Currently Running Manga Discussion

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

In One Piece's case, a large series of its length actually call for a rotation between directors, so how good One Piece is as an adaptation is never consistent, and can really only be analyzed by segments of the series (and lately only by individual episodes), since some directors just half-ass it and are content with dragging out a single chapter's worth of material for an entire episodes WITHOUT adding any real substance to it with the opportunity for good filler that they have, whereas others take already great moments in the manga and make them infinitely better by placing in the perfect background music to fit the scene and constructing the set-up to really catch the viewer's attention.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Oh look, Sensui (that's what I'm calling him) is interested in Ichigo's "fullbring" and wishes to use it in his plan somehow.

I swear if we learn Sensui here is a previous Shinigami like Ichigo, then someone needs to fucking raise a stink.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I've been checking out random bits and pieces of the arc. To me it seems more like Tite Kubo is ripping off or copying (or whatever anyone wants to call it) a bunch of ideas used in the Chapter Black arc rather than actually following its plot (or, at least presenting various elements of its plot in a very different order under different circumstances, I suppose). Still, I can't help but see the various similarities, maybe because I already had them in mind, so I end up comparing it to the Chapter Black arc anyways and it just seems to be far inferior. To be fair, I haven't followed the series for over a hundred chapters before this point, and I only read random chapters and skipped others so maybe that's why it seems so disorderly to me, but knowing Bleach the way I do, I just get the feeling that its really disorderly on the whole since that's the way Bleach was when I stopped reading it.

That one guy who has hair that looks exactly like Sensui's is sort of using Ichigo right now and at least pretending to be a good guy if he really isn't one, so that's an interesting spin on the Chapter Black formula, I'll admit, but overall nothing I read was really all that engaging, and whether its ripping off Chapter Black or not, I can't even bring myself to care that much if the story is putting me to sleep. I'd actually prefer if he just shamelessly went by its overall plot and pacing, since at least that would make it more interesting to read (if only because that formula works so damn well that I can't possibly see even Kubo screwing it up if he followed it in order).

Oh yeah, I just read this week's chapter of One Piece and....yeah, I think its obvious that we'll be getting yet another big death scene in next week's chapter. It was also really interesting to see Arlong in this flashback. My favorite scene from this arc is where he told Jinbe that he was going off on his own, and challenged him to kill him if he wanted to stop him, but after beating him to a pulp Jinbe couldn't bring himself to kill Arlong despite knowing that he would completely wreck havoc wherever he went until someone else took him out (which would of course be Luffy, years later). Its a nice scene because it really put things regarding Arlong in a different perspective of sorts.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

This week's chapter of Bakuman had 2 interesting developments. One was the obvious one that I could kind of see coming, which was that the controversy would affect Takagi's writing for the worse, but it'll be interesting to see his next chapter since now he plans to conciously give a big "fuck-you" to the media by writing about a crime that's apparently almost too extreme for anyone to want to attempt, or at least that's the way that I interpeted it from this chapter.

The other interesting development is that Eiji has finally set his sights on 1st place. Well, he always had that goal, but for the first time ever he seems to want to actually think out his manuscripts like a normal writer and really make them better than just literally pulling the story out of his ass like he's been doing for his whole entire career up until this point (even though he's been extremely successful in doing it). In a way, though, I think this might initially lead to worse results for him, since I think his talents lie primarily in only being able to execute the most basic and simple story really well and very effectively, rather than thinking out something more complex and in-depth that can nab even more readers' attention and make him more popular that whatever the current best/most popular manga in Bakuman's version of WSJ is.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Here's one reason Bakuman is so good. Takagi's hesitation was limited to the focus of one chapter showing exactly everything we needed to see, and not dragging the pacing down by making it a small arc of its own.

The best part was how he no longer seems to care what the media thinks of his work and is back to business as usual. The media reaction could be quite sweet.

The Eiji plot is nice as we haven't seen him in a while. I'm hoping we will finally see him at his wits end trying to think of a way to get the number one spot, as we have yet to see him really act any differently since the manga started, despite how much the rest of team Fukuda developed.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

The best part was how he no longer seems to care what the media thinks of his work and is back to business as usual. The media reaction could be quite sweet.

I wouldn't say that he doesn't care. It seems more to me that he wants to specially send the media a message that no matter what they do it won't stop him from writing PCP the way that he wants to write it. Hence why I think the next PCP chapter that gets published in Bakuman's WSJ ill be a big F-U to the media.

[Spark Of Spirit]

The best part was how he no longer seems to care what the media thinks of his work and is back to business as usual. The media reaction could be quite sweet.

I wouldn't say that he doesn't care. It seems more to me that he wants to specially send the media a message that no matter what they do it won't stop him from writing PCP the way that he wants to write it. Hence why I think the next PCP chapter that gets published in Bakuman's WSJ ill be a big F-U to the media.

lol, I can just imagine. Knowing Takagi, this might be a surprisingly big FU. When he gets confident, he gets confident. 

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Just read the most recent chapter of One Piece. Eh, While its still good, I can't help but get a little tired of how 1-dimensionally evil Oda has designed the Celestial Dragons to be. As soon as they came into the plot in this flash-back, it became obvious to me how things would end. I mean, he tried to throw a curve-ball in this chapter by having Queen Otohime return alive with a documented letter allowing Fishmen to come to the surface world, but its obvious that it'll turn out to be just a ruse or something by the Celestial Dragons to lure a bunch of them out to capture as slaves again. The story itself is still good, but I just grow tired of how Oda has to make the characters he wants you to hate completely 1-dimensional with just the sole purpose of pissing people off. I actually much prefer the more rare One Piece characters like Akainu (I hesitate to call him a "villain" since, while being a Marine certainly doesn't make him or anyone a good guy by default, his overall intentions aren't that clear as to whether he fights for some greater good that he believes in or is just a total ass), since while he isn't necessarily all that complex, he strikes you as having multiple layers to his character and possibly actually having reasons for acting the way that he does, despite the fact that its made obvious that you're meant to hate him as a character.

At any rate, I think I'm kind of growing tired of the flashback in general, possibly since I already know where its going and it hasn't done anything to surprise me yet (though I did like it in execution up until Fisher Tiger's death a couple of chapters back). I really just want Oda to get back to the main plot as quick as possible, though, by this point.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'm kind of getting tired of the current flash-back in OP. Even Oda can succumb to the trap of making stuff like this last too long when it could be shorter, but at least it seems to be almost over. As predicted we got out next big death-scene in this chapter, but unlike the last one this one honestly didn't have as big of an impact on me, IMO. Anyways, I can't wait to see how these past events affect the story in the present (and hopefully Oda gets back to the present really soon).

[Spark Of Spirit]

I'm reading Billy Bat and Lee Harvey himself just showed up.

This is some weird shit going on right now.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Enigma is really building up to something interesting. I'm really liking that shonen like this are still made, and still do well in the magazine.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Enigma is really building up to something interesting. I'm really liking that shonen like this are still made, and still do well in the magazine.

And it looks like the first arc is coming to a close only 38 chapters in. It looks like the next chapter could be very interesting for revelations.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

OK, Here's one of my problems with One Piece: while its understandable that Oda needs to keep the Straw Hat pirates off the scene for a time to set-up some despicable villains who you want to see get their asses inevitably handed to them, sometimes he goes overboard. We get it! Hodi Jones is evil. And he was already shown to be such scum that it came as no surprise that he had been Queen Otohime's true assassin in the past because we could already tell how much he hated her. Lets finally get Luffy and the others back in the picture so that we can see how they handle the situation from hear on out.

I will say that this chapter had one good moment, though, and that's when Madam Shirley pointed out to Hodi that in her prophecy Luffy would bring about the destruction of Fishman Island, so that ends up keeping Hodi and the other fishmen on edge that their own plans will get crushed by Luffy and the Straw Hat pirates while simultaneously creating a dilemma in that Luffy is destined to do what "seems" to be an evil deed by bringing about the destruction of an entire island. However, knowing Oda this is most likely just a loophole in that Luffy will destroy it in a "sense" in that he'll end up breaking down the barrier between Fishmen and Humans so it'll create the opportunity for both species to co-exist with one another instead of fear and hate each other. That's just my prediction, anyways.

Also, the twist that Madam Shirley was revealed to be Arlong's sister just felt like it kind of came out of nowhere. Unlike some of Oda's more clever twists, I don't really recall there ever having been any hints to this during earlier arcs (especially not in the Arlong arc), and overall it just seems like its an unnecessary twist that won't even have any bearing on the plot, anyways (though, I could be proven wrong since that's happened to me with this series before).

[Spark Of Spirit]

So since Arlong was beaten before Luffy got an "upgrade" (I really wish they never went this route in One Piece), does this make him a low tier villain compared to everyone he's fighting now? Has he basically been reduced to joke cameos and the like?

This is why I dislike the idea of rankings in Japanese stuff, it degrades the importance of earlier characters and villains tremendously.

I should probably start reading again, but it would take me ages to catch up.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So since Arlong was beaten before Luffy got an "upgrade" (I really wish they never went this route in One Piece), does this make him a low tier villain compared to everyone he's fighting now? Has he basically been reduced to joke cameos and the like?

If you're talking about the fact that he got stronger, its not handled as cliched as you might be thinking. Its handled in a very sensible way. For a long time Luffy and his crew fought opponents who were basically on comparable levels. But yes the whole idea is that inevitably as they got deeper into the grand line they would meet higher tier characters (not just villains but other characters in general). That only makes sense because Luffy was only 17 years old when he started his journey and it'd be ridiculous to have him be on par with the older and more experienced Pirates and Marines around the world. And for all intensive purposes he still isn't. There is hardly any class system in One Piece at all and no real rankings but there are instances when some older and more experienced adventurers and soldiers are more powerful than less experienced people in the world of One Piece. The bottom line though is that its not handled the way you might be thinking it is. If you see the reasoning behind why Luffy was forced to get stronger then it makes more sense (for the longest time he got by villains that were clearly tougher than him with strategy and a bit of luck, but at one point he had to get stronger if he wanted to compete with the best Pirates in the world).

This is why I dislike the idea of rankings in Japanese stuff, it degrades the importance of earlier characters and villains tremendously.

If that's your concern, have no worries. Arlong may be significantly weaker than Luffy and other characters are now, but his importance has not been degraded one bit. In fact he has gotten A TON of back-story in this current arc showing readers stuff we never even knew about him in the past (he's now actually a fully 3-dimensional character, and despite how despicable he is you can actually understand his actions after seeing his part of this arc's major flash-back scene).

That's the thing: characters from the past in One Piece are not often forgotten, and their importance has absolutely nothing to do with strength, but their impact on members of the main cast and the world around them. Arlong has actually been made more significant if anything, and other characters that Luffy is probably stronger than, including villains, still get plenty of weight in the world of One Piece if they are important as characters. Hell, even Buggy hasn't been forgotten (though admittedly whenever he does appear as a recurring character he is played for laughs as he is no longer even remotely threatening to Luffy, but he does also have a huge bearing on the plot at one point in the series).

I should probably start reading again, but it would take me ages to catch up.

It doesn't take quite as long as you think, actually, especially if you read the manga. If you marathon through it (not saying that you should, but its highly possible since some arcs of this series get downright addicting), you could probably catch up to the current story in a few weeks. Its still a shonen series so there is a lot of action and chapters that aren't super-heavy on dialogue, so over-all its not as much content as say, 500 chapters of something by Naoki Urasawa or Tsugumi Ohba.