Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: One Piece
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A2chiya
 Posts: 12 |
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So here I stand--as unwelcome as unwilling, well I wot; for no man delights in the bearer of bad news. — Antigone, by Sophocles FWIW, I agree with this sentiment. Describing why or how pacing is problematic is useful, for me anyway. I am a late arriver to the One Piece party (which does mean I benefitted from being able to watch the early seasons of the anime in HD.  ). I am also aware of the difficulties in producing an anime series concurrently with an ongoing manga. I think the reviews do a good job of acknowledging when pacing problems arise and offering straightforward (I don't want to call them "simple") solutions that would have made the episode better.
As for being frustrated with the repetitiveness of the reviews, well this seems like a case of shooting the messenger. Or put another way, suppose you are reviewing a restaurant and get a bad meal. You decide to give another chance and for some insane reason visit the restaurant every day for a week. Unfortunately, the food still tastes awful. Do you give a pass on the first 6 visits and only write about the last one? This a disservice to your readers, not to mention a problem of journalistic ethics. Then again, I am likely being far too serious over a "kids' show about pirates." (Sorry Sam, I know I read this in one of the reviews but I can't remember which one.  )
Finally, I have made my way through the series to the start of the Wa no Kuni Arc. Seriously folks, the translation for ワノ国 (wa-no-kuni) should be read Land of Wa. "no" is a possessive particle, not part of the place name. At any rate, I am looking forward to this arc because I suspect it will include references to the Meiji Restoration, which is a fascinating period of Japanese history. Woohoo! 
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A2chiya
Posts: 12 |
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Full disclosure, I am nowhere near fluent. However, I can understand it pretty well, including reading and writing. I am a bit of a Japanese history buff and have watched many years of jidaigeki (historical period) TV/film dramas and kabuki, noh, and bunraku theatre. Also, I helped teach a course on traditional Japanese theatre (in English) at an American university. So I feel pretty confident about identifying the different speech patterns. Ussop sounds like he is giving a street sellers' pitch in contemporary language, rather than anything theatrical or historic. And definitely not formal. These street vendors existed during the Edo Period and you can still hear stall vendors giving these pitches at festivals today (I am pretty sure). BTW, Ussop's seiyū Yamaguchi Kappei does a wonderful job of sounding just like one, it's a great performance. On the other hand, the visuals do make Ussop resemble an Edo Period medicine peddler. The medicine he sells is called gama no abura "toad oil" ガマの油, which is written on the little vertical banner next to his stall. Gama no abura was a popular medicinal ointment during the Edo Period, although a clue to its efficacy lies in Ussop's Wano alias, Usohachi, which could be translated as "Hachi the Liar". The characterization of him as a traditional vendor of the Japanese version of snake oil, including the fake sword wound demonstration, fits his character nicely. At first, I thought Oda-sensei had come up with an interesting parody here—how many native Japanese viewers under the age of 50 would get this reference? Then I discovered a slew of YouTube videos like this, https://youtu.be/u25sBgjIm8Q. OK, never mind! 
Kinemon, Kanjūrō, Raizo, and Momonosuke use archaic language that you might hear in jidaigeki dramas, but without any theatrical intonation. Again, most of the time they are not speaking formally. BTW, Kawakami Bansai of Ginatama uses the same archaic language. For example, if you listen closely, occassionally their sentences end in "de gozaru" (which is formal). They also say "Thank you" by using Katajikenai, instead of Dōmo or Arigatō. Zoro's language is the same as usual—modern, abbreviated, and very rough. Just... a lot slower... for some reason I cannot fathom. Otama uses an odd mix of modern and archaic words all mixed together, plus she throws in some unusual slang. A cute little girl saying ore just sounds, well, odd 
So, even though Kanjūrō looks the part, his speech is definitely not that of a stage actor. A pretty good anime rendition of kabuki dialogue comes from Jiraiya, Naruto's "pervy sensei." (BTW, Jiraiya, along with his giant toad familiar, was a popular kabuki character long before he ended up in anime.) The seiyū Ōtsuka Hōchū has a naturally resonant and emotive voice, and does a decent job with the intonation, albeit a bit on the nasally side. Remember that stage actors must project their voices from their abdomens/diaphragms, giving their voices a more forceful, sometimes even harsh, sound. Even the soft voices of women must somehow reach the audience without the help of microphones and amplifiers. At any rate, hope this information helps? I am really excited about this arc because I suspect it will reference a period of Japanese history I am particularly interested in, the Boshin War and Meiji Restoration. At least, I'm hoping it will. Here we go, OVER THE TOP! |
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A2chiya
Posts: 12 |
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I noticed folktale references in the Fishman Island and Wano Kuni Arcs. I don't remember seeing these in earlier arcs?
At any rate, Fishman Island includes obvious references to the famous Japanese folktale "Urashima Tarō". In the traditional tale, one of the main protagonists Princess Otohime lives at the bottom of the sea in Ryūgyūjō Castle. Rather than containing explosives (as happened in One Piece), the original Tamate Box contained Tarō's youth, which kept him from aging (until he made the mistake of opening the box). In Wano Kuni, we see references to "Momotarō". In the folktale, Momotarō befriends a pheasant, dog, and monkey by feeding them kibi dango. Momotarō and his animal comrades go to Onigashima, where they defeat the Ogre King and take his treasure. So far, in One Piece, Komachiyo is the dog, Hihimaru is the monkey (baboon), and Onigashima ("Ogre Island") is the stronghold of Pirate Emperor Kaido. Kibi dango ("millet dumplings"), btw, are poor farmers's food. The idea being that any rice they manage to grow goes to pay land taxes. What is interesting is that Oda-sensei created a Wano Kuni character named "Urashima" (the sumo rikishi). I would have expected him to appear in the Fishman Island Arc, since he is named after the main protagonist of the folktale. So I am wondering, does Urashima have some relationship with Princess Shirahoshi or Queen Otohime? |
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3ngag3
Posts: 221 |
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Is that screenshot really necessary?
Because some people are going to get the wrong idea. 
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WatcherZer
Posts: 273 |
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Am I wrong in thinking the Akazaya Nine (nine samurai rebelling against the Shogun in order to restore the power of the Emperor) is a reference to the May 15th event in Japanese history, referred to as the Individual Eleven in GITS:SAC 2nd Gig.
The event in 1932 was the assassination of the Prime Minister by eleven naval officers in the cause of nationalist militarism, their aim was to erode the power of civil democratic government in favour of a return to military direct rule under the emperor. |
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A2chiya
Posts: 12 |
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This is an intriguing idea, although I find it hard to say "yes" without more clues. FWIW, my initial hunch is a connection to the May 15th event seems unlikely because the feudal setting in the Wano Arc is clearly pre-Meiji (prior to 1867). For example, the Akazaya Nine assassins are samurai and they are targeting a corrupt shogun. The historical Tokugawa Shogun surrendered his ruling authority to Emperor Meiji in 1867, in an unsuccessful effort to stave off the bloody civil war that preceded the Meiji Restoration. In addition to organized sorties between traditional samurai and the reformist factions (who eventually won), assassinations and raids by various radical groups were rampant during this chaotic time. That is why, to me, at any rate, the Akazaya Nine are more likely to be modeled on a pre-Meiji group and/or event. The 1932 incident, on the other hand, was the assassination of the Prime Minister in the parliamentary Japanese government. The assassins were naval officers, cadets, and civilians. Samurai uprisings had long been quelled by 1932. The Imperial Japanese army consisting of conscripted commoners had won major victories against Russia and China. In other words, there were no connections to samurai culture by the time of the 1932 incident. The other reason I am a bit doubtful is that I have noticed Oda Sensei seems to creatively refer to traditional Japanese culture, but I have not noticed him making many historical references. Unlike Gintama, which contains a slew of easily recognized references to historical people, places, and events, Oda seems to avoid those; his references are usually to well-known folktales, popular culture, and sometimes wordplay or puns. For example, many of the samurai names are either fanciful or are parodies of folktales or pop culture. Momonosuke is no doubt a parody of the folk hero Momotaro. "Momo" means peach and you will notice Momonosuke's kimono is decorated with peaches. I mentioned other Momotaro references in a previous post in this forum. Raizō is likely named after film superstar Ichikawa Raizō, who famously portrayed ninja and rogue samurai. As far as I can tell, Kinemon and Kanjūrō are just old-fashioned sounding names; the "-emon" and "-jūrō" suffixes were commonly used by samurai men. Oda uses an odd combination of traditional and modern characters to spell these names, adding a playful quirkiness. As I said, this is an intriguing thought and I am going to do some more hunting around. WatcherZer, do you have any other clues that might help? We also may get some more clues when Kinemon reveals what past period of history they are from, which BTW, again seems to indicate a pre- rather than post-Meiji connection.
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4570 |
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Welcome, Grant! Really happy to see someone else picking up the reins and continuing the episode reviews. Now hopefully the anime can get back up and running in the near future, so you have some new content to tackle once you get caught up.
A lot of digital ink has been spilled over the anime's ups and downs over the years (decades?), and even though the start of Wano brought a massive breath of fresh air with it, week-to-week there's still substantial variation in the quality of the animation and how well the requisite glacial pacing is handled. The Kaido fight was one of those too-rare moments when Toei really cut loose and you're reminded of just how talented the people working on this adaptation really are. I just wish we got to see them at their best more often than we do. |
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Gonbawa
Posts: 53 |
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I think you're right : the main theme of wano arc is "opening Wano country to the world" : the incident that triggered that, the appearance of Commodore Perry's "Black ships", was in 1853. I think that the One Piece version of Perry is going to be Dragon. His ship is all black, and the Revolutionaries were seen actively searching for the weapons factory in Dressrosa. It's going to be EPIC. |
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Grant D Clown
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 39 |
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Thanks for the warm welcome - apologies it took me a minute to register here. I'm really impressed with the work the Toei crew has been putting in this arc, it's phenomenal stuff as far as I'm concerned. |
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Top Gun
Posts: 4570 |
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Zoro's fight scene in 933 was absolutely spectacular. Inject that directly into my veins please.
(Also I am totally shocked that Komurasaki wasn't really dead. Shocked, I say.) |
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Thhyon
 Posts: 169 |
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Grant D Clown
ANN Reviewer
Posts: 39 |
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As someone who is almost entirely manga-only up until this point, I love that the anime expands certain scenes. I think it enriches the experience.
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Top Gun
Posts: 4570 |
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That is one of the all-time great Oda Faces. Dear lord.
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jr240483
 Posts: 4376 Location: New York City,New York,USA |
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but my real question is how is momonoskue not like the rest of wano considering his devil fruit is a smile fruit as well!?
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cfalcon
Posts: 37 |
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This may be answered in future episodes, but my first thought upon seeing episode 943 is why doesn't Trafalgar Law use his Shambles ability to disable Hawkins without hurting him (and by proxy his crew)? IIRC Hawkins has used his hands to activate his abilities in the past.
Also, props to Grant for how his episode reviews have really come into their own! They feel richer and elaborate more on his analysis of each episode. 
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