Tag Archives: One Piece

One Piece: Adventure of Nebulandia Review

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It’s time for another big adventure from the Strawhats. This one brings back the Foxy pirates who actually got reasonably popular after their original story arc. That said, it is one of the weaker films in the series mainly because of how low key it is. Everyone gets to appear and have some fun but there isn’t a ton of action in this one. It’s an adventure first and foremost so you will see the characters have to use their smarts to win this time. Pure strength won’t get the job done, not against the master strategist who appears!

The film starts off with the Strawhats having fun as normal and then they land on a fun island. Sanji in particular is super excited because there are a lot of girls there who were stranded and need a ride back. What he didn’t realize is that this was actually Foxy and his gang of henchmen. Some of them were girls but the rest just had good disguises on. They are here to challenge Luffy and friends to a Davyback fight where the loser must have someone join the winner’s crew. Obviously the stakes are way too high to even think of accepting this but Luffy and friends do anyway. After all the worst thing can’t happen as long as they win right? What they don’t realize is that one of Foxy’s new teammates, Komei, is actually a government agent who is here to shut the Strawhats down once and for all. Can they get away from this trap?

The movie’s whole dilemma only stands a chance because the sleepy mushrooms actually affect Luffy. I think it’s debatable on if they would do anything thanks to his immunity though. Sure this isn’t a lethal poison but the sleepiness is still an adverse effect which Luffy’s body should have knocked out. At least if you ask me that would have been the most likely scenario. Still, that’s how they manage to take out the most powerful members of the crew since otherwise Zoro would have ended this in an instant.

It’s pretty in character for Luffy and friends to eat the mushrooms so I don’t have any issues there. It’s just a shame that the rest of the team aren’t really great fighters. It’s why a lot of people say that the Strawhats need to get stronger because only a select few really carry the team at this point. They desperately need to shed that reputation and this film doesn’t help with that. The power levels will also make you sneeze in this film. Like at one point Luffy goes to attack Komei and the guy just slaps some oil onto the boat so Luffy slips.

The whole thing is mega embarrassing and it’s why some people have a hard time thinking of Luffy as a mega powerhouse. I wouldn’t take the scene too seriously but either way it does show that Luffy got absolutely crushed in this fight. Once we get to the serious battle it’s all over fairly quick. Komei is good at planning things out but he’s no big fighter. Once you get past his defenses then it’s really all over for the guy. He’s just not going to be coming back from that.

I did like Komei as the villain though. He gives off the right vibes for a strategic villain like this. Yeah it may be hard to take him seriously at times but he does say all of the right things. I just have the sneaking suspicion that I won’t remember the guy very well after a while so that’s why I can’t call him amazing or anything like that. He’s still better than Dojaku though who just feels like an absolute henchman the whole time. Not the kind of guy who could ever end up being the powerful leader type.

As for Foxy’s group, they were being manipulated the whole time so I wouldn’t say they look good or anything like that. You’d think they would have realized that the new members weren’t what they seemed to be. That may be a little easy to say in hindsight though. Foxy’s slow power is still super broken and overpowered so he could become a real threat if he was ever to return. The rest of his crew are super weak though so he has to carry the team on his own.

The animation in the film is good but again it isn’t trying to do anything fancy here. The animation is going through the motions but this definitely feels like an ordinary episode. he soundtrack doesn’t really have any standout themes either. So it’s all rather ordinary. That’s not necessarily a bad thing but just something to keep in mind. You will not be finding a cinematic experience here. Although for some it probably feels more comfortable that way so this one ends up being easy to plug in at any point.

Overall, It’s nice to see the Strawhats getting to just relax and have fun once in a while. Even with the government threat and all, I imagine it probably feels like a vacation next to the other big battles that they’ve been in. If you enjoy One Piece then you will like this adventure as well. There is nothing to dislike here after all. If they ever bring the Foxy pirates back again, I’d like to see them do a proper competition of sorts without it being interrupted immediately. Maybe do it without the stakes of losing a member so that way you don’t actually know which team would win. It’s a nice way to building tension since of course in a proper fight the Strawhats would obviously win. In a competition it is less certain. Also we really need Zoro to be a main character next time around instead of missing most of the adventure. I get that you don’t want it to be too easy for the heroes but sidelining him like that is definitely not the right answer.

Overall 7/10

One Piece: Heart of Gold Review

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It’s time for a One Piece adventure! Generally I’ve enjoyed all of the One Piece movies and this one’s no exception. I would say it is one of the weakest titles in the franchise as it can’t really keep up on a story or battle basis. Still, you’ll be entertained which is the important part and it’s always fun to see the gang in new situations.

The story starts with the Strawhats coming across a girl who has just escaped from a bunch of other pirates. She has a piece of gold with her that will enable her to find a hidden city. The main characters are pirates so this sounds like a good time to them. They all end up getting sucked into a giant fish where the island is being hidden. Can Luffy and friends secure the treasure and get out or have they just stumbled onto a massive conspiracy?

This is a classic adventure which feels like a return to the original One Piece days. The nostalgia adds a nice boost to things and the film also does out of its way to try and give everyone something to do. I’d say the main exception is Franky but you had Chopper blocking projectiles and Brook even got to play the piano. Naturally Zoro and Sanji get to have their big fights at the end while Luffy takes on the big shot. Now there are some power level issues here but you would probably expect that from the jump. Mad is strong but nowhere near the level he would need to be in order to take down someone like Luffy.

The film extends things a bit to make it exciting. I can sort of look the other way, it’s not going to hurt the score or anything but seeing Luffy struggle with some chains was definitely rough. That’s not something that I would expect out of him at this stage in the game. Personality wise the Strawhats all looked good though with the exception of Sanji. For Sanji they really leaned into his more pervy side here so he was definitely taking L after L the whole time. I would have liked him to have done better but I’m not the biggest fan of his anyway.

Now for the new characters, the main one here is Olga who is basically a kid who says her thoughts out loud. It’s a classic gimmick that you see from time to time in different titles and I’d say it’s not a bad one. There isn’t much to her beyond this but her character design is memorable and she has a tough personality so she automatically beats a bunch of the other film OCs. Now if she could just fight then she would really rise up.

Mad is a fairly generic villain. He basically wants treasure and likes a good fight. Nothing particularly bad about him but I don’t think anyone will be talking about the guy after a few years. The chains ability is really handy though and it was nice to see animated. There aren’t a ton of chain users out there so I always like to see another user. If the chains themselves were stronger I could definitely see this guy being a top fighter.

Meanwhile the animation is good but nothing amazing. The chain fights are really the only times when the film is actively flexing. Beyond that it’s fairly standard stuff. Better than what you’ll see in the average mainstream movie but not quite near where you’d expect the anime movies to be at. I did like the effect they used for when Luffy was using observation haki though. The red eyes really looked menacing. In terms of soundtrack, not really any big knockout tunes to change things up. The main themes are good enough though. That’s sort of the feel of the whole movie. It’s all good enough without actively trying to be the best or anything more than that. So it’s a pretty good time and you will have fun with it but then it will blend with the background.

The best character here is definitely Zoro and I dare say that will be the reaction of just about anyone who checks out the film. He gets his fight and dominates from start to finish. There is no point where you think he will be on the losing side or anything like that. He even gives a nice speech the whole time and you wouldn’t be surprised if he was actually stronger than Luffy. The guy definitely carries that level of confidence after all.

In terms of the general story, it may be a stretch to have someone from CP0 losing to the new villain but I know it’s a quick way to build up some hype. The film needs an ultimate treasure and so having a secret elixir or immortality is one way to do it. It’s perhaps a little too overpowered though considering there are basically no side effects and it doesn’t seem all that hard to mass produce. It certainly works well in upping the stakes and everything but yeah the world government would be all over that in a heart beat.

Overall, The idea of a movie to set up another movie is pretty interesting. That’s such a bold movie that I can respect it. One Piece Film Gold definitely looks way more impressive and is also the better movie but this is a good title all around. You do have to ignore the fact that the heroes could have ended this film within 5 minutes when the villains showed up due to the gap in power though. I would recommend it if you like One Piece or generally if you like a good adventure film. It’s a very stand alone adventure and only a few cameos will just feel meaningless to someone who is not a fan. The story’s framework and the general plot are both straight forward enough where this won’t be confusing or anything like that.

Overall 7/10

Monsters Review

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Lets take a look at Oda’s original oneshot! One Piece has become one of the most recognized franchises in the world and yet before that he had already written a quick story here. You can tell that his art style is a little rougher around the edges from back then but it still looks clear enough. It’s a fun story and you can bet that I was inspired to check this out since the new Netflix adaption just came out. It’s a rare case where I saw the adaption before the original special. It’s a very faithful adaption though so it’s just about the same.

We start off with the famous Shirano stopping by a local village and he is recognized by the waitress Flare who was saved by him as a child. She survived a very traumatic ordeal when a dragon murdered everyone and destroyed the village but thanks to his help she survived. Unfortunately a samurai known as Ryuma appears and picks a fight. Shirano defeats him and diffuses the situation but that same samurai picks a fight with a villainous figure known as D.R. who decides to summon a dragon as revenge. Now the village is doomed to be destroyed and Flare wishes that Ryuma had never stopped by. She will have to relive the same tragedy all over again and this time Shirano will likely die as he has decided to stay back and fight it which is a fool’s errand.

Ryuma definitely comes across as really irresponsible and not the kind of guy you want to have as your hero. Picking fights for minor things is a bit much no matter how he tries to justify it. Yeah I put no blame on him for the D.R. matter because villains will do what villains do but he shouldn’t have picked a fight at the restaurant. The guy does have a good rage mode in the story though. Seeing Flare break down and jumping into action was definitely the right move. The scene showing her trying to keep it together was really good.

I give her a lot of credit there because trying to put on a brave face is a really tough thing to do but she pulled it off. It may not have fooled Ryuma but she wasn’t trying to burden anyone with her problems. I deduct some points for her blaming Ryuma for everything right away though. D.R. is the one who looks shady and at the end of the day he summoned the dragon so shouldn’t you be blaming him the most? Same goes for all of the villagers who panic as always.

Shirano definitely has a really big role in the story as well. It’s a role you can probably see coming but he pulls it off well. There’s always something scary about a character like this when you feel like you know him but then find out the hard way that you never did. It’s why you have to be careful who you trust and how far you trust them. Trust is not something to be given lightly. D.R. is a very forgettable character though and there’s nothing to make him stand out.

As mentioned the art is a little on the rough side but I would still say it’s good enough. You can always tell what is going on. It really has changed a lot compared to the current One Piece days but hey time will do that to any artist. There is a decent page count to this oneshot but with the wide panels and lots of reaction type shots, it really goes by very quickly. You’ll easily be able to read this one in one sitting. The action scenes we get here are really short so at the end of the day this is more about the adventure. You won’t be bored at any point and it moves pretty quickly so I have no issues there.

I think this could have even worked as a full ongoing if the author was interested in that. It definitely would have been more of a Kenshin type story about a wandering samurai but with the dragon in chapter one, the author already opened the door for a lot of supernatural events which would be different. Dragons themselves aren’t super rare to find in a story like this but if the author went far enough with spellcasters and such this could have been pretty unique. Ultimately I am glad that we got One Piece instead though.

Overall, Monsters is a fun oneshot. It’s a nostalgic trip to the past and an interesting look at what could have been rather than One Piece. It’s a good title which is enough for a oneshot like this but naturally doesn’t have enough in it to pass the average ongoing title. It’s free on the viz site right now so I’d recommend giving it a read. Then if you enjoy the series, it’s time to quickly check out One Piece and begin one of the longest journeys of your life!

Overall 6/10

Monsters: 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation Review

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It’s time to look at the Monster special/mini movie that came out recently. You know when they first announced this project I figured it’d be at least an hour or longer but I guess that would have not really made sense since this was based on a one shot. At the very least they would have had to add a lot of extra scenes. Maybe if they included the full fight in the after credits scene instead of just the ending but for people just trying to watch this as a stand alone it probably would have been a really odd way to end this.

The story starts with Ryuma showing up to a village in a state of near starvation. He hasn’t eaten in days and so Flare (I feel like her name was a little different when I saw the film but this works well enough), a nice person lets him eat a bunch for free. He considers himself to be in her debt now although he has a funny way of showing it considering that he starts a big fight in the bar. This happens because the world’s strongest swordsman, Shirano ends up bumping his sword into Ryuma’s. It should have just been a simple accident that they both laugh at and walk away from but Ryuma takes this kind of thing personal.

The same thing happens with someone else a few minutes later, but this time it is a villain named D.R. who pretends that he has been stabbed by Ryuma and uses the legendary dragon horn to summon a dragon to destroy the village. Now the whole village is mad at Ryuma but also just depressed because they are all going to die. Shirano vows to stay and fight the dragon but Ryuma knows that it isn’t his fault and just figures everyone should run off and live. Is this really the right move though? And why did this villain randomly summon a dragon like this? Something’s not right.

The special’s length is basically around 1 normal episode so things have to move pretty quickly. That includes the main plot twist here although it’s one that you will absolutely see a mile away. This is a fairly conventional story about a heroic figure slaying the giant dragon and so the plot around it is pretty much what you would expect. I’m guessing back in the day when submitting the oneshot to the magazine, the writer probably wanted to go with a safe story to start off with. It makes sense and the movie is a very faithful adaption. In a world of subversions and complex plots though, it works well enough.

My main complaint would be that I wish we got more action though. There is only one real action scene here with the dragon and it’s a short one. Yes there is a sword “duel” but that only lasts for a single move and is very fast. It does have the best action sequence by far though. I tend to like when an animation quickly switches to black and white for dramatic effect although you don’t want to overuse it. For example we get another black and white flash against the dragon but that one was really underwhelming in comparison. I would say the animation here is reasonably good but definitely not great or excellent like you would expect from a special. One Piece itself destroys this with many episodes in Wano.

As for the soundtrack, it’s pretty uneventful. Nothing to write home about so you’ll be forgetting the tunes pretty fast. As a main character Ryuma is okay but I wasn’t actually a big fan of his. The guy is super irresponsible, I still can’t believe that he broke a statue in Flare’s restaurant for practically no reason. I get that the sword is important to him but then you confront the guy outside. You don’t pick a fight where you can hurt innocent civilians. It’s also worth noting that Ryuma clearly went for a headshot against Shirano. So he was going to murder a guy for lightly bumping into his sword? Even after the guy apologized?

It’s hard to just overlook that. Particularly as it isn’t really played off as a bad thing either. It’s more of a comedic moment because Shirano had the skills to stop the attack and defeat Ryuma instantly but otherwise it could have been bad. This does also raise a power scaling issue later on. I mean a good rage mode easily answers that question but it’s why we should have had more of a fight later on.

I also think the climax raises some questions on exactly how the scheme worked. It seems to me like the dragon whistle actually works really well because the dragon never tried to attack them. So if you have a dragon working for you, then you can just blow villages up all the time. Why even bother with elaborate traps and schemes? It just seems unnecessary. There could be world building reasons around that like not wanting to attract attention but it seemed like the villain would make things harder on himself here.

D.R. is a fairly underwhelming villain. The guy can’t fight and isn’t too strong so he’s the kind of guy who really just hides in the back and hopes that things will work out. Flare is a decent heroine but a little too gullible. The fact that she was so quick to turn on Ryuma with no evidence was annoying. I get that it was traumatic but she really has no reason to jump in with the mob there. As you can tell I was not a big fan of the cast overall. Shirano would be the strongest character here by default. He may not go out very well but the guy is interesting all the way through and does help to enhance the special. With a better ending he would have fared even better.

Overall, Monsters is a fun special but I don’t see there being a lot of replay value. There just isn’t a reason to watch it for a second time. The best moment is a quick scene that plays after the credits though. I’ve actually watched that one a few times now. It’s got a lot of replay value but you could Youtube that instead of watching the whole thing again. The connection to a certain franchise is one of those open secrets where everybody basically knows about it, but I won’t spoil that in case you don’t know. If they could have hidden the connection more then the scene would really hit extra hard but then you lose out on some of the marketing angles so it’s a double edged sword. Regardless I do think this is worth a watch, particularly with how short it is.

Overall 6//10

One Piece: Episode of Sky Island Review

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It’s time for the next One Piece special on the docket. This one is about Skypiea but I guess they went for Sky Island to keep it a little more vague. Additionally Enel is now called Eneru….I prefer the old version but hey it’s a pretty minor thing. The special is good and does a decent job capturing the arc but it doesn’t work as well as the East Blue special because this one really goes out of its way to skip the fights. It doesn’t nail any of the really emotional moments as well as the show did and so what you get is an arc that is wayyyy watered down next to the show version. This is still nostalgic though.

The special starts with Luffy and gang heading to a small island where someone explains that there used to be a guy called Nolan the Liar. He would lie about everything including seeing an island floating in the sky but this guy is a direct descendent and believes that the stories are true. So now he continues to dive underwater in order to prove it, but this ain’t easy. Well Luffy and friends are going to pay a visit to the sky island but they find that it is being ruled by the god of lightning, Eneru. Can they defeat him and save the local islanders?

So there’s a lot to enjoy here since this is a big One Piece arc but at the same time it does lose a lot of the powerful moments and I will explain. For example, one of the biggest scenes in the show is when Enel made a huge lightning blast over one of the strawhats and it was one of the first times we saw him use such a big blast. The scene went in slow-mo and it was all very tense because we could see the damage it did. That scene straight up doesn’t happen here.

We also miss out on Zoro’s entire fight against one of the angels which was unfortunate because that was a really fun battle. Even their big battle with Eneru was very short. I guess it wasn’t a super long fight in the main show either but this felt like a blink and you’ll miss it kind of moment which is definitely not what the original was like. Even the Luffy vs Enel fight doesn’t feel quite as long or grand as it should be. It does at least get way more screentime than anything else though so you couldn’t ask for much more there.

Chopper only gets a quick instance for his win as well which doesn’t show you much. There was a lot going on with the whole island survival game but the whole thing is basically shown in quick stills as everyone is wiped out. That’s what should have been expanded and I feel like the runtime should have just been extended a little. The special goes by quickly and considering that it’s a whole arc we’re dealing with, making it around 2 hours would have been really nice. Especially since this arc gets more important each time.

Now a common topic to think about is if Enel would still be a threat in future arcs. I’d say at best he gets up to the CP9 saga but that’s it because his speed wasn’t enough to dodge Luffy’s attacks while in Gear 1. So as good as you think his lightning may be, his speed isn’t at a level where he could seriously be a fierce opponent to most. I’m sure he will get buffed a lot if he ever does reappear in the manga but I do have my doubts on that. Of course it would be awesome but the series is slowly getting to the very end of its saga so in that case it’s probably over.

The special has a pretty emotional ending with Luffy and the gang proving that Nolan wasn’t a liar. I’m also glad that the people in Skypiea had realized this too because otherwise the whole flashback would have been pretty tragic. I mean it definitely was still tragic either way, One Piece doesn’t hold back on the feels. There was some hope though and it could have all been a lot darker. So like this I was pretty satisfied. I’m naturally a lot more interested in the present stuff though and the flashback gets a ton of screentime which is also part of why it doesn’t stand up to the East Blue saga where the vast majority was about the Strawhats.

In terms of animation the special looks good enough. I don’t think it looks nearly as good as the East Blue saga though and it’s clear this one wasn’t super high budget the way the other special felt like it was. The soundtrack brings in the classic One Piece tunes which is nice enough. One of these days the specials should bring a whole new soundtrack even if it takes away from the nostalgia feel a little. Just switch things up to really make everything pop out. It’s One Piece so to an extent it will always be very good no matter what happens but this would help to really take it to the next level.

Overall, This was a really fun adventure. It just feels like they left a whole lot of meat on the bone. While nothing will beat the original source material I’d say the idea behind these specials is to give you something more or less comparable so you can just enjoy that instead of redoing the whole saga again. That doesn’t work in this case because you’re just missing out on too much action. So now you have to watch the show again which unfortunately does destroy the point of this. It’s unfortunate but that’s just the way that it is. Still good though so I’d recommend checking it out if you’re an experienced One Piece fan but I’d probably deflect people unfamiliar with the series to the TV show instead.

Overall 7/10

One Piece: Episode of East Blue Review

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It’s time for one of those classic One Piece remake specials. This one has to cover a lot of ground since it’s going over the whole East Blue saga but it definitely pulls this off really well. In a way it’s like a template for the live action series. While the general audience would probably be a little confused if it had been adapted exactly like this, I feel like it worked really well. It’s a great special and really reminds you of the classic days of One Piece.

The special is divided up into 5 sections told through flashbacks from each crew member. The first one is naturally Luffy as we see his very first adventure. Of course this involves getting his devil fruit and Shanks saving him from a giant monster. It’s a pretty good origin that has stood the test of time. Yes you may still wonder why Shanks didn’t awaken his advanced haki in order to stop the monster and how he got speed blitzed by a random joe with the help of a smoke bomb. All very valid questions but it’s best to just acknowledge this as a quick fumble and keep it moving. At the end of the day that is all we can really do. It’s still a very tense opening.

You also see how Shanks and friends were true pirates. When the going got tough they did not spare any prisoners, they straight up murdered their opponents. It’s a brutal reminder that as nice as they are, they’re still pirates and aren’t about to serve as marines in arresting everybody. Seeing Luffy come into his own as a pirate makes for a solid conclusion and you’re reminded how far he has come. So all in all that works as a really good way to start this up

Then we get to Zoro’s segment. His origin is still extremely emotional the whole time and definitely one that you won’t soon forget. I do think he probably didn’t handle the situation very well in terms of allowing Axe Hand Morgan to capture him though. That’s just way too risky even when it is intentional. Once he joined Luffy then it was all uphill though. They also included his big battle with Mihawk which is still an excellent fight. They even extended the choreography and made this a true fight from start to finish. Of course he was overwhelmed but the production values were on point and I dare say that it is the best looking moment in the special.

After that we have the Usopp arc. He lied so many times that eventually nobody believed him which has to be a rough situation to be in. He definitely shouldn’t have lied so often though, this was the only way that it was going to go. Captain Kuro still makes for a very imposing villain along with his teammates. We get to see Luffy shine and of course Usopp does man up in the end. It’s easily the weakest of the 5 segments in the special but of course it’s still solid either way. Usopp just wasn’t ready out of the gate the way that the others were.

Then we have Sanji’s story which is a lot of fun as you would expect. I like how bold he was in attacking anyone who got in his way and this is back from when he was a lot more charming and wasn’t being overly flanderized with the flirting. So this version actually had a lot of dignity about him with a clear vision on finding the All Blue. His flashback is also another really sad one and of the main 5, probably the most brutal aside from Nami’s. They also really extended his fight with the minion that he fed.

The fact that the villain actually beat Sanji was something I really forgot unless the victor was changed here. Sanji was completely overwhelmed the whole time and didn’t stand a chance. It’s a reminder that while Sanji is very skilled, he wasn’t quite up to the level of Zoro here. Some really good determination moments for Luffy in this arc too though, when he punched through the spikes that was really intense! Moments like that are why he is the captain here.

Then we have Nami’s arc which of course ties into the famous Arlong Park saga. We get her origin story which was really intense and her Mom was a really fantastic character back then. She really never wavered and did her best to stick up for Nami and her sister. Then in the present of course we get the famous scene of Nami asking for help and Luffy really dishing out the pain to Arlong. That’s what you like to see from the climax and it’s still one of the most iconic moments of all of One Piece. It works really well having this as the last part of the special since it’s the biggest climax at least by that point in the series.

So there’s really nothing to dislike about this special. It’s filled with tons of top tier content throughout and constant action. The characters are all developed really well and the animation is really solid. The colors are striking and the choreography is on point. The soundtrack has aged really well and they brought back some of my favorite retro themes. The technical elements were on point here, now I just need them to do Episode of Marineford already. That one already looks awesome but I’m always down to revisit one of the best moments in the series.

Overall, Episode of East Blue is definitely a great special. It took a lot of really excellent moments from One Piece and brought them all together. The length is also pretty solid considering the amount of content here so it wasn’t super rushed. It is rushed of course to an extent because it would be mathematically impossible not to be but it all works out pretty well. I would say that a bunch of the fights do start to get skipped especially by the Arlong arc but Luffy’s fights all make it at least. I would like to have seen more fights because that’s my thing but I know others would prefer the story beats. All in all it’s a reasonable compromise/division of scenes between action and story. I would definitely recommend this to any One Piece fan, you’re bound to be in for a good time! Even to general anime fans you should be able to enjoy it.

Overall 8/10

One Piece Season 1 Review

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It’s time to finally talk about the live action One Piece series. One Piece, more commonly known as One Peak is considered to be one of the all time greatest manga/anime series. It just keeps on going and shows no signs of stopping. It was inevitable that a live action version would come out at some point and that moment is finally here. It’s definitely a great first season and I’d say that it lived up to the hype. Of course at the end of the day there did have to be some cuts in order to make it work but the whole thing came out well.

The story focuses around a kid named Monkey D. Luffy. He ate a devil fruit which turned him into a rubber man. He now seeks to become the King of the Pirates and find the legendary treasure known as the One Piece. To this end he will need to gather up a crew, around 10 people will do. Of course this won’t be easy as all those who stand in his way have the same goal and also have frightening powers of his own. Every great hero must start somewhere though and Luffy is now prepared to go for the goal and make his dream a reality. There are 8 episodes in this season and for the most part they adapt oneshot stories but there are multi parters here and of course the whole thing is narratively connected.

All right so lets quickly talk about how the actors fit the characters. Whenever you see characters in live action you either see them as cosplayers or really embodying the character. I would say that they really nailed Zoro, Buggy, and Usopp. I’m actually still the most mixed about Luffy because to me in a lot of ways he just still doesn’t look/feel like the Luffy from the show. Still a really fun character but I’m not seeing it yet. Sanji and Nami I’m more on the fence about but I think they work well enough. Not as much to say about the side characters, Shanks crew doesn’t look too impressive yet but Mihawk and Garp are excellent! Koby’s also fitting but since I don’t like the character much I wouldn’t have minded if he changed.

Now lets break down each of the episodes a bit. The first one is the intro episode so of course we get to meet Luffy, Nami, Zoro, and Koby who will end up being main characters for the whole adventure. Their paths all cross as they are trying for different goals. Nami is a burglar who steals from the navy, Zoro is a legendary pirate hunter and Luffy of course wants to be the pirate king. Koby wants to be a marine and change the world but he’s a little too nervous to pull that off. The episode does a good job of introducing every character, having them meet up, and then giving us a group fight. It’s a huge advantage of every episode being 40+ minutes like this because then you have enough time to pull this off.

The episode also sets the tone for the rest of the series with a lot of solid humor/banter along with the fights. Zoro steals the show right away with how cool he is. The guy is super skilled and yes at this point he would clearly beat Luffy in a fight. Not any shade against Luffy though, the rival is always supposed to start out stronger. The 3 characters already have a pretty good dynamic here as well even if it’s hard to call them a true team by this point. As in the anime I did think Zoro didn’t play this too smart by letting himself be captured though. It was obvious that these corrupt guys weren’t going to honor their word and let him know so it was a poor trap to get caught in.

The episode also starts the trend where just about every episode will have some kind of flashback/backstory for the character in the episode. Additionally there will always be a cutaway to Koby and the marines as the kid learns just how corrupt they can be. It works fairly well even if I would say this isn’t always necessary. Sometimes you’re engaged with the present scenes enough where you just don’t want to travel back in time. Fortunately the flashbacks tend to be interesting but I will admit they are always the weakest part of every episode and I’d be ready to jump back into the present.

The next episode brings in the debut of Buggy The Clown. The heroes are still trying their best to get along when this guy shows up and unveils his true powers. He can split his body into a bunch of pieces so it’s hard to actually hit him. It’s what makes him a very intense villain though and he is played very seriously here at first. Of course he’s got some One Piece humor in him but the guy is actively terrorizing a whole town which is still pretty dark. We see that the town was totally destroyed too so this series isn’t afraid to get serious when it needs to be.

The heroes still aren’t getting along super well at this point but they’re making improvements. By the end of this episode I’d say the team is fairly well united. One funny moment though was when Nami tried to run away but then stopped right as she exited the tent so they captured her again. I know she was shocked but still you can’t just stop right there, at least keep running until you can hide. Luffy also came really close to death in this episode but writing him out was a good way to let Zoro and Nami bond. The Strawhats are a close unit so it’s good to build up each character dynamic outside of Luffy as well.

Then we get to the first multi parter with Usopp jumping into action. He’s basically someone who lies a whole lot to impress Kaya, the girl that he likes. The problem is that at this point nobody believes a word that he says…and why would they right? The guy is constantly lying so I wouldn’t believe him either. He would tell the village that pirates are coming every year and now that they are actually here…it’s too late. Fortunately Luffy and friends show up in time to help.

The main villain here is Kuro and I was curious how they would handle his lightning fast speed. The show actually does handle it well as it vanishes from sight but unfortunately this does throw a lot of power level issues into the mix. He’s so fast that the heroes can’t possibly react to him and so he forgets his speed at convenient moments. I’m glad that the show kept his speed but they should have come up with a better way for the heroes to beat him. I’m not saying it would be easy but it should absolutely be possible. I was also glad that Zoro got to have a brief fight here but since he was injured the guy naturally couldn’t go all out as needed and then you had the knock out gas.

Usopp was actually handled more seriously than I’m used to seeing him. In the manga the guy’s always a total coward while that doesn’t really come into play here. The show seems to remember this later on so in the final episodes they dial that up. I’d like to see him stay relatively brave since it just makes him more of a quality character but it’s one of those things I suppose. He does decently well in the show even if the other members are more likable.

Then we enter the Baratie with the debut of Sanji. As one of the power hitters of the team it was nice to see him show up. The show does a great job of showing off his combat skills right off the gate and of course he can still cook a mean dish. He is definitely adapted really well and already we’ve got some banter between him and Zoro which is absolutely crucial. This arc is massively important in the show because it also ends up bringing in Mihawk. So Zoro does sort of steal Sanji’s arc a bit but it’s all worth it. I was worried Mihawk would be toned down a lot but he still managed to cut a whole ship in two with a casual slash which was really impressive. That’s absolutely what you want to see from a fighter like this.

Sanji fits right in with the crew and the origin story is still pretty intense here. We also get the beginnings of the Arlong arc so that was an intense way to begin building up to the climax. I definitely didn’t have any real issues with this arc. You do wonder how badly Zoro would have packed up Arlong and crew if he was at full strength though. His swords can pierce the fishmen so mix that in with his speed and technique and he’d be all set. He may not be ready for Mihawk yet but few are.

Then we get to the final episodes involving Arlong and his gang. Nami’s origin story is definitely still really intense here and we see Arlong bribing marines which is a good way to continue to show how corrupt they can be. The action here is intense and while we don’t get some of the really iconic moments from the show, we do get most of the important ones. I would say this is probably the only part where the show’s power levels got a little annoying though. Throughout the show Luffy has looked almost downright weak at times. He gets through his battles but only barely and just by throwing basic punches. This catches up to him when Arlong beats him up.

Here’s the problem, in the manga one of the whole points of the climax was Luffy not knowing what was going on but deciding to beat up Arlong anyway. He knew that was something he could do. In the show his line is almost the exact opposite about how he knows he can’t stop Arlong but he can stop his plans. So I feel like they read that scene backwards and a big part of how impressive this was is because Luffy was that dude. He could ultimately beat up anyone who got in his way in the East Blue. At least until we get to Crocodile, Luffy wasn’t going down.

In the show here Luffy is way more of an underdog which I feel is going to backfire a bit. Right now we’re supposed to feel confident in his abilities and I don’t. I don’t mind him losing to Garp later because of course he should. Garp’s out of his league but the same shouldn’t be true for Arlong. As a villain Arlong’s not bad. I don’t think the effects/design work as well as the other villains but he was tough and that’s what counts. He still manages to be a pretty solid villain all around.

Now the character I never really ended up getting behind was Koby. He gets a lot of shine in this series with a ton of extra screentime but in the end he’s still just so nervous and hesitant. Even when he finally “mans up” and has those big scenes, I couldn’t get by him. I’m hoping he’ll improve in the next season as there is a clear character arc here. I just need it to speed up. Likewise I can’t say I’m a big fan of Helmeppo right now. I prefer him to Koby but he’s still a little too petty. Garp is great though. He may be making poor decisions all around but I like his confidence and at least he has some kind of a honor code going for him.

If I had any issue with the live action series, one minor one can be the camera work. The series reallllllly loves its zoom ins so the camera is constantly in their faces. I sort of get what they’re trying to do in terms of dramatic effect but I think it’s all a bit overdone if you ask me. Those kinds of shots should really be used sparingly if yo want them to have impact. Otherwise the visuals are solid. They really did a good job with the powers and costumes so props to the show there.

The soundtrack is definitely limited but fortunately there was one track which really stood out and as a result ended up buffing the soundtrack as a whole. This was Buggy’s theme. It has some really hype opera type sounds whenever he appears and that was great. Always perfect for a cliffhanger and the show has quite a few really solid ones. The fights are a lot of fun. I would say ironically Luffy easily has the weakest fights mainly because they have no choreography next to Zoro and Sanji’s, but they’re still fun to watch. The best fights tend to be Zoro’s and you can tell a lot of thought was put into them. I dare say his best fight may have even been the very first one where he took down a member of the organization.

A fun part about the show diverging a bit is experiencing those cool what ifs. For example in this version Arlong and Luffy go at it in the Baratie which is considerably different from the manga. I was also glad that Luffy didn’t just roll over or get one shotted even if he was not doing great in the fight. Let them have a proper battle before the rematch since in theory Luffy has no power ups in between rounds so it should be close if we expect him to win later on. Mihawk’s expanded role was also done really excellently here. Also a nice touch was how they unveil every character’s bounties. That was really cool.

The pacing is good and I can definitely see the show doing each of the arcs justice. Naturally there are a lot of things, scenes, and characters who have to be trimmed to pull this off with any realistic hopes of success but I’ll take it. The positive of getting to see this in a more mainstream setting is always fun. After all I’ll have the anime for my straight adaption with all the superb animation. This is just a more surreal way to see how you can translate this and I still say this was a great job all around. I was very satisfied all the way through.

Overall, One Piece is a show that absolutely surpassed my expectations. It’s not just a good adaption but a great show on its own. It’s very interesting to watch and you will be having a good time all the way through. It never drags on and this is really the sign of a quality title. If you are someone who has never seen One Piece before then you will definitely be able to still enjoy the show a lot and that’s the sign of a really solid title. Just watch it the same way you would watch something like Breaking Bad or Seinfeld as a brand new title and there’s something for those new audiences as well as fans. I look forward to seeing how season 2 shakes out since it will naturally be more difficult as we get to the more powerful villains and expanded cast. I’m confident they can pull it off though. With how great the effects look here with the colors taken right out of the manga, seeing the other characters is gonna be great!

Overall 8/10

“Was I a Fraud?” Lets rank these big villains

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The term “Fraud” is thrown around quite a lot nowadays. I would say it’s temporarily become a bigger term than “Mid” and of course these terms always come and go as the years go by. Right now is a particularly fun time in manga world though with Sukuna, All For One, and Code constantly getting dunked on in every chapter by people online. So I thought, why not take a quick deep dive into some of the bigger cases of “Fraud Watch” and rank them all? I’ll be listing each character from least to most fraudulent. In each villain’s case I’ll quickly give a summary of the character, the series of origin, and the “Fraud” reasons I’ve seen posted online. I’ll then counter with how valid he reasons are.

I’m limiting this to one series so in each case it’s the one I saw listed the most and also factoring how big the character is. The one series this was tough to decide on was One Piece. Big Meme and Useless Captain Mid were the two runner ups from the fan terms but I would say I’ve still been seeing this the most for Kaido and it’s a bit bizarre. So no spoilers but we’re starting off with him because I don’t think you can make any kind of case for him being fraudulent. Not a valid one at least. Now without further adieu lets talk about the 9 characters with the most allegations here! (Really wish I could have thought of one more to make this a top 10 but I feel like there’s no obvious pick for that last spot.

Note that this list will have spoilers for One Piece, Jujutsu Kaisen, My Hero Academia, Boruto, Naruto, Fairy Tail, Black Clover, Attack on Titan, and Seven Deadly Sins

9. Kaido

Kaido is a huge villain from One Piece. The guy was hyped up as the most powerful One Piece villain for a long while. “Land, Sea, or Air, always bet on Kaido!” was his official slogan and even Oda had an interview where he wasn’t sure how Luffy would deal with this guy. His arc is currently the longest one in all of One Piece and he went through a complete gauntlet of fighters. He fought back to back the following fighters: Strawhat Luffy Gears 1-4, Zoro, Kid, Law, Killer, The Akaza 8, Yamato, Awakened Momo, Awakened Yamato, and of course Luffy in G5 mode. He was fighting for an incredible amount of time and basically took on the all of the relevant main characters. So yeah you can see why I don’t find him fraudulent in the slightest. Just look at how many hits the guy tanked!?

Fraud Watch!:

1. Wasn’t able to kill a single character during the fight on the roof
2. In particular could not finish off Orochi, the CP0 agent, or Kinemon despite attacking with the intent to kill
3. Possibly lost before using his hybrid mode
4. Started to get humiliated by Toon Force towards the end
5. Went out without a complete backstory
6. His cause of potential death was underwhelming

All right so I’d say off the bat we can throw out number 5. It’s a valid reason for not liking Kaido but I’d argue it doesn’t make him a fraud. For #1 and #2, yeah he probably should have murdered some of those characters. Most shouldn’t have been surviving those hits but I would lessen that a bit to plot armor. For the most part he wasn’t actively making choices that made no sense. He was intending to murder the characters and should have for all intents and purposes. So I wouldn’t place the burden of that on him.

#3 is still debated to this day but the anime used the hybrid color palette for him so most fans would agree he actually was in hybrid mode and so this should be thrown out. For #4, I would argue he wasn’t humiliated. Sure he got beat up a whole lot but Luffy was the one scared at times in a comedy sort of way. Kaido mainly kept a straight face and at the end of the day he just got beat up. So definitely not a fraud and he shouldn’t be on the list. The fact that he’s been getting mentioned a lot was part of my inspiration for this.

8. Acnologia

This is another case where people need to calm down. Acnologia is the final boss of Fairy Tail. A dragon of such immense power that he is said to be able to end the world. Nobody dares oppose him and he ends up taking on all of the Dragon Slayers at once. This guy got a lot of hype but I would say he earned it. It took a whole lot to take him out and to even beat him two different groups of heroes had to attack him on different planes of existence. The way he may have went out wasn’t great but I’d attribute it more to power of friendship than fraud. He got ringed out once which people found funny but lets face it, that’s still not an L.

Fraud Watch!

1. He got taken out in one punch
2. Retroactively he is no longer the strongest as Fairy Tail 100 introduces at least 5 dragons who are on his level and possibly stronger
3. Couldn’t destroy the ships attacking him in the real world
4. Couldn’t destroy any of the fighters

You’re going to notice a lot of similarities on the Fraud Watch reasons which makes sense but you’ll also see me debunking them in mainly the same ways. For the first reason I’d say it’s fairly disingenuous. Acnologia did get taken out with a punch but that was after a whole lot of other fighting. Whenever someone says a villain got rolled in one hit I usually shake my head because unless that was the start of the fight it’s really not valid.

#2 is also fairly irrelevant, it happened later on so that’s fine. It’s like how Super had fighters more powerful than Buu or everyone in Boruto being able to dunk on Naruto villains, it doesn’t retroactively make them worse. #3 is the most valid point because it was plot hax that he didn’t stop Lucy and crew but hey he was distracted by Natsu and friends attacking him in the dragon world. I think it’s a fairly decent reason why he didn’t stop them and to #4, he did beat everyone up, destroying them just gets rather tricky. I’d say it would for basically any villain.

7. Lucifero

Lucifero, otherwise known as Bullyfero among the fanbase. Well this guy started out strong as the ultimate demon lord who was crushing everyone in his path. The guy got a whole lot of hype particularly as he was slaughtering the main cast at just 50% power. So why did everyone turn on him? Well things got dicey in the second half as he basically got beat up in a few seconds once Asta got his final super form (Asta was only able to keep it active for 5 seconds and blitzed the life out of this guy), then Lucifero got crushed by the other demon with his other 50% so badly that he looked pretty whiny. The guy ended up being treated like a minion in the end.

Fraud Watch!

1. Ultimately being toyed with by Lucius and not knowing it
2. Not being able to finish any of the heroes
3. Not being able to survive Asta’s 5 second barrage
4. Not having a backup plan and going out like a chump
5. Threatening to murder all of Asta’s friends as the cliffhanger and not taking any of them out

Lucifero’s a bit lower on the list mainly because the reasons hit a bit harder for him and are tougher to defend. The first point is pretty rough for the guy. It does invalidate a whole lot of his tough talk. Instead of being a grand mastermind he ended up being played for the fool here. For #2 and #5, they particularly hurt him on the re read. When you marathon the climax now, he looks pretty bad since he talks really tough for the first half but then starts to get spanked. The other demon doesn’t respect him at all and of course he gets humiliated at the end.

#3 is also pretty tough for him because losing in 5 seconds is tough. Yes, he was fighting before that so there is extra context here but even then it’s tough just because of how exaggeratedly short that timer is. No backup plan is also pretty bad for him since he had that other 50% everyone was waiting for. I still like Lucifero quite a lot but I get the allegations. I would just say he pushes through past them and is still a serious threat.

6. Kaguya

Kaguya was the final boss of Naruto and a super controversial figure. Most people preferred Madara to be the final boss and if he wasn’t going to be then people would have wanted that title to go to Obito. Instead Kaguya assumed the throne right away and unfortunately got crushed fairly quick. It’s always the tough part about showing up at the end. She was very powerful and it took the powers of Team 7 to beat her but she didn’t get many lines and also seemed to be very unintelligent.

Fraud Watch!

1. Having no control of her own abilities and putting herself in a bad spot
2. Getting momentarily stunned by Naruto’s sexy jutsu
3. Unable to react to Sakura’s attack from the top
4. Not having any real personality
5. Feeling underwhelming power-wise considering her title

The first one is very valid. She basically created ninjutsu and has powers and experience well above the main fighters. It should be very easy for her to teleport to a realm where the heroes have the disadvantage and finish them off or just leave them there as a ring out. It feels like we didn’t get to see most of her arsenal at all so her losing wasn’t very satisfying.

#2 is just plain embarrassing. There’s no real defending that one. I will defend her from #3 though, it was the middle of a fight and contrary to the memes Sakura is very powerful. Not a top tier sure but it was a combination move so I’m fine with the attack landing. #4 is valid, I wouldn’t say it’s something to put her on fraud watch but it does add to why a lot of people don’t like her much.

#5 is the most valid and why I would say she deserves to be on Fraud Watch. She was the final boss but I would argue most would still put Madara above her in terms of ability. I think some would even say Obito should be above her and I would agree with that. Kaguya’s taijutsu skills seemed to only be decent and while she had a lot of power and speed, it felt like she didn’t have a ton of skill. So it was easier for Naruto and Sasuke to outmanuever her the whole time. The fraud allegations feel real because she did not live up to the hype as the strongest opponent even though that definitely seemed to be the intention.

5. Sukuna

All right we’ve made it to the King of Spirits! The ultimate fighter in Jujutsu Kaisen and some would argue the most powerful character in the series. At least that’s his rep and he’s been hyped since day 1. Well the allegations are coming in fast and hard due to his having a lot of difficulty against Satoru Gojo, the man with the powers of infinity. Mainly the allegations have arrived because Sukuna is not fighting Gojo one on one. He’s currently possessing the body of Gojo’s pseudo son Megumi (Not really related but Gojo got Megumi out of a toxic family and helped raise him), using Megumi’s powers, and is using Megumi himself as a shield to redirect half of the damage from each of Gojo’s attacks. Is this him being a fraud or him being smart?

Fraud Watch!

1. Sukuna got knocked out mid fight
2. Sukuna keeps mocking Gojo and talking smack about being the strongest while using all of this extra help
3. Sukuna’s basically using a hostage throughout the fight
4. All of Sukuna’s own abilities have been completely negated so far with his only damage coming thanks to Megumi

All right so the first one is pretty tough because yeah he was fully knocked out. So without backup that’d be it, it would have been curtains for the guy. #2 is also rough because the guy keeps knocking Gojo and acting like he’s been clobbering the fight when at best you could say he’s close to going even. Now the fight is still going and lots can still happen, we can find out Sukuna was only using 1% of his power or something. As with any ongoing series this can all be moot pretty fast but at the moment it’s not looking good for him.

With #3, it’s a smart villain move of course but it’s also valid as a fraud component in the sense of him not living up to the hype for now. Basically Sukuna absolutely needs to win this fight desperately so he can admit that he wasn’t even trying yet. Because tying in with #4, his Domain Expansion just didn’t work. He actually got to use it and Gojo straight up tanked the attack. That’s the kind of thing that doesn’t reflect well on Sukuna since so far it’s the only true ability of his that we’ve seen. Definitely one of the more hype battles going on right now but the pressure is absolutely on. And if Sukuna were to actually lose this fight (Which is super doubtful) that would really be game over.

4. All For One

All For One is one of the most important villains in all of My Hero Academia. He was the counterpart to All Might and ruled the world through fear for years before the hero came into town. He has virtually an unlimited amount of quirks as he has been stealing them through the years and has a lifetime of battle experience. The allegations came when he returned in the final arc and has been defeating all of his opponents but not without incurring a lot of damage and getting outmaneuvered the whole time. Is that enough to call him a fraud?

Fraud Watch!

1. Allowing All Might to goad him into battle
2. Not stealing the powers of the heroes he was fighting
3. Having trouble dealing with the heroes when he has all these incredible abilities
4. Monologuing a ton when his body is literally dying with every minute he wastes
5. Starting to seem delusional

Okay so All For One’s hecklers really started coming along during #3 and #2. He’s been flying around the battlefield defeating his opponents but having a surprisingly hard time doing it. He couldn’t take out Jirou and the others with his energy attack, she actually tanked it straight up. Then they’ve been making fun of him the whole time and of course he doesn’t really care but the fact that he couldn’t shut them up was dicey. Also, taking powers is apparently as easy as grabbing the person and draining the power as we’ve seen before so why not just grab each of them with super speed and take the abilities? He decided not to take Hawks or Dark Shadow when he was in a position to and it’s odd since he was thinking about it earlier. Even if he doesn’t need it, it would help a whole lot right?

#1 and #4 escalated the issue since he is rapidly de-aging right now. If he doesn’t get to Shigaraki to complete the merge quickly he will literally fade out of existence. Knowing that, he is still making a lot of very long speeches and allowing All Might to get the best of him. You can’t do that and he’s been justifying this. He knows that it’s a trap but equates it to taking out the trash and seems to think this will be easy. Well it hasn’t been easy yet as he’s having a very hard time right now while getting younger and younger. He can absolutely make a comeback but it has been a real rough period for the guy particularly just since with his power level he should have no diff’d pretty much the whole cast that he was fighting. You’d need big shots like Deku to really take him out.

3. Eren Yeager

Eren is one of the most controversial villains of all time and for good reason. He’s the greatest character in Attack on Titan and carried the post timeskip arcs hard but then the author fumbled the bag at the end and turned him into one of the biggest jokes in all of media history. The guy cried about wanting a girlfriend and it turns out that he had no idea what he wanted to do. All of his convictions and inner thoughts turned out to be lies and the ending was filled with more holes than a bowl of swiss cheese. Yeah I absolutely think he has to be on fraud watch.

Fraud Watch!

1. Literally asleep during the climax
2. Turned his back on all his dreams and ideals
3. Suddenly had no self respect or dignity
4. Had powers over time and reality yet couldn’t defend himself
5. Wasted everyone’s time including his own
6. Left his people in the worst shape possible

I’m not going to defend Eren unfortunately. His whole thing was about taking out the Titans and never relenting. We had a whole scene where Reiner told him to go to sleep back in the day and that just made Eren more upset. Now? Well he does fall asleep because he decides to just let destiny play out and have the friends take him down. This doesn’t work though because he had seen the future so he knows very well what will happen. It just makes him look bad and he turned back on everything.

All of his lines up til now? Meaningless. His drive was all fake and his goals were never something he was serious about. This all happens because of #4. Eren gained the ability to transcend time. He exists in the past, present, and future which is the worst thing you can do as a writer because it makes the character completely unstoppable. When you have that level of control and can control the actions of all titans, you can’t lose. It’s why we had to get this whole retcon about Eren not really wanting to win and ditching everybody. Nah that was a really bad way to go and I will always remember the ending as the worst one in Shonen history. Eren is one of the biggest frauds out there.

2. Code

Now we’re getting to the biggest frauds out there. Code is a villain from Boruto and fortunately for him the series is still going so he can change things. This guy has lost almost every single fight that he has been in and his fans aren’t hearing the end of it. The guy was supposed to be so strong that he could wipe the floor with Naruto and Sasuke yet he was dominated by Boruto, humiliated by Kawaki, embarrassed by Eida, and then crushed by Daemon. Finally he just got stepped on by Boruto in his first appearance post timeskip. Is there any saving him?

Fraud Watch!

1. Always getting humiliated
2. Talking tough but can’t control the room
3. Has no good comebacks for when the characters humiliate him
4. Couldn’t control his feelings for Eida

Boruto should still have a lot of years left in the tank so Code could pull off a comeback but it does look like it would have to be a miracle. The problem for the guy is the power creep passed him before he could look good. He’s lost to virtually every heavyweight in the series, cementing him as the weakest out of the top tiers. Part of the problem is that he’s always used to make other characters look good, meaning that he himself never actually gets to shine. I think this was actually an accident, but either way it doesn’t reflect well on him as a character. He can’t talk this tough when he’s always being humiliated. Getting stepped on was probably the last straw there.

Eida’s power is also hard to resist but it’s still embarrassing for him to fall in love with her and get rejected so harshly. Then losing to her little brother? From a power level perspective it makes sense but nobody takes him seriously in the series and the disrespect he gets is completely unreal. The characters never give him even the slightest break and you end up feeling bad for him. That’s not the kind of thing you want to feel for the villain. When you feel pity like that then it’s all over!

1. Demon King

Now we’re at the villain I would say is the biggest fraud in all of anime/manga. Yes, it’s the Demon King! Cool name right? Well it’s not enough but this guy is from the Seven Deadly Sins series. He’s the most powerful villain around (Until he was surpassed real hard in the Apocalypse series) and the whole series you were waiting for him to show up. The problem is that by the time he appeared, Meliodas was already stronger than him. Yet the guy went up against the Seven Deadly Sins. One of the biggest inditements against him is the fact that the heroes were grinning while he was trying to threaten him.

Fraud Watch!

1. The heroes within the series couldn’t take him seriously
2. He spent multiple chapters getting dunked on by everyone
3. Meliodas didn’t even bother using his final form to fight him
4. Demon King didn’t notice and kept gloating even as he was being crushed

Yeah all of the reasons are completely valid here so I can’t debunk any of them. The first point is probably the worst for the guy because when the heroes are kicking back and grinning you really can’t take this guy seriously. How could you when they don’t? You almost felt bad for him the whole time. It ties into the second point where everyone was just using their super attacks on him. It reminds me of the average Shonen Jump movie where everyone appears to do their super attack and leaves. Imagine that but to a canon villain who is supposed to be the most powerful of all. Trust me it’s extremely brutal.

To the third point, yeah Meliodas was casually crushing the guy and wasn’t even using his purified max power mode. The fact was that he seriously didn’t need to. He temporarily uses it at the very end to mitigate damage to the area but he was dunking on the guy even without it. That has to be one of the most embarrassing moments for a villain out there. How do you recover from this? The 4th point is also just bad because he’s still talking so tough. The only thing worse than having the heroes disrespect you the whole time is not noticing and continuing to talk big anyway. Yeah that’s not something you ever want to happen.

So there you have it, from least to most fraudulent that’s how I’d rank the 9 characters I hear about the most. For the most part it’s rare for a big villain to actually be a fraud the way that people say but I still enjoy the memes regardless. Keep em coming, I’ll be grinning every time! Even if a villain ends up being fraudulent you can still be a big fan though because those intro scene aren’t going anywhere even if the final ones aren’t particularly hype. Not every villain can go out a winner of course. Well I mean one can…but he’s the greatest!

Bass EXE

One Piece: Odyssey Review

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It’s time to talk about Strawhat Luffy and the gang in their latest adventure. I remember thinking that Odyssey sounded like a lot of fun with how you would get to relive the old adventures in a new way. It was also bringing in the turn based combat system which is fairly rare for One Piece games as they usually go with a 3D action/beat em up style. It definitely does work well for this title even if I have some issues. Ultimately this is a great game but they really dropped the ball on the story itself which is unfortunate.

The game starts off with Luffy and the gang having a good time at sea as always until a storm knocks them off their course and they land on an island. A girl named Lim shows up and steals their powers with her cube abilities. In order to get their powers back they will have to defeat 4 legendary colossuses on the island and additionally they must relive some of their most dangerous adventures. Lim will help them do this by unlocking the memory world and her friend Adio is also glad to help in any way that he can. The whole thing feels a little suspect but the heroes figure they can get stronger and have some fun so it’s a win/win. Are they embarking on their final adventure?

The story’s a bit forced there but hey it’ll be fun to see Luffy and friends utterly demolish all of their old opponents like Lucci and Crocodile now that they are so powerful…right? Well to get around that the film says that the villains have all gotten way more powerful in their memories and of course the heroes have lost all of their new abilities thanks to the cube. So what that means is…every arc basically plays out in the same way. It felt like the laziest way possible for the writers to not have to think of any new scenarios which was unfortunate. What’s even the point of not just making this a direct adaption then. It just felt like the biggest cop out imaginable. The only arc with any real differences is the final one in Dressrosa and even then it was just a small change by adding 2 characters in there.

So the game really didn’t deliver on its premise at all. In a lot of ways it’s sort of like the bait and switch that Sonic Forces did back in the day. The present storyline with the Colossuses and the mysterious Adio was good at least. That’s the part where you can at least get invested in. If the gameplay weren’t so good I would definitely get a bit more annoyed at that though. Odyssey tried to fumble the bag there a bit that’s for sure. We did get a full cinematic fight near the end which was cool though. For a minute there I thought we were going to get another phase to the final boss fight but when it was all a cutscene I thought that was cool. It’s not every day that you get to just watch a pure fight like that after all.

The game is fairly long too and took me over 25 hours. There are 9 chapters here but they each have a lot of battles. Each battle can take a while since you can’t skip cinematics and all special attacks have a full cutscene animation to them. It can make the fights a little longer than they need to be but I’m guessing the devs wanted to show off what a good job they did. I totally get it even if I always love how the Asdivine series lets you turn off attack animations for that exact reason. One mechanic I liked a lot here is that using normal attacks fills your special attack meter. It’s something I don’t recall any other RPG doing so that was cool. It’s better than having to use ethers every turn.

The game also has a customization aspect to it as you can power up your attacks and skills using your level up points. You can also reset the points at any time if you want to distribute them in another way. Additionally you can equip items to improve your stats and make foods/smoke bombs to get stronger or make your opponent weaker. There’s a good amount of options within the game and so you’ll find that unlike most titles it starts out rather difficult and gets easier as you go. This is because you unlock more and more items to use as you go through the game and they easily outpace the enemies you’re dealing with. For example a level up may improve your stats by 30 but then you can by an amulet that increases your attack power by 1400. It’s like you suddenly jumped up tons of levels. Whenever I would see an item like that I had to grab it.

Then later on you gain the ability to merge two equipments together to keep both of their effects in one shot. That made things even better. So there are lots of ways to power yourself up. Finally there is the old fashioned way of leveling up by fighting enemies. The final area has minions that each give you close to 200,000 exp points which is enough to level up twice in every battle. It was crazy how the exp skyrocketed since that’s more than just about every boss fight in the game. You could say the game wasn’t very well balanced by the end.

That leads to one of my issues with the game which is that there actually seem to be “dead spots” where you are trapped in a place with no enemies to fight and no way to escape. So in theory if I couldn’t find a way to beat the boss then I would be permanently stuck. Any good game always needs to leave you a way out so you can go and train so that was surprising here. I could see that being a real big issue if I played on hard mode or something. It’s something any RPG needs to really be careful of because that would just be incredibly disheartening. I’d probably have to put my controller down right then and there.

Meanwhile the graphics are very solid here. The character models can be a bit stiff but we do get fight scenes with them so the game does know how to use this pretty well. Then you also have the soundtrack which is rather limited but still good. What this all tells me is that the game’s budget wasn’t super high or anything like that but they still did a good job in making the game fun so I have to give them credit there. That isn’t always easy. With an even greater budget I’m sure there is a lot more they could have done here.

As it is there is still a good amount of replay value here. There are plenty of bounties to be completed and collectibles to grab. At the end of your journey you can even grab the Platinum trophy which would certainly be fun to have. I’m not sure just how difficult this one would be to grab but if it’s not too high then I may go for it. I have already gotten the platinum for a few One Piece games in the past after all. Either way you can see how the game gives you a whole lot of content for your purchase so you can definitely buy the game at full price and feel good about it.

The game’s original characters in Lim and Adio do a good job of being very memorable. Lim may not be much of a fighter or anything like that but she has a classic character arc of slowly learning to enjoy the journey with Luffy and friends more instead of always being so analytical. Adio’s mystery gradually unfolds as you play through the game but ultimately he’s not really someone I liked all that much. Maybe in part it’s because the game was too obvious with where his story was going to go but whenever the guy was on screen you knew that nothing good was going to happen for him at least.

Overall, One Piece: Odyssey is a great game. At times the lack of budget starts to seep through but ultimately it’s a good chance to hang out with Luffy and the gang again. I think it did have some ambitious mechanics within it like every character having their own special ability. The game just could have done a little more with it. Mainly I’d just like them to follow their own premise a bit better and not just sabotage it right away. It’s just a very strange move narratively. Still, if you like One Piece or want to play a fun RPG, this one should be right up your alley.

Overall 8/10