SBS Volume 18

SBS
R (reader)

O (Oda)

'''R: When Dr. Kureha says, "My secret to youth?", what exactly is her secret? My senility is supposed to get much worse about now...'''

O: Your senility...? You're only 13. But anyways, her answer would be, "BEING HAPPY!!" She sure is living it up right now.

O: I'd like to take the time to make a little explanation for a certain group of my readers. In Volume 17, there was a character named Chessmarimo. He is a combination of the characters "Chess" and "Kuromarimo", and when he talks, it's supposed to sound like both of them speaking at the same time. In order to represent that in the manga, I stacked the letters on top of each other... But, oh how they came... A flood of complaints. From the mothers of small children. "This book is misprinted!!" They said that to the editors at the company. I'm extremely sorry. Please, mothers, accept it for what it is!! Just read the book instead. Chessmarimo is HILARIOUS, ISN'T HE?!! (<- hasn't learned a thing)

'''R: I have a question, Ei-chan... on panel 6 of Volume 17, page 176, what is Chopper doing? It just looks like the "Hen na ojisan" to me!! Is that right? Please tell me!!'''

O: Ah... darn.

(Thanks once again to Greg Werner for this bit of info: Hen na Ojisan is ANOTHER character that Shimura Ken portrays and that little movement Chopper did is similar to his dance. [The other character being Baka Tono doing "Aiiiiiiin!"]) (see SBS chapter 65)

'''R: Hey--- Oda-sense--- One Piece--- is just sooo cool!! When I was in class--- I accidentally drew BUGGY in my notebook!! I have "Accidentally Draw Buggy" disease! Oh yeah--- when Shanks and Buggy were young, they were arguing about which is colder, the North Pole or the South Pole--- Which one's right---? Okay, goodbye.'''

O: Ahh, the flashback from Volume 3. The answer is, the South Pole. The Arctic is not a continent, it's just a mass of ice. Land is colder than water, so the Antarctic is correct. So Shanks was right. However, the South Pole is not the coldest place in the world.

'''R: Hey, Oda-sensei. When Dr. Hiluluk got naked, WHY did there JUST SO happen to be snow obscuring the view of his MOST SPECIAL area...? by Ame no Kawa.'''

O: If it didn't just so happen to obscure the view, you'd see his weenie.

'''R: Hello! Odacchi! I've noticed something incredible!! About Mr. 2 Bon Kurei. Why Mr. 2 Bon Kurei has that codename! The men have a number, and the women have events... so Mr. 2 is the male part, and Bon Kurei (Bonkure, the end of the Bon festival) is the female part, because he's an okama, right?'''

O: That's right. The female agents' names are, in order, the happiest events of the year. So first, #0 is All Sunday (all sundays of the year).


 * 1) is Doublefinger (New Years)1/1, so two pointer fingers (doublefinger)
 * 2) is Mr. 2 Bon Kurei (Bonkure)
 * 3) is GoldenWeek (Golden Week, a week off in May)
 * 4) is Merry Christmas (Christmas)
 * ..and that's how it works. I seem to have confused everyone with Doublefinger.

'''R: And here is the question. Nami's sister is Nojiko. So what is her mother's name? Yes, you, the mangaka over there.'''

O: Okay! Umm... uhhhhh... let's see... U... Utsubo. UTSUBOKO.

'''R: Bzzzzt, wrong. The answer is Nobuko. I'm sorry. Really, truly sorry. Take the challenge again next time!'''

O: Awwwwwwwwww!! Nobuko. I see. One syllable different than Nojiko... Aha... I get it...... NO I DON'T!!!

'''R: HEY, ODACCHI. WHEN YOU GET DOWN TO IT, JUST HOW LITTLE SENSE OF DIRECTION DOES ZORO HAVE? I want an equation with x and y, dammit!! '''

O: Ummm... lesseee... x... plus... y. Okay, next. (Perfect)

'''R: My husband and I are huge fans of the "Hiking Bear". But we're curious about something. What happens if one forgets the "salute" (mountain-climbing manners)? We're so curious, we can't have any children!'''

O: Yes, that would be a serious problem... What I'm going to tell you is extremely important, so PLEASE remember it. Hiking Bears are bears that love mountains. They simply cannot allow people with bad manners onto the mountain. The punishment is this: sitting in correct Japanese style for one hour. It's very difficult. The people who suffer this have severely cramped legs, and they all say the same thing. "Please kill me, now". But the bears will not allow it. But that's what they get for insult the beloved mountain... (From the "Drum Kingdom Animal Encyclopedia")

'''R: Good evening. This is a question for Oda-sensei. "Möwe" (Seagull) on Morgan's chin, and "Krieg" (battle). German seems to show up a lot in One Piece. But do actual pirates have much to do with Germany?'''

O: Hmmm, probably not... In this case, I just chose words that "sounded" right to me. For the Krieg arc, "battle" was actually the main theme, so I chose a word about battle that would be easy to remember.