#i might also just start watching skypiea on my own time because i love skypiea and i miss it (very nostalgic) (the latter 3 are all in east | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

kaizokuou-ni-naru · 3 years

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The Voyage So Far: East Blue (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)

this is one of my favorite little character beats in east blue. sanji and zeff have an entire conversation and then zeff mentions, “by the way, that kid can’t swim” and sanji is like “WHY THE FUCK DIDN’T YOU TELL ME SOONER!!” and is in the water in like three seconds flat.

and, of course, zeff’s fond expression once sanji isn’t around to see.

we don’t see sanji smile like this too often- and when we do, it’s most often related to food in some way (like when he feeds gin, or in his wci flashback when sora says his food is good). it does things to my heart.

kind of reiterating myself from the last post, here, but usopp really does do a lot of cool things well before his water 7/enies lobby character development, just not as many when compared to his crewmates. which is his problem, really- he can’t stop comparing himself to them long enough to recognize he’s pretty cool by any reasonable metric, he just happens to be on a ship with nine of the most badass people on the planet and so his metric is completely skewed.

anyways he shoots a fucking bomb into arlong’s face and that’s completely sick as hell.

zoro left alone in arlong park is so funny. he got nearly cut in half like two days ago, and instead of just leaving like a normal person when nami gives him the chance, he chooses to wipe the floor with all the fishmen around and then hang out on arlong’s throne. also, that shirt isn’t his. he stole it. presumably off one of the guys whose asses he just kicked.

there’s really something to be said about nami’s expressions in arlong park. she’s clearly acting to an extent in most of her scenes prior to her breakdown, but at the same time, god, it really doesn’t look like it. nami in this arc is a really great example of reread value- on a reread, all her coldness and cruelty becomes barely-restrained pain and desperation.

i really, really love one piece’s sibling relationships. and there might be a little bit of bias here, because i’m a big sister myself, but i love how varied they are, how real they feel, both adopted and biological. nami and nojiko don’t agree on everything, and they come into conflict more than once, but at the same time it’s plain they love each other so so much.

bellemere is up there as one of my favorite flashback characters, together with corazon and roger. i love her a lot.

i’m not even doing a thorough reread for this post, just skimming through volumes and picking out moments, and genzo telling nami that she’s fought well and there’s nothing more she can do still made me cry.

nami has been fighting on her own for eight years, with the lives of her entire village and her only remaining family resting on her shoulders, with them unable to do anything but watch as she runs herself into the ground for them. this is where they decide they’d rather all die than have to see her start all over from scratch for them.

arlong park is an amazingly written arc, and it pummels my heart in a new and different way every time.

i really like that zoro, sanji and usopp all follow luffy’s lead in how he chooses to handle the arlong park situation. luffy waits for nami to ask for help, and as soon as she finally does, it cuts around to show that it’s not just luffy there- all four of them were just waiting for her word. it’s the first time the crew is entirely united for a common goal, and it feels really good.

i really am never gonna shut up about usopp’s character development, huh.

i really like the way the scene of him getting up the nerve to face down chuu is constructed- him rehearsing excuses and explanations cut together with memories of his crewmates (and on the next page, later the cocoyashi villagers as well), moments of theirs that he obviously admires. the one that hits me the hardest is him thinking of nami, in the moment she stabbed herself to save his life. that’s how he gets up his courage- from his admiration and respect for his crewmates’ bravery.

i think about this moment a lot. it’s one of my favorite luffy moments, and also one of the ones i think is most representative of him as a character. he’s such a delightful, laid-back person most of the time, but he loves the people he’s decided are his so much, and god help you if you hurt them.

i think about this a lot, too.

luffy is dumb as rocks in a lot of ways, but he’s pretty damn intuitive when it comes to people. he handles nami’s situation in exactly the right way, by waiting for her to ask for help instead of just barging unasked into the war she’s been fighting alone for years, and he handles this exactly right, too- by destroying what’s effectively her prison cell in a permanent, visible way, where she can see and know that she’ll never have to sit at that desk ever, ever again.

i just- i love luffy, so much.

i talked about oda’s use of negative space to emphasize heavy, impactful moments in the last post, and this is maybe the best example of it yet in the story. look at this panel: the future pirate king, the stand where the last one died, and absolutely nothing else but empty space and luffy’s words: this is where the great pirate era began.

the theming of beginnings and endings in loguetown is so, so good, and it could almost be summed up with this panel alone. it’s at once the ending of the story’s east blue prologue and a new beginning- the beginning of the crew’s infamous reputations, of the quest for the one piece proper, of the entire wider story that opens up with the entry into the grand line. the end of roger’s era, and the start of luffy’s.

i love the atmosphere of loguetown so dearly. the thunder strike at the last moment, maybe a rescue and maybe sheer luck; the raging storm, the vow over the barrel, the declaration of dreams. i’ve said this before- there’s something so romantic about it, in the old-fashioned arthurian sense one piece uses the word.

and we’re off for the grand line!

#the voyage so far #one piece #opmeta #long post #arc: baratie #arc: arlong park #arc: loguetown #not japanese

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neverwatchedonepiece · 6 years

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One Piece: Episode Zero

Thanks for recommending Episode 0. Glad I watched it after the movie, as there were horrendous spoilers at the start. They showed the scene when the Strawhats were suited up with guns and the moment of Luffy’s final, winning move against Shiki. His disbelief that another man from East Blue was his undoing was the launchpad into Episode 0, though, so it made sense.

It was short but sweet. And really good fun because holy crap those cameos. I tried to keep track of them all but honestly, I think I’ve missed some as I realised looking at screenshots that even more were in the background!

THOSE CAMEOS

The next scenes were flashbacks to the time not long before Gol D. Roger became Pirate King. Sirens blared. A young Garp strode purposefully towards a ship with Tsuru-chan (I cannot believe she lets him call her Tsuru-chan) and Aokiji in tow. At least, I think that’s Aokiji. He looks different when he smiles. That must have been before his promotion and the stress of job hit him.

The ship he was heading for was Sengoku’s. The way they bickered over the Shiki case was like a cop drama. “Don’t mind me. I’ll let you take all the credit!” “That’s not what I mean!” Nice to see that Garp and Sengoku have always bickered like that.

Also interesting to see that Kizaru has worn that same suit for around seventeen years. He must have an excellent dry cleaner.

As they set out to pursue Roger, the action cut to a confrontation in the New World between Shiki and Roger.

Wait Now, The What??

The amount of cameos here was tremendous.

I kept having to pause so I could do a double take then cheer whenever I recognised a favourite character. Of course, there was Buggy, wailing because Captain Roger was facing off against the vast fleet of Shiki the Golden Lion. Then there was a baby-faced young Shanks, who was like, “Buggy, you can be cut into loads of pieces and you won’t die. Calm down.” Crocus (Laboon’s caretaker) was the ship’s doctor! This was news to me. Did I forget this or have I never known that? And Rayleigh. He was blonde! Who knew? (Well, you guys, probably.)

Then there was Roger. You see him in action so rarely, it’s hard not to be hyped when you see him. Now the relationship between him and Ace is revealed, I keep looking for Ace in Roger. Honestly, I still see Luffy. Less in looks, more in attitude. Though Ace’s tendency to never back down is definitely there.

It was all fun seeing all the characters in their younger days, the confrontation with Shiki caught me off guard. Mainly when Shiki said: “We’ll use that apocalyptic weapon you found. Become my right hand man and we’ll conquer the world with your weapon and my military might.”

WAIT, WHAT?? Was Shiki talking about Pluton? The one Spandam was afraid of and the one Franky burned the blueprints for? Did Roger really find it via the poneglyphs he’d been tracking down? (I remember he scrawled “ROGER WUZ HERE” on the Skypiea one, didn’t he?)

Well, at any rate, Roger wasn’t interested. “If you can’t do as you please, there’s no point in being a pirate, is there? Shiki, I refuse your offer!” He said this while the Oro Jackson was absolutely surrounded by Shiki’s fleet. The subsequent battle was known as the Great Battle of Edd War. A change in weather sunk half of Shiki’s ships and an accident forced Shiki to flee the battlefield.

I say accident. He ended up with half a steering wheel stuck in his head.

“Happens all the time,” Shiki said.

“Um no. It’s actually unheard of,” his physician replied. Ha. That was good. Made me warm to Shiki more as a character.

While Shiki recovered from his steering wheel accident, Roger found the One Piece, became Pirate King, mysteriously disappeared, then was captured by these suave specimens.

Marine Cut Suits: For When You Always Skip Leg Day

Shiki did not take the news well. He literally shot the messenger who delivered it (Chill, Shiki. It’s not his fault!) He took his rage out on Marineford, destroying half of it in a fit of denial. How could Roger be captured?

“There’s no way he could be caught by trash like you! We might have been enemies but we are part of the same era. I respected his strength. If anyone’s killing him, it’s me!” That’s such a Vegeta-ish attitude. Love it.

Garp and Sengoku brought more bad news. Not only was Roger’s execution scheduled for a week hence, it was to take place in Roger’s home, Loguetown, in East Blue.

“WTF? That weaksauce place?” Shiki yelled. He was in major denial. He has serious problems with that place. “That’s just your last insult to Roger!”

“Nope,” Garp said. “East Blue is a symbol of peace. That’s why we’re doing it.” (See, the Marine are all about Dat Symbolism. Even then, they were at it. Execute the disrupting influence in the place of peace to show it has been restored.)

Then Garp and Sengoku threw off their cloaks. That’s fighting talk. Shiki got his ass kicked and was locked up in Impel Down.

More Cameos than Word Up

Shiki missed the party, but the cameos at the famous speech were multitude. I spotted Moria, Crocodile, a young upset Shanks, Buggy, Dragon, Mihawk (wearing a Hawaiian shirt - obviously before he turned goth), and... was that Doflamingo? There was a resemblance, but I’m not sure...

Then, when the news got out, there was Cricket of Skypiea fame, Portgas D. Rouge, Nefertari Cobra, the two giants from Enies Lobby, Tonjit the Stilt guy, Dory and Broggy, CP9 and the Hancock sisters. Plus a worrying shot of who I’m certain is little Sanji. He looked like exactly his bounty poster. I hope the stuff about him being a cursed child is just a joke because if not, poor Sanji.

The Mightiest of Cameos in His Giant Bean Chair

For two years, Shiki languished in Impel Down. I remember hearing that the last person to break out of there was Shiki the Golden Lion way back just as the war arc was starting (or maybe before. Can’t remember exactly when). So it was great to finally see how he did it.

Got to admit, it was badass. Shiki pulled a Zeff and hacked off his own legs. He floated about Impel Down, dripping blood, before escaping Magellan and Hannyaball, who were still trainee wardens at the time.

Garp was notified of the break out during his vacation. I like he always used his vacation time to visit Ace and Luffy. At least he did visit from time to time.

When news of the break out hit, Toei hit me with even more cameos. Bellmere, Zeff, my old favourites Dr Hiluluk and Kureha, Dalton and the Old King (before Wapol), Tom-san, Franky and Iceberg, little Hatchi, Shakky and Rayleigh, and even the random guy who got stuck in a barrel. Robin was a tiny fugitive on the run. Laboon was still sad. Brook was still lonely.

And then there was Whitebeard. I loved how dismissive he was of Shiki’s plan. Where did Shiki get off on calling Whitebeard a geezer? He looks way older than Whitebeard. (And look who’s lurking in the back? Teach. Smh. What a skeevy traitor. Hanging in the back, thinking of Devil Fruits, probably.)

Still not sure why Shiki went with Dr Fart Clown’s mad plan to breed mutated animals over twenty years when he could have concentrated on rebuilding power and armada, but oh well!

Guess that’s what happens when you employ fart clowns.

WAIT A MINUTE, IS THAT DUVAL?? XD

#one piece #neverwatchedonepiece #nwop #never watched one piece #monkey d. garp #sengoku #shiki the golden lion #gol d. roger #episode 0 #whitebeard #buggy the clown #red haired shanks #sanji #portgas d. ace

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takaraphoenix · 5 years

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#10 for the ask game, let's say for couple of shows you watch, you decide which ones

Thanks for asking, this is a really intersting one! :3

10. Most disliked arc? Why?

Huuuh, okay, lemme go through the shows I’m currently watching, see what I come up with. *tilts head*

Avengers Assemble: The current Black Panther’s Quest. But let me clarify: I don’t dislike the story of this arc itself; I dislike how it’s so awkwardly placed as an arc within Avengers Assemble. This should have been a spin-off, not a whole entire season’s arc of an Avengers show, considering the show has never given the individual Avengers huge standalone arcs like this before. As the plot for its own show this would be an amazing arc, but considering the show it’s on it’s... completely hijacking the show and that does bother me because when I watch an Avengers cartoon, I kind of want to see the Avengers in it, all of them, not just one? Just give him a spin-off, additionally to a real proper all-Avengers focused season of Avengers Assemble. It really ain’t that hard.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: I am... absolutely startled to read that most of the fandom seems to dislike season 7 the most?? When in fact season 5 was the worst. The storyline of Dawn was so bad. Not just the retconning in of Sudden Little Sister and just how unlikable the character herself is, but also that the offered out wasn’t used. Just kill off Dawn in the end, use her as the key she is so this obnoxious character doesn’t have to be carried over to the next season, but nope, instead Buffy dies for her. IT was so dumb and so annoying and I find the overly religious story-arcs - whatever the religion - really creepy...

Doctor Who: I really disliked Clara’s post-resolution arc. She was such a good character and I really-really liked her and then the Impossible Girl was finally resolved... and she stayed. That was when she should have left. But that whole nonsense with Danny and how spiteful Clara turned toward the Doctor then and she still stayed around. Usually, this show cuts characters out too early, but in Clara’s case, she overstayed her welcome and the arc they forced there was just really not fun to watch...

Game of Thrones: I am mainly watching it for Dany’s arc, though also the Lannisters and Arya interest me. The others, not so much, but the worst arc is most definitely Bran. I just... care so little about him and what he’s up to, to the point that the one season where he wasn’t in it, I didn’t even notice he was missing. Only that then the next season, he was suddenly back and I was like “oooh... eeeh...”. He’s so boring and bad, I could do without him; the show has so much going on already.

My Little Pony: That last season. The story arc of the kids. This show is very distinctively about the Mane Six. And it was already stretching my patience when it went all about Starlight Glimmer, but now this attempt at making it about a next gen and their whole Elements of Harmony story arc? It was just... not interesting? There are enough established characters to focus on, even beyond the Mane Six. More about their families, more focus on the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Spike, heck the background ponies like Octavia. Those kids...? I just... really did not care about them, I don’t remember a single name of theirs. The kids could have been used to further the Mane Six’s plotlines, as mentee and giving each a bond with one of the Mane Six. But this entirely separate own plot for those six new characters... was just not what I was interested in, not after seven whole years and seasons of caring about the Mane Six. Seriously, they could have had the Cutie Mark Crusaders make new friends and focus more on them as the next generation, but introducing fully unrelated, new characters... did not make me care...

Once Upon a Time: This might surprise some, but it’s actually not the Fr0zen arc, because that... at the very least... did a rather okay job at trying to fix the massive plotholes in the movie. I can appreciate that. It ain’t the soft-reboot either considering I refuse to watch that; can’t judge what I haven’t actually seen. I really disliked 5A the most; the whole Dark Emma nonsense and just how emo she was, I also really hate the storytelling tool of “here have a shocking now and let’s unravel it all in flashbacks”, that was so tiresome to watch. I dislike how King Arthur, the King Arthur, was turned into a fucking villain and how unnecessarily dramatic it was.

One Piece: Fishman Island Arc. It used to be Skypiea, but honestly I just dislike Shirahoshi so much. I find her brand of character absolutely nerve-grading. There was not really anything happening in the arc, it pretty much felt like a filler arc even though it was a major one. Waste of time.

Riverdale: The... damn how do I decide? This show started off so good as a fun murder mystery with intriguing characters. Haven’t seen season 3 yet so can only judge the first two. But Betty’s father suddenly turning serial killer was just such a horrendously over the top and unnecessary plot?? Veronica’s dad being a mastermind criminal had at least been set up from the get-go and even Jughead’s dad being the head of a gang and honestly was anyone surprised Cheryl’s mom would send her to conversion therapy? Okay, okay, I will buy all of that. But Betty’s father doing the serial killer bullshit was just way too much and unnecessary and just bad.

Shadowhunters: The addiction arc. It was the worst to watch for me so far. For one, because I am hard against drugs and really dislike addiction and drug arcs in general, but for another because it was just so badly written. That Isabelle, a brilliant scientist with a brain, would just cheerfully agree to take this risky drug from Aldertree to begin with, the utter lack of motivation as to why Aldertree would deliberately get her addicted to drugs aside from it being convenient for drama, then just how Raphael was completely reduced to a tool to further Isabelle’s plot and we did not treat him like a character facing addiction himself. It was so bad.

Stranger Things: The “let’s hide Eleven in my cabin and start to have secrets!”-arc? The reason I really loved the first season was because it was very up-front and open. No unnecessary miscommunication. So to then, in the second season force this miscommunication between characters who had already developed trust with each other... it was so cringeworthy. Eleven hiding from the boys, the sheriff not talking to them either. There was absolutely no reason to it aside from padding the runtime of the season. And that’s what defines a bad plotline; if it serves no actual purpose and has no grounding foundation, no reason behind it aside from “plot required it”.

Suits: The removal of one of their main characters?? This show? Literally? Has? Two? Main? Characters? And only one of them is the actual lead that separates this show from every other lawyer show. And... then... they remove him? The entire season leading up to that had such a good arc that was setting a separation between Mike and his girlfriend up because there were problems and there was distrust and they grew apart so much and I figured “Okay well the actress is getting married to a literal prince and leaving the show so they’re going to make them break up, huh?” and then in the last second, they decide to kit this and make Mike move away with her? I haven’t seen the new season yet but I... really can’t imagine it working out...

Teen Wolf: I feel like I should say 6B, but... I seem to hate that so much that my brain actually managed to forget it? And that’s... rare, but it happens occasionally. When something is really very bad and awful, my brain manages to forget about it. I clearly remember Jackson and Ethan making out and the whole FBI!Stiles thing and that it was about A Nazi, but... what the Nazi did and what actually happened and what, aside from the Nazi, I hated so much about that half-season... I can not for the life of me remember. Thank the gods. So I gotta go with 3A, because the True Alpha arc was the biggest bullshit. Don’t break your mythology. Don’t. Just don’t. Suddenly, a pack can be made up of all-alphas? How? The other alphas shoulda fall into being betas after joining Deucalion?? They should have become omegas after killing their pack because by definition they had no pack anymore?? They should not have gotten more powerful for killing their own pack? It made absolutely no sense at all and completely contradicted the lore this show had set up so far? And that Scott was somehow a ~True Alpha~... I still don’t see what the fuck’s so special about that if it doesn’t come with actual natural leadership abilities, which it should if you are a true and thus natural alpha, aka leader?? It was dumb and forced and you could taste the “Oh shit we want The Main Character to become alpha but we accidentally created a world where you can only become alpha by killing and of course can we not have The Main Character kill anyone!!!”... So dumb. So stupid. Do not like.

Wynonna Earp: THE BIBLE NONSENSE. This show started out so strong. And there was absolutely no reason to pull a sudden Bible on it. Bulshar could have just stayed his own OC demon self and this show could have kept its own mythology, but to suddenly make him the snake from the Garden Eden? To suddenly involve angels? Season 3′s Bible arc was just so absolutely unnecessary.

Salty Ask List

#Salty Ask Game #send me asks #Writing #Anonymous

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recentanimenews · 3 years

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FEATURE SERIES: My Favorite One Piece Arc with Stephen Paul

I love One Piece and I love talking to people who love One Piece. And with the series going on 23 years now, there is a whole lot to talk about. As the series is about to publish its 1000th chapter, a true feat in and of itself, we thought we should reflect upon the high-seas adventure and sit down with some notable names in the One Piece fan community and chat about the arcs they found to be especially important, or just ones they really, really liked.

Welcome to the last installment in the series "My Favorite One Piece Arc!"

My final guest in this series is Stephen Paul, One Piece translator for Weekly Shonen Jump. For my chat with him, he chose the Skypiea arc, in which the Straw Hats soar up to an island in the clouds, and soon find themselves dealing with both a long-lasting feud and a man with lightning powers and a god complex.

A note on spoilers: If you haven't seen the Skypiea arc yet, this interview does contain major plot points. Watch the Skypiea arc starting RIGHT HERE if you'd like to catch up or rewatch!

Dan Dockery: Let’s say that, for some reason, I get to the end of the Jaya arc, and the Straw Hats are about ride the Knock-Up Stream, and I decide “Eh, One Piece might as well end here. I think it’s said what it needs to say.” What do you tell me, in one sentence, to keep me going to Skypiea?

Stephen Paul: I would say “Don’t you wanna see One Piece’s take on Indiana Jones?” That would be my hook.

Yeah! Skypiea’s my favorite arc, and it’s got a sense of pure adventure, so I could see that. I adore it, and it’s the storyline I want to revisit the most often. When did you first get into One Piece, by the way?

I got into One Piece in 1999.

Oh, wow. Where in the story was that?

I first saw it when I picked up an issue of Weekly Shonen Jump at a Japanese bookstore in San Diego. I was doing a high school report on manga for my Japanese class, and Luffy was on the cover, and it was during the Arlong arc where they’re fighting in Arlong Park. And I didn’t really know anything about it, but it was on the cover, so I figured it was the hot, new thing, and later that year, I was doing a student exchange in Japan and I bought the first few volumes.

That’s a pretty good place to start. Arlong Park is pretty much the “Crap or get off the pot” arc.

Yeah, if it’s not doing anything for you by then, I think you’re out of luck. But it really hooked me around the Baratie arc when Mihawk shows up for the first time because it was beginning to structure this big story to come with this huge world.

So they go up to Skypiea, and there are islands made of clouds, Nami’s riding on the Waver, Usopp nearly falls though, it’s pretty fantastic. What were your thoughts on this new location? Because One Piece has a very strong internal logic for itself and you’re not like “Clouds?!? THAT wouldn’t be physically possible,” so you immediately accept it. But what was your first reaction?

It’s really fun. At this point in the story, it’s the most prominent example of the rush of newness and intricate culture and architecture. It’s like taking someone from the World War I era and showing them all the consumer goods that are available in the 60s. And then Eiichiro Oda does this little thing where Nami rides over near the jungle and there’s a hint of foreboding. And it tells you “Yeah, we’re having fun now, but it’s not going to last.” All of it is really deftly done.

Speaking of foreboding, Skypiea is Enel’s domain. And he’s probably my second favorite villain and when I watched One Piece for the first time back in college in 2008, I was fascinated by him. There were so many online discussions about him that said stuff like “ACTUALLY, he’d have the highest bounty of anyone ever if he had a bounty,” and “He’s actually the strongest character.” And he was cool to me, but not in the same way that Crocodile was. Crocodile was cool because he acted cool, but you’re just kind of in awe of Enel. What did you think of him?

It’s interesting because he doesn’t get revealed for a while. He’s just a menacing presence until his reveal that he’s like this evil Roman emperor on the sofa with a banana. And he seems very aloof.

I think the series does such a good job with Enel, because there’s this elaborate sky island with all of this dream-like stuff, but everyone is scared of something. They’re all terrified of this kind of unknowable power.

Yeah, he strikes fear in people, but he’s such an aloof character in terms of his personality. He’s megalomaniacal, but he’s not really into monologuing like Caesar Clown or Spandam. He doesn’t delight in mockery. He just does what he wants with the people under his sway. I think that’s why it’s so effective when he finally gets shook by Luffy resisting his power. It’s why the Enel eyes gag works so well. Because up until then, he’s never panicked in the slightest. He’s god. He’s got that confidence in himself.

At this point, in the anime and manga, I feel like I kind of wait for the Enel eyes moments. It’s such an unforgettable visual. But I remember thinking before it “Well, Luffy is rubber, and I got a D in high school chemistry, but I think that would mean that he’d resist Enel’s shocks.” And then he did. Did you call it before it happened?

I think if I was just marathoning the whole series, it’s something that might’ve snuck up on me. But because I was reading week to week, it’s something that I saw people talking about online and expecting. They took it into account, and when it finally happened, it was fun because Oda never mentioned it beforehand. He never had a character say “Wait, rubber doesn’t conduct electricity.” He waits for the experiment to happen before the results are made clear to the audience.

So Enel has his own group of pirates, and one pirate that I’ve never heard anyone say a good word about is Satori and his Ordeal of Balls. I need your Satori hot take: Is he good? Are you annoyed by him? Because I’ve heard people mention Satori as the thing that broke their ambition to finish the story. They get to him jumping around and dancing and just drop out.

I think my take on Satori is similar to my take on Foxy: It’s impossible to take him seriously. And it’s definitely a change-up in tone when he’s introduced. But I actually enjoy that now, because once you know not to take him too seriously, there’s a bunch of good comic moments in the battle with him.

One reason I like it is because Sanji gets the KO. He’s teaming with Luffy, but Luffy doesn’t finish him. But this arc is the first big one where Robin is part of the crew. And you get a few cool Robin moments, like when she just basically eviscerates Yama or her interactions with the crew. How do you feel about Robin’s evolving role?

I feel like Oda does a balancing act with this arc, where it is the first time she’s together with a new group of people. So there’s an awkward distance there. She’s still mysterious and she’s still dangerous to everyone. There’s still traces of the Miss All Sunday there, as you see with her fight with Yama and Zoro’s skepticism of her.

Yeah, in Alabasta, they go a long way to make her Devil Fruit power as horrifying as possible. And Oda is still easing her into the Robin that she’ll become, but there are definitely traces of “Whoa, these creepy arms are basically horror movie weapons” rather than “Whoa, Robin is so cool,” which is where she’ll end up. So you have the big Survival Game, and it really ramps up the action. What’s your opinion on it, as I think it’s really cool.

He paces it pretty well, so it feels really natural when you get down to the last few characters at the ruins.

Feels very Battle Royale. Around here is where we get the flashback, though, and it’s the first big flashback that doesn’t include any Straw Hat Pirate, or any companion to the Straw Hats. And it’s a real history lesson, and I can see it being kind of a gamble. Like, you might watch and think “Okay, move it along. Is Luffy gonna show up as a baby or something? Get back to the action.” What do you think of it as this huge bit of world-building that isn’t directly related to the Straw Hats?

It’s something that’s indispensable to this story arc and it’s one that I appreciate more and more as time goes on. If you view this arc as just the story of the Straw Hats going up in the sky to find gold and beat a bad guy, it seems like it has nothing to do with the arc. But if you engage with the arc on its own terms, the flashback is explaining what the soul of the arc is, which is of these people and cultures meeting and then being ripped apart in the same way that the island was ripped apart when it was launched into the sky.

So we finally see Enel’s big ark, which he’s going to use to help destroy Skypiea. It’s probably the most direct world-ending scheme of any One Piece villain. But Luffy has a big golden ball attached to his fist, he runs up the vine, he punches Enel, and you have this moment where Luffy’s shadow is in the clouds and Cricket sees it. And more than anything, it’s Cricket’s victory, because he knew the lore, he believed in it, and now his dream is being vindicated. How do you feel about this iconic moment, which is now a piece of One Piece iconography?

The ending of this and Alabasta are probably the two best examples of the climactic blow that Luffy strikes. His fists representing the symbolic righting of wrongs in such an elegant way. Like when he punches Crocodile up through Alubarna, it basically makes it rain. And here, the blow that defeats Enel is the blow that rings the bell that lets Cricket know that the story of the two lineages, the Montblanc family and the Shandorian people, has finally become whole again.

When you finished Skypiea, did you know immediately that it would be your favorite arc?

I remember it being very satisfying when it ended, but I was also very excited for what was coming next. The Going Merry was all busted up and they needed to find a new shipmate to fix it. And since this arc didn’t provide that new crew member, I just wanted to get to that. But as I said, it was my first time reading it on a week-to-week basis, and the richness of getting a new chapter and having a week to think about it, really imprinted on me. And the stuff that I go back to I appreciate more and more.

youtube

I mentioned the Indiana Jones aspect of a rascally, roguish guy exploring and finding the treasure. And there has to be a bad guy who also wants the treasure, and thus it makes it okay for us to want it because we have to save it. But in most cases, the treasure usually ends up in a museum or an FBI vault or whatever. But what this story arc does so well is that is that, unlike many of these stories, the Skypiea arc actually asks “Well what about the people that created this thing?” What about the inhabitants? It’s never their story, too. So it’s a very colonial style of story structure.

But in the flashback that brings them all together, Noland is a botanist, and when he makes contact with the Shandorians, they’re suffering from a disease that they don’t know how to treat and all they can do is pray to the gods for help. So Noland helps them out and the way that the story plays out, it becomes clear that it’s not about Noland being more advanced and bringing his gifts to the less-advanced people. It’s about Noland helping them because he is a man of good character. He even gets executed by his own people because he refuses to be less than a good man.

It’s not the enlightened versus the un-enlightened. It’s a story about character and their friendship that they form, which is brought whole again when Luffy beats Enel. It’s such a different take on that pulp serial style of adventure.

ONE PIECE LIGHTNING ROUND!

Favorite character?

Gotta be Luffy, but I also really like Robin

Favorite villain?

Crocodile

If you had to live on one island, which would you pick?

Water 7 seems pretty chill.

If you could have any Devil Fruit power?

It’d be pretty nice to have Mansherry’s healing powers. You wouldn’t have to rely on the medical insurance system.

One Piece moment that made you cry the hardest?

Probably Nami’s flashback. Oda really shivs you in the gut.

One Piece moment that made you cheer the loudest?

The ringing the bell, and all the way that resonates with the characters. That’s hard for me to top.

And that concludes the My Favorite One Piece Arc series. If you've kept up with them so far, I truly appreciate it. And if you've missed some, all six of them are linked below for you to peruse. One Piece has always been very special to me, but for the most part, my time at Crunchyroll has been spent giving you my perspective on it and my perspective only. And that's neat. I'm truly thankful to have a platform that allows me to discuss the things that I find most fascinating and exciting about one of the greatest anime/manga franchises of all time. That said, I am a very, very, very small part of the One Piece community. A drop in the Grand Line, if you will. So, I decided to reach out, and talk to other creators/fans about their experiences and what they appreciate about this wonderful series. And I was delighted to see everyone bring their own unique tastes and personality to the table. They're all wonderful people, and I am so proud to not just have them as collaborators, but as friends as well.

One frequent question I saw over the course of this series was "Where is Water 7/Enies Lobby?" It's one of the greatest story arcs in fiction itself, and to some, it seemed like an oversight to not include it. Well, that's not by my design. When I first came up with the idea for My Favorite One Piece Arc, I immediately feared that everyone I reached out to would simultaneously dogpile upon Enies Lobby, forcing me to draw straws or auction it off to whoever bid the most thrilling idea. But...no one did. No one from this list chose Enies Lobby. This seemingly random (and ultimately inspired) array of six arcs were the interviewees' first choices. That said, if we ever do a "Season 2" of My Favorite One Piece Arc, I think you'll be pretty happy with who I have in mind for the discussion of such a monumental storyline.

Anyway, keep watching/reading One Piece. It's at a really great spot in both the manga and the anime (Did y'all see that fight between Big Mom and Kaido? You went hard, Toei, and I appreciate it,) and I imagine it's gonna close out 2020 with a bang.

Hot take: One Piece? It's good.

CHECK OUT ALL OF THE "MY FAVORITE ONE PIECE ARC" INTERVIEWS RIGHT HERE!

Daniel Dockery is a Senior Staff Writer for Crunchyroll. Follow him on Twitter!

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: Daniel Dockery

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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kaizokuou-ni-naru · 3 years

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The Voyage So Far: Alabasta (Part Two)

crocodile is one of my favorite villains in one piece for a number of reasons, and one of them is because he’s such a threat, the first real one faced in the grand line and one of the toughest in all of paradise. the villains from the arcs before this, like wapol or the agents from little garden, could barely even land a hit on luffy in actual combat. so crocodile is introduced here as an absolute force of nature, a complete contrast to recent villains and a very tangible threat.

it’s an impression he very much lives up to later in the arc by crushing luffy not once but twice, which only makes luffy’s ultimate hard-won triumph feel all the better. luffy closes a huge gap over the course of alabasta in order to be able to beat crocodile, and giving us a sense of just how strong he is from the very start gives luffy clawing his way up to that level a lot more weight.

the successive reveals of luffy’s family never fail to absolutely delight me, because in any other series they would almost certainly feel contrived, but knowing luffy, it is absolutely unsurprising he just never happened to mention his relatives. nobody asked! luffy’s unique brand of honesty is one of my favorite character quirks, because he’s very straightforward and in fact can’t lie for shit, but his priorities are so completely off the wall that he winds up omitting highly relevant information completely by accident.

ace’s scene in alabasta really does impress me. oda’s said in an sbs that he knew ace’s fate from his introduction, which i find absolutely unsurprising given the intricacy of his story planning. that means he needed ace’s introduction to make him both likable and memorable enough in the space of just a couple chapters that the audience would be engaged when he became the focus of the story a couple hundred chapters on despite barely appearing at all in the intervening time, and he really succeeded.

kohza is one of my favorite minor characters in the whole series, and i think he’s a big part of why alabasta’s civil war plotline works so well and feels so real. nobody on either side of the war actually wants to fight, but everyone has been driven to such desperation that they feel they have no other choice in order to save their country; and kohza exemplifies that. he's a good person who loves his country a lot, and who genuinely likes and cares about the royal family and vivi especially, and the only option he can see to save alabasta is terrible, but there’s nothing else he can do.

it’s just fun for me to think about the fact that if crocodile was literally anything other than a very skilled logia, vivi would have ended the whole entire arc right here.

i really like civil war storylines when they’re well-done, and i think alabasta is one of the best ones i’ve seen in media. most of it is down to what i mentioned earlier, about how nobody on either side actually wants to fight but feels like they have no choice but to. nobody here is actually in the wrong except for crocodile, and so until crocodile is defeated, nothing can be fixed- which is what luffy, of all people, is the one to realize.

sanji’s mr. prince gambit is probably my single favorite part of alabasta, and i think one of the reasons i like it so much is because he basically beats crocodile at his own game. crocodile is terrifying in battle, but before anything else he’s a manipulator. he’s always working from the shadows, always deceiving people doing what he wants, and sanji manages to turn the tables on him and do the exact same back to him, twice.

also sanji looks great in glasses

smoker and tashigi both get kind of unfortunately sidelined after this saga, but they’re both really great characters in alabasta. (tashigi especially; i’ll get to her later.) much like the rebel army, they’re good people trying to do the right thing in the tangled mess of tension and politics and resentment that is alabasta- and when that means working with pirates, they’ll buckle down and do it, despite how much it might contradict their worldviews.

i love when events align in one piece so that people who don’t particularly like the strawhats wind up working with them for some common goal (as seen most prominently in impel down), and smoker and tashigi in alabasta are the first and still one of the best examples of that.

the entirety of luffy versus crocodile round one is so well done. we’re a hundred and fifty chapters in, and although luffy has struggled in fights before now and then, we get the sense he hasn’t ever really been pushed to the brink, and he’s certainly never lost.

and then he does, completely and absolutely, without ever even landing a hit on his opponent, and it hits like a punch.

oda seems to be a fan of characters just barely missing each other- the similar panel of robin and olvia running past each other from robin’s flashback comes to mind.

i’ve always liked that of all the strawhats, it’s usopp who gets the first “luffy is going to be king of the pirates” moment. they’ve all said it by the current chapters in wano (with the sole exception of robin, i believe), but usopp said it first, and that feels significant to me. he’s always been the one who feels the least secure in his place on the crew, but even so, he has so much faith in luffy.

nami’s fight with miss doublefinger is pretty silly in places and i think it gets frequently (understandably, it must be said) overshadowed by zoro’s fight with mr. 1 directly afterwards, but i really like it nonetheless. it’s nami’s first real solo fight in the whole series, and once she finds her feet she kicks ass, and i really like that. it feels like a very satisfying development for her, to stand up and risk her life in direct combat for vivi’s sake.

we’re now almost a thousand chapters in and its my firm belief that zoro versus mr. 1 is still one of the best fights in the entire series. i definitely think it’s probably zoro’s best fight- only his match with kaku compares. the narrative build over the course of the fight, from zoro struggling just to match mr. 1 (and getting shredded to pieces in the process) to cutting him down in one final stroke, is incredibly cool and satisfying to watch. it feels like a very tangible step forward for zoro in terms of ability, like a massive obstacle has been surmounted and, as he himself says, he’s now stronger for it.

its also very cool that this is, i believe, the first appearance of what is probably observation haki, though it isn’t named or recognized as such. i’m always endlessly impressed by all the little moments of internal consistency that oda manages to sprinkle into his story.

there’s barely any dialogue on these entire two pages, from crocodile dropping vivi to luffy and pell swooping in- the story is briefly told entirely through visuals- and i love that. it gives the impression of a single tense, frozen moment as vivi falls, which is then broken in spectacular fashion when luffy catches her.

i really, really like the progression that runs through all three of luffy’s fights with crocodile. the gap between them goes from being impossible, with luffy unable to even land a hit and crocodile basically toying with him; to surmountable but still huge, with luffy able to land some hits but still outclassed; to finally putting them on basically even ground. and every inch of that growth on luffy’s part is hard-fought and hard-won and well-deserved.

crocodile’s confidence in his abilities isn’t misplaced- he genuinely is that powerful. but if there’s anything we know about luffy by now, it’s that he doesn’t ever give up. it’s very fun to watch crocodile’s dismissiveness turn into disbelief turn into rage and frustration when luffy just won’t die.

luffy is, additionally, pretty clearly a better brawler than crocodile (which makes sense, crocodile is clearly used to devastating long-range attacks with his powers while luffy grew up fighting giant wildlife with his bare hands), which means that by the time of their last fight, where they’re just whaling on each other in the catacombs and crocodile is starting to get sloppy and desperate and lose control, if anything it’s luffy who has the upper hand.

zoro and sanji’s dynamic is always a favorite of mine, and one of the things i like best about them is how perfectly in sync they always manage to be when it comes to things that actually matter, despite fighting like cats and dogs pretty much every other time. i’ll never understand people who think they genuinely aren’t friends.

tashigi is really good in alabasta, okay. she essentially has her own entire character growth arc. she goes from her stance in loguetown, where she isn’t even tolerant of (fully legal!) bounty hunters, to here, where she’s forced to confront that the world isn’t nearly as black and white as she’s always believed it to be, that sometimes pirates are good and allies of the government are bad, and ultimately makes the right choice to help the strawhats even though it clearly pains and frustrates her that she can’t do anything more herself.

i’ll be forever mad that her only really significant appearance after this in punk hazard didn’t really live up to what her character deserved.

i really like how the countdown sequence is done. the tension is ratcheting up and up and up as the clock ticks down in the final seconds, panels cutting all over the city to show all the different characters, everyone who’s caught up in this conflict and everyone who’ll die if the cannon fires-

and then the clock hits zero, and we get this panel that’s just... quiet, after all the madness, as we see how vivi stopped the detonation. i think oda is very good at setting up his pages so they have a flow to them, so no matter how quickly you actually read sometimes things feel like they’re going very fast and all happening at once and then it slows down and gives the reader a chance to breathe, if only to speed up again later. i think oda is really good at pacing in general, really, both on a micro level like this and on a larger scale.

luffy’s greatest strength isn’t really his strength. he’s strong, absolutely, but that’s not really why he wins the fights he shouldn’t win. he wins because he just doesn’t fucking stay down. his fight with katakuri is probably the best example of this, because katakuri has him beat in pretty much every category except sheer endurance, and there as here, it’s that endurance that winds up getting luffy the win in the end.

i do love that it’s the rain that ends the war. not the explosion and pell’s sacrifice, not vivi’s pleading, not even luffy kicking crocodile into the stratosphere, but the rain, the thing alabasta’s been missing for too long, the thing crocodile stole, the only thing all these people are fighting over.

it’s crocodile’s symbolic defeat- at the same moment his power is broken by luffy, the stranglehold of dehydration he’s been using to foment war and rebellion is all at once gone, and he’s left with nothing at all, and alabasta can finally find peace and start to heal again.

i always love the little moments that show, usually without words, just how much the strawhats love each other, and all of them unanimously waiting until vivi is out of sight to collapse so that she won’t worry, won’t see how ragged they ran themselves for their sake, is definitely one of them.

i adore vivi’s sendoff, because while its sad she has to go, the certainty that someday they’ll meet again and that even if not they’ll always be crew manages to make this scene endlessly hopeful instead (which, i think, is also a good summary of one piece’s tone as a whole, at least in its more serious moments). luffy never says goodbye, after all, and nobody ever really leaves the strawhat pirates.

i’m really looking forward to vivi’s re-entry to the story. i really, really want to see her reunion with the strawhats.

hey look, it’s the panel my profile picture is from!

the mystery surrounding robin and her past is built up in little ways long before enies lobby, from her harsh reaction when confronted with by tashigi to her aversion to being called by her given name to this flashback, of her talking to cobra about her dream. of them, the latter is my favorite, because i think it’s probably the most sincere she is until enies lobby- which makes sense, given she thinks she’s about to die.

like many things about robin in alabasta, this gets cast in a new light by her backstory. if she dies here, so too does the entire legacy of ohara- but she’s so beaten down and hopeless that she really doesn’t see any light ahead to strive for. there’s no hope left, for her, and the whole world against her.

and then there’s luffy, who creates hope everywhere he goes, who makes her live anyways.

this is a hell of a spread to hook us very effectively right into the sky island saga. it’s a perfect reminder of just how much we still don’t know about all the endless mysteries of the grand line, and just how many adventures are still yet to be had.

#the voyage so far #arc: alabasta #one piece #opmeta #not japanese #long post

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kaizokuou-ni-naru · 3 years

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The Voyage So Far: Wano (Part One)

shirahoshi seeing the sun for the first time is really a relatively minor and understated thing, among all the chaos and revelations of reverie, but it strikes me as one of the most meaningful little moments in the arc.

i LOVE the luffy fanclub. i love that a meeting of the world leaders winds up being a who’s-who with assorted friends of one of the world’s most notorious criminals, and it brings me SO much joy to see them meeting each other and being able to connect. i feel the same way about coby and rebecca meeting.

in general, and i think i said this at marineford too, i love that the one piece world is developed and interconnected and alive enough to allow for these sorts of interactions.

fucked up that this was almost a hundred chapters ago and we still have no clue what the fuck was up with this, isn’t it?

i do find the introduction of im fascinating. up until this point we’ve had two presumed final villains- blackbeard and akainu- who were first established pretty far back at jaya and enies lobby (in robin’s flashback) respectively. meanwhile, im isn’t even seen until chapter nine hundred and something. it feels very late-game, but at the same time, their existence doesn’t contradict anything previously established, and in fact jives pretty well with a lot of information more recently revealed in dressrosa.

in any case, when in doubt i do trust oda knows what he’s doing when handling his story, and i’m very excited to see what he does with this.

wano is SO PRETTY. i mentioned this before in fishman island, but i think wano is definitely the prettiest setting in the series to date. i think it’s obvious oda was both very excited to draw it and put a lot of work and research into his depiction of it, and wow does it pay off. wano is so bursting with life and detail, and frequently looks like an ukiyo-e painting come to life, and just- wow wow wow.

i love zoro and luffy’s reunion so much... i love how happy they are to see each other. it’s only been, what, a couple weeks in-universe? but luffy is pulling the full tackle-hug like he did for sabo at dressrosa. i love them.

i really like the outfits in wano, too!! zoro’s ronin look in particular i think suits him very well, and i also love luffy’s patchy yukata and robin’s geisha getup and they’re just very cool. this also applies to the non-strawhat wano characters, for the record, and kind of ties back to what i was just saying about wano being so full of detail. it has a very specific look, and everything from the outfits to the way things like the fire and the waves are drawn folds very neatly into that aesthetic.

as i’m writing this i just finished on the paramount war posts, so with that fresh on my mind, i have to say i really like the way ace (or rather, his memory) is incorporated into wano. he’s not really a major presence- that is, the fact that he was there before luffy has no real bearing on the plot. but there are people who knew and cared about him and remember him fondly, tama and yamato, and it just really helps add to this feeling that ace was a person and his life and death had real and lasting affects.

and it adds, too, to the fact that even if it took ace way too long to realize it, he was so thoroughly loved everywhere he went.

i have a lot of thoughts on the intersection of food and heroism in one piece (i keep trying to compile a coherent meta post on the subject and mostly failing). but i’ll settle for saying that in wano luffy is a hero by his own definition, as someone who shares food with others, and i doubt he realizes that, but i think it’s really interesting.

i know luffy’s fight with kaidou is kind of controversial in fandom but i love it, personally. it feels like a logical outcome for luffy to get his ass kicked the first time he tries to go up against a yonkou singlehandedly! he got wrecked when he tried to throw down with a shichibukai the first time, too, and this is just the next logical step from that.

luffy’s always been an underdog starting from nowhere and working his way up and up and up, and i love that for him. of course he’s going to get messed up the first time he tries punching an entire order of magnitude above his weight class. and then he’s going to get up and try again, and again, and again until he wins.

the act structure of wano is really neat, i think. it helps such a long and complicated arc feel a lot more structured and less interminable than it might otherwise, and it also gives specific breaks where we can cut away to the story happening on the outside world.

honestly i really like the whole udon prison segment. it’s fun! i like it for similar reasons i like the colosseum mini-arc in dressrosa, honestly, which is that there’s no real stress because we know luffy is the scariest person there by a country mile so we can just watch him go ham, and that’s fun. it consistently cracks me up that absolutely nobody is worried luffy’s in jail. they’re all just like “yeah, he’ll be fine.” and they’re right! he’s having the time of his life!

wano’s cast is fascinating, because almost nobody is who they first appear to be. almost everyone is wearing masks, whether literal or not- fitting, for an arc structured after a kabuki play. everyone is playing roles, from hiyori to denjirou to kanjurou to yasuie, and everyone lies.

this entire sequence at orochi’s party is one of my favorites in the whole arc- in fact, it was my favorite, until we reached a certain part i’ll get to in the next post. everything from komurasaki standing up for toko and slapping orochi to denjirou “killing” her to robin getting caught by the oniwabanshu and dissolving into petals to nami calling down a massive lightning bolt to cover their escape- it’s really good.

i’ve written extensively before about the smile fruits and the themes of smile and laughter in one piece and how important the freedom to feel and express emotion is. suffice it to say that for all the atrocities orochi commits against the people of wano, it’s feeding the smile fruits to the people of ebisu town that is his greatest crime, and the revelation of just what happened to those poor people ratchets up the tragedy of wano tenfold.

i do think it’s interesting to think about how if denjirou had been just a little less committed to his role, zoro would’ve killed orochi right here. it really drives home that orochi is nothing- he’s weak, he’s cowardly, he’s just lucky and clever and cruel enough to be able to get much more powerful people to do his work for him.

it’s infuriating that someone like him has been able to hold such power over the lives of the people of wano and ruin them so thoroughly, and that’s exactly the point.

wano is the arc where oda says you Will care about the supernovas and i’m like yeah

hey, another of my all-time favorite luffy panels!! i honestly just think this one sums him up as a character in a line more than almost any other- “i’m always free.”

just look at the detail on kidd’s metal hand holy shit holy shit. on occasion certain panels jump out at me that remind me that oda really is just, a genius at drawing on a technical level, even setting aside his writing and storytelling chops, and this is one of them.

oda is really, really good at creating the sense of a darkest hour- a time when all hope seems lost. the other best example in the series is in water seven, when the crew seems to be falling to pieces, merry is marked for death, robin’s gone, and the aqua laguna is coming. here, too- nobody comes to meet the akazaya nine, and the one chance they’ve waited twenty years and staked their lives on seems in danger of slipping through their fingers-

but the point of making it so all seems lost is so that when hope does appear, it shines all the brighter, and feels all the more triumphant. it’s always darkest before the dawn, and we all know how wano has been waiting for the dawn.

#the voyage so far #arc: reverie #arc: wano kuni #one piece #opmeta #not japanese #long post

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kaizokuou-ni-naru · 3 years

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The Voyage So Far: Paramount War (Part One)

the introduction of the celestial dragons really is just so brutally effective. this is the first time we see them, and before they even show up on page they immediately establish themselves as both absolutely powerful and absolutely despicable. everyone is watching them commit atrocities in broad daylight, and nobody dares say a word.

i mentioned it back in the enies lobby post, i think, with spandam, but oda is very, very good at creating villains who it just feels so good and so deeply satisfying to see them get annihilated, and the celestial dragons are maybe the crowning example of it.

i really like how none of the strawhats are really intimidated or impressed at all by the celestial dragons, in sharp contrast to how everyone else responds to them. some of that is ignorance, but you can’t tell me zoro would have acted any differently in this scene had he known charloss was a member of the world’s ruling class. all the power the celestial dragons have comes from fear; of course their greatest weakness is someone who just doesn’t care.

obviously this moment is just excellent, no qualifiers needed, but one thing i really love about it is how all the bad shit that results from this does not detract from the sheer satisfaction of what happens at the auction house at all. like, even though this leads directly to the strawhats getting crushed by the pacifista and kizaru and scattered by kuma, i’ve never once caught myself thinking luffy shouldn’t have done this.

i’m a huge fan of how rayleigh introduces himself. he knocks out the whole action house with conqueror’s haki, but luffy is completely unaffected, and the two of them just watch each other down the aisle for a moment as everyone else collapses around them.

i don’t know that i’ll ever get over the fact that oda created and designed the supernovas as he was writing sabaody. they’re all such distinct and memorable characters, and almost all of them have fit neatly into the post-timeskip story one way or another. they really feel like a part of the world that was always meant to be there.

i think the way roger as a character is handled is very, very cool, because we don’t really meet him as a person- when we first learn of him, on the very first page, he’s a myth, a story, a framing device. which is fitting, because that’s all the characters know him as. the rest of the world doesn’t know what roger was like as a person or why he did what he did, and so neither do our main characters and neither do we.

and then we learn, slowly, by following in roger’s steps and meeting the characters who did know him, like rayleigh and whitebeard and garp. and through their testimony and memories, over the course of the story, roger goes from being a faceless myth to being a proper character.

i think this panel, where luffy says he just wants to be the freest person on the seas, might be my favorite luffy panel. if nothing else, it’s definitely one of the ones i think about the most in terms of his characterization. luffy’s been defining himself by his dream since the very start of the story- he’s the man who’s going to be king of the pirates! but it’s only here that we learn what that goal actually means to him, and what he actually really wants. he just wants to be free.

the tone shift of sabaody really is impeccable. because up until a certain point, everything seems pretty par for the course. the strawhats make some new friends, get into trouble for their sakes, get into a hard fight where they all have to work together but eventually scrape out a win.

but then kizaru shows up, and another pacifista, and kuma himself, and for the first time in the story luffy says this is a fight they can’t win-

and then zoro disappears, and all of the audience’s expectations for how this is going to play out get thrown completely out the window.

it’s not that we haven’t seen luffy upset before this- his fight with usopp in water 7 and merry’s funeral are the two obvious examples that come to mind- but we’ve never, to this point, seen him as crushed as he is at the end of sabaody. it really drives the abrupt tone shift of sabaody home, because we’re used to seeing luffy be generally cheerful, and if not that, at stubbornly determined to power through. but here, he’s just wrecked- and the paramount war saga is just getting started.

every time i see hancock i’m reminded what a lesbian i am.

i’m talking a lot about character introductions this post, but a lot of really good characters get introduced in the first half of this saga, from the supernovas to rayleigh to jinbe. on that note, i really like hancock’s introduction, for reasons similar to what i said about roger earlier. she’s introduced as a cartoonishly evil one-dimensional bitch, and she leans hard into that characterization for the first half or so of amazon lily.

and then luffy narrowly keeps her and her sisters’ worst fear from being realized, and her facade starts to slip, and we get to know her as- still kind of a bitch, but also a deeply traumatized person who has very valid reasons for being the way she is, and someone who is overall a lot more complicated than she appears at first glance.

one of my favorite things about luffy is his ability to always, always defy expectations. hancock is dead certain he’ll take her offer of a ship and abandon marguerite and the others, but he doesn’t even hesitate before doing the exact opposite. luffy is always turning people’s worlds upside down.

i have a friend who coined the term “conflict of interest arc” to refer to the arcs where a crewmate is forced to choose between the crew and some obligation or baggage from their past- arlong park for nami, whole cake island for sanji, etc.

marineford is luffy’s conflict of interest arc- he has to make the choice, here, to prioritize saving ace over reuniting with his crew. where it differs from all other such arcs, then, is that nobody else can come to back him up. he’s well and truly on his own.

i love how thoroughly expectations get turned on their head with jinbe. for the longest time, all we know about him is that he’s a shichibukai and arlong’s former captain, so given what arlong was like and what the shichibukai encountered thus far have been like, it’s a fair guess to assume he’s pretty awful.

and then we meet him, and he’s ace’s friend, sitting bloody and beaten in the deepest dungeons of impel down for refusing to fight in an unjust war.

bon-chan is really one of the greatest examples of one piece’s stubborn refusal to treat any character as disposable, and oda’s endless ability to find new and interesting ways to fit them into the story. in pretty much any other manga, it would be all but guaranteed that we wouldn’t see a character like bon-chan again after the conclusion of the alabasta saga. here, luffy straight up would not have made it to marineford without him. this is true for mr. 3 too- who would’ve thought his ability to duplicate keys out of wax, established and promptly forgotten some three hundred chapters ago, would be the thing that let luffy free ace on the scaffold?

magellan is a good antagonist. i’m not saying i like him- i don’t particularly- but he’s a great antagonist for a couple reasons, and one of them is that his powers are terrifying. magellan is essentially what might be called in video game terminology an advancing wall of doom- the only viable strategy for dealing with him is to run.

i had more i wanted to say here but it literally kept turning into a rant about one piece’s take on morality no matter how many times i tried to keep it short, so i’ll settle for just saying that magellan is an antagonist but not a villain and i think that’s interesting.

the absolutely ridiculous, eclectic mix of people that luffy winds up gathering to escape impel down is possibly my favorite part of the whole arc. i just think it’s so fun and so characteristic of him that even when separated from his crew, he winds up attracting the weirdest, most powerful bunch of people around to break out of prison with.

the relationship between luffy and blackbeard is a really interesting one. it’s been plenty clear for some time that blackbeard is almost certainly going to be luffy’s final opponent to become pirate king, and yet they’ve been mostly running on parallel paths through the world, only occasionally coinciding (such as here and in jaya) and generally seeming pretty unconcerned with each other. it’s a really cool way to handle the built to an eventual showdown, and i really like it.

this is one of my favorite spreads just for sheer smile factor. i love it so much. i think we should get to see jinbe’s whale shark buddies more often, it’s a crime we haven’t seen them since this.

#the voyage so far #one piece #long post #arc: sabaody #arc: amazon lily #arc: impel down #not japanese

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FEATURE SERIES: My Favorite One Piece Arc with Greg Werner

Welcome to the next article in the series "My Favorite One Piece Arc!"

My next guest in this series is Greg Werner, the official One Piece columnist for Shueshia and Toei. For my chat with him, he chose the Arlong Park, in which Luffy and his crew take on Arlong and Nami officially joins Team Straw Hat.

A note on spoilers: If you haven't seen the Arlong Park arc yet, this interview does contain major plot points. Watch the Arlong Park arc starting RIGHT HERE if you'd like to catch up or rewatch!

Dan Dockery: Sell me on Arlong Park, in one sentence. Let's say that I'd gotten to the end of the Baratie Arc, and I decided "You know what? I don't think this is for me." What would you say to convince me to keep going?

Greg Werner: I don’t know if I could sell a bottle to a milkman, but I’ll give it a shot ... Can it be in the form of a question?

Yes.

Do you want to know Nami’s backstory? And that seems so facile, but you’re coming off Baratie with the knowledge that Nami has betrayed the crew, she has left the crew, and she has stolen the ship. But it seems like she’s not acting freely, and she mentions the name “Bellemere.” So if you’ve gone through One Piece and you’ve come to that point, that’s simple enough.

So, you have Luffy who wants to go get her, an injured Zoro, Usopp, who's gotta be in a weird state, and Sanji who finds her extremely attractive and cool. It's a fun dynamic.

Zoro and Usopp are an interesting combination, they always are. Usopp always feels like Zoro’s little brother and Zoro kind of has to take a back seat due to injuries here. But I always find their interactions to be very sweet, and you get to see a kind side of Zoro, which is the antithesis of how he interacts with Sanji. And you’re getting hints of the rivalry between Zoro and Sanji here, one that ramps up to the hunting contest in Little Garden, at which point they cease to call each other by their names and just insult one another. And between Luffy and Sanji, you get these kindred spirits due to their dreams. Usopp and Zoro are a little more straight-faced about their dreams, but both Sanji and Luffy utter their dreams with these big smiles. So even though Oda has his pieces all over the map, it’s nice to see the freshness of all of them working together, which is something you won’t find in anything but the best shonen action series.

When you meet Arlong, he's kind of a jerk. He doesn't seem very nice. But he's one of the first One Piece villains who seems like a complete character. He's mighty but underhanded and deceitful. What does his introduction do for One Piece?

So I bought the first ten volumes for a co-worker because he’d seemed interested in it, and I said “There, you’ve got the first ten volumes. Now you have no excuse not to get into it.” And we’ve been talking about it recently, especially the little details, and we found something very interesting about Arlong. There’s one aspect of Arlong that is completely different from every villain up to this point and it’s how he treats his crew. Buggy starts off beating up one of his crew members. Part of Kuro’s plan is to kill his crew. Krieg only sees his crew as numbers and will gas them. Arlong, though, to members of his crew, he’s extraordinarily loyal. When he finds out that Zoro has beaten up his crew, Arlong is pissed. In some ways, he’s very similar to Luffy, but he’s despicable and terrifying and he’s one of my favorite villains.

That's a great point; Arlong is the first bad guy to have pride in his crew. Speaking of Arlong's crew, this is the first time we get the classic 1v1 where a Straw Hat member matches up against an antagonist crew member. When you first read this, because it's electric every time I watch it, how did you feel to watch it go full-on battle manga?

Zoro’s a beast. Sanji’s a beast. But Usopp? Facing down this insurmountable force? How is he gonna do this? And I think that’s the moment that got me. The others are awesome, and I love them, and they’re great, funny battles. But with Usopp fighting Chew, it showed Oda’s ability to shine in a certain way. Like Toriyama and Dragon Ball, Oda’s been very influenced by Jackie Chan, because Jackie Chan fights are awesome, visually stunning fights, but they’re funny. And that’s what Oda strives for sometimes. When you combine the action with the gags, you get something very special. You’re not just excited, but you’re laughing, too. And I think Usopp’s battles represent the pinnacle of that. It clicked for me there and it became a page-turner. It feels like what a shonen action series should be. And I enjoy Oda’s different takes on it, but he does it so well here.

I’m glad you bring up Toriyama and Dragon Ball because if you read any interview with any Shonen Jump author, they praise Toriyama. And it’s deserved. The man’s battle scenes and pacing have never been beaten and probably never will be. He’s the master. But one of the things I like about Oda is that he doesn’t try to copy them. Rather, he takes bits and pieces and spins it off into his own thing. Do you remember the Oda interview with Toriyama where he was like “I really liked Tao Pai Pai …”

From Color Walk 1.

And Toriyama was like “I ... drew that?” It’s the funniest thing in the world to me.

I think his exact words were “Now you’re getting into the minor characters.” And Oda’s like “MINOR CHARACTERS?”

He nearly killed Goku! But I dig that kind of reverence and inspiration. So Nami’s backstory — it’s heart-wrenching. Bellemere’s awesome. Makes you wish she was still around in the series.

Isn’t that perfect? That’s exactly what he goes for.

In the end, she refuses to say that she doesn’t have children, even after a bad spat with Nami. This flashback is one of my favorite ones. What did you get out of it and how did it take the story to another level? Because to match it, every flashback to come had to do some heavy lifting.

Every detail in this flashback builds on itself. There’s no excess. And maybe outside of the Chopper backstory, I can’t think of another backstory that is so full of necessary information that weaves into a single narrative. Every event evokes an emotion in the reader and pushes the story forward. Bellemere has the fight with Nami, makes dinner to reconcile with her, a Fishman crew member sees the cooking smoke from her house, the Fishmen find her, she refuses to discount Nami as her family, and she’s killed. It all comes together so neatly in three chapters, I think. Oda sets a reeeeeally high bar for himself, but to be able to match that through nearly a hundred volumes of story takes a special kind of manga genius. It’s also the very first time I cried while reading manga.

Next, we run through basically a Greatist Hits collection of One Piece moments: Nami asks for help, Luffy gives Nami the hat, the march to Arlong Park, Luffy slugs Arlong, the fights happen, Luffy brings down the Gum Gum Battle Axe, Arlong’s spine gets turned into clam chowder, etc. So much of what we think about One Piece is distilled into the final chapters of Arlong Park. So do you have a favorite moment from this climax? I honestly can’t pick.

I didn’t realize this when I first read it, and it took me several years to understand the importance of the giving of the hat. It’s one of only two times in the series that Oda uses five exclamation points in a row. The other one is when Luffy comes swooping in to save Vivi from Crocodile. Even the famous “dreams of mankind will never end” doesn’t get five. Luffy’s pissed and the best part about this is that he doesn’t have a single reason to be. He knows nothing about Nami’s history and actively refuses to listen to it. He takes a nap instead. He’s just ready to be a tool for her, so when she asks him to help her? YOU GOT IT. And then, the next thing he tells her, after the fight with Arlong, he tells her that she’s his crewmate. Nami has held this by herself for so long, she’s so strong, and she finally opens up to accept help from someone else. And it tells us that Luffy knows what kind of person you are, even if he doesn’t know that much about you. He might be dumb and reckless and strong, but there’s a spark there. He can read you.

One thing I like in the anime is that Nami is the first Straw Hat introduced in the story. She’s at the boat party that gets attacked by Alvida, and her showing up there and then being the main focus of Arlong Park bookends East Blue and kind of turns it into her saga. But as they leave this arc and head to Loguetown, what is new about One Piece? What's there that wasn't around before?

That’s a good question.

Because I hear many people say “Arlong Park is what made me a One Piece fan.”

You get to see their daily routines onboard their full ship. You have the established East Blue crew in one location and we get a slice of life. In just a few scenes or panels, you finally get to watch the crew relax. You get a window on their lives and there’s a sense of completeness. It’s a warm, fuzzy feeling.

ONE PIECE LIGHTNING ROUND!

Favorite character?

Luffy, Franky, and Zoro.

Favorite villain?

Arlong.

Favorite fight scene?

Luffy vs Bellamy. It’s so satisfying.

One Piece island that you’d want to live on?

Skypiea.

What Devil Fruit would you eat?

Flower-Flower fruit that Nico Robin uses. I’d get so much work done.

One Piece moment that made you cry the most?

Bellemere’s death.

One Piece moment that made you cheer the loudest?

The defeat of Lucci. That was remarkable.

Stay tuned for the next installment of "My Favorite One Piece Arc" as we speak with Aggretsuko and The Black Mage writer Daniel Barnes about his favorite One Piece arc: Marineford!!

Daniel Dockery is a Senior Staff Writer for Crunchyroll. Follow him on Twitter!

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features.

By: Daniel Dockery

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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