One Piece

I can at least say that the Big Mom Pirates are much more complex than the Beast Pirates. I think Oda has hammered in their socioeconomic blight more than enough, while it was actually interesting to see a relatively functional territory under a group of antagonistic pirates.

Edited by KOman on Sep 14th 2018 at 12:25:45 PM

Indeed they certainly had a more unique gimmick & general setting.

Hopefully Oda comes up with an interesting enough gimmick for Kaido's circus of freaks.

...... Huh maybe make them an actual circus.

Edited by slimcoder on Sep 14th 2018 at 12:30:20 PM

I know that the Beast Pirates really have a hyper masculine theme.

Yes, so far I prefer the BM pirates too, but I think there would've been a problem if it was otherwise, since one crew is well fleshed out (For the most part, at least) while the other not yet.

However, I really like that most of it is composed of a wide variety of siblings (in fact i'm very interested in knowing their order and ages) and I love the Fairy tale/Disney motif; that said, I love animals too, arguably more than fairy tales, so I might like beast pirates more by thr end of the arc.

and what about Speed?

Edited by fishysaur on Sep 14th 2018 at 12:53:04 PM

Speaking of motifs, what motif could the blackbeard pirates have, aside being ugly and a bunch of fatalists? Maybe all their middle ranking members have a colorbeard motif? (Like pinkbeard)

@fishysaur

I think that is why I love the Big Mom Pirates, because it is as if a bunch of Disney villains were running Candyland. It's absolutely a love letter to everything Disney, especially the talking inanimate items and the Alice In Wonderland allusions.

Edited by firewriter on Sep 14th 2018 at 1:14:18 AM

So this whole thing seems like it's setting up to get oddly big for what I thought it would be.

I wouldn't be surprised if Jack did show up before they leave. In which case, I'm actually not sure if he'd go down at this point or not.

Probably not. I wonder when the other Calamities will be shown. We've already seen a bunch of Gifters and Headliners.

It happens in every big arc that a small event causes a larger one. I don't if Jack would show up, if he does, it will probably serve to hype the other two calamities, just like Cracker with the other two sweet commanders Katakuri and Oven err... Smoothie

I admit that I'm revaluating a lot this arc, and the beginning seems pretty strong.

Edited by fishysaur on Sep 15th 2018 at 10:35:05 AM

The title of this week's anime episode, if you're curious, is "Invincible Helmsman Jinbe."

I mean, not that it wasn't obvious that'll be his position already, but...

Unless Oda's like LOL NOPE and kills him.

I admit, Oda's going to so much trouble to drag out Jinbe officially joining that I really do wonder if he's gonna pull that.

I don't think he'd play with people like that, but still.

That would be the dumbest manga twist since Hitsugaya's ice clone.

The “I turn into an adult and get even stronger when my Bankai runs out of time” twist was even dumber.

Do you guys think Wano is off to a good start?

So far I'd say yes. In the whole, the chapters flows smoothly and gave a good showing off of Wano's state and some drops of bakcstory, and we already have two character that will be very likely important in the arc. And I find the Smile users funny Of course, I don't think the action is over yet, but so far I'm enjoying it

If I were to be a bit nipticky, then I'd say that so far there was a bit too exposition all together, but since the arc will be longer, it might not appear too much in the entire saga. Oh, and I'm confused by Kiku's attitude, I get that women often gets the short end of the stick, but I wait for futher development before judgement.

Edited by fishysaur on Sep 16th 2018 at 8:56:12 AM

My current take on Okiku is Skilled, but Naive. She has the talent and training, but either hasn't seen a lot of action or has been told to Stay in the Kitchen in spite of it that she's hesitant to bring out her soul. I'm there viz translation, Zoro specifically notes she doesn't need them to watch out for her.

I too think it's something related to the Stay in the Kitchen culture, but is strange going from "I'm a Samurai" to "Oh shit, and now what I do" in a single chapter. At least she still kicks ass after Zoro says "use that stick with a blade in your hands called katana that you have in your hand"

Of course, it's a minor thing, so far I don't find any explicity issues

That, I think, is there the "naive" part kicks in. She's that person who has all of the training and none of the experience, so she's just as likely to choke as to act when in a clutch.

I think Speed will be set up to be her opponent.

I get the feeling that while a lack of real world experience to back up her skill likely plays a part, a bigger part of O-Kiku's uncertainty and oscillating demeanor is learned fear — in her having a keen awareness and experience that not keeping a low profile is a death sentence in Wano.

She certainly doesn't seem like she's old enough to have served under Oden, so it seems likely that Orochi's — and thus Kaido's — rule has been all she's ever known. No matter her strength nor her commitment to do what good she can, growing up in this kind of hellish environment provides no shortage of lessons to not rock the boat or else you (and more importantly, everyone you care for and seek to protect) will face fatal and vicious reprisal — that the whims of the elite are absolute because they are supported by irresistible strength of arms.

There's no doubt that O-Kiku has needed to operate in the shadows for all this time, same as every loyalist to Oden or resistance to Orochi — to be visible is to be made the target of monsters like Jack or Kaido himself. (and hell, can you imagine just living in the same region as someone like fuckin' Kaido, even if he wasn't the shadow king propping up a corrupt regime? dude goes on a benders and winds up reducing entire towns to perfectly flat surfaces on a regular basis)

But well, fools like Luffy and Zoro are laughably incapable of acting with anything remotely approaching nuance or restraint in the face of shit they don't like... And their madness is provably infectious. Thinking of her like that, caught between her ingrained knowledge that she mustn't draw attention, her unwillingness to give up on 'Tama, and Luffy unwittingly egging her on, it's no surprise to me that O-Kiku is so conflicted, seems so contradictory in her actions and demeanor.

Apparently, someone told Oda that his work didn’t have enough character (maybe it was Arha)

I wonder when exactly Oda got told that? Because depending of when it were, this comment could have lead him to create Katakuri, and if it did, that was some very welcome criticism.

Maybe it was before Sabaody and Oda thought the other guy was saying, "Your work doesn't have enough characters."

And then history repeated before the Dressrosa arc

I dont think Katakuri has more character than anyone introduced before him.