A Pirate-Loving Town? Arrival at Whisky Peak

Steering the Going Merry through the unpredictable skies of the Grand Line, Nami keeps the crew on course toward Whisky Peak while their passengers, Miss Wednesday and Mr. 9, ride along. The weather lurches without warning, and Nami insists the others trust her corrections even as the heading feels wrong. Once the island comes into view, the two guests abruptly dive overboard and swim off, and Nami warns that nobody can sail onward until the Log Pose finishes recharging. When the townspeople greet the pirates as honored guests, the crew is left puzzled by a place that seems to adore pirates.

The locals lay out a feast, and each Straw Hat falls into their own kind of fun. Nami and Zoro both accept a drinking challenge, with Igaram dangling a cash prize, and Nami outlasts the final opponent to claim victory. Sanji surrounds himself with admiring women, Usopp spins tall tales that win the crowd over, and Luffy simply eats without restraint. After the revelry dies down, Igaram instructs his people to take the crew alive, since killing them would shave thirty percent off the bounty payout. Zoro then appears atop a rooftop, openly declaring that he saw through the friendly act all along.

This installment opens the Whisky Peak Arc and marks the first broadcast under a new Sunday time slot. It also introduces Watashi ga Iru Yo as the closing theme. For the English market, 4Kids Entertainment fused Japanese episodes 61, 62, and 64 into a single episode numbered 44. A pair of animation slips appear: staff names show up reversed on the cactus rock tombstones, and the trim on one of Usopp's boots briefly turns the wrong color before being corrected.