A Wonderful Journey

Written by guardian_angel_7 on December 12, 2010 at 1:26 AM

Ok, my first anime's were naruto, bleach, and d-grayman. I'd always talk to my friends at school about them and debate and discuss plot elements, characters, etc. However, over our senior trip they started talking about an anime they loved very much and praised more than Bleach at times: it was called One Piece. Now, i'm a bleach die-hard fan so when they kept praising this show i kept thinking "Whats the big deal?" I'd heard a bit about One Piece but not too much and i thought it was kinda baby compared to bleach or d-grayman. I also heard how long it was which really raised some doubts. I mean c'mon 400+ episodes long!? how can anything even go for a span as long as that?! I thought it was an overestimated, watered down anime, so when i finally began watching it after yu-yu-hakusho mid-summer i had my doubts and didn't expect much. Please permit me to say it now: I AM SO SORRY. I TAKE IT ALL BACK. One Piece is amazing. Period. The characters I found were likable and before you knew it became like a family, true nakama. The humor was greatly done and made me chuckle all the way through. Now the plot did take a bit to pick up with the actual story, but it didnt matter! The individual adventures were enjoyable and did well with pacing themselves out, even if alabastar and skypiea were a bit long. While the animation was kinda rugged in the biggining (which isnt bad at all considering it was 1999) it picked up nicely after skypiea and looked great. Now it wasnt perfect, it was a bit hard to develope a epic atmosphere at times during some of the arcs due to the more humor bases of the anime (ex. zoros fight with the giraffe was mainly goofing off and the big bad guy for chopper was kinda dumb) but it definatley has its epic moments, even more so than other anime. I sitll go back and watch Luffy kick the crap out of Crocodile and be amazing in his fight against Lucci (he will not fall, so epic!) Oh and while we're on Luffy can i say how much of a man he is! i mean when he climbed that huge mountain to save his nakama or the many other amazing things he did, aw man! And the rest of the crew too! ( if i went into it this would go on forever...oh wait too late, sorry) However one of the greatest things this anime has displays is the true meaning of nakama. The scene were nami is stabbing herself and throwing sand at luffy telling him to go way, and then cries and asks for his help. Aw man the hat symbolism, "You are my nakama i will protect you" i still go back and watch that. Each adventure showed more an more of the One Piece universe and made me fall in love with the crew more and more. Oh and the length, *ahem* Naruto, Bleach, you two have no right to complain anymore!!!!!! I dont want to hear it about the "We need more fillers to let the manga get farther" crap. I thoughtr fillers were there to serve that purpose, until i watched One Piece. 478 episodes and only 40 filler! (AT the most!) And its til way behind the manga from wat ive heard! I dont want to hear it anymore Bleach. (already gave up on naruto anime, read manga) Another great thing about One Piece is that it is very ingenuative. In the early episodes of say, Bleach, the characters had special powers and used them to cunningly beat their enemies, like ishida and Rengi's team up against the number 8 espada. But then it turned int okinda just a bunch of "power battles" like DBZ where whoever is strongest wins. (btw Bleach is my fav anime so dont think i hate it its just its kinda grating where it is) One Piece, however, has ingenuity all the way through and doesnt rely on just power battles. When Luffy's enemy can read his mind and predict his movements he decides to punch the wall behind him and let his attacks ricochet all over so the enemy cant read it, or Ussop tricking his enemy into unconsciousness when she coudve overpowered him easy. But dont think its just a bunch of weaklings who hav to outsmart everyone, they are strong too! Like the Groggy Ball where sanji and Zoro team up to totally overpower the competition or Luffy's first use of Gear Second. (Still love that) Oh and about that in particular, it doesnt get waterted down the moe he used it. Like in Bleach, Bankai is just another power everyone has and has kinda got watered down, but when Luffy initiated Gear Second you just know its gonna be epic and powerful. The humor was also very welcomed as it seemed to help move the plot along since it was so long. Overall I was very impressed with the series as a whole and cant wait for the new episodes every week. One Piece was the most pleasant surprise thats ever happened to me. Great characters, solid story, uplifting overall atmosphere, epic battles, good humor, it has it all! Im very, very sad that i hav caught up and will now hav to wait every week but i can truely say it has been a fantastic adventure that i will never forget. Arigato, One Piece!