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4.38 AVERAGE
4.38 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Sanji and nami's backstory never fails to make me tear up馃槶
adventurous
emotional
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Sanji's Baratie arc 馃グ need I say more?
Luffy and crew finish up the cooking arc and head into the Arlong Park arc.
So Senji gets to show off his moves here and it's pretty amazing. On top of that we get to see some great emotion bits with Senji's master and old crew before he departs. If that wasn't good enough we head into the first half of the Arlong Park Arc. This was always a big arc for me because it's where I began to love nami and also get one of the top 10 moments in One Piece. With nami's backstory revealed, big fights, and plenty of humorous moments, this is the best volume yet for One Piece. A 4.5 OUT OF 5.
So Senji gets to show off his moves here and it's pretty amazing. On top of that we get to see some great emotion bits with Senji's master and old crew before he departs. If that wasn't good enough we head into the first half of the Arlong Park Arc. This was always a big arc for me because it's where I began to love nami and also get one of the top 10 moments in One Piece. With nami's backstory revealed, big fights, and plenty of humorous moments, this is the best volume yet for One Piece. A 4.5 OUT OF 5.
adventurous
challenging
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
One Piece is a series about allure. The allure of adventure. The allure of a found family. The allure of how good a series has to be in order to become the third highest-selling comic property in the world behind only Batman and Superman. The series gets off to a slowish start, with Luffy and co. butting heads against an array of comic villains in settings that sort of gesture at mortal peril without going all-in right out of the gate. It's the warm-up, and it doesn't take much forum searching to discover that the training wheels will come off in the Arlong Park arc - an infamous sequence that greatly expands upon the tragic backstory of a particular character, and introduces us to Arlong: the first villain to graduate from the previous baddies 'school of pantomime evil' into something greater; nastier. I've been patiently waiting for One Piece to achieve its true potential, and after finally arriving at the fated Arlong Park, I can report with enthusiasm that One Piece is in fact...
...bad. Okay, I'm sorry, I did that for shock value. I don't know if I can say with a straight face that one Piece as a whole is a dire series, so fans can put away the pitchforks please. But I can't say it's very good either, and if it is then I clearly don't know how to engage with it. Because Arlong Park isn't different - not really. It's the same as the rest of One Piece with a different texture. By which I mean, it's toothless.
The second I saw Arlong kill the villager for secretly hoarding a weapon, I felt a legitimate thrill. I'd already noted that this was a series which was reluctant to let anyone die, be they major threat or hired goon, and to see Arlong callously destroy this innocent villager felt like an upping of the stakes in-keeping with the arcs reputation.
So imagine how much my heart sank when it turned out the villager wasn't killed - in fact he's up and about minutes later - and any pretence of danger is immediately wiped out by the arrival of Usopp and his slingshot. It sounds silly, but this was the straw that broke this camel's back - a move that broke the One Piece illusion once and for all. I don't think every story needs death to be meaningful, and I'll happily defend Moffat's 'Everybody Lives' Doctor Who run til the stars go out, because at least in Doctor Who, death isn't really the focus. But One Piece is an adventure serial - a show that frequently brings up danger and death as a prospect, and doesn't skimp on the odd pool of blood to boot. So when a major villain can't kill even a faceless village member, it makes me wonder why I should care. This is a series that consigns all its toughest storytelling to flashbacks - safe-spaces that are in the past, and can't hurt our characters or readers in the present. And once that block toppled, the rest went with it...
I can't read anymore of these fucking fights; these busy, incomprehensible panels that looked more like an ocular migraine than human anatomy. Endless character interior-conflict is placed on the table, only for that to manifest in the most monotonous shit possible. And the pacing! We're not even talking about the anime here, which I've heard has notoriously awful pacing issues. This isn't an issue with filler episodes, because all the problems were on the page from the start. Tens of chapters are spent teasing out motivations and conflict before we get to the crux of the matter, only for the next arc to begin and we repeat the exact same pattern all over again: Luffy arrives on island; Luffy spots new crewmember; Luffy must defeat evil Tyrant and free the island; rinse and repeat. I just finished Chainsaw Man ffs - a series which told a beautiful story with some of the most thrilling direction in modern manga. Even Hunter x Hunter - another long-running Shonen series - charges forward with more purpose than this. So why should I settle for something so comparatively cowardly?
I don't enjoy writing this. Okay, that's a lie, I did enjoy writing this, because it was very cathartic. But I don't enjoy feeling like I am missing something obvious and wonderful. There are flashes here that show me how investing this series could be, only for Oda's serial format to derail it entirely. I was sold an adventure with lovable characters, but what's in front of me feels more like reading a fighter's bio in Mortal Kombat before watching them punch shit for 200 pages. And it sucks! I have watched Super Eyepatch Wolf's 'Why You Should Watch One Piece' video a couple of times, and it's thrilling! He sells this series in a way that the series cannot sell itself, injecting more reverence and momentum into a single video than One Piece has managed in 9 Volumes. It's a depressingly fitting testament to my feelings on the matter: the allure of One Piece is so strong, but I've stopped having faith that it will ever deliver on that promise.
...bad. Okay, I'm sorry, I did that for shock value. I don't know if I can say with a straight face that one Piece as a whole is a dire series, so fans can put away the pitchforks please. But I can't say it's very good either, and if it is then I clearly don't know how to engage with it. Because Arlong Park isn't different - not really. It's the same as the rest of One Piece with a different texture. By which I mean, it's toothless.
The second I saw Arlong kill the villager for secretly hoarding a weapon, I felt a legitimate thrill. I'd already noted that this was a series which was reluctant to let anyone die, be they major threat or hired goon, and to see Arlong callously destroy this innocent villager felt like an upping of the stakes in-keeping with the arcs reputation.
So imagine how much my heart sank when it turned out the villager wasn't killed - in fact he's up and about minutes later - and any pretence of danger is immediately wiped out by the arrival of Usopp and his slingshot. It sounds silly, but this was the straw that broke this camel's back - a move that broke the One Piece illusion once and for all. I don't think every story needs death to be meaningful, and I'll happily defend Moffat's 'Everybody Lives' Doctor Who run til the stars go out, because at least in Doctor Who, death isn't really the focus. But One Piece is an adventure serial - a show that frequently brings up danger and death as a prospect, and doesn't skimp on the odd pool of blood to boot. So when a major villain can't kill even a faceless village member, it makes me wonder why I should care. This is a series that consigns all its toughest storytelling to flashbacks - safe-spaces that are in the past, and can't hurt our characters or readers in the present. And once that block toppled, the rest went with it...
I can't read anymore of these fucking fights; these busy, incomprehensible panels that looked more like an ocular migraine than human anatomy. Endless character interior-conflict is placed on the table, only for that to manifest in the most monotonous shit possible. And the pacing! We're not even talking about the anime here, which I've heard has notoriously awful pacing issues. This isn't an issue with filler episodes, because all the problems were on the page from the start. Tens of chapters are spent teasing out motivations and conflict before we get to the crux of the matter, only for the next arc to begin and we repeat the exact same pattern all over again: Luffy arrives on island; Luffy spots new crewmember; Luffy must defeat evil Tyrant and free the island; rinse and repeat. I just finished Chainsaw Man ffs - a series which told a beautiful story with some of the most thrilling direction in modern manga. Even Hunter x Hunter - another long-running Shonen series - charges forward with more purpose than this. So why should I settle for something so comparatively cowardly?
I don't enjoy writing this. Okay, that's a lie, I did enjoy writing this, because it was very cathartic. But I don't enjoy feeling like I am missing something obvious and wonderful. There are flashes here that show me how investing this series could be, only for Oda's serial format to derail it entirely. I was sold an adventure with lovable characters, but what's in front of me feels more like reading a fighter's bio in Mortal Kombat before watching them punch shit for 200 pages. And it sucks! I have watched Super Eyepatch Wolf's 'Why You Should Watch One Piece' video a couple of times, and it's thrilling! He sells this series in a way that the series cannot sell itself, injecting more reverence and momentum into a single video than One Piece has managed in 9 Volumes. It's a depressingly fitting testament to my feelings on the matter: the allure of One Piece is so strong, but I've stopped having faith that it will ever deliver on that promise.
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Nice to see some background on nami
Continuamos con las aventuras de estos piratas tan peculiares en un tomo d贸nde el ambiente se nota m谩s tenso entre la tripulaci贸n al descubrir el pasado de uno/a de ellos/as; conduciendo a Luffy y los dem谩s hacia una situaci贸n bastante peligrosa, d贸nde se tendr谩n que enfrentar al enemigo m谩s fiero que han encontrado hasta el momento.
Este tomo me ha parecido una maravilla. Vemos c贸mo la banda pasa por un mal momento, donde las mentiras, las traiciones y la desconfianza abren una brecha en la amistad; pero tambi茅n comprobamos el poder de las convicciones de Luffy y lo sincero que es con respecto a los suyos.
Es pr谩cticamente el final del primer arco de este manga y se disfruta una barbaridad descubriendo los secretos que ocultan el mar y los temibles piratas que lo surcan, no todos con el gran coraz贸n de Luffy.
En resumen, un tomo que me ha encantado y que supone un primer escal贸n hacia el final del primer arco; creando tensiones y desconfianzas en medio de la tripulaci贸n.
Este tomo me ha parecido una maravilla. Vemos c贸mo la banda pasa por un mal momento, donde las mentiras, las traiciones y la desconfianza abren una brecha en la amistad; pero tambi茅n comprobamos el poder de las convicciones de Luffy y lo sincero que es con respecto a los suyos.
Es pr谩cticamente el final del primer arco de este manga y se disfruta una barbaridad descubriendo los secretos que ocultan el mar y los temibles piratas que lo surcan, no todos con el gran coraz贸n de Luffy.
En resumen, un tomo que me ha encantado y que supone un primer escal贸n hacia el final del primer arco; creando tensiones y desconfianzas en medio de la tripulaci贸n.
Sanji's back story made me cry like a baby.
I loved the character development in this volume and the story really feels like it's picking up. I love the Straw Hat crew when it has these 5 members <3
I loved the character development in this volume and the story really feels like it's picking up. I love the Straw Hat crew when it has these 5 members <3