One Piece: How Not To Introduce Powerups

One Piece's creator, Eiichiro Oda, is legendary for how far he plans in advance and foreshadows later developments, but there are some times when he comes up short. One example is the Enies Lobby arc, in which all the Straw hats, sans Robin(who spends most of the arc as a prisoner) and Franky(who was only just introduced) suddenly debut new abilities that enable them to defeat their foes in Cipher Pol 9, who'd overpowered them mere hours ago. As a result, while the fights in the arc are some of the most exciting in the series, the introduction of the powerups leaves much to be desired.

Luffy: The Gears

During Luffy's fight with Blueno on the courthouse roof, he explains that after losing to Aokiji, he realizes that he'd need to become stronger to face the foes ahead.

This is all well and good, but Luffy never thinks to use either Gear against Blueno or Lucci in the Galley-La Mansion, which are the only fights in which he needed either one. This leads one to wonder when Luffy devised the technique, since unlike Naruto or Bleach, he's never seen training in his spare time(save for his two years with Rayleigh over the timeskip, but that happens later).

Incidentally, Luffy also copies Blueno's Shave technique by watching him do it, proving that he can often be more clever than he lets on.

Zoro: Ashura

In some ways, Zoro's Ashura is the worst case of this because it's the most poorly explained.

For context, Zoro isn't a Devil Fruit user, and his swords don't have any special powers. He's simply incredibly strong, and wields three swords of exquisite quality. What's more, he seldom uses this technique, which often makes me wonder if Oda sometimes forgets about it.

Nami: Perfect Clima-Tact

Nami's Perfect Clima Tact raises the most problem, since it isn't just a new move, but a new weapon that she had to have obtained at some point.

The problem with Nami's upgrade lies in how she got it. Usopp upgrading it with Dials from Skypiea is reasonable enough, but there's one problem- Usopp parts with the crew on bad terms, before Nami is shown with the Perfect Clima Tact

Here's a basic timeline of the events in question.

  1. Nami fights Aokiji and shows off her normal Clima-Tact. For reference, the normal Clima Tact is three interconnected rods with holes, while the Perfect Clima Tact has balls on the top tip of each rod.
  2. The crew spends a few days to allow Luffy and the others who'd got frozen to recover.
  3. The Straw Hats arrive at Water 7.
  4. Nami, Luffy and Usopp go out to trade the gold for money and get their ship repaired.
  5. Usopp gets attacked. Nami finds him injured and returns to the ship while Usopp goes after the Franky Family again.
  6. An unconscious Usopp is brought back to the ship. Shortly after awakening, he gets into an argument with Luffy over the ship and leaves the crew.
  7. That night, Usopp returns to the ship to fight a duel with Luffy and loses. The Straw Hats leave the ship behind for good. In other words, Usopp couldn't have handed Nami the Clima Tact any time after they arrived in Water 7.
  8. Throughout most of the following day, Nami and the other Straw hats are on the run, while Usopp's repairing the ship.
  9. During the raid on Galley-La, Nami wields her normal Clima-Tact against CP9. She and the other heroes are defeated and left for dead in the burning mansion.
  10. Shortly after the raid, CP9 arrests Usopp and Franky, taking them on board the Puffing Tom and departing for Enies Lobby.
  11. Nami and the other Straw Hats board the Rocket Man to pursue the Puffing Tom.
  12. Nami reveals the perfect Clima Tact while on board the Rocketman. She hasn't seen Usopp in roughly 24 hours, let alone since the last time she got her normal Clima-Tact out.
  13. After Usopp and Sanji fail to rescue Robin, they reunite with the others, and Usopp sees Nami for the first time since the previous night.

Basically, the only time Usopp could have plausibly completed the Perfect Clima Tact is some time before the Straw Hats' arrival in Water 7, but she's still using her normal Clima Tact after Usopp's departure from the crew.

Usopp/Sniper King: Kabuto

The problem with Usopp is somewhat similar to Nami's, although he himself was the one who upgraded his weapon.

Basically, Usopp gets into four fights between the encounter with Aokiji(in which Usopp was paralyzed with fear), and not once does he use the Kabuto. In three of those fights- the Franky Family, CP9 in Franky's hideout and CP9 on the Puffing Tom- Usopp is outmatched, so the Kabuto wouldn't have made much of a difference, but that's still no excuse not to use it. As for Luffy, Usopp doesn't hold back because Luffy's his friend- instead, he fights with a level of ingenuity and ruthlessness he hasn't showed since.

If Usopp made a new slingshot for himself, it could only have been in the rather brief time period between when Blueno escaped with Robin and when the Rocketman reached Enies Lobby.

Sanji: Diable Jambe

This is arguably the least problematic of the new abilities, since it doesn't open any plot holes.  It's simply Sanji spinning and setting his leg on fire. Perhaps Sanji realized that his kicks weren't strong enough to break through the CP9's Iron Body, and came up with the technique on the fly during the fight with Jabra. That said, it still comes off as a case of a new power as the plot demands.

Chopper: Monster Point

Chopper's Monster Point is a blessing and a curse, brought on by his Rumble Balls. Eating a Rumble Ball gives him access to his four  most powerful transformations- the offensively oriented Horn and Arm Point, the defensively oriented Guard Point, and the mobile Jumping Point- as well as the ability to scan weaknesses in Brain Point for three minutes. Unfortunately, if he eats a second Rumble Ball within a few hours of the first, he'll transform to random forms, and if he eats a third, he will become a massive monster with incredible strength that indiscriminately attacks both friend and foe.

The problem in this case is that this drawback was never mentioned before, since Chopper had never had to use two Rumble Balls before. All of his opponents only took one Rumble Ball to defeat.

In this case, the problems are partly the anime's fault. During the Davy Back Arc, Chopper takes two Rumble Balls within hours of each other with no ill effects.

That said, it might have been easy to foreshadow Monster Point, by having Chopper use two Rumble Balls in quick succession during one of his fights, suffer from the uncontrollable transformations and then barely win, all while being relieved that he didn't have to resort to a third one.

Conclusion

The Water 7 arc was a good wake-up call to the Straw Hats, helping them realize that they needed to become stronger to keep pace with their enemies. However, the solution to this left much to be desired, given its lack of buildup. It doesn't ruin the story, but it does come off as a rather contrived plot convenience to give the Straw Hats the strength they needed to defeat their strongest foes yet.

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