WE ARE! TALKING ABOUT ONE PIECE~

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Yohoho! I dunno where this should go! But here's as good a place as any for now~~~


WE ARE!

One Piece is the largest manga in the world at the moment, just recently being added to the Guinness Book of World Records for the Most Comic books Published by a Single Author. It's also a huge franchise with themed restaurants dedicated to it (including a ship restaurant) and it's own store. No, not a store devoted to anime in general - a store devoted solely to selling One Piece merchandise.


I wanna ride the mini-Merry. ;.;

Needless to say, it's big. One of the most read manga in the world, consistently at the top of the sales charts and the only one of the 'Big Three' to still be around.


Look at Luffy with that hard-earned award.

One Piece, if you don't know, follows an adventurous youth by the name of Monkey D. Luffy, as he gathers a crew and takes on the goal of finding the mythical treasure, One Piece, and becoming the King of the Pirates. Along the way they will make friends and enemies and learn the secrets of the world in which they live, be entangled in wars and deal with evils on a social, personal and world-wide scale. They aren't out to save the world, but to conquer it, and you'll never have more fun cheering on the 'bad guys' as you will in this manga.


The worst 'bad guys'.

The manga is both hilarious, silly, crazy, interesting, painful, touching, sad and amazing. Written by Eichiiro Oda, it has been on-going for well over 15 years, selling out even the well-loved Dragon Ball. Racism, slavery, corruption, tragedy, death, nakama-ship (combination of crew/family/friendship), cover-ups, fighting against 'fate' and many, many more topics are touched on in the almost 800 chapter series (which is still on-going).

The anime is not quite as well received as it could have been due to bad translation and censorship up the wazoo by 4Kids, but is now in the capable hands of Funimation. Sadly, the initial release to Western shores was plagued with horrible voice acting, nonsensical scenes and destruction of plot elements, leaving most people wondering just what the fuck was up with this shit... to put it mildly.

This is a pity because it is one of the best series you can find, being both easy to read and very deep. It is a manga that is written so that a child could understand it, touching on topics that an adult can appreciate, and has kept a large following through all the time of it's publication.

Currently there are 790+ chapters of the manga and while that can be daunting for new readers to decide to tackle, just keep in mind that it will be one of the wildest and most fun rides you will have, so if you're looking for a good read, you know what to do!

Now that you've been edumacated a little, let's talk shop.

Be warned, there will be spoilers for old and new chapters in this thread.
So... One Piece. New chapter is out. Let me gush below a hide tag, at least til we're off the front page, m'kay?

Spoilers for Chapter 794
Ahhhhh! I actually called it! Sabo was totally amnesic and I called it. TAKE THAT YOU ASSHOLES IN THAT OP FORUM WHO TOLD ME I WAS STUPID FOR THINKING THAT! MUAHAHAHAHA! I AM VINDICATED!!!

Anyway, awwww, we skipped the party, but I guess it can be forgiven with the shapshot into Sabo's past and the tantalising hints dropped about Dragon. Some people seem to think that Dragon has a Crow fruit, based on the crows at the end of the chapter, but I'm of the school of thought it's weather-based, especially as it looks like he just 'landed' from air-borne flight (no crows~) when he arrived on the ship with Sabo.

Granted, crows could account for the strong winds that gave poor Smokey a hard time in Logue town, but they don't account for the lightning strike that saved Luffy back then while more weather-based powers would. Still, could have been Luffy's ultra luck at work, but I'm more inclined to believe in fatherly interference.

Also, how awkward would Sabo revealing his connection to Luffy have been?

"Oh, hey, uh, Dragon... you know this Ace guy... he's my brother."
"Ace, huh? He was raised by my dad, Garp."
"EH! GARP?! That's the guy that raised me, Ace and Luffy!"
"EH! LUFFY?! That's my SON!!!"
Cue double-face-faults.

Damn, I wish the manga had shown that. It would have been glorious. :<

As it stands, I rather enjoyed the chapter. There's a lot of unanswered questions at the moment, but I'm sure we'll get to them soon enough.


There's going to be a break next week, sadly, but I'm sure Oda will have something fun for us to check out the week after. ^.^ Odachii needs his rest, after all!
Predicting that 90% of this thread will be me and Liberty, unless there are some other die hard One Piece fans on RMN that I am unaware of.

Anyways, I'm really excited about the developments in the latest chapter- with Kid, Hawkins and Apoo going after Shanks we're already set up for a pretty slick plot arc at some stage in the distant future, especially if Luffy's alliance with Law holds up that long. Now that Dressrosa is concluding I'm really interested to see where Oda is going to take the crew next, and how they're going to deal with the Thousand Sunny apparently being captured by Big Mom (if the cryptic dialogue of Capone Bege is to be interpreted like that).

I'm thinking that the rest of the Heart Pirates might finally show up at Dressrosa, perhaps over concern of the Thousand Sunny never reaching Zo?

EDIT: Shit, I didn't realize 794 was already out. Need to go read that.
Double good luck, though - MangaPanda is late on the ball and MangaStream got there first. Meaning this week's is actually intelligible! :DDD

I know of one other fan who I might be able to rope into the conversation. That's three!


...you'd think on a site that enjoys nerdy things like anime and great stories that there'd be more than three people who liked such an epic story. OP is like a well-written jRPG meets Pirates of Penzance. Except without the world saving and with a lot more epic.
Not a die hard fan of the series but I catch it when I can. Otherwise I'm just too busy and addicted to so many other anime that by the time I remember I need to catch up on my One Piece I forget and start a new anime. I do miss Zolo. He's my favorite character so far but I've only seen most of season 1 (possibly some of 2) and a few episodes from some desert city and sky place. I also recall the episodes with the Doctor in the snow when they picked up that little deer guy. I can't remember his name (Chomper or Chopper?) but I don't like him as much as I do Usopp (probably spelled that wrong), Zolo, and Sanji. That being said what's the filler status like on this anime? Worth watching or should you skip it? (Some anime have good filler episodes).
O-Oh dear. You've only been exposed to the 4Kids version. We need to get you on the subbed version stat! (4Kids changed Zoro's name to Zolo because... who the fuck knows? They also cut out whole arcs which later comes back to bite them in the ass because they cut out certain important characters who are necessary to know down the line. You might need a whole rewatch (or just read the manga)).

The filler depends. Some of it is pretty good, like the G5 arc, while others aren't. Like Foxy. Fuck Foxy. :/ That said, it's nothing like Naruto filler. They started off doing an interesting thing - in the manga Oda created little side-stories with the chapter pages, so over the course of an arc you'd follow snapshots of what happened to x character or what's going on in y place. Some of the fillers are based on those side-stories and they're less filler because they're actual cannon stories, but still allowing filler space for the manga to jump ahead of the anime a bit more.

That said, recently they stopped doing as much filler arcs and instead started adding filler to episodes which can make them seem bloated with nothingness. People aren't too happy about it, but put up with it because the storyline is great and the characters sooo good. This is because the anime finally caught up after Oda got sick and had to take a long break (man overworks himself a LOT).

Seriously, though, I highly recommend picking up the manga if only to see just how amazing some of the art is. Oda fills in every frame with details and action and just small interactions between the characters in the background. There's even a little game he plays with the readers by sometimes hiding a certain character in the background as a sort-of 'Where's Wally?' game (oh, right, you Americans call him Waldo. God knows why. :/ )
author=Liberty
O-Oh dear. You've only been exposed to the 4Kids version. We need to get you on the subbed version stat! (4Kids changed Zoro's name to Zolo because... who the fuck knows?

There's even a little game he plays with the readers by sometimes hiding a certain character in the background as a sort-of 'Where's Wally?' game (oh, right, you Americans call him Waldo. God knows why. :/ )


Because damnit we created Avatar the Last Movie I'll Ever Watch Bender that's why! If there is one thing Americans do with pride it's fuck up names every chance we get! (Don't get me started on Bleach or Naruto, I literally would prefer to find Japanese versions or subs for One Piece because quite frankly dubs on mainstream anime usually pull this shit)
Easy fixed. Google animefreak.tv . You may worship me later. ;p

Also, manga site - mangareader.net
I'm a pretty big One Piece fan, but I'm going to steer clear of this thread for the most part. I just watch the anime; I don't read the manga. I have a feeling that most of the conversations that will take place here will be things I'll be waiting a couple months to see.

ANYWAY, it's a fantastic anime. I do think that the writing could stand to be more concise, but I love how it goes for the gut. The only shonen style anime I enjoyed more was Hunter X Hunter, but I fell in love with One Piece way earlier. Right now, the anime is up to Law and Doflamingo's backstories, and the whole Doflamingo arc coming to a head has been pretty killer.

And, yeah, the 4Kids version tainted my view of the show for the longest time.



The 4kids version is the first one in the clip, the Funimation is the second. And, if you want to see the worst 4Kids mutilation, watch what they did to Nami's backstory (but that's going to contain spoilers).
Nah, the worst thing they did was cut out Laboon, Crocus, Dorry and Brogy - characters essential to the plot later on. >.<;

Man, I forgot 4kids took out all the music, too. The music is amazing in the anime and they cut. it. out. Fuckers.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
We are!

Men!

Of the sea!



...wait, is that something else?

Iconic. ^.^


vs this shit

"Let's that this catchy, awesome instrumental piece and replace it... with rap." >.<
Watched the first 100 or so episodes a few years ago, but stopped watching when it started falling into the dark abyss of filler episodes and terribly poor pacing. It had a great start (like most shounen anime), but as with all seemingly never-ending shounen anime, the story is just not going anywhere unless you're willing to invest hundreds of hours ploughing through boring fillers or wait for others to compile a list of episodes to avoid (and even then, it'd still take ages to get through the whole series).

author=Liberty
"Let's that this catchy, awesome instrumental piece and replace it... with rap." >.<


At least post the proper English version:


I love the One Piece openings, they're all very happy, cheerful and full with energy.
I chose preference. Personally I prefer the Japanese version. I have some issues with how some songs were translated in the official English (like Bink's Sake. :/ ) but at least We Are!'s English version isn't too bad.


http://onepiece.wikia.com/wiki/Episode_Guide#Davy_Back_Fight_Arc
The light blue ones are the ones you should skip, though the filler isn't as bad as Naruto filler. I recommend watching the G8 arc (introduces a filler character who was later retconned into the series and is a great little arc) and the Ruluka island arc (also known as the Rainbow Mist arc) is decent enough too. I didn't mind the Ocean's Dream arc too much. It's short and not too bad all things considered.

For the love of all that is holy, skip Foxy's Return, Spa Island and Warship Island (not as cool as it sounds) arcs. They're the worst of the bunch. The others aren't too bad or have tie-ins with movies. There's also some filler-seeming stuff that is actually cannon - Buggy's adventures, mainly. They can be skipped. There's also a few filler episodes in Alabasta that could be skipped but aren't too bad (mainly the one with the sandship and the one with the bounty hunter). Anything else is main series stuff and shouldn't be skipped. Oda likes to refer back to stuff a lot, so you may just miss a vital piece of info if you skip certain parts.

For example, 4kids threw things into quite a tizzy when they cut out important characters who resurfaced later on - one of them being the reason for a crew member to join. By removing that character, that crew member had no reason to join the crew. Yeah. And it is a character you would not ever expect, though the hints are there.

So, yeah. Thankfully, the anime does suck you in but you do have to give it a little time and getting used to the graphical style can take a little while. It's very weird but you'll get used to it. Arlong Park is when things really start to heat up but the episodes to get there have a lot of character backstory and reasons, so they can't be skipped.

Good luck!
I still have a soft spot in my heart for the 4kids rap, purely because of how absolutely fucking ridiculous and terrible it is. I want them to do a rap with all the information we know now. That shit would be hilarious.
Sanji cooks.... Sanji... cooks. Well, I mean he does, but fucking "Yeah, this guy? He cooks. Nope, that's all he does." SHOWS CLIP OF HIM KICKING SHIT OUT OF ENEMY PIRATES "SANJI FUCKING COOKS OKAY!?" Sanji sucks lolipop. Liberty explodes.

I would have loved to have seen their take on the others though. Robin, what? Archeologies? And Franky builds machines. And, uh, Brook does bones? XD

Oh man, imagine a 4kids version of Franky's joining. How the hell would that go down? Because you know Robin couldn't use her... persuasiveness to get him to join like she did in the legit version. XD

Prrrrrrobably for the best they didn't get that far. I'd hate to see how badly they'd butcher "Take me to the sea with you!" and ... Merry... ;.;
Imagine 4kids trying to cover the Summit War, or anything that happens after that. Half the episodes up to this point would have been removed.

"Ace? Uh... He.. He left. On an adventure! LUFFY WAS VERY SAD ABOUT NOT BEING ABLE TO GO WITH HIM"
author=Liberty
One Piece is the largest manga in the world at the moment, just recently being added to the Guinness Book of World Records for the Most Comic books Published by a Single Author.


Nuh-uh. Most *copies* published.
One Piece is ranked 29th for the number of volumes published.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_manga_series_by_volume_count
Actually, no, I'm right:
The Japanese manga author Eiichiro Oda has made comic book history by attaining a Guinness World Record title for having the Most copies published for the same comic book series by a single author.

That is the title of the award he received from Guinness.
Those other books that you're thinking of probably had a few different authors. It is also the biggest selling in that it sells consistently from when it was released til now, always being at or near the top of the charts. While other manga might be longer or have gone for longer or sold more copies because of their age, they have not been consistent in their rating.

So.
I've only recently been picking up the DVDs since I go back and forth on One Piece constantly, mainly because it's so long! I have however been purchasing the manga since it was available on US shelves!

I personally hated the 4kids version, if you were lucky and your cable company had it there was an channel called well the international channel that aired raw episodes which is how I mainly viewed them up until the early 2000s when the channel just dissipated. By then it was widely available on the net, as much as I liked One Piece I'd never support the 4kids version for how awful it was!
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