Written by: Matt Owens & Steven Maeda
Directed by: Marc Jobst
Series premiere. 22 years after the execution of Gold Roger, Monkey D. Luffy sets out on his quest to become King of the Pirates. His first step? Stealing a map from the Shells Town Marine base.
- Arc incorporated into the episode: Romance Dawn
Tropes:
- Action Girl: Nami proves herself to be one by defeating several marines on her own.
- Adaptational Attractiveness: Alvida is originally a Fat Bastard Gonk before later eating a Devil Fruit that makes her both a lot thinner and very beautiful, but here, she's a Big Beautiful Woman from the start. Tellingly, unlike in the original series where she made everyone on her crew lie through their teeth about her being the World's Most Beautiful Woman, she now makes them say that she's the strongest pirate on the seas.
- Adaptational Badass: Unlike in the manga, where Morgan is single-handedly beaten by Luffy, live-action Morgan is such a tough enemy that Luffy and Zoro have to team up to fight him. Even then, they technically don't defeat him; they just knock him down and run for it.
- Adaptational Context Change:
- The adaptation moves the scene of Rika trying to feed Zoro to before his arrest. He's arrested for Crime of Self-Defense when Helmeppo provokes him, not for killing Helmeppo's dog. And his punishment is mentioned to last a week and not a month, something he also accepts to avoid becoming an outlaw.
- In the manga and anime, Luffy only first meets Zoro after he's already been arrested and tied up in the yard, and after hearing Helmeppo boasting in town that he's planning on having him executed the next day despite earlier promising to let him go after 30 days, Luffy punches out Helmeppo for it and decides he wants Zoro on his crew. Zoro also doesn't find out about this until later, when Koby tells him while trying to untie him. Here, Helmeppo explicitly tells Zoro to his face not long after he's been tied up that Morgan isn't really going to let him go.
- Luffy originally semi-blackmails Zoro into joining his crew (though not maliciously) by promising to get his swords back from Helmeppo and free him so Zoro wil have to join him to get them back, to the latter's annoyance, but then Luffy ends up saving his and Koby's lives when they're cornered by the Marines, at which point Zoro willingly agrees to join. This time around, Luffy just casually unties him with no strings attached, Zoro gets the swords back himself, and starts to leave before seeing Luffy and Nami fighting the Marines and deciding to stay and help them, and doesn't agree to join Luffy's crew at this point, instead just basically escaping together from the Marine Base with him and Nami.
- Adaptational Early Appearance:
- While Garp is technically introduced via the cover stories during the East Blue arc, he doesn't get fully introduced until the Post-Enies Lobby arc. Here he is introduced in the first episode as the one presiding over Gold Roger's execution.
- Gold Roger's execution is shown in full, as opposed to a narration over a single page or in the anime's opening, which means the characters who witnessed it 20 years ago, such as Mihawk and Dragon, are shown earlier.
- Baroque Works is usually not mentioned until the second arc in the series. Here, Zoro is introduced fighting one of their agents, Mr. 7.
- In the manga and the anime, Nami doesn't take part in the battle with Captain Morgan, which she does here due to the map she originally stole from Buggy being possessed by the Marines instead.
- Cabaji in the manga first appears in Orange Town but in the live-action series he seen in the bar in Shells Town.
- Cameo example, but Foxy and Cavendish appear as wanted posters in Shells Town, despite not making appearances until the Long Ring Long Land arc and Dressrosa arc respectively, much later.
- Adaptational Hairstyle Change: An interesting variation: Helmeppo in the main series starts off with a weird hairstyle, then switches to long straight hair after his Heel–Face Turn. Here, the order is reversed, as he starts off with long hair, then Zoro cuts it into his original hairstyle as punishment.
- Adaptation Distillation: Morgan isn't shown to be abusive to the Marines and Luffy and co sneak out of Shells Town, so the Marines don't show them a farewell and Koby joins them offscreen.
- Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Morgan is a strong fighter with and even bigger ego. He believes his status as a Marine Captain and his success in taking down Kuro of a Thousand Plans makes him the best fighter in the base. Nami even placates his ego by explaining her presence at the base as a recent transfer eager to serve under someone of his stature.
- Bavarian Fire Drill: When Luffy and Nami first bump into Captain Morgan, Nami says she's a new transfer from the 77th base who requested to serve under him, and that Luffy is her prisoner whom she's taking to be locked up. Captain Morgan buys this.
- Broken Pedestal: After spending his life looking up to the Marines are near-perfect fighters for justice and protecting the innocent, Koby is naturally heartbroken to see they can actually be a pack of thugs no better than pirates. Luffy tries to cheer him up by saying "you can be one of the good ones", but Koby is unsure if it's worth it.
- Changed My Mind, Kid: When the fight begins between Luffy and Nami against the Marines, Zoro is already freed and has his swords back. He initially moves to leave them to their devices, but then steps in when things start to go badly for the two.
- Confronting Your Imposter: Nami knocks out a Marine officer at a bar to use his uniform and steal a map from the Marine base. That same officer reappears in the map room just as she's about to leave, forcing Nami to kick his weapon out of his hand and incapacitate him and the other officer there.Marine officer: Hey, you're that girl from the bar. The one who stole my uniform.
- Conscience Makes You Go Back: Zoro is about to leave Morgan's base, but upon seeing Luffy and Nami fighting (after Luffy earlier untied him while asking for nothing in return), decides to return to help.
- Continuity Cameo: The wall of wanted posters that Luffy and Koby check out include posters for Foxy and Bellamy.
- Conveniently Timed Distraction: While Nami was already planning on stealing a Marine's uniform when she got the chance in order to infiltrate a Marine base, Zoro starting a bar fight with Helmeppo and the Marine soldiers bodyguarding him gives her the perfect opportunity to do it now, so she knocks out the Marine she'd started chatting up and steals his uniform.
- Deadly Dodging: Luffy may be Nigh-Invulnerable, but deliberately does this when up against Alvida, tricking her into trashing her own ship.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: When depicted in the Loguetown arc of the anime, Gold Roger's execution is suggested to be a snap decision by the executioners after Roger's Last Words. In this story, Garp commands his execution when he is done speaking.
- Early-Bird Cameo:
- During Roger's execution, one can spot younger versions of several characters before they appear in the series proper, such as Shanks, Mihawk, and Buggy. There is also Dragon (who is only recognizable due to his cloak), and Smoker.
- Non-character variant; the island of Alabasta can be seen on the map in the prologue (it's the island with a split in its middle).
- Easily-Overheard Conversation: An unseen Luffy overhears Nami's confrontation with the Marines in the map room when they realize she is an imposter. This lets him see through her claims of being a Marine when he crashes into the room.
- Easter Egg: In the flashback to Luffy's childhood, "Binks' Brew" can be heard playing in the background of Makino's bar.
- Egopolis: Morgan has turned his Marine base into this. Helmeppo is a lesser example, right down to his teddy bear having the same hairstyle as he (originally) had.
- Entertainingly Wrong: The closing scene shows how the Marines and various pirate lords assume "this crew must have been planning for months" rather than the trio running into each other by accident to pull this heist off without even realizing it.
- Establishing Character Moment:
- Luffy is shown just how out of his depth he is when he is seen on his sinking ship on his first day, but his out-of-the-box thinking saves himself when he puts himself into a barrel and seals it.
- Zoro is seen somberly paying respects at a shrine for the dead before engaging Mr. 7 in a fierce sword fight, ending with the latter's death.
- Nami is introduced by stealing the boat of a couple small-time pirates she Lured into a Trap with an empty treasure chest. She is then seen looking through the map book she was working on.
- Eye Scream: Narrowly subverted. When Shanks was patching Luffy up after he stabbed himself in the face, Luffy said he was aiming for his eye. He just missed.
- Failed a Spot Check: Morgan is so pleased when Nami strokes his ego, the man fails to notice she steals his keys until he comes across the Marines she had beaten up.
- Fate Worse than Death: Zoro's intention when he dealt with Helmeppo after recovering his third sword.
- Flashback: The story cuts back a few times to young Luffy with the Red Hair Pirates, including giving himself his trademark scar under his left eye, and eating the Gum-Gum Devil Fruit.
- Flipping the Bird: Zoro sarcastically asks Mr. 7 if Baroque Works members have mandatory tattoos, before stating number one is his favorite and then flips the mercenary off.
- Foreshadowing: At the bar Nami rejects a Marine's advances and goes with another Marine because he's shorter. Because she needs clothes to steal for the infiltration.
- Groin Attack: Nami deals out a double-groin attack on two marines coming at her from opposite sides during the fight in the climax. Both are taken down from the fight.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: At the conclusion of their fight Zoro cuts Mr. 7 in half via his waist.
- Hero of Another Story: Befitting Marines, both Garp and Bogard. Their conversation at the end of the episode implies that they have been hunting down Baroque Works for some time, with one of the calling cards resting on Garp's desk.
- I Choose to Stay: When Luffy, Zoro, and Nami prepare to leave the Marine base, Koby decides to stay and follow his dream to join the Marines. The last thing Koby does for them is push their boat off from the dock.Koby: Next time we meet, we might be enemies.
Luffy: But for now, we're friends! - Implied Death Threat: Before confronting Mr. 7 properly, Zoro sets down two ceremonial candles. They catch Mr. 7's eyes and he starts the conversation leading to a fight.Zoro: You can come out.
Mr. 7: People often visit shrines to light candles in remembrance of those they lost. Who are yours for?
Zoro: This one is for a friend I knew long ago...
Mr. 7: And the other?
Zoro: You've been following me for 3 days... - Indy Ploy: Luffy's "plan" to get the Grand Line map is sneak into the base via the drain system and just go from there. It's only by luck of meeting Nami does he actually succeed.
- Made of Iron: Luffy and Nami go flying out of the window of Morgan's office when the former yanks the safe out of the floor, and it's a pretty long fall from there to the ground because of how high up it is. Naturally, this doesn't hurt Luffy at all because he's a Rubber Man, but Nami only has Luffy and the safe he landed on top of for any kind of padding, but is at most a little winded, and otherwise fine.
- Mugged for Disguise: Nami ignores a Marine trying to flirt with her with a dismissal of "too tall", and promptly zeroes in on a different one that's more her size. Then she uses the commotion of Zoro's fight in the bar to knock out the Marine to steal his uniform and joins some marching Marines to get into their base. Unfortunately, the Marine she stole the uniform from shows up in the map room she intends to steal from.
- My Death Is Only The Beginning: While presiding over his execution, Garp hisses to Roger how he brought his fate upon himself, to which Roger just answers that he's now going to "bring it to one and all". Indeed, Garp is visibly shook as he observes Roger make the call for all the onlookers to seek out his treasure, and for all them to quickly run out to do so, as he realizes what Roger has just started.
- Mythology Gag:
- Zoro is first seen on Sixis Island
. This island is where Ace and Deuce were once stranded. - The matchsticks Zoro uses say "Beast of Baldimore", which is what Franky gets known as there during the Time Skip.
- The outfit Nami wears is based on one of her original concept arts (though she does not have a metal arm).
- The haircut Helmeppo sports after Zoro cuts it is near exactly that of his manga self.
- Zoro is first seen on Sixis Island
- Naked People Are Funny: When Zoro goes to recover his swords from Helmeppo, he finds him posing with Wado Ichimonji while in the nude, getting a brief shot of his butt before he manages to cover himself with a teddy bear.
- Non-Dubbed Grunts: A lot of the foreign dubs left Buggy the Clown's Evil Laugh unchanged. This includes the Hindi, Mandarin, Polish, Romanian, Spanish (Europe), Tamil, Telugu, and Ukrainian dubs. Downplayed in the Czech, French, Hungarian, Italian, and Turkish dubs where the foreign voice actor adds their own version alongside the original.
- Not So Above It All: Despite Zoro being depicted as very serious and stoic, his idea of revenge on Helmeppo for stealing his swords and imprisoning him is to butcher his hairstyle. He even chuckles when the others comment on it.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Luffy at the start of the episode when he realizes his ship is sinking.
- While in Alvida's ship, Koby gasps in shock seconds after Luffy pops out of the barrel.
- Punch Catch: Morgan easily catches Luffy's rubber punch and throws him across the yard.
- Small Name, Big Ego:
- Alvida clearly wants to be seen as the strongest fighter on the seas, to the point that she makes her crew repeatedly tell her so in order to prop herself up, and attacks a ship that Zoro was on believing that he intends to kill her for her bounty. She is left enraged when she finds out that Zoro didn't even bother to put her name on his list of targets.
- Downplayed with Luffy. As Alvida learned the hard way, Luffy is a genuinely dangerous opponent, but it's still strange that at this point he actually expected to have a reward poster with his face on it, without even having done anything to deserve it.
- Street Urchin: Luffy is explicitly stated to be one of these as a child in this version of the story. He slept under a ship's deck and was fed by Makino the bartender.
- With Catlike Tread: Luffy initially tries to sneak his way off Alvida's ship while the crew is sleeping, only to wake everyone up when he accidentally smacks a bell with the oar he's carrying.
