One Piece

As much as I would like to see some comments on One Piece, the show is too shallow to spend time discussing.
 
What happened this episode: Person X fought Person Y (repeat 484 times).
 
One Piece isn't really a show to discuss. Tell us what else you got Tom. You gotta have another good series in that pile somewhere. Either that or you can go back to the list from before. I suggest either Claymore or Darker than Black.

You picked a pretty good one to watch. It's so satisfying watching Luffy pound on Eneru. More so when you watch the way Eneru has so sadistically beaten down everyone else before this. Sort of akin to watching a bully get the tar knocked out of him for the first time. If you are every looking for recommendations on what episodes to watch on this series. All you need is to ask. I know this series up and down, and a lot of good ones are on HULU.
 
This episode was the introduction of one of my favorite attacks Luffy has, the Gum-Gum Rifle. Too bad you don't get to see it until the next episode. I love how honest Luffy is that he so proudly admits his own greatest weakness to his enemy when asked.
It's actually a rather nice scene having Nami hold to his hat. You wouldn't know this from only watching Episode 1, but normally Luffy never lets anyone touch his hat at all. It's his most precious treasure (there is a reason behind it). When Luffy goes into a big battle, he almost always gives it to Nami to hold for him. In some of the artwork done by Eiichiro Oda, if Luffy isn't wearing his straw hat it's normally with Nami.
 
You do kind of miss something in how epic it is in that first punch if you just watch from this episode. Eneru has a Devil Fruit that made him into lightening. It's a type of devil fruit called a Logia, one of the most powerful kind. These kind change the person's body into an element. Normally attacks just pass right through their body as if nothing happened; fist, swords, and bullets all pass through. Only reason Luffy can even hit him is because Rubber cancels out Electricity. In Skypiea there is no rubber, so, Eneru never saw it coming.
 
I don't think VIZ changing God Eneru to Kami Eneru is incredibly terrible. Kami is basically just the Japanese word for "God". It's just in the Japanese version he is literally called "Goddo Eneru". It strikes me as twisted that the word "God" is being said in English in the Japanese version, but for the English version it's switched with the Japanese word for God, "Kami". This action is even more out of place for VIZ. They more often seem to go out of their way to switch as many Japanese terms with English ones. It's not as if he's a real god and that's not heaven. It's just a floating island in the clouds and "God" is just the title given to the rulers, similar to mayor or president.
 
This is far from their worst change VIZ has ever done. The name change is just the largest amounts of edits done in this series by VIZ. It's just another example that falls into a weird pattern of VIZ censoring anything with a religious theme. The way VIZ removed the crucifixion of Greed in Fullmetal Alchemist. There are other examples of a religious theme used in their publication changes. They need to stop worrying about offending special interest groups that are uptight about everything, and start worrying about offending the people they want to buy their manga. Especially if they want to draw people away from scanlations. The scalation version used the word "God" the way it was intended. I find it rather twisted that to get the most authentic version of the story you have to turn to fan made version. You'd think it would be the other way around.
I will say that FUNimation is doing a spectacular job in releasing this series. I used to only watch fansub version of this series, but after FUNimation got it away from 4Kids Entertainment. I haven't watched fansubs of it since.
 
Well, the series is at about 480+ episode with an average run time of 23 minutes to an episode. the anime just hit a major milestone as well.

Ah One Piece, my third favorite manga.  No deep and annoying symbolism here. Just a  simple story about a young man made out of rubber gathering a crew of a batshit crazy and incredibly badass swordsman, a womanizing martial artist chef, a thief, a lying sniper, childish anthropomorphic reindeer with a doctorate, a mysterious fugitive archeologist,  a cyborg shipwright, and a fencing skeleton musician. They journey across a sea rife with dangers like a criminal organization trying to bring down an entire nation to gain information on a devastating super weapon, an incredibly powerful lighting elemental with a god complex, incredibly assholeish black ops groups, zombie island ships, and the Navy. They journey to a treasure that will make the rubber boy KING OF THE PIRATES!!!!!!
 
Oh wait, did i say simple? I meant F*%#ING INSANE. And. It. Is. AWESOME. And. HILARIOUS.
 
Buckle in Tom, you're in for a hell of a ride. (At least if you decide to watch)
 
And for the record, if you get bored with this series, then just skip ahead to the Whitebeard War Arc. The sheer amounts of awesomeness and badassary are on par with Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.  
 
One Piece Kicks Ass.

@wwfunderaker said:

" Probably the greatest show ive ever seen, i find it odd that people hate it. Still cant believe the english version is only at episode 183, ive never seen it in english so i might watch it again. "

just make sure you see the funimation dub, the4kids dub is terrible.

@wwfunderaker said:

" @kashif1: Ive heard pretty awful things about the4kids dub version. What were they thinking. "

they probably didnt realize just how violent the show is.
@FoxxFireArt said:

" You picked a pretty good one to watch. It's so satisfying watching Luffy pound on Eneru. More so when you watch the way Eneru has so sadistically beaten down everyone else before this. Sort of akin to watching a bully get the tar knocked out of him for the first time. If you are every looking for recommendations on what episodes to watch on this series. All you need is to ask. I know this series up and down, and a lot of good ones are on HULU.
 
This episode was the introduction of one of my favorite attacks Luffy has, the Gum-Gum Rifle. Too bad you don't get to see it until the next episode. I love how honest Luffy is that he so proudly admits his own greatest weakness to his enemy when asked.

Straw Hat Crew

It's actually a rather nice scene having Nami hold to his hat. You wouldn't know this from only watching Episode 1, but normally Luffy never lets anyone touch his hat at all. It's his most precious treasure (there is a reason behind it). When Luffy goes into a big battle, he almost always gives it to Nami to hold for him. In some of the artwork done by Eiichiro Oda, if Luffy isn't wearing his straw hat it's normally with Nami.
 
You do kind of miss something in how epic it is in that first punch if you just watch from this episode. Eneru has a Devil Fruit that made him into lightening. It's a type of devil fruit called a Logia, one of the most powerful kind. These kind change the person's body into an element. Normally attacks just pass right through their body as if nothing happened; fist, swords, and bullets all pass through. Only reason Luffy can even hit him is because Rubber cancels out Electricity. In Skypiea there is no rubber, so, Eneru never saw it coming.
 
I don't think VIZ changing God Eneru to Kami Eneru is incredibly terrible. Kami is basically just the Japanese word for "God". It's just in the Japanese version he is literally called "Goddo Eneru". It strikes me as twisted that the word "God" is being said in English in the Japanese version, but for the English version it's switched with the Japanese word for God, "Kami". This action is even more out of place for VIZ. They more often seem to go out of their way to switch as many Japanese terms with English ones. It's not as if he's a real god and that's not heaven. It's just a floating island in the clouds and "God" is just the title given to the rulers, similar to mayor or president.
 
This is far from their worst change VIZ has ever done. The name change is just the largest amounts of edits done in this series by VIZ. It's just another example that falls into a weird pattern of VIZ censoring anything with a religious theme. The way VIZ removed the crucifixion of Greed in Fullmetal Alchemist. There are other examples of a religious theme used in their publication changes. They need to stop worrying about offending special interest groups that are uptight about everything, and start worrying about offending the people they want to buy their manga. Especially if they want to draw people away from scanlations. The scalation version used the word "God" the way it was intended. I find it rather twisted that to get the most authentic version of the story you have to turn to fan made version. You'd think it would be the other way around.
I will say that FUNimation is doing a spectacular job in releasing this series. I used to only watch fansub version of this series, but after FUNimation got it away from 4Kids Entertainment. I haven't watched fansubs of it since. Well, the series is at about 480+ episode with an average run time of 23 minutes to an episode. the anime just hit a major milestone as well. "

What's your issue with viz, they keep the stories pretty much intact.  They aren't 4kids who somehow managed to delete 38 episodes of content.  Changing god to kami is not a big change and its one that any fan who actually cares about the change can ignore.  Now if they had saw gotten rid of the amount of death in the show or change the swords to lightsabers or changed the guns to water pistols i could understand, but all they do is make minor changes that do not affect the story.

@kashif1: 
They do make changes that effect the story. Did you just stop reading my comment at one point? Did you miss the part where I said that change in One Piece wasn't as bad many as they have made in many other series?

VIZ is the manga equivalent of 4Kids. In Naruto, After Shikamaru is killed he lights up a cigarette. It's a very emotional scene of him saying goodbye. VIZ pained out the cigarette from Shikamaru's mouth and the lighter from his hands. So, the panels show him making the gesture of lighting the cigarette, but there is nothing in his hands or mouth. That alteration is absolutely childish. That is something 4Kids has done in anime.
In Rock Lee's fight against Kimimaro, in the original Japanese version Rock Lee accidentally drinks sake and gets drunk. It's revealed he is a master at the "Drunken Fist". In the VIZ version, Rock Lee drank a vial of "Private Potion" and he became "loopy". He was a master of the "Potion Punch". That sounds like a Koolaid flavor. Somehow Kimimaro knew he had drank "private potion" That is another 4Kids move.

In Detective Conan, they butchered the story by renaming the entire cast from Japanese to Europeans. There are times when their translation work has been wrong as well. Something that is unforgivable in a murder mystery series where little details are important. I know or a fact that in Volume 53 that these name changes will effect the story.
In Detective Conan they renamed two of the main villains from Gin and Vodka to "Melkior and Kaspar". The villains are suppose are suppose to be named after liquors, but not in the VIZ version.
In Fullmetal Alchemist, there have been times the pages call Riza Hawkeye, "Liza". They have paid editors and they can't even keep main characters names straight? That's amature hour.

VIZ is a horrible publisher that seems to go out of their way to remove as much Japanese culture from manga as possible. What makes all this even worse is that VIZ offers uncut versions of animes produce, but offers zero alternatives to the manga audience. Why is it the anime audience gets a more authentic experience, but the manga audience is only allowed an altered one?
 
VIZ Media says they don't want people to use scanlations, but scanlations is the only place you can get these stories unaltered and uncensored. No other publisher of manga is as extreme in their censorship than VIZ. Del Rey and Yen Press do extreme good work with almost zero alterations. Even Tokyo Pop allows nudity in their mangas. VIZ often paints it out.
It would be a completely different story is they offered an uncut version of these series they way they do animes, but they don't.

@FoxxFireArt: Their translation of Naruto isn't that bad. Sure those two alterations are incredibly retarded, ridiculous and moronic but for the most part they leave the series pretty much intact. Comparing them to 4kids seems just a little extreme. Though i've never read Detective Conan so I could be wrong in that particular case.

@ninjadude853: 
That's just making excuses for censorship and their is none. They keep doing this, because everyone just keeps putting up with it. It's not as if they were censoring a long time ago and don't do it anymore. They are doing it and continue to do it.
 
They can't say they don't want people to use scanlations when they are the ones changing events and offering no alternative.
 
Painting out cigarettes and removing any sign of liquor. That's the exact same things 4Kids does, and that's what VIZ does. What's people published by VIZ in the US is not what was intended. It's an inferior version. The Japanese audience doesn't get this censorship, why is it we have to put up with it? The thing is, we don't. We have scanlations that offer the authentic experience in English. If VIZ can't realize that. It's their own fault when no one want to buy their mangas. They should be the most authentic publisher, but they aren't.
 
VIZ may put out uncut version of the anime, but why not the manga?

@zaldar said:

" @ninjadude853:   "No deep and annoying symbolism here."  This is exactly why I hate one peice it is even shallower than the silly batman and robin saturday morning cartoons here in the states.  I like my anime like I like my literature.  Make me think and question things please.  annoying symbolism sigh...this is watch and learn ok? "

At the risk of sounding like a complete asshole... I cannot respect that statement. 
 
There is nothing wrong with symbolism, I'm not trying to say that. But looking down on a story just because there's no deep social commentary or philosophical message is just pretentious. What's wrong with just enjoying a story for the sake of entertainment? That's why they exist.

@zaldar:
There is a reason for piracy when the official publisher is altering the original story and not offering an alternative. It's the only way to get the story the way it was originally intended. VIZ wants people to stop using scanlations, stop censoring. They are not providing the original story. VIZ altered the story for the US.
 
VIZ is already publishing manga twice with that VIZ Big series of manga. That could be the perfect opportunity to offer an uncut version, but they are just republishing all their censorship and alterations.
 
VIZ wouldn't have the problem of offering two versions if they would just stop censoring to begin with. In Japan, they didn't make two version of the anime.

@zaldar said:

" @ninjadude853 said:

" @zaldar said:

" @ninjadude853:   "No deep and annoying symbolism here."  This is exactly why I hate one peice it is even shallower than the silly batman and robin saturday morning cartoons here in the states.  I like my anime like I like my literature.  Make me think and question things please.  annoying symbolism sigh...this is watch and learn ok? "

At the risk of sounding like a complete asshole... I cannot respect that statement.   There is nothing wrong with symbolism, I'm not trying to say that. But looking down on a story just because there's no deep social commentary or philosophical message is just pretentious. What's wrong with just enjoying a story for the sake of entertainment? That's why they exist. "

Thats fine if all you think art exists for.  I do not.  Art should at least attempt to show us something about ourselves we do not know, educate us on a spiritual or psychological plain.  Life is not about fun, and art shouldn't simply be either and yes I consider anime art that is why I watch it.  I also though don't see pretenscious as a bad thing. "

Not all art needs to punch you in the gut and not all art needs to hide from the viewer.  One Piece has a message: Life is about the adventure.  Thats not particularly deep but it is an important message none the less.  And if you dont think life isn't at least partially about fun that you need to... 
 
Wait, the only batman cartoon that on on Saturday mornings anymore is brave and the bold, you just insulted Brave and the Bold.  To you sir i have this to say:
Damn it embed wont work anyway watch this

@FoxxFireArt: Complain to Viz than, also about the Lisa thing, I'm pretty Riza and Lisa are spelled the same in Japanese, it this mistake is in the early issues than that's probably the reason.