Media One Piece (spoilers!)

[Local Dog]

Spoiler

Xebec seems a little different from what I expected. I didn't expect a big, rough guy. I expected something more sinister, kinda like Blackbeard, but maybe this is on purpose for juxtaposition

I also don't think that the Father of Blackbeard thing is entirely true. That's a big reveal for a little text and doesn't seem right for Blackbeard, a guy that lives in shadows and came from nothing, to be the son of a super powerful pirate

Also, I guess Big Mom hasn't joined Xebec at that point in time

Let's see what will happen

 

[Coronis]

Spoiler

Xebec seems a little different from what I expected. I didn't expect a big, rough guy. I expected something more sinister, kinda like Blackbeard, but maybe this is on purpose for juxtaposition

I also don't think that the Father of Blackbeard thing is entirely true. That's a big reveal for a little text and doesn't seem right for Blackbeard, a guy that lives in shadows and came from nothing, to be the son of a super powerful pirate

Also, I guess Big Mom hasn't joined Xebec at that point in time

Let's see what will happen

I mean, I’m not sure why it would be a lie… and everything we’ve seen points towards it.

Sidenote:

Spoiler

Love that Rocks’ crew did indeed come from Davy Back Fight, as a fair few theorized. Maybe in fact Foxy is really his son. (more likely Foxy had heard of Rocks and decided to follow in his footsteps

 

[Mova]

foxy, porsche, and hamburg being more than characters of the day should've been clear at the end of the egghead arc when vegapunk's announcement leaked to the rest of the world. davy back fights were a big piece of foreshadowing for a while, even if luffy's techniques came off apparently situational compared to his usual attacks. it was a big brick joke the whole time, and now long ring long land is worth looking back at again, especially if you've skipped it like i did. (sad!)

 

[phoopes]

Back for the first time in a few months to say that I’m an anime only watcher and the announcement of the six month break made me remember that I have a lot of catching up to do.

Since I last posted I finished pre-timeskip (holy fuck Marineford was sooooo damn good) and now I’m in the Fishman Island arc. Not finding it quite as compelling as Marineford (but how would that even be possible haha) but I think it’s crazy that everything is so connected, the callbacks to Arlong Park made me wonder how Oda even thinks of these things this far in advance. Or even if he doesn’t his ability to maintain continuity is nuts

I put One Piece down for awhile again, but I'm finishing up Punk Hazard right now. Solid arc IMO, especially at the end when the SAD/Smile reveal with Doflamingo making and selling the devil fruit to the Emperors. I'm highkey very intrigued by Doflamingo just based off design alone (yes I am judging a book by its cover lol) so it's cool that it's looking like he's set up to be the next main antagonist. Also loving the dynamics with Law and Smoker too, like I think Smoker especially is soooo well-written so far.

I've talked with some IRL friends about potentially reading the manga and I knooooow it would make it easier to catch up but I'm already 600+ episodes in so I think I'm just going to be an anime watcher lol. Also I forget if I mentioned it before but I watch the dub which makes me extra bad hahaha

 

[Coronis]

I put One Piece down for awhile again, but I'm finishing up Punk Hazard right now. Solid arc IMO, especially at the end when the SAD/Smile reveal with Doflamingo making and selling the devil fruit to the Emperors. I'm highkey very intrigued by Doflamingo just based off design alone (yes I am judging a book by its cover lol) so it's cool that it's looking like he's set up to be the next main antagonist. Also loving the dynamics with Law and Smoker too, like I think Smoker especially is soooo well-written so far.

I've talked with some IRL friends about potentially reading the manga and I knooooow it would make it easier to catch up but I'm already 600+ episodes in so I think I'm just going to be an anime watcher lol. Also I forget if I mentioned it before but I watch the dub which makes me extra bad hahaha

Well I’d never tell someone to choose one form of OP over the other… the next arc will be pretty long, and the pacing is considered generally poor in the anime, especially for that arc. Just a heads up! I would reccommend if you did end up switching to read the digitally coloured version. Anyway, enjoy Doflamingo, hope you continue to enjoy One Piece!

Not even gonna touch the dub issue

 

[Oglemi]

I put One Piece down for awhile again, but I'm finishing up Punk Hazard right now. Solid arc IMO, especially at the end when the SAD/Smile reveal with Doflamingo making and selling the devil fruit to the Emperors. I'm highkey very intrigued by Doflamingo just based off design alone (yes I am judging a book by its cover lol) so it's cool that it's looking like he's set up to be the next main antagonist. Also loving the dynamics with Law and Smoker too, like I think Smoker especially is soooo well-written so far.

I've talked with some IRL friends about potentially reading the manga and I knooooow it would make it easier to catch up but I'm already 600+ episodes in so I think I'm just going to be an anime watcher lol. Also I forget if I mentioned it before but I watch the dub which makes me extra bad hahaha

Eyyyy I'm pretty much in the same spot, am about 30 episodes into Dressrosa. I think the only problem with Dressrosa pacing-wise is that it tries to skip around the characters too much each episode, instead of just dedicating an episode here and there to each one. For example, unlike in previous arcs, none of the characters just "disappear" like Sanji going off and doing his own thing behind the scenes in Water 7 or Franky in Punk Hazard. I think had they kept that up in this arc the pacing wouldn't feel so sluggish, because you're then not dedicating 5 minutes to each plot point in the 22 minutes of each episode.

Anyway, Doflamingo is pretty dope so far as a villain, I love that he actually feels menacing despite being one of the goofiest/flamboyant looking villain so far.

Also Bartolomeo best boy

 

[Mova]

Here's a big thing I love about One Piece despite all the pacing issues. Even though the details are gritty in premise, most characters do not really take the setting of the Blue Star seriously with the exception of the higher end World Nobles like the Five Elders and Secret Ruler of the World. Even the God's Knights and Cipher Pol employees have their one edgelord of a guy surrounded by buffoons to keep him in check, whether that Shamrock, Lucci, or anyone else with a similar dynamic. That being said, OP as a premise makes fun of itself in a way that makes it difficult for fans and other established works to do the same without missing the mark.

 

[Chou Toshio]

lol Roger was not the man of legend-- he couldn't be the one. Because he wasn't AroAce enough to be a Shonen main character. lol

 

[Coronis]

lol Roger was not the man of legend-- he couldn't be the one. Because he wasn't AroAce enough to be a Shonen main character. lol

I’m glad Oda did the same to Rocks a few chaps later since everyone was glazing him and hating on Roger at the same time lol.

This is always why Naruto was always inferior to One Piece too.

If your protag doesn’t have a Goku-esque attitude towards women is it even a shonen?

 

[Mova]

Luffy is at the very least Aro, but is he confirmed to be Ace too? He reacts much differently towards women when other men aren't around, but he reacts like a straight guy around Usopp and Sanji, the former of which is also kinda pervy early on, but not as obvious as Sanji. What's with that? And is Zoro AroAce enough to be a shonen protagonist?

yes i know ace is also the name of luffy's brother, i meant asexuality

 

[Local Dog]

Luffy is at the very least Aro, but is he confirmed to be Ace too? He reacts much differently towards women when other men aren't around, but he reacts like a straight guy around Usopp and Sanji, the former of which is also kinda pervy early on, but not as obvious as Sanji. What's with that?

Oda said that's because Luffy mirrors Sanjis or Usopps reactions. It's like this scene:

Luffy just kinda said what Usopp said before. Same with women. And some scenes like Bon Clay showing Nami's tits was more shock, Luffy is daft but understands some social rules and gets that random nudity is shocking

And is Zoro AroAce enough to be a shonen protagonist?

Mmh nah he'll prolly end up with someone by the end. I don't think he's aroace, I just think he's too preoccupied with swords. I think he'll end up with Tashigi. Not Robin, I don't know why people ship these two

 

[RainWaiv]

Luffy is at the very least Aro, but is he confirmed to be Ace too? He reacts much differently towards women when other men aren't around, but he reacts like a straight guy around Usopp and Sanji, the former of which is also kinda pervy early on, but not as obvious as Sanji. What's with that? And is Zoro AroAce enough to be a shonen protagonist?

ace is his brother did you even watch the show lol

 

[Chou Toshio]

I’m glad Oda did the same to Rocks a few chaps later since everyone was glazing him and hating on Roger at the same time lol.

This is always why Naruto was always inferior to One Piece too.

If your protag doesn’t have a Goku-esque attitude towards women is it even a shonen?

I think that the biggest thing that separates One Piece from other shounen, whether it be Naruto or anything else, including Dragon Ball, is most of all the motivation demonstrated by the author to take the story in a certain direction.

One Piece has a mission from a storytelling perspective, and more and more I'm thinking that having a political core and an underlying political agenda and mission is actually the key to keeping the author's motivation of a mission that builds such a dramatic story. One Piece wouldn't be One Piece if Oda wasn't honestly a radical communist (probably).

For instance, if we compare it to Attack on Titan, I think that is the only other manga story I've seen in recent memory with such an underlying completeness and motivation start to finish— again written as if it were a mission. Granted, it's awful because the mission is trying to bring its readers to the conclusion that bigotry and fascism are inevitable, that genocide is justifiable if it's the only way forward, to bring you to the crazed, confusing, awful ending of really what is a trash conclusion from reactionary politics. The ending is confusing and hypocritical because facism is hypocritical and its strategy is to confuse.

But the fact that the author had that mission underlying is what let him create such a thorough and complete story start to finish with strong archetypes and motivations and story riffs that serve the purpose of framing the story. Proof in point— I read it all and didn’t realize what was disgusting in the background until I got to the end and still had to watch FD Signifier’s vid on it to be able to name my revulsion with it.

One Piece is, in my opinion, not just an incredible manga, but the greatest literature of our era— and Oda’s been able to create this story because he was guided by the mission: a thorough, deep, and well-versed telling of story for what it means to have broad human liberation.

Edit: I was wrong. It wasn’t FD, it was a small YouTuber called Lost Futures whose all about Anime and the Middle East that did the best essays on why AoT is definitely Facist and One Piece is the most based series ever.

NGL the humanity of Elbaph hits even harder because of what’s going on in Gaza.