Chew

The subject of this article is sometimes called “Chuu”, “Chū” or “Choo”.

Chew is a smelt-whiting fish-man and an officer of the Arlong Pirates. He is also a former member of the Sun Pirates. He is one of the major antagonists of the Arlong Park Arc.

Appearance

Chew is muscular, blue skinned, and has thick lips.

His Arlong Pirates tattoo is seen on his right shoulder. He wears a necklace, a striped blue vest, dark-brown leather pants, and sandals.

While he was with the Sun Pirates, he wore a dark colored t-shirt with a circle on it.

Personality

Chew is rather cool-headed relative to his crew members, maintaining a stern, albeit sinister, composure. Despite having less aggressive speech patterns than his counterparts, Chew is still very cruel with his actions, serving primarily the interests of Arlong and killing innocent humans. He does not, however, lose his temper frequently when he does so, only following orders without hesitation or emotion.

Like Arlong and the rest of his crew, he strongly looks down on humans, seeing them as an inferior species to the Fish-Men. His arrogance caused him to underestimate Usopp when he chased him down, leading to his eventual defeat.

He has a habit of punctuating his sentences with chu (チュウ^?).

Abilities and Powers

As a fish-man, Chew is at least ten times stronger than an average human. He can spit water out of his mouth as if it were a bullet. He can also suck in a large amount of water and cause a great amount of damage with his Mizu Taiho. He later fights with the apparently-outmatched Usopp, but he is ultimately beaten after Usopp wears him down by running away and setting him on fire, before repeatedly hitting him over his head with his Usopp Hammer and Usopp Wagomu to knock him out. He was also seen wielding a pair of katana when the Sun Pirates stole a Marine battleship after their own ship was sunk.

Attacks

• Mizudeppo (水鉄砲, Mizu-deppō^?, literally meaning “Water Gun”): Chew spits a shot of water from his mouth at such speed and pressure that it has the same effect on his opponent as being shot by a pistol. This is called Water Gun (and sometimes Lip-o-Blaster) in the VIZ translation and Squirt Gun in the Funimation dub. It is unnamed in the 4Kids dub.
  • Hyappatsu Mizudeppo (百発水鉄砲, Hyappatsu Mizu-deppō^?, literally meaning “Hundred-Shot Water Gun”): Chew rapidly fires many shots of Mizudeppo at his target like a machine gun. This is called Lipoweritzer in the VIZ translation, Spitfire Soaker in the 4Kids dub, and Squirt Machine Gun in the Funimation dub.

• Mizu Taiho (水大砲, Mizu Taihō^?, literally meaning “Water Cannon”): Chew sucks up so much water that it causes his body to expand like a balloon. He then spits it all at once in one big shot that explodes like a cannonball on impact. This is called Lip-o-Cannon in the VIZ translation and Squirt Cannon in the Funimation dub. In the 4Kids dub, it is unnamed.

Gallery

History

Past

As a youth, Chew was with Hatchan,Arlong,and Kuroobi, when they saw the Sabaody Ferris Wheel admiring it. Years later, after Fisher Tiger attacked Mary Geoise and formed the Sun Pirates, Chew along with the other Arlong Pirates memebers integrated with Tiger’s crew. During their time roaming the Grand Line, the Sun Pirates battled numerous Marines. One day, a former human slave named Koala boarded their ship to return to her home in Foolshout Island. After returning her to her home, the Sun Pirates were ambushed by the Marines. They lost their ship and Tiger was badly wounded during the battle. Tiger soon died from his wounds and Arlong was later captured. Chew was then under the command of Jinbe. One day, Jinbe received an invitation to join the Seven Warlords of the Sea. Chew suggested taking an opportunity to make an name for themselves, but Jinbe told the crew that he was thinking about accepting the government’s offer. After Jinbe accepted the position, Arlong was released.

When the Sun Pirates split up, Chew went with Arlong’s crew. The Arlong Pirates then headed for East Blue and took over Cocoyasi Village, killing Bell-mère in the process.

East Blue Saga

Arlong Park Arc

Usopp, Zoro, and Johnny arrived at Conomi Islands to find Nami. The Arlong Pirates briefly had Zoro imprisoned until Nami freed him when they were not looking. After Usopp angered Arlong, Chew found Usopp and dragged him back to Arlong Park. Nami proved her loyalty by supposedly stabbing Usopp and drowning him in the pool. As one of Arlong’s officers, Chew aided Hatchan and Kuroobi in defeating the contingent of Marines from the 77th Branch.

When Luffy and his crew appeared at Arlong Park to defeat the Arlong Pirates, Chew challenged Usopp, who ran away in terror. When Chew threatened the villagers, however, Usopp declared that he was Chew’s opponent, and attacked him with his Kaen Boshi. When Chew turned to fight him, Usopp ran again. When Sanji and Zoro had finished their own fights, Usopp was lying in what appeared to be a pool of blood, later revealed to be ketchup. Chew began to leave, believing he had won.

Usopp planned to lie to the crew about his battle, but became ashamed of his own cowardice, and once again challenged Chew. Chew easily deflected Usopp’s next Kaen Boshi attack and punched Usopp, pinning him down. Usopp then struck Chew’s leg with his hammer and used Usopp Wagomu to distract Chew while he hid in the woods. Chew attacked by blasting the trees with water projectiles. Eventually, Usopp defeated Chew by throwing a bottle of highly-alcoholic sake before using his Namari Boshi to break the bottle and splatter Chew’s body with alcohol, then igniting the liquid with his Kaen Boshi. Chew attempted to flee to the water to put the flames out, but Usopp completely defeated him by whacking him in the head with his hammer and rubber band until he passed out.

He was eventually arrested by the Marines.

Major Battles

• Sun Pirates vs. Marines (numerous times at sea)
• Sun Pirates vs. Marines (Foolshout Island)
• Chew, Hatchan and Kuroobi vs. Marine 77th Branch
• Chew vs. Usopp

Translation and Dub Issues

As indicated above, multiple romanizations exist for his name:

• Chew is favored by Japanese sources, most prominently One Piece Red and the Vivre Card series.
• Choo is favored by all three licensed English translations – the 4Kids anime, the Funimation anime, and the Viz manga – possibly because his name’s katakana spelling is the same used for fashion designer Jimmy Choo.
• Chuu (or Chū) is favored by several fan translations, as a straightforward romanization of the Japanese sound-effect for kissing.

Some confusion also exists over his fish-man subspecies, which the original manga gives as “kisu” (キス^?). In modern Japanese, this term properly refers to the Sillaginidae family, most commonly known as smelt-whitings; however, it is also a colloquialism for garfish, especially in sushi diners. Furthering the confusion, the Viz manga translates “kisu” as kisser, a name for the completely unrelated kissing gourami.

(Curiously, few if any sources label him an archerfish, despite his water-spitting abilities.)

The kissing tic in his speech is translated as “smek” by the Viz manga, and dropped entirely by the 4Kids anime. More significantly, the 4Kids anime heavily condenses his battle with Usopp, cutting a number of his attacks and having him be defeated by a single hammer-strike rather than several in a row.

Adaptation Differences

Anime Differences

In an event that was not directly shown in the manga, Chew was seen capturing Usopp in the anime. While running from the fishmen, Usopp was hiding behind a small tree near a cliff, while below at a beach Chew was questioning a villager from Cocoyasi Village regarding Usopp. When Usopp unluckily fell off the cliff and Chew heads there underwater, the villager tries to warn Usopp through signalling, which Usopp mistakenly thought the villager was cheering him on. However, Usopp realizes the truth too later when Chew emerges in front of Usopp from the water.

In the anime, Luffy encounters Chew, Hatchan, and Kuroobi while on a walk, who are examining the remains of a boat that recently crashed around Cocoyasi Village.

Live-Action Differences

In the live-action series, Chew used alcohol during his mouth spray attacks instead of water. Due to this, the fuel for Usopp’s Kaen Boshi came from Chew’s own supply of alcohol, rather than a bottle thrown at him. He was also shown to be less resistant to the fire, succumbing to it without Usopp needing to hit him with Usopp Hammer.

Merchandise

Video Games

Playable Appearances

• One Piece Treasure Cruise
• One Piece Bon! Bon! Journey!!
• One Piece Bounty Rush

Enemy Appearances

• One Piece: Become the Pirate King!
• Birth of Luffy’s Dream Pirate Crew!
• Aim! The King of Belly
• One Piece: Round the Land
• One Piece

Support Appearances

• Grand Battle! 2
• One Piece: Grand Battle! Rush!
• One Piece: Grand Adventure

Trivia

• Chew was the first opponent Usopp defeated by himself (a feat that would not reoccur until Perona in the Thriller Bark Arc).
• Chew, like Hatchan (and unlike Arlong and Kuroobi), is not shown directly hurting any civilians. However, he did voice intentions to kill the Cocoyashi villagers for bringing weapons to Arlong Park, refraining only because of Usopp’s intervention.
• Chew’s favorite food is clam miso soup.

References