“One Piece” is a legendary manga and anime, the best-selling manga of all time, and one of the best-selling books in history. It’s a feat that is well earned, as this is one of the best works of fiction in the last 50 years and a long adventure worth embarking on.
The story starts out as a simple adventure of a young boy named Monkey D. Luffy sailing out to sea to find a legendary treasure and become king of the pirates. It’s a fun story, but also one with tremendous worldbuilding, which expands the scope of the story beyond just a fun adventure to an epic story involving fighting a corrupt world government, imperialism, censorship, slavery, and much more.
Creator Eiichiro Oda (and his army of assistants and editors) has a fantastic ability to call back and make the smallest character or detail hugely important years, if not decades, down the line. Take the Skypeia arc, which went from a divisive arc amongst fans for its perceived lack of forward momentum for the overall plot, to becoming arguably the most important story arc when it came to the lore of “One Piece.” Likewise, the Davy Back Fight introduced in chapter 306 only truly became relevant decades later in chapter 1155.
In the latest chapter of the manga, however, Oda pays off the stupidest joke in all of “One Piece,” and it only took him 23 years to tell it.
In chapter 1165, a flashback taking place nearly 40 years before Luffy’s story begins, Oda introduces a character that looks suspiciously like Marco the Phoenix, the 1st division commander of the Whitebeard pirates. His name? Polo. Gram Polo, who is very clearly meant to be Marco’s father. That’s right, Oda took 23 years to tell a Marco Polo joke.
Meet Marco’s dad, Mr. Polo
Yes, waiting 23 years to finish the world’s oldest and longest Marco Polo joke is incredibly silly and also absurdly funny, and just what you’d expect from Eiichiro Oda — the man who was inspired by “Tom and Jerry” for Luffy’s ultimate power. This is also far from the first name pun in “One Piece,” as Oda loves including them, whether it’s for attack names or character names. Usopp is famously a play on the Japanese word for lies, which he was known to be fond of in the beginning. Likewise, there is a character named Captain John, as in his last name is literally Captain, or how Kosuki Oden (named after the stew) suggested a bunch of oden ingredients when naming his son.
Currently, the “One Piece” manga is engaged in a lengthy flashback that’s been quite lore-heavy, with huge reveals involving virtually every character active before Luffy’s time, showing readers a huge legendary battle with somber and spectacular consequences for the world. “One Piece” is coming to an end; that much is clear as the story is building up to one final confrontation with the fate of the world at stake. And yet, Oda is still Oda, and he will drop an incredibly stupid joke for the sake of it, whether that’s turning Gol D. Roger — the once and future king of the pirates — into just a foolish man in love, to this Marco Polo joke.
With the anime making a big change and moving toward a seasonal format next year, it’s going to be a while before we see Polo introduced in the show. Still, it’s good to know that no matter how serious “One Piece” gets, Oda still finds time for a dumb pun.
