Little Garden Arc

The Little Garden Arc is the ninth story arc in the manga and anime series, One Piece. It is the third arc in the Alabasta Saga, chronicling the group's stop at a prehistoric island and their battles with four of the Baroque Works officers. Little Garden is the second island the Straw Hat Pirates encounter in the Grand Line. It is a summer island, which is unpopulated except for dinosaurs and two giants named Dorry and Brogy. This arc is left out of the 4Kids dub because of unavoidable violence. With a newly acquired Princess Vivi on board, the Straw Hats soon find themselves on the island of Little Garden, which is a misnomer as the island is anything but little. It is stuck in a prehistoric time and teeming with huge dinosaurs and massive plant life. While Usopp and Nami feel uncomfortable leaving the ship, Vivi and Luffy decide to go explore the island. They soon meet Dorry, a giant warrior from the village of Elbaf who befriends them. A little while later, Sanji and Zoro get into a fight about who could get the most meat first. They soon leave the ship in search of animals they can use to win the bet. Left alone on the ship, Nami and Usopp learn why the island is called Little Garden. It is called Little Garden because of those who inhabit it. They are terrified when Brogy, another giant, shows up and decapitates a tyrannosaurus rex. He decides to bring them home with him, much to their alarm, under the impression he wants to eat them. Elsewhere, Baroque Works agents Mr. 5, Miss Valentine, Mr. 3, and his partner Miss Goldenweek come together and reveal the Beli100,000,000 bounty on each of the giant's heads, and it is suggested by Mr. 3 that they kill them, along with the Straw Hats. Back at Dorry's campsite, Dorry explains that he and Brogy are forever destined to continue their one hundred year long war, which was started over a reason Dorry had long forgotten (it is later revealed that it was a quarrel about their hunting competition which resulted in their exile from Elbaf), which inspires Usopp to fight for his dream of being a proud warrior of the sea. When Dorry and Brogy are just about to continue their bout, Dorry suffers internal injuries from explosion after drinking some of the Straw Hats' beer, which was tampered with by Mr. 5 and his Devil Fruit abilities. Dorry tries to attack Luffy, thinking he was responsible, but Luffy quickly beats him with his Gomu Gomu Rocket by targeting his stomach. Realizing that the god of Elbaf was not on his side, Dorry still decides to go and pins Luffy under a giant rock when Luffy tries to stop Dorry from going. While this is going on, Mr. 3 and Miss Goldenweek capture Zoro first, and then Nami after she is separated from Usopp while running from a dinosaur.

After Usopp meets with Luffy and Vivi, Vivi suspects that Baroque Works is likely behind Nami's disappearance, since out of the two of them, Nami is on their hit list while Usopp is not, and they are also responsible for the exploding beer that injured Dorry. Eventually, Dorry loses to Brogy due to his injuries (as well as Mr. 3 using his wax in secret to make Dorry trip). Brogy notices a deficiency in Dorry's performance but is too late in identifying the perpetrators when Mr. 3 appears and imprisons him with wax. Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine then succeed in capturing Vivi after failing to use Carue to lure her away from Luffy, which they realize they did not need to do since Luffy was imprisoned by the rock, and quickly defeat him, along with Usopp and Carue. Mr. 3 then imprisons Zoro, Nami, and Vivi in his giant candle set which will slowly turn them along with Brogy into wax sculptures. Just before Zoro can cut off his legs to break free, Luffy, Usopp, and Carue arrive to save their friends. However, when Luffy damages Mr. 3's giant candelabra after his feet are trapped in the wax, it only accelerates the process, giving Luffy, Usopp, and Carue less time to save their friends. Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine then engage Usopp and Carue and all the two can do is run away since Usopp's Gunpowder Star is useless against Mr. 5, while Mr. 3 prevents Luffy's further attempts from destroying his candle set. Luffy is then brought under Miss Goldenweek's hypnotic control. Despite all attempts to free Luffy from the hypnosis, Miss Goldenweek continues to use her Colors Trap ability to re-hypnotize Luffy. Eventually, Usopp, as he is dodging Mr. 5's Breath Blast Bomb, realizes the situation and uses his Flame Star to burn Luffy's shirt to free him completely, forcing Mr. 3 to form his mecha-like armor, the Candle Champion, to hold off Luffy. Once Usopp realizes that despite the density Mr. 3 makes his wax, it could still be melted away, and though their friends' bodies have been completely covered, they still have a small amount of time left. Though the Mr. 5 team takes down Usopp before he can try to shoot the candle set with his Flame Star, Usopp gives Carue a rope with instructions to run around with it along the candle set. As he is taking the strain from Miss Valentine's weight, Usopp tells Luffy to set the rope (which he soaked with oil) on fire, as it is the only way to melt the wax quickly enough to save their friends. Grabbing onto Mr. 3's hair, Luffy uses the fiery portion of it to light the rope. Once the candle set is destroyed, Nami and Vivi defeat Miss Valentine. Before Mr. 5 can shoot Vivi, Usopp tricks Mr. 5 into eating his Tabasco Star and is saved by Zoro before an angry Mr. 5 can kill him. Meanwhile, Luffy and Carue pursue the Mr. 3 team, and though Mr. 3 tries to trick Luffy by creating clone statues of himself, Luffy, through sheer instinct, knocks him out, while Carue defeats Miss Goldenweek.