Little Garden Arc

The Little Garden arc is the ninth story arc in the manga and anime series One Piece. It is the third arc in the Baroque Works Saga, chronicling the group's stop at a pre-historic island and their battles with four of the Baroque Work officers.

It was left out of the 4Kids dub, presumably due to its violent content which would've been difficult to downplay even for them. Little Garden is the second island the Straw Hat Pirates encounter on the Grand Line. It is a summer island, which is unpopulated except by dinosaurs and two giants named Dorry and Brogy.

A Grand Duel Between Giants and a Mad Artist


With a newly acquired Princess Vivi on board, the Straw Hats soon find themselves on the island of Little Garden, which is a misnomer as the island is anything but little-it is stuck in prehistoric time and teeming with huge dinosaurs and massive plant life. While Usopp and Nami feel uncomfortable leaving the ship, Vivi and Luffy decide to go explore the island.

They soon meet Dorry, a giant warrior from the village of Elbaf who befriends them. Meanwhile, still back on the ship, Usopp and Nami are left alone when Sanji and Zoro decide to compete against each other to see who can bring back the most amount of meat. They then learn after why the island is called Little Garden. It is called Little Garden because of those who inhabit it. They are terrified when Brogy, another giant, shows up and decapitates a Tyrannosaurus Rex. He decides to bring them home with him, much to their alarm, under the impression he wants to eat them.

Elsewhere, Baroque Works agents Mr. 5, Miss Valentine, Mr. 3 and his partner Miss Goldenweek come together and reveal the 100,000,000 bounty on each of the giant's heads and it is suggested by Mr. 3 that they kill them, along with the Straw Hats. Back at Dorry's campsite, Dorry explains that Brogy and he are forever destined to continue their 100 year long war, which was started over a reason Dorry had long forgotten (it is later revealed that a quarrel about their hunting competition which resulted in their exile from Elbaf), which inspires Usopp to fight for his dream of being a proud warrior of the sea. When Dorry and Brogy are just about to continue their bout, Dorry suffers from an internal explosion from his intake of the Straw Hats' wine, that of which was tampered by Mr. 5 and his Devil Fruit abilities. Dorry tries to attack Luffy, thinking he was responsible, but Luffy quickly beats him with his Gomu Gomu Rocket by targeting his stomach. Realizing that the the god of Elbaf was not on his side, Dorry still decides to go and pins a giant rock on Luffy, when Luffy tries to stop Dorry from going.

While this is going on Mr. 3 and Miss Goldenweek capture Zoro first, and then Nami after she is separated from Usopp while running from a dinosaur. After Usopp meets with Luffy and Vivi, Vivi suspects that Baroque Works is likely behind both Nami's disappearance, since out of the two of them Nami is on their hit list which Usopp is not, and the exploding wine that injured Dorry. Eventually Dorry lost to Brogy due to his injuries, Brogy noticed earlier a deficiency in his performance but was too late in identifying the perpetrators when Mr. 3 appears and imprisons him with wax. Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine then succeed in capturing Vivi after failing to use Carue to lure her away from Luffy, which they realized they didn't need to do since Luffy was imprisoned by the rock, and quickly defeat him, along with Usopp and Carue.



Mr. 3 then imprisons Zoro, Nami, and Vivi in his giant Candle set which will slowly turns them along with Brogy into wax sculptures. Just before Zoro can cut off his legs to break free, Luffy, Usopp, and Carue arrive to save their friends. However when Luffy damages Mr. 3's giant Candelabra after his feet are trapped with Wax, it only accelerates the process giving Luffy, Usopp and Carue less time to save their friends. Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine then engage Usopp and Carue and all the two can do is run away since Usopp's Gunpowder Star is useless against Mr. 5, while Mr. 3 prevents Luffy's further attempts from destroying his Candle set.

Luffy is then brought under Miss Goldenweek's hypnotic control. Despite all attempts to free Luffy from the hypnosis, Miss Goldenweek continues to use her Colors Trap skill to re-hypnotize Luffy. Eventually Usopp as he is dodging Mr. 5's Breath Blast Bomb, realizes the situation and uses his Flame Star to burn Luffy's shirt to free him completely, forcing Mr. 3 to form his mecha-like armor the Candle Champion to hold off Luffy. Once Usopp realizes that despite the density Mr. 3 makes his wax, it could still be melted away and though their friends' bodies have been completely covered, they still have a small amount of time left.

Though the Mr. 5 teams takes down Usopp before he could try to shoot the candle set with his Flame Star, Usopp gives Carue a rope with instructions to run around with it along the candle set. As he is taking the strain from Miss Valentine's weight, Usopp explains to Luffy to light the rope which he soaked with oil on fire as it is the only way to melt the wax quickly enough to save their friends. Grabbing on to Mr. 3's hair, Luffy uses the fiery portion of it to light the rope. Once the Candle Set is destroyed, Nami and Vivi defeat Miss Valentine, Usopp tricks Mr. 5 into eating his Tobasco Star, and is saved by Zoro before an angry Mr. 5 can kill him. Meanwhile Luffy and Carue pursue the Mr. 3 team, and though Mr. 3 tries to trick Luffy by creating clone statues of himself, through sheer instinct Luffy knocks him out, while Carue defeats Miss Goldenweek.

After the Battle


Meanwhile, Sanji enjoys tea in Mr. 3's candle house and receives a call from Mr. 0 (referred to by other parties as Crocodile) who mistook him for Mr. 3. He is ordered to go to Arabasta (later revealed to be a ploy to make assassinating him easier for Mr. 2) by way of the permanent Log Pose which is sent by the Unluckies, Mr. 13 and Miss Friday who attack Sanji and are defeated upon making the delivery. Dorry turns out to be okay as he was only knocked out due to both his sword and Brogy's axe are slowing rusting from the lack of care over the last century. Once Sanji returns, Dorry and Brogy bid farewell to the Straw Hats by destroying a Giant Goldfish who eats ships leaving the island sacrificing the remains of their weapons in the process. With that the Straw Hats head for Arabasta using an Eternal Pose they got from the Unluckies.

Manga-to-Anime Changes
Cf Manga and Anime Difference Guide

4Kids Edit

 * In the 4Kids dub, this arc was skipped entirely for many different reasons. Most of it due toward unavoidable violence, such as Mr. 5's gun, Zoro trying to saw off his legs from his binding wax prison, and Dorry decapitating a dinosaur, setting Luffy free from its neck. The second was minor sexuality of Nami spending a small amount of time with no shirt (only a black bra).

This would lead to several plot holes later on in the story. The only parts fixed was instead of Nami getting bitten by a deadly bug while her stomach was exposed, she instead just became sick due to the climate of the Grand Line. While skipping the return of Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine, did not effect the major plot.

Mr. 3's failure to defeat the crew however, would have Crocodile leave him for dead, for pointless reasons. Miss Goldenweek, who although would never return in the anime, was mentioned when listing officer agents, even though due to the arc skip, no one would have known. Usopp's friendship with Dorry and Broggy would later play a large role in the Enies Lobby Arc.

Story Impact
Little Garden Arc introduces the second non human race of One Piece: the Giants, and their country Elbaf. Usopp is really impressed by those warriors and wishes he could become such a brave one himself and has decided to visit Elbaf someday. Usopp's friendship with Dorry and Broggy, would play a large role in the Enies Lobby Arc. Where he (as Sogeking) told Oimo and Kāshī the truth of Dorry and Broggy's fate, and they in turn provided help to save Robin.

It also introduces two more members of Baroque Works - Mr. 3 and Ms. Goldenweek, the former whose devil fruit powers, the ability to make and manipulate wax, would later help Luffy and Ace in the Impel Down and Marineford Arcs. Also, when Zoro is trapped in Mr. 3's wax, which is as strong as steel, he learns that he is not strong enough to cut steel. For most of the saga, Zoro begins to try to cut steel until the Arabasta arc where Zoro is engaged in a battle with Mr. 1. Mr. 1's Supa Supa no Mi powers, which turn his body into steel blades, Zoro has ended up cutting steel.

This is also an arc where Vivi learns more about the crew and shows more and more signs of friendship (Ex: When she wonders about Luffy's behavior after he had been trapped by Dorry in Chapter 109, when Zoro and Nami stop worrying once Luffy appears in Chapter 123, when she hugs Sanji after he recovers the Eternal Pose in Chapter 128.)

This story arc is also the first to mention of Nami and Usopp being the weakest of the crew when they realize this after being the only ones left behind on the Going Merry. This would later become an important factor in affecting the story in later story arcs such as the Arabasta Arc, Water 7 Arc, and the Enies Lobby Arc. This would lead them to acquiring better weapons to compensate for their lack of strength.