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Finished re-watching Fishman Island arc.
This is not a review of the arc but rather me rambling about characters and moments that impressed me and how they incorporated the underlying message of the arc.
SPOILERS AHEAD
This is not a review of the arc but rather me rambling about characters and moments that impressed me and how they incorporated the underlying message of the arc.
SPOILERS AHEAD
What always impressed me about the Fishman island arc is the sheer amount of parallels it has with the real world. People discriminate on basis of lot of stupid reasons and that only creates victims on the both sides and that is beautifully portrayed by this arc.
Fisher Tiger
Portrayal of hate and discrimination in media is not a new thing but what truly amazed me is the idea represented by the character Fisher Tiger.
Portrayal of hate and discrimination in media is not a new thing but what truly amazed me is the idea represented by the character Fisher Tiger.
People often respond to a victim's story by saying 'All are not the same' or 'Don't let one bad apple be the judge'. While they're not wrong per se, that statement inherently overlooks the suffering the person went through in favour of fairness.
Fisher Tiger is a fishman who was initially introduced back in Amazon Lily arc in Boa's backstory. He was a Hero to them who released all the slaves in Marie Jois.
What we later learned is that he was a slave himself. He suffered under celestial dragons who we all know how inhuman are. In his deathbed confession he tells how he was a slave for several years giving another perspective to his act of releasing slaves of all kinds.
However the true impact of that deathbed scene is not in his generous arc of releasing everyone. That can be chalked up to kindness originating from suffering the same treatment. What makes that scene immensely powerful is his refusal to accept human's blood.
Fisher Tiger not only refused their blood but also refused to accept humans. Years of suffering by the hands of Celestial Dragons led to this and it wouldn't be surprising in the least to see him full of hate. But the idea brought to life by Tiger isn't this hateful fishman.
Tiger knew that all humans aren't the same. He knew not everyone was like celestial dragons and good people existed. And yet he couldn't accept humans because the existence of good people doesn't invalidate the suffering he went through.
And yet at the same time, he didn't let his hate govern his actions. He believed that newer generation, the kids were key to ending this old age discrimination. He suffered and yet didn't let his hate originating from that suffering taint the next generation of humans or fishmen.
He decided to let that hate die with himself and that what's makes him truly great.
His dynamic with Koala on the ship and the scene where he drops her off to her hometown becomes much more impactful upon learning this. This dynamic lasted only couple episodes yet was so masterfully done.
His decision of not letting his suffering cloud the judgement of next generation falls in line with Otohime's ideals. Even if they had different ways of doing things, at the end they both wanted betterment of Fishman island and they both knew next generation was key to this.
Fisher represents a victim in its truest, fairest sense. A man who having suffered hated humans but didn't believe that all were like celestial dragons. He didn’t direct his hate towards innocent humans but instead saved Koala who later joined the revolutionary army.
Tiger is the best representation of what it means to be a victim and yet optimistic for future in a realistic sense and it really stuck with me.
Jimbei
Jimbei was already my favourite character in OP by the end of pre time skip but this arc gave another dimension to his character. Won't be saying much given this thread is already quite long & a lot of things that made him my favourite happened before & after this arc.
Jimbei was already my favourite character in OP by the end of pre time skip but this arc gave another dimension to his character. Won't be saying much given this thread is already quite long & a lot of things that made him my favourite happened before & after this arc.
We learned about his backstory, how he lived, how both Otohime's and Fisher Tiger's ideals and way of living impacted him and his actions.
His interaction with Nami was a much awaited scene as Jimbei was responsible for letting Arlong run free. Nami's decision to not direct her hate towards fishmen but rather limit it to Arlong reminded him of Fisher's and Otohime's words about next generation being the key.
This hit him hard as he considered himself guilty for what Arlong did and he breaks down in tears (So did I). This scene once again reaffirmed my immense love and admiration for him.
This arc had many other beautiful scenes which I could go on and on about. Fukaboshi’s address at funeral, blood transfusion scene, Otohime’s death were all great scenes which touched my heart.
This arc adds to overall plot and mystery too by reveal of ancient weapon, Noah and Luffy’s ability to hear seakings like Roger so I don’t understand the hate behind it tbh.
I do have a few gripes with the arc as a whole but that's mainly due to happenings of the present i.e., the confrontation with New Fishmen pirates.
It was obvious that it was never going to be a chilling or competitive confrontation of any kind given the powerups received by the crew due to timeskip but still would've liked it to be little more engaging I guess.
But keeping those things aside, this arc is phenomenal in the sense how it portrays the themes of discrimination, slavery, hatred and equality. This arc makes Sabaody Archipelago arc all the more impactful on the rewatch adding a lot more to it.
Few things prevented it from being a 10/10 arc but it's still a pretty great and one of my favourites from One Piece.
If you reached till here, thanks for reading. 
