The Grand Line in One Piece was hyped up as a pretty wild place, and what better way to prove it than Little Garden? When the Straw Hats are alive on the overgrown jungle island, the last thing they expect to find is massive prehistoric creatures. From the dinosaurs to giant bugs, Little Garden is a living record of a time long ago, but how in the world did this island get stuck in time?
This article contains prehistorically large (and old) spoilers for One Piece. Catch up on Viz or MangaPlus before reading to avoid them!
Where is Little Garden?
Little Garden is situated just after Whiskey Peak on the Grand Line. The seas to get there are as treacherous as the rest of the Grand Line of course, but they’re not nearly as dangerous as the island itself. The native flora and fauna are enough to make even the most seasoned explorer run in terror back to the sea, though they won’t escape so easily. The island of Little Garden is surrounded by massive Sea Kings that often don’t let sailors leave, if they enter safely in the first place.
For those that make it onto Little Garden, it’s a garden of savagery and wildlife that will easily eat any explorers. Most of the island was left behind in the time of dinosaurs, with bugs as big as children that will readily chow down on humans. Everything on this island was designed to kill humans, and it spares no expense when it comes to the amount of deadly nature that’s packed on these small shores.
Jurassic Park
The local wildlife of Little Garden is enough to scare anyone away if they even see the shoreline. Dinosaurs roam the entire area, from massive T-Rex-like creatures to huge longnecks. It’s even more terrifying to see the huge skeletons that mark the land, proving there were even larger creatures there at one time. The natural features, much like the animals, are often vastly overgrown with huge trees surrounding the river that runs through the island.
Even the plants are dangerous though, with many that resemble the plants found on the Boin Archipelago. Some carnivorous types will eat anyone that comes near, while others just spread deadly poison. Even worse, natural disasters are possible thanks to the volcano near the island’s center, which erupts frequently every day. It’s this eruption that’s used as a call to action for a couple of former pirate captains, at it in a battle for almost a hundred years.
Dorry and Broggy
Former Giant Pirates captains Dorry and Broggy are some of the strongest Giants in the world of One Piece. They’ve been on the island for nearly a hundred years now, fighting it out day and night to determine which of them is the winner. They’ve forgotten what their original battle was even about, often taking time in between fights to joke and laugh like old friends. Regardless, they’re determined that it’s a matter of honor to finish their argument in a duel to the death.
While the dinosaurs of Little Garden are viciously huge in their own right, they don’t mess with the giants. Dorry and Broggy likely have some form of Conqueror Haki, being some of the most feared pirates in the world a century ago. Nowadays though, they’re stronger than ever from their constant duels, and after helping the Straw Hats leave, they’ve buried the hatchet. In the current story, they’re back home on the island of Elbaph, taking up as friends of Shanks’ Red Hair Pirates to protect their home.
Log Pose Issues
The biggest issue with traveling the Grand Line can be the Log Pose. Every island has a different reset time, with some taking much longer for the magnetic fields to align. Little Garden is probably the worst of all, with a two-year timespan to reset the Log Pose for travel. It’s no surprise that most travelers don’t leave Little Garden, as without another Log Pose or Eternal Pose, they’re going to die quickly. It may not even be thanks to the dinosaurs either, as other dangers are all over the island for them to encounter.
Forgotten Diseases
One of the most volatile threats that Little Garden faces is the range of forgotten diseases across the island. The big one is of course caught by Nami from a bug bite, which brings her to a critical state within a day of leaving Little Garden. From the time she’s bit on the island, Nami begins to develop a debilitating fever, cough, and extreme fatigue that leaves her sleeping most of the time aboard the Going Merry. The disease only advances further as well, with nobody on the crew being knowledgeable enough in medicine to heal her.
After they eventually arrive at Drum Island, Luffy carrying Nami to safety in a near-death state, Kureha reveals the cause. That bug bite and all forms of the disease from it have been all but forgotten over the past decades. Thankfully, she had a little of the insect venom stored up from some time ago, and was able to create an antidote for Nami. Kureha reveals that without her intervention, the Straw Hat Navigator would have been dead within days of the bite. Little Garden, in all the danger it holds, doesn’t stop being a threat when sailors leave its shores.
Dangerous Travels
Even when sailors make it through the central river of Little Garden, they face even more danger on the other side. Massive Sea Kings lay in wait for any beleaguered souls that made it that far. Already weak and tired from the journey through prehistoric hell, most aren’t prepared to fight these creatures. Instead, they’re often eaten alive, with ships destroyed and devoured along with them. Though they probably would have made it through somehow, it’s mostly thanks to Dorry and Broggy that the Straw Hats make it past. Their Hakoku Sovereignty move destroys the huge beasts, keeping the pirates safe to pass.
The island of Little Garden is far in the past of One Piece now, unlikely to play into the story again. With Dorry and Broggy back on Elbaph, the function of Little Garden as a Giant’s battleground is over. Unless Luffy wants to go tame an army of dinosaurs before the final battle (something he would totally do) One Piece’s time here is done. Little Garden will stay in the past along with all the creatures it holds, which is probably where they should stay.
