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.

----------

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. I'd prefer not to give nigh-duplicate narrative takes between both mediums. So going forward, manga updates likely won't be as frequent. I might comment on the manga when taken aback by a stark difference that's still fresh on my mind, but that's about it. Still intend to read it all regardless.

 

[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.