One Piece

I'm assuming Imu's not a fighter, but they're still dangerous because only they can activate that kingdom destroying Kill Sat.

What about the theory thay Imu has the Ocean fruit, effectively making him the kryptonite to all fruit users.

Seems a bit redundant since we already have a villain whose power cancels out other Fruit powers.

Besides, pretty much every part of that Return to Reverie comic has been outdated by the manga.

Just a quick aside, but have any of Oda's characters made you think a bit about how far on the spectrum of of gay or straight you actually were for most of your life? If the question sounds too personal I'd understand not answering, but I just wanted to get this nugget off my chest.

I consider myself pretty straight, and was out of the fandom for many years. So when I heard about Yamato and him being a trans male I was interested in seeing how Oda handled his character. What I didn't expect was to feel surprising attraction to another man, even if a fictional one. This isn't a coming out story, but I guess there's a little gay in all of us.

Edited by VeryMelon on May 24th 2023 at 1:40:28 PM

I actually find Luffy incredibly attractive for some reason. He's just so cute.

I was already gay when he was introduced but boy do I LOVE Jinbe.

Law was the first time I remember looking at a male One Piece character and thinking: "You know, he's actually kinda hot".

I agree that until she gets a more involved fight, she's better off provisorily having a three sisters combo as her super (and a rain of arrows from Amazon Lily's full military might as her ultra). But if the prompt is Hancock as a solo fighter, I have a more ambitious answer.

For starters, Hancock has a petrification gauge separate from her super gauge. It fills up with the attacks Hancock deals, and once the petrification gauge hits 100%, it returns to 0% but the opponent is immobile until they're attacked once. Just one free hit every now and then. The gauge zeroes before the attack, so your free hit is also a headstart on the next petrification. However, if you are at 98% and land a hit that fills 3%, the extra 1% won't carry over to the next gauge. Incidentally, her strongest regular attack is a chargeable kick with a huge arc that's too impractically slow to ever use outside of the petrification's free hit.

Her super can be range-based, with the long-range version being Mero Mero Mellow. Might sound like a weird pick for a super since it's her first named technique, but I personally feel it's too big of a beam to be anything else, especially for my vision of Hancock, which can't have a cheap way to build up gauge. Multiple heart waves, 25% petrification if all hit.

The short-range version would be an upward kick that launched the opponent into a cutscene hit where Hancock snipes the flying target midair with a Slave Arrow. The challenge of closing in is rewarded with a 50% on the petrification gauge.

Her ultra is unfortunately the least creative part of this. I'm thinking Salome crawling on the floor as a grounded cutscene trigger, and on hit, it coils around their legs, giving Hancock the opportunity to land a Perfume Femur combo (sorry, Sanji's combos really are my best sample for kick-based fighters) that ends on a full petrification gauge. That makes the sequence of petrification -> ultra -> full charge kick her biggest life shaver that you'd rarely ever see people pulling off.

Oda's artstyle really doesn't do it for me, but I have a vague enough feeling that on someone else's hands, maybe Inazuma's design could have had an effect.

Ditto. But I'd still probably just say "that character is subjectively-objectively attractive." Like Hwoarang in Tekken 8, he doesn't move my rating on the Kinsey scale, but I can easily say he's quite attractive. Like... "If an exactly bi person ranked every character on a scale of 1-10, this character would rate the highest."

Edited by wanderlustwarrior on May 24th 2023 at 2:41:27 PM

I felt so sorry for Brulee throughout the entirety of WCI by the way.

Like, I don't know when it happened, but at some point it crossed a line and them carting her around and using her stopped being funny and just became really really sad to me.

Oh I think you will love a scene at the end of Whole Cake then.

Regarding Vivi’s relevance as of latest chapter:

Ever since it was hinted and then revealed Kobra was killed, I never thought she's going back to Alabasta right now, she's not safe there... I have other reasons, too. Plus, just the purly selfish "I want" reason of, I want ger to re-join the Straw Hats for the finale.

Edited by diddyknux on May 25th 2023 at 10:59:26 AM

Def apparent enough at this point that a person can’t join for reasons that are entirely selfish, whether from the audience’s point of view or the character’s point of view.

Even people like Franky were pushing it when he joined seeing as how Water 7, the city Tom loved, was damaged and was prone to being raided by pirates, yet he didn’t come off as entirely selfish in leaving that behind since he was carrying on Tom’s will to witness a ship that could sail any sea, and had long since earned the right to live out his dream given how much he contributed to Water 7 as well.

So there def has to be a noble aspect to someone joining, and instead of just partying at sea on the Sunny, and I suppose Vivi joining to carry on Lily’s will and find out the purpose behind the Will of D. seems noble enough.

Edited by electricmastro on May 25th 2023 at 1:05:56 PM

Oh no, I meant selfish from MYSELF.

I get it, I want to see that happen as well.

I figured as much, I was speaking in a general sense. lol But yeah, when it comes to the topic of recruitment, it really gets me thinking.

Edited by electricmastro on May 25th 2023 at 2:36:53 PM

so, I'm into the Reverie arc now.

Honestly, I'm so happy the final 2-3 episodes of Whole Cake actually did some work to try and put the Big Mom pirates over. I've been wanting them to look like World Beaters for the whole arc, and it finally happened at the very end. All of the songs were amazing. Really ending the arc on this high where everyone looks fucked.

Edited by GNinja on May 26th 2023 at 8:25:24 AM

Yeah, interesting way of Luffy kicking ass while still making the enemy look like an overall threat.

Started up on the dubbed Wano episodes. As great as Wano looks, its almost jarring to go from how the previous arc had looked to this super bright and colorful aesthetic Wano has, especially in the early episodes. Zoro's hair is Moss-head-ier then ever!

I loved that. I live for jarring extremes between things. And I am not just saying that to be a contrarian. I love it when things contrast.

Totally fair. Besides, I wasn't a big fan of Whole Cake Island's art style anyway, so "jarring" could be exactly what I needed.

(To be clear, this isn't my first time watching these episodes. But it is my first time seeing them since they first aired, so its been awhile since I've reflected on them)

Now that the Wano anime has been going on for a while it has become a bit jarring to look at older episodes. The artstyle and colors just look so flat in comparison.

Agreed. After seeing the insane sakuga of the final battles on Onigashima, it's hard to look back on Luffy vs Enel, Zoro vs Kaku, or Luffy vs Lucci in the anime and not feel massively underwhelmed. Especially when you compare Asura Zoro vs Kaku to Asura Zoro vs Kaido. The Kaku scene is unbelievably stiff in comparison (also, the animation error where Zoro's jacket is rendered on top of his swords is just amateurish).