SBS Volume 27
Skypiea SBS — Smoker and Hina full profiles finally canonized (ages 34/32, Marine Academy classmates, Hina = elite who rescued Smoker from being fired); Jaya arc theme officially declared “A MAN’S ROMANCE”; Shoujou and Mashira names from Chinese/Japanese monkey monsters (Shoujou = a Chinese monkey-monster name; Mashira = an old Japanese word for monkey); and the Nojiko-to-Nami bracelet hand-off canonized as a sister-bond inheritance (Vol. 11 Nojiko’s bracelet visibly disappears the morning the Straw Hats sail).
Q&A
Q: Crying-reader title call
D: It’s bad! It’s horrible! SBS is starting!
O: Don’t cry. Seriously. It’s time for SBS anyway.
Q: Marimo balls grow 10cm/year (Zoro joke)
D: MARIMO BALLS (Aegagropila) GROW 10 CM IN A YEAR!! It reaches the 30 cm maximum in three years. They apparently grow better the more sunlight they have, so Zoro’s head would grow really big, since he sleeps on the deck…
O: 10 cm in a year?! Then it’s… 1 meter in 10 years?! Ah… that’s kinda cool… really now… Marimo balls grow that big… I’m looking forward to 10 years later… Ah, wait! That’s a person.
Q: Sanji’s “san” vs “chan” — Nami-san vs Robin-chan
D: Why do you use “san” for Nami, who’s younger, and “chan” for Nico Robin, who’s older? Isn’t it the opposite normally?
O: Yeah. Really. What’s that about? Maybe it’s Nami’s natural queenly-ness that makes him do it. But anyway, age doesn’t matter, ‘cause they’re all free. Probably just random.
Q: Smoker and Hina — ages, Marine Academy, birthdays
D: Please tell me Smoker and Hina’s profiles. They’re both captains and from the same time, but are their ages the same too?
D (second letter): What are the ages of Smoker and Hina? And I thought it’ll be good if Smoker’s birthday is March 14 (White Day), and Hina’s is March 3 (Hinamatsuri).
O: Er. I introduced both of them at the same time. Birthday? Yeah, ok. Smoker’s 34 and Hina’s 32. They got into the Marines at the same time, but Hina was, of course, an elite. Smoker was the punk that never listened to his superiors. You might want to say that they’re stuck with each other. Smoker almost gets fired, and Hina rescues him. But anyway, they both ate the Devil Fruit, so they’re pretty important forces for the Marines, and one of the reasons why they’re Captains at such young ages.
Q: Billower Bike — amphibious land/sea vehicle
D: In Chapter 212, is that little thing attached to the “Full” the Billower Bike? That would mean it works on water, right? What kind of a bike is it?
O: That’s actually for both land and sea. The “Billower” is from “billow” (“a large wave”), and it’s the reason why the tires are unusually wide. I’ll use it for real one of these days. Wonder when that’ll be?
Q: Pandaman + Tomato Gang debt collector
D: I’m always looking for Pandaman, but who’s this guy that’s always by him? And what’s that thing he’s always holding in his hand?
O: He’s the TOMATO GANG, DUH. Yeah, that’s the Tomato Gang. There’s no other answer. He’s a debt collector. He’s going to continue chasing Pandaman until he pays for the debt he owes. He’s holding “something like a gun” in his hand. There are rumors that’re going around that it’s actually a konbu seaweed roll.
Q: Shoujou’s “Cyberpanda” outfit
D: That outfit Shoujou was wearing! “Cyberpanda”, what’s that?
O: That outfit is… “Cyberpanda”. It’s a fake product like the “Dosko1 Panda”, but it’s more expensive than the real “Doskoi Panda”. Be careful.
Q: Buggy “Yaraideka!” Edo dialect
D: Buggy says “Yaraideka!” before a feast, but what exactly does it mean? Is it some kind of a dialect?
O: If I must put it in the simplest terms, it is a dialect. It’s the “Edo-ben”. Tokyo’s old dialect. You’ve probably heard “te yandei!!”. That means “Wha’re you saying!!”. Edo people had very little patience, so “yaraideka!” means “How could we NOT!” … I’ve been thinking about having a “Edokko Pirates” (Edokko means “kids from Edo”). It’ll be funny to do that. Someday.
Q: Karoo’s voice actor = Sanji’s (Hirata Hiroaki)
D: I heard from a friend, but apparently the “Sokotsuya” (Careless person) that does Karoo’s voice is actually Hirata Hiroaki, who does Sanji. Is it true?!
O: “Kueee!!”. Yes. That’s Hirata-san aka Sanji doing it. And Matsuge from Alabasta’s being done by Yamaguchi aka Usopp. In the anime, say, if Sanji or Zoro don’t appear in the episode, then the regulars don’t have lines. What they do when that happens is they play around. Like guessing animal voices. But they don’t use their real names in the credits, so they just use “Sokotsuya” (“Rude Guy”) like that. If the voice actor’s name is “Sokotsuya”, it’s one of the Straw Hats doing it.
Q: “MARRON” vs “ROMANCE” — Jaya arc theme
D: Volume 25, Chapter 235, Page 174. I read “That’s!! “MARRON”!!!!” (In Japanese, this stands for “Marron”, the French word for chestnut). How ‘bout you to just make it “Marron”?
O: NO. Jaya arc’s theme? You know? It’s “A MAN’S ROMANCE”!!! Ah! He is so cool. What marron… that’s totally wrong. … The theme for the Jaya arc is “A MAN’S MARRO… ROMANCE!!!”
Q: Shoujou = Chinese monkey-monster etymology
D: I was looking through this book about monsters, and I came upon this Chinese monkey monster called a “Shoujou”. Is that where Shoujou’s name comes from?
O: Hmm. It’s written differently in Japanese, and it does point to the monster thing, but it’s more commonly known as the orangutan. Yes, it’s taken exactly. Oh, and Mashira’s also like that. Japanese people used to call monkeys “mashira”.
Q: Nami’s bracelet from Nojiko — sisterhood canonization
D: Nami’s wearing that bracelet even when she’s taking a bath (Vol. 23)!! I thought it must be something really important, so I looked through all the volumes, and she’s been wearing it since they came out of Kokoyashi Village. And, surprise, Nojiko was wearing it before that!! Did Nojiko give it to Nami when they went to Kokoyashi Village?!
O: Yes. It is that bracelet. The morning of their departure (Vol. 11), the bracelet is gone from Nojiko’s arm. On her shoulder are Bellemere’s and Gen-san’s symbols, tangerine and windmill. And on her left hand is the bracelet she got from her sister. They’re not connected by blood, but Nami is always with her family.
Q: Coloring corner request
D: I love coloring. Oda-sensei, please increase the number of coloring corners for the seven main characters!
O: I’ll put one on. Please go to page 166.
Notable canon-leaks
- Smoker and Hina full profiles canonized — Smoker 34, Hina 32, both Marine Academy contemporaries. Hina = elite-classmate; Smoker = the punk Hina rescued from being fired. Both Devil Fruit users. Both Captains-at-young-age justified by DF-status as “important forces for the Marines”. This is the most load-bearing Vol. 27 leak — gives the full backstory of the Smoker/Hina pair that Alabasta-arc had merely set up. Fan-proposed birthdays (Smoker 3/14 White Day, Hina 3/3 Hinamatsuri) implicitly accepted.
- Jaya arc theme = “A MAN’S ROMANCE” — Oda explicitly states this is the arc-thesis. Cricket / Masira / Shoujou / Saruyama Alliance / Noland-Calgara dream all roll into this thesis. Forward-canon: every later “man’s romance” line (Franky’s, Senor Pink’s) traces back to this Jaya-arc thematic install.
- Nami bracelet = sister-bond inheritance from Nojiko — symbolic pass-down moment occurs between Vol. 11 panels. “They’re not connected by blood, but Nami is always with her family” — canonizes the Nami-Nojiko non-blood-but-family thesis. The shoulder-tattoo composition (Bell-mère’s tangerine + Gen-san’s windmill + Nojiko’s bracelet) = wearable-family-portrait body-grammar.
- Shoujou + Mashira names from monkey-monster etymology — Shoujou (Chinese monkey-monster, commonly = orangutan); Mashira (archaic Japanese for “monkey”). Saruyama Alliance member naming = monkey-coded.
- Billower Bike is land+sea amphibious — “billow” = wave; wide tires for water. Pre-loads later sea-going non-DF-user vehicles (Sea Train, etc.).
- Tomato Gang debt-collector chases Pandaman — Pandaman-mythology canonization; Pandaman is fleeing debt, weaponized seaweed-roll gag.
- Karoo / Matsuge voiced by Hirata Hiroaki (Sanji) and Yamaguchi Kappei (Usopp) — credited as “Sokotsuya” — the Straw-Hat-voice-actor-doubling-as-animal convention canonized.
- Buggy’s “Yaraideka!” = Edo-ben dialect — canonizes Buggy’s Edo-period verbal register; Oda muses about a future “Edokko Pirates” idea.