Official Anime/Manga Thread

[Sean]

I think for all its strengths in connecting stories, One Piece falters when it comes to character development. Oda doesn't explore a whole lot of character dynamics, instead sticking with established ones for the sake of jokes (Zoro/Sanji, Sanji/Nami/Robin, Usopp/Chopper, etc.). Usually after their respective backstories, these characters don't change too much unless the plot calls for it.

Also, I think Robin is kind of a waste of space. She's by far the least interesting of the main cast because nothing about her is played for laughs. Give her something to work with, god damn it.

[Kuzu]

I think for all its strengths in connecting stories, One Piece falters when it comes to character development. Oda doesn't explore a whole lot of character dynamics, instead sticking with established ones for the sake of jokes (Zoro/Sanji, Sanji/Nami/Robin, Usopp/Chopper, etc.). Usually after their respective backstories, these characters don't change too much unless the plot calls for it.

Also, I think Robin is kind of a waste of space. She's by far the least interesting of the main cast because nothing about her is played for laughs. Give her something to work with, god damn it.

 

 

Isn't that more character dynamics rather than character development? Yeah, I can agree with that to an extent. The Strawhats undoubtedly look out for each other as a whole, but for the most part the main dynamics tend to be done for the jokes.

[Sean]

It's both. Oda doesn't seem like he knows how to give characters additional depth than what their backstories call for, nor do we get to see the Straw Hats interact with each other to the extent that they ought to. For example, why doesn't Luffy interact with Zoro more often? He was his first crew member; you'd expect them to have the deepest bond. When Zoro and Sanji both tried to exchange themselves to save Luffy's life, it honestly didn't have much of an impact on me for that very reason. It's just really strange.

There definitely are moments where the individual characters shine through (besides the fights), such as the feud about the Going Merry during the Water 7 arc, and Usopp period in Enies Lobby. Why can't we have more of that? In fact, Water 7/Enies Lobby are so great to me because they really succeeded at making the Straw Hats feel so much more human. So maybe Oda does know how to write good character development - he just doesn't, because there's so much other stuff like the increasingly epic storylines that he can't give every character the attention they deserve.

Still a great manga. Being a fan of it for so long has just made me attentive to its flaws as I am to its strengths.

[SuperLink]

I can see what you mean, Enies Lobby/Water 7 was so amazing to me for everything it did with Usopp, similarly to the Sabaody Arc which I feel really built on Luffy a lot (which is currently my favourite arc thus far)

 

I like to think that since One Piece is really only halfway over, we're going to see more character development.. but perhaps it's going to be very spread out. I really like the Punk Hazard Arc already.

[Kuzu]

Water 7/Enies Lobby is my favorite arc for that reason, it really tested the limits of the Strawhats as a whole and put their loyalties on the line, which made it one the most emotionally driven arcs in the series. I think Oda's strength is more in his storytelling than his character building, not that his characters aren't bad, they aren't by any means they're fantastic characters, but I feel the story surrounding them gets more development than the characters themselves.

 

I mean look at Punk Hazard, I like the arc for it's unpredictably but it kinda falls short with it's potential character buildup; I'll keep this part in spoilers for those who haven't read Punk Hazard yet:

 

It starts off well enough with the Strawhats exploring a forbidden land, we even get an unlikely group in Luffy, Zoro, Ussop, and Robin as well as Smoker coming back. It seems like a promising arc. But then when the actual fighting starts, it just...meh.

Ceaser Clown is about as cookie cutter as they come, I mean he's definitely a step up from Hordy in that he at least wasn't imediately curb stomped by Luffy, but for the most part the bulk of his character is just how EVEL he is. He lacks Crocodile's charisma, or Enel's sheer power and hamminess.

This arc could have had potential Chopper, and Franky development considering the former's whole deal with Ceaser's actions, and the latter because of his connection to Vegapunk. But for the most art, The Monster Trio and Law had the spotlight as far as fighting was concerned.

 

 

I still like the arc and series, but yeah. It's flaw are apparent,

[MugiMikey]

Still a great manga. Being a fan of it for so long has just made me attentive to its flaws as I am to its strengths.

Agreed. I remember for years after I got into it, I would praise it like it was the best damn thing ever. I would claim it had no flaws at all and put other series down when others made comparisons. Now that I'm older, I want to show Oda and his work more respect by not having a biased opinion.

 

Especially now, the story has a couple of quirks that bother me... The biggest being is I think Part I of One Piece is leagues better than Part II. I felt the story had better writing, the pacing was great, and it was just a more enjoyable experience. Now I feel that the timeskip felt rather forced, some designs got worse, and the fanservice just became too obnoxious. I can't even say I really like Nami anymore because every time Oda draws her, her breasts are almost always the focal point. It makes her look like a slutty bimbo rather than a valuable character. The anime tries to take advantage of this at every moment it can to make it look like borderline ecchi. I also don't really like Sanji anymore either due to his terrible character development. It saddens me that it had to come to this because I used to really like these characters.

 

Storywise, Punk Hazard is pretty fun (although it did make Sanji even more unlikeable), but Fishman Island was just... meh. After all the years Oda had hyped it, it just was rather lackluster. Even though One Piece is flawed, I still really enjoy it and I have faith in Oda's imagination to continue creating the best shonen manga ever.

[Kuzu]

Honestly, Sanji is at his best when he isn't fawning over women, unfortunately tho Oda almost has him doing just that all the time. Water 7/Enies Sanji was at his peak; he got shit done, and looked badass while doing it, and while he was still fawning over women, he at least acknowledged how stupid it was.

[MugiMikey]

Yeah. Now he's just a creep, a burden to the rest of the crew, and doesn't value anybody else but Nami and Robin and it's only because they have vaginas.

 

Also, he fed razorblades to Zoro. Pretty low.

[Sean]

Yeah the added fanservice kind of grates at me. I'm not against fanservice in works really, but mainly because it was just added so late into OP's life that it feels jarringly out of place. For the life of me I can not find Nami, Robin, or any other OP girl sexy. I liked it better when Nami's chest wasn't larger than her head, too.

Sanji also comes off as a dick too, he's one of my least liked Straw Hats these days. I guess Oda wanted to give him a zanier personality to match the others, but then none of the females have one either. He actually pissed me off in Enies Lobby when he refused to fight that one chick. Way to miss an opportunity.

I also have a hard time believing that the old Sanji would actually be a super pervert; he seemed like the type who would find the notion of peeking on a bathing girl really low.

[Kuzu]

I also really don't like how much focus Oda puts on the Monster Trio; I mean with Luffy I can understand he's the main character and captian, and even Zoro I can accept being the first mate, and Sanji when he gets his shit together, but still. They're so ludicrously overpowered that it just makes the rest of the crew look really weak by comparison. It doesn't help that they always get the best fights in any given arc.

 

I mean who else on the crew has had a fight on the same scale as those three? It may be justified because they're the three most popular characters respectively, but still. That's something that's always grated on me when it comes to fights.

[Sean]

Usopp's fights are generally my favorite ones, actually. The one against Perona made me bust a gut.

[Kuzu]

Usopp's fights are generally my favorite ones, actually. The one against Perona made me bust a gut.

 

My favorite fights tend to be ones that don't include the Monster Trio, just because of how often it doesn't happen. Franky's most recent fight was pretty lulzy.

[MugiMikey]

Yeah the added fanservice kind of grates at me. I'm not against fanservice in works really, but mainly because it was just added so late into OP's life that it feels jarringly out of place. For the life of me I can not find Nami, Robin, or any other OP girl sexy. I liked it better when Nami's chest wasn't larger than her head, too.

Sanji also comes off as a dick too, he's one of my least liked Straw Hats these days. I guess Oda wanted to give him a zanier personality to match the others, but then none of the females have one either. He actually pissed me off in Enies Lobby when he refused to fight that one chick. Way to miss an opportunity.

One thing that bothers me about Robin's new design is that now that she has longer hair, she looks almost like Hancock. In fact, in the beginning of Punk Hazard, she pretty much was Hancock.

 

Also, yeah. Sanji vs. Kalifa was pathetic. The whole point was to rescue Robin from professional assassins, and then he was paired up in a fight with one of them. What does he do? He's inconsiderate of Robin and fails to protect the rest of his crew just because of his sexism. If he just finished Kalifa off then Nami wouldn't have been in even more danger, having to clean up his mess and all.

 

I mean who else on the crew has had a fight on the same scale as those three? It may be justified because they're the three most popular characters respectively, but still. That's something that's always grated on me when it comes to fights.

That's so true. You'd think Franky'd be up there getting some awesome fights as well, right? At least Luffy knows his other crewmates have potential, though, as seen when he had to get Law to back off so Nami and Usopp could get some well-deserved action.

[Urban Flow]

Ikki Tousen IS Hentai, with fighting.

LMAO it sure was. I dunno why the fuck I watched that but I did dammit.

[Silencer226]

Man... I'm gonna watch Queen's Blade, and both seasons of Seikon no Qwaser now... man I have no fucking shame at all.

[Remy]

Usopp's fights are generally my favorite ones, actually. The one against Perona made me bust a gut.

 

that was an amazing fight. it still makes me laugh thinking about how usopps relentless negativity not only gave him immunity, but backfired and made perona and the ghosts lose the will to live instead

[Kuzu]

that was an amazing fight. it still makes me laugh thinking about how usopps relentless negativity not only gave him immunity, but backfired and made perona and the ghosts lose the will to live instead

 

 

It led to one of the best reactions faces in the series: 

 

http://i33.mangapanda.com/one-piece/461/one-piece-63990.jpg

[\gunther]

So, those PSG style Gurren Lagann figures are up for pre-order on several stores. They're quite cheap, too.

http://www.hlj.com/product/pht57430

http://www.otacute.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_6&products_id=33907

http://www.amiami.com/top/detail/detail?gcode=FIG-MOE-8280&page=top

Just in case anyone else besides me wants them.

[SuperLink]

I love Usopp's fights too, they're always really clever and they give you such a gr8 feeling. I also love loads of Luffy's fights, some of them are dull but some of them are just "aw yea here we fuckin go", when Luffy gets his game on you know you're in for a treat usually.

 

But I do agree that Zoro and Sanji get too many fights especially since a lot of their fights are kinda dull. Chopper's fights would become amazing now that he has so much control over the Rumble Ball (which I still think needs more development) and the almost complete lack of dedicated Robin fights when she has one of the most interesting Devil Fruit in the series is almost criminal.

 

Also I didn't like the Fishman Isle arc either, far too long, awful pacing, and didn't give me the impression that the Strawhats had majorly powered up because drugs. Though in Oda's defense, Part II has only just started really. Oh, and is anyone else worried that since Punk Hazard is current in manga as well as anime, the pacing for the anime version will be even slower than usual? (unless that happens a lot and I didn't notice)

 

Speaking of how Oda treats the ladies, one peeve I have with Oda's art is that unlike a lot of generic shounen, Oda's male character designs are all genuinely unique, that's one of my favourite things about OP, there's more to a character design besides their hair colour/style and clothes. However all his female characters look the same 8l

[MugiMikey]

Also I didn't like the Fishman Isle arc either, far too long, awful pacing, and didn't give me the impression that the Strawhats had majorly powered up because drugs. Though in Oda's defense, Part II has only just started really. Oh, and is anyone else worried that since Punk Hazard is current in manga as well as anime, the pacing for the anime version will be even slower than usual? (unless that happens a lot and I didn't notice)

 

Part II, so far, is nearly 100 chapters long. That's two years' worth of serilization material. In Part I, they were just entering the Grand Line at this point. I feel that even then, Oda created better stories than he did for the two years' worth of Part II. Like I said, Punk Hazard is fun (especially the new one, #696), but Fishman Island was just a major letdown.

Speaking of how Oda treats the ladies, one peeve I have with Oda's art is that unlike a lot of generic shounen, Oda's male character designs are all genuinely unique, that's one of my favourite things about OP, there's more to a character design besides their hair colour/style and clothes. However all his female characters look the same 8l

 Agreed; they used to be a bit more unique. Robin, for example. She used to look very distinct but now Oda is drawing her in his typical woman style. :/ It also seems like every woman has the exact same body and face, with the hair being the only asset that has variety (and even then this is not always true). Another thing that bothers me about women in One Piece is how Oda has been avoiding men and women fighting each other as of lately. It never used to be like this; in Part I, Luffy and Zoro never hesitated to attack women. Now, however, Zoro pulled a Sanji and showed Monet mercy. In the new movie

he didn't really attack Ain even though he was perfectly capable of it; all he did was clash and block.

Edited January 23, 2013 by MugiMikey

[Soniman]

Though I haven't gotten to Part 2 yet, I really don't like the designs for Robin or Chopper. 

 

Robin looks nothing like how she did previously (and looks worse overall) and Chopper is less like a Deer that was turned human-esuqe and more like a Deer that's chibi-fied, I just really hate how overly cute he is.

[Sean]

Speaking of how Oda treats the ladies, one peeve I have with Oda's art is that unlike a lot of generic shounen, Oda's male character designs are all genuinely unique, that's one of my favourite things about OP, there's more to a character design besides their hair colour/style and clothes. However all his female characters look the same 8l

I noticed this so long ago and I haven't really been able to take his female designs seriously since. Usually the only females that stand out from the rest are, well, fucking ugly. In particular, Nami used to look much younger than she actually was (small breast size and all), which I thought was brilliant because it meant she could end up deceiving people with her "innocence" and not with her sex appeal. But that doesn't seem to apply these days.

[Kuzu]

It's a lot more apparent in the most recent chapter; seriously, Nami and Tashigi literally have the same face with the only difference being hair color and their clothes. It's sad really, because Oda used to have very distinct female designs.

[Sean]

I wouldn't call them very distinct since even back then they all looked pretty samey, they're just... even more samey these days.

[Ferno]

On the current subject, there's some dialogue in the Funimation version that I've always found unintentionally funny. (not sure if this is in the original or the manga because I haven't looked those up when it comes to this scene.) The crew are on Drum island and Dalton questions Vivi stating that she looks familiar to him, and Vivi, trying to conceal her identity, nervously says "I just have one of those faces I guess." It made me sorta laugh internally because she looks similar to alot of the other girls in One Piece as far as her face is concerned.

Edited January 23, 2013 by Inferno