One Piece “Eat at Baratie!”

Luffy may have found another crewman.  But man, this world is a lot screwier than I thought.

I think I may love it.

So, after dodging his grampa Admiral Garp, mostly by using his rubber body to send a cannonball right back at the old man, Luffy and the crew take in a restaurant where Luffy orders everything and tries to pay with an IOU.  Sometime sous chef Sanji is the waiter, and he wants to go where all the spices are.  See, another impossible dream for an impossible dreamer.  He’ll probably be on Luffy’s ship before the end of the next episode because he isn’t on it by the end of this one.  Luffy spent far too much time talking to this guy for him not to join the crew.

Meanwhile, Garp put in a call to viscous pirate Dracule Mihawk.  Mihawk is the world’s best swordsman.  He splits bullets in half in mid-air to kill other pirates, and he can split whole ships from dry land.  Why would a Marine even contact a pirate?

Oh, he’s so badass, the World Government decided it was better to work with him and other pirates like him rather than try to bring them in.  Mihawk will more than happily go find Luffy.  Luffy is doing dishes at that floating restaurant because he tried to pay with an IOU, but man, maybe Zoro, Nami, and Usopp shouldn’t keep eating unless they have the berries to pay for their own food and drinks.

But then Mihawk shows up, and Zoro challenges him to a fight to the death.

That scene really works.  Mihawk mostly uses a tiny knife for the fight, and Zoro is completely outclassed, but then Mihawk decides he likes how Zoro wants to be the best and Luffy wants to be the King of the Pirates.  So…he lets them go.

Look, there was no way to stop this guy.  Not with these characters.  Not yet.  Zoro respects Mihawk too much, and yes, he’s badly wounded in the front, but he’s still alive.  The only person here who could stop Mihawk is Mihawk.  Besides, I have read enough manga to know that “admiring the protagonist’s drive” is very much a thing in these stories.  I saw similar stuff in Alice in Borderland from time-to-time.

But what the hell.  In this case, the trope works.  Zoro can’t die yet.  The show is still giving him a personality and backstory.  We can’t miss a guy we barely know, after all.