Nelson

Commodore Nelson Royale (ネルソン提督 Neruson Royale Teitoku) is an anime only Marine from East Blue, commanding the 8th Marine Division. He appears in the Warship Island Arc.

Appearance
Nelson is extremely obese, to the point where he is unable to walk and must be carried on a humongous chair, by at least six men. This also prevents him from being able to wear a fitted marine coat, which can only cover his arms and back. On his huge stomach, he also has a large tattoo of the Marine emblem in blue.



He, aside from his extreme obesity, has some other peculiar marks. He has a long, thin, curved moustache; spiral marks on his huge cheeks and he also seems to have no eyebrows, having two dark spots in their place instead.

On his head, he wears a tall blue marine hat which is also unique in that no similar marine hat was ever seen before or after.

Personality
Nelson is a selfish, gluttonous person, who only cares about his own needs. When someone opposes him, he is unable to see their point of view.

He also shows very little concern for the lives of his men (which is the exact opposite of the views of one of his commanders - note however that in the anime, Nelson never actually interacts with the commander). When his men are being defeated by Luffy, Zoro and Sanji, he is alarmed only because the Sennenryu which he was pursuing was getting away.

And finally, when Erik betrays him, he orders all his warships to open fire on the rowboat he is in - with two of his own men also in the boat.



He is prone to scream at his soldiers and when he is in his normal "residence" he is waited on hand and foot. A group of soldiers are always standing alertly and nearby, sweaty and afraid of the Commodore.

He is seen constantly eating, even if the portions he takes are so big he chokes himself-however he has shown very poor manners, as he was not the least troubled or embarrassed at spitting out his food all over Erik's face.

He constantly fans his forehead with a handy paper fan with the Marine emblem on it, due perhaps to excessive sweating, caused by his rigorous obesity.

Though he has had the Marine seagull emblem seemingly tattooed on his huge stomach, and though the Marine symbol adorns nearly everything around him (his top hat, his fan, the back of the chair he is carried in), he has shown no scruples and no heed of Justice, rather using his power to follow his own personal goal (reminiscent of Nezumi, who oversaw Arlong's tyranny over humans just to gain bribes), to the point of kidnapping a little girl, having her transported by a whole Marine ship.

History
Nelson seeks the Thousand Year Dragon, Ryuji, for his own selfish purposes. To that end, he hires a man named Erik to do his dirty work.

He at first manages to capture Apis, the one person who knows where the dragon is, in his power, but she flees during a storm. Nelson is very outraged and summons Erik to accompany a battleship and retrieve her.

However, Nelson becomes suspicious when Erik doesn't respond and therefore decides to interfere.



His battleships encircle the Straw Hats and "chain them in". When the attack proves fruitless, he orders the deployment of the "special cannon" - a gigantic cannon, however just as he gives the order to shoot, Usopp fires a cannonball into it, making it explode and knocking Nelson to the ground.

His soldiers prove unable to stop the Straw Hats from invading their ships and cutting their steel chains (the plothole this arc is most famous for). Nelson is extremely frustrated with this and threatens to exile all of his soldiers if they fail, but the Straw Hats almost get through an opening, when their ship is almost hit by a wind strike of Erik's. Erik takes over the raft on which the dragon is located, much to Nelson's pleasure. However, Erik reveals he only used Nelson to find the dragon and that he wishes to use the ryukotsu elixir to become invincible. Nelson is so angered that he orders his ships to open fire on Erik.

When the dragon walks up and begins to fly towards his ship, he panics and orders it shot down. When Luffy comes to aid Ryuji, Nelson orders a harpoon shot into Ryuji to "pull him in". It is, however, caught by Luffy, who asks what he is doing. Nelson begins laughing at him for seeing a friend in a "sack of ryukotsu" and begins bragging how he will gain eternal youth.

Luffy, enraged, throws the harpoon and narrowly misses Nelson. He demands that Luffy be killed as well. However, before they can fire, a swarm of millennium dragons arrive at Warship Island. Nelson is at first very pleased how much "ryukotsu" he has to his disposal, but he is soon knocked down by the huge dragons, which fly so high they cannot be targeted by the marine cannons.

As this happens, however, Ryuji dies. When Nelson sees this, he becomes extremely happy and starts laughing mockingly at Luffy. This angers him so much that he uses his ability to reach a high flying millennium dragon and from there, deliver such a powerful kick to Nelson's ship that it breaks in half.

However, when the "Dragon's Nest" rises from the ocean, Nelson is seen still alive. He is confronted by Erik, who tells him to "move", while Nelson begins fast talking him into making another deal, seeing how many dragons there are to claim. Erik has no patience for Nelson and strikes him with one of his wind attacks, seemingly killing him.

The 8th Branch


The 8th Branch of the Marine, that Nelson is head of, is active in East Blue. It appears Nelson has a fleet of at least 10 smaller battleships, plus his main ship, at his disposal. The only seen technique, which this branch uses to capture pirates, is the "Akuyoku" formation - which consists of surrounding an enemy with a fleet of battleships and then blocking all escape routes by connecting each battleship with several large chains.



The only higher ranking official seen is Shosa, who is sent after Apis, along with Erik.

Translations and Dub Issues
His rank is roughly equivalent to "Commodore" (准将 Junshō), yet the rank he holds (提督 teitoku) does not exist within the Marine's rank system, according to the author. This is probably an oversight by the writing staff of the anime, since Nelson does not appear in the manga, outside the adaptation into the form of a manga novel not drawn by Oda. However, the top brass of the Marines must know its meaning, because in chapter 96 (and episode 45), Don Krieg's nickname is worded by Lieutenant Commander Brandnew as "Kaizoku Kantai Teitoku Krieg". Nelson's rank is often translated by fansubs and even in official dubs (the German, Italian, Singaporan English, and Catalanian dubs) as "Admiral".

Trivia

 * Nelson has a habit of ending his sentences with as "de o-jaru", "jaru" being an old form of "da".
 * He is most likely named after Horatio Nelson, the famous Marine admiral of British history (who himself is sometimes referred to as "Commodore Nelson").