Chapters · Fish-Man Island › Fish-Man Island

Chapter 621: Otohime and Tiger

Arc: Fish-Man Island · Saga: Fish-Man Island · Released: 2011-02-21

Summary

A flashback titled “Fish-Man Island, 16 years ago.” In the market, Queen Otohime — King Neptune’s wife, a goldfish mermaid — throws herself between an armed thief and his hostage; she is shot through the hand (a compound fracture) yet slaps the robber while weeping, refusing treatment and insisting no parent should raise children on stolen money. When the broken man confesses his shop was burned by arson and his children are starving, she apologizes to him for failing to notice his pain, and he has a change of heart. The chapter establishes Otohime as the beloved, eccentric queen who leaves Ryugu Palace to touch her subjects directly with her voice — her “natural color of Observation Haki” — and who campaigns daily to move the Kingdom of Ryugu to the surface, collecting citizens’ signatures on a petition she means to present at this year’s Reverie so fish-men and humans can finally coexist. At the palace she greets her sons and baby daughter Shirahoshi, while the Minister of the Left warns that her dream is the very one “our forebears sought to create centuries ago” and that she must be protected. In the Fish-Man District, Arlong (age 25, captain of the Arlong Pirates) tears up Otohime’s petitions and preys on humans; Jinbei (age 30, a Neptune Army soldier) confronts his old orphan-brother. Then Fisher Tiger, former boss of the district turned adventurer, returns home — and the narration reveals his raid on sacred Mariejoa, his defeat of the Celestial Dragons, the freeing of the slaves, Jinbei’s resignation from the army, and the founding of the Sun Pirates, whose sun brand covers the slaves’ marks so the liberated cannot be told apart.

New reveals

• Queen Otohime — King Neptune’s wife, a goldfish mermaid — is introduced (caption, p. 4). Physically frail but morally relentless; cries for and slaps her own subjects.
• Otohime’s signature dream: move the Kingdom of Ryugu to the surface so fish-men and merfolk can live among humans, and announce the desire to emigrate at this year’s Reverie (pp. 8–9). She is collecting every citizen’s signature on a petition.
• Otohime’s voice-reach is “her natural color of Observation Haki power” (p. 10) — on-page naming of Observation Haki as having “colors.”
• Princess Shirahoshi shown as a baby; Otohime also has three sons (the royal princes, unnamed here) (p. 10).
• The Fish-Man District began as a giant orphanage that fell into chaos — Arlong, Jinbei, Macro and Fisher Tiger were orphan brothers raised there (pp. 14–15).
• Ages/roles 16 years ago: Jinbei age 30, Neptune Army soldier (whale-shark fish-man); Arlong age 25, captain of the Arlong Pirates (sawshark fish-man) (data boxes pp. 12–13).
• Fisher Tiger raided sacred Mariejoa, defeated the Celestial Dragons, and freed the slaves; the World Government put a bounty on his head; Jinbei resigned from the army; the Sun Pirates formed, stamping a sun brand over the freed slaves’ marks so the liberated could blend in (pp. 15–16).
• Whitebeard is King Neptune’s friend and protects Fish-Man Island (p. 11).
• Hodolum — a fresh Neptune Army recruit, “one of [Jinbei’s] men” (p. 13).
• Minister of the Left — Ryugu Palace official who frames Otohime’s dream as ancestral (p. 11).

Foreshadowing seeds planted

Payoffs (seeds from earlier chapters that resolve here)

Mentions / appearances

• Characters: Otohime (first appearance), Shirahoshi (first appearance, baby), Minister of the Left (first appearance), Hodolum (first appearance), King Neptune (mentioned — caption “King Neptune’s wife”; royal court scene), Arlong, Jinbei, Fisher Tiger, Macro (mentioned), Whitebeard (mentioned)
• Cover-story: Kaya + the Usopp Pirates at Syrup Village
• Groups/Crews: Sun Pirates, Arlong Pirates, Neptune Army, Celestial Dragons
• Locations: Fish-Man Island, Fish-Man District, Ryugu Castle, Marijoa
• Race: Fish-Men (incl. interim merfolk fold — Otohime/Shirahoshi as mermaids)
• World-building: Reverie, Haki (color of Observation Haki)

Notable panels

• p. 1 — Cover: “From the Decks of the World, Vol. 8: Syrup Village” — Kaya and the Usopp Pirates read a newspaper at Syrup Village.
• p. 4 — Caption-debut splash of Queen Otohime, “King Neptune’s wife (Goldfish mermaid),” clutching her shattered hand.
• p. 8 — Otohime mid-speech, arms raised: “We will move the Kingdom of Ryugu to the surface!”
• pp. 12–13 — Data-box debuts of young Arlong (age 25) and Jinbei (age 30) in the Fish-Man District.
• p. 14 — Fisher Tiger returns home wearing his “FROG NO. HIPPO” shirt.
• pp. 15–16 — Narration montage: orphanage origins, Tiger’s Mariejoa raid, “Tiger defeated the Celestial Dragons!!,” and the founding of the Sun Pirates with the sun brand.

Open questions raised