This article contains spoilers for the One Piece manga.
One of the many points One Piece constantly reiterates is that no organization can be taken at face value to be purely good or evil. The marines have a lot of nuance past the image they put up. While they are the greatest defense for civilians against dangerous pirates, they're also the tool the Celestial Dragons use to keep power. They keep secrets and are just as likely to order harm to a civilian populace as they are to protect it. The Buster Call is the most public means by which they cause blatant destruction. Civillians aren't supposed to know about them, but Buster Calls are well known within the marines. While Buster Calls have only been shown in three instances in the manga, they are clearly something the marines are willing to use as often as they deem necessary.
Nico Robin also has an important tie to Buster Calls. She has been involved in every instance that has been shown. Plus, all of them have also featured information about the Void Century. Ohara, Enies Lobby and Egghead Island have all been destroyed by the marines, and yet each time the Buster Call fails to fully accomplish its mission. From a narrative view point, the three original admirals have all been defined by their actions during a Buster Call. Their choices emphasize their individual morals and the type of justice they follow. Unlike the destruction of Lulusia Kingdom or even Kizarau's appearance at Sabaody, Buster Calls follows formal procedures that are known to marine personnel.
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Buster Calls Are the Marine's Most Open Show of Force
They Are Used as a Last Resort Measure
A Buster Call isn't something that's meant to be used without considering the repercussions. To ensure this, only the 10 highest ranking members of the World Government have permission to call for one. This means the admirals, fleet admiral, the commander-in-chief and the Five Elders These people can also delegate that ability by giving someone of lower rank a golden den den mushi, though. Without these permissions, it's illegal to initiate a Buster Call. Both times a Buster Call has been delegated to a lower rank in the manga, the person who got permission was the head of CP9. Although they aren't part of the operation, Cipher Pol agents have been present for all three Buster Calls.
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Location
Authority
Goal
Level of Success
Ohara
Admiral Sengoku
Kill the scholars and destroy the Tree of Knowledge
Failure. Nico Robin and almost all the books survived.
Enies Lobby
Admiral Aoikiji
Kill the Straw Hat Crew and retrive Nico Robin
Failure. The Straw Hat Pirates Escaped.
Egghead Island
Saint Jaygarcia Saturn
Kill Vegapunk, Bartholomew, Kuma and the Straw Hat Crew
Failure. Vegapunk isn't permanantly dead and the Straw Hats escaped with Kuma.
To send out a Buster Call, a button needs to be pushed on the golden den den mushi, and a silver one in the hands of marine forces will receive it. The Buster Call is officially under the authority of whoever either delegated permission to call it or was the person to call it. After getting a location from the silver den den mushi, 5 vice admirals and 10 battleships are sent to the location of the golden den den mushi. Unless previously negotiated, the Buster Call proceeds to decimate everything on the target island. If a target gets on one of the marine ships, they will even target each other. The call cannot be rescinded until all the targets are eliminated.
A Buster Call Was Used to Burn the Tree of Knowledge
Akainu Decided to Target More than Just the Archaeologists
The Void Century is the most important secret to the World Government. When the scholars of Ohara figured out how to read poneglyphs, they became a threat to the World Government. So, a Buster Call was sent out to eradicate them. Notably, this Buster Call featured both Akainu and Aokiji when they were Vice Admirals Sakazuki and Kuzan. The target of the island was initially just the archaeologists and the Tree of Knowledge. However, Akainu made the call to wipe out any evacuation boats just in case one of the scholars made it on board. Spandine, former head of CP9, used Sengoku's authority to arrange and then initiate the Buster Call. The official explanation for Ohara's destruction is that Robin did it.
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Recent revelations in the manga show this was not as successful as the World Government hoped. Robin is the island's only survivor. Not only is she a citizen of Ohara, but she can also read poneglyphs. Not every marine wanted to take part in the Buster Call. Jaguar D. Saul protested after speaking with Nico Olvia. He wasn't able to warn the populace in time to save them, but he did save Robin and many of the books they were studying. This Buster Call showed exactly how far Akainu is willing to go in his thorough justice. Meanwhile, it also acted as a turning point for Aokiji's morals. He defied his orders to spare Robin, and he has a great animosity towards Akainu.
Enies Lobby is Ohara Part 2
The Marines Didn't Execute Their Tasks Properly in Either Situation
Close
The whole pomp and circumstance about Enies Lobby is that it was finally meant to end what the Buster Call in Ohara started by killing Robin. It was supposed to be a simple execution. The Straw Hats made that difficult. Plus, Spandam's incompetence led him to start a Buster Call by accident. Aokiji gave Spandam the golden den den mushi, but Aokiji's own motives aren't clear. Spandam didn't prepare for the Buster Call beforehand, so it took time for the ships to prepare and make it from Marineford to Enies Lobby. CP9 wasn't acting in conjunction with the regular marines, either. This caused issues on both their ends.
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The Enies Lobby Buster Call highlights how the marine's focus on killing their target causes them destruction. Because of the way the fight panned out, they destroyed several of their own ships. The Straw Hats were cornered and would have been killed if the Going Merry didn't save them. However, they manage to survive the Buster Call and retrieve both Robin and Franky. The blueprints for the ancient weapon, Pluton, were destroyed, meaning the CP9 operation failed, too. As a result of the events at Enies Lobby, the Straw Hats all gained bounties and the government destroyed their own Judicial Island.
The Egghead Buster Call Isn't About Robin
It's Still About the Void Century Knowledge
The Buster Call on Egghead is the largest in the series thus far. While a Buster Call only needs 5 vice admirals, this one got 9 involved. There are 10 times as many ships as usual, too. Instead of being called by an admiral, one of the Five Elders runs this show. Admiral Kizaru, Borsalino, led the Buster Call. While the forces on the marine's side are bigger, Vegapunk was also able to make contingency plans beforehand. Like Enies Lobby, CP0 agents were sent in first with a different mission. They are left at the mercy of the Buster Call. There were a lot more active combatants from different sides involved in this Buster Call, making it the most complicated incident thus far.
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It was a failure for the marines. Vegapunk was killed, but he isn't really dead. All the researchers on the island escaped. The Straw Hat Crew took Bartholomew Kuma, Jewelry Bonney and Lilith with them to Elbaph, escaping the authority of the World Government. Even if Vegapunk was dead, he was still able to send out his message about the real state of the world. Vegapunk is connected to the Ohara Buster Call through the knowledge he gained from the books that survived. Notably, despite being present, Robin wasn't considered the biggest target during this Buster Call.
Every time the Straw Hats have been involved in a Buster Call, they have fared better. Buster Calls are unmitigated shows of force from the marines, but they are also something the marines are supposed to keep secret from the general populace. It looks bad to people when they realize their government has a history of completely wiping out islands. Especially to the merciless degree that Buster Calls involves. Depending on the circumstances, the use of the weapon that destroyed Lulusia Kingdom may be a way for the World Government to replace Buster Calls considering their recent track record of failure. Something the World Government has yet to realize is that Buster Calls demoralize their own forces and introduce doubt into the marines.
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One Piece
TV-14
Action
Adventure
Comedy
Drama
Fantasy
Super Power
Follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy and his pirate crew in order to find the greatest treasure ever left by the legendary Pirate, Gold Roger. The famous mystery treasure named "One Piece".
Release Date October 20, 1999
Creator(s) Eiichiro Oda
Cast Mayumi Tanaka , Kazuya Nakai , Akemi Okamura , Kappei Yamaguchi , Hiroaki Hirata , Ikue Ôtani , Yuriko Yamaguchi , Kazuki Yao , Chō
Main Genre Action
Seasons 20
Studio Toei Animation
Creator Eiichiro Oda
Production Company
Writers Junki Takegami , Shoji Yonemura , Hirohiko Uesaka
Number of Episodes 1122
Streaming Service(s) Crunchyroll , Netflix , Hulu , Pluto TV
Franchise(s) One Piece
Directors Kônosuke Uda , Junji Shimizu , Munehisa Sakai
Based On Manga
MyAnimeList Score 8.72
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