One Piece

I heard about it, never watched it but I've heard of it.

I kinda liked that they balanced out nerfing Dragon Ball by nerfing both the other two series along with it.

Got caught up. This run seemed sort of scattered. A lot of new stuff getting thrown at us, while dancing around the issue of what became of Sanji.

I wonder how Robin would react, knowing of the fate of Kanjuro's cat?

If you could change one thing about this series, what would it be?

Hmmmmmmmm... I want to say "More fights for the girls" but I reserve the right to take that back if I think of something else.

More female characters in higher levels of power who have bloody, awesome fights with men and women.

Yeah have more women beaten up on the level most antagonists get like Doffy as a recent example.

I'll go broader and say "everything that deals with women" because that should catch Sanji's character derailment as well

Above all, I want Nami and Robin to have more fights. At this point, I don't even care if they're always Designated Girl Fights - just give them something to actually do.

I feel like One Piece would be better if a bunch of characters were arbitrarily gender-swapped. Have two of the Gorosei, Kizaru, Marco, Kyros, and a bunch of others just be women.

I'd give Robin a different Devil Fruit, because the main reason she isn't getting fights is due to her current powers allowing her to neck snap any person she should be able to neck snap to death.

edited 28th Nov '15 11:56:55 PM by VeryMelon

Just have her fight someone she can't neck snap but can feasibly beat in other ways.

To answer my own question, I'd think I'd prefer it if the length between major events was shortened.

Most people look at that and go "Wow, how great a planner Oda is for doing it like that" and I go "Would it really be so hard to speed things along?"

I'd definitely say less fake deaths. Either put some actual deaths in there or don't try to trick us with "ohno he's dead" moments that have zero actual pathos.

There's lots of things I'd love to change but I think fixing up the treatment of women (and its treatment of trans people) would be a really good start. Lots of folks get turned away from the series when they hear about these things, especially folks like Ivankov.

What are you talking about? I see nothing wrong with how One Piece treats trans people. They are some of the coolest people around!

I think it's mixed myself. On the one hand they're all stereotypes, but on the other most of them are positive characters and the Be Yourself moral is played straight.

Well, they're still sort treated like rejects, particularly from Sanji...but its...ya know, Sanji.

Only from Sanji.

Sanji is also one of the main characters and therefore representation across the series.

Not really. Sanji has his own personality. He does not represent One Piece any more than, say, Sakura represents Naruto.

Transfolk in One Piece are portrayed as kinda weird and are definitely a little too exaggerated, but all of them so far have had deep strength of character and (besides Dellinger) unwavering moral compasses. That's the best treatment of transfolk I've seen in any media that wasn't specifically about transfolk.

The Okama are a bit Magical Negro, basically, they're a positive portrayal of a usually-marginalized minority, but their otherness is emphasized to make them magical actors. Definitely mixed overall, but it could be far worse.

Sanji is the only person in the series who has ever regularly reacted negatively against Okamas, and that is only because of his own beliefs. Everyone else just see these people as... well, just people. I guess the Marines in Saobody would say differently, but the Kamabakka residents were intentionally putting their intimidation on.

I've read about people saying One Piece's portrayal of Crossdressers is rather offensive, but the fans I've listened to in discussions admitted that their interest in the series was piqued specifically because of the Okamas' wild designs and personalities. Someone even posted on a twitter account called Minovsky Article (like Never Watched One Piece, is just catching up with the series) that showing Ivankov to his wife finally got her interested in the series.

As for one thing I would change about One Piece, I guess changing the treatment of female characters would work well. Partially because it adds variety (Vice Admiral Tsuru's all-female crew got me excited for this reason), and partially so there would be one less thing for people to complain about.

edited 29th Nov '15 9:56:17 AM by ChefFailure

Fewer minor characters so that we could pick up the pace a bit.

Burn the Warrior!