Forum - View topicANNCast - Piece Out
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ochimusha
Posts: 7 |
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Thank you for your reply Charred! I enjoy these discussions as I rarely have an opportunity to speak with anime fans that aren't into OP.
I would suggest that saying your opinion is invalid until you've read the entire series is unrealistic. And while I think you prefaced that perfectly in your take on it, I think it might be best to give that a little more weight during a critique and understand that you won't have access to the same important details that fans who keep up with it have. For example:
Story? No. Characters? No. Character's abilities? Yes. And instead of reset, he's simply added more. Now, is that really fair? After all, the tactic he utilized is pretty old by now ever since Dragon Ball ran it into the roiling core of the earth. As far as this author is concerned it's definitely fair game. It's not something he whipped out of nowhere, it was part of his overall 'plan' for the series since the start. Furthermore, we actually have potential for seeing what transpired during that time which is a nice addition that we don't usually get with such a tactic. So while Luffy's capabilities have 'reset' in that: 1. We don't know what he and the crew are capable of. 2. He'll probably be able to deal with enemies in the next few arcs (barring Marine trouble from higher-ups) without as much despair in the face of danger like we saw ever since he was first outclassed by an entire group of enemies like CP9.
You mentioned this earlier. Something about Luffy being the villain? That's something that's at the core of the story right now. In fact two chapters ago the title was 'Friend or Foe'. Although Oda has touched on the idea in the past, this is the first time that it will be a central theme, far moreso than Impel Down, as Luffy WILL destroy an island, but will it be for the greater good and will that island's people love him for it? (Spoiler: Yeah probably) You're never going to get any deep conflict beyond that from the main character because he basically sorted all his shiz out when he was a kid. Oda isn't interested in dealing with a main character that has inner conflict, to the extent where, unless absolutely unavoidable, he will not allow Luffy to have inner monologue. So if you're looking for that, Bleach or Naruto definitely have that over OP if that's your thing. Actually, he is showing how they've grown. We've seen hints of it over the past year and as we head into this arc's battle we're going to see by just how much. But as far as the crew being villains or incidental heroic rogues, they will probably always be incidental heroic rogues, that's the series Oda writes. If that's not your cup of tea I can completely understand.
Why is that? I think it makes far more sense to keep us in suspense of the new abilities that the crew has until they NEED to use them. Certainly we've been given some incredible hints along the way that lead to exciting speculative conversation, but they haven't been faced with a true challenge yet and Oda isn't going to have the crew whip out high-level techniques for what are now considered small fry. I think no matter what shonen action adventure series you read you'll find that's certainly the same. In Bleach, Ichigo doesn't whip out his strongest boss-finishing attack/form at the start of a new arc.
My 20+ years tells me if you're telling an extended story as unbloated as possible with logical progression that's appealing and continually bringing out new material, exploring new themes, not losing interest and doing it for the love of the job, not the yen, then it's a good thing.
That simply isn't true. That's like watching Nausicaa and saying the manga probably doesn't offer anything else.
So are Zach and Ed actually. For adults One Piece is definitely an investment which is why I ALWAYS suggest the manga. It's quick, you can read it anywhere and if you don't like it, you won't have spent an arm and a leg. If you DO happen to enjoy the comic then by all means, check out the animation or at least track down sections that you're interested seeing in animated form but otherwise picking up the anime as an adult is pretty much a chore. Someone suggested a Kai-ified One Piece and I can't agree more in the future. But for th time being, unless they figure out how to animate episodes instantly or create time-warping devices, that's simply not going to happen. |
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PBsallad
 Posts: 338 Location: Phoenix |
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Ahh... One Piece. I remember when I thought the art was stupid and I didn't want to watch it. Then when the English dub (FUNimation's) was being put on Hulu I gave the series a shot. That was about 2 years ago. A few episodes in I fell in love with it. It's a fantastic series and shortly after getting into the anime I started getting the comic too. I think I own volumes 12-30 something, I've also been borrowing the books from the library. I recently finished volume 47 and just picked up 48-50. (I've read before that people think Thriller Bark is the worst arc, but so far I like it. Zombies! Can't really say what my least fav is yet...)
As for the One Piece podcast, I've only listened to a few episodes. Most of which are the ones with voice actor interviews. (Tatum is awesome). I think I'm still behind from wherever you guys started from, otherwise I would listen to more. But I also listened to a good chunk of the charity cast-a-thon and donated some money. That was a lot of fun and you guys did a great job. |
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4788 |
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Heh, you too? I remember my friends posting screencaps from it, and my response being something like "Ugh!" And now here I sit, working my way through the entire anime from start to finish for the second time, and owning more than half of what FUNi has released on DVD so far. My past self was rather stupid. 
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Charred Knight
 Posts: 3085 |
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It's not that I don't like One Piece, it's fairly good, but I am not paying 600 dollars just to collect the current series let alone the 1,200 dollars and the next 13-15 years for the entire series. The thing I disagree with is that One Piece is the greatest manga and anime of all times. I don't think it's as good as Naussica or other movies that are Miyazaki's best work. I don't think it's as good as Touch, Rurouni Kenshin, Takahashi's best work, Kon's best work, or Fullmetal Alchemist. |
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InnocentSorrow59
Posts: 156 Location: Los Angeles, CA |
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Really, it all depends on how hard core you are about One Piece and your tastes. Now me, I'm willing to dish out that money to collect the series, and you know, it's because I love this series that much. As for whether you think it's the greatest, is also opinion. It's on the top of my list mostly because I love reading shonen manga. And when you're heading into Shonen, you don't really go in expecting Miyazaki-type grand things with all these morals and things. It's just supposed to be entertaining. And yeah, I admit to thinking this is one of the best manga series out there. :) It's just really entertaining, fun, lovable characters, and all around lovable. I get a feeling this would piss some people off, but I would choose to read/watch One Piece over anything Miyazaki. (Not insulting Miyazaki, I just like OP better.) |
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ochimusha
Posts: 7 |
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And if you're not that into it, I don't know why anyone should. Realistically though, please consider that OP is mainly intended for a Japanese audience and as such, so are the prices associated with the series. You said 600 dollars but keep in mind that at 420 yen per volume (barring exchange rate madness atm) that's about $260 for all 63 volumes. On top of that you have the Logue series which are basically enormous chunks of the series for a fraction of the price. So where the series is targeted, hopefully you can understand it's not exactly unreasonable and certainly justifiable. Oda's concern is exactly in line with yours which is why he has fought tooth and nail to provide the series for as cheap as possible. In fact, he even stuck his head out for Vol. 63 released this month and had all advertisement pages removed because he wanted to fit in more material without raising the price. His ideal series is one that's cheap and easy to collect. He's continuing with OP because it makes kids happy and he loves doing it. I respect that.
While that's something we say more often than not, it's always tongue-in-cheek and we'd never suggest that in a serious discussion. As an incomplete series it's impossible to even consider passing that kind of judgement. Furthermore, and I recently had this discussion, when it comes to to 'greatness' of a series I think everyone has different standards but we can probably agree that at this point in history, One Piece will certainly be the most successful and in the future maybe even one of the most influential but I doubt that it will ever be 'the greatest series'. One Piece will be remarkably influential and it does explore very real themes in addition to being crafted with painstaking love of the story, characters and profession, but so are many modern pieces of artwork, yet we still come back to Mona Lisa and other ancient pieces of work. Anyone arguing that One Piece IS without question the greatest manga or anime of all time really needs to take a step back and cool off. It's AMAZING. But the greatest? |
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asimpson2006
 Posts: 3151 Location: USA |
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Great podcast as always.
I do have some interest in One Piece, but I am waiting for some cheaper set to come from Funimation before I purchase it. I read the first few chapters of the manga but this was years ago and I did not have much interest in it, however I may try again in the future. I don't think I could produce or talk on a podcast on a weekly basis. I would not mind being on a podcast but I have a terrible speaking voice and I would not have much to talk about, so I would be sure no one would listen to it (I wouldn't mind if no one listened to it at all). |
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YotaruVegeta
 Posts: 1061 Location: New York |
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There's an English One Piece dub on Hulu? Or, there was?
If anyone has not watched One Piece or has not watched a lot of it, it's on hulu (get the desktop app if you don't like the browser) and funimation.com, frikkin' free. |
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firecrouch
Posts: 125 |
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FUNimation just started coming out with 26 episode sets that you can get for less than 34 bucks. |
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PBsallad
Posts: 338 Location: Phoenix |
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Yep, I ordered the first set along with the 2nd one and a manga. But I have to wait a wile before I can get them.
The 3rd set is available for pre-order too.
Yup, been up there for about 2 years. They just recently stopped putting new ones up cause it caught up with the DVDs. The episodes have also been rotating in and out. Looks like episodes 1-19 and 64-107 and 125-146 etc etc are available right now... Odd it's broken up like that. The subtitled episodes aren't broken up though. Except that 206-390 aren't up cause they don't have the license. |
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YotaruVegeta
Posts: 1061 Location: New York |
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I've missed a few hundred episodes of the show, so I might check them out dubbed. I wonder if they went back and dubbed them all with the same cast.
Maybe the number matches with DVD volumes? I dunno. |
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leafy sea dragon
 Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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It was a bit confusing hearing a Zac and a Zach both refer to each other by first name.
As far as DVDs exceeding 500 episodes, the closest we've had so far is The Simpsons, which is at about 330 episodes. Since they continue to fly off the shelves, I'm sure it'll reach 500 sooner or later. I didn't know about that Washington Post article. Seems we're still firmly in the Animation Age Ghetto...They don't think Comic-Con is full of child molesters, do they? I'm a Dragon Ball fan, but I'm not offended at the comparison to it--I prefer One Piece myself. But yeah, I'd agree--the manga sells well but anime does not because manga is a lot cheaper, and getting the entire series on manga feels actually feasible whereas the anime is...less so.
Wow, really? That's interesting. I heard about how Hiromu Arakawa did the same thing for Fullmetal Alchemist. I guess that's how you make a story as cohesive and intricate as those two series.
Apparently, the art style was a major part of it. It was too different from what people would expect anime to look like. It also looked more like western animation than most other popular series, so One Piece got caught in the Ghetto.
Viz is selling the manga at $8 per volume up until around Volume 35 or so, and after that, they are $10 per volume. One Piece is also part of the Vizbig line, which I believe is $12 for every 3 volumes but stops at Volume 12. So assuming the manga stays at $10 per chapter, and you get all four Vizbig books, reaching Volume 63 would cost $530, plus tax if you're getting it from the same state (and I do--at 8.75% tax, the total is $576.38). So it wouldn't be $600...but pretty close. --- Also, I think the One Piece will be that straw hat Luffy wears. This is a serious guess, actually--since Gold Roger was seen wearing it, it must be of great sentimental value. The One Piece can't be something of great monetary value, as Buggy, a member of Roger's crew, should know what it is but doesn't seem interested in getting the One Piece. Oda said it's something significant, not some metaphysical concept or a joke. And Roger simply said he hid it in "that place"--originally Shanks's head. Or maybe it's Gaimon. |
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fuuma_monou
 Posts: 1847 Location: Quezon City, Philippines |
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OP is part of the regular omnibus line. About $15 MSRP each. |
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Dragynstorm
 Posts: 131 |
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Just want to say… Regarding Fairy Tail, while it is true that Hiro Mashima's artwork has great similarities, it's not like all of a sudden he started "copying" Oda's style. If you flip through Rave Master, you can see that his style evolves to how it is now. So it's not like it's all of a sudden it started to look like Oda's, his style and Oda's style have both evolved to a point where they look similar.
On Baka-Updates, his profile includes this: "His artwork and Eiichiro Oda's are greatly similar, but that is due to both of them being influenced largely by Akira Toriyama's work growing up." |
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ochimusha
Posts: 7 |
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Yeah, I don't think Mishima borrows Oda's style.
However, I would argue that their style looking similar has absolutely nothing to do with them liking Toriyama. If that argument holds almost every running manga would look the same these days. |
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