Little Garden Arc

The Little Garden Arc is the ninth story arc of the manga and anime One Piece, and the third story arc of the Arabasta Saga, continuing from the Whiskey Peak Arc.

Now with Vivi in tow, the Straw Hat Pirates travel to the prehistoric island of Little Garden. There, they encounter two Giants, Dorry and Brogy, who have been dueling one another on the island for the past century. After befriending the giants, the crew are ambushed by new and familiar officers of Baroque Works.

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 a 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 Elbaf who befriends them. A little while later, Sanji and Zoro get into a fight about who could get the most meat first. They soon leave the ship in search of animals they can use to win the bet. Left alone on the ship, Nami and Usopp learn 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 he and Brogy are forever destined to continue their one hundred year long war, which was started over a reason Dorry had long forgotten (it is later revealed that it was 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 internal injuries from an explosion after drinking some of the Straw Hats' beer, which was tampered with by Mr. 5 using his Devil Fruit abilities. Dorry tries to attack Luffy, thinking he was responsible, but Luffy quickly beats him using Gomu Gomu Rocket by targeting his stomach. Realizing that the god of Elbaf was not on his side, Dorry still decides to go and pins Luffy under a giant rock when Luffy tries to stop Dorry from going to fight Brogy.

Meanwhile, 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 Nami's disappearance, since out of the two of them, Nami is on their hit list while Usopp is not, and they are also responsible for the exploding beer that injured Dorry. Eventually, Dorry loses to Brogy due to his injuries (as well as Mr. 3 using his wax in secret to make Dorry trip). Brogy notices a deficiency in Dorry's performance but is 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 despite failing to use Karoo to lure her away from Luffy, which they realize they did not need to do since Luffy was imprisoned by the rock, and quickly defeat him, Usopp and Karoo.



Mr. 3 then imprisons Zoro, Nami, and Vivi in his giant candle set which will slowly turn them along with Brogy into wax sculptures. Just as Zoro is about to cut off his legs to break free, Luffy, Usopp, and Karoo arrive to save their friends. However, when Luffy damages Mr. 3's giant candelabra after his feet are trapped in the wax, it only accelerates the process, giving Luffy, Usopp, and Karoo less time to save the others. Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine then engage Usopp and Karoo 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 of Luffy's attempts to free himself from the hypnosis, Miss Goldenweek continues to use her Colors Trap ability 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 team takes down Usopp before he can try to shoot the candle set with his Flame Star, Usopp gives Karoo 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 tells Luffy to set 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 onto Mr. 3's hair, Luffy uses the fiery portion of it to light the rope tricking Mr. 3 into melting the wax. Once the candle set is destroyed, Nami and Vivi defeat Miss Valentine. Before Mr. 5 can shoot Vivi, Usopp tricks Mr. 5 into eating his Tabasco Star and is saved by Zoro before an angry Mr. 5 can kill him. Meanwhile, Luffy and Karoo pursue the Mr. 3 team, and though Mr. 3 tries to trick Luffy by creating clone statues of himself, Luffy, through sheer instinct, knocks him out, while Karoo defeats Miss Goldenweek.

After the Battle


Meanwhile, Sanji enjoys tea in Mr. 3's candle house and receives a call from Mr. 0, who mistakes 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 after Mr. 0 thought he lied about succeeding in his mission to kill Vivi and the Straw Hats) by way of the Eternal Pose which is being 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 as both his sword and Brogy's axe were dulled from being constantly used over the last century.

Meanwhile, the Marines have intercepted a garbled message in the call between Mr. 0 and Sanji. Smoker is able to make out four key words, "Princess Vivi," "Straw Hats," "Mr. 0," and "orders directly." They were able to capture Mr. 11, a Baroque Works frontier agent and trick him into confirming the existence of a criminal organization headed by Mr. 0. Smoker decides to follow the clues and head for the Kingdom of Arabasta.

Once Sanji returns, Dorry and Brogy bid farewell to the Straw Hats by slaying Island Eater, a giant goldfish who eats ships leaving the island, sacrificing what remained of their weapons in the process. With that, the Straw Hats head for Arabasta using the Eternal Pose they got from the Unluckies.

Story Impact

 * Little Garden Arc introduces the second non-human, humanoid race of One Piece: the giants, and their country Elbaf. Usopp is really impressed by these warriors and wishes he could become such a brave one himself, and decides to visit Elbaf someday.
 * Nami gets bitten by a bug that makes her sick during the next arc.
 * Later, Luffy decides to recruit a doctor in the next arc to prevent this from happening again.
 * Usopp's friendship with the giants would play a vital role during the battle at Enies Lobby in the Enies Lobby Arc, when he meets Kashii and Oimo and helps convince them to join his side due to the World Government lying to them about Dorry and Brogy's fate.
 * It also introduces two more members of Baroque Works: Mr. 3 and Miss Goldenweek, the former whose Devil Fruit power is the ability to make and manipulate wax.
 * This is also the arc where Vivi learns more about the crew and shows more signs of friendship (i.e., when she wonders about Luffy's behavior after he had been trapped by Dorry, when Zoro and Nami stop worrying once Luffy appears, and when she hugs Sanji after he recovers the Eternal Pose.
 * This story arc is also the first to mention Nami and Usopp being the weakest of the crew. They realize this after being the only ones left behind on the Going Merry.
 * This is the first arc in which Sanji acts in a clandestine matter in regards to the rest of the crew. This would become a running theme in his skillset.
 * Since they remained at Little Garden during the Arabasta Arc, Miss Goldenweek, Mr. 5, and Miss Valentine would end up journeying to free a number of their fellow Officer Agents being held captive after their arrest in Arabasta during the manga mini-arc Miss Goldenweek's "Operation: Meet Baroque Works", except for the ones that would be seen again during the Impel Down Arc.
 * Mr. 3 is targeted by Mr. 0 for failing his mission and lying to him in his report, because Sanji poses as the agent before any of the agents had formally met their boss or had contact with him, which made Mr. 0 think Mr. 3 betrayed him.
 * Zoro and Sanji have an argument about collecting dinosaur meat which sparks their long-lasting rivalry.
 * The Unluckies are both defeated and later caught by the Marines, after which both of them sell out their organization by drawing composite sketches of the agents for a bribe of food.

Dinosaur Hunting
Manga: The manga depicts Dorry and Brogy blatantly beheading dinosaurs.

Anime: The scene of Brogy beheading the dinosaur is changed so that the audience is looking at its reflection in the water. The scene of Dorry beheading the dinosaur is implied but not shown directly.

Tiger and Sanji
Manga: Sanji is walking through the jungle when he sees a Saber-Tooth Tiger approaching him. He is shown afterwards riding it after he gave it a beating.

Anime: The Saber-Tooth Tiger is shown lurking on Sanji from behind, then the anime skips to someone else.

Brogy Breaking Free
Manga: When Brogy breaks free of Mr. 3's Candle Jacket and is knocked down again by Mr. 5, Mr. 3 restrains him by pinning his hands and feet to the ground with enormous swords made of wax.

Anime: Mr. 3 pins Brogy down with huge shackles made of wax.

Marines Intercepting Den Den Mushi Transmission
Manga: Smoker's group is able to use their black Den Den Mushi to intercept the conversation between Sanji and Crocodile, allowing Smoker to head to Arabasta knowing the Straw Hats are going there, which occurs shortly after the transmission ends.

Anime: The scene featuring Smoker and his group is moved to the beginning of the Drum Island Arc, just after the Straw Hat's first encounter with Wapol, though the caption did say "Several Days Earlier".

Nami's Bug Bite
Manga: This is not included in this story arc and is not mentioned until the Drum Island arc when Dr. Kureha mentions the bug bite after she cures Nami from the illness caused by it.

Anime: After the battle, Nami feels some pain from her bug bite, which Zoro notices right before Sanji shows up.

Miss Valentine's Torture
Manga: In the manga, Usopp was lying on his back and when Miss Valentine used her Cresendo Stone to torture him, her position implies she did so on his groin.

Anime: In the anime, this was changed to Usopp lying on his stomach and Miss Valentine targeted his back instead.

4Kids Edits
In the 4Kids dub, this arc is skipped entirely for many different reasons. Most of it due to unavoidable violence, such as Mr. 5's gun, Miss Valentine's Crescendo Stone, Zoro trying to cut off his legs from his binding wax prison, and both Dorry and Brogy decapitating dinosaurs. The second is the minor sexuality of Nami spending a small amount of time with no shirt on (wearing only a black bra).

This would lead to several plot holes later on in the story. The only part which is fixed is instead of Nami getting bitten by a deadly bug while her stomach was exposed, she instead just becomes sick due to the climate of the Grand Line (which was the initial diagnosis by Vivi in the original version). Skipping the return of Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine does not affect 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, is mentioned when listing officer agents, even though, due to the arc skip, no one would have known who she is. Usopp's friendship with Dorry and Brogy would later play a large role in the Enies Lobby Arc.

Elbaf was also first mentioned in this arc and was referenced a lot after the timeskip and was first shown in a flashback during the Whole Cake Island Arc. Usopp stated that he wanted to go there but 4Kids removed Elbaf and has Luffy and Usopp sing the big bad pirate song instead.

Trivia

 * For the anime version of this arc, Nami is not voiced by her regular voice actress Akemi Okamura. Instead she is voiced by Wakana Yamazaki (who also voices Nami's sister Nojiko), as Okamura was on maternity leave for the entire arc, and returned for Episode 79.

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