Summary:
Luffy defends himself against the killer Buggy, the beast tamer Mohji and his lion Richie. Teaming up with the mayor of the town as well as the dog, the Straw Hats return to Buggy’s base to confront him.
After fending off the Buggy Pirates, an injured Zoro drags Luffy’s cage to a local pet food store. The mayor appears and takes Zoro to his house to treat his wounds. Meanwhile, Luffy interacts with Choucha, the dog defending the store. The mayor explains that the owner Chouchou died of an illness, so he continues to defend the late owner’s shop in memory. Although Nami arrives with the key to Luffy’s cage, Chouchou eats the key before the cage can be unlocked.
Buggy sends his first friend, Mohji the animal tamer, to find and eliminate Zoro. Riding his lion, Richie finds Luffy still trapped in a cage. Mohji orders Richie to attack Luffy, inadvertently destroying his cage and freeing him. He then slams Luffy into the house and destroys it.
Richie raids a food store and burns it to the ground, while Chouchou fights in vain to defend the store. After seeing Mohji’s actions, Luffy came to Chouchou’s aid, defeating both Richie and Mohji before giving the dog a single box of pet food saved from the fire.
Mohji returns to Buggy to announce his defeat. As an act of revenge, Buggy fires a Buggy Ball into the city, destroying the mayor’s house with Zoro still inside. Although Zoro was fortunately unharmed by the explosion, the mayor decides to confront Buggy for his heartless invasion of the city. Nami agrees to temporarily join forces with Luffy and Zoro and help Boodle confront Buggy.
The episode aired on the same day as episodes 7 and 8, making it an hour and a half long special.
The episode holds the record for most animated pages, covering chapters 11 through 15, including all the ones in between.
The eyeballs are Luffy’s and Zoro’s, but the music is reversed: Luffy’s theme is played using Zoro’s banner, while Zoro’s theme is played using Luffy’s banner.
In the manga, Luffy and Nami are told Chouchou’s story in detail. In the anime, it can be seen through the dog’s memories.
In the manga, Boodle violently punches his own neck in a futile attempt to break Buggy’s choke (prompting Buggy to taunt him); the anime leaves it out.
When Boodle tells Luffy and Nami how the villagers built the town 40 years ago, the background is misplaced and a white bar appears at the bottom and right of the image.
In the manga, when Luffy frees Boodle from Buggy’s handcuffs, he is shown bleeding from the mouth (probably from an earlier blow to the neck), but he is not bleeding in the anime.
In the manga, one of the moments during Chouchou’s shot of Hocker is them taking a bath; the anime leaves it out.