LUFFY x NAMI - CHAPTER 851 ANALYSIS

Original post: December, 2016

Made by D. Shanks

Starting off, we get this nice little surprise. Not much of a hint, but I can’t help but love the fact that Nami is looking at Luffy with such adoration haha, and Oda really loves drawing that flower on Nami’s hair recently ;)

King and Queen on the throne. She is not sitting on the armrest by the way, her butt is clearly in the seat with her legs leaning on the side of the armrest. The significance of this colorspread is huge. First, it foreshadows, Jinbe’s appearance later on in the chapter. Second, this was released as a celebration for the 20th anniversary of One Piece. I’ve said it on other forums, but I believed that if Oda hinted at LuNa in the 20th anniversary colorspread, it would be a MAJOR hint towards them becoming canon at the end. And lo behold, look what we got here. RIGHT IN THE DAMN MIDDLE, Luffy and Nami are centered in the colorspread, sitting on the throne, looking like pirate royalty. 

In the actual magazine, the dividing line between the pages goes right through Luffy and Nami, proving that they are centered. A lot of Japanese posters have been reacting to this colorspread by saying things like “Nami looks like the woman of the future Pirate King”,”Nami and Luffy are sharing the throne”, etc. If we ignore ALL of the previous King/Queen hints regarding Luffy and Nami, this one colorspread would be big enough, but if we actually take into account all of the other obvious hints about Luffy and Nami being depicted as royalty (aka countless other colorspreads and manga material) then it starts to become apparent that Oda is planning something here.

Nami has shown how much she seriously hates seeing Luffy getting injured this arc lol This continues again here, as Nami is bawling out tears because of the possibility that Luffy will tear his arms off, even if that means it opens a chance for them to get out of the prison.

Luffy gets MAD here when Opera nonchalantly says she’s going to shoot Nami every 5 seconds. He resolves himself to rip his arms off and stop the possible torture within 5 freaking seconds lol. In hindsight, it’s actually better for Opera that he didn’t torture Nami, otherwise he would have been screwed like a mf for hurting Nami in front of Luffy. We all know what happened to Arlong, Shiki, Tesoro, and many more when they tried to the same xD. This goes hand in hand with the observation made in the chapter when Big Mom threatened Nami, and Luffy spoke up against Big Mom immediately after. Luffy gets defensive when Nami is threatened with injury.

Also, we know how much Nami values friendship and keeping her word to protect them. Here she is given an option to do that, but rejects the other possibility that comes along with it LOL Luffy ripping his arms off in the next 5 seconds.

Damn Nami looked absolutely exasperated here. She has tears in her eyes and makes a similar face as to when Luffy got head shotted by Sanji on the right panel. On the left, we can see how relieved and happy she is, her tears of joy depict it as so. 

That last panel describes their relationship perfectly lol Luffy smiling in the face of danger, while Nami is going through an emotional rollercoaster whenever she’s with Luffy. Dynamic duo ftw. I also love how Nami’s most EXTREME emotional reactions come only when in regards to Luffy.

For example: Here is Nami, shocked and sad that Sanji left.

Compared to now, Nami shocked and relieved Luffy won’t tear his arms off.

Not surprising at all though, since Oda has kept Luffy and Nami TOGETHER the entire arc, and continues to do so, while incorporating multiple scenes of their special bond, emotionally, and physically and continually adding new heights to them.

What a way to finish off the Year of LuNa. Can’t wait to see what’s in store for 2017.