One Piece - General Discussion

[Lantern7]

This week, we veer towards Chopper and Robin, as they hear Cinry's tragic backstory. Dr. Hogback is an asshole, and I think he needed the excuse of being hired by Moriah to wear an outfit that is 75 percent fishnets. On the bright side, we got to see Robin being clever, as she lets Hogback clear the room of the samurai and dog-faced penguin. Also, we didn't get to see Cinry lick the floor. There are probably too many fetishists out there who would've liked that.

[Sandman87]

Damn, Hogback makes Absalom look positively wholesome. The Peeping Tomcat is just pervy, but the Doc is downright depraved.

Speaking of whom; I wonder how the fight with Sanji is going? Been a couple of episodes since we checked in there.

[lathspel]

Yeah, I'm ok that they didn't really show that.

Robin and Chopper make a great pair.  The kindest of the pirates?  Possibly excepting Franky.

[Lantern7]

Aren't all of the Straw Hats nice for the most part? I mean, Zoro is a hardass, but he's got a heart. Ditto for Sanji and his inconvenient boner.

[Lantern7]

Caught up for the most part. Can an animated skeleton's face freeze if his jaw stays dropped for too long? Oars rampages, most of the crew panics, and they get wiped out to start the fight . . . except for Luffy, who's busy chasing Moria. And Nami, who's back in Absalom's clutches. That has to cause some fans pain, moreso than the Absalom/Hidan kiss.

[Sandman87]

Important safety tip: When in a situation where a giant might attack you, don't cluster together so that he can wipe everyone out with one blow.

I'm beginning to think that Nami is going to have to take out Oars with her weather stick. Nobody is bigger than a lightning bolt. Awfully handy for her that it's always overcast around Thriller Bark.

[lathspel]

I'm thinking that Oars takes out all the other bad guys, but I'm stuck at how we get photos of Moria, Absalom, etc. attached to Oars' arm.  

Or perhaps Robin will figure it out.  She's the best. 

[Lantern7]

Apparently, the crew just needed one cutaway to Nami's fight with Absalom to recover. Maybe there's a hospital on Thriller Bark? As for Nami . . . after watching Lola the Pig Zombie Bride get crushed by Absalom, she uses the Clima Tact to shock the hell out of the peeping tomcat (thanks, Sandman87!). We also get a flashback to Ab's peeping on naked Nami, which is still very icky, even when played for laughs.

[Sandman87]

Absalom is unconscious and at the mercy of Lola ("Lo-lo-lo-la-lola..."), and the zombie priest is standing right there. He is definitely going to wake up married.

On Sunday, October 23, 2016 at 5:44 PM, Lantern7 said:

Apparently, the crew just needed one cutaway to Nami's fight with Absalom to recover. Maybe there's a hospital on Thriller Bark?

My hypothesis: Everything on Thriller Bark is actually made of balsa wood that's been painted to look like stone, so the Straw Hats were just mildly stunned.

[Lantern7]

This week: the counterattack begins, as the crew brings down Oars. There's also a bit where the guys try to form a giant robot, and Robin wants absolutely no part of it. Nami goes back to treasure-hunting, as Perona and her minions load up the Sunny. Oh, and there's another big guy now. I think he was revealed prior to the Sky Island arc, but I won't spoil here. Also, Lola snogs the hell out of Absalom, so given the implied rules set up in the last few episodes, they are legally married.

[Sandman87]

Awfully considerate of Perona to put all of the food and treasure on the Straw Hat's ship. Luffy and Nami will be so pleased.

Looks like the crew may have pissed off Oars. You know he can't be done just yet.

3 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

Also, Lola snogs the hell out of Absalom, so given the implied rules set up in the last few episodes, they are legally married.

Given that she was talking about knocking down the building with their loooove, Absalom may need hospitalization when he wakes up.

[Sandman87]

New scary Warlord guy makes people disappear by touching them. Based on the fact that he asked Perona where she'd like to go, I'm going to guess that he teleports people and/or things.

[Lantern7]

Found this via Funimation. Anybody in the New York area want to check it out with me?

[Lantern7]

That's Bartholomew Kuma, who will show up later in the arc. Here's a sketch I got of him in 2013. I don't know why he carries a Bible, or why "BIBLE" is in English.

Meanwhile, the crew holds its own against Oars. Pity they couldn't figure out a way to pound the crap out of him and keep his horns stuck in the ground.

[Sandman87]

On Thursday, November 17, 2016 at 10:30 PM, Lantern7 said:

I don't know why he carries a Bible, or why "BIBLE" is in English.

Maybe he's a hard-drinking pirate, and thinks that it says "bibulous."

[Lantern7]

Still wondering how Moriah went from talking with Kuma to setting up shop in Oars' guts. And I think those two are the biggest of the Warlords. Also, while Oars is a zombie, he takes having an operator better than most people. And Brook's back! Yo ho ho ho!!!

[Sandman87]

Things are getting even more nuts than usual. Moria is fortified inside Oars. Oars is suddenly able to use Luffy's rubber powers. Luffy is stuffed full of shadows, and has a great big sword to use against Oars.

Brook should get together with Mr. T to do a commercial for the Milk Advisory Board.

Yay! Nami hit Oars with a lightning bolt. She ought to do it again a few more times. Maybe while she's at it she could make the clouds come back so the Straw Hats won't dissolve in the sun.

Quote

Still wondering how Moriah went from talking with Kuma to setting up shop in Oars' guts.

I think they were inside Oars while they were talking. I guess maybe he climbed inside Oars the first time the Straw Hats knocked him down.

Edited November 29, 2016 by Sandman87

[Lantern7]

We get to meet the Rolling Pirates, with the original Lola and Risky Brothers. And then . . . they shove a hundred shadows into Luffy. I know that I have a tendency to "go there," but seeing Luffy deal with so much getting pushed into his body . . . can you blame me? Really?!? I will say that Nightmare Luffy is going to look so badass, even moreso than Afro Luffy.

Moria is so annoying. It's like Eiichiro Oda decided to take the worst parts of Choji and Shikamaru from Naruto to create this pudgy asshole with great power and greater laziness.

ETA: Nice of Perona to have clothes laying around for Nami to change into. Fighting Oars in a wedding dress would've been a problem. Look at Robin . . . it's like she knew that the crew was going to get sucked into a gothic adventure beforehand.

[Lantern7]

No Nightmare Luffy yet. Last week, we had the Oars/Moria power couple taking out Brook, Robin, Sanji and Chopper. Also, Moria takes Robin's shadow. And Franky is still out of commission. And Moria can now manipulate Oars' body through Shadow Revolution, because shit wasn't imbalanced enough. Well, this is an anime after all.

This week: Moria/Oars takes out Zoro, and they seemingly murder Usopp and Nami. Lucky for them, Nightmare Luffy saves them while basically being Blue Hulk. Having one hundred shadows inside him, Luffy manages to put down Oars before his ten-minute power-up expires. I don't think that's the end of it.

[Sandman87]

Nightmare Luffy knocks out Oars and Moria in a single episode. He didn't even have to use Second Gear. Now everyone just has to get their shadow back before the sun comes up. And Luffy still needs to make good on his much earlier promise to break Thriller Bark in half.

Now that I think of it, what's the difference between Luffy's Gum-Gum Gatling and Gum-Gum Barrage?

[Lantern7]

This is where I couldn't see any more of Thriller Bark on DVD from the library. How can I tell? New credits! Since Toonami will likely cut it down to size when the show returns, here is the remix of "We Are!" (the original theme song) for the anime's tenth anniversary, with a callback to their farewell salute to Princess Vivi:

In brief: Oars is down. Oars is back up. The Straw Hats recover from their severe beatings to put Oars back down. The crew and the Rolling Pirates try to figure how to "convince" Moriah to return their shadows, especially with the sun coming up soon and half the main cast finding their lives endangered. Not only does Moriah not return what he stole, he swipes the shadows of everybody around him (pirates, zombies, Straw Hats) to power up to nine times Nightmare Luffy. This begs the question: if he could do that from the beginning, why didn't he start with that? Because he's friggin' lazy, that's why. We'll see how that works for him when Toonami returns to normal on January 7.

[lathspel]

I like the new opening!  I hadn't been liking the one that started near the beginning of Thriller Bark.

I'm not surprised that Moriah was not down for the count, but it's good that Oars is done.  I was getting tired of the big oaf.

I keep thinking that Robin's shadow will become a plot twist somehow.  Here's hoping Moriah uses her power somehow.  

[Lantern7]

I liked the preceding credits ("Jungle P"). I especially dug everybody (except for Robin) freaking the hell out over Brook. Bonus: Gratuitous English! "LIFE IS ADVENTUROUS!!!"

[Sandman87]

8 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

Not only does Moriah not return what he stole, he swipes the shadows of everybody around him (pirates, zombies, Straw Hats) to power up to nine times Nightmare Luffy. This begs the question: if he could do that from the beginning, why didn't he start with that? Because he's friggin' lazy, that's why.

Plus he loses all of his zombie minions when he does it. I imagine that putting all those shadows back in the corpses afterward would be a pain.

I'm a bit disappointed that Luffy only got to do one slash with the humungous sword that the Rolling Pirates gave him.

[Lantern7]

Rewatched the last episode. Missed the part where Lola the Pig Bride got her shadow stolen. She still had Absalom in a headlock. That's devotion.

ETA: Also forgot that Moriah absorbed a thousand shadows, making him ten times more powerful as Nightmare Luffy.

[Lantern7]

This week: It's Monster Moriah versus Luffy. Lots of the Rolling Pirates freaking out, grieving about their impending dooms, and occasionally bursting into flame (which the shadowless are wont to do). Basically, Luffy punches fatso in the gut enough so that he pukes up shadows, which the Rolling Pirates are screaming to come back. But it looks to be too late, as Luffy, Zoro, Sanji and Robin break out their Ghost Rider impressions.

[Lantern7]

This week: All the shadows stolen by Moriah go back to their owners, who can now face sunlight. This includes a servant girl whose shadow was used by Cinry's zombie body. Anyway, everybody on Thriller Bark celebrates, except for Luffy, who is passed out. And Hogback and Absalom, who are intent to GTFO. The party lasts for about five minutes . . . and then Kuma shows up, with orders to take out the Straw Hats and all of the witnesses. And he's got powers beyond making people go poof. Heading into the fade to black, it looks like Zoro has just energy to try and put up a fight.

[Lantern7]

Don't tell me that I'm the only one watching this anime. Even though Jojo's Bizarre Adventure revels in not giving a flying you-know-what about logic, One Piece is still delightfully insane.

For those coming in: Kuma basically owns everybody with his Paw-Paw powers. I know, sounds like a stupid Devil Fruit, and that's saying something given we've seen a guy turn into a damn giraffe, but he can manipulate air to mess things and people the hell up. Zoro gets knocked down, Sanji hangs in midair for ten seconds as his kick to the face fails, Franky gets a paw print to the chest for living, and Usopp's firebird attack gets sent back to him. Kuma decides to spare everybody if they give him Luffy. Those assembled disagree, and Kuma seemingly atomizes Thriller Bark with the closest thing to a nuke this show has.

[Sandman87]

The Rolling Pirates seemed a little reluctant to take on Kuma. You might say that he gave them paws. They just couldn't bear to face him. Thank you, I'll be here all week. At least we know now why he has the little paw prints on his shirt and the little bear ears on his hat. Still no word about his Bible.

Kuma must be pretty tough, because Sanji hurt himself when he kicked him in the face. I wouldn't expect that to happen if he kicked the planet.

[Lantern7]

Turns out Kuma doesn't have atomic bomb-level powers. He just turns everything on Thriller Bark into rubble. At least nobody gets killed. Anyway, Zoro remembers he's part cockroach and comes after Kuma, who turns out to be a Pacifista . . . which is basically a cyborg created by Dr. Vegapunk, a genius whose work it would take 500 years for the rest of the world to reach. Once again, this is One Piece. Shit always has to be imbalanced.

Back to the action . . . Sanji tries to fight Kuma. Kuma decides that Luffy is worth saving, and expels all the pain and exhaustion from his body, on the condition that one of his crewmates takes it. After Zoro knocks out Sanji, he takes the burden. Later, Luffy is bouncing around like nothing happened, and Sanji finds Zoro bloodied and ripped up as hell, but still alive. Once again: part cockroach.

I think the next episode kicks off Brook's origin arc. I read the manga . . . reckon it ranks with Nami and Robin in terms of depressing.

[Sandman87]

Speaking of cockroaches; kind of impressive that Hogback managed to survive (an episode or two ago) getting stomped by Oars.

[Lantern7]

Finally caught last week's episode. It's a huge celebration . . . except for Dr. Hogback and Abasalom, who are setting off away from Thriller Bark with Moriah's limp body. Also, Zoro is comatose from taking all of Luffy's pain. A few of the Rolling Pirates saw everything, but Sanji tells them not to blab because Zoro didn't do it to be a hero. Robin manages to lend an ear on one of the dopes' backs, so she knows. She probably won't tell, because the woman is a damn professional.

Brook plays the one song we've heard, and he finds out that the Straw Hats (at least five of them) met Laboon the whale. This kicks off Brook's origin arc, where the Rumbar Pirates first met wee Laboon. Am I nuts for thinking flesh & blood Brook resembles Howard Stern? I'm sure that's not an afro. I know a few white people have those, but Brook has bushy hair.

Oh, and Moriah's lackeys find out that Blackbeard has been installed as a Warlord (or the Shichibukai, if you're insisting of authenticity) in Crocodile's place, and his entry fee with the World Government was Ace. I don't think this was told in the manga. This kicks off an epic story in two arcs.

[lathspel]

I really like how Brook's "alive" character design mirrors his skeleton design.  He's almost always smiling, he has black sunglasses, and even a scar on his forehead. 

[Lantern7]

Man, that was sad. Especially if you saw the Reverse Mountain episodes, and you remember Laboon has been slamming his body into jagged walls for decades. That explains the scars. Luffy's paint job made things a tiny bit better, even if he's a worse artist than me. He was a cutie fifty years ago.

How does Brook keep his hat on? It looks like it's attached to his hair.

ETA: Has it been explained how Brook can produce tears with no eyes, and snot with no nose?

[Lantern7]

Once again . . . I think Brook has the most depressing backstory after Robin and Nami. Watching the Rumbar Pirates drop like flies while singing "Bink's Brew" for Laboon . . .  your eyes had to mist up a little. Minimum. And I liked the animation . . . particularly when Brook has the "Crew Is Still Alive!" dream, and he goes from skeleton to flesh and blood very subtly. And given how messed up Brook was in the head ten years after he originally died. . . can you blame him for being a little wacky?

[Sandman87]

"Ooops, dropped my pants! Hope nobody saw me!" I'll just let you guys come up with your own "boner" jokes here.

[Lantern7]

This week marks the end of the Thriller Bark arc. Brook officially joins the Straw Hats, which means that Toonami can run Strong World now, because we have all nine crew members. The Rumbar Pirates are lain to rest. Zoro wakes up from his coma. And it turns out Ace might be in trouble, but Luffy isn't stressing that. Neat touch: when the lighthouse keeper is reading the newspaper, the back page has Iceberg dealing with women wanting to replace Kalifa.

Bad news: We're getting three episodes of filler. And the guy who will be in at least the first episode?

Spoiler

Foxy. Yes . . . Foxy. I won't blame any of you if you want to ditch out. He's an acquired taste. Perhaps Luffy will don the afro one more time.

[Sandman87]

I dunno about anyone else, but I'm getting tired of hearing a zillion different versions of the same tune over and over, even though the audio recording quality is top-notch.

[lathspel]

Maybe Brook can heal by drinking milk (I think that was mentioned), but regrowing a tooth is freaky.  How little of him must remain for him to come back?

[Sandman87]

Hey, it's Foxy! Oh...wait...there he goes. Never mind.

The two girls' father looks like Gene Shalit with a pineapple on his head.

[Lantern7]

For a guy that hates being forgotten, Foxy managed not to remember Franky. I know this is a weird world, but a big dude in blue hair and a bathing suit that is also a cyborg would make an impression. Perhaps the characters forget the filler

Another reason why this world is wacky . . . nobody screams at the guy that's an animated skeleton. You're at a spa, you're getting a massage, and then the walking friggin' dead asks you where to get the good milk. How would you not shit yourself in fear?

[Sandman87]

Something just occurred to me: I bet the "gems" that can be manufactured turn out to be the same as the candy that was falling from the sky.

[Lantern7]

Forgot about those. I'm thinking Nami used her Clima Tact to make it rain candy. The gem stuff? Meh. At least we don't have as long to wait for canon as before, in contrast to the "SAVE THE FLAG!!!" arc.

Almost forgot about the Actual Raccoon Dog That Is Also Magical. Watching Sanji try to fulfill his desires through it reminded me of Team Rocket dealing with a Ditto. I'm up to Volume 81 of the manga, and we're getting human-like animal creatures en masse. Here? Unless it's Chopper, a reindeer that ate the Human-Human Fruit, it's just weird.

[Sandman87]

Well, shape-changing is one of the two defining traits of raccoon dog spirits in folklore. Didn't notice whether or not the little guy had the other defining trait going on too.

[Lantern7]

About the filler . . . turns out we won't be getting anything after that. The last episode will be run on Toonami next Saturday. It will be replaced by Tokyo Ghoul. This might be about widening the gap between televised episodes and the DVDs. Still feels like bullshit. We went through filler, the Davy Back Fights, Robin giving up every other episode, the Franky Family abusing Usopp, more filler, Absalom peeping on naked Nami . . . and we won't be getting the Sabaody Archipelago arc, which features the greatest defeat of the Straw Hats. Right now, I got Season Eight Second Voyage from the library . . . I was only able to see the episodes from Impel Down onward, and that's friggin' epic as well. I feel bad for myself and the viewers that are used to getting their fix on Toonami.

If you want to talk about episodes beyond Thriller Bark, click here. I might be posting my thought on Marineford soon.

So pissed off. #otakuproblems

[Sandman87]

Taking a little girl hostage and then threatening her with a cannon the size of the U.S.S. Nimitz? Seems just a little bit excessive.

Loved Brook kicking back while everyone else kicked ass.

[lathspel]

I'm sorry to see One Piece go - hopefully it's only temporary.  The Franky stuff at the beginning didn't really impress me, but since then I've really gotten to enjoy the hart of this show.  I will miss it.

This filler was mostly about Nami's swimsuit, as far as I could tell. 

I did enjoy that the Spa Island creep continued the trend of unique laughs.

[Sandman87]

Speaking of Spa Dude's laugh, "Gero" is Japanese onomatopoeia for either a frog's croaking sound, or for the sound of throwing up.

[Lantern7]

The distinctive laughs are a running thing with the show. The only Straw Hat with that is Brook.

Damn, Spa Owner must have inverted genitals. That was way too big of a gun.

Gotta love Luffy's first instinct: destroy Spa Island. And everybody except Nami went along with it. And yes, Nami looked more endowed than usual. Not that I notice that.

[Lantern7]

Good news for me . . . I can fill the gap between Thriller Bark and Impel Down through "Collection" DVDs from the library.

Checked Funimation's site. You'd have to subscribe to see episodes. If you want to pick up where Toonami left off, start at the beginning of Season 7: "Halfway Across the Grand Line! Arrival at the Red Line!"