Welcome to another edition of One Piece Arc Awards! I’ll be going over the MVP, Most Evil, Most Improved, Fight of the Night, and Shaqtin’ A Fool awards for the arc. Keep in mind I watched this a while ago so my memory might not be so fresh.

Check out some of my other arc awardees here:

As per usual, Luffy is out of consideration, since he’d easily win most of them as the main character.

  1. MVP

It’s hard to find an MVP for this arc that isn’t Luffy, simply because everyone fought so much, and Luffy carried the most difficult fighting. So with a strange turn of events, I award the MVP award to an inanimate object: the Going Merry.

Going Merry | One Piece Wiki | Fandom

Yes, the Going Merry is the MVP of this arc. Not only did she battle the biggest storm in history in order to rescue the Straw Hats, but her accumulated battle scars from all the previous arcs made her sacrifice even more heart melting. Clearly, the Going Merry has strength of her own. From a storytelling point of view, Usopp and Luffy’s argument over the Going Merry is a strong 1/3 of the entire arc, and thrusts the Going Merry into the spotlight in a way it hasn’t before. So, after all the fighting is done, the MVP is the Going Merry.

2. Most Evil

Spandam | One Piece Wiki | Fandom

With absolutely no contest this time, the Most Evil character is Spandam. Some arcs, such as Impel Down, have no clear evilest guy, but it’s very clear from the get-go that Spandam is the evil guy in the arc. The rest of CP9 are no angels, but Spandam is clearly the most sadistic, with his cunning arrest of Tom, to capturing Robin and Franky, and his relentless physical attacks on both of them (but especially Robin). Though he is not particularly strong, he commands an incredibly powerful position, and used it largely to his own benefit. The Most Evil guy in Enies Lobby (no surprise here) – Spandam.

3. Most Improved

One Piece 30 day challenge _ day 17 | One Piece Amino

So many characters improved in this arc! In order to fight against stronger and stronger opponents, each character unveiled new weapons, techniques, and abilities. I could go on and on about Sanji’s Diable Jamble appearance, or Chopper’s Monster Point, but I think the Most Improved has to go to Nami. In this arc, she solidified herself as a real fighter, taking down a member of CP9 on her own (and unlike her previous fight with Miss Doublefinger, didn’t rely much on luck). Instead, she used clever mirages, tricks, the upgraded clima-takt, and her own strength to defeat Kalifa. If only she didn’t take so much of a backseat in future arcs! Undoubtedly, the person who had the biggest jump in improvement this arc was Nami.

4. Fight of the Night

💭My Thoughts On: Zoro vs. Kaku!💭 | One Piece Amino

The entire arc was a coalescence of different fights, but the major one for me (other than Luffy and Blueno) was Zoro vs. Kaku. The entire fight eventually brought in Sogeking, Sanji vs. Jabra, and even Chopper made an appearance in his Monster Point form. The fight also basically destroyed the entire tower they were in. This large fight encompassed the improvements of many of the Straw Hats, and we got to see many different combinations of teamwork throughout the fight. The fight had an expert mix of comic relieft in Kaku and Jabra making jabs at each other, Sogeking as a makeshift sword, and other antics, but there were also crazy, intense, and awesome fight sequences throughout. Fight of the Night goes to the gigantic mess of Zoro/Sanji/Sogeking vs. Kaku and Jabra ft. Chopper Monster Point.

5. Shaqtin’ A Fool

Watch One Piece Season 5 Episode 294 Sub & Dub | Anime Uncut | Funimation

My only major nomination is also the same person who won most evil: Spandam. You can say he largely brought his own destruction; he accidentally called a buster call on himself, and completely botched fighting against the Straw Hats. He repeatedly made announcements to the entire island that he was going to abandon them, and had absolutely no grasp over the situation and allowed the Straw Hats to invade Enies Lobby. Although some characters such as Fukuro tend to spill the beans sometimes, There was no greater fool in this arc than Spandam. Spandam, you might be truly ruthless and evil, but man you are not very competent. Shaqtin’ A Fool award goes to Spandam. Congrats on winning two awards, I guess?