One Piece Every Day is a column where I read a chapter of One Piece every single day—more or less—and discuss my thoughts on it. Each entry will have spoilers up to the chapter covered in that day’s column.

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I really like the opening panel of chapter 4.

Mostly the guy on the right. Look at him! He’s so scandalized! It’s almost adorable.

I’m not sure how true this remains going forward, but assuming that Luffy continues to act in a generally similar fashion throughout most of the manga, I think the fact that he’s just so blunt may be a factor as to its popularity. Kids love the idea of being able to just tell someone off, especially if they’re someone older than them. Luffy does that all the time, and if people continue giving him issues, he socks them in the face. (Except here he doesn’t, this is the first chapter where Luffy doesn’t punch somebody in the kisser. I’m a little sad, to be honest.) There are several examples of this attitude here, and they’re all charmingly kiddy. I’m particularly fond of Luffy totally blowing off Koby’s concern here.

And his not taking “no” for an answer when he tries to press-gang Zolo, here.

The newest target of Luffy’s attitude is Captain “Axe-Hand” Morgan. He combines his son Helmeppo’s massive self-regard with an obsession with status (literally! he goes on and on about his “rank” in the navy here) and the fact that, well, he has an axe for a hand. He’s not a nice man! Over the course of this chapter’s brief 20 pages he kills two subordinates, one just for scuffing the massive statue of himself he’s having erected, and on top of that orders his men to kill the little girl we met last chapter. (One of the two henchmen Morgan kills in this chapter meets his end because he refuses to even consider carrying out the order. Poor guy, imagine dying in chapter four of one of the longest-running manga of all time.) For “defying” him by talking to Zolo. Famously, small children are normally obedient and deferential.

Luffy doesn’t know or care about any of this of course, and literally rockets into a confrontation with Morgan. Again, the chapter ends on a cliffhanger, so we don’t see them actually properly fight here.

I do also want to mention that Koby gets a solid moment here, too, when he unties Zolo’s binds in the yard. Luffy doesn’t do this because he wants to make Zolo one of his crew members. His “plan” for doing so is to steal Zolo’s swords back from the tower they’re being kept in and only return them if Zolo joins his crew. This would be antiheroic if it were at all a competent plan. For his part, Zolo seems more in awe of how “dumb” Luffy is, and a little shocked about the whole “aspiring king of pirates” thing. Who wouldn’t be, I suppose?

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