[Rainbowman]

Originally Posted by solomon

OVERALL

One Piece is great Shonen Action Adventure, with emphasis on adventure. Oda's fanciful designs and ideas seem like something out of a children's storybook, but then you have straight action movie type badassery with the fights and grandstanding.

The story is more detailed and well thought out than expected for something so light, various subplots occur in tandem even if it takes FOREVER for it to move sometimes.

The characters are fun on their own, but are best as a team, I don't think any one character towers above the rest in terms of charisma, both in the Straw Hat group and outside it.

The story is also brimming with humanity. Not just the whole, "believe in yourself and your friends and dreams will come true" or "always give 100%". One Piece stories sometimes address heavy themes like slavery, family, discrimination, hardship and prejudice and societal conflict particualry in backstories of the characters, making them seem much more real and giving the world more weight and believablity. It's kinda Tezuka-ish in a way and I think helps earn praise of people who aren't into simple shonen brawlers.

Indeed that is what I like about the series. They should have cross-overs outside of Dragonball Z and Tokiro. Cross-overs that are beyond mere fanfiction. And I'm saying this because I want all kinds of media to come together as a whole.

Originally Posted by solomon

MANGA;

The manga is great from a story telling perspective, Oda's work just gets bigger and grander in scope with each passing year, yet it doesn't collapse on it's self and has strong continuity. (I first witnessed his great story telling skill during the Alabaster story, my FAVORITE). However, it's never heavy and always welcoming to newcomers (relatively speaking, you'll miss out on some finer details if you don't read from the beginning though).

Art wise..................wow I am conflicted. Oda's early work was FANTASTIC. Low on texture, shading and details sure. But his designs were ALWAYS unique and crazy and fun, his layouts were dynamic and expresions and poses were very powerful much different than most shonen jump work I had seen, or manga in general. You could really see the DBZ influence as he really channeled the power of Toriyama into his drawings.

By the 200s (chapters), his work becomes more detailed. Particuarly in backgrounds. His designs are still awesome, but his pen line is kinda stratchy and not varied enough. He lost his most powerful asset, IMPACT THROUGH CLARITY. With all the effects and details and same level lines, it's hard to tell where figures end and foreground/background begins now. Layout is chaotic and poses/figures aren't quite as dynamic as they used to be. His latest work is stiff and kinda clumsy thanks to bad line choices, all he needs is an inker like they have in American comics and his stuff would be great again.

Story-wise, quite good. Although there were times I get insulted that my favorite character isn't strong enough for certain situations. For those wondering who my favorite character is will have to find out for themselves.

Art wise, very interesting. This kind of artwork should be introduced to the DC and Marvel universes.

Originally Posted by solomon

ANIME;

Voices, Music are AWESOME. Love the orchestrational soundtrack. In light of the art and clarity problems in the manga, the anime clears things up and sometimes turns up the heat on the battles, making for a much more pleasurable experience.

Admittedly for a long while the animation is frankly terrible, characters are badly drawn and movement is stiff beyond belief (think 70s shows). However, by around the 300s, during the Enies Lobby story, the animation gets better on average. A strong crop of animators show up and really up the ante on certain scenes, fights and episodes. This is magnified during the Thriller Bark, Amazon Lily, Impel Down and Marineford Showdown stories which have some fantastically animated episodes.

I shall take your word for it.

Originally Posted by solomon

FILMS

Meh, par for the course, filler stories. Fun filler but filler none the less. If you're gonna watch any, start with the 4th (Dead End Adventure), a good standard OP movie, and the first to be at actual movie length. The 5th movie, (The Cursed Holy Sword) is nothing special but good for Zoro fans. Animation here isn't Ghibli but it's decent, frankly it's what the TV series SHOULD be all the time.

However, there are two must see movies IMHO.

6th Movie (Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island) is really cool, darker and moodier than the other films but just as engaging with an interesting story. Animation is FANTASTIC too. Lastly, there is the most recent (Strong World), probably the best OP film due to the story and design and main villian (although for me it's a tie with Omatsuri). Oda had a big hand in the production and design of the film along with providing the story and it shows.

Fillers they may be, I could place where each movie takes place in the main story. There ought to be a movie more darker than the 6th that would be worthy of Fangoria magazine.

Another category that should be added are video games which also have original characters such as Blyue with the Mini Mini no Mi.

Originally Posted by solomon

Make no mistake, OP ain't high art, it's shonen for godsakes. But it does everything at least a little better than it's competition and has a unique and funky style with epic story and lovable characters. It's been 15 years, but the franchise is still just as fun and engaging as ever.

Speaking of which, any word on the next season series coming to the U.S. that involve CP9?