Satori

Satori of the Forest punished criminals with the Ordeal of Balls during Enel's reign. He was one of Enel's top warriors, the Skypiea Priests, until his defeat. He is also the oldest triplet brother of Hotori and Kotori. Due to this actions, he was a major antagonist of the Skypiea Arc.

Appearance
Satori was a round-shaped man with fair skin and long, dark red hair. He is clad in a white, full-body jumpsuit, which has a vertical line of golden rings that run from front to back, an orange hat similar in style to a Capello Romano, orange gloves, shoes, and large, yellow sunglasses that completely obscure his eyes. In addition, he carries a large, striped cane, which he uses to control the Ball Dragon. Like other Birkans, he has small white wings on his back.

Eight years ago, he looked the same, except that the rings on his jumpsuit weren't connected to each other.

Personality
Satori was a playful and silly character, rarely seen without a smile on his face, who moves around largely by hopping and prancing. He notably exhibits this behavior while fighting Luffy, Usopp, and Sanji, pitting their lives against his deadly traps; whether this is out of childish oblivion or calculated sadism and cruelty is not known. His normal demeanor is known to dissolve into panicking when his plans go awry, as he became frantic once Luffy and Sanji bypassed his pitfalls and defeated him.

Like many One Piece characters, he has his own distinctive Laughter Style: "Ho, ho hoooo!"

Relationships
Satori was not good on good terms with his fellow priests Shura, Ohm and Gedatsu due to their competition over the execution of criminals, where the first to kill is seen as the strongest. His two triplet brothers, Hotori and Kotori, seem to have a good relationship with Satori as they wanted revenge for his defeat at the hands of the Straw Hat Pirates

Ordeal of Balls


Satori was the priest in charge of testing intruders with the Ordeal of Balls, with a survival rate of 10%. As part of his Ordeal of Balls, Satori uses what he calls Surprise Clouds (びっくり雲), large ball clouds that float around the area, as his main weapon. These balls contain a wide variety of items, ranging from largely harmless (flowers, songbirds) to genuinely dangerous (poisonous snakes, explosives, bladed weapons). As the balls are outwardly identical, his opponents can never be sure of their contents, forcing them to constantly evade them.

Techniques

 * Bikkuri Tamatsuki (びっくり玉突き): Satori launches a surprise cloud into another surprise cloud, calculating their ricochet trajectories (a la billiards and other cue sports) so they will reach a faraway opponent. As Satori has advanced knowledge of all the clouds' positions, he can use this technique to feint an attack toward one opponent while actually aiming for another. In the Funimation dub, it is known as Surprise Cloud Billiards.


 * Bikkuri Tamakazura: Tama Dragon (びっくり玉鬘 玉ドラゴン): Satori's ultimate attack, connecting many surprise clouds filled with incendiaries, gunpowder, and many bladed weapons in a serpentine shape, with a dragon mask strapped atop the "head" cloud. The mask is connected to his cane with a long, flexible rope, allowing Satori to directly steer the dragon toward enemies; attacking it is extremely risky, as triggering an incendiary cloud will set off a massive chain explosion in all of the clouds (launching the blades as shrapnel). Tamakazura (玉鬘) is also the name of a chapter and a character from the The Tale of Genji, a classic work of Japanese literature. In the Viz manga and Funimation subs, this is called Surprise Ball Attack: Ball Dragon. In this Funimation Dub, this is called Sphere Dragon

Weapons
Satori has a pair of Impact Dials bound beneath his gloves; like all Impact Dials, these can absorb the force of an opponent's attacks and re-release it as a powerful shockwave.

(Curiously, he appears to use these against the Straw Hats multiple times without intercepting any attacks beforehand, suggesting he may be carrying several pre-charged Dials.)

Haki
Satori can use Kenbunshoku Haki, which is called "Mantra" in Skypiea, to predict what his opponent will do before they attack. Like the other priests, he can sense the presence of people within a range that covers the entirety of Upper Yard. However, Satori admits that he still requires more training, as his concentration can falter due to unexpected events, leaving him vulnerable. As with Kenbunshoku Haki, his "Mantra" is useless if he is restrained, as he cannot dodge blows whether he predicts them or not.

Past
Satori was born on the sky island of Birka along with his younger brothers, Hotori and Kotori. Eight years before the current storyline, Birka was destroyed by Enel and Satori travelled to Skypiea as one of Enel's warriors. He took part in the invasion of Upper Yard, which resulted in the former God Gan Fall being usurped by Enel. Under Enel's rule, Satori became one of the four priest of Skypiea and was tasked with administering punishment to criminals with the Ordeal of Balls.

Skypiea Arc
The four priests Satori, Shura, Ohm and Gedatsu competed to eliminate a man called Zabo who had trespassed on Upper Yard, but their pursuit was interrupted near the coast when Wyper attacked them with his Burn Bazooka. After Zabo was killed by Enel's lightning blast, Gedatsu explained that another group of illegal trespassers had arrived in Skypiea.



When Usopp, Luffy and Sanji arrived at the Ordeal of Balls, Satori greeted the Straw Hats. Because of his carefree attitude and dancing, Luffy and Sanji underestimated his ability and attempted to attack him, only to have their attacks dodged by Satori's Mantra, and then each Straw Hat was blown off their craft and into the forest by Satori's Impact Dial. Satori then revealed his ordeal: the Straw Hats' boat would continue to traverse the Milky Road out of the forest unless they could board the boat and stop it. If they could not stop the boat then they would be forever lost.



As Sanji and Usopp attempted to locate the boat, Luffy was easily defeated due to Satori's Mantra, and all three took multiple Impact Dial attacks. Satori then revealed his ultimate attack, the Ball Dragon, and proceeded to chase Luffy around the forest with it. Once Luffy discovered the string that Satori used to control the chain, he was able to break his control and send the dragon flying back at him. Due to the explosion Satori temporarily lost control of his Mantra, and failed to see Luffy clinging to his back. Luffy tied up Satori with his stretched limbs holding him still and thus rendering his Mantra ability useless, as he could not dodge attacks even if he could sense them, allowing Sanji to defeat him with his Concasse. With her Mantra, Aisa senses Satori's defeat and reports to Wyper, giving the Shandia warrior additional incentive to launch his assault on Upper Yard.

After Enel's defeat, the Shandia sentenced Satori and the other priests to Cloud Drifting.

Major Battles

 * Satori vs. Luffy, Sanji and Usopp

Anime and Manga Influences
The term Satori carries several extant meanings in Japan; most relevant to the Skypiea Arc's religious motifs is its Zen Buddhist connotations of enlightenment (悟り). Interestingly, it is also the name of a folkloric monster with mind-reading abilities, reflecting how the character was the series' original introduction of "Mantra" and its precognitive powers.

Translation and Dub Issues
In the English dub, he explicitly refers to Luffy as a "rubber boy" despite rubber being a completely unknown substance in Skypiea (suggesting, inadvertently, that he possesses knowledge even Enel does not).

In the German dub, he is not only voiced by a woman (not uncommon in anime, though his Japanese and English voice-actors to date have all been male), but explicitly called female by character dialogue. This creates a notable character inconsistency in regards to Sanji and his personal credo to never attack women (regardless of whether he personally finds them attractive).

Playable Appearances

 * One Piece: Going Baseball

Enemy Appearances

 * One Piece: Pirates Carnival
 * One Piece: Round the Land
 * One Piece Bon! Bon! Journey!!

Support Appearances

 * One Piece: Grand Battle! 3
 * One Piece: Grand Adventure
 * One Piece: Dance Battle
 * One Piece: Burning Blood (as part of the Four Priests)
 * One Piece: Great Pirate Colosseum

Trivia

 * Satori appears to lack his brothers' horns and long ears (though his hair and hat may just cover them up).
 * Satori's favorite food is sky island zenzai (sweet bean porridge) filled with shiratama (rice flour dumplings).
 * He shares his like of zenzai filled with shiratama with his younger brothers.

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