#I only ever read the manga as far as the arlong thing but it was memorable

[c-rowlesdraws]

sad2report that tumblr‘s bizarre and aggressive ad campaign worked and I am watching the netflix One Piece show. It’s… it’s not great. I’m on episode 3 and it’s not great. It does have its fun moments and good design touches, and there’s more I could say, but one thing that keeps striking me as weird and distracting and straightforwardly bad is giving all the main characters American accents (and their actors’ own accents in addition to that in some cases), but giving all of the minor & background characters generic English accents. It’s like they think nobody will buy this being a story about pirates unless everyone sounds like extras from Pirates of the Caribbean, even though this is very clearly a fantastical world and not the real earth age of piracy. And they clearly know it’s kind of an unnecessary choice, because the main characters are exempt from it, but now it’s like… Usopp and Luffy both have American accents despite being presumably born and raised in villages where everyone else is English? I’m?????

[cal-writes]

I feel like in a lot of your stories, your zoro exudes abandonment issues 🥲 Is that a conscious thing on your part? Or am I projecting lmao

I’m loving the little snippets of fic you post btw always brightens my day 😃

he does. it sorta happened subconsciously i think. im not sure if it started from my interpretation of his character in canon or from myself projecting lol

i think it might be a mixture of both like. the juxtaposition of zoro as a character who is very confident in exactly one area of himself and that is fighting and his strength. like zoro doesnt tend to get jealous until luffy implies someone might be stronger than him. i always think of something the youtube quinn curio said in a video about the umbrella academy talking about the character played by elliot page.

so i often read zoro as someone who thinks he needs to be the strongest so that has value or is allowed to be there

and another part i think is that zoro is a very lonely character. like we learn about kuina and that she died when she was 11 and that shook him so fundamentally that he's essentially living his life to fullfil that promise he made to her. we've seen koushiro and johnny and yosaku but they were very utilitarian. koushiro was his trainer, i dont think zoro ever mentioned him again since the flashback in like what chapter 5? and johnny and yosaku were a good way to bring arlongs bounty up and show the necessity of having a cook on board. sure they care of zoro and he cares about them but there isnt the sense that they are particulary close. zoro doesn't have a family like nami, or someone who seems to have raised him like family like luffy and sanji. if we take movie canon into it as well he'd have another friend from the doji similarly to kuina who he later thought had died due to him not being strong enough

and even now in the more recent manga chapters we see it implied twice that zoro is "a burden" on his crew, both from an antagonist but then also from a crew member. and unlike when sanji and zoro usually bicker, zoro doesnt respond. we have a panel of him flinching about the comment before he grits his teeth and continues.

addtionally during water seven when everyone is falling apart bc of whats going on he's not allowing himself to be vulnerable. we dont see him miserable or angry or sad because he sees his duty as having to hold it together and make sure everyone gets through this. like zoro was just as affected by merry's fate as everyone else but he couldn't show that (or he felt like he couldnt). its an incredibly isolating experience.

there is that manga panel which i might be misinterpreting bc the speech bubbles make it hard to tell who is actually saying it

like "huh you saved me" like he's surprised someone would do that.

but even if in that panel its not zoro saying it we still see himself punishing himself after getting injured in a fight even if he ultimately won. after little garden he trains until his feet bleed again, after the fight with mr one not only does he carry nami around for hours and gets shot while injured already he doesnt let himself recover, and then of course after thriller bark.

i always get the sense that zoro puts an enormous amount of pressure on himself as if he has to justify being there and has huge expectations for himself that he needs to meet.

and not to forget that on shabaody, he had no idea what happened to everyone else. he was the first to leave and for all he knew until they got the message from luffy, everyone died bc he was injured. i think that definitely festered.

like (its probably not that deep but you are reading this so far so youre in too deep now)

i thought it was curious. that zoro is the first one back. that he asked perona for help to find the way. as if he was worried. that if he came to late they wouldn't wait. so he made sure he was the best, the fastes, the first. he made sure to show off his new skills immediately. tried to show them off to luffy immediately despite it being a dumb idea to cut their bubble underwater.

so anyway yea i do end up writing zoro as someone who has abandonment issues tied in with his self esteem issues.

[dna-d2]

(One Piece Live Action Spoilers, Beware) (Also long post alert, Also Beware) (TL;DR at the end)

(Beware)

So I finally finished watching the Live Action One Piece and BOY LET ME TELL YOU.

(Please note that this is coming from someone who’s read the manga numerous times and is almost caught up on the anime. So this is a time for me to lovingly rant about this show/franchise in general)

I loved it. Like, to start off with, I fucking loved it. It had a couple flaws, and I certainly wouldn’t say it’s the BEST way to experience the story of One Piece, but I had so much fun with it, god.

Like, one of the biggest flaws you see with live action anime adaptations is that they make a bunch of changes, and these changes feel like they were made by a bunch of higher-up suit-wearing dickheads who think they managed to systematically dissect why people loved Dragon Ball so much and gave us the war crime that was Dragon Ball Evolution.

No, OPLA does have changes, but these changes feel like they were made to actually ADAPT the story into a new medium, since this would require a whole different type of storytelling compared to anime or manga. And (almost) all of the changes do feel like they were able to get the same point across as in the anime/manga, just in a different way.

Like pretty much everyone’s been saying, the casting choice was SPOT-FUCKING-ON. Like

HOLY SHIT

Guys, Iñaki as Luffy was absolutely brilliant and you’d have to kill me before I’d ever say anything different, I mean it. The closest I’d have to a character complaint (and it’s really not a complaint, it’s more of a nit-pick than anything) is that Zoro was just not goofy enough. OG Zoro gets caught up in the shenanigans more than he’d like to admit and gets pissed about it and many other things. OPLA Zoro was way more stoic than that. Though I did also like the stoic himbo energy he was giving off too, so like I said it’s not ENTIRELY a complaint. Just a slight nitpick. (And this is nothing against the actor, the actor did a phenomenal job and I will hear no slander against him or any of the others. Especially Usopp’s actor. Dude was perfect in pretty much every way)

And then the only REAL complaint I had. Well, two, technically. And they both center around the final two episodes.

One of the ONLY changes I didn’t like is that the people in Cocoyashi DIDN’T know that Nami was working for Arlong to buy back the village. The anime/manga had them all know about it and play along so that her efforts to help them wouldn’t be in vain, thus when she was double-crossed by Arlong, they had 7 years of resentment against just HIM to get out, and it felt so nice knowing that these guys were more than willing to fight to the death for her in her name and in the name of the years she sacrificed for them.

In this one though, the fact that they didn’t know just made it feel less impactful to me. They hated Nami for years, then just gave her an apology for not realizing what she was doing before deciding to march on Arlong Park. They didn’t even march on Arlong Park. It felt like the writers were rushing this along a little bit, which kinda leads into my other complaint.

I think there should’ve been ONE more episode. Just one. Nine overall. I think they should’ve spent 2 episodes, 7 and 8, specifically on the fight against Arlong, instead of an episode and a half with the resolution to the Garp thing stuck on at the end. THEN made episode 9 the resolution to the Garp subplot. Or hell, I think even just an extra 30 minutes would’ve helped a lot more. But it felt like they didn’t 100% get how to pace it out properly and had to change certain things that resulted in being a detriment to the overall product. I didn’t feel anywhere near as moved during Nami’s scene asking for help as I did during the anime/manga. In those, she looked absolutely broken, pushed so far past her breaking point that she just couldn’t see a way out of this darkness she’d found herself in for years and years. And in OPLA, she just…Didn’t. It’s hard to put to words, but it just wasn’t as impactful to me.

NOW WITH ALL THAT SAID!!!!

This is an incredible show in its own right. If I didn’t have the anime/manga to compare this to, I would have almost no gripes whatsoever. Maybe even none!! I enjoyed the hell out of this from start to finish, and only came out of it with like one complaint and a couple nitpicks. That’s INCREDIBLE for a live action anime adaptation. Not to mention the way that this is already proving to be a great way to get new people into One Piece. (They don’t realize. They don’t realize that this is the gateway show. That this is where it starts. They don’t realize that they’ll be hooked after this. They don’t realize. But I realize. I know. And soon, so will everyone…!!!)

So yeah, OPLA, solid 8/10. It’s not the best way to experience the story overall, but it’s great for beginners and I will watch again for Easter Eggs and further enjoyment. You should watch it.



TL;DR: One Piece Live Action is great actually, and while it’s not perfect, you should watch it and I love it.



[nururu]

how is sanjis loyalty flimsy.. hes been willing to sacrifice his life for his crewmates as far back as arlong park. and if he wasnt also extremely loyal what would the point even be of oda adding in the scene of him trying to sacrifice himself instead of zoro in thriller bark. given his circumstances in wci citing that as a sign of lack of dedication seems kind of unfair to his character.

first off, I'm not personally attacking Sanji bc,,,, he's a cartoon character,,,,, and all I'm trying to do is sus out the intentions of the story telling so pls, if you're getting personally offended for sanji, there's no need for that. I love sanji. I'm not like... shit talking him..... anyways, he puts strangers second to the crew quite often. that's facts. even if it's portrayed as silly and his pervyness, he does. he was writing goodbye letters to all of them in his head after he met viola. he's the only one in the crew to put something/someone else before the crew pretty much ever(usopp that one time) like honestly I didn't even think of wci when I wrote this bc I think wci is one of the moments where he grows and becomes a more cemented part of the crew. sanjis always kinda been the crews loner. and you mention thriller bark but Sanji put namis life in danger several times so he could beat up a guy who had a devil fruit he wanted. he put the thought of peeping on naked women above namis safety. I'm not saying bad things about Sanji. I'm just noticing canon moments that are consistent with his character and saying exactly what it is. yes sanji has many reliable moments. he has many unreliable moments as well. along with now having issues with his genetics (not his fault) but makes him a wild card nonetheless. I think wci needed to happen to prevent anything going sideways with Sanji bc it started to make him realize he wasn't on the outside looking in, and made him realize who really loves him and is really on his side. Sanji comes in clutch only AFTER he's made a huge mess by being unreliable(not always but very often) (wano and leaving the weaker crew to themselves again so he could try to spy on naked women). I could get sooooo deep into this. I'll write my full assessment down after I read the manga. rn I'm just getting thoughts out.

also edit: the thriller bark scene only portrays how Sanji others himself from their group and came across more suicidal than anything. I think his loyalty came in when he kept what Zoro did a secret. that scene portrayed loyalty. the scene with kuma portrayed "I'm worthless compared to all of you and my life has the least amount of value so it should be me" even though not a single one of them would agree.

[karmaferaligatr]

recently started watching one piece and I just finished the arlong arc (which is about as far as I read in middle/high school) and here are thoughts I have:

there is literally never a moment where Luffy does something and I go 'that's not Luffy' this is the most consistent character I have ever seen

Zoro is a badass, but more importantly is a himbo

the whole nami stabbing her tattoo scene was very emotional because I look like my father and have grown a beard + longer hair to not look like that, and that's the vibes I got from that. the whole 'i hate this part of me so fucking much I wanna kill it' thing

usopp could literally just get a gun like bro they exist put a bullet between some eyes my guy

also the scene where the bounty brothers (cannot remember their names) were sitting outside of arlong park like 'we're waiting for those 4 men' I was like you mean the 3 men and the almost man

and then when usopp faced his fear head on just to help his friends because he literally couldn't stand the thought of not helping them I said aloud at 4am 'yes baby now you're a man. nothing is more badass then helping ur friends'

and then immediately fell asleep, dropping the remote and having to go back like 4-5 episodes once I woke up

also how dare they cut out zeff chopping off his leg with a rock and eating it

and almost gaslight me into thinking my fucked up child mind imagined that, but no I was right

also that scene in the manga during the buggy arc where Zoro picks up luffy's cage and Luffy goes 'wait Zoro stop ur guts are gonna come out of your stab wound' and mega Chad Zoro just screams 'then I'll shove em back in' that was NOT IN THE ANIME (very upset over this)

also the dog that fought a lion and lost so his pet store got burnt down, so Luffy goes and beats the shit out of the lion and gives what's left of the pet food back to the dog while nami goes 'huh maybe he's not a huge piece of shit like arlong who knew'

also every time they said treasure I did the Leo DiCaprio pointing meme 'they said the thing!'

other than these first members of the straw hats, I only know about 2 others

a little bear? thing named like chop-chop or something and bone dude that's dead and that's literally all I know about those two

so very excited to watch more

[kaizokuou-ni-naru]

The Voyage So Far: Paramount War (Part Two)

east blue (1 | 2) || alabasta (1 | 2) || skypiea || water 7 || enies lobby || thriller bark || paramount war (1 | 2) || fishman island || punk hazard || dressrosa (1 | 2) || whole cake island || wano (1 | 2)

ace’s execution is, in a way, the exception that proves the rule when it comes to one piece’s themes of blood and family. ace is set up to die for the crimes of a father he never knew and never wanted, and he does die here, but in the end he dies for the family he did choose, in the form of luffy, rather than the one he didn’t. 

god do i wish we knew more about ms portgas d. rouge. with ace’s storyline pretty much wrapped it looks unlikely that we’re going to be learning more about her than what we got, which in my opinion is an absolute tragedy, because what little we do know about her is amazing and she’s an absolute badass. oda give us more female ds please.

whitebeard’s power is so cool. it might be one of the visually coolest devil fruits we’ve ever seen, in my opinion. he he causes earthquakes and tsunamis while far past his prime; he pulls the sky apart with his bare hands. this whole arc is world-shaking, and whitebeard’s power is perfectly appropriate for it. 

doflamingo’s speech on justice and rightness is one of the most well-remembered quotes from this whole saga, and rightly so. i’ve always found it fascinating, myself, because he’s right. he dead-on hits how the one piece world works- the world government and the marines rule the world not because of any inherent actual goodness or justice or right, but because they won a war a very long time ago. 

in a way, this reminds me of blackbeard’s line of “people’s dreams never die” from jaya. i like how oda isn’t afraid of letting his villains be right about the themes of the story, sometimes even having better awareness of them than the protagonists. 

man, if i had to pick a single favorite spread out of the whole manga, it might be luffy’s marineford entrance. it’s so epic, and so completely unexpected for everyone else there. absolutely nobody was expecting strawhat luffy to drop out of the sky with a posse including two former warlords. it just makes me grin!! so much!! 

it also gets followed up by a solid two pages of just people’s reactions, from smoker’s “what the HELL is he doing with CROCODILE” to moria’s immediate incoherent rage, and i just love that the world and cast of one piece is so well-established and built up that we know exactly how all of those people know luffy and why they react the way they do. 

going back to what i mentioned in the last post about marineford being luffy’s conflict of interest arc, i’d say it’s also the only time where he isn’t the future king first and foremost. in this arc, before anything else, he’s a little brother.

there are a lot of what-if moments in marineford. moments where you kind of have to ask “what if this specific thing hadn’t happened, had gone differently?” would things have turned out differently? squard’s betrayal is one of them. does this change the outcome? would whitebeard have been able to survive if not for this injury? there’s no way to know. marineford is a lot of little tragedies, and they just pile up and up.

marineford has just so many incredibly striking spreads. all of the momentous moments (and there’s a lot of them, in this arc) are done full justice. this is such an image heavy post just because marineford is such an incredibly visually strong arc. 

conqueror’s haki is so cool and i love the way it’s set up and built up throughout this saga, with luffy’s constant inadvertent uses of it, from duval’s bull to marigold and sandersonia to the wolves in impel down, all leading up to this moment. 

i’ve heard people complain about conqueror’s as kind of a deus ex machina, but i honestly love it, it’s very cool and honestly i think it just seems to fit luffy as a power. if there was ever gonna be a character who turned willpower into a weapon, it would be monkey d. luffy. 

i’m gonna take this chance to talk about garp, because this sequence of panels is heavily implied to be garp’s thoughts just before luffy punches him down, and it hurts. garp is a flawed person who makes some bad choices, and there’s no arguing that, but i think it’s very obvious he really, really cares about his grandsons, even if he never could understand them as people and that they never would have been happy as marines. and that’s just tragic, really. 

the moment ace gets freed and the brief span of time where he and luffy can fight together feel so triumphant, and i think it’s one of the reasons the final tragedy of marineford hits so hard and feels so cruel, because luffy succeeds, here. he saves ace. he gives absolutely everything he had and makes it, and saves ace. the ultimate failure isn’t his. there was nothing more he could have done. 

the first time i was reading one piece, i hit this page (which is also the last in the volume) and had to put the book away, take the bus downtown, wander around for a few hours, and buy myself some candy and some new books before i started feeling okay again.

the thing about ace’s death, i think, is that it’s a tragedy, but it also feels so completely essential to the story going forwards and luffy’s character growth specifically that it’s really, really hard to imagine one piece without it. there are a lot of (really excellent!) fix-fics out there for marineford, and although those are often really good and their authors super talented, i think it’s really hard for them to ever hit the same way canon does with regards to this. 

i always think of this scene specifically in contrast to zoro and mihawk’s fight, back on baratie. zoro and mihawk are both people who believe in honor in battle, true victory or death, and that’s reflected in their fight, in zoro’s refusal to turn and run even in the face of imminent death, and mihawk’s respect for that resolve. whitebeard, too, is an honorable man. he refuses to turn to run, even when facing certain death. 

the blackbeard pirates, however, are not. 

i do enjoy how, just like roger’s, ace’s execution backfires tremendously on the marines. this was entirely a predictable outcome, too! this exact thing happened twenty years ago! the marines don’t learn. they don’t change. they’re so assured of their own rightness and power that they make stupid mistakes like holding a massive public execution after the last one blew up in their faces. 

(this is why they need coby so badly, for the record, and why it’s important that he still decides to become a marine after witnessing their corruption firsthand in shells town. the marines are long overdue for a reformation, one that orients them towards real justice.)

i really, really enjoy crocodile in this saga. mostly because he hasn’t been redeemed at all, he’s still pretty much the exact same kinda awful person he was in alabasta, he’s just on luffy’s side this time, and it lets us see him in a better light, when he gets angry at whitebeard for nearly dying or when he helps luffy and jinbe escape to keep the marines from getting their way. few of one piece’s characters are truly so one-dimensional as they can seem, and i really appreciate that. 

i really really love all the interactions between luffy, ace and sabo as kids. they’re so fun and bounce off of each other so well. even though we only see them together for a brief time, they really feel like siblings. (which of course only makes later events hurt so much more.

i’ve always been a little fascinated by the fact that it takes us this long to get luffy’s full backstory. it’s almost a fakeout, because we get part of his backstory in the very first chapter, and we’re kind of led to believe that’s all there is. it’s not until ace’s introduction nearly two hundred chapters in that we’re given any indication there’s more.

but at the same time, it makes sense. marineford is luffy’s focus arc, as arlong park to nami or thriller bark to brook. he hasn’t had a focal arc that’s really about him before this, while all his other crewmates have. it makes sense that this would be when he finally gets his flashback. 

i think it’s cool that dragon and the revolutionaries show up at the grey terminal fire, because it’s one of the only looks we’ve gotten so far into what their actual regular operations are like. and, of course, they’re saving people. i really like this about the revolutionaries, that helping people in trouble is basically their modus operandi, when pretty much everyone else in one piece’s world mostly does saving on an incidental basis if at all. 

i think a lot about how the last line of sabo’s letter to ace is also both of their last words to the strawhats. 

death in one piece always feels much realer and more impactful to me than in most other series, and i think this is part of the reason why: in one piece, we are always shown the mourning. nami at bellemere’s grave, carrot grieving pedro, ace and whitebeard’s funeral. 

there are fewer deaths, comparatively, than most other series, but they’re given so much room to echo. we’re still feeling the impacts of ace’s life and death in the most recent chapters of wano. it ties into the theme of inherited will and all the way back to hiriluk’s final speech, of men not being dead so long as they’re remembered. 

the picture of luffy at marineford always kind of strikes me. he looks so young and so solemn, and yet much more himself than he did when we last saw him losing his mind on amazon lily. i really like it. 

sometimes i just think about the sheer depth of trust and love the strawhats must have in each other to separate for two years, far longer than they were ever together, to solely dedicate themselves to improving for the sake of crew and captain. none of them even hesitate, and none of them ever doubt that the crew will be reformed at the end of it.

after all, luffy keeps his promises. 

[namiikawaii]

Luffy x Nami: A thread Part 1

Disclaimer: This is very long so be prepared to take some time & also if you haven't watched/read One Piece at all then don't read this if you don't want to read spoilers. Firstly I'd like to adress all the people who dont believe in a love romance in One Piece aswell as those who are against this ship or do ship Luffy and Nami with different characters: Please read the thread thoughoutly and don't jump to conclusions before you read everything. I will try to mention all of the issues that are underlying in regards to general things like love romance in One Piece and I want to consider counter arguments and create hypotheses in sight of other pairings like Luffy x Boa and Sanji x Nami (which I think are the other main ships when it comes to Luffy and Nami).   So it is important to be a little patient through all of this thread.

Let's start off with the question about love romance in One Piece... ''D: Doesn't anyone on Luffy's crew fall in love? Will there never be a tale of on-board romance? (Sanji is an exception in this case) I'm just wondering. -From Naoko- O: But they do... They're all in love...WITH ADVENTURE. (← good one)'' This is exactly the part of the SBS where Oda answered the question about romantic love in the Strawhat Crew. Firstly, this is obviously meant as a silly statement. It is definetly no confirmation but to see this as a serious statement is overexagerrating. Secondly, Oda wanted to answer this question by dodging it without nullifying it. What does that mean? He could have just simply said, there is no romance in One Piece and there never will be (this wouldn't be the first time that he would have answered a question in a direct and serious way). But no, he wanted to make sure that the audience understands that there is a difference between romantic love and romance (in an adventure) and that the Strawhats are on a journey of a romantic adventure which has nothing to do with loving each other in a romantic way. There are two reasons for that: -One Piece is a pure shonen/action Manga and it's target audience are teenage boys (at least this was the case when he made that statement, i don't know how that might have changed by now maybe) -For the other reason just imagine One Piece if there was active love romance going on...we wouldn't be near the story that we are now. Let's just say it would add so much more complications, to put it very simple (I don't want to go into that deep now). But now here comes the clue: All of this doesn't mean that Oda completely lefts love romance out. Because despite of all the points that I just mentioned there are pairings and there is also subtle (no explicite) love romance. Lets just look at the pairings, these are all pairings that I think the majorty of people wouldn't question: -Kaya and Usopp -Sabo and Koala -Shanks and Makino -Shakky and Rayleigh -Roger and Rouge -Oden and Toki

And yes none of these cases showed the love story between those people (maybe Kaya and Usopp if you really want) but THAT IS THE POINT! Only because Oda doesn't let the characters speak out ''i love you'' or makes them kiss all of the time doesn't mean there isn't any kind of romantic love connection between characters in One Piece (the kiss on WCI was an exeption though). This also doesn't mean that there is no possibilty of romance between the Strawhats. I get it that people see them as a familiy, and they truly are one. If there was romance between two of them during the story of One Piece the dynamic wouldn't be the same anymore, especially if there was a canon relationship between Luffy as the captain/ main protagonist and another crewmember. I mean we don't want to see Luffy prefering one nakama over the other. If he calls for his friends, he calls for everyone and not firstly for the person he's in love with. They are all equally as important as the others. But you have to remeber that they aren't blood-related and it wouldn't be weird at all if some of them are ending up together after the adventure of the One Piece. That's the reason why the hints that are given by Oda are really hints, not just merely coincidence.

And i wouldn't be here if Oda didn't hint Luffy and Nami in the past and he will hint them in the future or even more. Let's beginn chronologically with the bond-forming between Luffy and Nami and why their relationship is special EAST BLUE SAGA -Nami was intended as a crew-member from the very beginning, even before One Piece was existing. That's the reason why Luffy and Nami saw each other in the first episode of One Piece. It was to pay hommage to Silk/Ann the heroines of the Romance Dawn Manga. (Just read into it if you want to know more) But what's important is that they were the inspiration for Nami as a character/ as the heroine.

-Orange Town: Luffy and Nami meet for the first time in the Manga Nami reveals her goal to Luffy - which is ''to buy a certain village'' (keep this in mind) Luffy tells Nami why the strawhat is so dear to him - he won't be telling anyone afterwards these details again -Nami tricks Luffy. Buggy captures him but when Nami is forced to fire a canon ball at Luffy she refuses, starts a fight against all the Buggy-Pirates and finally at the risk of her own life she burns her hands facing the pirates with her back in order to prevent the canonball to blow up Luffy (she does quite much for this pirate guy she just met) - you see that at this point Luffy did touch something in Nami's heart because when they have to escape she literally instantly fires the canonball at Buggy without hesitation. -Nami sewing Luffy's damaged hat. Since then it's always her who takes care of it if it takes any damage/ if there is something to sew in it like Ace's Vivre Card. Now I want to put in here my first hypothetical compairison for the LuBoa and SaNa shippers. Just imaging now this same situation happening between Luffy and Boa. Luffys hat is ripped apart - maybe she knows that Luffys hat is his treasure maybe not but lets imagine she does know. She will of course sew it, would probably blush and say something romantic about her doing this for him. And as a shipper this would be the most romantic thing for you wouldn't it? In reality it is Nami who precisely watches Luffy and understands the importance of his hat to him, she goes up to him and fixes his strawhat, with the only difference that it is just more natural and less lovey-dovey from Nami's part (because of course she would never act like that if she was in love with someone). I am already asking you now, which lovestory sounds more believable? -Syrupp Village: There are a few cute moments (Nami catches Luffy and cheers on him and so on...) but i wanted to especially point out that these two are are sitting/lying on the ground after the fight and Nami playes with the Strawhat, Luffy is of course unbothered. But this already shows how comfortable these two are at this point, they know each other only for a few days now. And also this image of them two talking and sitting together is a theme that continues throughout One Piece. -Namis leaves with the Going Merry, looking devestated that she has to leave ''Luffy and the others'', and Luffys reaction after Zoro says to just leave her: ''I want her to by our navigator no matter what'' (These words are enough, no comment needed and also look at Zoro's face as Luffy is stating these words) -Kokoyashi Village: Luffy already trusts and knows Nami so well that he is enraged to hear that she allegedly killed Usopp - the others are sure that she did it but Luffy insists, and even when Nami confirmes to him that she indeed sent Usopp to the ocean's ground Luffy refuses to accept it and immediatly goes to sleep. (I'm sure it's because he knew that something was wrong but he knew he had to wait for Nami to come up to him)

-The famous moment hits different (for shippers and non-shippers): Luffy giving Nami his precious strawhat! He wants to show her how much she is dear to him, his gives her his treasure because now she's his treasure too (and you can see this in a romantic way or in a platonic way but just remember that Luffy never did this ever to anybody in the past or in the future) Now i want to mention something that i said earlier: people often say that Luffy didn't care about Namis story but let me tell you something different. Luffy already knew what Nami's obejectif was (to buy a certain village) now Luffy also knows that there is a pirate called Arlong and when Nami is stabbing herself she shouts his name in devastion. Luffy is not dumb, he understood already some parts of Nami's history - later when he is in Nami's room he understands the impact even more. It is so far from truth that Luffy doesn't know Namis story, he may not know some details, but he could conntect enough points to understand Nami's pain. And my personal theory is that he didn't wanted to hear Nojikto telling Nami's story because maybe Nami wouldn't have wanted him to hear it and it could certainly be that he knew that maybe he couldn't hold himself back and intervene before Nami asked him to do so and finally rely on him! -Genzo and Luffy's conversation: just read/watch it - it is a father to boyfriend conversation (i thought so even before i shipped LuNa) So far these are the most important moments for the East Blue Saga, and of course there are other things you could mention but i just wanted to point out the key moments that really built their relationship and created the whole fundament. Since I don't know when I can continue writing on this, I am just going to show some colourspreads which contain hints in my opinion. (Like Nami being represented as a queen, or Nami holding and wearing Luffy’s hat)

[animebw]

Thoughts on One Piece So Far

Oh hey, it looks like I’ve somehow read 200 chapters of One Piece! That’s, like, 20% of its current chapter count. And to think I only started reading it back in October. Guess time really does fly when you’re having fun! But hey, now that we’ve bitten off a sizeable chunk of this manga, I figure now’s a good time to do a quick rundown of my overall thoughts so far. The shorter posts are good for my time management, but I haven’t done too much deep analysis in the way I would with a normal binge-watch. Which means I’ve got a bunch of big-picture thoughts rattling around in my brain that I haven’t gotten a good chance to talk about yet. And that’s no good; with a story as massive as this, sometimes you gotta take a step back from the details and look at its entirely. So, with 200 chapters under my belt and the adventure well under way... what are my overall thoughts on One Piece?

Well, short version: it’s good! I’d even say it’s very good, especially ever since we got to the Grand Line. It moves along at a decent clip, with each new arc introducing something new and interesting about the world and the people within it. It juggles tons of moving pieces, but it’s able to balance them out well and find time to give everyone cool shit to do. These long-ass fight scenes could easily descend into utter chaos from Too Much Stuff going on, but Oda always does a great job keeping all the balls in the air and directing your attention through increasingly complex multi-tiered showdowns. And while his art can be overly busy at times, he 100% nails every last splash panel. Like, goddamn, some of his two-page spreads belong in an art museum. On top of that, this is such a bizarre, fascinating world, and I can’t believe it manages to make magic superpower-gifting fruit and walking gun dogs and specially magnetized islands and the criss-crossing global geography all feel like part of the same universe. And we haven’t even gotten to the musical skeleton yet! You really feel like the possibilities are endless; literally anything could show up on the next island and it would make sense as part of this universe.

As for the Straw Hat pirates themselves, I’d say their strength as characters comes more from their group dynamics than their individual characters. On their own, Nami and Zoro and Sanji and Usopp and even Luffy are all very simple. But throw them together in a constantly evolving series of challenges that demand different kinds of character match-ups, and damn are they entertaining to watch. There’s no shortage of great little moments that spring just from how they interact with each other, whether butting heads or pushing each other forward. They do have a bit of the old Jojo’s problem where they’re basically only dynamic characters when the plot’s specifically focusing on their arc and are reduced to quip and punch dispensers at all other times, but as long as those personalities are entertaining- and they are- that’s perfectly fine. They’re first and foremost vessels through which we get to experience the world and their friendship, only occasionally stepping to the forefront for truly personal introspection. But whenever things do get personal- in other words, the backstories- that’s when One Piece becomes truly great. I still don’t think we’ve topped learning about Nami’s past in the Arlong Park arc. That was just... so good.

All that said, while I’m definitely enjoying One Piece a lot, it’s not yet one of my favorite things ever. It’s not even in my second tier of “I love this thing and think about it on a near-constant basis.” Maybe that changes as it keeps going and keeps getting better; some anime and manga really are designed for the long haul. But even 200 chapters in, there are very few moments where One Piece has really, for lack of a better word, “gotten” me. A god-tier fight scene, a heartwrenching tragedy, a moment of sheer emotional catharsis, something spectacular enough to sweep me away with awe. It’s got highlights and strong spots aplenty, but there have been very few moments where I’ve sat back and said, “Wow, this is incredible.”

Which means we’ve got to talk about the elephant in the room.

I am trying my absolute fucking hardest not to mentally compare One Piece to Gintama. They’re two very different anime/manga with very different goals, and they both deserve to stand on their own merits. And no piece of media is going to get a fair treatment from me if I’m constantly comparing it to my single favorite work of fiction ever. I am perfectly capable of taking One Piece on its own merits. That being said... yeah, these are both long-running Shonen Jump titles. They’re both huge, sprawling stories with a massive cast of characters, targeted primarily at a young male audience, trading in comedy and drama alike as they seek to restore your faith in the power of friendship and family. They’re certainly the longest works I’ve ever tackled on this blog: Gintama’s manga wrapped up around 700 chapters which translated to 367 episodes of anime and a movie, and One Piece just recently crossed its thousand-chapter mark, which would hypothetically land it around 600 episodes if not for all the gosh darn filler. So it’s kind of inevitable that I’ll end up comparing them to some extent.

And the sad reality is, everything that One Piece does well, Gintama does at least five times better.

Okay, let me clarify: the one thing One Piece has over Gintama is its worldbuilding and sense of adventure. Gintama mostly stays in a single city, but One Piece travels the entire world, and every location we visit is cool and exciting. In terms of the sheer breadth of the story’s world, One Piece is unquestionably king. But in terms of the sheer depth of literally everything else? It’s equally no contest in the exact opposite direction. Gintama’s characters are miles more complex and interesting. Its themes are infinitely more varied and realized with more detail. Its battles are charged with far greater emotional weight and thematic resonance. And it’s just able to do so much more in terms of actual content. Luffy and his crew are on this journey for the long haul, but Gintama’s loose relationship with structure allows it to tackle literally any kind of story you could possibly tell. From big battles to one-off vignettes to meta commentary to subversions and celebrations of every conceivable trope on the market, Gintama is a show that does everything a show can do, and does it better than it’s pretty much ever been done. All while still weaving a long-running narrative encompassing a staggeringly large cast of characters that are all given cool and important shit to do, down to the very last side characters you forgot about because they last appeared over a hundred episodes ago.

Like, let’s compare the Alabasta arc to, say, the Yagyu Clan arc from Gintama. In Alabasta, Crocodile is the big evil baddie who turns the people against their just and honorable king by feeding them lies. They get so swept up in the lies that good people on both sides of the conflict are tricked into attacking each other for crimes neither of them have committed, all while Crocodile stands to profit off it all out of a megalomaniacal desire to rule the world. He is unquestionably evil with no caveats, and his Baroque Works underlings are all equally evil in the exact same way. When the Straw Hats show up, they do battle against the agents in a series of one-on-one duels with few personal stakes beyond Beat The Bad Guy, all while racing a ticking clock to stop Crocodile and expose his lies before the good people on both sides tear each other apart.

Then there’s the Yagyu Clan arc, in which the antagonist is Kyubei. Kyubei is a traumatized enby forced by their family to fit into a toxic gender role, which has turned the a possessive abuser. They coerce Otae into marrying them by playing to her self-sacrificing tendencies, inspiring the rest of the main cast to come and save her. Over the course of their battle, in which the often-antagonistic Odd Jobs crew and Shinsengumi fight on the same side, we learn about all the important members of the Yagyu clan as people and how their influence poisoned Kyubei by forcing them into a box they don’t fit in. It’s not just a battle against evil, it’s a battle abusive parenting, and how that abuse can hurt people enough to turn them into abusers in turn. It sympathizes with the pain Kyubei’s suffered without excusing how they’ve turned that pain against someone else, respecting their identity while acknowledging that even people from marginalized groups can become abusers. And at the battle’s end, a defeated Kyubei realizes they were wrong and apologizes to Otae for hurting her, their parents apologize for raising them so toxically, and Kyubei begins the long and painful process of untangling their gender identity in a world that wants to fit them into a specific box, all while becoming a genuine positive influence in Otae’s life and one of the show’s best characters.

Do you see the difference here? The Alabasta arc is still good, and it does what it does well. But holy fucking shit, can you imagine anything like the Yagyu Clan arc in One Piece? Anything with that level of nuance and intensity and boldness in the subjects it tackles? It’s a treatise on abuse, its often inherited nature, gender identity, and how self-hatred can curdle into hatred of others. And it introduces yet another group of excellent recurring characters we’ll see throughout the show. And it includes a team of protagonists that don’t always work together but find themselves on the same side because of circumstance. And it finds time in the middle of all that for an episode in which four people engage in psychological battle to be the first to wipe their asses in a restroom with no toilet paper without breaking the flow. And it pulls all this off in six fucking episodes. The Alabasta arc is a climactic showdown paying off 100 chapters of build-up that’s over 50 chapters long, and Gintama packs more variety, complexity and emotional weight into a six-episode side arc that isn’t even close to the best arc of the series. There’s just no comparison.

I think the biggest problem with One Piece is that for all the complexity of its world and systems, it’s actually a very simple story. The good guys are good, the bad guys are bad, friendship and teamwork win the day, don’t listen to oppressive power structures because they’re evil and oppressive, live free and true to yourself. That’s not a bad story to tell, but without added complexity, it limits how good One Piece can be. Gintama explores similar themes, but it does so with a level of maturity and nuance that One Piece hasn’t even come close to. Yes, the show that regularly breaks the fourth wall and makes dick jokes every other episode is genuinely mature in how it approaches its themes of colonialism, oppression, revolution, and social issues. I can’t hold One Piece accountable for not being Gintama, because nothing is Gintama, and it was never going to top it in my eyes. But when I think of how fantastic these kinds of long-running shonen can be, I can’t help but see all the ways in which One Piece could be better. There’s a reason the backstories are uniformly the best part of this manga; they’re the spots where we get to see the characters really, truly mess up, or be outright wrong in a way that has catastrophic consequences, or suffer the kind of tragedy that turns them into a different, much more flawed person. Those are the rare moments where One Piece is emotionally complex, where it achieves its full potential and is genuinely great. At all other times, it’s merely really darn good.

But hey, really darn good isn’t anything to scoff at either. At the end of the day, this is just me nitpicking where One Piece falls short to the best of its contemporaries. Standing on its own, it’s still a really fun adventure story, and I’m having a very good time with it. I’d say my current score is... 8/10 or thereabouts? Yeah, that seems about right. We’ll see if it can keep getting better as it goes. Until next time!

[kbstories]

What are some of your favorite one piece moments and why?

WHOO BOY thanks for asking and buckle up ‘cause this is gonna be a long one

(A note before I start: I read OP up to volume 63 in German and the rest in English, so I apologize if I get some pre-ts names wrong! Also these are in somewhat of a chronological order and based solely on the manga.)

Luffy giving the dog (Shushu?) the last box of food: This is the moment that made me love Luffy, it’s such a simple but effective way of showing his core philosophy that people’s treasures and dreams have inherent value and that everyone deserves to have someone by their side who will fight for them when they can’t do it themselves.

Bellmere: Just. Everything about her and that flashback. “They are my kids”, just... It made me emo back then, still makes me emo today. Love it, love her, love her design and what she’s all about. Yes.

Luffy going “I’m nothing without my crew!” in Arlong Park: Bear with me here ‘cause I was like 12 when I read this arc the first time, and back then I didn’t get why Nami wouldn’t just ask for help (so the “Help me!” moment only became a tear-jerker during my many, many re-reads). Something that did make immediate sense to me was Luffy straight-up admitting his skillset is limited to punching things very good, and I was like hell yeah go Luffy because I was 12. (I also love that this sentiment was echoed by Luffy going “I can’t be Pirate King without you” in Whole Cake Island two years later, so that’s another favorite right there.)

Skipping ahead otherwise we’ll be here all day but Luffy carrying Sanji and Nami in Drumm. Seeing him climb up that mountain with his bare hands and feet fucked me up even as a kid, the way Oda paced it really made you feel what an absolutely harrowing experience that must’ve been and I still think about it a lot.

Zoro fighting Mr. 1 in Alabasta: That fight was just mindblowingly cool and I love Zoro. That panel of him kneeling in his own blood after winning the fight hrgghhgh and oh hey THE STRAWHATS SHOWING THE X ON THEIR ARMS FOR VIVI 🥺🥺🥺  how are those not permanent tattoos Oda FIGHT ME

The entirety of Noland & Kargara, how they died without seeing each other and fully mending the argument they had and how Luffy ringing the bell hundreds of years later redeemed it all. Oda went incredibly hard on Skypia’s backstory and I’m not entirely sure what possessed him to tell a story that tragic but I, for one, am grateful. (Fun fact I was extremely late to this whole shipping thing and thus One Piece is very much about the platonic nakamaship of it all for me but even as a clueless baby fan I shipped THE FUCK out of Noland & Kargara oh my)

“I want to live!” + Sogeking shooting the WG flag + Usopp’s speech to Luffy + Luffy almost fighting to the death to keep his crew safe + MERRY’S GOODBYE: I bawl my eyes out every time I read Water 7, it’s my favorite arc to this very day because it’s just so complex and nuanced and the crew’s limits being tested in every way is just a very rewarding (if incredibly emotional) thing to witness. It put both Robin and Usopp on the map as two of my absolute favs and I’m so grateful for that.

The Strawhats teaming up against Oz (?) was something I didn’t know I needed until I saw it and I’ve been gunning for another Strawhat group fight ever since. The team work, the absolute trust, just everything about it was a delight and made all the stuff that followed (Zoro & Sanji laying down their lives for their captain, the entirety of Sabaody) so much more painful. Also Bink’s Sake because Brook deserves to have friends to sing it with him every single day of his life!!!

Luffy refusing to ask if the One Piece is real or not on Sabaody: I just adore that moment. Rayleigh was so soft and indulgent with these baby pirates carrying along the legacy of Roger’s old hat... My heart...

Mr. 2/Bon Curry (?) in Impel Down. ‘Nuff said.

Ace saying “Thank you” after you-know-what but let’s not linger on that because I was reading One Piece weekly back then and it traumatized me to the point I didn’t keep up with it for 10 years haha!

The post-timeskip era is a bit of a blur to me because I binged it all just a few months ago and my memory is McFreaking Terrible but I’ll start with Law being warned on two separate occasions that he might not like an alliance with Luffy, making the alliance anyways and proceeding to burn in “Strawhat-ya is a fucking moron” purgatory ever since. I don’t care if it’s overdone, every year Law loses to Luffy’s idiocy is one added to my lifespan. Godspeed, king of emo pirates. You dug your grave now lie in it.

Sabo coming back: I know there’s discourse about that doing bad things to the plot and the stakes of character deaths in One Piece, bla bla bla, I truly do not care. Luffy getting one (1) big brother back and Sabo stepping up to Ace’s legacy was so monumental when it happened that it briefly brought me back from my One Piece hiatus and I immediately bought volume 75 when it came out in German. (Now if Oda will only let him live and let Luffy actually hang out with his brother I would very much appreciate that, huff huff.)

USOPP UNLOCKING OBSERVATION HAKI AND SAVING LUFFY AAAAAAAAAA

Corazon holding onto life until Law was safe + Corazon’s smile: Corazon in general, actually. Law harboring that little bit of kindness he was shown as a kid and plastering it all over his ship and his crew and his own fucking skin. Mmmm love me a big sip from that good ol’ heartbreak.

Still in Dressrosa, Zoro going “I wonder what he’s dreaming about” when Luffy smiles in his sleep. It’s this little line and kinda insignificant because they’re talking to Sabo in that moment (and that’s clearly like woah), but it’s so fucking soft and it made my heart grow three sizes so there.

Jack getting one-shotted by Zunesha: Get rekt you insufferable asshole oh my god

Whole Cake Island is practically 78 chapters of favorite moments but Nami saying goodbye to Sanji + Luffy almost ripping his arms out to warn Sanji about Pudding + Sanji making a Strawhat lunchbox by accident + “That’s just how you are” + Luffy muffling his pain in front of the mirror so his crew doesn’t worry (Oda turn on your location I just want to talk) + Sanji carrying Luffy back to the ship + “I’m your captain now! Don’t die even if it kills you!” so yeah, the entire thing. Also Katakuri??? What a loser I love him

[Spoilers for Wano]

And if I went into all the things I like about Wano we’d truly be here all day. Gun to my head I’d probably pick Zoro & Luffy reuniting, Kidd & Killer in Udon (of course) and “At sea you fight pirates!” as my favorite moments so far. Also Jinbei joining the crew after a million years holy shit FINALLY and Luffy getting angry over spilled bean soup and KIDD BEATING THE SHIT OUT OF APOO FUCK YES and don’t get me started on the new characters especially Kiku and Yamato and---

[End of Wano spoilers]

Anyhow. My answer to “What’s your favorite One Piece moment?” is basically “YES” to all of it, thanks for coming to my TED talk.

[soyouareandrewdobson]

Alex ze Pirate Mini Review 5: Why I love One Piece and my final verdict

(Warning. Post contains initial geek out about One Piece that is meant to correlate to my opinion on Alex in general)

When I started this series of posts, one thing I asked myself was, how could I sum up my problems with the Sam story while also tackling some general issues with AzP without redundantly repeating major points of my previous posts.

… So I decided instead of giving a straight answer, I would first tell you how I came to fall in love with One Piece.

Around 14+ years ago, I began reading manga, with works such as Ranma 1/2, Pokemon and Dragon Ball being my starting point. You know, the average stuff everyone had read at some point. One Piece, already back then consisting of over 25+ volumes,  was only something a friend started to lend me and I read the first seven volumes, not really quite getting why it was that popular. I did not hate what I read, but there was nothing outright standing out to me the way the story was told that got to me. And then I hit the Arlong arc with volume 8 and onwards. While it was mostly the adventure of Luffy with his crew against Crocodile and his Baroque Corporation that totally sold me on the manga later on, the Arlong arc was what really got my attention. Seeing the character of Nami betray her friends, pieces of worldbuilding that would years later play a role and so much more, made me curious where things were going. Particularly, why Nami would betray Luffy. And when I reached chapter 77 to 81, where I got to read Nami’s backstory, how Arlong killed her adoptive mother in front of her eyes when she was just a little kid and Luffy declaring he was going to help her and her village, I was hooked. This was the first time in my life as a manga reader, I was not just entertained, I was emotionally invested. Because not only was Nami’s backstory genuinely saddening to me, but seeing Luffy determined to help her and the ensuing battles was exciting. Exciting because it truly showed to me, how awesome of a character this goofball with stretching powers really is. Not because he was physically strong, but because he was willing to do all of that for someone just “because” he considers that person a friend. Seeing Luffy not just beat up Arlong, but destroying everything this bastard had build on the suffering of the village and in doing so setting Nami free of the past that haunted her, because he cared for her as a person not in a romantic but platonic manner, was satisfying on so many levels.

 And ever since then Eiichiro Oda proved to me time and time again, even if he hits a bump in the road (seriously, fuck most of the Fishmen Island arc) he knows how to write a world that doesn’t just manage to be cartoonishly entertaining, but also filled with heartfelt moments, where true heroism is not defined just by physical strength, but the willingness of the main characters to help and care for each other and the people they meet across the journey. There are many stories out there where the power of friendship as a virtue, and the virtues it is build on are a theme. But in the world of shonen manga, One Piece for me is still the top.

 And Andrew Dobson’s Alex ze Pirate is the complete antithesis to everything Oda EVER created in One Piece.

 While One Piece has one of the most complex worlds I have ever seen in fiction, with Oda often times setting building stones for future story arcs years in advance (seriously, the thing with Brook and Laboon alone is worth mentioning) , Dobson can’t even bother to properly tell us in what part of the ocean Alex has her adventure or why there is a beaver dog thing walking around a bunch of humans.

 While One Piece has some gorgeous artwork and unique designs with an insane level of cartoonish detail, Dobson has some very generic designs and draws like a 15 year old girl that read Spirou and manga too much and now starts doing scribble artwork.

 While Oda draws chapters for over 20 years now, Dobson could not even bother to finish up the adventure of the crew getting properly together back in 2004, as only one volume was released.

 While One piece tells a story that defines the shonen genre for over a decade, Dobson tells stupid newspaper strip jokes that are not even interconnected much.

 While Oda’s Strawhats are the embodiment of the word nakama, Dobson’s characters only bring the following old saying to mind:

 With friends like this, who needs enemies?

 Bottom line, Alex ze Pirate is absolute garbage as a work of entertainment, particularly in the world of kids entertainment. It was so already long before Dobson wrote the three part story I reviewed in detail, but this story in my opinion was for anyone with a bit of brains the last nail in the coffin. Cause overall, this was likely Dobson’s last chance in his and the eyes of the readers.

 The last chance, because he was going to put all his talent as a writer and artist into this one story to prove his critics wrong; That he could tell an engaging and emotionally fulfilling story in a multi part story, longer than his 15 pagers. But like with everything else I have seen so far, he failed.

 He failed artistically, because damn does this not look even remotely professional compared to other professionally published work or even other silly webcomics like Cludscratcher or Housepets (which I highly recommend you to read).

 He failed as a storywriter, because instead of emotionally engaging and well paced, this shit is rushed, works more on “tell, don’t show” than anything else and really just magnifies the worst aspects of his characters and Dobson’s mean spirited humor in general. Cause this is not a tale where we feel like Sam genuinely has found a family and friends in Alex and her crew. It is the tale of Sam just accepting that he has nothing better going on in his life.

 He failed, because instead of actually putting care, effort and love for his characters and work into this, he likely just wanted to get it out and hope that just because he “put effort” into this more than usual, he would already get praise by default.

 And once this thing was out, all that happened was the following: Even more people realized what kind of hack he is, that this project was not going to be salvaged even if actual stories instead of strip based jokes are told and he misinterpreted the disinterest as reason to just completely give up, instead of trying harder.

 And as a result, even if Dobson still went on to do shitty redesigns and a few more pages for it, Alex ze Pirate soon after ended. Put into everlasting hiatus, where it joins such work as Pilote Candidate or Frank Millers All Star Batman and Robin.

 Dobson, if you ever read this, let me just say it how it is: You failing to make even the most basic story about people appreciating their friends, particularly when within the last decade there has been an entire fandom of manchildren out there that was build on a show with “Friendship is Magic” in the title, just shows how bad of a storyteller and creator you are. You shouldn’t have gone to college in order to become an animator, you should have joined fanfiction.net in order to get some basic understanding on how to even write. Cause your writing is so bad, it makes fanfiction look genuinely complex and thoughtful. Well that and you should perhaps go out and find genuinely friends and not just online supporters that mistake you for some persecuted innocent artist, when in reality you are just a toxic idiot who attempts to manipulate people so he can profit of them and their fleeting interest in his substandard comics based on the lowest common denominator cartoons.

 I wrap this review up. We will revisit Alex one day again, but for now, I just want to focus on something more positive. So within the next weeks, if I post something, I will try to make it focused on something NOT Dobson related. You know, stuff to genuinely enjoy. Till then, I just want to say thank you. Thank you @hypocricyofandrewdobson for reblogging my entries. Thank you to everyone who liked this, reblogged this or started to follow me because of it. I hope I managed to educate and entertain you all in a positive manner, without making myself come off too much like an assholish nerd with too many interests. Stay safe.

 And hey, if any of you has his own two cents on Sam, Alex or the others, even ideas how to make them genuinely better, I am always open.

 See ya.

[ximca]

Evidence.ZIP: Nami's slow descent into love

Before we start I want to make clear a few things. This is not paid work which means it's substandard trash, all of the scans used are unofficial, but all the interpretations are mine.

Ready? Set. Go.

This first panel is not a shipping panel. LuNa or SaNa, it's not. However because it's been some days since Sanji took off, that means between that day and the day Luffy and company arrived, he's been on her mind. Again I stress, this is not a romantic sign or symbol of any note. Her tears are of worry and relief because she's been worried sick for her nakama and relief because finally, Luffy's here, let's get the rescue rolling.

The next two pictures are about Nami being eager to get off their butts and go after Sanji right away. But Luffy and Zoro are in no hurry, and even Chopper and Brook in other panels are just sad that Sanji is gone but they're not like Nami who's gung ho about chasing him right away. Does that mean they’re not worried about Sanji? No, of course they are, but Nami obviously is the most worried here.

Right before everything happened, Nami was pretty belligerent towards Sanji. She's used to everything he does, including his antics. But by no means does that mean she's apathetic to him. After all, even as early as FI our guy Sanji put in the work. In PH even if he didn't like it, he followed Nami's wish to save the kids and his body serendipitously saved Nami from Caesar's explosion. Nami knows that Sanji would save any other of his nakama, but it was only during the time skip that she began to see how much special attention Sanji actually paid her. And she doesn't even know yet, that Sanji gave her body respect when he dived that lake to get Kinemon's torso, when just a few minutes ago he was cupping her breasts like a madlad for a punchline.

Nami also remembers quite clearly what little Sanji told them about his family. It doesn't seem anything special until you realize that when this happened, Nami asked Chopper right before to dig a spot up for gold, and forgot all about it entirely when Sanji was telling them about Liar Norland.

So then Sanji and co. got captured. This is what I think triggered Nami, the "I'll be back but not really" smile she's seen twice in her life now: Sanji's and Bellemere's. She never really knew what she had until he was gone.

In this panel Nami is mad at Zoro for victim blaming Sanji. Both sides have a point, but take note of Luffy. He noticed, as well as I did (and a few others), that Nami was being a teensy bit overreacting at this point. Why I judged that to be his action instead of Luffy observing the back and forth, is because he’s of the same opinion as Zoro...marriages are no big deal, it’s not like somebody won’t return from a marriage. But Nami’s uncomfortable with it, so in order to remedy the problem, he decides to go up to Sanji and ask him to come back, because their navigator was being cranky when he wasn’t around. Also because he didn’t want to be a Big Mom subordinate, but if it was really the basis of his decision then he should have decided the chase before Nami’s overreaction.

The other two victims, Brook and Chopper, had very different stances. Brook was the calm and mature narrator while Chopper just kept apologizing.

See again Luffy in this panel. But, in addition to noticing Nami's vehement objection to Sanji's Vinsmoke lineage, there's also what I call the "wait a minute!" graphic. It's those small lines that form a semicircle near a character when something catches their attention during someone else's monologue. So now he knows something's definitely up with Nami, if he wasn't sure before.

That face isn't a "wait a minute, what are Vinsmokes?" but rather a "wait a minute, why are you objecting?"

For comparison, this is Nami’s “wait a minute, I know who you’re talking about” panel.

After the Jack ownage, Luffy was open to another banquet like he wasn't done with one the night before. Nami feels once is enough, let's get going, and gives her usual excuse of "you can't go anywhere without a navigator" spiel like Luffy doesn't know what she does. Go back to when Luffy visited Pekoms, he was still saying no to her because the fewer the members the higher the chance of stealth. But now all he says is OK. He knows that somebody on his crew can't wait to see Sanji again, and he's all too happy to oblige.

Even in this catfight prelude, Nami wants to hurry up, giddy up. But when Pudding elaborates on her situation...

THIS is where I think Nami caught herself slippin'. Luffy's just happy with someone complimenting his cook, Chopper is concerned with fact checking, but Nami...is concerned about Sanji's emotional well-being? If she really didn't give him the time of day then why the hell does she care whether Sanji marries for love and not just for political reasons? Just Nami well-wishing? Can't be, because well-wishers would not question whether or not the bride loves her groom in a political marriage.

ANYBODY else would give the happy bride-to-be a congratulations but only a "former-gf-who-has-accepted-the-reality-of-the-situation-who-still-has-residual-feelings-of-love" would confirm for herself if the man she left/who left her is being loved by his bride-to-be.

And before someone says “But family members and to an extent nakama would ask that too!”, they won’t question the bride’s/groom’s feelings, but whether or not he/she is ready to take care of their partner for the rest of their life. Nami isn’t asking “Will you take care of Sanji for the rest of his life?”

Also I think this conversation makes One Piece finally fail the Bechdel Test after all these years.

Fast forward to when they caught up with the Germa, that's Nami's face of relief from being worried about not being able to see each other again. If Sanji were his normal self this is probably where he'd ask her Do you love me now, Nami-san? or something. And after Nami fighting about quarter/half of 11 hours vs Cracker (this dude could take several G4 punches too), she'd probably reply to him in kind at that point.

I have no doubt in my mind that this Nami was one who already recognized her feelings and had no problem acting on them.

But reality is cruel...Sanji wasn't taking any chances. Even going as far as mock Luffy for his dream...and she believed it...despite hearing about a week ago from his own mouth that Luffy was going to be PK!

Luffy never believed the cockbull Sanji was cranking out, so why did Nami? Well for starters, Nami never experienced Sanji lying to her. Ever. You can even search the whole manga for a panel up to that point where Sanji lied to her, you won't find it. That's why she believed Sanji's lies so easily.

Do you remember the Usopp vs Luffy fight? The stated reason is because Usopp doesn't want to leave the Merry behind, due to his own insecurity about being weak and his projection onto the boat being useless and needing replacement which snowballed into him cracking. But was that really all it was? Of course not, Usopp wasn't selfish enough to fight for himself. Flee for himself maybe. He wasn't just fighting for the Merry Go, he was also fighting for Kaya because Merry was his reminder of her.

Scour the manga, all of Usopp's most emotional fight moments are because he was fighting for someone else.

Back to Nami, what did the slap mean? Was it anger at beating Luffy up and spitting on his dream? Yes. Was it because of all the stress and worry for him being useless at that point? Yes. But as a natural opposite of Usopp, Nami's most emotional fight moments are about herself.

Nami decided to fight Arlong because of his continued tyranny towards Cocoyashi Village despite her doing her best to pay up their freedom, but the bulk of her anger was about how much Arlong fucked her life up. Thanks to him she never grew up with a normal childhood.

With Nami vs Ms. Doublefinger, I think Nami even decided to leave her to Zoro. However because she was being labeled a weakling (and underestimated), she decided to stay and fight. Nami vs Kalifa was a similar case of underestimation despite her taking the fight because Sanji was useless against Kalifa.

I think Nami was also mad that Sanji wasn't the same man she realized she fell in love with. Gone was the kind, humble, and goofy man who would stick up for his nakama and their dreams. In his place was a snotty brat who acted superior to everything and believed status gave them the right to shit on other people's dreams. Nami thinks Sanji has changed for the worse because of his newfound status, and drops the endearment term “-kun” which she only used for him.

It's framed like in TV dramas where the lady slaps the man out of passion. Yonji even lampshades it: "She's the fiery type!"

The last pic is just Nami’s “oh shit no” look compared to Luffy’s “oh shit” one.

I’m too tired to continue so I’m stopping this here.

Better researchers than I can spot where Nami first got infatuated by Sanji.

All I’m saying is, they don’t really care about us Sanami shippers should not worry about the character development Oda gave Nami in the Year of Sanji. It’s been a long time coming for us but it’s the last stretch before the game ends.

Don’t expect Oda to give them a flashy confession or an extraordinary action to validate the ship.

But if I read Oda right and this is where he wants Sanji and Nami to take the next step into their relationship, we’re in the green.

Naysayers will say things like “but Nami would do the same for the other nakama” or “so and so would act like that too” but take heed and remember, Oda does not write without reason. He MADE Nami overreact because he wants US to care that Sanji was taken from the crew. He WROTE Sanji into catching Nami with both of them sharing a brief smile because he wants US to feel the relief of both parties safe in each other’s hold.

And he DREW Pudding being jealous because that’s how some other ships feel about this arc. jk ilu guise this is just banter

Thanks for reading.

[creative-type]

Building up to Arlong Part I

“Just wait ‘till the Arlong arc.”

I think anyone who’s been in the One Piece fandom for any length of time has read some variation of the above sentence. It’s almost universally agreed that the Arlong arc is the tipping point from the series, elevating One Piece from okay to great. Detractors, newcomers, and the generally curious are all told to hold off their judgment until seventy chapters into the series, which seems like an absurd amount of time for a reader to get hooked.

In an interview with several of Oda’s former editors (English summary here, about three-quarters down the page) it’s stated that One Piece met some initial resistance in Japan among the staff at Shonen Jump, with some of the editors not seeing the appeal and others having to convince them of its “awesomeness”. 

It’s hard to imagine the manga garnering such a reaction today, but I think it’s important to keep in mind that One Piece is Oda’s first serialized work. He had been an assistant and written several one shots, but he’d never had to put together a long-form story before. He was learning and growing as an author and artist as he went along. 

Just compare the art in these two pages

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Both are establishing shots of new locations, one of Usopp’s hometown and the other the Marines setting Luffy’s first bounty. The amount of detail outside the marine base blows the idyllic hills of Syrup village out of the water. It can be jarring to see how sparse early One Piece panels are when you’re more used to the cluttered, chaotic pages of later chapters.

But I think it would be impossible for Oda to make the jump from “meh” to “this is amazing” without some proper buildup. Early One Piece arcs contain bits and pieces of what makes the series so beloved, and as each arc progresses Oda takes what he’s learned and adds it into an ever-improving whole. So let’s take a look at these early chapters and find the diamonds scattered among the rough.

Romance Dawn

Chapter 1 is arguably the best crafted stand-alone story in these early chapters. That makes sense. As a pilot chapter for the series I’m sure it was written and rewritten dozens of times for maximum effectiveness, and I think it gets across everything it needs to without belaboring the point.

Romance Dawn is a glimpse of the quality that Oda would later produce on a more consistent basis. The characters are fun and have hidden depths, the art is simple but dynamic, and the bait-and-switch where Shanks doesn’t initially beat the crap out of the mountain bandits is a surprise considering the genre. And if haki was indeed planned from the beginning it’s also the first instance of Oda’s famous foreshadowing ability. 

Considering future backstories it’s a little surprising that no one important to Luffy dies, but the familiar themes of inherited will, dreams, and sacrifice are present. The lack of uber-tragedy sets Luffy apart from a lot of protagonists and fits with his lighthearted, carefree characterization and the more whimsical nature of the series, while still hinting at the darkness that exists within the world. 

Alvida

Chapter 2 is also a stand-alone story, but it’s much more generic. Following a common trend during these early chapters, it’s more focused on establishing Luffy as a character than any of the antagonists, and world building is minimal. Alvida is so boring that Oda completely repurposed her design and personality when she was reintroduce in Louge Town, and at this point Coby is a walking, talking foil to Luffy with little to no personality of his own. 

There are a couple of things to note, though. One, Luffy’s characterization is remarkably consistent to what we see later in the series. Here we see him smile as he faces death, while later in the chapter Luffy insults Coby and calls him a wimp in a scene that’s reminiscent of his interaction with Shirohoshi during the Fishman Island arc. He also doesn’t help Coby until Coby stands up for himself, subtly enforcing the idea that Luffy is not a hero. 

Second, we can see the embryonic form of Oda’s later paneling and page layouts. The above scene reminded me of a picture I pulled for my analysis of Chapter 218.

You can’t see it here, but in Chapter 218 Oda tilts his panels to match the rocking of the Going Merry, using an unconventional panel format to convey the chaos the Straw Hats are experiencing while also giving the eye an easy path to follow.

Chapter 2 has the “fade to black” Oda commonly uses when transitioning scenes, but the format is the traditional three lines of (mostly) rectangular panels. Despite the huge whirlpool you don’t get a sense that the situation is dangerous.

Also note the sheer amount of information conveyed in the sequence from Chapter 218 compared to the Chapter 2 despite them sharing basically the same layout. There are four separate panels of the same whirlpool - adequate enough in showing the passage of time, but visually kind of boring, which sums up the art in general during these early chapters.

Shells Town 

The Shells Town arc shares a lot of the same flaws as the Alvida encounter, but has the benefit of a longer page count, which is helpful in fleshing out the story. Coby starts to grow into his own, and Zoro is introduced. The focus is still on establishing Luffy’s ideals as a pirate and Morgan is a one-note villain, but the world is starting to grow, namely with the complex morality of the marines.

We also get our first taste of Oda’s specific brand of Tragic Backstory (tm). Zoro’s flashback is arguably the weakest of all the Straw Hat’s. The pacing is rushed and I personally find the segue in and out of the present day to be a little jarring, but the bones of it is sound even if the execution is iffy. 

The fight against Morgan doesn’t last long, but outclassed as he is, he at least puts up a better showing than Alvida. There are some neat camera angles and perspective tricks that Oda uses that sell Luffy’s flowing, so-long-as-it-works-I’m-going-to-do-it fighting style. 

Again, this is but a taste of things to come, and short as it may be the Morgan fight is fun. Oda has said he gave Luffy the gum-gum fruit to help keep things from ever getting too serious, and reading these early chapters I believe it.

Orange Town

I would call the Buggy arc the first “standard” One Piece arc. At fourteen chapters it’s decently long by East Blue standards. It’s is leaps and bounds better than anything we’ve seen thus far, and we have the flashy bastard himself to thank.

Pre-comic relief Buggy manages to straddle the line between menacing and likable. One thing I do appreciate about One Piece villains is that they’re generally not given an excuse for their evilness (a trend that is admittedly starting to reverse post timeskip). We are never told why Buggy, Kuro, or Kreig set out to be pirates, and frankly we don’t need to know. Buggy is given a reason for his animosity towards Shanks, but it’s never used as a justification for his more jerkish behavior.

And he is a jerk. A clever, reasonably powerful, flashy jerk, but a jerk all the same.

With this added characterization, Buggy has the honor of being the first charismatic and memorable villain of the series, and is also the first instance of camaraderie within an enemy organization. In all honesty, I think the only thing separating Orange Town from the Cocoyashi village is emotional stakes. Buggy’s opinion notwithstanding, there is no Tragic Backstory (tm). The little dog comes closest, but the effectiveness of Shu depends entirely how much one cares for sad animal stories (I am immune, and subsequently don’t much care about Laboon either).

More importantly, it’s here that we see the first primitive instances of Straw Hat interaction, and some of the stuff that happens when Oda lets all the different personalities bounce off of one another is pure gold

Also Luffy shoves an old man face-first into a wall for his own good. I feel like that ought to be mentioned every time someone tries to call him a hero.

But the thing that really stands out in Orange Town when placed within the overarching plot is Oda’s burgeoning skill at playing the long game in regards to his storytelling, specifically in regard to Nami.

The Alvida, Morgan, and later Gaimon’s arcs are largely self-contained little stories that serve to flesh out Luffy as a protagonist. When Zoro was recruited the audience was informed of his history and character motivation almost immediately. During Nami’s first conversation with Luffy in chapter 9 we learn that she’s 1) raising 100,000,000 berries to buy a village, 2) loves money and tangerines, and 3) hates pirates. We don’t learn the reason for any of these things until her backstory is revealed in chapter 78.

There are obvious parallels to Robin’s recruitment much later, but really this is Oda something does quite often. Vivi and Law were both around for awhile before the meat of their stories were told. Having someone familiar around for big conflicts helps give a face to the nameless masses. It would have been really hard for Oda to make the reader care about the average Joe in Cocoyashi village without having a pre-established connection in the form of Nami, and it would be really hard to care about Nami if the audience hadn’t been given the time to get to know her first.

By waiting so long to let Nami develop as her own character, the emotional stakes missing from Orange Town are fully present during the much-beloved march to Arlong Park. The latter cannot exist without the former.

I said in the opening that 70 chapters is an absurd amount of time to get hooked into a story, but in some ways I can completely understand why it would take that long. One Piece isn’t built on slick one-liners or “cool” characters. It’s fun and goofy and doesn’t take itself too seriously. Hints of future intrigue and mystery are strewn along like bread crumbs down a path, organically delivered as the world unfurls bit by bit. There’s a methodicalness to it that catches the reader by surprise, yet makes perfect sense as the crew goes from island to island.

Orange Town is just the beginning of this in action, but once again this is getting pretty long. I’ll finish the road to Arlong Park in another post. Thanks for reading :)   

[sanjiafsincedayone]

Happy Birthday Sanji~!

Today it’s Sanji’s birthday!

Exactly one year ago I was in Tokyo and visited the Mugiwara Store and enjoying the Day of Sanji in the Year of Sanji.

Now, I’ve been extremely busy for the last six months and I haven’t been able to write even half of the posts I come up with in my head. But today is Sanji’s birthday and he’s my favorite anime character of all time. So, I am going to talk about my love for Sanji, and all (some of) the reasons to why he’s my favorite.

Under the cut you’ll find a lot of love and me being biased! Now on to my list of reasons to love Sanji.

Sanji is versatile.

I was considering putting down other words to describe Sanji, like cool, suave, kind, emotional, funny or even dorky. But the thing is that I love Sanji for being all these things and more. It’s the wonderful mix that makes Sanji so interesting to me. He’s not just the cool guy or the comic relief which could be so easy considering how a lot of shonen writers can sometimes get a little one dimensional with their characters. I love how Sanji can make me laugh in one second and then go to being badass the next. Of course I also love that Oda has put at least some spin on the whole pervert trope, and Sanji is by far the best written anime-perv I’ve come across. He has his moments that are really bad of course, but I still think Oda manages to handle it well most of the time. His kindness and self-sacrifical side is no joke either, and I love that Oda is highlighting it in the Whole-Cake Island arc.

This is where I could list all of Sanj’s qualities that I love so much, but I’m just going to mention a few that stand out. First, I love how he’s literally the kindest person ever, even Luffy says so. He has such a strong sense of empathy and he’s actually one of the crewmembers that worries the most. I also love his I hate you but not really attitude, it’s why his interactions with the other chefs at Baratie, Zeff and Zoro are so wonderful to watch. Sanji cares the most, but he often pretends that he doesn’t. At the same time though I am very thankful that he doesn’t have to act though all the time, he has his moments of weakness or his moments where he becomes very emotional, and it’s great that he’s not embarrassed about it.

Honestly this is a subject that I could go on talking about forever, but I kind of want to mix it with another point, so I’m moving on to reasons number 2!

Sanji is well-written.

In my own (slightly biased) opinion Sanji is one of the most well-written characters in shonen manga. Why? Because he’s so much more real than most other characters. He has good and bad sides and he has so many different qualities and as mentioned above he’s far from one dimensional. His reactions and emotions feels genuine. Sanji is a deep character, and the way Oda has written him with only little hints over the years make people want to try and understand and analyze him. I’ve read a great deal of Sanji meta, and it’s so fascinating, especially now when Oda has revealed so much more about his background.

And that is a second part for how Sanji is well-written, Oda has built his story slowly over time with only small revelations that easily can go unnoticed by the casual reader, but when actually looking we can go back to 15 years ago and find moments that Oda has written with Sanji’s background in mind. So much makes sense suddenly, the mystery surrounding him that always pulled me towards Sanji is slowly starting to unravel. It’s fascinating and captivating and it just makes me realize even more what a wonderful character Sanji truly is.

Sanji is different.

Now, again, this overlaps a bit with the previous points, but I want to put some emphasis on it. Now, Sanji is a male shonen character that stands out in a lot of ways. And honestly some of these points are some of the biggest reasons why other One Piece fans doesn’t like him, but that is their choice. Anyways, I’m talking about Sanji not being a stereotypical shonen trope. I think Oda generally writes his characters quite uniquely, but even so he too writes his characters to fit into certain molds. With Sanji I personally always liked how he wasn’t just the cool character or the designated pervert. Oda found a good balance, that makes Sanji fit in well with both joking around with Luffy, Usopp or Chopper, being a dork over Nami or Robin, having his rivalry with Zoro but also being suave or serious when it’s required of him. Maybe I’m really just biased but since the beginning I loved how Sanji broke a lot of the stereotypes of males in anime and manga. He’s allowed to be showed crying, or loosing and still remain cool and admirable. Of course I know many disagree and feel like Oda is screwing Sanji over since after the timeskip, but I really love being able to see Sanji like this, almost broken. And it’s not because I’m a sadist, but because that’s realistic, Sanji reacts to things more like a real human rather than as a hero of a shonen manga.

He breaks a lot of stereotypes, and that makes him so much more interesting. I’ve also talked about him breaking a lot of sexist stereotypes as well, meaning he has a lot of stereotypically considered “female characteristics”. Such as he cooks, he’s very emotional (cries a lot despite being written in a mostly mature way), he wears a lot of pink or otherwise flamboyant clothes/patterns, he’s strong but not muscular, etc. These are qualities not everyone likes, but I love that Oda writes it and still maintains Sanji as a “cool” male character because it could so easily have turned into something different. Again, Sanji has so many sides and combined they make him very interesting and unique.

Sanji’s fights.

I loved Sanji’s fighting style even before he entered the series even from just watching that small clip of him in the first opening. It’s just a really great fighting style to watch! Kicking, and also having the no hands policy is so great to me. Because even though Sanji is limiting himself I just personally find his style really cool. He’s agile and moves a lot when he fights, and there is a lot of diversity in his moves despite him basically only using his legs. I think Oda makes some really awesome panels for Sanji fighting, and the anime usually makes it even cooler. Sanji’s finishing kick against Kuroobi was probably the first time in One Piece I really loved a specific move, and that fight still holds a special place in my One Piece heart.

Seeing Sanji fight with knifes was another big highlight for me, and a surprise. That is something I love too, because who would suspect that Sanji could do those things? Or that he could lit himself on fire? I love the surprises, and that Sanji fights using both strength, speed and brains. Sanji’s fights are always different and very fun to watch. And added bonus for Sanji usually delivering some nice one-liners. I am looking forwards to what he’ll do now when the final climax of Whole Cake Island draws near.

Sanji’s design.

I know this is very shallow of me, but way before I even knew One Piece and even when I knew it but hadn’t started watching it yet (because it was so long and looked kinda weird) Sanji was already my favorite. I didn’t know him, but I loved his design even when he was just the blond guy from One Piece. Through the years this has not changed, even though I obviously don’t love all Oda’s outfits for him. But either way Sanji is just very pleasing to look at, and he also seems to be one of the straw hats that changes his clothes the most, so that’s also fun.

Sanji’s voice.

It’s no secret, but Hiroaki Hirata is amazing! He’s also one of my favorite seiyuu of all time, if not my absolute favorite. He’s just a great voice actor and even before I watched One Piece I was in love with his voice. Hiroaki Hirata is actually (as I’ve talked about before) one of the main reasons I even started to watch One Piece to begin with. The voice acting is one of the great reasons to not only read the manga but also see the anime, and Sanji’s voice is just another great part of his character. It’s also pretty awesome how active and funny Hiroaki Hirota is, and he’s the only seiyuu I bother to even follow on twitter. Anyway, I’ve already talked and gushed about Hiroaki Hirata plenty of times before, but just know that I am just as in love with Sanji’s voice as I am with his character.

Sanji’s background.

Again we come back to Oda being a good writer. I know this is just opinion, but for me One Piece really took off after Baratie and Arlong Park, that’s when I started to love it and got really invested in the story. A big part of that was Sanji’s introduction and the way the whole Baratie arc was handled, it’s when things started to get bigger and the world of One Piece started to build properly. But back to Sanji, because his background story with Zeff on the island is such a good little story. But it was also a little bit weird, because it just began in the middle, and it had Sanji fans (including me) speculating for years about how he even ended up on the Orbit in the first place. Who is Sanji really? His story about starving and his debt to Zeff was wonderful and also it’s so fundamental to Sanji’s character, but even so there was always something kind of missing. Sanji’s past truly shaped him, and he seems to be the one strawhat that is still the most affected by his past. I loved Sanji and Zeff together and how their story was told, and after getting additional snippets recently, I just love it even more.

Speaking of recently there is of course the fact that Oda has dedicated a whole arc to add onto Sanji’s background story, and revealing more about him than possibly any other member besides Luffy. This was such a welcome surprise, and it shows how much Oda truly loves Sanji. I think that Zou and Whole Cake Island has been great arcs, and the reveals about Sanji’s character has been so good. Of course I don’t love everything, but it all just makes so much sense. When looking back at Sanji now I feel like I can understand him better than ever. It’s also great to see a person like Sanji still being able to be as good of a person as he is despite his past. He’s such a strong character with a great heart, and I love Oda for letting us all know just how his story began.

Sanji’s bonds and interactions.

Now I love all the strawhats and their bonds with each other, but since Sanji is my number one I can’t help but pay extra attention to his bonds with the rest of the crew. Just in the last few months we’ve gotten so many great moments between Sanji and Luffy and Oda has showed just how strong their bond is. I love it, and since Sanji is such a versatile character he can fit into pretty much any group on the ship. He can be one of the dorks with Luffy and Usopp, he can be one of the pervs with Brook (and Franky?), he can be strategic/serious with Nami and Robin, he can be an older brother (or father) figure for Chopper and basically just go from both being part of a serious or an unserious group depending on what’s happening. He’s levelheaded but also very emotional and has a huge range of emotions, thus he can relate to and understand most of his crewmembers really well. I especially love his bonds with Luffy, Zoro, Nami and Usopp, but that’s just because in general these five are more developed together. Either way, Sanji fits into so many groups on their ship and it’s lovely to see. His undeniable bond with Zoro is amazing and truly fascinating to follow. It’s all also very fun to watch. Basically I just love Sanji interacting with people in general… His bond with Gin was also great to see, and of course the same goes for Zeff. And also now his complicated relationships with his blood family, all new territory with Sanji-bonds to explore and I’m loving it.

Sanji’s dream.

I like Sanji’s dream a lot because it’s very romantic and in a way very naïve. It’s a child’s dream almost (actually it is, since he got it when he was a child), just like Luffy wanting to find the One Piece. No one knows if it even exists and they’ll get laughed at for even talking about it, yet they dream on. I also love that it’s not about achievement, it’s more a dream than a goal. I also like that it’s connected to the sea as well as him being a chef. Sanji is the one crewmember I most closely think of as a sailor, and having a dream like his about All Blue is very fitting with the sailors’ romance for the sea.

So this has been me ranting about Sanji, what else is new? But really, I think that Sanji is a wonderful character that Oda has put a lot of effort into. Today is Sanji’s birthday and I must say that the latest chapter was yet another great gift from Oda. Keep up the good work, I’ll keep loving Sanji and probably keep falling even harder for this lovely cook as time goes on. Thanks for reading~! And sorry for this being mostly just me ranting.

Happy Birthday Sanji-kun! And also, congrats about the nice SaNami you got from Oda in the latest chapter. A proposal huh? (god I love delusional Sanji) What a nice birthday gift. ;)

[aion-rsa]

One Piece: The 10 Best Episodes

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Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece has become one of the most popular anime and manga series of all time. The series has been running for over two decades and accumulated a staggering amount of episodes that puts it nearly at the 1000-episode mark. One Piece joyfully indulges in many of the aspects that make action shounen anime series so addictive and fun. 

Despite the series’ influence on the rest of anime, it’s hard to maintain consistent quality after so much time. The One Piece anime is notorious for exhaustive spans of “filler,” and the vast amount of content can easily intimidate some from ever checking out the series. Funimation recently announced that their dub of One Piece has resumed and so there’s never been a better time to jump into the series. To help make the anime feel a little less impenetrable, here are some of the very best episodes that One Piece has to offer.

“Thank You, Merry! Snow Falls over the Parting Sea!”

“Thank You, Merry!” is easily the emotional apex of One Piece and you don’t have to even be a fan of the series to break down into tears over this touching, genuine story. The Straw Hat Pirates are off on another journey, when they notice that their ship, the Going Merry, begins to crack and fall into disrepair. This prompts Luffy and company to realize that it’s time to say goodbye to their first vessel and they hold a cathartic Viking funeral for the ship. This is such a beautiful example of what the strength of One Piece’s characters can accomplish. The final moment where the spirit of Merry apologizes to the pirates for not being able to take them further on their journey—as if she did something wrong—is just heart wrenching. 

“Eliminated Friends – The Final Day of the Straw Hat Crew”

It’s very easy for anime to fall into ruts or become repetitive, especially when it comes to how the battles play out. One Piece is guilty of this too, but “Eliminated Friends” is an excellent example of defying expectations. The Straw Pirates find themselves up against the Shichibukai and one of their members, Kuma, has an overpowered ability to slap people away into the sky to an undetermined fate. 

“Eliminated Friends” has Luffy slowly watch all of his team members get flung away. Not only is there a real sense of dread, but Luffy also has a breakdown over how he’s not able to save anyone. It’s the kind of vulnerable moment that shounen anime heroes typically don’t show. It also ends on a fantastic cliffhanger that really messes with the audience.

“Everything Is to Protect My Friends! Second Gear Activated!”

One Piece is an anime that features plenty of over the top abilities and techniques, but much like how the initial appearance of Super Saiyans is pivotal for Dragon Ball Z, it’s a very significant moment when Luffy first activates Second Gear mode. Technically, Second Gear is achieved at the end of the previous episode, but “Second Gear Activated!” is pure action as Luffy’s enhanced skills and strength are put to the test. Luffy’s powered up fight against Blueno is extremely satisfying and looks amazing. The juxtaposition of all of this with the other pirates’ fight with the Franky Family just works so well.

“A Fist of Divine Speed! Another Gear Four Application Activated!”

The later episodes of One Piece are steeped in a number of issues, but they’re still able to tap into greatness on occasion and remind audiences how exciting the action and characters can be. Luffy faces a difficult opponent with Katakuri and he pushes Luffy to show off an intense new form, Fourth Gear: Snakeman. The whole Snakeman transformation and its rapid fight style against Katakuri is a sight to behold. It’s a great battle and it’s particularly satisfying due to how evenly matched they are, which is perfectly illustrated with the explosive conclusion of the episode.

“Say You Want to Live! We Are Your Friends!”

“Say You Want to Live!” is a fantastic example of how far the Straw Hats are willing to go for each other. Robin begins to panic that Luffy and his crew will abandon her due to the baggage that she brings along with her. Luffy in fact does the contrary and declares war against the World Government in defense of Robin. The Straw Hats are willing to ruin their reputation to the whole world, just to help out one of their own.”We Are Your Friends!” also contains another one of the most heartbreaking moments in the entire series when Robin goes into her grueling “I want to live,” speech. It’s a great reminder of how strong the development of these characters is during the show’s start. It’s a beautiful ending.

“A Heartbreaking Duel! Luffy vs Sanji! – Part 2”

Episodes 807 and 808 are packaged together as a one-hour special, but it’s the second half that really stands out. Luffy and company have faced off against many horrendous villains, but one of the most difficult fights involves a clash between Luffy and one of his own, Sanji. Sanji gets pulled in two directions and decides to embrace his royal heritage and leave the Straw Hats’ grubby existence for a more luxurious and respectful tenure with the Big Mom Pirates. 

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The battle between Sanji and Luffy is one-sided, but what hits the most here is Luffy’s dedication to his teammate. Luffy’s speech at the end about how he’ll starve himself and remain immobile until Sanji rejoins him because he needs him to become the Pirate King is just a brutal scene. Sanji’s eventual breakdown shows that he also cares and that this situation isn’t pleasurable for anyone. The use of the song “Memories” turns it into even more of an emotional onslaught.

“Fists Full of Emotion! Luffy Unleashes Gatling with All His Might!”

The Enies Lobby Arc in One Piece is easily one of the most captivating saga of episodes that the anime pulls off. “Fists Full of Emotion!” acts as a major climax of that chaos as all of the Straw Hat Pirates have their hands full. Most of the crew have to contend with Marines, who also have Devil Fruit powers, but Luffy meets his match against Lucci. Luffy is on the outs and it’s not until Usopp delivers some inspiring words that help him get back on his feet. It’s an important moment between Luffy and Usopp, but it results in the unveiling of Luffy’s Gum-Gum Jet Gatling technique, which finally gives him the necessary advantage to beat Lucci.

“End of the Fishman Empire! Nami’s My Friend!”

The earliest episodes of One Piece have a real charm as the anime is still finding its footing and establishing many things that become staples of the series. “Nami’s My Friend” is just an excellent episode of One Piece that delivers on the action and finds a powerful emotional core to ground it all. Luffy’s battle against Arlong takes an unexpected turn when he learns that the fishman has been abusing Nami to produce maps for his team. The evidence of the pain that Nami’s experienced throws Luffy into such a rage that he demolishes Arlong Park. It’s an episode that shows what drives Luffy and it also marks Nami’s re-entry into the Straw Hats, which sets the pirates off into the next dangerous stage of their journey. 

“Luffy Vs. Usopp! Collision of Two Men’s Pride!”

Episodes 235 and 236 tell the same story of the dangerous rift between Luffy and Usopp, but it’s the latter of the two that features the fallout and consequences over all of this. Usopp shares a deep connection with the Going Merry, so Luffy’s announcement that they can’t repair the vessel and need to get a new one is viewed as a personal affront by Usopp. The fight that follows feels like the first real schism between Luffy and his friends and it teaches him the burden that a captain has to bear. This is a battle that neither friend wants to engage in and it messes both of them up for a while as a result.

“I Will Surpass You! Rain Falls in Alabasta”

One Piece has devoted hundreds of episodes to battles between Luffy and some new threat, but “I Will Surpass You!” is just a good episode that cuts to the chase and features impressive fights and attractive animation. Luffy currently has to contend against Crocodile and their battle is set within some ruins, which add plenty of ambiance to the altercation. Luffy gets very creative with his various abilities to help overpower Crocodile, which makes for a fun fight. Amidst the carnage, there’s also a deeper message present in this one as Vivi repeatedly tries to emphasize that violence is not the solution to problems.

One Piece can currently be streamed on Funimation.com, Hulu, and Netflix, in various capacities

The post One Piece: The 10 Best Episodes appeared first on Den of Geek.

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The Problem with the Chunin Exams

Though I didn’t know it at the time, Naruto was my first anime and my first anime love. I was exposed to it through the American dub as a kid without realizing it was Japanese or based on a comic. In my defense, this was before we had internet at my house, and at best I was only able to watch it every other weekend because my dad had cable and my mom didn’t. 

I dropped the anime when it started into filler hell and switched over to the manga in high school. I started at the timeskip and caught up to the weekly release around the Naruto-Kakuzu fight. Over the years I grew dissatisfied with the story, though I don’t really have a single moment where I gave up on it entirely. There was a slow decrease in excitement, going from eagerly waiting for the latest spoilers, to reading each chapter as they released, to dropping the manga entirely, and only picking it up again to see the final arc through and being incredibly frustrated with the finale, wondering week to week just where things went wrong.

All this to say, I’m not writing this as a hater. I loved Naruto like I love precious few stories, and though I don’t feel that way now doesn’t stop the series from holding a special place in my childhood. I reread the first 87 chapters to prepare for this - seeing many of them in the manga for the first time - and what I read reinforced what I’ve thought for a long time:

The Chunin Exam arc occurred too early in the series. My reasoning is under the cut, but be warned that long post is long. I regret nothing.

I don’t want this post to turn into a Naruto bash-fest to make One Piece look better in comparison, but in my analysis of the build up to the Arlong Park arc, one of the points I tried to make was that by letting the series build organically to an emotional peak tho “big moments” don’t feel cheap and are much more powerful to the reader.

Naruto starts much faster than One Piece does. It establishes Naruto as a character, introduces Team 7, and gets through the Wave Mission arc by chapter 33. In comparison, chapter 33 for One Piece was the middle of Usopp’s recruitment arc and had yet to have the series’s first, for lack of a better term, epic moments.

The problem for Naruto is that the Chunin Exam arc starts in chapter 34 with the introduction of the Sand Siblings. There’s no time to wind back down, no time for the audience to catch its breath, and no time to explore some of the milestones that were made in the Land of Waves.

And I’m not just talking power ups here, although that would be nice. There are several emotional significant moments for several different characters that are left hanging. I think the most obvious is Sasuke, so we’ll start with him

Team Seven’s Lost Development

Sasuke has a ton of focus even in these early chapters before the Uchia’s took over the plot, and I think it would be fair to say that Naruto and Sasuke are less main character and rival and more deuteragonists with branching stories that interconnect at key points of their lives.

This is taken from when Sasuke saves Naruto from Haku during the climax of the arc. Note the past tense. At this point in time, Sasuke no longer hates Naruto. Through the whole Wave arc there have been moments showing the evolution from Naruto and Sasuke’s relationship from a bitter one-sided rivalry into them actually acting like teammates. The Naruto-Saskuke dynamic is arguably the most important thing in the entire series, and the audience can’t be expected to believe later on that they have this super strong friendship without scenes like this. 

Then immediately after the Wave arc we get this

The relationship has soured once more. Sakua even says a few pages later that their relationship is worse than it was before the mission.

I don’t call shenanigans on scenes like this because Naruto and Sasuke are both emotionally stunted orphans unused to interpersonal relationships. There’s a good chance that they don’t know how they’re supposed to react after going through such an emotional life or death scenario. 

However, I can and will call shenanigans on events like the Valley of the End or the entirety of Part II because the author never shows Naruto and Sasuke growing beyond this petty antagonism. Instead of being written as two outcasts regressing to avoid dealing with the feels of the Wave arc, the Naruto-Sasuke dynamic stinks of sticking to the status quo. 

Sasuke and Naruto aren’t the only ones hit with this, but I tend to give Sakura more of a pass because her character growth happens during the Exams. There are several little hints of Sakura’s increasing awareness of how far behind she is from the boys sprinkled throughout to early exam chapters before hitting the bulk of her character arc during the Forest of Death. There’s even a nice little moment during the written exam where she actually considers someone other than Sasuke for what feels like the first time in the series

The problem here is that this development isn’t given enough set up. I would trade six panels of Sasuke looking cool to see just one interaction between Sakura and her parents. It is absolutely abysmal character writing that we learn about Sakura’s former friendship with Ino from Shikimaru and their rivalry from a freaking info box

Why did Sakura become a ninja? What do her civilian parents think about her being in life-threatening situations as a 12 year old girl? How does she feel about being the only (besides Naruto, as far as she knows) to graduate without a bloodline or family jutsu? What’s the deal with her “Inner Sakura”, is she just repressed, or is there some sort of split personality going on there? Does she have a crush on Sasuke for any reason other than his alleged cuteness? Why didn’t she ever apologize to Naruto for saying that she was jealous he was an orphan, even though he wasn’t present at the time?

Whether intentional or not, Kishimoto made Sakura a very unlikable character early on. I for one remember despising her when first watching the series. And you know what, that’s okay. Each member of Team 7 has enormous personality flaws, and having them slowly overcome said flaws makes for a strong narrative.

The thing is, it takes more time to develop an unsympathetic character than it does one who is sympathetic, and Sakura gets the least character development out of all Team 7 (Kakashi included). This is exacerbated by the fact that she is physically the weakest and does the least during fights - a huge flaw for a main character in a battle manga to have.

Lastly, Sakura’s greatest assets - her intelligence and superior chakra control - are rarely presented as useful. In fact, during her fight with Ino she falls into a basic trap, and the only thing that saves Sakura is her willpower...split personality...whatever the Inner Sakura is. It’s not really made clear and never shows up again.

And speaking of ignored plot points, remember this?

Do you remember Kakashi’s reaction to the possible weakening of the seal keeping in the Nine-Tailed Fox? You know, the innately evil demon monster that can level mountains with just one of its tails?

Yeah, that never gets addressed before the Chunin Exams.

Sakura and Sasuke have an excuse because they didn’t actually see Naruto, but Kakashi is never shown pulling Naruto aside and asking him what happened or taking steps to keep it from happening again. Naruto - the Leaf Village’s Number 1 loudmouth ninja - never asks what happened or is worried that he might lose control to a monster.

Also recall that Naruto decides on his Ninja Way during the Wave arc, yelling it out for everyone to hear because of how upset he was about having to fight and nearly kill someone he liked. This clashes with the current system, a fact Kakashi points out, but Kakashi doesn’t warn Naruto about the potential dangers of this line of thinking, nor are the ramifications of having kids act as child soldiers ever explored.

It’s things like this that make the time taken between major arcs so, so, so important. Not only does it give the characters (and audience) time to process what happened, but quiet moments can lead to incredible character growth, or at least set up later growth that in turn becomes more powerful and realistic because it was properly set up to begin with. 

Establishing Secondary Characters

When rereading the primaries for the third round of the exams, three fights stick out as carrying the most emotional weight: Rock Lee vs Gaara, Hinata vs Neji, and Sakura vs Ino.

I’ve already touched on the travesty of the Sakura-Ino rivalry, and while Rock Lee was also introduced during the exams, his motivation and character were established pretty well during the early parts of the arc.

That leaves us with Hinata vs Neji (and later on Naruto vs Neji). Now, out of the Leave genin introduced during the exams, only Ino and Hinata have any real connection to Team 7, and considering Hinata’s place as possible love interest to the main character, she’s arguably the most important to the narrative. Not that she’s ever treated that way, but I digress. Her wholehearted, albeit silent, support for Naruto sets her apart from almost every other character thus far, and her timid, gentle nature is a nice contrast to, well, almost every other character thus far. 

(In case it’s not apparent, I really enjoyed Hinata in Part I. I’ll try to keep my bias to a minimum) 

In addition, Hinata brings a nice spin on the “hard work trumps natural talent” theme that at this point was important to the story. Unlike Rock Lee and Naruto who (supposedly) are neither talented nor from powerful families, Hinata is a character from a powerful family who has no talent, and has to work past her weakness and overcome the burden of being the heir of one of Konoha’s most prominent families.

We learn none of this until her fight with Neji.

Time is an integral part of tension, and previously establishing conflict would go a long way in getting rid of some of the more awkward exposition dumps. For the Hinata-Neji fight Kishimoto has to explain 1) the byakugan 2) the gentle fist style 3) chakra points 4) how Neji and Hinata are related 5) Hinata’s struggle to better herself and 6) Neji hatred of the main house/fatalist mindset. 

That is a ton of information to try to get across in a short period of time, and this isn’t an isolated thing. These mega info dumps aren’t quite as pronounced during Rock Lee and Sakura’s fights, but they’re certainly there. To be fair, it can be hard to convey to the reader what’s going on without some kind of commentator character, but nothing kills the flow of a fight by cutting away from it constantly.

Lastly - and this is again pulling back and looking at the series as a whole - Hinata is basically ignored after this fight, so whatever character development she gets is lessened because there’s no followup.

To be fair, I am just talking about Hinata in this instance. Neji goes through significant growth during the rest of Part I before being mostly ignored in Part II. Because of her injuries Hinata a non-factor during the invasion, and obviously she wasn’t picked to recruit Tsunde or retrieve Sasuke.

This lack of focus has the unfortunate side effect of making the Hinata-Neji fight nothing more than a reason to hype the Naruto-Neji fight. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with hype, and in fact it’s necessary when looking at the arc as a whole. At the same time, it’s also clear Kishi had no idea how to handle the ensemble cast he’d created during the exams.

This mishandling of secondary characters becomes an even bigger issue during Part II, when Shikimaru becomes the only one of the former rookies to get any sort of character focus. Hinata is a favorite of mine, but I don’t buy her love confession anymore than I do Sakura’s, because she’s never seen interacting with Naruto. She is in love with the idea of who she thinks he is (much like Sakura and Sasuke, to be honest. Maybe Kishi should just stay away from romantic subplots.)

I mean, it’s well over 100 chapters before Hinata’s confession is even addressed in canon. I don’t think they have a word for how terrible that kind of writing is.

Fixing the Problem of the Chunin Exams

It can be almost impossible to have “slow” chapters while trying stay up in Shonen Jump’s popularity polls, and I don’t envy the mangaka trying to plan their manga under crushing schedule of weekly serialization, but using the power of retrospect, this is how I would have gone about fixing the problem of the chunin exams.

Firstly, I would have had at least a few of the other rookies be present in the first chapters. Ino would have been a good one to slip in the background when introducing Sakura.

Secondly, I would show the entire rescue the Fire Lady’s cat mission. This might seem stupid, but it would give a baseline for Team 7′s teamwork ability, and give Sakura a chance to show off her brain. For example, Naruto and/or Sasuke could attempt a simple henge only for Sakura to tell them that a cat will still be able to smell them. Something simple like that to establish she’s not absolutely useless.

Thirdly, during the Wave arc I would have Kakashi assign Sakura alternate training, planting the first seed of how far behind the boys she is in terms of ability. This could be anything from working on a jutsu to practicing infiltration to being responsible for setting up booby traps around the house for protection (which would not only make her immediately useful in the Wave arc, but be a nice call forward to the traps she sets during the Forest of Death).

I’d have Team 7 run into Asuma, Ino, Choji, and Shikimaru upon returning from Wave, introducing the concept of the Rookie 9 and Sakura’s rivalry. I would also have Naruto ask Sasuke if they want to train together sometime. In this scenario Sasuke reluctantly agrees, but during the training Naruto asks who Sasuke’s brother is and why Sasuke would want to kill him. This goes about as well as can be expected,  thus souring their relationship into the canon state I pointed out earlier.

Forced to train alone, Naruto runs across Hinata working on her taijutsu after Kiba and Shino have gone home for the night. I don’t know if Hinata’s shyness would let her speak in such a situation, but Naruto sees how hard she’s training and tells her to keep up the good work. 

Alternately

Team 7 could run across Team Gai at some point, and the audience is introduced to Kakashi and Gai’s rivalry. The Sasuke vs Lee fight from the exams is moved here, while Neji acts like enough of a douche for Naruto to hate him on principle. I kind of like the idea of Sasuke respecting Lee for working to beat someone stronger than he is, which would give Sasuke an added anchor to the village outside of Naruto (for added tragedy when he defects/humanizing him in the present) and give another reason for Lee to chase after Sasuke later in the series.

I would also put a scene where Kakashi asks Naruto about what happened when the seal weakened and/or telling the Hokage about the fox. This would also be a good time for Naruto to first contemplate telling Sakura and Sasuke that he’s a vessel for the fox.

No matter what happened, I would do a repeat of the team’s first cat mission just to show off how far our band of lovable ninjas has come.

Lastly, when Kakashi hands out the application for the exams I would have Sakura talk to her parents about it, or at the very least get their reaction. It would not only give Sakura greater depth but also be a good chance for some world building.

All of this could be done in a chapter or two and without breaking the flow to the exams. Hell, Kishi could have sent them on another C Ranked mission to another country and get in some sorely-needed world building and set up some of the political side of the chunin exams. The possibilities are endless.

In Conclusion 

The older I get, the more convinced I become that it’s the stuff that goes on between major story beats that’s most important when developing a story’s emotional tone. It’s a little thing, but it gives a story depth. Unfortunately, it’s a thing that Kishimoto failed to do, and it’s a flaw that only worsened as time went on.

Agree of disagree, thanks for taking the time to read the ramblings of a disenchanted fan. Going over these early chapters reminded me of how good early Naruto was, flaws and all. I don’t regret all the time I’ve put into this series over the years regardless of the omnishambles it turned out to be.

But hey, at least there’s fanfiction.