One Piece's Melodrama.

[Pocket-Gog~]

Uh, I got challenged by C.C, and I gotta complete it.

So, I consider One Piece to be overly melodramatic. I would consider that to be hypocritical considering Hokuto no Ken is a favourite of mine, and that's as melodramatic as it comes. But, uh stick with me here, it has been literal years since I last read One Piece.

One Piece is overly melodramatic. Every (important) character is a tragic character, who features a tragic backstory where someone important to them died horribly. It's ridiculous, the story relishes in an extreme melodrama. Zoro had a childhood friend who fell down the stairs and broke her neck, Nami's entire village was enslaved, and her mother was killed, Chopper's father figure died, Robin's entire fucking island got bombed, Usopp's father never came home, and he cried pirate everyday in the vain hope he would come (Usopp's flash back got to me). Every important character has a tragic story, even if they honestly don't need them. Hell, even the way the characters cry is usually exaggerated.

Spoiler

There was also that time the boat came to life, and they made a big deal over it.

All in all, I think the ridiculous melodrama is horrible. What about y'all? Do you enjoy it?

 

[Captain Cadaver]

I agree completely. People tend to tout the series as being emotionally gripping, but most of it tends to come off as melodramatic. It was fine for some of the earlier character backstories and tragedies such as Nami in the Arlong Park Arc, but when every Straw Hat coincidentally has a tragic backstory and scenes of drama require character bawling with buckets of tears just to get the point across to the audience and doing so with almost every single arc, it gets ridiculous, especially with scenes such as the Going Merry's "death".

As for the comparison to Hokuto no Ken, I'd also add that the manly tears in HnK and the sparing nature of their usage is why it does drama far better than OP. I wouldn't even say HnK is strictly melodramatic for the most part, as most moments of sadness are due to the death of a character occurring or being close at hand.

 

[Kyo]

It’s certainly repetitive with its backstories which is worth criticizing, but the story is itself a melodrama. So is HnK. So is shit like Kaiji, JoJo, etc. All different flavors here and there, but certainly a single umbrella....or thing, with flavors. We’ll call it a taco. I’m unsure as to what you’d expect in its place. I’d still agree that melodramatic moments can potentially be out of place in even a melodrama, but I’m not seeing that really being criticized except maybe the crying example.

There’s a clear distinction between just bawling and over the top silly bawling in the series, at least within its own context. Both are “overdone,” but the distinction exists nonetheless. As an example of the previous point though, I’d agree that a lot of the time the latter is used when the former should have been, which makes for some unintentionally silly scenes.

There was also that time the boat came to life, and they made a big deal over it.

Eh, you wouldn’t? Weirdo. :shit

 

[Let's Go Fearless!]

I don't know about One Piece but one thing I hate about HNK is how most of the villains are bunch of melodrama if you will, from Southern to Kaioh etc., it was understandable with Shin and Roah. Souther on the other hand is just a piece of shit and deserves no sympathy along with Kaioh who just killed his sister iirc.

 

[Kyo]

Not sure what you mean by “villains are bunch of melodrama” exactly. Do you mean their backstories or..

 

[Let's Go Fearless!]

Yeah like that.

 

[Captain Cadaver]

In fairness, I will say the hyperbolic moments of emotion could have been excused had many of them had a permanent effect on the characters. However, this isn't really the case as they usually act the same as normal straight after them. After the Going Merry's funeral, nobody took anything away from it beyond getting a newer and better ship. 2 years after Ace's death, Luffy is still making the same mistakes. This can be considered a major difference in separating the series' drama from melodrama, as a lack of permanent effects can make the whole situation seem meaningless, something that most of the "drama" in the series can be classified as.