random thoughts about random things » one piece

One Piece (surreally real?)

Morghus — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 00:42:07 +0000

Some time ago I sat down to figure out what the differences between Naruto and One Piece were, and I’d quickly write down some notes about both series before I wrote a comparison post. It didn’t happen. I had so many opinions about Naruto, and only the energy to focus on a few points, if only one. When I was about to write about One Piece I encountered a new problem - being a fan with no dislikes in a series makes it hard to write about. I tried to write a pitiful fact-version that failed. I tried to just write a post where I pointed out why I loved it. It didn’t fail, it just felt empty and pointless. As you might have guessed time went by with no post about One Piece coming until today, or yesterday rather, about chapter 502; a chapter that struck me squarely in the stomach.

So what makes a normally uninteresting, interest-changing idiot that can barely latch his interest onto something for over a month into a fan? I had trouble putting it into words, and for some things (make that most) I still do. Then the other day I discovered why One Piece manages to reinvigorate my interest over and over again.

Chapter 502 was again about things that’re wrong. Things that’re very very wrong. Not nail-polish being in the wrong colour, the wrong tone, or whatever the hell I can spam this sentence with. No, nothing like that. To freely quote myself in a previous post about chapter 502:

This time around it’s about slavery and oppression, abuse and discrimination. Topics that really whips my chords around until there’s a knot in my stomach.

One Piece picks up human suffering and shoves it in your face, pointing out that there’s something wrong, and that this kind of shit happens. Does injustice happen in the real world? You can bet your ass it does, we just do like the ostrich supposedly does, shove our heads as far into the ground as possible - hoping to never know.

One Piece rips our heads out of the ground to point out that there’s crap going on, injustice happens, and the further you get the more shit you see, the deeper you come the deeper the pile of shit. That description’s depressing as hell, it really is, and the manga wouldn’t really amount to much if it was depressing 24/7, if every single issue spent all it’s time shoving your head full of depressing abuse of commoners and everyday people trying to get by.

Here’s where One Piece goes from a gritty tale about unfairness and injustice to downright awesomery and kickassing, where it makes fanbois jump in joy because asses are getting kicked (almost literally). It’s awesome to see Luffy kick ass in the most impressive and spectacular ways, it really is. It’s so gratifying to see your hero whip out his arm (literally) to smack the bad guys right where it hurts the most, in complete righteousness. Fighting for justice, avenge the wrongs that’ve been done, pony up some hurt in return to those who would hurt and exploit the weak.

That’s where One Piece really shines. It dares to show that the world sucks in strangely realistic ways. Rich people abuse the poor, the strong prey on the weak, the weak banding together to be strong, then preying on the weaker, things like that. Then it shows us that there’s hope and a bright light at the end of the tunnel through Luffy and his crew.

Luffy and the crew’s travelling through their world in a crusade to gain fame, notoriety and fulfill their dreams, however weird or awesome they are. From Luffy’s famous dream of becoming the Pirate King, to Usopp’s dream of becoming the bravest man in the world. They’re dreams, childish, simple, and so easy to relate to in so many ways. It’s hard to explain, it really is, but every one of their dreams can seem ever so ridiculous in the beginning, until you see the determination that Oda’s portrayed in their eyes.

See, the crew has dreams. Simple dreams, awesome dreams, impossible dreams (read: Usopp… ). They’re not afraid of pursuing them either, and they support each other in the quest. Support and friendship being one of the most important aspects of the series, an ongoing theme about relating to those you cross paths with, befriending new people - as well as protecting new people, new friends. Even going as far as declaring war for their friends. Friends who have been wronged in some way, because they’re weak, too kind, or just unfortunate. I suppose it doesn’t matter since it’s a friend in need, or just someone in need of help.

That’s when you get to watch Luffy and his crew turn from the jolly gang that can’t stay serious for a moment into a manifestation of righteous fury that makes your knotted guts unwind because justice will be served, that the wrongs will be right. You get to watch their vaunted abilities come to light, see the awesome and impressive moves and whatsitnots that comes romping through the issues.

The fights are spectacular, awesome, well thought out, and most importantly; meaningful. I could go on and on about all the details in the fights, their abilities, weaknesses and so on. I don’t see the point in that, you’ll see it for yourself if you pick it up, and you can run around talking about all the abilities at any time you want. What really matters to me in the end is that the stories and themes in One Piece are meaningful, they invoke feelings, they matter.

To me, that’s what makes One Piece epic and it’s the reason I’m a huge fan. One Piece tells a compelling and serious story about amazing and funny characters that’re willing to walk through fire and fun for that which matters and doesn’t in a world that feels all too real despite it’s surreal setting, invoking glee and sadness like no manga has ever managed to do for me before.

One Piece 502

Morghus — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 20:41:15 +0000

It really hits me every now and then how One Piece manages to not only strike the right chord with me, usually it deftly manages to smash it with impunity. This time around it’s about slavery and oppression, abuse and discrimination. Topics that really whips my chords around until there’s a knot in my stomach. That’s when it’s nice to know that no matter how bad it gets, you can count on Luffy to write out the right prescription for you. Check it out, chapter 502 is out, and the arc so far has been pretty gut-wrenching.

Oh, and here’s where I got it

One Piece is made of WIN!

Morghus — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 12:29:23 +0000

This might contain minor One Piece spoilers at an epic level, do not read this post unless you’re confident of your forgetfulness, stupidity, or the completely meaningless drivel on this page to cover it up. No, it’s not a particularly meaningful post in any way and scope, it just had to be put down in words, because Frank(l)y I’m still laughing, and it’s been 10 minutes since I read it…

Holy crap, I laughed so hard in the latest One Piece chapter, 494, I was pretty sure I was going to die due to asphyxiation. I’m still wiping tears out of my eyes from all the laughing. Oda is simply the king. I never expected this in a million years! Just wait ’till you get there, you’ll know what I mean… unless you catch enough from that minor picture there xD

One Piece, thoughts.

Morghus — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 12:03:04 +0000

Skip this post if you’re not interested in mangas, story-telling or One Piece at all. This is rambling about uninteresting things.

I’m a huge fan of the series One Piece by Eichiro Oda, which is also one of the world’s most read comics/mangas. It’s a brilliant series following the rubber-man and (a barking mad idiot and melee-savant) Captain Monkey D. Luffy. Along with his crew on a quest to become the Pirate King, fame and their search for the treasure One Piece, as they face up against tougher and tougher resistance, alongside some interesting ideological and political clashes, exciting discoveries and experiences.

As an addicted idiot I randomly loiter around on a fan-forum dedicated to this series, and today I came across this thread on APForums.net where they’re starting a debate on “How can the ShP [Ed: Strawhat Pirates] get stronger”. This thread’s incidentally the kind of thing that interests me. Oda’s kept the series fresh and fun so far with interesting meetings and brilliant fights, coupled with an interesting character-development.

There’re few, if any, copouts and shortcomings. Some of the fights are on an epic and massive scale that can’t really be compared to other comics, and the fights are all immensely entertaining. The problem’s this; Oda’s sort of presenting our heroes as “hitting a wall” right now - they’re facing tougher and tougher opponents, relying mostly on luck, random allies, and really close calls at the moment, or up to now. Luffy’s close to dying, the same’s the crew, and this time they were, as mentioned before, lucky in escaping death. That’s the last fight.

One of the reasons I find this whole line of thought so ensnaring is because as a reader it’s interesting to debate with your fellow fans and try to “see” what Oda’s going to come up with. Another aspect’s how you continue a story, empowering your protagonists and pushing them forward to new heights, without going too far and making everything seems completely idiotic in the eyes of your fans and critics. Where do you go, what do you do, and how do you balance things while still keeping it interesting and awesome for your readers?

The Strawhats

So far Oda’s done an awesome job. Things have been believable and down to earth (for a manga?), showing things bit by bit and revealing it slowly, at a pace and in ways that the fans will embrace with little to no questions asked. Personally I think it’s rather amazing - the series has run for over 10 years already!

Anyways, within the (perceived) boundaries that Oda’s created in his epic tale so far there’re a number of ways that the crew can evolve to keep the pace and interest up, but they’re hard to spot, they really are. He has, after all, created certain perceived boundaries, and his foreshadowing shows that at their current pace they have no hope unless they do something drastic. Here’re my thoughts, which I’ve posted on the AP forums, and are probably of no interest unless you actually follow this series, or similar ones, and think this stuff’s even remotely exciting, but if you’ve gotten this far there’s definately hope for you.

By all accounts the Strawhat crew needs something more. They barely made it this time, and it wasn’t even through a measure of their own power - it was largely lent power from a thousand shadows that filled Luffy to a lethal point (that’s the impression atleast) and accidental allies from around.

While it’s arguable that they can, to an extent, rely on alliances in the coming world, I strongly believe that they need something new and powerful, like many have mentioned before. DF’s [Ed: Devil Fruits], external training, and Zoro’s perpetual conditioning (he’s badly wounded this time though, so he’ll need serious help) will be a great help, yeah, but what I think they need to do is take the oncoming threats a bit more seriously. By that I mean that up until now it’s all semed largely haphazard and random, with our heroes suddenly appearing with a new trick every second arc(?), and as we could see from Kuma and Aokiji (and the two emperors) that’s not going to cut it.

In Choppers case he’s hugely reliant on medical tech, which they have ample opportunity to see more of in the coming arcs, or have already; picking up a line of thought from Hogback’s research. Not the zombies, but something else. Or in the coming arc he’ll pick up something cool.
His weakness is execution. He’s incredibly poor in his execution, seemingly more reliant on random luck than actual usage. He needs hands-on training with the crew. Badly.

One of the crew-members that badly needs to work on his physique is Usopp. While you can laud his resilience (he seems to be able to take some immense hits after all), he needs to work on dodging and positioning. While he doesn’t lack ideas and gadgets, he sorely lacks planning and tactics. In the future the enemies will hopefully be smart enough to “go for the throat” immediately, which will require him to be more mobile to not be skewered like a pig within the first 5 minutes? At the same time I suspect he’s got a future in acting or illusions. Just a thought.

The weather-rod that Nami has makes her a rather frightening opponent, if my imagination’s not running wild, because the possibilities are endless. From conjuring winds for the ship, lightning to strike people and boats, illusions and fogs, I don’t see how she can’t continue to become truly immense, rivalled only by DF users in control of the weather, or elements. She just needs to train more, with things like aforementioned boat-winds.

The beloved and immensely cool hand-maid Nico’s probably the ultimate disruptor and tactical “deployment”/planner. She’s able to place hands and ears everywhere, break necks and twist wrists that creates huge opportunities, creating bridges/stairs/walls(?) for her teammates, and even getting some air-times. This is another one where the possibilities are seemingly endless, all we need is a modicum of imagination and cooperation.

Franky’s “easy” really. He’s an inventor, robotic/metallic/gun one at that, using cola as his fuel. He’s probably going to get some “Cola booster” from Chopper, and add some extra enhancements to his cyborg-body, maybe with some help from Usopp.

Our three brute force boys, Zoro, Luffy and Sanji are the tricky ones. They’re “limited” in the sense that they’re dead on physical melee/havoc engines. The important thing is that Zoro’s a staunch believer in “getting there by his own engine”, and I suspect Sanji’s pretty much the same. For Z and S I think they’re lagging behind, with a bad need to train really hard and develop more efficient techniques/just getting brutally stronger. After all, I can’t see the emperors with any apparent DF’s, and they’re… well.. emperors, so why can’t Sanji and Zoro?

Luffy’s creative as hell too, but he’s already a DF user that’s getting perilously close to getting himself killed repeatedly through his techniques, so I think he’s hitting a wall, and needs to take the route that Sanji and Zoro are taking/needs to take. Though I can imagine that Luffy’s willing to pick up some “DF enhancer” or something unique to him that permits him to go “NUTZ MOAD!” or something (probably gotten from some mad scientist in the future, or Chopper).

As for Brooke… I just don’t know. He’s a skeleton, but if I’m to make wild and uneducated guesses I’ll hope for something ninjaish. Pirates and a ninja, that’d be so awesome <3
... but I doubt that. I just don't have a friggin' clue. Perhaps he's indestructible or something? Maybe he'll use "THE FORCE OF THE DOO!" (his hair :P).

Vegapunk's probably going to be a crucial character as well, and I can't even begin at the possibilities that he can open without spending hours listing them all :p