- [Narrator] Alright, I'm going to make a deal
with all of you.
And that deal is quite simply if you do not laugh
at the following quote, unquote joke,
then you need to subscribe to the Grand Line Review.
Alright, are we ready for humor?
I know I am.
If Jinbei resided in the United Kingdom
then where would he live?
Wales.
(drum vibrates)
I look forward to seeing a lot of new subscribers.
Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review
your source for everything "One Piece".
And today I'd like to talk about Mr. Whaleshark once again.
But right off the bat I will say
that this video is going to contain some spoilers
for anime only watches because developments have been made.
I won't say how great or how small but this is your warning.
However for everyone else.
Let us continue with the intro.
So, what we're going to do today is much less
of a structured discussion
and more of a coherent rambling.
Hopefully coherent anyway,
although I make very few promises.
But it's all centering around Jinbei
and specifically his reappearance on "Wano"
because I have some mixed feelings here and there
because from a character perspective,
I obviously love it.
I'm a huge fan of Jinbei,
And I think that he fits in pretty damn
perfectly with the crew.
On the other hand, though, I'm not really sure
the way in which he was placed in this position
was handled particularly well.
And I think for all intents and purposes,
Jinbei did just kind of appear out of thin air.
And that kind of axed me for a wide variety
of reasons that yes we will get into.
But firstly, I think it's important
to address the positives because I wouldn't feel
any form of conflict without a distinct positive aspect.
From the moment Jinbei was plunked back into the story,
or maybe not the exact moment more like the beginning
of the next chapter.
But from his reunion with the Straw Hats onwards,
those few chapters have been nothing
less than an incredibly enjoyable journey.
And it's kind of weird and cool
because Jinbei is not one of those characters
who strikes you as someone who has grown
and evolved over time.
Primarily because he is often seen
as this established world figure.
Someone who has indeed reached their final form,
but the latest "Wano" chapters have made it
so incredibly clear just how much Jinbei has changed.
So, to contrast this, let's go back
to his original introduction,
which rather unfortunately took place in Impel Down,
but let's take this whole era into account.
How would you describe Jinbei during this time?
I personally would have summed him up
in probably three words.
Serious, honorable and blue.
He was very stoic and at times quite an intimidating figure,
not so much from a perspective of power,
but from the viewpoint of shared knowledge and maturity.
In fact, Jinbei has never really felt like
a top tier powerful guy,
but he is still able to command the respect
that individuals like the Admirals would.
He's a very unique presence.
And that's why very early on in his series tenure,
he made a pretty big fan out of me,
but that was kind of all there was to him.
A grand stoic, whaleshark statue.
One that yeah, you could rely on
but you couldn't really get to know.
And it would actually take his first reintroduction
to the series and I say first
because we've had what, three at this point now.
But it would take his first reintroduction
on Fishman Island to begin to break down this Jinbei guy
and start showing his true personality.
And I can think of no better example
of this than when he saw Shira Hoshi
and he made his own NL style face.
I never in a million years expected
to see such a thing from Mr. Jinbei,
but this was our first sign that he was evolving
and opening up to us as readers and watchers.
And this only continued on Whole Cake Island during
his second reintroduction,
because by this time, Jinbei had taken another step.
And he was no longer particularly shocked
at the kind of curve balls that Luffy would throw at him.
But not only that, Jinbei also had moments
of laughter like when judge was saying
all those demeaning things about Sanji.
And Luffy just took them as complements.
And now in "Wano" that has gone even further,
Jinbei has been back in the story for a while,
like four chapters at the time of this recording,
and he seems to have come equipped with
an almost permanent smile on his face.
Despite the fact that he is quite literally about
to battle two emperors of the sea.
This is probably the happiest
that Jinbei has ever been in his life
because he is finally free of everything
that has metaphorically and even on the odd occasion,
literally shackled him to this world.
Jinbei is a figure who was had to bear
the responsibility of the entirety of Fishman Island
as pretty much the only world renowned representative
on the surface.
But now that he's mostly free of that charge,
there is an incredibly stark contrast
between the Jinbei we knew and the Jinbei we now know.
And Dota has done a brilliant job of conveying this
over an incredibly absurdly long character arc
to arrive in this place right here right now.
He now blends in perfectly with the crew so perfectly,
and it often falls me into forgetting
about the greater narrative circumstance of his being here.
So, here's where we're going to get into some negatives.
I love Jinbei.
I love that he's here.
However, what I do not love is
that he is here without really any explanation whatsoever.
Like seriously looking back on these last few chapters,
you realize that for all intents and purposes,
he has just magically appeared
at the right time in the right place.
Which, yes, "One Piece" is a fictional story.
So, that is always going to happen.
But usually Oda is much better
at seamlessly integrating these necessary dramatics.
But it's particularly important in this case,
because of the end of Whole Cake Island.
Now, while I do think it took a particularly long time
to reach this conclusion of Whole Cake Island act three.
I think that the ending was out of brilliance.
I personally love the mega rock in "One Piece"
concluded with effectively the defeat and the retreat
of the Straw Hats,
leaving all of their gathered allies at the mercy
of an emperor of the sea.
One of which was Jinbei,
who very honorably stated that he could
not leave his former crew members behind.
And that was some phenomenal drama created
when Luffy granted him permission to do so
but ordered him to meet up with them on Wano.
And so, Jinbei's fate was left in this mysterious zone
with an overwhelming negative feeling attached to it,
because what were they going to do exactly?
Everyone involved was completely overwhelmed
by the Big Mom pirates.
And it became almost an accepted thought
in the fan base that surely Jinbei would have been captured
and potentially punished.
And by punishment, we're obviously talking
about being maimed or killed.
Because I guess the thing is, if it was actually possible
for everyone to escape peacefully,
and why didn't they just do that alongside the Straw Hats?
I don't know, to me it just felt like Jinbei
and the Sun Pirates were embarking
on more or less a sacrificial quest.
Whilst the Gemma were on something
of a kamikaze revenge mission.
There was great power attached to leaving them there
in the most dire situation imaginable,
all bloodied and on the verge of defeat.
And it really doesn't sit quite right
with me that often leaving Jinbei
in what looks like an impossible situation.
He just rocks up out of nowhere safe and sound
to join the crew on Wano.
And not only that, but apparently all of the Sun pirates
seem to have survived as well,
because the only piece of context Jinbei does provide
in these recent chapters is that he was like to Wano
due to treating the wounded members of his crew
as well as having a party to send him off.
There is some very important connective tissue missing here,
not necessarily in terms of logic.
I find logical arguments pretty boring.
An example of which would be that,
"Hey, the Sun Pirates soldier swam away
and were able to outrun whatever
the Big Mom pirates could throw at them."
We don't even have an explanation like that.
But what I'm more interested in is the narrative tissue.
There is a big, big, big disconnect
with engine based story
because if we juxtapose the final moments
of Whole Cake Island to his first moments on Wano,
with nothing in between, because there is nothing
then we find that there has been far too rapid of a shift.
From being quite possibly on the verge of death
to safe and sound, everything is fine
is a bit difficult for me to swallow.
And currently not even having
a bare minimum logical explanation provided
is a little irksome.
And all right, let's put it another way,
by throwing it into the context of say Luffy
versus Katakuri.
Let's scope that situation to the Jinbei situation.
So, imagine that we got to the point where Flambe
shot Luffy and Katakuri skewered him with his trident.
Super dramatic ending to an amazing chapter or episode
and one that builds extraordinary interest
for the fate and the future of Luffy.
But then let's say we take a 20 chapter gap
not showing Luffy, Katakuri or anything
in mirror world whatsoever
and the very next time we see Luffy
is aboard the Thousand Sunny.
Safe and smiling ready to escape from Totto Land
with no mention whatsoever of what occurred
between him and Katakuri in the mirror world.
As a reader or watcher you'd probably
feel slightly unsatisfied to say the least
by not knowing how Luffy got himself
out of that incredibly dire situation.
And yes, he is the main characters, so, there is that.
But to me, it feels like this is exactly
what's happened with Jinbei.
Oda very deliberately put him in a desperate scenario
and then proceeded to do nothing with that.
It was in retrospect completely empty drama
because it ended up having zero impact
on Jinbei's character or I guess any character actually
as well as the story as a whole.
Knowing how Oda was going to reintroduce Jinbei
makes me wonder exactly why he bothered
to leave him behind on Whole Cake Island in the first place.
There was no special purpose
for that delay in joining the crew.
In fact, at this point in time,
I'd even argue that it was an unnecessary complication
because all it really does is go to serve a surprise
and slightly underwhelming Whaleshark appearance on "Wano"
and I guess what I'm searching
for is some kind of benefit as to why Oda did this.
Like for example, did Jinbei pick up some important
information on his separate journey to Wano
that would greatly impact events on the island
or did he stumble upon a former of White Bay pirates
or even the grand fleet
and channel them towards the island.
At the moment, there is absolutely nothing
that Jinbei really brings to the story
as a result of being left behind on Whole Cake Island.
If anything it very much undercuts and devalues
the drama that was created by the end of the arc.
So, right now is sitting at a net negative
in terms of narrative.
And that's before we even examine
the more technical questions like
How did Jinbei get to Wano?
And how did he know exactly when
and where to meet the Allied forces?
Where did this knowledge come from?
It's not as if discovering
the secret message spread throughout Wano
would have helped Jinbei
because he would not have known how to interpret it.
And if he did encounter a member of the Allied forces
who told him what and when the plan was,
and when exactly did this happen?
And why would it not have been reported to Kinomoto Luffy?
Or are you trying to tell me
that Jinbei out of sheer fated coincidence
just so happened to swim on up to Wano
and land in the exact port that Luffy
and the Allied forces just so happened
to be at on the very day of the attack?
And look, honestly, that is probably
the most likely explanation.
And "One Piece" is no stranger
to those sorts of fated events.
But everything combined just makes
the situation a bit weird to look back on.
At least at this point in the story anyway,
Jinbei situation could always be expanded upon by Oda.
And I really, really hope it is because in my opinion,
it solely needs it.
And I'm not saying that we need
to know absolutely every step that a character takes
to get from point A to point B, but at the same time,
we also can't just jump from two extremes
without any connective tissue whatsoever.
And you know what, just to illustrate another example,
for fun because I do like these.
Let's imagine a sort of reverse Jinbei situation
where character goes from happy and fine
to a dire situation out of nowhere.
And we are going to use Ace for this.
So, imagine that we've just encountered
a string the alabaster rock.
Happy guy with his brother man on a mission.
Cool, love it.
Now for the sake of hypotheticals,
let's pretend that we did not hear anything
about Ace until Amazon Lily,
where we discover that Ace has been captured
and is scheduled for public execution.
Narratively, that would be a disjointed juxtaposition,
and it doesn't follow the flow of an arc.
And it doesn't take much to make it an arc either.
Why the Ace situation feels very natural,
whereas the jinbei one does not
is because we do see a brief encounter between Ace
and Blackbeard on Banaro Island.
So, when you do cut to him in prison eventually,
that connective tissue is already there.
You see him in prison,
and it implies that he lost a Blackbeard.
And despite having very little
information regarding the event itself,
you know enough to accept exactly how Ace got
from point A to point B.
As well as his character has gone
from narratively super fun happy times
to super bad desperate times.
Wano Jinbei is missing his equivalent
of the Banaro Island incident.
And once again, yeah,
we may receive that in a future flashback
or even some exposition,
but the problem with adding connective tissue afterwards
is that it doesn't help our current situation right now.
And sadly as thrilled as I am to see Jinbei
in every glorious panel he inhabits.
It just feels a bit weird.
It really is like someone just snapped their fingers
and Jinbei is here like that.
And that it could have happened with just about anyone.
What if during the next few chapters
Luffy encounters a dicey situation
and then out of nowhere crocodile appears
to save the day and join the Allied forces for reasons.
And no, it's not the same situation
because crocodile doesn't have any reason
to be on Wano unlike Jinbei,
but it would leave that same sort of bizarre aftertaste
because it just doesn't feel natural.
And right now to me, Jinbei situation does not feel natural.
And I'm sure that there are many of you who either disagree
or just don't care which is also fine.
Ultimately, this is nowhere near a serious breaking issue.
Not even close, but it is an uncharacteristic minor flaw
of Oda supreme storytelling ability
and I am looking forward to seeing if future developments
go on to change that impression of mine.
But what do you guys think?
Please do leave your thoughts in the comments below
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But for now this has been the Grand Line Review
and I'll see you next time.