One Piece Volume 1, Chapter 3 manga review

Title: Enter Zolo - Pirate Hunter

Author/Artist: Eiichiro Oda


What Happens:

Luffy and Koby make it Naval Base Town thanks to Koby's ability to navigate. When in town they soon notice that the mention of both Zolo and the Marines, especially Captain Morgan, scare the people there.

Zolo is found in the Navy yard tied up. A young girl shows up to feed him rice balls but Helmeppo, the son of Captain Morgan, shows up and stops her. He has her literally thrown out of the yard then mocks Zolo. The promise that Zolo will be set free after a month tied up in the ship yard is brought up before Helmeppo leaves.

Luffy then visits Zolo to tell him that he is looking for crew members. Zolo flat refuses to become a pirate. He does ask for Luffy to give him the rice balls to eat.

Later in town the girl tells Luffy and Koby the story of why Zolo was imprisoned. He was defending her after dogs that Helmeppo kept went to attack her. Helmeppo though went and had Zolo imprisoned for it.

Soon after the story Helmeppo shows up boasting about lying to Zolo and will have him executed in a few days. Luffy punches him after hearing that then proclaims that he definitely wants Zolo to join his crew.


Why it matters:

The biggest take aways from this chapter in the long run are the characters introduced, with Zolo of course being the main one as despite his initial protests he is the first to officially join Luffy's crew.

Captain Morgan is the main villain of this arc but becomes a more like a footnote later. Helmeppo in contrast becomes a more prominent character in a way I do not think anyone could have guessed from his debut in this chapter.

This story also introduces the fact that the Marines are not always the good guys by default. This helps in the larger story to know that there is no one side that can be considered the good guys by default, outside of Luffy and his crew of course.


Review:

Even though the length of the chapter is not much more than the previous one there is a feeling that there is much more happening in this one. Though unlike the previous chapter this is only the first part of a multi-chapter story so it can take time to put small moments in it to flesh out characters which is a part of why this chapter feels like there is more to it. That and this plot is a bit more complex than Koby's which helps with that as well.

Being allowed to be more complex with its stories and characters already catapults this story well beyond the previous one. Though it is still rather simple overall so Zoro comes off as a good guy, though with some rough edges, and the villain we meet this chapter, Helmeppo, is undeniably a terrible person. But being just an introduction chapter everything is set up well and we even have the plot moving forward with Luffy landing that blow on Helmeppo at the end.