Episode of Nami

Episode of Nami: Tears of a Navigator and the Bonds of Friends is a TV Special of the One Piece anime. It aired after Episode 560.

It is an abridged retelling of the Arlong Park Arc.

Short Summary
As an abridged version of the Arlong Arc, the special follows the same general plot. Nami leaves the crew after the Baratie Arc to go back to her village. Luffy and the crew follow her, and discover that she is working for a dangerous Fish-Man pirate named Arlong. It turns out that Arlong killed Nami's mother and has been using her genius cartography and navigating skills for the past 10 years for his own benefit; and the only way out is to pay him 100,000,000, which she gets by stealing from pirates. When Luffy finds out, he and the crew defeat Arlong, proving that Nami belongs with them, and they set sail to explore the rest of the sea.

At the end of the special, it is revealed that the retelling was actually Nami herself reminiscing post-timeskip while the crew was heading for Fish-Man Island.

Long Summary
It begins shortly after the end of the Baratie Arc, with Nami having stolen the Going Merry and headed back to Arlong Park. Zoro, Usopp and Johnny had already went after her earlier, and Luffy, Sanji, and Yosaku follow suit. In the meantime, it is revealed that Nami is a member of the Arlong Pirates as she reports back to Arlong, who soon celebrates her return with a rowdy party. At the same time, Zoro's group arrives on the island at the destroyed Gosa Village. Zoro roams off by himself, and Usopp and Johnny are quickly spotted by a Fish-Man patrol. Johnny abandons Usopp, and Usopp runs for cover and attempts to attack one of the Fish-Men from behind, but he is knocked unconscious by a woman before he can do anything; she remarks that it is a bad idea to attack the Fish-Men. He awakes in the woman's house back in Cocoyasi Village, who reveals herself as Nami's sister, Nojiko. She tells Usopp of Nami's status as an Arlong pirate, which shocks him.

Later, Usopp and Nojiko leave her house and discover Arlong beating up Genzo. Right before Arlong is about to kill Genzo, Usopp snipes him from a rooftop, which promptly sends him into a rage; Usopp then runs away. At the same time, Zoro roams into Arlong Park, makes quick work of the Fish-Men there, and then leaves. Arlong returns with a captured Usopp, devastated at the loss. Johnny then arrives and eavesdops on them. They ponder if Nami brought Zoro and Usopp there to rebel, and they prepare to kill Usopp. Nami arrives, however, and proves her loyalty by "stabbing" and  "killing" Usopp in front of them; in reality, she faked it to let him escape. But, she manages to fool the Fish-Man and Johnny, and the latter flees horrified. Luffy, Sanji, and Yosaku then crash recklessly on the island and run into Zoro (literally). Johnny runs up to them shortly afterwards and tells of Nami's betrayal; Luffy doesn't believe him and angrily threatens to beat him up. Nami arrives, however, and tells Luffy coldly to leave the island; her words don't register with him, and he simply lays down to take a nap, claiming he refuses to listen to her. She runs away infuriated at his stubbornness, and when the crew refuse to budge, Johnny and Yosaku leave, wary of the situation. Nami returns to her childhood home and begins breaking things, frustrated and upset. Nojiko finds her and calmly sympathizes with her, and Nami soon falls asleep, exhausted. Usopp then shows up at Luffy and the crew's location, alive, and tells them how Nami actually saved his life. Initially puzzled by her behavior, the crew then realizes that there must be some deeper motive and goal than just money going on in Nami's head, and just then, Nojiko comes up to them. Wishing to make them understand why they have to leave, she solemnly offers to tell her and Nami's backstory; Luffy opts not to listen and goes on a walk, and the rest of them stay behind to listen (although Zoro almost immediately falls asleep). Johnny and Yosaku also listen, hiding in the bushes.

Nojiko's story begins with a flashback 10 years ago on the day Arlong first came to the island, during the time when she (aged 10) and Nami (aged 8) lived in poverty with their mother, Bell-mère. On that particular day, as Bell-mère was stitching together a hand-me-down dress from Nojiko for Nami, Nami had become both fed up with being poor along with being overcome with guilt, seeing herself and Nojiko as the reason for their lack of money. She begins to probe Bell-mère about why she (Bell-mère) hasn't eaten much lately; Bell-mère responds warmly and calmly, dodging the question by smiling and insisting she's only dieting. Nami gets angrier at this, and begins arguing with Nojiko; and she reveals (to the audience) that none of them are related by blood when she complains that they "aren't even a real family". Suddenly, Bell-mère snaps and strikes her to the ground, shouting at her that they are just as much as a family as anybody else regardless of blood-relation, and tells her that she can just leave if she wants to complain about it. Nami, upset, runs away. Bell-mère quickly regains composure and regrets her words, and asks Nojiko to bring Nami back. Nami, meanwhile, ran to the town center to Genzo (who lacked his scars and stitches at that time). He comforts her by telling how Bell-mère was once also a troubled youth, and how she had joined the Marines to sort her life out. As a young Marine, she had found Nami as a baby girl and Nojiko as a little girl of 2 years old, on a battlefield while she was dying, when the woman saw, he knew immediately that the two had lost their parents. Nami's laughter, despite all the bloodshed, had given Bell-mère resolve to live, and she returned the little girls to her hometown to raise them as her own. Re-spirited by this story, Nami then meets up with Nojiko, and they both happily begin to run back home.

Just then, however, Arlong arrives on the island and immediately begins terrorizing the village, beating and killing a few of the villagers. He announces that he's here to stay, and he then demands 100,000 for each adult and 50,000 for each child every month in every household from every village on the island, or else he'll destroy the entire offending village and kill all its people. Nami and Nojiko hide, confident that Arlong will miss their house because it is hidden in the back of the village. And while the Fish-Men do miss it initially, one of them notices smoke coming from the house (since Bell-mère was cooking for Nami and Nojiko at the moment). The Fish-Men and the girls head to Bell-mère's house, and the villagers follow the Fish-Men, preparing to defend Bell-mère since they know she doesn't have enough money to pay off the 200,000 (100,000 for herself and 50,000 a piece for Nami and Nojiko). Arlong arrives at the house and walks in. Bell-mère, having seen them through the window, swiftly kicks Arlong to the ground when he enters, and then she pins him with a rifle to his mouth. Unfortunately, she hadn't realized the strength of Arlong's jaw when she put the rifle in his mouth, and to her surprise, he easily bites off the tip of the rifle. He then brutally beats Bell-mère, breaking her arm in the process. Genzo arrives and tells Bell-mère to lie and claim that she lives there alone, and a villager tells Nami and Nojiko to just leave if they want Bell-mère to live. Bell-mère pays Arlong the 100,000, giving him roughly all of her money, but she can't bring herself to lie about her children, and then Nami and Nojiko show up. Arlong shoots Bell-mère in the heart, killing her, as compensation. He then notices the excellent maps Nami had drawn, and abducts her to be his cartographer. Genzo tries to save her, but he his is cut up by Kuroobi. Later, Nami returns to tell the village she's joining Arlong for the sake of money, to their disgust. They all shun her, although Nojiko finds her at Bell-mère's grave and discovers Nami's only joining him to eventually save up 100,000,000 to buy back the village.

Back in present day, Nojiko finishes her story by reasoning that this is why the Straw Hats should just leave Nami to her business. But then, Marine captain Nezumi and the Marines, being bribed by Arlong, arrive at Nami's house to confiscate all of the money. Infuriated, she beats some of them and runs to Arlong to question him. He menacingly tells her he broke no promise; if he sees the money with his own eyes, then he'll let her go. Then he tells her that if the Marines took the money, she'll just have to recollect it. She leaves dejected, while he explains to his crew that he simply couldn't let such a good navigator leave him. Nami returns to Cocoyasi to tell the villagers they'll just have to wait for her to get more money, but Genzo lets her know that they're going to go finally attack Arlong Park even if it means death—and they leave. Driven to her breaking point, Nami psychotically stabs her shoulder tattoo while crying and yelling Arlong's name. Luffy comes and stops her, and while she initially rejects him again, she finally asks him for his help, which he agrees to give her.

Angry and pumped up, Luffy gets the crew and heads to Arlong Park. Upon arrival, he slips past the Fish-Men thugs and decks Arlong, who goes flying into the wall. Arlong, surprised at Luffy's strength but otherwise just annoyed, orders his crew to attack. Luffy dispatches all of the "small fry" using Gomu Gomu no Pinwheel, although he gets himself stuck in the cement using the technique. Usopp tries to free him, but accidentally slings Luffy at Chew, who then starts to chase him out of the park. Arlong then attempts to throw Luffy in the water, although he is stopped by Sanji, who frees Luffy by kicking the cement. Unfortunately, Kuroobi punches Sanji into the water and then dives in after him. The scene switches to Usopp, faking his death to escape Chew. But, he feels ashamed of himself for being so cowardly while everybody else has shown their bravery, so he decides to stand up and fight. Meanwhile, Zoro is fighting with Hatchan. Although wounded from fighting Mihawk a few days earlier, he easily defeats Hatchan, breaking Hatchan's swords and sending him flying into the air with a Tatsu-maki. At the same time, Usopp uses a variety of sneaky tricks to get the better of Chew and knocks him out, knowing Chew would've killed him had he fought head on. Sanji struggles underwater with Kuroobi, although he eventually manages to draw Kuroobi out of the water; once on dry land, Kuroobi proves no match for Sanji, who quickly defeats him with a brutal barrage of kicks. At this time, Nami joins the village watching the battle.

Arlong becomes enraged at their defeat, and he and Luffy viciously trade blows, eventually ending up Nami's cartography room. Luffy notices Nami's blood-stained pen while Arlong talks on his intent to use Nami; both of which get Luffy very, very angry. Luffy then begins to destroy the room while Nami watches from below. Arlong attempts to stop him by biting him. But then, in the climactic scene of the special, Luffy uses a single Gomu Gomu no Axe to defeat Arlong and completely destroys Arlong Park in the process, and he emerges from the rubble and screams to Nami that they are friends. The village celebrates Arlong's defeat, and the crew promptly beats up Nezumi and the Marines (which contributed to Luffy's first bounty).

Everybody celebrates at a village wide festival, and later that day, Genzo makes Luffy promise to always keep Nami happy, which he complies with. Nami then gets her Arlong tattoo replaced with her own symbol, and the crew sets sail from Cocoyasi in the initial credits. After the credits, however, there is another flashback to Bell-mère, Genzo, Nojiko, and Nami all talking peacefully. This is revealed to be Nami reminiscing post-timeskip on the Thousand Sunny at Sabaody, as she and the crew prepare to sail to the Fish-Man Island.

Anime Notes

 * During the opening scene several bounty posters are seen falling, consisting of both canon and non-canon characters. Robin's original poster is seen despite not being introduced in the series at that point.
 * Pudding Pudding was removed from the plot of the special, as was Chabo.
 * Zoro is never tied up in this version, instead going into Gosa Village with Usopp and Johnny. He then wanders into Arlong Park on his own while looking for Nami. In the original, he was also thrown into the pool at Arlong Park and rescued by Nami, who proceeds to beat him up to save face with Arlong and after he enraged her.
 * Don Krieg is briefly seen in the prologue.
 * Dracule Mihawk makes a brief cameo in a flashback.
 * Zoro's recently acquired massive scarring wound from his defeat against Mihawk is only alluded to, even though it still opens up in the middle of the fighting. In the original story, Zoro's crewmates and friends worry about his condition, and the wound reopening is given much more attention, with Zoro becoming weakened by it and Arlong looking at it with shock and commenting that a normal person would have perished from such a wound.
 * Luffy does not try to use Arlong's teeth against him in the special, which was only a comedic gag in the first place.
 * Arlong goes to Cocoyasi after a few of his men tell him about a intruder (Usopp) who landed on their island though he still attacks Genzo for his "weapon collecting".
 * Luffy's drowning in the original series is removed. He gets trapped by his feet in stone like in the original, but Sanji breaks the stone before Arlong can throw him into the ocean.
 * Due to the above, Sanji is knocked into the water by Kuroobi rather then having to dive into it to go save Luffy, and Nojiko and Genzo do not enter the fray.
 * Sanji removes his shoes along with his coat in the original fight after going underwater, but in this version, he defeats Kuroobi with his shoes on. Nojiko and Genzo also keep their shoes on, when in the original version, they had them off for most of the fighting because they had tried to rescue Luffy from underwater.
 * Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji's fights happen simultaneously.
 * Hachi does not use his ink on Luffy, nor use his Rokutoryu Ogi: Rokuto no Waltz technique on Zoro.
 * Chew does not land a punch on Usopp and cause him to cough up blood. Usopp also spends less time running away from Chew.
 * Two scouts among Arlong's crew are not shown swimming rapidly underwater after catching sight of the Straw Hat crew and company.
 * Arlong makes a reference to Fisher Tiger's death claiming to "not forgive the humans that killed his benefactor".
 * A flashback was removed where Nami beat up a bully for insulting Bell-mère, and she tried to scold Nami in return until being told the bully said her tangerines sucked, causing Bell-mère to also hit the bully.
 * Another set of flashbacks involving Bell-mère trying to flirt her way out of trouble and then Nami imitating her in a rather disturbing manner given her young age were removed.
 * Sanji displays unfamiliarity with the Straw Hat Pirates crew, having just joined them.
 * Nojiko is properly shown for the first time in the anime giving her gold bracelet to Nami as a keepsake, which is later brought up in the tenth One Piece movie, Strong World.
 * Nami's posthumous conversation with Bell-mère where Nami feels regret about leaving her homeland and Bell-mère's spirit pushing her out of her house in an encouraging gesture is not shown.
 * The Straw Hat Pirates and residents of Cocoyasi Village passing out after their celebration is not shown.
 * Even though the special ends post-timeskip,  pre-timeskip grave is shown, not the new grave seen in From the Decks of the World (cover of Chapter 629).
 * This is the first "It was all a Dream" story, the next story is Special Episode "Luff".

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