Viewing One Piece

[Spiral-Force]

46 eps in,

With Arlong's terror being much more personal and long-standing, it gave his defeat further weight than the previous fallen antagonists; no wonder the villagers celebrated so hard. Zoro had built a name for himself by the time he had debuted, but it looks like Luffy is catching attention without directly surprising folks in-person now. Interesting how we haven't seen Luffy train or talk about training so far (if memory serves well). Although he does come across as an improvisor that adapts as the fight goes on, rather than being prepped to the brim.

Do you feel the experience is improving for you as you get deeper into the show, or it's about the same?

I've watched an excess amount relative to my initial daily targets, so it's entertaining enough to keep going. It seems like things are moving in a more serious direction, which I'd be drawn to, but there's likely going to be some jestery stuff along the way as well given the show's tendencies.

 

[Spiral-Force]

57 eps in,

Loguetown appeared to be a break from the more malicious encounters of the previous arc, although tension was still there given Smoker's intention of halting the crew's Grand Line journey. Further insight into certain things; such as Yasopp's tenure as a pirate, and what swords are considered prestigious as per Zoro's hunt for upgrades. You also see more of Luffy's nonchalantness, as he wasn't particularly worried about his grudge-holding foes (namely Buggy and Alvida) or even Smoker to an extent.

Warship Island is not the slightest bit gripping so far. It's not that an immortality storyline is inherently a snooze per se, but in this case it is.

 

[Spiral-Force]

63 eps in,

(Warship Island, further thoughts) There wasn't much to get you invested in Eric obtaining immortality, or seeing a disgruntled dragon barely doing stuff. If Eric's plans were more fleshed out, and they leaned into Ryu's senility a bit more to set up a fight with the Straw Hats in the early portion of the arc, that could have generated more engagement.

(Reverse Mountain) I think the biggest take-away is just the reinforcement of team dynamics through how they respond to risky encounters. Usopp and Nami -- and to an extent Sanji and Zoro -- being more on the wary side, while Luffy is more impromptu, which in this case worked to his benefit with the Laboon truce.

 

[Spiral-Force]

71 eps in,

(Whisky Peak) Decent balance between new information and action, with foundational details about Baroque works revealed, while getting an understanding of what some of them can do in battle. It makes you curious about the upper levels of the hierarchy. In terms of Luffy/Zoro - it's nice when the protagonist and deuteragonist occassionally test themselves against each other, but ultimately don't need each other to have a purpose. It's like in combat sports when two fighters are intrigued about going up against the other, but, all in all, their goal is the world title or another esteemed accolade.

(Diary of Koby-Meppo) Can't fault characters for wanting to get stronger. Nothing spectacular from this arc, just a standard theme in Shonen picked up by two side characters.

(Early stage of Little Garden): Dorry and Brogy are a bit of a headache, but it looks like more battles are on the way at least. Their historical bounties are no joke.

 

[Spiral-Force]

86 eps in,

(Little Garden, further thoughts) Mr 3 shook things up a fair bit, but the giants integration into the story weakened the momentum in getting further up the Baroque Works ranks. Just didn't seem like an angle worth pursuing with what was being built.

(Drum Island, so far) Similar to Usopp, Chopper's associated with screw-ups and being shunned, although the latter's goal seems a lot less vague. Hiriluk and Kureha are a bit wishy-washy and arbitrary, but there's no doubt that medicine is something they're passionate about. Wapol -- back then and now -- knows how to push buttons despite not coming across as imposing. Although, I don't think there's been enough for the audience to care what type of fight he will put up when confronted again, given what Luffy did to him previously.

 

[Warmmedown]

My guy just called Hiluluk arbitrary. I will say I don't know why he ate the mushroom, if he knew it was poisonous.

 

[Fantastische Hure]

Because he didn’t want Chopper’s efforts & kind-ness to go to waste.

 

[Warmmedown]

Because he didn’t want Chopper’s efforts & kind-ness to go to waste.

Yeh I know, but that was dumb. A very emotional, short-term decision. I suppose he already knew he'll die soon from the disease so thought hurting Chopper and potentially plunging him into hopelessness wasn't worth it. But if Hiluluk hypothetically had decades left to live, how should he handle it? Thank Chopper, apologise, say he's proud of him and then focus on their remaining time together, and furthering Chopper's medical education and social skills/introducing him to people to set him up to after he's gone. So maybe that would be the best thing to do even if Hiluluk didn't have long to live (unless he had so little time he wouldn't be able to get through Chopper's healing, initial emotional turmoil and then to build anything from there). Although tbh I say social skills and introducing him to new people, but Chopper was living in a society that saw him as a monster, so it could be entirely ineffective. He'd need to educate the society. I guess it goes back to One Piece backstories being full of hopeless, quite materially powerless situations or in some cases morally powerless, where the characters have to choose between two or more morally undesirable choices which go against their own ethics (eg Bellemere choosing between denying her children and dying so leaving her children. Does this show a flaw of emotivist ethics? She just chose what emotionally felt moral, but it caused much more harm in the long run, but for Nami's complete luck of meeting Luffy. She chose an option that she herself would have considered worse (by her goal of being a good mother, which I assume was a key goal of hers) if she was to see the future. Obviously I realise most of the time people don't have time or cognitive faculties under stress to fully think through ethical decisions in real life, or that people have to make decisions before they've thought through or researched their ethics (doubt Cocoyashi village had much learning resources. It's not a criticism of her).

 

[Fantastische Hure]

Make it look like he drank it, but either drank some-thing else instead & poured the other one out or drank nothing & poured the other one out.

 

[Spiral-Force]

96 eps in,

Chopper's getting more familiar with the team. Outside of the medical stuff, I think his mini form could come in handy for finding shelter / hiding when needed, and his jacked form could catch an aggressor off-guard upon transformation.

Further insight into the Baroque Works structure. When Smoker's in Straw Hat vicinity, you can tell that a fight is brewing. I think Ace made things more interesting; he's up for battles, and he's linked to characters that could potentially clash with the Straw Hats later on, such as Blackbeard & Whitebeard.

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8 chs in,

A bit of a different narrative arrangement, such as the order of when Luffy's backstory is shown. More compact than the anime version, and combat seems rougher. Although the storyline is fundamentally aligned with the anime in terms of overarching plot and themes from what I gather.

 

[Spiral-Force]

106 eps in,

The lion's share of the Alabasta journey has been about the survival aspect, particularly health-wise rather than battle-wise, with an indication that serious battles will resume after the current jail dilemma in Rain Dinners. There's also the rebellion factor with Koza, although that appears to be treated as a subset of the wider Crocodile plot. Curiosity is building as the story moves forward.

 

[Spiral-Force]

120 eps in,

Brief take on Vivi - I understand that the point is to protect her, but seeing someone constantly on the defensive isn't engaging.

Usopp and Nami - I appreciate that Nami brought up their unimpressive strength and wanted to do something about it. Usopp didn't really engage with the overall point beyond his rushed weapon build, but it would be nice if this plot point is continued properly.

Crocodile vs Luffy - Similar to the Smoker matchup, Luffy struggles to get his strikes off, which dwindles his hope for producing damage or having a wincon at this juncture. Luffy seemed rather mindless here; reminiscent of KN0 Naruto vs Kimimaro. I'd still say I prefer it over the Sanji/Mr 2 and Nami/Miss Doublefinger fights, but not over the Mr 1/Zoro fight.

 

[Spiral-Force]

131 eps in,

Crocodile vs Luffy trilogy - there was a decent amount of variance between the fights, with Luffy making adjustments in the rematches, while Croc decreased his handicaps each time. Having a positive score against Luffy ought to be acknowledged, given how dominant he's been in almost every other scenario.

Similar to past triumphs over antagonists, you get a sense of the gratitude and relief of effected citizens. The revelation that Pell survived will undoubtedly add to that for them. While it can be ascertained that bounties are more than just power levels, the latter on its own sure does take someone extremely far (ex. Luffy's notable jumps in bounty after massive fight wins).

Hopefully Robin's addition to the team can lead to more advanced conflicts and gripping content.

 

[Spiral-Force]

146 eps in,

The main filler characters of the past two arcs were kinda stale. It's generally hard to be invested in filler characters/stories because they have limited time to make their mark, and temporary shelf life in the grand scheme of it all. In an ideal hypothetical, the filler character(s) and / or the main cast produce something entertaining for the viewer while it lasts, or they go the route of giving a neglected canon character (that was once respected) their moment (of which entertainment is the byproduct). I think the Shira storyline from Naruto Shippuden is an example of a decent filler, but they're few and far between across the board.

Looks like Ace is back in the swing of things. Bellamy and his team are also instigating conflict, so a few things to peer into now.

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59 chs in,

I suppose Zeff eating his own leg fits in with the rougher style of the manga. In a way, it emphasises Sanji's shock over his survival methods.

 

[Spiral-Force]

194 eps in,

Enel was straightforwardly evil, although his interactions + the flashy AoE attacks made it entertaining. In regard to the wider Shandians/Skypieans plot, I can't think of any other new character that had staying power in terms of keeping you hooked. The idea of being the most powerful within a domain (amplified further through the divine element) naturally implies heavy competition, which the story could've leaned into more to build historic fights worth looking back on. One of the plot points were about how advanced Skypiean warriors were compared to what the Blue Sea has to offer, but the Divine Squad were largely gimmicky and forgettable.

 

[Spiral-Force]

212 eps in,

G-8 thoughts: Prioritizes tactics and impromptu scenarios to give the Straw Hats a different type of challenge than a high-stakes physical fight. A bit of a slog, but I get what they were going for. It'd be interesting to see the edges of Chopper's morality when it comes to his decision to save someone on an opposing team; i.e. at what point it becomes a 50% or marginally lower chance of choosing to save someone.

Long Ring Long Land so far: Straw Hats get to demonstrate their physical abilities in a controlled, fairly light-hearted environment. I suppose it's a break from the more serious aspects of their pursuits, so not expecting anything major with this.

 

[Spiral-Force]

226 eps in,

Don't think there was much to take away from the Davy Back fight to any meaningful degree. I suppose one thing would be to look out for pirates that can spam the life out of troublesome Devil Fruits, as per Foxy's frequent use of his Slow-Slow Beam.

Strokes of the Straw Hat's earlier behaviours came out with the Noko memory-stealing plot. Makes you wonder how severe the blindsiding could get with future, higher level beings. Bloodlusted Zoro vs a concerned Luffy occurred for a bit, but not much came from it before things went back to normal.

 

[Warmmedown]

The hopelessness in the face of a mysterious power in the Enel arc was cool.
You like seeing Sanji and Zoro team up for Davy Back? I think that arc is also meant to show someone who's not very strong and is a quite mediocre pirate, but has an extremely powerful fruit, meaning a fruit alone doesn't make someone formidable.

G-8 was the best filler arc for me from what I remember. It wasn't overly ambitious and did what it went for well. It was also cool to see Luffy as a marine, and to see a respectable marine for once (besides Smoker and Tashigi) and the part where he grabs the food as the commander's eating it made me laugh so much. Other filler arcs started well with more interesting premises, but would have a rushed ending.

Are there are single-arc characters you liked the backstory of or found moving?

 

[Spiral-Force]

Warlord confrontations and upper-echelon Marine's demonstrating their power are -- not only more impactful -- but I'd also say more entertaining than plots akin to G-8 or Davy Back.

Storylines intended to be moving (i.e. pulling heart strings) are not inherently well-written, although they can act as a suitable alley-oop for a character that uses it as motivation to bulldoze their adversary (for instance, Krillin's death being an 'assist', so-to-speak, for Goku going absolutely ham as an SSJ on Frieza; with the latter being what got iconic status). There hasn't been a backstory I'd place firmly above the rest, but I think Skypiea could have made the God stuff more competitive in terms of historic challengers for the throne.

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228 eps in,

We see that, even a supposedly non-chalant guy can be moments away from aggression and murder. And of course, a sharp reminder that the heavy-hitter Straw Hats are still capable of getting gapped as a collective. A bit of a Tao Pai Pai moment with Aokiji's unique way of travelling the seas...