Episode 48

"The Town of the Beginning and the End - Arrival at Loguetown" is the 48th episode of the One Piece anime.

Short Summary
The crew arrives at the last large town before the entrance to the Grand Line, the place where Gol D. Roger was born and executed. Some of the crew stock up on supplies while the others just relax. As Luffy heads for the execution platform where Roger was killed, old enemies are searching for him.

Long Summary
Usopp and Nami says they want to go shopping. Sanji wants to look for food and girls and Zoro says he needs two new swords and Nami points out he is broke. Luffy goes off in search of the execution platform and gets lost. Usopp is charmed by a salesman into believing his stuff is from the grand line. Nami tries on a bunch of outfits and gets the complimenting salesman excited until she says she doesn't want any of them because she wants more casual style clothes. Sanji admires all the pretty girls calling them by food course names, he sees Alvida and is so impressed he calls her the main dish. A Marine goes to captain Smoker with the news that Monkey D. Luffy a pirate worth 30,000,000 is in town.

Smoker was stacking rocks and gets mad at the interruption because he accidentally knocked them down when he was distracted. He leaves to go arrest pirates they think is probably Luffy rioting on the docks. On the way there he bumps into a little girl and knocks her ice cream down, her father starts to apologize but Smoker apologizes to the girl and gives her some money so she can get even more ice cream. Smoker easily takes out the rioting pirates while Nami, who is buying clothes from a shop, hears that Smoker possess a Devil Fruit and has been causing trouble for pirates ever since he came here. A lower ranked marine congratulates Smoker on catching Luffy but Smoker says it can't be Luffy because pirates worth 30,000,000 are not that easy to catch.

Meanwhile the lost Luffy appears and asks Smoker directions to the execution platform. Smoker says he hasn't seen Luffy before and Luffy replies that he just got here. Smoker asks why he wants to go there and to which Luffy replies that he wants to see where the Pirate King died. Luffy is about to leave when Smoker says follow where the smoke goes and Luffy says cool and thanks him and runs in the direction of the smoke. Zoro is looking through store windows at swords, and complains that he can't afford any of them but (flash back to Nami talking) Nami charged him times three interests so he can't afford any more money. Suddenly there is some commotion, he looks and sees two big men arguing with a woman complaining that her boss put their leader in jail so now they will take it out on her. They draw their swords and are about to attack her, Zoro grabs his own sword and starts running towards the woman in case she needs help, but she reveals that the package in her arms was a sword and she knows how to use it as she easily defeats the two men.

However right after the battle she stumbles and her glasses fall off her face Zoro picks them up and hands them to her he is startled when he sees her face because she looks just like his childhood friend. He is so shocked that he clutches the hand holding the glasses out of reflex and breaks them. They both yell out in shock and he apologizes but she says they are expensive glasses and demands he buys replacements. Meanwhile Luffy is wandering alleyways lost again, he talks to himself about trying to find the execution platform and how he is probably walking down the same streets Roger walked on and while walking sees a sign for a bar called the Gold Roger. He goes inside and asks the old man inside if he is the owner.

The old man tells Luffy to leave since the bar wasn't meant for kids. Luffy asks the old man if he was out of business. And the old man says that they aren't, it is just after hours, he asks Luffy to just go away. Luffy says he was just curious about the name of the bar, then he says he is lost and trying to find the execution platform and asks for directions. He notices a skull on a nearby table. When he asks the old man about it, the old man says it is the skull of a man named Killer Giant who killed hundreds of pirates. He was big and tough and carried a huge sword, he was said to be so bad that he was considered a devil but Gold Roger killed him. The old man says that it is a famous story. The battle happened very quickly and he was killed by the slice in the skull which he points out. His last words were: “Roger, no one can touch you, I praise you as the eternal pirate”. Luffy gets really excited and keeps saying "So cool, so cool". Encouraged by his reaction, the old man mentions other great pirates defeated by Roger, like King of the Eric Pirates, the famous gunner Silver-Silver, and the devilish Kung-Fu Brothers. All of these pirates were really strong and powerful, but compared to Roger they were just scared little babies.

Luffy starts getting really excited. The old man asks Luffy if he wants to hear more because he is surprised that he is interested. He says that most kids don't care about that kind of stuff anymore. Luffy says he doesn't care and begs the old man to continue. The old man starts talking about how Roger was the only pirate, even including the pirates of today, who didn't fear the dangers of the Grand Line at all. The old man described what the Grand Line was like, a ship graveyard where navigation was impossible, and no one went near it because they were all so scared of it. But one day Roger came to the bar looking really happy and excited, and when the old man (then the bar attendant) asked him why he was so excited, he said I am going to take a stroll through the Grand Line of course I am really excited really casually. The bar man is startled and asks him if he is really going through that cursed ocean and Roger says yes. The bar man says he won't stop him but he begs him not to go because he heard that no one who goes to that ocean ever returns.

Roger says that is why he wants to go then asks for more rum cleaning the bar out alcohol then walked out like he had nothing to fear. A while later the old man heard the news that he had conquered the Grand Line. Luffy gets so excited and enraptured by the story that he starts shaking. The old man then says that after Roger was executed a bunch of wannabe pirates showed up who were just rubbish and even though Roger was the last great pirate they have the nerve to call this the great pirate age and the old man is very disappointed with all the pirates he has seen since then they were all a bunch of weakling cowards. He also said because less and less people are going to the Grand Line that is the reason his bar will be closed. Luffy then says that he is going to the Grand Line and that Roger is cool and pirates should try to be like him. That is why he went off to sea and why he is going to the Grand Line to find One Piece.

Then Luffy declares he is going to be the Pirate King. Something about Luffy reminds the old man about Roger and he sees a flashback or vision of Roger sitting in the same chair Luffy is sitting at. The old man shakes himself out of it and tells Luffy he is crazy to be saying that especially because of where he is at. And Luffy asks why. He says that this is the truth. He is going to be the Pirate Ling. The old man laughs and says having a customer like Luffy makes him want to open his shop a little earlier. Luffy says don't do anything on my account and the old man says that he already decided, and aksk Luffy if he wants something to drink. Luffy says he doesn't drink and the old man says "How about this instead?" and takes out some milk from a fridge and pours it into two glasses.

He then says how about we have a toast to the eternal Pirate King. Luffy agrees and picks up one of the glasses for a toast. Later Smoker walks into the bar and the old man rudely says you again. Smoker says is that any way to treat an old customer? The old man complains that Smoker ruined his business by catching or scaring off all the pirates who are his usual customers so the old man doesn't feel like having fun with him. Smoker says he shouldn't think that he betrayed him because it is not his fault that that is the business the old man chose to be in, and the real problem is that all the pirates now a days are weaklings. Smoker asks for rum and the old man says I don't serve your kinda Smoker says that is discrimination. He notices that there are two glasses on the counter and says how rare you had a customer. Smoker then says there is something to celebrate and grabs a bottle of rum anyway and starts drinking it. Smoker then comments looking at the chair Roger sat at that Roger's last moments are still very clear in his mind.

Luffy reaches the main street and says he wonders if Gold Roger walked on it. Smoker has a flash back to when he was a little kid and how Gold Roger walked down the main street proudly while smiling even though he had cuffs on and he was walking to his death. When he got to the platform one of the guards asked Roger if he had any last words Roger asked if they could take the cuffs off because they were uncomfortable. The man refused, and Roger complained that is too bad then sat down and asked the guards to finish it. A man in the crowd yelled at Roger asking him where he kept his treasure and if it was as rumors say and he left it in the Grand Line.

Roger starts laughing and says the famous one piece quote that is prominent in the beginning of the vast majority of the one piece episodes. The guards then exclaim "Stop him!" and they kill him. they are too late everybody already heard. Roger dies smiling and for a moment there is silence but then everybody starts cheering because he admitted his treasure exists and that  it is indeed in the Grand Line. Smoker finishing his reverie saying that was the beginning of everything. Another Marine walks into the bar and asks the bar owner to post the new wanted adds. He is startled when he sees Smoker and accidentally drops a poster and apologizes. Smoker bends down to pick it up. He is shocked to see that the kid he saw earlier wearing a straw hat was Monkey D. Luffy. Meanwhile, Luffy has finally reached the execution platform. Smoker runs out of the bar to chase Luffy. Luffy says there it is the place where the greatest pirate in the world died the place of all beginnings and the clock tolls an hour.

Anime Notes

 * This is the first episode to use Believe as the opening.
 * Spiel's wanted poster can be seen in this episode.
 * When Nami was trying on some clothes, her first outfit is foreshadowing Robin's clothes in Alabasta. Her second outfit resembles that of Boa Hancock, who, at the time, had an unfinalized design. This same outfit Nami has on features an animal scarf similar to the one Hody Jones wore, draped around her neck in a fashion similar to Salome.

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