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Manga One Piece

Rocks, Caper, Scissors [One Piece 1155]

Rocks D. Xebec is such a vibrant and bombastic character. I can almost hear his voice inside my head.

You hear that? Guess it was just the wind…

Anyway, let’s talk about this chapter.

It opens with Kid Loki getting hurt by Rocks—all to get Harald’s attention so he’d come back to Elbaph—then IMMEADIATELY transitions to another flashback.

The Reverie. Hmm… I wonder what Rocks thinks of the Reverie.

Rocks captured five kings to create a panic so he could sneak into Imu’s Chamber of Flowers. Makes me wonder if he had a chance to pump any of those kings for information.

Inside the Chamber of Flowers, Rocks confronts Imu—whom he seems to already know is the secret ruler of the world—and his female assistant(?) who looks to be Gunko. How the heck did Rocks learn of Imu? Good question. Let me know if you figure it out, because I haven’t got a clue.

I can only imagine what Rocks thinks of Imu.

Looks like Gunko’s no mere Holy Knight. But I guess it makes since Imu has someone tending to his every whim. And that person has to be a Celestial Dragon to help keep things secret.

How’d Rocks get into The Chamber of Flowers? Easy. He found the key hidden under the welcome mat.

It’s mentioned Rocks is a worshipper of Davy Jones. I never really thought about the character since his mention back during the Straw Hats Davy Back Fight against the Foxy Pirates. Seems like there’s more to Mr. Jones than I thought. Could he even had been a member of Joy Boy’s crew?!

Categories
Manga One Piece

Suffering From Loki Self-Esteem [One Piece 1154]

You don’t get much lower than the bottom of a cliff!

Nico Robin wanted to die when at her lowest point. Loki just straight-up tried to commit suicide. This is some serious self-loathing here. It’s no wonder when your own mother called you a monster and wanted you dead. I don’t think Queen Estrid called Loki by his name once before she died! Strike One!

Abandonment issues. Loki’s father, King Harald, constantly leaving on diplomatic missions and repairing relations between Elbaph villages didn’t help either. Did he ever play with Loki? Did they ever do anything together as a family? Sometimes a parent is just a dick and sometimes they’re well-meaning but grossly negligent. In Loki’s case, he got both. Strike Two!

Loki being the curse of Elbaph. Let me go on record saying I think that whole “curse” talk is eight-legged horseshit!

You think that’s bad? You should hear what Estrid thinks about the new Superman movie!

Yeah, I know One Piece is a world where dreams turned into magical fruits that give you superpowers and giant kids drew a mural of someone’s prediction of the final arc of the series. Guess what? I don’t care! I still think it was nonsense drummed up by some gold digging Miss Cleo (Remember her?) inflating her self-importance.

Categories
Manga One Piece

Throw The Baby Out With The Bathwater [One Piece 1153]

All bad men need is a good partner to “fix” them.

Classic Oda. Who needs personal character growth when a fat ass lady is all a guy needs to be set on the righteous path? And what a path it is. King Harald did a complete 180. He’s now kind, empathic, and went to college to get his degree in diplomacy. Thanks Ida!

Can someone explain why Ida just gave up marrying Harald? Seemed a bit too sudden to me. I guess she had to “sacrifice” herself for the good of her lover and Elbaph. For a character who had an interesting introduction, Ida went full basic by the middle of the chapter. I’m not blaming Ida, mind you. I’m blaming Oda. The ole “tough” woman but is actually sweet is Oda’s bread and butter. Throw in a woman being in ♥love♥ and you get the complete average One Piece female character.

Even Shou Tucker’s disgusted by Estrid’s actions. What a waste of a perfectly good test subject.

Estrid was a bit more interesting. Where did all her prophecy talk come from? Is it all just B.S.? Did no one ever call her out on it? It’s clear she’s using that feng shui talk as an excuse to go full gold digger on Harald. Hope it’s revealed one way or another the prophecy is garbage.

Categories
anime My Hero Vigilantes

My Hero Vigilantes, Season One: Just Watch It!

It’s fantastic!

…? Oh! You wanna know why?

Well, it’s a faithful adaption of the manga series. Sure, some .5 (i.e. bonus) chapters were omitted and some scenes were altered or shown in a different order than the manga, but I assume it was to make the season more cohesive, avoid copyright issues (The manga’s filled with one-off or minor characters whose appearance references fictional characters from other companies. Heck, I’m surprised Ichimoku Samazu [Fake Cyclops] and Jube Namimaru [Fake Wolverine] made it into the anime unaltered.), or save time.

The companies behind the series, Toho and Bones Film, had a lot to pack into these thirteen episodes and I think they did a great job keeping the overall feel and heart of the original manga.

Adapting a manga can be difficult when it’s a currently running series. Which scenes are important and what aren’t, making filler so as to not catch up with the source material, and having to budget anime production costs for a series you don’t know how long it’ll last are just some of the problems that creep up. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case for My Hero Vigilantes’ anime.

The manga ended years ago, so the animation team knew exactly how long the series would be and budgeted its cost accordingly. It’s probably a big reason the animation looks so darn good. They know how many seasons they’ll have and can work within that limitation.

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