#and it’s mostly the same

[candycandy00]

So I’m back into One Piece.

I initially got into it back when the anime was still new. I think around thirty episodes had aired when I started watching. And when I say I got into it, I mean I was obsessed with it. I not only watched the episodes, I rewatched them. Over and over. This was back when I still had dial up internet and it took several days to download a single episode. So it’s not like I had a ton of other new anime to watch.

In particular, I loved three ships especially (yes, I used to be a hardcore shipper): Luffy x Nami (my fave), Sanji x Nami, and Sanji x Luffy. Or all three together. I was really invested in these ships. I wrote fanfiction, ordered doujinshi from Japan, ran fan sites and even “communities” on Livejournal.

But I’ve always been a very open minded shipper. No matter what I shipped, I had no issues with other ships and even wrote fanfic for them. I wrote a fairly well received Zoro x Nami fic. I’ve never shipped them but a friend of mine at the time did and I thought it was cute enough. I also thought Luffy x Vivi was cute. I’ve never understood “shipping wars” because I always enjoyed almost all shipping content (unless it was something freaky involving adult x kid or something).

Anywho, I was buying the HK sets from eBay to avoid downloading it. For you younger anime fans, these were Hong Kong DVD sets with pretty packaging but questionable quality and even more questionable subtitles (the grammar was awful, the timing was sometimes off, and the names were often subbed wrong, including one memorable case where every single character’s name was subbed as “Chan” for a whole episode, so you’d get lines like “Chan! Go with Chan to look for Chan!”). They were a replacement for the VHS fansubs I loved so much once VHS fell out of use.

The first several sets were very well priced. They each had 30 episodes, and cost $25 including shipping from China. I bought them as they came out. But around the time they hit the Skypiea arc, they changed the sets. Suddenly you only got 18 episodes and the price rose to $30 a pop. I kept buying them for a while, but eventually stopped and decided to wait and see if better priced sets came out later, or at least let a few build up and buy them all at once to save on shipping.

But once I took a break from One Piece, a little after the Water 7 arc, I never went back to it. I got into other things, eventually got high speed internet and started streaming other new shows, and kept telling myself “I’ll catch up on One Piece someday”. Then all of a sudden it had over 1000 episodes and “catching up” felt very daunting. Not to mention the fact that it’s been around 20 years since I was watching it and now I’d need to start over just to refresh my memory.

For a time, I tucked One Piece away in my heart as something I once loved but would most likely never go back to. I still adored the characters and occasionally heard spoilers about major events (yes I know about that death) or stumbled upon AMV’s that had cool looking scenes past what I’d watched. But I have enough trouble trying to keep up with seasonal anime while having far less free time than I had 20 years ago (and I’m still trying to catch up on fucking Detective Conan - I’m in the 900’s now!).

But then things changed. The live action show on Netflix came out, and I binged it. I liked it a lot. Despite some nitpicks (mostly about Nami being so sullen and serious when she’s flirty and fun in the anime, because lady characters so often get shoved into the role of “smart one who puts a damper on all the fun the boys are having”), I think it overall did a great job of capturing the spirit of the story. It was fun and whimsical and didn’t screw the whole thing up by trying to be “realistic”.

Despite my enjoyment of the live action show and a renewed love of the characters, I still didn’t go back to the anime.

That all changed when my brother and I were at an extra residence that we use for storage, cleaning things up and sorting through the junk. He was digging stuff out of a closet when he found a boxed Nami figure. It was the bridal figure. I’d ordered it so many years ago and it arrived with the veil broken off. The seller sent me a replacement and said to keep the broken one. With nothing else to do with it, I tossed it in that closet.

My brother, who has never had even a shred of interest in any anime whatsoever, asked what was in the box. I said it was an anime figure and he asked which one. This was a very strange question from him. Usually when the word “anime” comes out of my mouth, it shuts down conversations. I said it was a One Piece character and he says “Oh? Who is it?” All the text on the box was in Japanese. Wondering why he cared, I said it was Nami. He immediately replied with, “This doesn’t look like Nami.”

I rolled my eyes and said “Yeah okay.” I figured he was just being silly or teasing me. What the hell would he know about Nami? Later while we were still cleaning, he found a bag of manga. I periodically take some over there when my shelves get too full. He asked what was in the bag and I said it was manga. Then he asks, “Do any of them have Luffy in them?”

I literally thought he googled One Piece characters just to mess with me. But then, a full fucking day later, it hit me: he pronounced Luffy’s name correctly. Most English speakers who saw the name written out would assume it rhymes with “fluffy”. Which meant my brother had to hear the name spoken aloud. When I went to his house a few days later, I told him to fess up.

Turns out, he watched the live action show and loved it. He even bought merch! He was gleefully showing off his Going Merry keychain, his magnet on the fridge in the shape of the Straw Hat Jolly Roger, and a phone case emblazoned with the One Piece logo. He even said he was getting into the anime. To say this was a surreal moment is an understatement. I’ve loved anime for over 30 years, and my brother has even teased me for liking it. He was the absolute last person I ever thought would take an interest in One Piece of all things.

And suddenly, the thought of him watching more of the anime than me, going past what I’ve seen, hit me like a slap to the face. I can’t let that happen! I would never live it down if he strolled in and started talking about stuff that happened way later in the series.

So I started it over. I’m currently at the point when they’re trying to get to Skypiea. I’m blazing through it, skipping anime-only filler episodes and all the opening/ending themes (even Run Run Run, which I adore so much). At this pace I’ll probably catch up next year. I forgot how damn watchable this show is, how hard it is to resist watching one more episode.

All this to say I’m back into One Piece in a big way. I might even write fanfic for some of the characters at some point (which would feel weird since I wrote OP fanfic back in the day). Just a heads up to my followers that you’re probably going to see some OP content on this blog from here on out.