- [Narrator] Hello, and welcome to the Grand Line Review.
Your source for everything One Piece.
And today we are going to be discussing
some rather intriguing and/or shocking news.
I mean, I call it news.
But in reality, this information made its way around
the internet last week,
but I'm sure that many of you have yet to hear
that we have confirmation on a certain factor
the fan base had been vigorously debating
ever since the very dawn of One Piece,
which has resulted in the implication
that there is indeed one final Straw Hat member
left to be recruited.
Yes, that means one more after Jinbei.
But if you're new or more casually associated
with One Piece, I want to give you some background
on this because new Straw Hats
are a pretty consistently hot topic
in the online fan base with almost every major new character
being introduced automatically,
being submitted as a candidate for nakama.
And speaking of, I would like to submit you,
dear viewers, as a candidate to become our nakama
by subscribing to the Grand Line Review
and joining the Grand Fleet,
which will also grant you regular One Piece content
uploaded straight into your YouTube feed.
A fairly superb author in my humble
and not-at-all bias opinion.
But in recent years, this kind of discussion
has become a bit more contentious
and it all has to with a statement
that Luffy made in the very first chapter of One Piece.
Where after dispatching the ever pesky Lord of the Coast,
he seemingly, arbitrarily declared that
"First thing's first.
I've got to get a crew.
I think about 10 men should do," which had rhymes,
and that line has been taken as an indicator
of when submissions to join the Straw Hats will close.
A core crew of 10 and anyone else
is more or less destined to become
an associate of the Straw Hats,
such as the Grand Fleet or the various kingdoms
that Luffy has made alliances with
over the course of the series.
The problem with Luffy's statement here though,
is that this very clear number of 10,
is actually far less than clear
because it was always very ambiguous
as to whether or not Luffy was including himself
within that total.
But let's forward now roughly two decades
to a release of One Piece magazine,
which, courtesy of a translation
from YonkouProductions on Twitter,
answers one of the age old inquiries from the fan base.
"One Piece Magazine reveals that Luffy
isn't included in with regards to wanting 10 crewmates
which means there's one more cremate to join
since there are 9 crewmates excluding Luffy currently."
And very importantly, as I stated before,
yes, this does include Jinbei.
Under the Luffyless structure, he would be the ninth member,
which would all but confirm
that even in this exceptionally late stage of One Piece,
we still have one more primary protagonist to collect.
Which, you would think, we've already met by now
and I think we do have a fairly good idea
of who that may be.
However before we get to that,
I do want to tackle the inevitable argument
that will come up, which is that we shouldn't be reading
too much into this statement made in 1997
by a cartoon rubber man.
Meaning that Luffy is a unreliable source of information
and not everything that comes out of his infinitely
wide mouth can be taken as a given.
With the except of the whole becoming
a Pirate King thing, I guess.
But I would disagree.
If Luffy was a real person, then sure.
We could probably very easily dismiss this statement,
and most of the statements.
However, he is a fictional construct
and regardless of the intelligence
and reliability of his character,
statements like this are made
to convey information to the audience.
We aren't a bunch of voyeurs peeking in on this world
like a reality TV show,
and everything said in One Piece
goes on to serve a double purpose,
and at all times is structured towards
giving new information to audience.
So it should be no surprise
that this is one of those moments.
This is not just Luffy dreaming on his own privately,
it's Eiichiro Oda directly speaking
to readers about his plans.
Whether or not those plans have changed is another matter,
however given that One Piece magazine
has felt the need to address this specific statement
after complete silence on the matter
for the entire history of the series.
Well, that tells me that we should be taking this
as a very strong hint, if not outright confirmation
that we can expect another Straw Hat.
Otherwise, why bother drawing attention to it?
I mean, I guess it could be a sort of deliberate attempt
to subvert expectations,
but One Piece doesn't really do that,
at least in this sort of way.
I guess I'd argue that Ace's death
was a pretty huge subversion of expectations
but at the same time, there wasn't an official statement
in One Piece media claiming that he would survive
the Paramount War to begin with.
Which is a very roundabout way of saying,
I believe Luffy/Oda's words here
every bit as much as when Luffy
proudly declares that he will become the Pirate King.
But that does leave us wondering,
who this 10th and final Straw Hat will be?
And in my estimation, there are only two reasonable choices.
Both of whom have some very strong evidence
to support one another,
as well as a third arguable candidate
but one that I'm not personally too sold on.
And you know what, let's start with the latter
and get her out of the way because it's Tama.
And just hear me out here
because it isn't as crazy or random as it may seem.
Tama actually has two very important things going for her,
one of which is a direct connection to Ace,
which in turn, provides a very direct connection to Luffy.
And Tama is actually quite similar to Luffy in that,
as a child, although she actually is a child to this day,
but as a smaller child she begged to join the Spade Pirate
when Ace visited Wano,
in much the same way that Luffy
wanted to join the Red Hair Pirates.
And Ace, just like Shanks, rejected Tama but he did promise,
and that is an important word here,
Ace promised that they would meet again one day
and allow her to join his crew after becoming a kunoichi.
A bewitching kunoicihi to be precise.
But it very strongly seeds the idea of Tama
wanting to travel outside of Wano.
And they, desire for travel for whatever reason it may be,
is a key factor of any member joining the Straw Hats.
Furthermore, Tama, apart from the Rock on Rusukaina,
is currently the only character post time skip
to have worn Luffy's trademark Straw Hat,
which has been used as a foreshadowing device in the past.
Very specifically with Robin,
who took the hat and put in on,
in much the same way that she more or less forced her way
onto the crew eventually.
So there's definitely an argument to be made here for Tama,
although there are definitely problems.
The first of which being that Tama is only 8 years old.
And while it's not unprecedented for kids around that age
to be roaming the New World,
like say Buggy, Shanks and Blackbeard,
it is still very difficult to picture
one becoming a Straw Hat.
And furthermore, even if we invest heavily into the idea
of Ace's promise and Luffy being the vehicle
to fulfills that promise,
Tama still has yet to uphold her end of that bargain.
She is not a kunoichi quite yet,
and thus, in my mind, cannot set sail.
Because that's how One Piece is.
Characters like Tama keep their word
and as such, I think that her adventure
will occur long after the Straw Hats
have concluded their various pieces
of business in One Piece.
So now let's move on to two much stronger candidates,
either of whom could quite easily hop aboard
and the first of which is now
the classically speculated, Carrot.
And she is a good candidate
for almost every reason imaginable.
Now one key thing that Carrot possess,
which Tama currently does not,
is a more specifically defined dream or goal.
Straw Hat crew members are inseparable from this concept.
They can't just aboard the ship for a good time,
they're here to pursue their own desires,
in addition to making Luffy the Pirate King.
And Carrot's desire, currently, would be fulfilling
the inherited will of Pedro.
The jaguar mink who very boldly proclaimed
that it was the Straw Hats who would bring
about the dawn of the world,
a very vaguely defined concept
that it is important to both the mink tribe and kozuki clan.
So naturally, to achieve such a thing,
it makes all the sense in the world to join the crew,
especially since Carrot has a demonstrable role
aboard the ship, being a lookout.
One of the very few classically
piratey positions left available.
And stick in another box,
Carrot also comes equipped with her own tragic flashback,
only it played out in real time with Pedro
on Whole Cake Island.
And really, there is only one thing
that holds me back from being super certain
about Carrot and it's all down to her relevance on Wano,
which has been close to zero.
This wouldn't be an issue if she was already a crew member
but leading up to a massive moment
like, say, joining the Straw Hats,
the character in question tends
to be quite hyper focused on.
Otherwise, I imagine that the eventual moment
of joining would have very little dramatic impact
and minimal satisfaction attached to it.
So in my mind, something very major needs to happen
on Wano to give Carrot this final push
and whilst it's not impossible,
the longer this arc continues,
the less likely that's looking.
However, I will admit that the overwhelming
possibility does still exists.
However, there just so happens to be another
character though, whose chances I would,
in all seriousness, put as equal to,
if not greater than that of Carrot.
But I do need to put in a spoiler warning
for anime only watchers because crazily enough,
this character has not yet been introduced to you.
And the way things are going,
they probably won't be for a very, very long time.
So if you're not keen on some of the old spoilers,
then please do skip to this time
but for everyone else, here we go.
And yes, it's obviously Yamato.
So obvious that I have made a fairly recent video
detailing this possibility alone.
So as a result, I'm not going to dive into it
quite as deeply here.
But Yamato is pretty on the road
to brute forcing his way into becoming a Straw Hat member,
kind of like how Oden had to practically
brute force his way onto Whitebeard ship.
Yamato has the innate desire for adventure and exploration
that both Carrot and Tama have,
but also a dream to fulfill with an inherited will
in regards to Kozuki Oden.
And given how intrinsically linked
Oden is to just about everything in One Piece,
be it Roger, Whitebeard, Joy Boy,
and even the void century through Toki,
it's difficult to imagine someone so directly invested
in the idea of being Oden,
not becoming wildly important in the endgame of One Piece.
And Yamato probably cannot inhabit that role of importance
by remaining on Wano.
So I do honestly believe that Yamato
is a pretty shockingly reasonable candidate
to be our final crew member
and if you want a more in depth argument as for why,
then please do check out my video
link in the description.
But now let's also address some potential issues
that may derail the whole final crew member
being sought idea.
The first of which is that we already
have this potential 10th crew member,
we just don't have her aboard at the moment,
who is, of course, Nefertari Vivi.
Information about Vivi is a bit more vague though,
and according to her Vivi card datebook entry,
she was considered a Straw Hat
and is now considered a former Straw Hat.
And Oda has also said that her trademark number
if joining the crew it would be 5.5,
indicating that she slots in between Chopper and Robin
in terms of joining order.
Now this isn't to say things won't change in the future,
especially since Vivi is now much more relevant than ever,
having been seemingly targeted so specifically by Im.
So yeah, maybe there is a world where Vivi
does rejoin the Straw Hats for a final climactic saga,
thus filling this seemingly empty slot.
Which is an idea that, quite honestly, I don't mind.
I just don't quite see it as anywhere near
as likely as the other options.
And some people out there might also attribute some spots
to the Going Merry and the Thousand Sunny
but obviously they don't count in the numbering,
so sorry Merry and sorry Sunny.
And finally, just because I know at least one person
is going to bring this up in the comments,
in the Viz English translation,
Luffy specifically mentions that he wants at least 10 men,
which the literalists out there would take
to exclude Nami and Robin.
However in reality, this is just the nature
of early Viz translations.
English One Piece is kind of cringy to read
for the first few volumes
because they really hype up the piratey language
saying things like "Me hearties," and "Grog"
and all of that stereotypical crap.
And this line is victim of that.
So just imagine Luffy saying it with a piratey voice.
"Yaaaar, first thing's first.
I've got to get a crew.
I think about 10 men should do."
Whereas in Japanese, there is no gender specified.
It's just a wash of crappy Westernized
English pirate stereotypical language
and not to be taken seriously whatsoever.
But there we go.
Some interesting food for thought.
I, for one, am really glad that One Piece magazine
went so far as to make that distinction clear
because it is something that I've been arguing
on both sides for as long as I've been reading this series
and it does generate some pretty great excitement
for our 10th and final Straw Hat,
now confirmed to be not including Luffy.
But what do you guys think?
Please do let me know down in the comments below
or even join my Discord server.
And If you'd like to see more videos like this,
then please do check out some my other content
or even subscribe to the channel
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uploaded straight to your YouTube feeds.
But for now this has been the Grand Line Review,
and I'll see you next time.