One Piece Episode 004: The Passing of the Hat! Enter Red Haired Shanks!

This episode of One Piece shines some light on the origins of Monkey D. Luffy. His childhood idol is a pirate named Red Haired Shanks (Akagami no Shanks) is a powerful pirate that, like Luffy, doesn't take life seriously until life gets serious. Another awesome character... Shanks' first "serious" lines in the episode comes when he's speaking to a gang of bandits.

Ok, here's the setup: The bandits have already humiliated Shanks and a young, hot-headed Luffy has gone to defend his honor and is now captive to the bandits. Of course, Shanks comes to the rescue... It's a great exchange:

Bandit Leader: [speaking to Shanks] If you come any closer I'll blow your head off, you coward. 

Bandit Flunky: [steps up and points a gun at Shanks' head with a smirk] He said not to come any closer.

Shanks: With that pistol, you risk your life. This is not some child's game...

Bandit Flunky: Eh? What are you talking about?

[Click, Blam!] [Shanks' crew member blows the flunky away with a shot to the head]

Bandit Chatter: You... You killed him! What unfair bastards...

Shanks and his Crew: Unfair? Don't be naive. You're not fighting against holy men. The ones before you are pirates!

Shanks: I can have food or drinks spilled on me, or even be spit at and I'll laugh about it. However, if for any reason you hurt a friend of mine, then I will never forgive you!!

That's a pretty solid philosophy in my book.

The bandit leader escapes and Shanks ends up rescuing a very regretful and sobbing Luffy at the cost of his left arm to a giant sea creature. When calming down Luffy, another great line from... Shanks: Don't cry, you're a man... It's just one arm, it isn't worth much.

Luffy swears to become the Pirate King (Kaizoku-o ni) and Shanks passes on the straw hat (mugiwara)to Luffy knowing that one day he will return it to him.

Haramaki D.