xparrot | a (fannish) love that lasts

So you know how there are some things that become super popular, and you can't quite figure out why? Not even the someone-probably-sold-their-soul mysteries like Twilight, but something like Harry Potter, which is largely a great, fun series that I'd have happily recommended to people, but I don't quite get how it became a world-wide phenomenon, as opposed to, say, something by Diana Wynne Jones.

One Piece is currently the best-selling manga series of all time in Japan (most of the new volumes are coming out and promptly breaking sale records that were set only a short time before by previous volumes) and you know what? I don't have any questions about that whatsoever.

Which is to say, yeah, Oda Eiichirou still owns my fangirl soul.

The continuity alone makes me swoon. You like continuity? Oda plays the long game. As in, something happens in chapter 1 (Shanks's haki) that doesn't really come up again until chapter 434 - around the time the series was celebrating its tenth anniversary. And it's not explained for more than 50 chapters after that. And the thing is, this isn't an annoying tease as it might sound like, because when you first read it you don't realize it's a plot point - but when the reveal finally happens, you can go back and immediately realize, OH, that's what that was about! Rereading the series is all the more fun when there are so many little details that you pick up on, knowing their significance later, and there's practically nothing that's jarring, that seems out-of-place or contrary to later happenings.

I was calling OP one of my favorite series before it even got to what is now my favorite arc in the series - and yup, having just finished Water 7 (my first time reading it straight through, rather than week-by-week as it came out) it's still my fave. Will have to see what I think when I've totally caught up, but the Water 7/CP9 saga, with its multiple intersecting and overlapping plot & char arcs, is the storytelling equivalent of tossing half a dozen wild badgers into the air and then juggling them without so much as getting your finger nipped. It's almost breathtaking. (When it's not making you screech with hysterical laughter or sob like a baby...)

Could be this arc gets me so hard because its overarching theme is apology and forgiveness - I always do love redemption stories, and so much of this story is about friends at odds who work through it, who come together again stronger than before. Robin with her secret goals and seeming betrayal, coming to terms with wanting to live and being happy; Franky forgiving himself for Tom so he can leave and join Luffy's crew; Usopp's apology to come back; and Luffy and the Merry's farewell, "I'm sorry, I wanted to carry you just a bit further..."

Gotta say, I liked Franky a lot more on this reread, knowing he was destined for nakama-hood (I was like Luffy the first time, it took me a long time to get over what he and his crew did to Usopp.) Iceberg was made of as much awesome as ever, as is Aokiji. And my love for Robin still knows no bounds (my bro argues that's egotistical, as in a lot of ways Robin is me, if I were a super-cool ex-assassin with an immensely tragic backstory...) Biting onto the stone to hold on because her nakama are coming for her...and I love that she's helpless only because of the sea-stone, that as soon as they get the cuffs off she's as powerful as ever (minus a bit of entirely understandable Buster Call shell-shock.)(Also BWAHAH to the Buster Call being summoned accidentally. So inappropriately hysterical.)

There are so many char moments I love - everything with Usopp is killer, from the juxtaposition of Luffy-tachi's anger when he gets beaten with how whiplash fast that rage turns on Usopp himself over the Merry, to Franky telling him about the ship spirits and what he saw in Skypiea, to ~SOGEKING~ (and how Luffy and Chopper totally fail to recognize him AHAHAHAHAHAH). --Also the beautiful little bit near the end at Eneas Lobby when the tower Sogeking's on goes down into the abyss and both Sanji and Zoro almost completely lose their shit, before realizing that he made it off. Awww. And Zoro laying down the law at the end and Luffy stepping up and being a captain but he's crying when he reaches for Usopp.

Not to mention Chopper on 3 Rumble Balls, and how protective his nakama are, and Nami in the end caring more about Bellemere's mikan trees being lost than the money, and Luffy - oh Luffy, fighting to a literal standstill - or lie-down, rather, and his crew as usual has to save him after he's saved them... (besides the Gears are so badass shounen awesome, how can I not love them!)

And then there's saying goodbye to the Merry. Okay, honestly, I don't cry at things often, but that had me tearing up a couple times already (as is Oda's way) - but it's at the end, when Luffy puts the torch to what's left, saying, "The bottom of the sea's dark, and lonely - we'll see you off here!!" - that I actually had to go and get a tissue. And then the Merry's, "But I was really happy" and...I might have to go get another tissue now GODDAMMIT ODA...!!!

There are about a thousand more reasons I could go into about how I love Oda's writing - like how doesn't sell anyone short; putting aside the at-this-point-literal cast of thousands, the series is up to 9 main characters, and barring one exceptional plot arc, they're always a major part of the story; if any of them happens to be your favorite, I don't think you'd feel shorted. He's nearly as good with the relationships within those chars (and outside them) - with so many possibilities, there are some that have barely (so far) been explored, but they're almost certain to be eventually, while at the same time he doesn't forget the relationships that were established at the very beginning of the series. And that's not even mentioning my adoration for his art.

What it comes down to is, yup, still one of my favorite stories of all times - maybe my very favorite, depending on how it turns out in the end? - and totally worthy of its best-selling title. When it comes to shounen manga, at least, you can't get better than this.