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Chapter 653: The Hero Hat

Arc: Fish-Man Island · Saga: Fish-Man Island · Released: 2011-12-26

Summary

The Straw Hats prepare to leave Fish-Man Island. At the Mermaid Café, Madam Sharley announces she is giving up fortune-telling “for good,” choosing to trust the man in the straw hat even though her vision of Luffy ruining the island has not yet been disproven (it “might be a year or more off”). Amid a tearful farewell — Shirahoshi begging Luffy to stay, the townsfolk and mermaids seeing them off — King Neptune and his ministers fret in secret over the treasure tribute they have sent to Big Mom: it contains a bomb planted a decade ago that could detonate inside the Yonko’s palace. An elderly fish-man navigator presents Nami with a three-needle New World Log Pose and explains New World navigation: three magnetic-field routes, chosen by instinct, where the safest path can only be read by a master navigator from the tiniest needle-movements. Luffy and the crew exchange promises with Shirahoshi (a future “stroll” on the surface) and with Jinbei, who arranges to ship “hero hats” (straw hats) up to the island’s children, who now want to play heroes like Luffy. Franky raises the Thousand Sunny using blocks of specially buoyant wood; a flashback to Shanks entrusting the straw hat plays as the crew bursts toward the surface — “the same sea as Shanks” — and dives To the New World.

New reveals

• New World Log Pose has three needles. Each needle is tuned to a different island’s magnetic field; the navigator must pick one of three courses by instinct. The more abnormally a needle swings, the more dangerous (anomalous) that island — only an experienced navigator can read the safest route from tiny movements (pp. 6-9).
• New World magnetic fields are unstable. Beyond the first half of the Grand Line, currents, weather AND magnetic fields shift; islands can lose their field abruptly mid-voyage (pp. 7-8).
• A bomb was hidden in the Tamatebox tribute sent to Big Mom. Neptune’s ministers reveal the treasure box Luffy sent up to Big Mom was rigged with a bomb a decade ago; they fear it will detonate in her palace and bring an Emperor’s wrath (p. 5).
• Madam Sharley retires from fortune-telling because she now chooses to trust Luffy — but explicitly notes her prophecy has never been wrong and could simply be “a year or more off” (p. 3).
• Jinbei does not yet join the crew; he stays on Fish-Man Island and exchanges a wordless parting promise with Luffy, arranging to send a trade shipment of “hero hats” to the island’s children (pp. 11, 15).
• Franky surfaces the Sunny with blocks of powerfully buoyant wood on a line, controlling ascent speed by block count (p. 16). (SBS, p. 20: Oda confirms this is the same buoyant wood that kept Mr. 3 afloat in Ch 175.)

Foreshadowing seeds planted

Payoffs (seeds from earlier chapters that resolve here)

Mentions / appearances

• Characters: Luffy, Nami, Zoro, Sanji, Usopp, Nico Robin, Tony Tony Chopper, Brook, Franky, Jinbei, Shirahoshi, King Neptune, Madam Sharley, Camie, Minister of the Right, Minister of the Left; mentioned: Big Mom, Shanks, Ace, Laboon, Hody Jones.
• Cover (B-plot): Kokoro (cover story; see below).
• Locations: Fish-Man Island, Mermaid Café, Coral Hill, Ryugu Kingdom, Ryugu Castle.
• Items / lore: Log Pose (New World three-needle type), Tamatebox, Kuuigosu (VIZ “Taolf Wood” — Franky’s buoyant lifting wood, p. 16), Thousand Sunny, Four Emperors (Yonko).
• Threads: Straw Hat Recruitment Pattern (Jinbei declines to join for now and sees the crew off — the recruitment-deferred beat).

Notable panels

• Page 1 — Title page “Chapter 653: The Hero Hat.” Cover-story caption: “Decks of the World, Vol. 35 — ‘Icefish Mermaid Kokoro’s Elegant Day Off’” (Kokoro lounging under an umbrella with sake amid fish).
• Page 5 — The ministers’ secret panic over the Tamatebox bomb; “one of the Four Emperors has it in for us!”
• Pages 6-9 — The three-needle New World Log Pose explained over a Grand Line / Red Line map; “instinct alone… the difference between life and death.”
• Page 13-15 — Shirahoshi’s farewell and the pinky-promise of a future surface “stroll”; “Do not forget this debt we owe!”
• Page 17 — Recap flashback of Shanks entrusting Luffy the straw hat + Ace’s words; King-of-the-Pirates narration.
• Page 19 — Full-page splash: the Thousand Sunny rocketing upward, jolly roger and lion figurehead — “TO THE NEW WORLD!!!”
• Page 20 — SBS Question Corner (volume back-matter; Mr. 3 buoyancy callback).

Open questions raised

• Will the Tamatebox bomb actually detonate inside Big Mom’s palace — and what does an Emperor do in response?
• Was Sharley’s ruin-prophecy truly averted, or is it (by her own admission) merely deferred?
• When and how will Jinbei finally join the crew, having declined for now to settle his affairs?