In all of my anime consumption, out of The Big Three, I hadn’t watched One Piece. The nerve!
I attempted to. I was grabbed immediately, it passed the three-episode rule — I was invested! But here’s the truth: as an anime-onli-an, the thought of committing to a continuous series with over two decades of non-stop material is incredibly intimidating.
Then a global pandemic forced us all inside and I said, “why not,” because I have a reputation to maintain.
During the “Baratie Arc” I thought, “I see why they call it Goat Piece.” But when I reached the “Alabasta Saga”, it felt like the longest journey ever that I couldn’t wait to end. Coming off of “Arlong Park”, Alabasta wasn’t giving me what I needed . I was expecting to be propelled into something even more incredible. Instead, I was left reflecting on the apparent central theme of Vivi finding her voice.
During the “Alabasta Saga,” Princess Nefertari Vivi is a 16-year-old girl learning how to vocalize and discover her purpose in a world that doesn’t seem to fully acknowledge her.
When conforming to gender norms, a lot of women are raised to believe suffering is the standard, that we’re not expected to demand or question anything. In 1990, psychologist Carol Gilligan theorized that girls “lose their voice” as they approach adolescence, sparking a moment in feminism that caused scholars and thinkers to examine how young women are silenced in a patriarchal society governed by men. And let me tell you, watching Vivi continuously try to inform the men in charge of what big-bad-Crocodile was planning and doing in Alabasta was exhausting.
The loss and lack of self-esteem in young girls and women can often stem from the pressures of being perfect. When incredibly high standards are placed upon these girls, it makes them impossible to achieve. In Vivi’s case, she had to expose a criminal, stop her childhood boo from rebelling against her father, and prevent her father’s execution.
But, no shade, Vivi wasn’t a natural leader. Her journey with The Straw Hats revealed just how ill-equipped she was going up against Crocodile and Baroque Works. Vivi thought she would single-handedly defeat Crocodile, convince the rebels and the King’s men that fighting was pointless, save her father, and declared only her life needed to be sacrificed to achieve all this.
Luffy literally had to knock some sense into my sis because Vivi was delusional. Imagine taking a slight detour during your quest to be Pirate King, to pull up on a man for a girl you don’t even know, wander through the desert, and she essentially says she don’t need you. Bye.
Luffy reminded Vivi that she could in fact depend on the crew, but she needed to discover her power and presence, to listen to and trust herself. With the support of her friends, she could affirm that her judgments are plausible and hers and hers alone to make.
And she was getting there! Vivi had convinced herself that perhaps her plan might work and the dominos started to fall into place. She was standing tall in her conviction! But eventually, when no longer surrounded by a single ally or Straw Hat, she yielded to Crocodile, allowing him to convince her that her efforts to save her country were futile.
Symbolically, as Vivi falls from the clutch of Crocodile, plummeting to defeat, Luffy and Pell swoop in and save her, with Luffy pushing her onward, telling her to not give up — letting her know they had heard her!
However, when she finally causes a shift in the war, the result is her standing atop Alubarna Clocktower screaming into the void, with literally no one but Pell and The Straw Hats hearing her pleas. It wasn’t lost on me that Vivi was the only woman of power in Alabasta, the freakin princess of her country, and none of the men outside of The Straw Hats or Pell took notice of her until the absolute last second when some major shit popped off. Shout out to my boy Pell.
At that point I was exasperated. If Oda was trying to sell me a story of a young woman finding her voice, he left me on quite the rollercoaster.
Despite all of this, during the last episode of the “Alabasta Arc,” I felt tears swelling in my eyes. I shit you not, I sat there for a moment and quite literally sobbed. When the Straw Hats, Vivi, and Karoo raised their left arms to expose their uniformed Xs that displayed and symbolized their eternal friendship? Bruh.
There’s constant debate on whether the “Alabasta Arc” is the best or worst arc in One Piece. I’m only in the 200s, so I can’t offer my concrete opinion, but I realized all the things that made me love and respect The Straw Hats occurred during the “Alabasta Arc”. Everyone discovered their meaning of justice and learned the importance of loyalty to their friends and crew. Zoro’s fatherly vibe with Chopper. Luffy’s triumphant and miraculous come-back. Mr. 2 Bon Clay! Sanji as Mr. Prince in his chic yellow shades straightening his tie. Ooof! The intro of Ace and Nico Robin? C’mon.
Personally, I don’t think the focus of the “Alabasta Saga” should be on Vivi finding her voice. If anything, it gives “damsel in distress” because we’re absolutely counting on Luffy to secure the win. For me, the central theme was Vivi discovering what The Mental Load is, and what a lot of women, myself included, tend to ignore: the resources are there, but you have to be willing to tap into them.
Yes, she gained some incredibly strong and powerful allies. But moreover, Vivi obtained friends who helped her find her sense of agency, to have confidence in her choices and decisions, and to realize that she isn’t alone — at home, or at sea.
