The Thing About One Piece…

This post is long overdue, but I’d like to mention that I have finally began watching the anime One Piece, highly regarded as one of the big three along with Naruto and Bleach, One Piece focuses on Luffy and the Straw Hats. I began watching One Piece at the start of this summer (for me, around June) and quickly climbed up to episode 420~, by the time you read this I will be past that episode.

I want to talk a little about One Piece and why it took me so long to begin, but I am 100% glad that I did begin this series. With over 700 anime episodes now, the series boasts a large number of stories focusing on a number of fantastic characters, not just the Straw Hats. I initially began watching One Piece a few years ago, I got to Usopp’s arc and quickly dismissed the anime, even thought I knew it would get better.

I began watching from ground zero, since I wanted to speed through them, I had to watch the English Dub episodes making it a little easier for me to get through them with a little less trouble, even if the Japanese version is the pristine and best version to watch. At around episode 350, I had to switch over to Sub as it seemed that most websites no longer had Dub’s available, I didn’t care a lot since I was finally hearing the original voices as they intended to be.

Straw Hat Pirates

Currently, the Straw Hats have been dispersed into separate islands and places where the only thing keeping them together is the Vivra paper which is connected to Rayleigh (what a strong old man). Luffy meets with Boa Hancock, while the others are in their own islands with either tranny’s, large birds, flying islands and so on. And as Ace’s execution gets even closer, all the big players are also getting ready to fight against White Beard.

It really feels like Marine Ford will feature an intense and one hell of a battle (I may have spoiled it for myself, I look it up 😦 ). Nevertheless, I’d like to talk about One Piece in general, since I’m more than half way through the series, I now have an idea why a lot of anime fans rate One Piece so highly.

One Piece is truly a godly anime, it deserves the praise it’s getting and more. Scenes that involved the end of the Going Merry, or any other scene which queued emotions really did a grand job of it, if it was sadness or increasing fighting spirit, it did a fantastic job of it. The anime gave it it’s all to cover every bit of it and engulf the fan into the series as though they were there.

I still have a long way to go through the series. Since I’m skipping fillers episodes, I have even shorter of a journey to get to the current episodes. A friend of mine mentioned that the filler episodes are fantastic, even if they aren’t directly created by the author, they somewhat direct themselves towards the situation they’re in and pull in the viewers even more, which makes the series even better as I agree after watching a few filler episodes.

I have one worry when it comes to One Piece, it’s not the series or the story itself, it’s the way the anime progresses. Currently, I’m more than half way through the anime, so I’m drowning in episodes that I can watch without waiting a week or two for more One Piece. However, once I catch up and get to the current episodes, I think I will hate the fact that I love One Piece as much I think I will.

Waiting a week for another 20 minutes episode, which is sometimes wasted with recaps and long opening music videos will just piss me off to spoil it for myself and read the manga (which I’m planning on doing). Even so, I’ve heard that One Piece progresses really slowly, not on the level of Dragon Ball slow though, which I may have to just deal with when I get to it.

Nevertheless, that was a bit of a rant which I was planning on doing, I think once I’ve caught up, I’ll do another one to sum up my thoughts on the series and just trying to catch up from 0 to 700-something. Anyways, what do you think? Go ahead and comment down below telling me how you feel about the series.

There are 24 comments

  1. Crimson King

    I love the Anime and nearly hate the manga. The chapters are often simply way too filled with information, and a lot of the time it’s chaotic and useless information that comes outta nowhere when you just want to move forward…. basically the opposite of a Bleach chapter, which could probably fit on the first 3 pages of any OP chapter. The anime makes it all flow smoothly and so it’s much more enjoyable. The story is beast overall and worthy of being one of HST. Strangely, I have not been able to commit to watching all of the anime episodes from beginning to current (out of fear of watching fillers) because I cannot bear to read all the manga chapters.

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    1. Sunite

      Ah right, I’ve seen some random manga chapters and did see the manga art are very detailed and do have a lot of conversational pieces. I think once I’ve caught up, I’ll read up on the manga too.

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  2. T-BO

    Once I started watching I was a big fan. I was late to the series but I started from the beginning and watched the main storylne and fillers. I even read the manga but after a while I felt they were taking too long to progress. It took a pretty long time to find out they were not the strongest in this world and to meet the individuals that the Straw Hat crew are striving to be like. After finding out those power levels it made me realize just how far they have to go in this series. I will say, the battle to free Luffy’s brother was one of the best I’ve seen in anime. The last effort of White Beard had me standing and cheering at my TV screen. Top five best death scenes ever!

    The reason I gave up on the anime and manga was because after they all separated to train and get stronger (for two years) it took forever to get past the fillers. Once it came back to the main storyline it was a really weak story about an island full of people that had been turned into toys. Let alone none of the main characters were showing any new moves or powers. That was my breaking point. It’s probably been close to a year since I have quit and it may or may not have gotten better but I’ll probably never go back to it.

    Finally, I will say that I love the Dynasty Warrior type video games for One Piece on the Playstation. Those are really fun to play with a friend.

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    1. Sunite

      Oh wow seems like the series has a lot of ups and downs, and I have to agree that the fillers can ruin any series for a fan. I think I’ve already been spoiled for what happens, I know there is a two years gap here then another year of skip at another point, so there seems to be a lot of moving around. I think if you wait long enough, you might have quite a few canon OP episodes where you can get through them all at once.

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  3. dreager1

    Awesome, great to see your thoughts on One Piece so far. It’s certainly an incredible series although I place Bleach and Naruto a little higher than it when it comes to the Big 3. Who’s your favorite member of Luffy’s group as well as least favorite. Finally, who’s your least favorite character?

    I have to say that your friend is right though. The fillers in One Piece are actually quite good and I highly recommend at least watching the first 3 filler arcs at some point. After that, the series essentially stopped doing fillers, which was intriguing. Funny that you should mention DBZ though since One Piece is known as one of the few shows that actually has a slower pace. Get ready for when you’re at Strong World. I’ve heard that Luffy’s big fight there is actually longer than Goku vs Frieza was in DBZ, which is pretty incredible! It’ll be cool to see you all caught up with the series. I’m caught up with the manga, but I’m sticking with the dub for the show so you’ve already long since passed me there. Contrary to popular opinion, I consider the dub to be the definitive version of One Piece 😎

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    1. Sunite

      That’s interesting, it might be that I’m watching the episodes all at once, the story feels like it’s progressing and going really well. Currently my favourite straw hat pirate would be Brook, although I really want him to get stronger and able to fight more, not just run.
      Haha I’ve not watched a lot of DBZ either, I’ve tried to watch the new Super episodes, but I’ve left them to batch watch them later on. I think OP is currently on my list to watch, for sure, need to get this series done with.

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  4. nikano

    Great. You’ve finally started to watch OP. This became one of my favourite series (in middle school I started to watch it and I dropped at 7 episode, but in high school I started again and I fell in love. Now I’m studying and my love is still actual 🙂 ). Now, you’re writing about OP and Bleach which I really like so it’s nice 🙂 (I also read Naruto and FT but this series are not so nice for me as Bleach and OP). So…. keep calm while watching Marines Ford arc! Stay cool!

    (Sorry for my bad English)

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    1. Sunite

      Awesome! FT, Bleach, OP and Naruto are like my big four that I will always keep with. Yeah Marine Ford seems like a massive thing, I’ve already seen some part when a friend of mine sent me a video of what happens at the ford, nevertheless It’s something Im waiting for and want to watch it. Can’t wait to watch the full series.

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  5. Mkoirala

    I Like that you got to it, and must Say, the manga really doesn’t ruin it, I read the manga and watch the anime on a weekly basis, for me watching the anime is a way to research my favorite scenes but with color and animation and detail,

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    1. Mkoirala

      Sorry, rewatch, not research,also, I started out planning to only watch but I couldn’t control myself since the manga is so far ahead

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      1. Sunite

        Yeah totally dude, I’ve not began reading the manga so I can’t compare the anime and manga right now, but once I do, I will be able to do that. And totally agree, the series is fantastic right now, I can’t wait to catch up 😀

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  6. Mkoirala

    And, sorry to keep bothering you, but tried me, eventually you start wanting to rewatch, so do it a healthy amount, just enough that you don’t forget anything, I usually go annually third year so far

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  7. Says

    I must disagree with your opinion about manga. I really like how it’s drew and I think that Oda is a really genious mangaka (story & style of drawing & drawings). But I respect, that you may think different 🙂

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  8. Nick Dunn

    I have only got to the part were Luffy saves those girls by fighting the Boa sisters and meeting Miss. Handcock. If you think this anime is awesome Sunite, than I’ll continue it.

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    1. Sunite

      Dude, I’m at the same place too! Haha such a coincident! Around episode 420 right? Yeah it’s a good anime, I think if you’re looking for something Shonen which has a hero and a ton of bad guys, then OP is definitely for you.

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      1. Nick Dunn

        Ya I am. Its been a while sense I watched One Piece. About 2 months. But I need to continue watching. The artwork is not my cup of tea but the fights and characters make up for it.

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  9. shadowwhisper

    I really like One Piece and are at episode 690. I deliberately wait every two months to watch it so that I can have myself a little One Piece Marathon. I usually catch up on Fairy Tail the one month, Naruto the next and One Piece the next, that way I stay sane because those three series are awesome. Luckily every four months new anime series comes out as well and they help me to distract me otherwise I will go insane because waiting for new One Piece is harsh, man.

    Anyways, I really like Sanji and Luffy a lot they are my favourites.My favourite story arc so far is the one where they went to save Nico Robin from prison. I actually wept when the whole crew stood side by side getting ready to save her. That scene was epic.

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    1. Sunite

      That is such a wonderful way of working through the slow paced or filler episodes. I like your idea, but as I just have to watch the latest episodes whenever they’re out, I think I just watch them all at once, especially the seasonal anime. With Naruto and FT, I watch when there are new episodes. And wherever I get time, I watch a few OP episodes until it snowballs into me watching till 4 am in the morning lol.
      Sanji is awesome, the troll when he landed on a island full of male looking girls, so funny. On top of which it seems that each of them have gotten to an island which will most benefit them.

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      1. shadowwhisper

        I hear you. I have the same ‘control issue’ with OP and have binged on it once or twice. Realizing that i watched everything is scary lol I liked the ‘Island arc’ especially Zoro versus those monkeys. It was hilarious. Sanji’s island ‘torture ummm training’ was insanely funny too ?

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  10. The Otaku Judge

    Skipping the filler is probably a good idea. There are some arcs of One Piece that I thought were awesome. After 150 episodes I dropped it though due to unfunny filler. I find Luffy really annoying, although the rest of his crew are cool.

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    1. Sunite

      Agreed, I think Luffy for many are loveable, while they may find someone like Sanji and Zoro awesome. There is a small complaint I have concerning the voice actors, specifically Luffy’s can get a little annoying, like for example Goku’s Japanese voice is so bad imo, while the English is perfect.

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  11. chrono

    Im soooo glad someone finally said something about OP. Its a beast anime whichever way you look at it, with the best storyline by far among the big three. Still think it doesn’t begin to compare to bleach when it comes to raw creativity, but the characters and story make up so much for it. My fav arc was the water seven-enes lobby arc, when they are saving robin.

    Havnt watched it since they declared war on doflamingo and I doubt ill ever go back to it though. Only anime im waiting for are attack on titan and bleach final season (fingers crossed).

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    1. Sunite

      Ohh man, I’ve seen Doflamingo a few times, and he can control people? (don’t ruin it for me xD) so yeah I think he’s very strong. Plus Attack on Titan will also be good. Bleach, whenever they decide to finish it, I will wait for that day!

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