SBS Volume 18
Alabasta arc proper begins. Big leaks: Bell-mère’s name (Nami’s mother) — Oda gets it WRONG, says “Utsuboko”, reader corrects to “Nobuko”; Baroque Works female-agent codenames = year’s happiest events (All-Sunday, Doublefinger=New Year, Bon Kurei, Golden Week, Merry Christmas); Dr. Kureha’s “secret to youth” = BEING HAPPY; One Piece German in Krieg/Möwe naming is just sound-based; Hiking Bears lore (Drum Kingdom).
Q&A
Chapter 156, Page 26
Q1 — “Please say start the SBS”
D: Have you ever thought of Oda-sensei’s feelings?! Please say, “Please say ‘Start the SBS’ today.” Very well, if you insist… START THE SBS! O: Hey… I didn’t say anything.
Q2 — Fly is open
D: Now, this is going to be extremely difficult for me to tell you but… YOUR FLY IS OPEN!!!! I’m so embarrassed!! O: Aaah! Crap. Okay, I’ll just take them off to make sure that I never have to endure anything as embarrassing as that again. Clank, rustle… okay. Continue the SBS.
Q3 — Dr. Kureha’s secret to youth
D: When Dr. Kureha says, “My secret to youth?”, what exactly is her secret? O: Her answer would be, “BEING HAPPY!!” She sure is living it up right now.
Q4 — Afroda-kun’s lunch money
D: IF YOU WANT AFRODA-KUN’S LUNCH MONEY BACK, PRINT THIS IN THE SBS. — from Grapemint Tanisugi. O: So it was you!!
Chapter 158, Page 66
Q5 — Chessmarimo stacked-letters explanation
O: In Volume 17, there was a character named Chessmarimo. He is a combination of the characters “Chess” and “Kuromarimo”, and when he talks, it’s supposed to sound like both of them speaking at the same time. In order to represent that in the manga, I stacked the letters on top of each other… But a flood of complaints from mothers of small children: “This book is misprinted!!” Chessmarimo is HILARIOUS, ISN’T HE?!!
Q6 — Chopper doing the “Hen na ojisan” dance
D: On panel 6 of Volume 17, page 176, what is Chopper doing? It just looks like the “Hen na ojisan”* to me!! O: Oh darn… I’ve been found out. (Hen na Ojisan is a character that Shimura Ken portrays; Chopper’s dance is similar to his.)
Q7 — Antarctic colder than Arctic (Shanks vs Buggy argument from Vol 3)
D: When Shanks and Buggy were young, they were arguing about which is colder, the North Pole or the South Pole. Which one’s right? O: Ahh, the flashback from Volume 3. The answer is, the South Pole. The Arctic is not a continent, it’s just a mass of ice. Land is colder than water, so the Antarctic is correct. So Shanks was right. However, the South Pole is not the coldest place in the world.
Chapter 161, Page 126 — BAROQUE WORKS FEMALE CODENAMES
Q8 — Maa Hippo gag
D: MAAAAAAAHAHAHAHA, AIN’T YOU A HIPPO! O: Ugh. Shut up. Enough.
Q9 — Hiruluk’s strategic-snow-coverage
D: When Dr. Hiruluk got naked, WHY did there JUST SO happen to be snow obscuring the view of his MOST SPECIAL area…? O: If it didn’t just so happen to obscure the view, you’d see his weenie.
Q10 — Mr. 2 Bon Kurei codename pattern (FEMALE-AGENT-CODENAMES = year’s happiest events)
D: About Mr. 2 Bon Kurei — the men have a number, and the women have events… so Mr. 2 is the male part, and Bon Kurei is the female part, because he’s an okama, right? O: That’s right. The female agents’ names are, in order, the happiest events of the year:
- #0 is All-Sunday (all sundays of the year)
- #1 is Doublefinger (New Years — 1/1, so two pointer fingers)
- #2 is Mr. 2 Bon Kurei (Bonkure, the end of the Bon festival)
- #3 is Golden Week (a week off in May)
- #4 is Merry Christmas
Q11 — NAMI’S MOTHER’S NAME (Oda flubs Bell-mère)
D: Nami’s sister is Nojiko. So what is her mother’s name? Yes, you, the mangaka over there. O: Okay! Umm… uhhhhh… let’s see… U… Utsubo. UTSUBOKO. D: Bzzzzt, wrong. The answer is Nobuko. O: Awwwwwwwwww!! Nobuko. I see. One syllable different than Nojiko… Aha… I get it… NO I DON’T!!!
Chapter 163, Page 166
Q12 — Zoro’s direction-sense as equation
D: JUST HOW LITTLE SENSE OF DIRECTION DOES ZORO HAVE? I want an equation with x and y, dammit!! — By Zoro Inochi O: Ummm… x… plus… y. Okay, next. (Perfect)
Q13 — Hiking Bear punishment for bad mountain manners
D: We’re huge fans of the “Hiking Bear”. What happens if one forgets the “salute”? O: Hiking Bears are bears that love mountains. They simply cannot allow people with bad manners onto the mountain. The punishment is this: sitting in correct Japanese style for one hour. It’s very difficult. The people who suffer this have severely cramped legs, and they all say the same thing. “Please kill me, now”. But the bears will not allow it. (From the “Drum Kingdom Animal Encyclopedia”)
Q14 — German in One Piece (Möwe, Krieg)
D: “Möwe” (Seagull) on Morgan’s chin, and “Krieg” (battle). German seems to show up a lot in One Piece. But do actual pirates have much to do with Germany? O: Hmmm, probably not… In this case, I just chose words that “sounded” right to me. For the Krieg arc, “battle” was actually the main theme, so I chose a word about battle that would be easy to remember.
Q15 — Gorilla beat-down
D: HAPPY NEW YEAR. Hey!! Oda!! Can you beat my gorilla? THE SBS IS OVER. O: Nah, I couldn’t beat a gorilla. They are the mightiest of primates. Oh, but they like bananas… maybe I could… set up a trap… and make him slip on the peel…
Notable canon leaks
- Bell-mère’s “missing” full name confusion — Oda flubs “Utsuboko”, reader corrects to “Nobuko”, Oda acknowledges. Yet this contradicts the on-page name “Bell-mère” — clarifies that Bell-mère is the stage/foster-mother name, “Nobuko” appears to be an older draft / joke name. NOTE: by later SBS / official sources, “Bell-mère” remains canonical → Bell-mère / Nami Backstory and Bell-mere
- Baroque Works female-agent codename pattern: year’s-happiest-events ranked → Bon Clay / Baroque Works / SBS Vol 18 Baroque Works Female Codenames Year Happy Events (Ch. 0161 page 20 — load-bearing canon cross-link)
- Dr. Kureha’s secret to youth = BEING HAPPY → Kureha
- German naming in One Piece (Möwe, Krieg) = pure sound-aesthetic, no historical link to German pirates → Morgan / Krieg
- Antarctic IS colder than Arctic — Shanks right, Buggy wrong (Vol 3 flashback resolved) → Shanks / Buggy
- Hiking Bear discipline mechanic (Drum Kingdom) → Drum Kingdom (if exists)