One Piece: Japanese Fans Revisit Crocodile's Peak-Era Introduction — "Back Then We Said 'Oda's a Genius.' Now We Say the Editor Was."

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Japanese fan reactions (excerpted from 355)

• @チベットナスギツネ👍 475

  - At first his power and his face are hidden, but he radiates "this guy is strong." - When he finally shows up, it's a scorching-hot country and yet he's in a suit AND a fur coat — that sheer dissonance, plus a very pirate-y hook for a hand. - Public face: a Warlord of the Sea, beloved and backed by the people. Hidden face: the boss of a criminal underworld org. - He claims he fed the key to a crocodile, but is meticulous enough never to feed it the real one. - A Logia user at a time when there was no known counter to Logia — and he's completely mastered it. - Beats Luffy twice in a row (one of those wins even after Luffy exploits his weakness). - When an enemy uses a stimulant that grants a time-limited power in exchange for their life, he's cruel enough to just wait out the clock instead of fighting. - In the end he'll even resort to a poison hook just to win — that's how relentless he is. How is this guy this cool.

  ・最初は能力、顔が不明だが強者っぽい ・登場したら熱い国なのにスーツスタイルにファーコートってい異質感に加えてザ海賊な片手フック ・表の顔は王下七武海で国民の支持を得てるが裏の顔は闇の組織のボス ・鍵はワニに食わせたと言いつつ本物を食わせない用意周到さ ・当時対策が不明なロギア系の能力者かつそれを使いこなしている ・ルフィに連勝（その内の一勝は弱点突かれても勝利） ・敵が命と引き換えに時間制限がある力を得る強化薬を使用すると時間切れになるまで戦わない残忍性 ・最後は毒針を使用してでも勝とうとする執念 こんなんかっこよすぎるやろ

• @snsknstn7598👍 108

  I also love that when Luffy declares "I'm the man who's going to be King of the Pirates!", Crocodile takes him head-on — even though he could've just stalled and let the poison finish Luffy off.

  「俺は海賊王になる男だ！」と言われて時間を稼げば毒で死ぬはずのルフィに真っ正面から挑むのも好き。

• @ジョズエ-j9v👍 61

  It's so cool how he upgrades his read on Luffy — from "just a rookie running his mouth" to "a real pirate" — actually watching him and revising his judgment. And when they meet again, his whole attitude shows zero grudge about having lost. Love that! Even if part of it is just not wanting the Navy to get their way, he still moves to save the guy who beat him. I love all of it.

  口先だけのルーキー評価から一端の海賊とちゃんとルフィを見て評価変えてる所もかっこいいわ 再会した時、負けた事に全く恨みとか無さそうな態度なのもいい！ 海軍の思い通りにさせたくないとはいえ負けた相手を救う行動する所も全部好き

• @まるのみペンギンのマンガ道👍 5

  Say what you want — it's Crocodile. This guy is the coolest one, full stop.

  やっぱりクロコダイルよ、こいつが一番かっこいい

• @リュウセイ-g6n👍 93

  The whole arc goes out of its way to show off the sheer terror of a "Logia," and then his final trump card is "poison" rigged into his hook. That's SO piratey — I love it.

  全編を通して「自然系」の脅威を存分に描写しておきながら、最後の切り札が鉤爪に仕込んだ「毒」なのが、すごく「海賊」してて好き。

• @山本右京-t5f👍 11

  The backgrounds leave real breathing room — clean, easy-to-follow paneling. Just beautiful.

  背景に余白があって良い見やすい描写で素晴らしい。

• @蒼井-j7r👍 10

  Just the single panel of the flower withering tells you exactly how furious Crocodile is. That is genuinely masterful.

  この花が枯れてく描写だけでクロコダイルの怒りが伝わってくるのホンマに凄い

• @eko1596👍 19

  I loved how unsettling he was. That subtle "you can't quite reason with this man" feeling was genuinely scary.

  この不気味さ好きだったわ 微妙に話通じない感も怖かった

• @潮乃介👍 37

  These days there'd be a whole crowd of onlookers, and in a single panel you'd get: "Huh? The water is draining on its own?!" "Is he a Devil Fruit user?!" "The flower withered too!" *murmur murmur* ...or something like that, right?

  今なら他にギャラリーがいて 一コマに 「なんだ？水が勝手に減っていくぞ？」 「能力者かっ？」 「花も枯れたっ！」 ざわざわっ とかかな？

• @リョービ-w2k👍 377

  Apparently there's a manga technique where showing a character eating makes readers feel their humanity and warm up to them. But in this scene, the meal is drawn as something off — and it's used to make the character even MORE unnerving instead.

  マンガのテクとして、食事シーンがあると読者がキャラに人間味、親近感を感じやすいってのがあるらしい。 ただ、このシーンでは食事シーンを異質に描く事で、キャラの不気味さをより出している。

• @影森ケセド👍 38

  Yeah, true... even with the Five Elders' meal scene you go, "oh, so these guys eat too, huh."

  まぁたしかに…五老星の食事シーンとかでも「あ、コイツラも飯は食うんだ」ってなるもんな

• @aa-xq9wt👍 1,671

  If he intentionally hinted that Robin was meant to be disposable, then the Oda of back then is a genius on a completely different level from the one writing today.

  ロビン使い捨てを意図して示唆してたなら最早今の作者とは別人レベルの天才

• @karukaka223👍 606

  If that's actually true, the fact that he packed a metaphor in there on top of everything is just insane.

  もし本当だったら、暗喩も込められてんのえぐいな

• @きーP👍 263

  Okay, the Robin reading is definitely overthinking it... but yeah, the depiction really is incredible.

  さすがにロビンのは深読みだと思うが…でもたしかに凄い描写だ

• @papapa-l3m👍 10

  Honestly, the mere fact that an over-reading can feel this plausible is proof the artwork is just too perfectly crafted.

  正直、深読みに信憑性を持たせられる時点で描写として完成されすぎとんよな

• @凛-p3c👍 116

  That was the editor's idea, though, probably.

  編集が考えたんやろ

• @neivergoo294👍 100

  People keep pushing the "the current author is a body double" theory, but honestly, even at this point he's already leaning pretty hard on onomatopoeia — "glug glug," "slurp…," "wilt" — so the early signs were always there. For a good long while, though, it was perfectly balanced, fresh, and dynamic.

  今の作者影武者説とか言われてるけど 実際この時点でも 「ゴクゴク」「ズズ…」「しわっ」 とか擬音がけっこう多用されてるから 片鱗はあるんだよな 途中まではこれが良い塩梅で斬新でダイナミックだったけど

• @sato1619👍 5

  I loved figuring out how you'd even beat a Logia back in this era. Now Haki just solves everything, and that's kind of a shame.

  この頃のロギアをどうやって倒すかとか好きだったのに 今じゃ覇気でどうとでもなっちゃうのがなぁ

• @論破神太郎佐藤-l8i👍 5

  The old villains carried this real aura of strength, so there was genuine tension that Luffy might actually lose. Now everyone's so strong it's just incomprehensible.

  昔の敵の方が強者感があったからルフィが負けるんじゃないかというドキドキ感があったんだよね。今はもうみんな強すぎてわけわからん。

• @やさいせいかつ-g4i👍 4

  The Alabasta arc was, without question, the peak of the entire manga medium. After that, Gear Second at Enies Lobby still gave me chills. Everything from the New World onward, though? Couldn't tell you.

  アラバスタ編は間違いなく漫画界の頂点だった そこからもエニエス・ロビーのギアセカンドは心が震えた 新世界以降は知らん

• @cameramanいぇーい1240👍 107

  The thing is, Oda just ignores his editor now. Like — what's even the point of having one.

  尾田っちが編集のこと無視するんよな、編集の意味よ

• @watchkatojunichiの弟子👍 73

  For me, I think it's that Oda's been so deified that his editor can't firmly speak up to him anymore.

  @cameramanいぇーい1240自分的には尾田先生を神格化しすぎて編集がハッキリ物申せて無いんだと思います

• @LaLa-afa👍 4

  Deep readings and fan theories only hold up when you actually trust the author. And now… well.

  深読みや考察は作者への信頼性があって初めて成り立つもの いまはもう

• @ken-rm1sp👍 755

  Back then: "Eiichiro Oda is incredible!" Now: "The editor he had back then was incredible!"

  昔： 尾田栄一郎すげぇ！ 今： 当時の編集すげぇ！