 You know, there are a lot of situations in this world in which lazy justice works, but subscribing to this channel is not one of them. Don't be like Kuzan, please do press the shiny red button for regular One Piece content uploaded straight to your YouTube feed. I never thought that the whole government was the be all and end all. You don't have to be affiliated with the Marines to accomplish things on this planet, and there are some things that you can only see when you remain independent. Hello and welcome to One Piece 101, the series that breaks down everyone and everything within the One Piece world. And today, we're diving into an incredibly intriguing figure being the one-time Marine Admiral and nowadays potential pirate, Kuzan. Kuzan is a very laid-back and chill-axed presence within the world of One Piece, who first made his appearance in the series during the Long Ring Long Land Arc. And initially, although it may be quite difficult to believe, Kuzan was one of the three individuals within the Marine Organization to hold the rank of Admiral, making him one of the most powerful figures within the entire faction. And as a result of being an Admiral, Kuzan was also granted a thematic epithet combining a color and an animal, in this case being Al-Qijji, which means blue pheasant. And given that this is the name under which he existed in the pre-timescape era, many fans still know him solely as Al-Qijji rather than Kuzan. But for the purpose of consistency, I'm going to continue referring to him as Kuzan for the duration of this video. But the role of Admiral is in stark contrast to the general way in which Kuzan presents himself, which is exceedingly casual and frankly quite lazy, which is his unique Marine mantra actually, choosing to practice self-described lazy justice. Although this invocation of justice does not go unnoticed by his superiors, and within the series the five elder stars have gone so far as to question Kuzan's rank as an Admiral, as well as his unreliable nature. Despite this, Kuzan can be quick to take action when necessary, or when he finds a situation in which he has a particular brand of empathy, because that's actually a very important thing to note about Kuzan, as despite appearing in the series in an antagonistic organization, he does possess a profound sense of honor and a solid grade of morality that even leads him to commit acts of insubordination, often questioning the motives and choices made by the Marines at large. And in fact, one of the starkest points of contrast we can immediately draw is with Kuzan's infella Admiral Sakazuki, also known at the time as Aka-Inu, a man who practiced absolute justice, meaning that he was willing and able to sacrifice whatever it took to reach a desired end goal. This mentality is a point of potent disgust for Kuzan, but I should also state that despite Kuzan's strong morality, there have been many occasions where he has not hesitated to engage in an act that he knows is not morally correct for the sake of the Marine organization. With that said, it's not as if Kuzan became disillusioned with the Marines over time. In fact, he has stated that he has never held the Marines in any particularly high esteem to begin with, even when he originally enlisted at the age of 19. As a young Marine, Kuzan found his way primarily through idolization of a selection of his elders, with one prominent example being the hero of the Marines, Monkey D. Garp, which can be seen in Chapter Zero, where Kuzan was somewhat falling over Garp, telling him how cool he was for turning down yet another promotion. So it's safe to say that for much of his career, Kuzan held Garp as something of a role model, which makes a lot of sense because their views on justice are far more aligned than that of most other Marines. But over time, Kuzan would also rise to become a leading figure amongst the Marines, and by the age of 27, he had attained the rank of Vice Admiral, and his primary action during this time, as known to us, would be his involvement in the Ohara Incident. Kuzan made up part of a bus to call, along with four other Vice Admirals including Sakazuki, who were charged with destroying the island of Ohara, and the genocide of its citizens, for the crime of studying the forbidden history of the world. But as you can probably gather from everything we know about him thus far, this was an action that didn't sit particularly well with Kuzan. However, with that said, he continued with the orders of the Marines, even going so far as to kill his friend, Jaguar Desaul, with the powers of his double fruit, the here, here, no me. This is a logotype fruit that allows Kuzan to conjure, manipulate, and become ice, making Kuzan one of the more ridiculously overpowered characters in the series, judging by she had devil fruit alone. However, Kuzan did manage at least one act of justice during the Ohara Incident, which was allowing a young Niko Robin to escape the island, an action that would go on to potentially reshape the world as we know it. Kuzan would then encounter Robin 20 years after the Ohara Incident, and at this point she had joined the Straw Hat Pirates. After encountering this group, Kuzan warned them rather vaguely about Robin's past, and eventually an altercation began in which the Straw Hat Pirates were convincingly decimated by the powers of the here, here, no me. Although Kuzan once again enacted his own sense of justice in this scenario, choosing to let the Straw Hats escape, as payment for Luffy having defeated Sir Crocodile on Alabaster. Furthermore, Kuzan also began to develop a level of respect for Luffy as a leader, who was willing to sacrifice himself in order to allow the rest of his crew to escape, and this respect would only come to grow exponentially as the series progressed, with Kuzan's next appearance coming at the tail end of the Eni-Sobi arc. After the Straw Hats had defeated CP-9, reclaimed Robin, and caused the destruction of the entire judicial island, and Kuzan went on to refer to this incident as a complete defeat on the part of the Marines. Kuzan then made an appearance visiting Robin on the Island of Water 7, revealing that he had allowed her to survive the Ohara Incident because he had been good friends with Jaguar D'Sau, and further telling her to live strong and that Ohara lived on within her. It has also been speculated by Robin that Kuzan was the one responsible for pinning all of the responsibility of the Eni-Sobi incident on the Straw Hat Pirates, thereby allowing Galela and the Frankie family to continue living comparatively peaceful lives, despite their actions of blatant war on the island. But while Water 7 returned to peace, Kuzan was about to enter one of the largest battlegrounds this world has ever known, as around this time Port Gaste Ace was captured, prompting the strongest man in the world, Edward Newgate, to declare war against the Marines in an event known as the Paramount War. This conflict took place at Marineford, the Marine Headquarters, and saw Kuzan come up against some of the world's most powerful figures, including Whitebeard himself, who quickly proved to be Kuzan's superior in every way imaginable. Despite this, Marineford did expand on Kuzan's abilities quite a lot, showing him to be capable of even more incredible ice-related powers, but also introducing us to the idea that he possesses both observation and armament hockey. And in fact, in the case of armament hockey, we now know that Kuzan is the user of its advanced application, having joined forces with his fellow admirals Kizaru and Sakazuki in using it to defend against a shockwave attack from Whitebeard. And while Kuzan did clash with many powerful figures such as Marco and Ace, probably his most prominent action during the war was defeating Diamond Jouzu, and even claiming one of his arms in the conflict. But oddly enough, it would not be until the conclusion of the Paramount War that Kuzan's greatest battle would begin, which was sparked by the retirement of Fleet Admiral Sengoku, who recommended Kuzan for the role of the next Fleet Admiral. However, Sengoku's recommendation was later counted by that of the Five Elder Stars, who had shown a clear distaste towards Kuzan's lazy justice at this point, and thus put forward Sakazuki as their candidate for the position. Now in many other situations, Kuzan would have likely just accepted this, and perhaps even been relieved. But this is Sakazuki we're talking about. Mr. Absolute Justice himself, and Kuzan knew that this man could not be allowed to lead the world's largest army. And so to settle things, Kuzan and Sakazuki adjourned to the island of Pankazad, and battled for 10 days straight before a victor emerged. And unfortunately for Kuzan, that victor was Sakazuki. In addition to losing part of his leg, Kuzan then resigned from the Marines, and became something of an independent faction floating throughout the world during the two-year time skip. In the New World Era, Kuzan returned to Pankazad shortly after the straw hats had left, discovering Warlord of the Sea Don Quixote Dol Flamingo on the verge of killing Vice Admiral Smoker. And Kuzan naturally stepped in to prevent Dol Flamingo from completing this action, and further asked Smoker and the G5 Marines not to report his whereabouts. And Smoker agreed to this, as he is yet another figure amongst the Marines, who questions the actions and even motives of the world government, strongly identifying with Kuzan's sense of justice, even if Smoker himself chooses to remain with the organization. However, Kuzan's part in this tale would soon become a great deal more intriguing, as during the epilogue of the Dressrosa Ark, it was revealed that Kuzan had officially aligned himself with the Blackbeard Pirates, the captain of which Marshal Deteach held a coveted position as one of the four emperors of the sea. And also rather notably, it was the actions of Blackbeard that sparked the paramount war to begin with. Although rather sadly, that tantalizing piece of information is the last we've heard of Kuzan at the time of this recording. Some more fun facts about Kuzan! Kuzan's design, as with all Canon Adrolls, showcased thus far, is based on a famous Japanese actor, in the case of Kuzan being Yusaku Matsuda, whose character in the detective story TV series and film has even directly inspired elements of Kuzan's attire. Despite it not being Canon, Kuzan would also play a major role in the events of One Piece Film Z, which told the story of his relationship to his former instructor Zepha, who is also not Canon, however this film was what revealed Kuzan's post-timeskip design, as well as the fact that he had lost part of his leg in his battle against Sakazuki, which to compensate for, he now uses an ice-generated prosthetic. While we currently have no information regarding Kuzan's childhood at the time of this recording, we do have one image that Oda drew of him, as a young lad, showing quite a disgruntled existence, carrying an absac and a bottle of alcohol, suggesting that he probably had quite a rough upbringing and that he began drinking at an absurdly early age. One of the many ways in which Kuzan distinguishes himself from his fellow admirals, is by coming off as extremely casual in the case of his speech. For example, when referring to himself, he prefers to use the pronoun Ore, which is generally used by younger men and teens. However, Kuzan does make up for this somewhat by starting his interactions with people in an exceptionally polite way, tending to begin addressing them with Chotogomenna, which roughly translates to excuse me. And finally, a truly useless fact, of the three pre-timeskip admirals, despite the fact that they all look roughly equal in height, Kuzan is most certainly the shortest, with Kizaru and Akainu standing at 302 and 306cm respectively, while Kuzan is a mere 298cm tall. And that pretty much does it for Kuzan. If you enjoyed this video and the content this channel produced in general, then please do consider donating to the Grand Line review Patreon, because the support of all of your amazing people is what continues to make this channel possible. And if you'd like to see more videos like this but applied to other anime manga series, then please do feel free to check out my second channel New World Review for all of your wider needs. And if you'd like to join the fun at any time, then please do head over to my Discord server, where a wide array of shenanigans takes place on a daily basis. And finally, please do comment with who what or where you'd like to see featured on the next One Piece 101. Who is the most OP character in One Piece right now? That got a bit yelly towards the end, but right now I'm guessing you mean current events, so not including dead characters here. And I guess the easy answer is Kaido, Big Mom or both, because I mean these two are effectively unrivaled figures in terms of pure power as far as I'm concerned. It simply is not possible for either one of them to be taken out in direct combat, like you would need the entirety of the marines, and all of the warlords to even stand a minuscule chance, kind of like how Whitebeard was eventually dealt with, and even then it took the ultimate betrayal of Blackbeard to put him down for good. Except Big Mom and Kaido have an even greater advantage, because they're still very much in the prime of their power. Under what circumstances do you think would cause Luffy to give up his dream to be the pirate king? I think it's actually a very simple criteria that would cause Luffy to instantly abandon that dream, and it boils down to whenever one of his friends is in trouble. I mean in this very video on Kuzan, I made mention of the fact that Luffy was ready to sacrifice himself, and therefore his dream for the sake of allowing his crew to escape. So I feel like if he was presented with any situation where his sacrifice was needed to save a friend or even an acquaintance, then he would probably do that in a heartbeat. Have you ever considered stop reading the manga and continue with the anime? If not, why not start trying right now with Wano? Uh no, I have never considered such a thing. No offence to anime only watches, but you have no idea what you're missing with the manga. One Piece is not like most series where the anime is generally a much better product, it's the exact opposite way around here. So there is no way that I would ever deny that pure undiluted One Piece experience, so that I could have the pleasure of watching drawn out episodes week after week. Plus I own an operator, One Piece channel, so keeping up with the manga seems like a pretty important thing to do.