exists all the way until his death. In the manga, this story would be crucial to the Jaya and Skypiea arcs. 
• The drawing on the book that Nami is holding is lifted basically directly from the corresponding panel in the manga. 
• One of the cans of food that little Sanji has reads 'Pigeon Arroser', which is an ingredient in the spin-off manga Shokugeki no Sanji, where it was mentioned offhandedly.
• The man with the curled-up hair that Arlong menaces is identified by the credits as Motzel, who is a background character in the manga's version of Baratie. 
• Another Galley La crate can be seen on the Going Merry.
• Nami's outfit in this episode is the one taken from the cover of volume 11... a rather popular cover for outfits in the Netflix series. She takes off the outer shirt to show off the tattoo on her upper arm.