Honorable Liar? Captain Usopp

Lacking a ship sturdy enough for the Grand Line, Luffy, Nami, and Zoro put in at Syrup Village, a small island to the south, hoping to find a better vessel. The local troublemaker, Usopp, regularly panics the townspeople by shouting that pirates have landed, and they run him out of town for it. This time, however, one of the children in his make-believe crew warns him that real pirates truly have arrived. The Usopp Pirates rush to the shore to drive off the newcomers.

Usopp tries every trick to scare the crew away, but Luffy easily sees through each bluff and works out that the boy is the son of Yasopp, a member of Shanks' Red Hair Pirates. After a meal at a village eatery, the crew decides to climb to the grand mansion on the hill and request financial help from its owner. That owner is Kaya, a frail young heiress watched over by her butler Klahadore since her parents passed away. Although Usopp alone manages to lift her spirits, Klahadore forbids him from entering, branding him a delinquent. Usopp slips inside to see Kaya anyway, the crew follows him in, and Klahadore catches them all trespassing. Out beyond the town, a strange figure glides down the road, moonwalking as he comes.

This is the first installment of the Syrup Village Arc and the first One Piece episode to air in the 2000s. The anime omits Luffy's manga line about the fruit coming from Gaimon, having him merely grumble about eating it daily, and adds a staredown between Luffy and Usopp as the latter aims his slingshot. The three children hide in the bushes clutching the Usopp Pirates' flag after the crew lands, whereas they fled in the manga. Luffy also identifies Usopp as Yasopp's son immediately here, rather than later, and Zoro's eyecatcher music plays over Luffy's and Nami's. Debuts include Ninjin, Piiman, Tamanegi, the Mansion's Guards, Kaya, Kuro, and Jango, along with the location of Syrup Village.