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.

Please keep in mind that many other readers are also first-timers. Do NOT spoil anything beyond this point in the comments!

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Chapter 22 is called “Strange Creatures.” Now, I wonder why it might have a title like that?

^{Do y’all think there are like ZooBooks about these creatures in the One Piece universe? Is my audience even old enough to remember ZooBooks? Did any of you have the Free Tiger Poster? If you still do, I would exchange an anime commission for it.}

Feathered and crested foxes aside, this chapter is actually a mostly self-contained little story. Its actual events, at the moment at least, seem to me to be of little consequence. But, we get some important worldbuilding and learn a few other interesting things. That’s more than enough to justify the slightly-longer-than-usual page count here (30 vs. the usual 20-something).

The basic plot is quite straightforward. Luffy spots an island through his looking scope, he and Nami make landfall while Zolo rests in the ship, and they meet a bunch of weird animals. And also this guy.

This fuzzy gentleman is Gaimon. He was stranded on the island nearly 20 years prior while searching for treasure (as part of a pirate crew, natch). He fell in an empty treasure chest, got stuck, and no one has come back to help him in all that time. A sad story in its own way, maybe, but Gaimon is quite the comical figure, being mostly a waddling head with his entire body, sans feet and hands, stuck in the box. He’s a bit of a human hermit crab, one might say.

Luffy eventually helps the man find the treasure he’s been searching for all these years, only for it to turn out that the chests are empty. Easy come, easy go. (Gaimon declines an offer to join Luffy’s crew, staying on the island as the protector of the many tiankeng-worthy creatures that live there.) The whole misadventure is a little inconsequential, and the chapter itself might feel that way too if not for some interesting things we learn about the actual world of One Piece during it.

For instance. You, like I, may have thought “The Grand Line” was a slightly odd name for a stretch of ocean. As it turns out, it’s not a stretch of ocean, it’s a strait that links two of them. Think The Bosporus if, instead of linking two large, economically-important and well-traversed seas, it linked the only two major of bodies of water on the planet.

This instantly explains a lot about the world of One Piece, especially its generally nautically-focused nature. The Grand Line is dangerous, though, even Gaimon, who’s been stranded on his island for two decades, has stories to pass on of the souls who survive a passage through it.

But, Luffy’s casual but overwhelming self-confidence must be infectious, as it’s not long before Gaimon is wishing him good luck when he departs.

This was an odd little detour for the series, but I’m glad we took it, if only for the interesting tidbits about the world of One Piece itself. As for Gaimon, he’s not too banged up about the empty treasure chests.

I wouldn’t be too shocked if he shows up again someday. But for now, it’s farewell to the weird warden of the island of strange animals.

As for tomorrow’s adventure? Who knows?

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