One Piece Discussion Thread

[Firestorm]

Plot

A boy named Monkey D. Luffy, inspired by his childhood hero "Red-Haired" Shanks, sets out on a journey to find One Piece, the legendary treasure of the King of the Pirates, Gold Roger. To accomplish this, he must reach the end of the most deadly and dangerous ocean: The Grand Line.

Luffy captains the Straw Hat Pirates first through the sea of East Blue and then through the Grand Line. He follows the path of the deceased King of the Pirates, Gold Roger, from island to island on his way to the great treasure One Piece. On his way his crew grows [and grows].

During the course of the story, the crew contend with both other less moral pirate crews and the Navy. The latter are the subordinates of the World Government, who apparently seek justice by ending the Golden Age of Pirates. Many background story elements involve the delicate balance of power between the World Government and the world's most powerful pirate crews.

One Piece is one of the longest running anime and manga series of all time. This topic is dedicated to discussing what is my favourite currently running television series. You may also discuss the manga in this topic.

Spoiler Rules
Use font tags to hide your text and preface it with what it's a spoiler for.
[Episode/Chapter #]Put Spoiler Text Here
For example:
I can't believe [Episode 25] Darth Vader is Luke's father. Wow!
Wait, did they just [Chapter 7] kill off Aeris? How could they do that?

I am being serious about this. Any spoilers not correctly tagged will result in an infraction.

I will add episode links once FUNimation works out their issues with Toei.

As a side note, if you're interested in Naruto, I'd highly recommend checking out One Piece. It takes a good 25 - 30 episodes to pick up, but it's amazing after that and far surpasses anything Naruto has done. It blows Bleach out of the water without effort, but is a little less comparable I guess.

 

[Gmax]

One Piece is easily my favourite anime/manga of all time. Eiichiro Oda is a genius, and while his drawing style may take a bit of time to get used to, when compared to other anime, it's still pretty great. While One Piece does take a bit of time to really get going, once you're about 30-35 episodes in, it just never stops! One Piece just keeps getting better and better with each arc, with small things related to the overall storyline being revealed in each arc, with each arc uncovering new parts of the bigger picture. I mean, you realise the significance of this when you consider that it already has 549 chapters, and is still going great guns.

A really great thing about One Piece is how everything comes back in some way or the other. You never know just when some incident from the past arcs will show its true signficance, or when someone featured earlier will pop up again. Everything ties in. For example [Chapters 18/500]you couldn't really have expected Silvers to turn up like that out of nowhere!.

One Piece also boasts of a great bunch of characters, each of which you will feel about in some way, love em or hate em. There'll be few characters you are indifferent towards for the most part. They get you involved in the whole story, and keep you interested throughout. The humour is great as well.

Sorry if my post wasn't particularly coherent, but yeah, One Piece is awesome, and I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good story.

 

[Jimbo]

OP is probably my favorite manga/anime too. I first got into it when it was on Cartoon Network years ago (dubbed... 4kids...) then Sarenji convinced me to read the manga.

One Piece also boasts of a great bunch of characters, each of which you will feel about in some way, love em or hate em.

This is true, though it's really really difficult to hate characters. When I first heard about Brooke from Wikipedia and the like, I thought that was a really stupid idea and I didn't like the character at all, but after seeing Brooke in action I like him like I do the rest of the crew ;D Though he is weak as sin.
Oda conveys emotion really really well in chapters too, which is sometimes difficult to do.

I support this thread :D

 

[CaptKirby]

I would be assed to respond to Gmax's post, but I refuse to use spoiler tags. Making a discussion thread about an absolutely massive anime and manga and asking people to keep it spoiler friendly is a waste of readers' and posters' time.

 

[Firestorm]

I would be assed to respond to Gmax's post, but I refuse to use spoiler tags. Making a discussion thread about an absolutely massive anime and manga and asking people to keep it spoiler friendly is a waste of readers' and posters' time.

Then put what the latest chapter or episode your spoiler is up to at the beginning and just put the entire post in white. If you don't want to do that, then don't let the door hit you on the way out.

 

[Mario With Lasers]

This is true, though it's really really difficult to hate characters. When I first heard about Brooke from Wikipedia and the like, I thought that was a really stupid idea and I didn't like the character at all, but after seeing Brooke in action I like him like I do the rest of the crew ;D

I had the same feeling with him, lol. When I heard about him first, the only saving grace I thought he had was its violin. But then they explained how the hell he got there and they he became one of my favorite characters.


...But no one surpasses Mr. 2 Bon Clay. While he isn't the best fighter, he really has one of the deepest relations with the Strawhat crew, and does any needed sacrifices in name of "friendship". All of that while dancing around and having those ridiculous shoes.

 

[Peterko]

yeah this will be hard to pull without spoilers...I mean I´d like to discuss stuff that may happen / how things could work out

easily and by far my favourite anime right now, ties with DB/DBZ as my all time favourite

seriously, oda is a genious and I can´t believe he can still come up with such a coherent yet surprising story after such a long time...and as was said, it gets better over time, simply amazing

yeah I was also one of those "wth" crazy looking anime, won´t watch it at first sight, but I was interested after watching just one episode (I think the one where luffy saved zoro)

I watched the anime on a german TV station, they were showing one episode each day and it was a good dub (by the way I am used to this since like forever that´s why it´s a pain to get used to "only one episode/chapter per week" ), they stopped somewhere or right after they fell down from the sky...and then I searched for episodes on the internet

I´ve watched water7 and most of enies lobby in poor quality on youtube but then found vegapunk and stayed...then as thriller bark started they suddenly were late so I decided to wait until they do the whole thing, haven´t seen an episode probably longer than a year (of course I rewatched my kaizoku d-loads in between)

last month I found another source to watch one piece and enjoyed the whole thriller bark but that´s like nothing compared to what happens now

the last episode I saw was the one, where the strawhats suffer a total defeat but are actually saved by kuma, because sentoumaru & px-1 would´ve beat them up/killed them, as the awesome rayleigh could "only" stall with kizaru

also recently started reading the manga (after the thriller bark arc) so yeah I actually went on with the the story after thriller bark before watching/reading that one as a whole lol...I´ll wait for some more episodes of lily but am reading and desperately awaiting each new manga chapter, as this is probably the most intense phase of the whole story yet


well, unless you decide to allow spoilers, this stuff I thought about will be in white:


- I love the luffy-on-his-own storyline and having the strawhats separated doesn´t feel bad, it will be interesting to see whether and how they get together
- now I don´t remember if each of them had rayleighs vivre card (or how it´s called) or just luffy, so they could meet at the archipelago where the sunny is waiting
- as for their defeat, I thought it was a brilliant and sort of needed idea...you know after beating crocodile, cp9 and thriller bark, you could have easily gotten the feeling that the strawhats were almost invincible...yeah there was the incident before cp9 with mr. freezing lazy justice who shoved them their limits at that time

Luffy definitely has to learn how to use his one in a million haki, when he does, he´ll be able to beat everyone...without that he´ll just get beaten up like before, I wonder whether there will be more gears and have no clue what they potentially may look like
- as for the current storyline, there is no "normal" way for him to save ace, I mean seriously, just look at what "hell" is stationed there in the marine HQ...the only way to save ace right now is random shit like kuma suddenly paw-teleporting him which would go directly against government orders :/

luffy can´t get past so many people there it´s not even funny...yeah there´s a possibility of them being unnoticed if whitebeard attacks with all he´s got but I don´t think luffy can pull it off

yeah the "largest incident" everyone in the world is scared off...the war

I can´t even imagine the extent of this conflict and how oda will be able to create such a thing, can´t wait

yeah I predict the end of whitebeard pirates...that will shake the world...yeah he may be strong but there is no freaking way he´ll penetrate the 100K men in the marine HQ...yeah I don´t see ace surviving this as well, they won´t make it in time and luffy will see him die

the thing is, now that ace is roger´s son I am even more sure that he´ll die and with him the whitebeard pirates...that´s an exemplary execution right there to scare off the pirate age

I feel ace´s will is somewhat broken and I don´t see him getting back to normal...it would be pretty weird if he was saved and lived happily with his whitebeard comrades afterwards...that won´t happen

wow oda has a lot of thinking to do unless his story is already set in stone...so yeah I think luffy will witness the death of his bro and even from not far away (maybe close to miraculously saving him due to whitebeard mess and some unpredictable help)

so yeah we have marine HQ with 3 admirals, each one of them could probably at least stall whitebeard himself and high rank marines who are definitely able to hold their own against whitebeards elite subordinates like marco
...all in all 100 000 men

plus
-> mihawk, who is roughly equal to shanks who is roughly equal to whitebeard (it´s hard to tell)
-> doflamingo the pupeteer, though we don´t know how strong he really is yet
-> moria, who is a loser, nevermind him
-> hottie hancock who I predict won´t battle and will somehow help luffy again
-> kuma, who is seriously dangerous but even more unpredictable

& maybe crocodile (depends on many variables)

vs

whitebeard pirates
- whitebeard
- with his 16 divisions (1600 men ?)

& maybe
- luffy
- jimbei
- ivankov

yeah the marine mobilisation is incredible and I predict they win...luffy will somehow escape after witnessing ace´s death and then sleep for 3 days (hormones)...or maybe they won´t even make it to marine HQ

holy...I don´t envy oda who got himself into this kind of epic situation, I hope he won´t disappoint (he never does ;)



as for the strawhats beside luffy, I won´t get into that much detail as they are very complex and enjoyable characters:

Zoro is a beast, him taking luffy´s pain on thriller bark like a man was his best scene so far...unfortunately I feel that sword fights in this one are somewhat hard to draw/create or something because they are nowhere near as cool as physical non weapon combats in OP...zoro is still cool and him getting lost always and everywhere makes me laugh everytime

Sanji - sometimes gets the "cooler" scenes than zoro IMO...I mean his freaking leg burns you upon contact how cool is that? also remember the strawhats vs oz battle (in the anime) where he had an awesome scene (ran at incredible speed and made oz trip)
- him and the ladies hahahahahahahahahahahaah mellorine I wonder what will happen after the travestite overdose he currently gets

Nami - hot and cunning, the perfect mix

Usopp - mr. coward right there, I can´t see him becoming anything near "brave", lol

Chopper - I like him a lot and he´s totally underrated so far, he´ll be a total badass once he is able to control monster point (probably won´t happen though)

Nico Robin - "the" ideal woman, I like everything about her

Franky - strrrong hammer hammer haha...he´s an enjoyable chara

Brook - funny and I don´t have a problem with him


let´s have a look at the shichibukai:

1. Blackbeard is obviously the main antagonist and I predict the battle of him/his crew against the strawhats will be the climax in the whole story for the title of pirate king
- I like him and his carefree and funny attitude and the way he is absolutely unpredictable...

2. Mihawk didn´t get much action so far, besides probably being the final oponent of zoro because of his dream

3. Crocodile was always awesome and has some cool moves, seeing him work with luffy to break out of impel down and get to the marines hq was superb... seriously I don´t envy the poor impel down guards who had to face luffy, croco, jimbei, ivankov, mr.1, etc. ....pretty much only magellan could threaten them
- this is why I see the whole "impenetrable impel down" as sort of overrated myth, I mean their best man magellan shits poison for the largest part of a day...the 4 demon guards are ugly and sadistic snot-nosed losers, sadi-chan is awesome but gets aroused too easily lol
- considering what kind of criminals they imprison there, oh well they escaped so not much else to say here
- hmm it is still interesting what will happen if they manage to get to the HQ, whether he´ll be like "yas where is whitebeard I´d like to kick his ass" or what

4. doflamingo - I don´t think he´ll fall against the strawhats, they beat 3 of em already...being a pupeteer sucks, he can die in the battle against whitebeard pirates and I won´t care

5. moria - loser, total loser

6. jimbei - cool dude

7. miss ultimate beauty boa hancock - she´s amazing, I love that oda made her fall in love with luffy

8. kuma - I can´t make sense of this dude, he´s had the biggest influence on the fate of the strawhats in the recent storyline, we don´t know his reasons nor motivation and I fear we won´t know them for a long time (if ever)...there has to be something with dragon



there´s no way to discuss everything, because this thing is so huge

what do you think about dragon for example? what role will he play in the future? do you think he´ll be able to make the world government fall or something?

what about shanks? how can luffy become pirate king when there are the yonkou? will they simply fight each other / be wiped out over time, wil he surpass them in strength or is this whole "pirate king" = strongest man a wrong interpretation?

yeah luffy thinks the man with the most freedom (this is hardly spoiler) so it doesn´t have to be "the strongest"...

lol this story has so much substance and still soo much potential it could countinue for 20 or 30 years :D

 

[GoldenRifle]

I'm a huge fan of One Piece. Just the thought of such a huge adventure would seem to me quite absurd and exaggerated if you talked to me about One Piece a couple years back.

Anyway, I just read the newest chapter (550, I think) and I must say it was a huge twist.
Spoiler :
If I understood exactly what happened, Ace isn't Luffy's brother and is the son of Gold D Rogers while Luffy is the son of Monkey D. Dragon (I think that was his name).

 

[LightWolf]

(Why do such things start when I'm away for few weeks)

I started liking One Piece when I saw it in German(Sanji was smoking!!!). There I watched it till the end of the Enies Lobby arc, after that sadly they stopped showing it so I could not watch it anymore. Some times after that I joined IRC and thanks to a specific person(ty Gmax) I started reading the manga.

[Chapter 550]I just read all that I missed out and wow, I can't wait for the next chapter. Akainu shown as a full Admiral for the first time, I wonder what his power is, it's most likely a logia that works with his name(Red Dog). Fire is taken what could be red other than that?
Also there is Ace's case, I wonder how he is related to Luffy (since neither their mother nor their father can be the same). If the are blood related that makes it even more interesting as that would mean Roger and Luffy are related too!
I wonder what Whitebread is planning, he wasn't show n to have done anything to free Ace till now and not much time is left.

About One Piece being one of the best Mangas/Animes ever all was said so I will just say that it's simply great. Also Oda is great, he planned so much from the start (Who would have thought that Laboon and Crocus would be such important characters later?)

 

[Sklez]

For anyone who has been purchasing the English manga from Viz, you would know that they are about 30 volumes or 300 chapters behind the Japanese release. Well by June next year they plan to almost catch all the way up to volume 53. More information here: http://onepiece.viz.com/

This is pretty good news for me at least. Besides "Zoro" and "Merry Go" the Viz releases are fine. I'll finally be able to reach the current story!

 

[Firestorm]

June 2010 eh? Maybe I'll start reading the manga then =O Although at $10 a volume that's $530! I guess I could hope for a sale or something =) Shouldn't be too hard to get at $5 a piece. I want some sorta One Piece collection on my shelf - anime or manga.

 

[Hyunwoo95]

Does anyone here watch the anime? Or is that just me?

I personally love One Piece. But I have a hard time reading the manga as looking at a black and white screen when its totally quiet really irritates me for some reason. When I started, I just watched the anime until the end of Thriller Bark. Then I handled the manga every week, but I still faithfully watch the anime.

This thread does allow talk of the anime right? Like the filler arcs (which are not as bad as some fillers I've seen) and the totally random feudal Japan One Piece eps.

 

[Firestorm]

Yes this is for both series. I do think someone was about to start a no spoiler-tag manga thread though. I actually only watch the anime. I do skip much of the filler though. The feudal Japan ones are the absolute worst of the bunch while I'd say the G7 or G8 or whatever arc was amazing.

 

[Aldaron]

Just going to respond to a few of the thoughts in this thread.

While One Piece does take a bit of time to really get going, once you're about 30-35 episodes in, it just never stops!

A really great thing about One Piece is how everything comes back in some way or the other.

I agree with Gmax's sentiments in the first part, but would like to emphasize it is more episode 24, when the full scope of the world, it's oceans, and one of the most significant groups are all revealed. For manga people, this is around chapter 50.

Spoiler

I'm speaking about the Don Krieg arc and Mihawk's entrance and introduction.

Spoiler

Also, Gmax's second point is one of the really neat parts of the story. While he gave an extreme example (from 18 to 500 lol), there are countless examples when the parts of the story circle "back" (but the story is actually going forward!). Some simple examples are

Spoiler

Oda's front page mini stories. They almost always deal with past characters (whether allies or villains). In his front cover arcs we have had past allies Coby and Helmeppo train underneath a mysterious Marine (who is himself revealed as a vital part of the plot much later!); past enemies Buggy, Wapol, and CP9 undergo their "post-Luffy" arcs; had future allies foreshadowed in Camie and Pappog. But it isn't limited to the front cover mini arcs.

Besides what Gmax stated with Silvers Raleigh, there is Buggy and the numbered agents from Baroque Works coming back to be temporary allies in the Impel Down Arc; a whale Luffy saved at the entrance to the Grand Line (Laboon) whose important friend, Brooke, later joins; the constant references to Shanks after the conclusion of the major arcs, to either gauge his reaction to Luffy's arrival or see how he is moving in the world.

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

This is true, though it's really really difficult to hate characters. When I first heard about Brooke from Wikipedia and the like, I thought that was a really stupid idea and I didn't like the character at all, but after seeing Brooke in action I like him like I do the rest of the crew ;D Though he is weak as sin.
Oda conveys emotion really really well in chapters too, which is sometimes difficult to do.

I'd have to say the reason I like each character is that in spite of the "gimmick" a character might be representing, Oda's portrayal of it is surprisingly refreshing.

Spoiler

I mean, Franky is a speedo-wearing, bad 80's haircut street thug, but he is also an incredible softy at heart and a genius Mechanical Engineer (look at the ship, he is a fucking mechanical engineer lol) and shipwright. Chopper, the stereotypical "japanese cute thingy," is actually a genius medical doctor with the forbidden ability to turn into a raging psychotic monster that slaughters most of what is in its path. Those are just a few examples.

Spoiler

Regarding the emotion, Oda manages to render this especially well. Don't get me wrong, this is all your stereotypical, grade A shounen emotion: "sacrifice in battle," "great will to defend those you care for," "rage at injustice on a moral, not 'legal' level," etc. etc. etc. But again, it's how Oda displays this emotion that makes One Piece special.

Spoiler

I don't want to spoil here, so my examples will merely be the end of the Captain Kuro arc (when they get Usopp), the end of the Alabasta arc, the end of Enies Lobby arc, and the Shabondy Archipelago.

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

...But no one surpasses Mr. 2 Bon Clay. While he isn't the best fighter, he really has one of the deepest relations with the Strawhat crew, and does any needed sacrifices in name of "friendship". All of that while dancing around and having those ridiculous shoes.

All I have to say is,

Spoiler

;________;

Spoiler

Spoiler

Anyway, I just read the newest chapter (550, I think) and I must say it was a huge twist.
Spoiler :
If I understood exactly what happened, Ace isn't Luffy's brother and is the son of Gold D Rogers while Luffy is the son of Monkey D. Dragon (I think that was his name).

Lol first of all, you are probably Gmax's best friend with that name. Second,

Spoiler

Yes, Ace is Roger's son and Luffy is Dragon's son. You can bet your left testicle it won't matter to either though. Luffy will just think Ace is even cooler now (cause he knows something about Roger; he obviously didn't know / doesn't care about Dragon). Though, the one interesting twist this does bring in is regarding Ivankov's prediction that Dragon would move to protect his son. Will he now? Does Dragon consider Ace to be his son?

Spoiler

Spoiler

Some times after that I joined IRC and thanks to a specific person(ty Gmax) I started reading the manga.

[Chapter 550]I just read all that I missed out and wow, I can't wait for the next chapter. Akainu shown as a full Admiral for the first time, I wonder what his power is, it's most likely a logia that works with his name(Red Dog). Fire is taken what could be red other than that?
Also there is Ace's case, I wonder how he is related to Luffy (since neither their mother nor their father can be the same). If the are blood related that makes it even more interesting as that would mean Roger and Luffy are related too!
I wonder what Whitebread is planning, he wasn't show n to have done anything to free Ace till now and not much time is left.

About One Piece being one of the best Mangas/Animes ever all was said so I will just say that it's simply great. Also Oda is great, he planned so much from the start (Who would have thought that Laboon and Crocus would be such important characters later?)

Lol, good job Gmax.

Spoiler

Regarding Akainu's fruit, we on irc have miserably failed to think of anything exciting lol. So far we have Lava Lava (seems like a worse Fire, so meh), Blood Blood (potentially cool...we'll see), Rage Rage (gets stronger as he gets angrier or something like that), Rose Rose (for the comedy...though knowing Oda...).

Regarding the blood related aspect, at this juncture, we have to assume no. Portugas D. Rouge died, so she could not mother Luffy, and Roger was obviously already dead. Roger also beseeched Garp to save his son in a "rival to rival" sort of manner, not a son to father or nephew to uncle manner...but that's just speculation. Anyway, I don't think Ace and Luffy are blood related anymore, but I don't think it will do anything to lessen the bond between them. Regarding Whitebeard...I believe Whitebeard will "break" the Gate of Justice for Luffy and company to barge in ^_^.

Spoiler

Regarding the anime / manga talk, I thought it would be prudent to have an anime thread with spoiler warnings and a manga thread that assumes people are up to date with the manga, and therefore not bogged down by white text and spoiler tags lol.

Depending on activity for anime / manga, I might just end up making them.

Also Peterko, I have every intention of answering your post...but I thought it deserved a more detailed look, so I'll get to it later ^_^