The "I read One Piece, so should you" topic

Bah, just finished 619 so I'm all caught up. How often do the chapters update?

SimianWonder wrote:

At the time I wrote that, I had no idea Luffy was going to suddenly lapse in unconsciousness. I really didn't enjoy the Ace / Luffy / Sabo flashbacks too much though. It felt like a last ditch attempt to force us into feeling something for Ace.

The Luffy flashback is generally considered to be an absolute low point among the fanbase and its only redeeming factor is that Sabo was a lot cooler than Ace and it's gonna be great when he shows up with Dragon in current times.

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One more thing; Kai, where do you stand on Nami's hair? Long or short, your preference...?

Short. I don't mind the new hairstyle, but it's a bit too long for my tastes. I hope she cuts her hair down to shoulder length or something at one point. I like some of Oda's sketches for post-timeskip Nami better than the one we have now.

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Bah, just finished 619 so I'm all caught up. How often do the chapters update?

Mangastream usually has the new chap up on Wednesday evenings.

And you're just in time for the 10 chapter flashback to Fisher Tiger/Jimbe/Arlong/Sun Pirates/Otohime/Hodi/RACISM.

Zero wrote:

I'm still at the part where Skypiea just finished in the anime.

Chances are that FUNi drops the DVD release, because people aren't buying. They still haven't aquired season 4 and the final part of season 3 just came out (with the last episode of G8 missing, because it wasn't in the bulk of episodes they got from Toei 4 years ago. So there's a possibility they're going to do a simulcast only release.

Still, nothing's set in stone. They're still coming out with merchandise from future arcs, so it may just be laziness that they haven't bothered to get more episodes.

The filler arc is released on April 19, so they're not doing too bad schedule wise.

Yeah, but they don't have the rights to dub past that. And the filler arc is incomplete, so no reason to buy that (yet), even if it's one of the best filler arcs ever.

Kaio wrote:

The Luffy flashback is generally considered to be an absolute low point among the fanbase and its only redeeming factor is that Sabo was a lot cooler than Ace and it's gonna be great when he shows up with Dragon in current times.

Ah, I was unaware that it was held in such low regard. Not without good reason, of course.

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Short. I don't mind the new hairstyle, but it's a bit too long for my tastes. I hope she cuts her hair down to shoulder length or something at one point. I like some of Oda's sketches for post-timeskip Nami better than the one we have now.

I preferred short as well, it makes her look cuter. While she does look older with the longer hair, I don't think the more mature look suits her character. Or maybe I've jsut gotten so used to it over the previous 600 chapters, I'm stubborn and don't like change. I'm also not a fan of Zoro's new outfit either, but I digress...

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And you're just in time for the 10 chapter flashback to Fisher Tiger/Jimbe/Arlong/Sun Pirates/Otohime/Hodi/RACISM.

Do I sense a touch of negativity there? Hodi doesn't seem that interesting at the moment, (he's a carbon copy of Arlong) so some history or backstory might make him seem like something more than a copypasta villain.

Out of interest, is there anywhere you can watch the OP movies?

SimianWonder wrote:

I preferred short as well, it makes her look cuter. While she does look older with the longer hair, I don't think the more mature look suits her character. Or maybe I've jsut gotten so used to it over the previous 600 chapters, I'm stubborn and don't like change. I'm also not a fan of Zoro's new outfit either, but I digress...

Yeah, that's pretty much it. The sketches showed versions of Nami that looked both cute and mature.

And with Zoro at least his clothes will change every other arc.

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Do I sense a touch of negativity there? Hodi doesn't seem that interesting at the moment, (he's a carbon copy of Arlong) so some history or backstory might make him seem like something more than a copypasta villain.

I've actually been looking forward to this flashback for two years. Tying up all these teases of the stuff that went down a decade ago in the OP universe surrounding the whole discrimination theme will be incredibly exciting to read.

I doubt Hodi will play any role in the flashback and will be beaten quickly in the main story too. I don't think the real problem that needs resolving part of the arc has happened yet.

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Out of interest, is there anywhere you can watch the OP movies?

K-F subbed the first 7 movies: http://www.kaizoku-fansubs.com/downloads/
Yibis subbed movie 9 and 10: http://tracker.yibis.com/

Movie 1 is painfully bland.
Movie 2 is fun.
Movie 3 is boring, but has a cool artstyle.
Movie 4 is pretty great.
Movie 5 is bad.
Movie 6 is amazing. Some of the best stuff that Toei has ever done.
Movie 7 is pretty cool, but there's too much fanservice (Nami and Robin's boobs bounce continously). Also comes up with a kind of stupid origin for Gear Second.
Movie 8 is Alabasta condensed into 80 minutes. Terrible.
Movie 9 is a what if Drum happened past Enies Lobby. Robin and Franky do fuck all though, so nothing really changes. Still worth a watch though, because it has some good animation.
Movie 10 was pretty good, but considering it's written by Oda, the story is pretty boring. It has both great art and animation though and still worth a watch.

I have watched 1-5 of the movies and I actually thought the 5th one was the best so far.

I'd rank it 5 = 2 > 4 > 1 > 3...I really enjoyed the the fighting in 5 thought Zoro acted so out of character for a long time it kinda pissed me off.

Thanks Kai, I'm going to give the movies a try over the next few days, then I'll maybe pick up the anime again. I'd just finished anime Skypiea when I started to power ahead in the manga.

I've started reading again the other day and shot through like 15 chapters since, as it turns out the translation improved significantly one or two chapters after I quit; the grammar is much better and for the most part the names are consistent. Though they still haven't figured out 100% what they want to call Vivi, she gets BB pretty consistently though.

I am a huge fan of the Alabasta arc though, I just finished Sanji's Mr. Prince chapter.

Alabasta remains my favorite arc so far and I'm at post Enies Lobby.

Alabasta is one of the best arcs even now. Great pacing, great villains, great fights.

Zero wrote:

Alabasta remains my favorite arc so far and I'm at post Enies Lobby.

The last 12 or so episodes of Alabasta were good but everything before was kinda boring. Aside from that I liked Enies Lobby because you get to see Gear Second and Gear Third.

Does this ever get to the point where the translators are actually competent?

Translation varies. Even now, some places *coughMangaPandacough* are first to translate but at a cost to the accuracy of translation in places. "Stray Hat" crops up quite frequently, and in a recent chapter Nami talked about taking a ship "to the see".

For the most part though, things are much more consistent post-Alabasta.

I've just read past the encounter with a certain cool guy after the Foxy arc. The translation has been better in most parts than it used to be but still makes me cringe at times. It just takes away a lot of enjoyment for me if half the time I'm correcting what's being said in my head.

You'll just have to endure, Skip. Take it. You'll hate them for it, but that's the point of scanlators. They can be the outcasts. They can make the translations that no one else can make. The wrong translations.