I wanna be a pirate!
Feb. 14th, 2004 02:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xparrotThe inevitable One Piece post. Inevitable because when I haven't been busy with work and such in the past few weeks, One Piece has been devouring my soul. Inevitable, too, because this was bound to happen. It's a little boys' fight series. Fight shounen is my kryptonite. I cannot resist the shouted attacks and absurd feats of endurance and the themes of friendship so pervasive to the genre.
I've known about One Piece for a couple years, but nothing more than it was about pirates and it was starting to compete with DBZ in popularity and running length (180 eps, 30+ vol. of manga, and still going strong). Now, I don't have anything against pirates, but they're like ninja; I can--could--take 'em or leave 'em.
Then again, the pirates of One Piece are like no other pirates I've ever seen.
Start with the oddly but appropriately named Monkey D. Luffy, the man who will be Pirate King. Regardless of refusing to steal, pillage, plunder, or drink; not knowing how to sail, navigate, or swing a sword; not being ABLE TO SWIM; or in fact seeming to have any idea whatsoever what a pirate actually is - Luffy's gonna get the One Piece and become Pirate King. There's no doubting it. He's the hero.
Like many a shounen hero, Luffy is a way powerful fighter, not so hot in the brains department. Actually, even for a shounen hero Luffy is...special. He's living in his own little universe. The going theory is that rubber is not a good medium for brains.
Yep, rubber. Luffy ate a Gomu Gomu Fruit as a boy and is now a rubber man who can't swim--eaters of Devil Fruit gain fantastic powers but are rejected by the sea. I'd say it makes sense when you see it, but I'd be lying. One Piece is all about going with the flow, or else your brain will crack into so many pretty glittering fragments.
So this unaquatic rubber man sails off to find the One Piece. But of course you can't be a pirate captain without a crew, so Luffy sets about gathering nakama--about 10 should be good, he thinks; he's up to six by the latest storyline, so he's got a bit to go.
First is the infamous Pirate Hunter Roronoa Zoro, who doesn't take much convincing to resign from hunting pirates to become Luffy's first mate. Zoro fights with three swords. Three, you ask? One in each hand, and one in his mouth.
Yes, this means whenever he has a dramatic confrontation with a villain, he's spouting the usual shounen philosophizing. With a sword. In his mouth. Did I mention Zoro's favorite attack is the Demon Slash - Oni Giri - onigiri...
This does not stop Zoro from being the requisite undeniably cool bad-ass hero. He's determined to become the best swordsman in the world; at present he's number two. Though second best is none too shabby, given that the best can take out 50 pirate ships with his sword. That's not the crews of 50 ships, mind. That's the vessels.
Then there's Nami. While One Piece doesn't have FMA's bestest femmes in shounen ever!!!, it does get props for not only giving the angstiest backstory to the girl, but having it have nothing to do with romance, but everything to do with love. Which is another way to say I love the Arlong saga. For a whacked action-comedy, One Piece can pack a serious emotional punch. The rollercoaster that is ep 37, when Nami's seiyuu pulls out all the stops--"ARLONG! ARLONG!" *ouchouchouch*
In fact all the main seiyuu are excellent. Zoro's voice is not one I'm familiar with, but it's a great match to his char, gruff and funny and bad-ass. And Tanaka Mayumi as Luffy could not be more perfect. I liked her before--as Kuririn in DBZ she had one of my favorite screams ever ("VEGETAAA!!" at the end of ep 237. Entirely random, but damn it's a good scream.) I think she was hired for Luffy for the laugh, though. Like Paku Romi's Ed, I don't remember she's a female actress--she's Luffy, and that's that.
Usopp is another favorite seiyuu, Yamaguchi Kappei (Sakuma Ryuuichi!), which is, again, good casting. I was neutral when Usopp was introduced, and started to dislike him...and then, something happened, I'm not sure what, but I started to like him. Quite a bit. He's comic relief (One Piece needed comic relief?) but he's with Nami as the smartest of the crew, and let's face it, the Straw Hat pirates need someone who's not afraid to run away. Or rather they need someone afraid enough to run away. Luffy doesn't seem to understand 'fear' except as an intellectual concept, and given the state of his intellect...it gets him into trouble. (Luffy's favorite place to sit is on the ship's masthead...may I remind you that Luffy swims with all the grace and skill of a large hunk of granite?)
Usopp being the best runner-awayer in the world is actually a useful skill. He's also a deadeye shot and the ship's engineer (yes, I do picture him screaming in a typhoon, "Th' sails, she cannae hold it, cap'n!") And he's as loyal to his friends as any of the others. Besides, you gotta feel sorry for the ugly anime boys. They just don't get the love their bishie brethren do.
Speaking of bishies, there's the ship's cook, Sanji, who Sin-chan wants to see just for Hirata Hiroaki's sexy, sexy voice. He's a chain-smoking womanizer with a heart of gold poorly concealed by his suave 'tude...typecast, much? Sanji is a blond, pin-striped Sha Gojyo, if Gojyo kicked like a mule and cooked like a god. The culinary talents alone would make him excellent eligible bachelor material, and once you've reset your standards to One Piece's art, he's quite the sexy, too (even if he only has one eye. Maybe. Who knows what the hell's under that hair?) And unlike your typical anime ladies' man, Sanji isn't really a pervert--I believe the correct term is 'doormat'. Boy will do anything for a pretty face. Unfortunately Nami realizes this. Poor Sanji.
So this crazy crew piles on their ship and sails off to adventures. One Piece's storylines are like its art - simple, straightforward, and decidedly odd. It's not a deep show. The villains are evil, insane, or usually some combination of the two; they threaten innocent people and get in our heroes' way. The plots lead to big showdowns between the crew and the baddies. But the villains, for what they lack in complex motives and detailed characterizations, make up for it in sheer whackiness. Jango the Hypnotist moonwalks in Elton John shades and puts himself to sleep with his own hypnotism, Arlong's a humanoid saw shark in a Hawaiian shirt...and then there's all the Devil Fruit people. From the evidence, Devil Fruit is not good for the brain. Most of its eaters are off their rockers.
One Piece's simplicity can also be its strength; that directness can cut deep, and it doesn't preclude covering some pretty heavy themes. If the villains weren't so decidedly evil, it wouldn't be as satisfying to see them defeated; I don't know if I've ever wanted to cheer as loudly for an anime as when Luffy and his crew are marching on Arlong Park.
And of course, like so many other shounen, the defining theme of One Piece is friendship, people relying on one another to reach their dreams. From Shanks' "You can spill food or drink on me, you can even spit on me, but I won't forgive you for hurting my friends" to Luffy's "I don't know a damn thing about swords, I don't know how to navigate, I can't cook, I can't even lie--I know need others to help me if I want to keep living!" to the crew's everyday bickering and teasing and generally adorable if dysfunctional family interactions...stories about friendship will win me over every time. And this one has won me well and truly.
I wanna be a pirate!!!
I've known about One Piece for a couple years, but nothing more than it was about pirates and it was starting to compete with DBZ in popularity and running length (180 eps, 30+ vol. of manga, and still going strong). Now, I don't have anything against pirates, but they're like ninja; I can--could--take 'em or leave 'em.
Then again, the pirates of One Piece are like no other pirates I've ever seen.
Start with the oddly but appropriately named Monkey D. Luffy, the man who will be Pirate King. Regardless of refusing to steal, pillage, plunder, or drink; not knowing how to sail, navigate, or swing a sword; not being ABLE TO SWIM; or in fact seeming to have any idea whatsoever what a pirate actually is - Luffy's gonna get the One Piece and become Pirate King. There's no doubting it. He's the hero.
Like many a shounen hero, Luffy is a way powerful fighter, not so hot in the brains department. Actually, even for a shounen hero Luffy is...special. He's living in his own little universe. The going theory is that rubber is not a good medium for brains.
Yep, rubber. Luffy ate a Gomu Gomu Fruit as a boy and is now a rubber man who can't swim--eaters of Devil Fruit gain fantastic powers but are rejected by the sea. I'd say it makes sense when you see it, but I'd be lying. One Piece is all about going with the flow, or else your brain will crack into so many pretty glittering fragments.
So this unaquatic rubber man sails off to find the One Piece. But of course you can't be a pirate captain without a crew, so Luffy sets about gathering nakama--about 10 should be good, he thinks; he's up to six by the latest storyline, so he's got a bit to go.
First is the infamous Pirate Hunter Roronoa Zoro, who doesn't take much convincing to resign from hunting pirates to become Luffy's first mate. Zoro fights with three swords. Three, you ask? One in each hand, and one in his mouth.
Yes, this means whenever he has a dramatic confrontation with a villain, he's spouting the usual shounen philosophizing. With a sword. In his mouth. Did I mention Zoro's favorite attack is the Demon Slash - Oni Giri - onigiri...
This does not stop Zoro from being the requisite undeniably cool bad-ass hero. He's determined to become the best swordsman in the world; at present he's number two. Though second best is none too shabby, given that the best can take out 50 pirate ships with his sword. That's not the crews of 50 ships, mind. That's the vessels.
Then there's Nami. While One Piece doesn't have FMA's bestest femmes in shounen ever!!!, it does get props for not only giving the angstiest backstory to the girl, but having it have nothing to do with romance, but everything to do with love. Which is another way to say I love the Arlong saga. For a whacked action-comedy, One Piece can pack a serious emotional punch. The rollercoaster that is ep 37, when Nami's seiyuu pulls out all the stops--"ARLONG! ARLONG!" *ouchouchouch*
In fact all the main seiyuu are excellent. Zoro's voice is not one I'm familiar with, but it's a great match to his char, gruff and funny and bad-ass. And Tanaka Mayumi as Luffy could not be more perfect. I liked her before--as Kuririn in DBZ she had one of my favorite screams ever ("VEGETAAA!!" at the end of ep 237. Entirely random, but damn it's a good scream.) I think she was hired for Luffy for the laugh, though. Like Paku Romi's Ed, I don't remember she's a female actress--she's Luffy, and that's that.
Usopp is another favorite seiyuu, Yamaguchi Kappei (Sakuma Ryuuichi!), which is, again, good casting. I was neutral when Usopp was introduced, and started to dislike him...and then, something happened, I'm not sure what, but I started to like him. Quite a bit. He's comic relief (One Piece needed comic relief?) but he's with Nami as the smartest of the crew, and let's face it, the Straw Hat pirates need someone who's not afraid to run away. Or rather they need someone afraid enough to run away. Luffy doesn't seem to understand 'fear' except as an intellectual concept, and given the state of his intellect...it gets him into trouble. (Luffy's favorite place to sit is on the ship's masthead...may I remind you that Luffy swims with all the grace and skill of a large hunk of granite?)
Usopp being the best runner-awayer in the world is actually a useful skill. He's also a deadeye shot and the ship's engineer (yes, I do picture him screaming in a typhoon, "Th' sails, she cannae hold it, cap'n!") And he's as loyal to his friends as any of the others. Besides, you gotta feel sorry for the ugly anime boys. They just don't get the love their bishie brethren do.
Speaking of bishies, there's the ship's cook, Sanji, who Sin-chan wants to see just for Hirata Hiroaki's sexy, sexy voice. He's a chain-smoking womanizer with a heart of gold poorly concealed by his suave 'tude...typecast, much? Sanji is a blond, pin-striped Sha Gojyo, if Gojyo kicked like a mule and cooked like a god. The culinary talents alone would make him excellent eligible bachelor material, and once you've reset your standards to One Piece's art, he's quite the sexy, too (even if he only has one eye. Maybe. Who knows what the hell's under that hair?) And unlike your typical anime ladies' man, Sanji isn't really a pervert--I believe the correct term is 'doormat'. Boy will do anything for a pretty face. Unfortunately Nami realizes this. Poor Sanji.
So this crazy crew piles on their ship and sails off to adventures. One Piece's storylines are like its art - simple, straightforward, and decidedly odd. It's not a deep show. The villains are evil, insane, or usually some combination of the two; they threaten innocent people and get in our heroes' way. The plots lead to big showdowns between the crew and the baddies. But the villains, for what they lack in complex motives and detailed characterizations, make up for it in sheer whackiness. Jango the Hypnotist moonwalks in Elton John shades and puts himself to sleep with his own hypnotism, Arlong's a humanoid saw shark in a Hawaiian shirt...and then there's all the Devil Fruit people. From the evidence, Devil Fruit is not good for the brain. Most of its eaters are off their rockers.
One Piece's simplicity can also be its strength; that directness can cut deep, and it doesn't preclude covering some pretty heavy themes. If the villains weren't so decidedly evil, it wouldn't be as satisfying to see them defeated; I don't know if I've ever wanted to cheer as loudly for an anime as when Luffy and his crew are marching on Arlong Park.
And of course, like so many other shounen, the defining theme of One Piece is friendship, people relying on one another to reach their dreams. From Shanks' "You can spill food or drink on me, you can even spit on me, but I won't forgive you for hurting my friends" to Luffy's "I don't know a damn thing about swords, I don't know how to navigate, I can't cook, I can't even lie--I know need others to help me if I want to keep living!" to the crew's everyday bickering and teasing and generally adorable if dysfunctional family interactions...stories about friendship will win me over every time. And this one has won me well and truly.
I wanna be a pirate!!!
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no subject
Date: 2004-02-14 02:18 pm (UTC)I love One Piece!! I really do. The characters are all quirky and engaging and sympathetic and I love them so.
Of course, the people writing the anime series have NO idea about dramatic timing or pacing or even really the concept of the passage of time. Which puts me off somewhat. There have been a couple instance where I have literally been *bored to sleep* while watching an episode, especially in the Little Garden arc. It always gets on my nerves when they say things like "if so-and-so doesn't do such-and-such in 30 seconds/three minutes/whatever than this person is going to die!" and then blatantly run roughshod over their self-imposed time limit.
I love One Piece. I do. But for an action series there is a weird dearth of actual action and a strange propensity for having the characters stand around and yak.
But anyway. Yes, One Piece rocks. You should write fic for it. Definately. ^_~
no subject
Date: 2004-02-15 08:32 am (UTC)As far as pacing goes...ehh, well, it could be better, but it's not that bad. --Says me, who was a fan of Dragonball Z in my day, DBZ, of the infamous "This planet will explode in 15 minutes".....TWENTY EPISODES LATER, the planet blows up. Compared to that, OP's pacing is positively frenetic. The talking, too, is par for the course for a lot of fight shounen. I've gotten used to it ('sides, if it didn't slow down like that, we wouldn't get as many shots of Zoro staggering trying to fight when mortally wounded yet again...er...yes...I perhaps enjoy that "pushed beyond all endurance" stuff a bit too much...)
As for fic...eheheheheh...be careful what you wish for? Not only are certain people gonna kill me for not working on certain other things, but OP fans are probably gonna sigh as well--not only can I not really write humor and therefore am not trying, but I don't see the yaoi... ^^;;
no subject
Date: 2004-02-15 03:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-02-14 07:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-02-15 08:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-02-15 04:18 am (UTC)Very fun rave to read, though. ^____^ So true. They're dumb. But cute. Oh, so dumb. But so cute. See, it breaks the brain!'
no subject
Date: 2004-02-15 05:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-02-15 08:42 am (UTC)Watching the early eps again is great fun. I wanna show it to someone! Come over here, we can watch together! (but it's my turn to go over there...argh!! We need a pirate ship to cross this dang ocean!!)
no subject
Date: 2004-02-15 08:50 am (UTC)The fonts for the icon are great! Where did you find them? (And, of course, the picture rocks.)
(Oh, fic! Fic! Want OP fic... Want THAT OP fic. ^^;;;)
no subject
Date: 2004-02-16 07:38 am (UTC)you want the fic now, or wait 'til you meet Sanji, at least? ^^
no subject
Date: 2004-02-16 08:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-02-15 11:49 pm (UTC)I just watched the first four eps of One Piece with Naye this weekend, and... I think I see what you mean. It was very wacky and funny and Luffy might well be the cutest and most idiotic cute idiot ever. ^.^ Rubber is not a good medium for brains indeed...
Although at the moment my fangirl heart has been eaten alive by Hagaren, which is the complete opposite of OP in every way. ^^ I do want to see more One Piece, but... :P
Ahh... The preview for Hagaren ep 20 worries me. ^^;
no subject
Date: 2004-02-16 12:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-02-16 07:36 am (UTC)'sides, while watching stuff & reading manga as it first comes out is v. cool, it's nice to have about a billion eps of OP to marathon (except J-chan has RUN OUT of tapes in Japan, at like ep 140. poor thing. My heart explodes with sympathy. Oh, wait, that's raging jealousy. And movie 5 comes out next month...) Tho' Sin-chan, if you're already feeling OP getting its wicked pirate claws into you after the first ten eps...heheh. You ain't seen nothin' yet...
no subject
Date: 2004-02-16 11:02 am (UTC)So I'm already multitasking. Hagaren is just... like Naye said, beyond great. Mmmm... I need ep 20. ^^;
So yes, it would be wonderful not having to wait for each and every episode and volume... I suppose One Piece would be ideal for marathon, being cute and not too complex. Heh.
Besides... I do like wacky pirates. That goes way back. ^_^
(I'm Guybrush Threepwood, mighty pirate!)
no subject
Date: 2004-02-18 11:58 am (UTC)The downside is that you can lose HOURS this way...go to watch a little One Piece in the afternoon, wake up from the pirate trance and find the sun setting and your stomach growling like Luffy's...
(Guybrush Threepwood, was that a vid game?)
no subject
Date: 2004-02-18 05:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-02-18 05:57 pm (UTC)isn't the chibi-Sanji story disturbing in a not-normal-brutalization way? tho' cute too. OP is all about being murderously cute. and about people who sacrifice limbs for children, but that's just a disturbing subtheme... ^^;;;
no subject
Date: 2004-02-20 12:37 pm (UTC)The brain strikes again! I had the exact same thought when watching that ep. Hee! So disturbing on so many levels, yet I cannot help but be amused by it. And by the fact that One Piece stole your brain, replaced it with mine, and now it's stealing mine too! Want it back!!
no subject
Date: 2004-02-16 04:12 pm (UTC)Damn. This show knows my weaknesses too well! After Zoro and Luffy got that great start, they just keep doing things that make me want to love them. Like Zoro blocking Usopp's pachinko that time. *squee!*
...I did not just squee at OP, did I? ^^;;; Damn. And it's got Hirata Hiroaki. Have I mentioned yet what a terribly sexy voice he has? I really can't wait to finally hear him in another role than Gojyo!
and Saiyuki...is just hot.
Truer words were never said. Hot. Yes. Hot, gorgeous guys who love to pretend they don't love each other... or something like that. And then they suffer. For each other. I need Reload 20. Now. Badly. Really. If it goes as far as I think it will... *melts into happy puddle of fangirlyness*
no subject
Date: 2004-02-22 05:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-02 12:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-11 12:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-11 03:32 pm (UTC)Oh, I totally think the OP girls win - at least over the FMA anime, can't judge the manga (and I've heard the mangaka is female herself, so...I know that shouldn't count, exactly, but it does...) I didn't even know Robin when I wrote this, after all! ^_^
no subject
Date: 2006-03-12 02:03 am (UTC)Robin! Oh, Robin. And Nami. And Califa! And Tashigi, and Vivi, and Kaya, and even Kokoro and Chimney and... yeah. I could go on. But they win. It's fantastic what Odacchi can do, really... Wonder if any of the future nakama will be women?