Wadatsumi

“Sea Spirit” / “the Giant Monk” · alive · giant of the Flying Pirates (servant of Vander Decken IX) · first appeared @0606

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A colossal humanoid sea-creature — “a sea monster that looks like a giant,” “a sea spirit” — and the servant of Captain Vander Decken IX aboard the cursed ghost ship the Flying Dutchman. First appears on the deep-sea approach to Fish-Man Island. (Classified merman per the canonical reconcile/§Races map; the chapter shows only a giant-sized humanoid and does not spell out his species in-panel.)

Etymology

Confidence: high · ワダツミ Wadatsumi is the name of the Shinto sea deity Watatsumi (綿津見 / 海神 “sea god”) — held to be another name for Ryūjin, the dragon-god who rules the undersea dragon-palace Ryūgū-jō, the very myth-cluster that gives Fish-Man Island’s capital the Ryugu Kingdom its name. Oda hands the colossal sea-giant the literal name of the sea god. His species is a tiger-blowfish (fugu) fish-man (captioned “Tiger Puffer Fish-Man” Ch. 613): his signature laugh “Fugufugufugu” puns on 河豚 fugu (blowfish), and his Vivre-Card birthday February 9 is Japan’s “Pufferfish/Fugu Day” (goroawase 2 = fu, 9 = ku → fuku, the western-Japan reading for fugu). Sources: Wikipedia — Watatsumi; One Piece Wiki — Wadatsumi.

Arc-by-arc updates

Whole Cake Island — hides the Sunny in his mouth; apologizes to Luffy (Ch. 901)

• With the returned Sun Pirates at Cacao Island, hides the Sunny inside his mouth to smuggle the Straw Hats past Big Mom’s pursuers; takes a giant sea monk’s hand and torpedo fire in the process (pp. 4-6).
• Apologizes to Luffy for “a bad thing I did on Fish-Man Island” (his New-Fish-Man-Pirates past), now committed to Jinbe’s cause: “Boss Jimbei still took me in after that… and I’ll always be grateful!!” (pp. 7-8).

Whole Cake Island — now with the Sun Pirates; smashes the encircling fleet (Ch. 899)

• Now riding with the Sun Pirates, the giant fish-man erupts from the sea to smash the fleet encircling the Sunny, defending “his boss” (“…you hafta answer to MEEEE!!!”); the crew recognizes him as “one of Hody’s guys from Fish-Man Island” (pp. 14–17).

Whole Cake Island — Sun Pirates flashback (Ch. 830)

• Now travels with the Sun Pirates at Fish-Man Island; content to be “wif ebbybody,” he accepts Aladdin’s possible departure with Jimbei (p. 7).

Fish-Man Island — banished (Ch. 649)

Fish-Man Island — knocked out of the sky (Ch. 647)

Fish-Man Island — deflated and finished (Ch. 646)

Fish-Man Island — the trench eruption (Ch. 607)

Fish-Man Island (Ch. 613)

Fish-Man Island (Ch. 618)

Fish-Man Island — falls out of Noah (Ch. 637)

Fish-Man Island — “Mega Monk”; crushes his own allies (Ch. 642)

Fish-Man Island — abandoned, doped, and kicked back (Ch. 639)

Notes

• Etymology — recorded (see ## Etymology): Wadatsumi (ワダツミ) = the Shinto sea-god Watatsumi / Ryūjin of Ryūgū-jō; tiger-blowfish fish-man with fugu/Pufferfish-Day name puns.
• race: fish-man (was merman) — corrected at Ch. 613, where he is captioned “Tiger Puffer Fish-Man” (p. 2); routed to Fish-Men per reconcile §invariant-11. The earlier merman classification (@0606) was a pre-caption guess; flagged for the weaver’s taxonomy sweep.