Forum - View topicShelf Life - Sketman
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Sailor S
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One Piece holds a special place in my anime life as being the longest running show that I've kept at. It unseated the previous champion, Sailor Moon, when it eclipsed the 300 episode mark, and at this point I don't really care when it ends, so long as it ends within my lifetime. Or Oda's lifetime since we are close to the same age. The G8 arc is pretty much the only filler arc that I've found enjoyable. But the main storyline is some good stuff if you ask me. As long as Oda keeps seeming like he's having fun, and does get like Kubo who seems like he's just doing it because they keep paying him, then I'm fine with One Piece going another 14 years.
As for why Funi could only get the first 205 for DVD release, well, that's the Japanese for ya. But, at least according to Adam Sheehan when I asked him at Anime Boston, they are in negotiations to get more One Piece, so it seems to be selling well enough to justify getting more. As long as they keep bringing it out on DVD, I'll keep buying it. |
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Echo_City
Posts: 1236 |
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Those shelves were pretty cool. I noticed a few things I haven't seen before, like that Blue Gender box set. I've seen the vintage 8 disc box and the re-released all in one box. Good to see merch that I'm unfamiliar with.
I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who owns that box set of Heat Guy J 
IMO it's interesting that you have the AD Police Files dvd, yet (unless I missed it) don't have anything else in the franchise. Interesting since AD Police Files is probably the 2nd worst thing in the franchise (though IMO it was alright). What happened to the Ergo Proxy box and the Special Bonus dvd? Not a fan of the dub? |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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I reckon Erin was too hard on SKET Dance. It is far funnier and significantly better written than it has any right to be, but I doubt these are insurmountable obstacles to anyone's enjoyment. As to it making fun if itself, it is obvious that Erin is not a Kiwi or Aussie as in our cultures taking the piss out of one's self is a legitimate avenue for both humour and endearment. I suppose the Japanese sense of humour slightly overlaps with our own. Finally, Erin doesn't seem to realise that it is indeed a comedy show, just one with a surprising bit of heart, and therefore taking it too seriously is harmful to one's enjoyment. Even I know this, and I'm anal retentive in insisting that my Anime has to make sense.
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CareyGrant
Posts: 453 |
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...And the French think Jerry Lewis is a genius. |
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CCSYueh
 Posts: 2707 Location: San Diego, CA |
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One could argue that's what life is all about, can't one? The "point" of One Piece is Luffy's Journey to Become King of the Pirates. Being Luffy, it's less Campbell's Hero's Journey & more [select any number of comic acts-Marx Brothers. Monty Python. Mel Brooks.] There ws a Burt Reynolds movie-Paternity with a line that has always stuck with me. Reynolds, speaking of the child, commented the kid would walk on top of a brick wall with no thought of the consequences-the concept of falling was non-existant, but the time would come when the kid fell & then he would have that fear of falling forever after that-that the carefree attitude would be gone. Luffy is that kid with the only difference being he falls, & he just picks himself back up & carries on. Unflappable? Dense as a Brick? Limits do not exist in Luffy's mind. "Can't be done" is not in his vocabulary. The humans (the crew) are a variety of reactions to that. Ussop is the most human reaction of all in that he sees these others as monsters, yet he screws up his courage & gives it his all, amazingly managing to keep up most of the time & never taking death-inducing damage. Chopper is cute. That's his major function. Yeah, he's the doctor & he has devil fruit power, but he's also more of a child & the behavior is childlike in many ways (as is Luffy). Nami's wicked evil. I hate her. I do not think of her. Robin's cool & has an older person's perspective of things. She's more willing to sit back & enjoy the actions of her teammates. Sanji & Zoro are "go with the flow" sorts who, by the lives they've led, roll with the punches. If they were as excitable as Ussop or Chopper, they probably wouldn't be there considering their pasts. In a way, Zoro's like those tv husbands where the wife's talking at them, but they're just sitting there, reading their newspaper saying "That's nice, dear". They do their job every day, then sink into their chair with the remote at night after work to watch tv. (For Zoro, it's sleep). If they actually paid attention to their wives (Luffy in Zoro's case), they'd become deeply disturbed so it's a sanity defense. Why 205 eps? Why should Toei fire-sell One Piece? Funi came in after 4Kids' failure & presumably got a much cheaper deal than the word-on-the-street prior to the title being licensed suggested it would go for (The common assumption for the lack of One Piece making it to these shores was Toei was asking an obscene amount of money for it.) I would imagine Toei was hoping it could become the huge product it is in Japan so they could up the price. Unfortunately we're in the middle of financial crisis worldside, so no one's in any position to really pay all that much more than they have I would assume. |
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4645 |
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FUNimation has a good chunk of the series available via streaming at any given time, whether it's on their own website or Hulu, so you don't have to buy the boxset to see those episodes. Unfortunately, since you have your location listed as Australia, I don't think you can access either of those streaming sites, so you may be out of luck there.
I agree with just about everything else you said, but Nami is awesome. 
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erinfinnegan
ANN Columnist
 Posts: 598 |
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I have a class on Monday night now, so sorry if I'm a bit late with my replies....
Wow! I didn't realize the G8 arc was filler. I seriously would have never guessed that! It's that good! Best filler arc ever...?
I hope they send them to me. I haven't seen the first season...
Isn't the Bleach filler much worse? Like with vampires and stuff? Besides, every once in a while there are more hints to a larger One Piece story. I'm less interested in Luffy becoming King of the Pirates than I am in Robin's research about history that the world government is trying to suppress.
Yes, they say "bitch" a lot in the dub, but I think I remember it also being in the subs on occasion. Needless isn't dubtitled or anything, but I recall the dub being fairly close to the subs.
I had to watch Magikano for my second column. I had since forgotten about it... in any case, I loved the first disc of Nerima Daikon Brothers, but was disappointed in the second disc. Can't remember if I watched the dub.
You are correct sir! I liked Megas XLR a lot... I'm sad it didn't get more seasons. (Or even repeated airings, it's been off the CN schedule forever.) |
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CCSYueh
Posts: 2707 Location: San Diego, CA |
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They are supposed to be a team & she charges loan-shark interest? Zoro needing a sword is actually a plus for the crew's defense. She is evil. I love Sanji's fighting style. I love how laid-back Zoro is. Chopper is a doll. Usopp is almost inspiring at times the way he does his best to keep up. Luffy is funny except when he hits the uber-obstinate mode every so often (fighting Zoro). Robin & Ace are just cool as is Shanks. Nami is a money-obsessed beast. |
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Megiddo
 Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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I'm sad that someone could say that they were disappointed with Nerima Daikon Brothers. It's easily the best anime musical comedy ever... with my personal favorite comedic dub ^^
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Top Gun
Posts: 4645 |
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Yes, she loves money, and things like the crazy interest are a running gag (you'd think the other crew members would figure out at some point that it's better to go without than borrow from her), but "evil"? Not in the least. There are so many different moments I could point to where she shows how much she truly cares for the whole crew, that she knows what's actually important...hell, she's even been known to utter the phrase "Money doesn't matter!" when things get bad. She's an invaluable crew member in that she's pretty much the only voice of active reason on the crew: she's the only one who cuts through Luffy and Zoro and Sanji's shenanigans, delivers that slap to the head, and says, "That's just plain stupid!" Granted, there are many times when Luffy barges right through anyway and proves her wrong, but there are so many times when the crew would have wound up killing themselves in spectacularly stupid fashion if not for her...and that's not even counting the fact that her navigation is the only thing making their journey possible. She gets some really powerful moments over the course of the series, and her arc is easily the highlight of the first hundred episodes. She's great in my book. (Besides all that, she's pretty damn hot. )
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Animehermit
 Posts: 964 Location: The Argama |
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G8 is pretty standard filler for One Piece, it's not the best one, but it certainly isn't bad. For instance(mild spoiler for a filler arc): spoiler[There's an arc where everyone in the crew (except Robin) loses their memory. It was interesting to see how everyone in the crew has developed over the course of the show.] Bleach filler is so incredible bad, it hurts even talking about it. 60 episodes of plot-holed mess, ughhhhh. lastly, that part with Robin and the world government is the whole central point of an entire arc. It's also the best One Piece has ever been, and the most "epic" of the arcs presented in the show. I just wish it wasn't so far along in the story that most people never get to it. I don't mean to hype it up too much, but man, I laughed, cried, cheered and shook my fist in rage, Anime has never made me feel the things i did when i saw that arc, i STILL get chills. |
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agila61
 Posts: 3213 Location: NE Ohio |
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erinfinnegan
ANN Columnist
Posts: 598 |
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That's so weird, because in the anime it's spelled out, in English, on a flag on their clubroom wall. They also explicitly state the acronym at least once.
At least we agree that the first disc is hilarious...?
She does wear a vest that says "evil" on it throughout this arc. I thought Nami's turncoat-ish moments during the Skypiea arc were a great test of her character. I've certain had some penny-pinching friends with questionable alignments in my day, but I'm still friends with them nevertheless. |
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LaFreccia
 Posts: 324 |
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I guess my problems with One Piece boiled down to:
First: I felt like I needed to skip every other episode, because the first third was a recap of the previous episode, the final third was going to be recapped in the next episode, and the middle third was too frequently a flashback to some event that happened 30 episodes ago. Maybe if I wasn't marathoning the show this would have been less of a problem. Second: I was under the impression that Luffy was trying to become the King of Pirates, but he doesn't care enough about his goal to do anything other than wander about from random island to random island, having random adventures that seemingly have no impact on the overall plot. 1, 2, 5, 10? of these episodes along the way, might be acceptable, but 100s? I lost faith that there was a real attempt to follow through. Third: As I recall, there was a huge fight (lasting god only knows how long), which seemed, at first, to have ended with a decisive victory spoiler[(dead opponents, or them losing their powers or something, I don't recall the specifics)], BUT then it was shown that everyone was better, so the villains could reappear at any time, meaning there was basically no difference between having seen the fight or not, because it didn't really matter. Perhaps that one commenter on the previous page was right that Bleach is worse, because it is more random from one plot point to the next, IDK. I can honestly say that some of the characters were pretty cool, and I enjoyed them at first, but I lost interest in One Piece because I lost faith that I was ever going to get something significant out of it. It seems (to me) like an endless Three Stooges routine. |
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Cosplaybunny
 Posts: 224 |
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Just want to comment on a couple of things. The first complaint is pretty much one you could have with any ongoing series that opts out of long filler arcs. Less filler means they have to drag something out in order to not catch up with the manga. Second complaint has more to do with Luffy's character and the time period in which One Piece is occurring than anything else. The events that set off the "Age of Piracy" happened 20 years before Luffy even set out on his adventure. He (obviously) does not feel the need to rush out and find the "One Piece" and honestly what would be the fun in that. He's more interested in helping his friends, becoming stronger so that he can help his friends and achieve his dream (aka the three principals of Shonen: Friendship, Hardwork, and Victory.) The final complaint has to do with the author himself and how he treats these battles. Almost all of the battles in One Piece are not just superficial, but are battles of ideologies. For example spoiler[ Luffy's battle with Crocodile is not just a battle over who will win the kingdom, but a battle of whether or not trust and selflessness can be victorious over selfishness and mistrust (Baroque Works vs. Strawhat Pirates.) ] In a question and answer column, Oda specifically answered that he didn't kill characters because in the time the series takes place, honor and principle are valued more highly than one's own life, so destroying an opponent's beliefs is more important than even killing them. It makes the deaths in One Piece all that more important, rather than it being something that happens every time Luffy defeats an enemy. |
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I tried again with Bleach, but eventually decided the same thing. These shows don't go anywhere. In fact they seem to be designed to never get anywhere, as the conclusion of a real story could result in the end of the $$$ (I mean the franchise). 
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