 All right, I'm going to make a deal with all of you and that deal is quite simply if you do not laugh at the following quote-unquote Joke, then you need to subscribe to the ground line review. All right, are we ready for humor? I know I am. If Jinbei resided in the United Kingdom, then where would he live? Wales! Well, I look forward to seeing a lot of new subscribers. Hello and welcome to the ground line review your source for everything one piece And today I'd like to talk about Mr. Whaleshark once again, but right off the bat I will say that this video is going to contain, you know, some spoilers for anime only watches because developments have been made I won't say how great or how small but this is your warning. However for everyone else, let us continue with the intro So what we're going to do today is much less of a structured discussion and more of a coherent rambling or hopefully coherent anyway, although I make very few promises But it's all centering around Jinbei and specifically his reappearance on Wano because I have some mixed feelings here and there because from a character perspective I obviously love it. I'm a huge fan of Jinbei and I think that he fits in pretty damn perfectly with the crew. On the other hand though I'm not really sure the way in which he was placed in this position was handled particularly well And I think for all intents and purposes Jinbei did just kind of appear out of thin air and that kind of Converts me for a wide variety of reasons that yes We will get into but firstly I think it's important to address the positives because I wouldn't feel any form of conflict without a Distinct positive aspect from the moment Jinbei was plonked back into the story or maybe not the exact moment more like the beginning of the next chapter But from his reunion with the straw hats onwards those few chapters have been nothing less than an incredibly enjoyable journey And it's kind of weird and cool because Jinbei is not one of those characters who strikes you as someone who has grown and evolved over time Primarily because he is often seen as this established world figure You know someone who has indeed reached their final form, but the latest one or chapters have made it so incredibly clear Just how much Jinbei has changed so to contrast this let's go back to his original introduction which rather unfortunately took place in Impel down, but let's take this whole era into account. How would you describe Jinbei during this time? I personally would have summed him up in probably three words serious honorable and blue He was very stoic and at times quite an intimidating figure not so much from a perspective of power But from the viewpoint of sheer knowledge and maturity in fact Jinbei has never really felt like a top tier powerful guy But he is still able to command the respect that individuals like the admirals would he is a very unique presence And that's why very early on in his series tenure He made a pretty big fan out of me But that was kind of all there was to him a grand stoic whale shark statue one that yeah You could rely on but you couldn't really get to know and it would actually take his first reintroduction into the series And I say first because we've had what three at this point now But it would take his first reintroduction on Fishman Island to begin to break down this Jinbei guy and start showing his true Personality and I can think of no better example of this than when he saw Shirahoshi and he made his own nl style face I never in a million years expected to see such a thing from mr. Jinbei but this was our first sign that he was evolving and opening up to us as readers and watchers and this only continued on Hokei Kailen during his secondary introduction because by this time Jinbei had taken another step And he was no longer particularly shocked at the kind of curveballs that Luffy would throw at him But not only that Jinbei also had moments of laughter like when judge was saying all those demeaning things about Sanji and Luffy Just took them as compliments and now in Wano that has gone even further Jinbei has been back in the story for a while like four chapters at the time of this recording And he seems to have come equipped with an almost permanent smile on his face Despite the fact that he is quite literally about to battle two emperors of the sea This is probably the happiest that Jinbei has ever been in his life because he is finally free of everything that has metaphorically And even on the odd occasion literally shackled him to this world Jinbei is a figure who was had to bear the responsibility of the entirety of Fishman Island as pretty much their only world Renowned representative on the surface, but now that he's mostly free of that charge There is an incredibly stark contrast between the Jinbei we knew and the Jinbei we now know And Oda has done a brilliant job of conveying this over an incredibly absurdly long character arc to arrive in this place right here right now He now blends in perfectly with the crew so perfectly that it often falls me into forgetting about the greater narrative Circumstance of his being here. So here's where we're going to get into some negatives. I love Jinbei I love that he's here However, what I do not love is that he is here without really any explanation whatsoever Like seriously looking back on these last few chapters you realize that for all intents and purposes He has just magically appeared at the right time in the right place, which you know Yes, one piece is a fictional story So that is always going to happen But usually Oda is much much better at seamlessly integrating these necessary Dramatics, but it's particularly important in this case because of the end of Whole Cake Island Now while I do think it took a particularly long time to reach this conclusion of Whole Cake Island's Act 3 I think that the ending was utter brilliance I personally love that a mega arc in one piece concluded with effectively the defeat and the retreat of the straw hats Leaving all of their gathered allies at the mercy of an emperor of the sea One of which was Jinbei who very honorably stated that he could not leave his former crew members behind And there was some phenomenal drama created when Luffy granted him permission to do so But ordered him to meet up with them on Wano And so Jinbei's fate was left in this mysterious zone with an overwhelming negative feeling attached to it Because what were they going to do exactly? Everyone involved was completely overwhelmed by the big mom pirates and it became almost an accepted thought in the fan base That surely Jinbei would have been captured and potentially punished and by punishment We're obviously talking about being maimed or killed because you know I guess the thing is if it was actually possible for everyone to escape peacefully and why didn't they just do that alongside the straw hats? I don't know to me. It just felt like Jinbei and the Sun Pirates were embarking on more or less a sacrificial quest Whilst the German were on something of a kamikaze revenge mission There was great power attached to leaving them there in the most dire situation imaginable all bloodied and on the verge of defeat And it really doesn't sit quite right with me that after leaving Jinbei in what looked like an impossible situation He just rocks up out of nowhere safe and sound to join the crew on Wano And not only that but apparently all of the Sun Pirates seem to have survived as well Because the only piece of context Jinbei does provide in these recent chapters is that he was late to Wano Due to treating the wounded members of his crew as well as having a party to send him off There is some very important connective tissue missing here not necessarily in terms of logic I mean I find logical arguments pretty boring an example of which would be that hey the Sun Pirates All just slam away and we're able to outrun whatever the big mom pirates could throw at them I mean we don't even have an explanation like that But what I'm more interested in is the narrative tissue There is a big big big disconnect within Jinbei's story because if we juxtapose the final moments of Holcake Island To his first moments on Wano with nothing in between because there is nothing Then we find that there has been far too rapid of a shift from being quite possibly on the verge of death To safe and sound everything is fine is a bit difficult for me to swallow And currently not even having a bare minimum logical explanation provided is a little irksome And all right, let's put it another way by throwing it into the context of say Luffy vs. Karakuri Let's scope that situation to the Jinbei situation So imagine that we got to the point where Flampe shot Luffy and Karakuri skewered him with his trident Super dramatic ending to an amazing chapter or episode And won the build's extraordinary interest for the fate and the future of Luffy But then let's say we take a 20 chapter gap not showing Luffy, Karakuri or anything in the mirror world whatsoever And the very next time we see Luffy is aboard the Thousand Sunny Safe and smiling ready to escape from Totterland With no mention whatsoever of what occurred between him and Karakuri in the mirror world As a reader or watcher you'd probably feel slightly unsatisfied to say the least By not knowing how Luffy got himself out of that incredibly dire situation And yes he is the main character so there is that But to me it feels like this is exactly what has happened with Jinbei Oda very deliberately put him in a desperate scenario And then proceeded to do nothing with that It was in retrospect completely empty drama Because it ended up having zero impact on Jinbei's character Or I guess any character actually as well as the story as a whole Knowing how Oda was going to reintroduce Jinbei Makes me wonder exactly why he bothered to leave him behind on Hawkeek Island in the first place There was no special purpose for that delay in joining the crew In fact at this point in time I'd even argue that it was an unnecessary complication Because all it really does is go to serve a surprise and slightly underwhelming whale shark appearance on Wano And I guess what I'm searching for is some kind of benefit as to why Oda did this Like for example did Jinbei pick up some important information on his separate journey to Wano That would greatly impact events on the island Or did he stumble upon the former Whitebeard Pirates or even the Grand Fleet And channel them towards the island At the moment there is absolutely nothing that Jinbei really brings to the story As a result of being left behind on Hawkeek Island If anything very much undercuts and devalues the drama that was created by the end of the arc So right now we're sitting at a net negative in terms of narrative And that's before we even examine the more technical questions like How did Jinbei get to Wano? And how did he know exactly when and where to meet the Allied forces? Where did this knowledge come from? It's not as if discovering the secret message spread throughout Wano would have helped Jinbei Because he would not have known how to interpret it And if he did encounter a member of the Allied forces who told him what and when the plan was Then when exactly did this happen? And why would it not have been reported to Kinamono Luffy? Or are you trying to tell me that Jinbei, out of sheer fated coincidence Just so happened to swim on up to Wano And land in the exact port that Luffy and the Allied forces just so happened to be at On the very day of their attack? And look honestly that is probably the most likely explanation And one piece is no stranger to those sorts of fated events But everything combined just makes the situation a bit weird to look back on At least at this point in the story anyway Jinbei's situation could always be expanded upon by Oda And I really really hope it is Because in my opinion it sorely needs it And I'm not saying that we need to know absolutely every step that a character takes To get from point A to point B But at the same time we also can't just jump from two extremes Without any connective tissue whatsoever And you know what? Just to illustrate another example for fun Because I do like these Let's imagine a sort of reverse Jinbei situation Where a character goes from happy and fine to a dire situation out of nowhere And we are going to use Ace for this So imagine that we've just encountered Ace during the alabaster arc Happy guy, Luffy's brother, man on a mission Cool, love it Now for the sake of hypotheticals Let's pretend that we did not hear anything about Ace until Amazon Lily Where we discover that Ace has been captured and is scheduled for public execution Narratively, that would be a disjointed juxtaposition And it doesn't follow the flow of an arc And it doesn't take much to make it an arc either Why the Ace situation feels very natural Whereas the Jinbei one does not Is because we do see a brief encounter between Ace and Blackbeard on Banaro Island So when you do cut to him in prison eventually That connective tissue is already there You see him in prison and it implies that he lost to Blackbeard And despite having very little information regarding the event itself You know enough to accept exactly how Ace got from point A to point B As well as his character has gone from narratively super fun happy times To super bad desperate times Wano Jinbei is missing his equivalent of the Banaro Island incident And once again, yeah, we may receive that in a future flashback or even some exposition But the problem with that in connective tissue afterwards Is that it doesn't help our current situation right now And sadly as thrilled as I am to see Jinbei In every glorious panel he inhabits It just feels a bit weird It really is like someone just snapped their fingers And Jinbei is here like that And then it could have happened with just about anyone I mean, what if during the next few chapters Luffy encounters a dicey situation And then out of nowhere like Crocodile appears to save the day And join the allied forces for reasons And no, it's not the same situation Because Crocodile doesn't have any reason to be on Wano unlike Jinbei But it would leave that same sort of bizarre aftertaste Because it just doesn't feel natural And right now to me Jinbei's situation does not feel natural And I'm sure that there are many of you who either disagree or just don't care Which is also fine Ultimately, this is nowhere near a series breaking issue Not even close But it is an uncharacteristic minor flaw Of Oda's supreme storytelling ability And I am looking forward to seeing your future developments Go on to change that impression of mine But what do you guys think? Please do leave your thoughts in the comments below Or even join my Discord server And if you'd like to see more videos like this Then please do go and check out some of my other content Or even subscribe to the channel For more glorious one-piece business Uploaded straight to your YouTube feed But for now, this has been the Grand Line Review And I'll see you next time