Arlong

"Saw-tooth" Arlong (アーロン, Āron) is a fictional anthropomorphic fishman from the anime and manga One Piece.

Appearance
Arlong is a large blue fishman of the sawshark variety. He wears what appears to be a brown Ushanka. On his hands are what appear to be rings. According to Oda in response to a fan about these rings, these aren't rings at all. They are actually more like piercings that go straight through Arlong's fingers.

Personality
Arlong displays the Fish-Man tendency to consider humans as inferior beings, and is very cruel to them and even kills them without mercy, though he says that Nezumi is a pretty good human. He also enjoys exploiting them for all their worth, he is also rather easy to anger such as when he literally went berserk after he was shot by Usopp and had to be dragged back to his base by his crew to prevent him from destroying the whole town.

He does not seem frightened by anything, and his Fish-Man strength has made him extremely confident that he and his crew are virtually invincible. He also has an eye for spotting talent that he can use for his goals and is an excellent planner; he spent years using Nami and her maps to plan their takeover of the East Blue. Nevertheless any promise he makes, he keeps (the best example is when his crew urged him to keep Nami even if she brings the one million berries he says he can't), however a loophole of this is having outside forces remove the object of the promise.

Crew
He cares for his own crews (shown when he says he's sorry for accidentally biting them and becoming enraged at Luffy for using one as a fish-man shield), while many of his crew share his ideals. They would call him "Arlong-san" while Arlong would call his crew his "brethren". He can be very angry when someone hurts his crew.

Enemies
As a pirate with a bounty he is the enemy of the Marines and by far, has the highest bounty in the east blue (before the straw hat pirates were announced to the world). His cruelty against Nami and her village as assured him an enemy of all of them, as well as the Straw Hats who defeated him.

Other
It is unclear about any feelings between him and his "equal" Jimbei as of current storyline, or the precise circumstances that led to Jimbei's decision to leave and become a Shichibukai while Arlong took over.

Abilities
Arlong is one of the Fishmen, massive humanoids that are taller and stronger than any normal human. Arlong, however, is a giant even among fishmen, and one of the strongest fighters in the East blue. He is seen lifting a house with his bare hands in pursuit of Usopp, and his powerful shark-like jaws are capable of rending metal, stone and flesh alike. Predictably, as formidable an opponent as Arlong is on land, in the water he is nearly invincible.

Attacks
Shark on Darts: Arlong shoots at his opponent like a torpedo with his apparently unbreakable nose.

Shark on Tooth: The same that "Shark on Darts" attacks but this time opening his mouth to attack with his teeth.

Tooth Gum: Arlong pulls out his own teeth and puts them in his hand to use them as a weapon, immediately growing another pair in his mouth. He usually uses one set of teeth in each hand.

Weapons
Arlong's weapons are mostly natural features of his sawfish-man body. With his great strength, something as harmless as a handful of water can strike as hard as a bullet. Even his nose is a weapon- it is over a foot long and lined with razor-sharp points, and more than sturdy enough to use as a melee weapon. Swinging his head back and forth, Arlong defeated even Zoro in a swordfight with this natural blade. In addition, he can remove his massive, needle-like teeth and use them as hand-held weapons, snapping them at opponents like castanets. The teeth are replaced by a new set in mere moments, each regrown mouthful stronger than the one before.

Near the end of his battle with Luffy, he uses a massive sawlike sword called the Kiribachi.

Past Story
The Saw-Fish Fish-Man was once a member of the Fish-Man Pirates, of which Jimbei was captain. But when Jimbei joined the Shichibukai, Arlong split from the group for as of yet unknown reasons, along with his own "Arlong Pirates," and left the Grand Line for easier targets.

Arlong set up his domain on one of the larger islands in East Blue, with a number of smaller villages in the vicinity under his control. Arlong dismantled his original galleon and used the materials to build Arlong Park, an eight-story building that served as his headquarters. From Arlong Park, Arlong hoped to conquer all of East Blue using superior underwater tactics through maps drawn by Nami that charted underwater terrain.



When Arlong and his crew (consisting of Hatchan, Chew, and Kuroobi), first arrived on the island that would someday become Arlong Park, the first village he encountered was Cocoyashi Village (Coco Village in the English version), the home of Nami. Arlong then proceeded to extort money out of the residents of Cocoyashi Village. Adults would have to pay 100 thousand beli, children would pay 50 thousand or be executed by Arlong's men. Bellemere (Nami's adoptive mother) only had 100 thousand beli so she decided to pay for Nami and Nojiko and sacrifice herself. Arlong shot her in front of her children as an example of disobedience and then kidnapped Nami.

He forced Nami to become a part of his crew as a map maker, and told her that if she brought him 100 million beli he would free her village and everyone in it, including her adoptive sister Nojiko.

Present Storyline
Years later, when Nami was about to fulfill her end of the bargain using money she stole from Monkey D. Luffy, Arlong arranged to have a corrupt Marine captain confiscate the money from her so she would be forever under his control.

Luffy, who followed Nami after being robbed by her, saw Nami brutally stabbing Arlong's tattoo on her arm in desperation. Angered by the obvious suffering Arlong had wrought against her, Luffy stopped her from hurting herself and unquestioningly accepted her plea for help. A long and arduous battle ensued between Luffy, Arlong, and the elites of their crews. While Zoro, Sanji and Usopp were able to defeat their opponents, they were no match for Arlong, although they helped save Luffy from a pool of water, enabling him to challenge Arlong.

By the end of the fight, only Luffy and Arlong were left standing and Luffy was taking a beating from Arlong's high-speed diving attack Shark On Darts and his sword Kiribachi (Saw Shaped Sword), which resembled a long steel saw with teeth shaped like a shark's. Luffy seemed on the verge of defeat until the battle moved into the top of Arlong Park, where Nami slavishly made her maps for Arlong as a child.

After feeling the turmoil and desperation that had seeped into the room over the years, Luffy became enraged and the tables turned dramatically.

Using the full power of his attack Gomu Gomu no Ono/Gum Gum Axe, Luffy managed to send the full force of Arlong's attack Shark On Haguruma (Gear) attack through to the bottom of Arlong Park, breaking Arlong's cartilaginous back and destroying the building in the process. Arlong makes a reappearance in the "Ocean's Dream" filler arc for the One Piece anime, but this is not considered canon in relation to the manga. His reappearance was in image only, the actual Arlong did not reappear.

It has been revealed in chapter 493 by Hachi that Arlong and the rest of his crew is currently imprisoned by the Marines, and he (Hachi) is the only one to escape.

Dub and Translation Issues
Arlong's brutality was censored somewhat in the 4kids dub, as seen when he imprisoned Bellemere instead of murdering her for not paying her tribute. He does not offer to spare everyone except the other Straw Hats if Nami rejoins, or threaten to kill everyone in Cocoyashi if she leaves. During the climax of the battle, scenes of him slamming Nami's head against a desk for drawing a picture of Bellemere instead of a map, and threatening to kill someone from Cocoyashi village if she disobeyed him, as well as Luffy destroying the maps, are removed.

Trivia

 * Many of One Piece's characters are given an distinct laugh. Arlong follows this tradition by starting his laughs with "Sha" (i.e Sha ha ha ha ha!)


 * In a panel containing a small flashback scene of Hatchan's, Arlong's silhouette is seen alongside Hatchan's, Kurobi's, and Chew's as they look upon Sabaody Park in a distance from the water.